Chris Simmons

ColdFusion Dying… Again

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So I took some database training with Global Knowledge last week.¬† My office paid for the training.¬† Apparently that “back end” training may be all for naught though since my front end programming language is on life support.

Today’s Global Knowledge newsletter letter informed me (in very cheeky fashion) that ColdFusion is # 5 on their “Dying Technology” list:

“If any of these skills are your main expertise, perhaps it’s time to retrain.”

Here’s the whole article: http://www.globalknowledge.com/training/generic.asp?pageid=2347&country=United+States

The notion of ColdFusion being dead has been debated into the ground so I’m not going to belabor it.

IMHO, ColdFusion is the best thing that ever happened to me from an IT standpoint.¬† If you want to get things done quickly, easily and reliably use it.¬† If you are thinking of ColdFusion along with COBOL, Netware, Flannel Shirts and “Grunge” Bands From Seattle, and¬† you might want step outside your house more.¬† It’s not the mid 90’s anymore.

Via Con Dios, Geocities

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Yahoo has officially pulled the plug on Geocities.

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/05/03/rip-geocities/

I learned HTML making my Geocities site. I would love to see that brilliant collection of animated gifs and snazzy javascripts, but alas, I cannot find it anywhere in my archives. Even though the site I had there was terrible, I did learn some of the very basics constructing it.

Although I had long forgotten Geocities I definitely felt a little nostalgic when I learned of its demise.  Via Con Dios, Geocities.

Anyone else a little misty eyed?

imafan of imakey

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I use a USB drive almost every single day. I have a problem keeping up with USB drives and caps so this can be problematic. † Enter Lacie’s imakey USB drive. I never would have thought I’d be dorky enough to carry a USB on my key ring, but this looks so much like a key I’ll risk it.

Lacie imakey USB drive

Just got it in the mail today. It’s sweet.

Adobe CS4 Download File Too Large For USB Sandisk Cruzer

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Adobe CS4 Download File Too Large For USB Sandisk Cruzer

Part I
I finally took the plunge and bought the upgrade to CS4 yesterday from Adobe.¬† Downloading the gi-normous 4.8 GB file was like watching my cat try to eat a chijuajua.¬† Painful.¬† I guess I could have downloaded all the trials and entered the license code, but it just feels more “official” to download the single file.¬† At $599 I need “official”.¬† Update: I moved my downloading operation to my work computer since it was dying at home.¬† Once I finally got the file downloaded though I encountered a second problem.


Part II
I have a Sandisk Cruzer (8 GB).¬† However, after trying to put the 4.8 GB file on it 10 times and getting “The disk in the destination drive is full, please insert a new disk to continue” each time I finally did some googling and realized that the problem was that by default the Cruzer is formated to FAT32 and the maximum file size for FAT32 is 4GB.¬† Here is how to reformat to NTFS.

Change background color of fckeditor / ColdFusion rich textarea

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Preface: I work on a project for my office that is hosted by a third party.  Therefore, I do not have access to all the inner workings of ColdFusion.  Specifically I do not have access to the fck_editorarea.css file.

For a new form in the project I need to add a rich textarea.¬† The rich textarea will sit atop a div with a background color so I need to change the textarea’s background color to white.¬† If I can’t access fck_editorarea.css to change the style what can I do?¬† I can change it via the DOM with JavaScript.¬† For kicks I also added a border.¬† Place the following script just before the </html> tag.

<script type="text/javascript">
fckItem=document.getElementById('NEWSBODY___Frame');
// change bgcolor
fckItem.style.backgroundColor="#FFFFFF";
// add a border
fckItem.style.border="1px solid #0A0A4F";
</script>

Easy enough.

Dual Monitor Heaven USB2VGA

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I have finally joined the world of dual monitors.¬† Finances and standards at my office have thwarted my quest for two years to have a dual monitor setup.¬† My propensity to multi-task and staring at a fairly small (by developer’s standards) monitor for many hours a day has made this a painful defeat.

But at last… victory.

Meet the USB2VGA from startech.com (purchased via Dell).¬† This little guy finally allowed me to win the battle of not having to “open the box” to install any hardware.¬† It works quite well, is cost effective, and best of all… easy to configure.¬† If you can plug a device into a usb port then you have skills to set it up.

Can a dropdown box be imperialistic?

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usa! usa! usa! 

I¬†recently received a¬†request from a management member to put “United States of America” at the top of the countries dropdown list for our user registration process.¬† While this may seem an innocuous change to that person we do have a lot (maybe 1/3) of users not born in the U.S.¬†¬† I know it used to be popular to put the good¬†ole¬†U S of A atop of dropdown lists for its vast superiority “convenience” but it seems somewhat “politically incorrect” or “imperialistic” to me.¬† Any thoughts?

Rename a Subversion Repository

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The scenario: You have a folder called code-repo where you keep all your svn repositories (let’s assume it is located in the root c:/ on a Windoze system).  You have a repository named xproject.  For some reason you need to rename the repository.  Let’s say it needs to by yproject.  There are 3 steps to rename the repository and retain all the history you have in the repo.

  1. Create an svn dump file of the xproject repo: svnadmin dump C:\code-repo\xproject > c:\xproject.dmp
  2. Create the new yproject svn repo: svnadmin create C:\code-repo\yproject
  3. Load the dump of the old repository into the new one: svnadmin load C:\code-repo\yproject < C:\xproject.dmp

Sweet.

Who’s down with OPPM

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I have struggled for some time now with an expanding workload.  I direct a lot of projects for a couple of different business entities.  Since I have yet to find a way to disrupt the time space continuum and add more hours to the day I am ever searching for ways to stay focused and cram more into a 24 hour day.

Enter the OPPM.

one page project manager for it projects

The OPPM (One Page Project Manager) is the most effective tool I have found yet for project tracking/communication.  The real genius of it is its simplicity.  It literally is a one page document that can be easily interpreted by the boss, the project stakeholders, the managers, or just about anyone.  All you need is about 2-5 minutes to explain it to them once.  Where can I get more information you ask?

The OPPM (One Page Project Manager) website is a good start.

Then buy the book and read it.¬† The one I read is the one specifically geared for IT projects.¬† It’s about 125 pages and you can read it (and more importantly digest it) over a weekend.¬† Actually, once you read the first two chapters of the book you’ll be up and running.¬† Although I recommend reading the whole thing to learn the finer points.¬† I found the analysis of team member personalities very interesting (I’m the one with lots of unfinished books on the nightstand).

“But dude”, you say.¬† “I just dropped a wad of cash on MS Project.”¬† Don’t fret my friend.¬† You probably still need it to manage the nitty gritty.¬† And don’t throw out your Outlook task lists.¬† You can still use them.¬† The OPPM is meant to augment standard project management tools and methods.¬† The power of OPPM shines in meetings when people actually UNDERSTAND what is going on with the project without having to be a PMP.

Get it.  Use it.  You will be glad.