Boyzoid's Blog & Stuff

If you are reading this and you attended my session at CFunited, I have great news: I fixed the issues with my code! If you did not attend my session, read on anyway. Here is what the problem was:

After I had done one final round of testing, I wanted to clean up the database so all the data I just entered would not be seen. Rather than going through and manually deleting the records, I decided I was gonna be smart and just replace my local database files with the ones stored in my Subversion repository. What I had neglected to remember was that I had not committed a recent copy of the database back to the repo, so I overwrote my database files with a very old version of the database - one that was not 'in synch' with the ORM code I was using.

This explains the issues I had anytime I tried to save something, but what about the Model Glue issues? Well, when I looked at my controller.cfc file for the Model Glue version of the application, it was just about empty. So this got me thinking, maybe when I pulled over the database files from the repo, that I included controller.cfc as well - which also had not been committed recently. I was able to revert back to a previous version of that file and everything now works, in all versions of the application.

I have attached a zip file if my slide deck, as well as the sample code so you guys can see that it really does work - you can get it here.

Now, what did I learn? Well, a couple things:

1. After you have verified that the code for your presentation works, don't make ANY changes...at all.
2. If you are going to go through the trouble of setting up a Subversion repository for your demo code, use it and use it correctly. i.e. - commit early and often!

I would like to thank everyone who attended my session (the room was pretty full) and I apologize again for all the issues. A lot of those in attendance have come up to me since and said that they enjoyed presentation and learned a lot even with the technical difficulties. I really hope that is true, and they were not just being nice to the stupid guy who borked most of his code.

If you are still at CFunited on Saturday, I am giving the presentation again at 2:330 PM. Stop by, if for no other reason to see if the carnage will continue.

Over the last month or so, I sat down to try and write this article several times. Each time, I was so over come with emotion that I simply could not finish it. After the influx of email, Facebook and Twitter messages I have received recently, I decided I need to get this done.

When I was younger, my father once told me, "If you surround yourself with good people, you will never have anything to fear." I do not think I ever really understood what he meant by that until recently.

The last few months have been some of the most difficult and trying times I have ever experienced. I am not sure how I would have fared without the support of my family, friends and the Adobe developer community. After the death of my father, my family was astounded at the level of support offered to us by people they had never met. More than one of you brought tears to our eyes with your kind words on my father's online obituary. The donations made by so many have also helped alleviate some stresses as well.

The kind words and offers of assistance given the recent news from Alagad have been even more overwhelming. Words are not enough to describe the gratitude I, and my family, feel for everyone who has extended a hand.

I used to think that the saying 'you are judged by the company you keep' was unfair. After the last few months, and seeing how incredible the people I have surrounded myself with truly are, I have started to hope I will be judged by the company I keep, because you guys are an amazing bunch, and I am both honored and humbled to be in your company.

Even though I feel it does not seem adequate, Thank You, everyone. The Adobe developer community rules!

Taking some inspiration from Ray Camden, I decided that I wanted to tweak some of the visual aspects of Eclipse.

See, I have ColdFusion Builder installed as a plug-in, rather than the stand alone version. As a result, I don't get the cool icons or splash screen, but I wanted to change that. I was able to find where Eclipse keeps the 'splash screen' image and I created my own - here is how you can too.

1. Shut down Eclipse or CF Builder.
   
2. Save the image below to your computer.
   
   (Isn't that just an awesome picture? Ray and I literally spent minutes on it)
   
3. Search your Eclipse or CF Builder directory for a file named 'splash.bmp'.
4. Rename this file to something like 'splash_old.bmp'.
5. Copy the image you saved in step 2 to the directory where 'splash.bmp' was found.
6. Start Eclipse or CF Builder.
7. Enjoy!

I should note that I did find a configuration file that could be edited to tell Eclipse what file to use, but rather than totally messing up my set up, I figured it would be easier to just rename the files.

Yesterday, Liz Frederick of Adobe announced 1) The Adobe Community Expert program was being re-branded as Adobe Community Professional and b) the list of participants in this program for 2010.

I am on that list!

I consider it an honor to not only be part of the program (again), but to have my name listed along side some of the greatest people and brightest minds in the ColdFusion community.

Thanks Adobe!

So, I am a fantasy football nut.  Each year, I usually have 3-4 teams on various sites (such as ESPN.com, NFL.com, etc). The problem is that I rarely know anyone else in the league and that kind of takes some of the fun out of it.

So, this year, I decided to start my own league and invite people I know, or at least know of, to join.  I took the geek route and named the league 'CF-ootball' and each division name is a previous CF pre-release code name - yea, I know it's so geeky, its bordering on uncomfortable.

Anyway, if you are interested, let me know by leaving a comment below, and make sure you use a valid email address there I can sent the invite.

Have you registered for CFUnited yet?  If not, why not? The 'early bird' discount ends tomorrow.  So, go register.  Go ahead...I'll wait....

OK, now that we got that out of the way, we can talk about the real important stuff. How many of you knew that one of the amenities if you stay in the hotel was that you get a free round of golf at the resort?  I am sure it will come as no surprise to anyone that I think this is way cool. I love golf, and take any opportunity to play new courses. I have heard great things about the courses at Lansdowne, but have not played there yet (even though its only about 45 minutes from home).

I was planning on getting a group of people together for a little outing. I was thinking Wednesday Tuesday would be the best day.  I would make any arrangements with the golf course and we can kind of play as one big group.  There is one caveat though, if you sign up to play in this little outing, you will be randomly placed in groups with other CFUnited attendees/speakers. I think this is a great way to get to know other people.

So, who's with me? If you are interested, please leave a comment below and I will start to make the arrangements.

*UPDATE*

Please note I got the day mixed up, I was thinking of doing the little outing on Tuesday, NOT Wednesday.

This year at CFunited, Liz is planning an 'Open Mic' night where conference attendees will be able to share some of their talents.  If you have some kind of talent, sign up to preform. Currently there are people signed up to play music, perform magic and read poetry.

Based on the fact that I spent a short period of time performing stand-up comedy, Liz, from Stellr, has asked me to be the emcee for the Open Mic. What does this mean?  Well, I will be the one introducing all the acts, and interspersing some of my old stand-up routine (and hopefully some new stuff) in between performers.

A friend told me, "if you do good, the audience will love it, and well, if you bomb, the audience will love it, but in a different kind of way. So for the audience, its a win/win". I find it hard to argue with that logic, but really hope I don't bomb. 

Oh, and hurry up and register, the early bird ends real soon. The chance to see me make a complete fool of myself might just be too good of an opportunity to pass on. You know you want to see if I will, so you better be there.

Last week my company, Alagad, announced an opportunity to win some cool stuff that will be available for attendees of cf.Objective() and CF United.

Aside from the cool prizes such as a Wii, an iPod Touch,a Mac Mini and others, you can also win a kick ass laptop bag.  All the Alagadinas were fortunate enough to have been given one of these bags and I have to say its pretty sweet - by far the best laptop bag I have owned.  The bag alone is worth the effort to enter the contest, the other stuf is just icing.

Don't forget to look for the Alagadians next week in Minneapolis!

cf.Objective() is rapidly approaching and its time to take care of something very important....finalizing the plans for the pre-conference round of golf.  Myself and several other CF-ers are planning to play golf on Wednesday afternoon (5/13) before the conference kicks off.

If you are interested in joining us, please leave a comment here.  We plan on choosing a course and time and booking a tee time very soon.