Hi Sacramento / Roseville area folks...

On May 7th, I'll be speaking at the Sierra Multimedia Users Group, giving a sort of "high level, non-techie" introduction to ColdFusion and Dreamweaver. It will be an introduction for Dreamweaver-centric people that don't have a background in server-side programming, and I'll also provide a "high level" view at what ColdFusion does, and some of the features that make ColdFusion a great productivity tool. If you have a manager that's still on the fence about CF being a worthwhile investment, this might be a good presentation for him/her to attend.

Suggestions on a snazzy title for the preso are welcome. So far I'm thinking something like "ColdFusion from 10,000 Feet" or maybe "A High-Level Look at ColdFusion and Dreamweaver"...any other suggestions?

Note, due to some logistical issues, this meeting will not be webcast -- it's an in-person only meeting, however I will post any slides and source code after the preso.

See you there!

-nolan

This week's Friday Playlist will be slightly different than my usual "last 15 songs on iTunes". This week's "New Music Tuesday" was pretty rad...tho i was slammed on Tuesday...so for me it became a "New Music Wednesday", as that's when I was finally able to hit my local record store and go a little nuts. It's been quite a while since I've gone on a CD buying binge. Here's what I snagged...

1. The B-52s "Funplex"
2. Flight of the Conchords
3. The Replacements "Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash", reissue
4. The Replacements "Stink", reissue
5. The Replacements "Let It Be", reissue
6. The Replacements "Hootenanny", reissue
7. Eddie Veder "Into the Wild - Soundtrack"
8. REM "Accelerate"
9. In Flames "Sense of Purpose"
10. Paramore "Riot!"
11. Tinfed "Designated Rivals" (not new, but somehow I never picked this one up when it was released)

Thanks to everyone that came out to the BACFUG meeting last night. I hope the talk I gave on "Introduction to ColdFusion Components" was helpful to those in the audience. The slides and source code have been added here, and there is a recording of the presentation at UGTV.

Just like the last time I gave an introductory talk, we had a bigger percentage of new faces in the meeting. Perhaps this is a sign that we need to have more presentations that go over introductions to various topics.

As an example, one attendee at last night's meeting was not familiar with the "var" scope! That's not even a topic specific to CFCs ("var" is just as useful when building regular CFfunctions), but there are still folks that haven't had to dive into the "newer" scopes in ColdFusion, and could benefit from a presentation on these topics, and last night is proof that these folks are willing to attend meetings when the topic is of interest.

I'll be back at BACFUG in July to give a talk on "Intermediate Uses of CFCs" -- it goes over some common uses of CFCs that don't require using a full fledged framework, nor do they require knowing more than just a very basic understanding of CFCs and object oriented thinking. We'll go over Beans, DAOs, Gateways, and maybe a few similar items.

Thanks again, especially to Sean and Luke for having me as a presenter, and for their assistance in getting the laptop/network issues squared away. :)

--nolan

Hi Bay Area CF-ers --

I'll be speaking at the Bay Area ColdFusion Users Group on April 16th, giving my talk on "Introduction to CFCs". I'm probably going to update it with some content from my "Intermediate Uses of CFCs" slide deck but essentially, the idea is, if you've never used CFCs before, and don't have an object-oriented background, then this presentation will hopefully help you get to the "next step"!

There's not much info on the Bacfug page yet -- that's my fault. I need to send Sean an outline, which is still on my "todo" list for later tonight.

...and no, this is not an April Fool's joke! :)

-nolan

I wasn't going to post another Friday Playlist, since I haven't blogged much "real content" this week. However I just added that other post about "to framework or not to framework". So with that, I leave you...The Friday Playlist!

(Artist -- Song Title -- Album)

1. King Missile -- Dinosaurs -- The Way To Salvation
2. Pearl Jam -- Low Light -- Yield
3. The Reputation -- Bone Tired -- To Force A Fate
4. Slayer -- Angel of Death -- Decade of Aggression
5. The Postal Service -- Recycled Air -- Give Up
6. Supertramp -- Child Of Vision -- Breakfast In America
7. Anton Barbeau and The Joy Boys -- Ella -- The Horse's Tongue
8. 7 Seconds -- Put These Words To Music -- New Wind
9. The Mountain Goats -- Michael Myers Resplendent -- Heretic Pride
10. Eels -- Novocaine For The Soul (remix) -- Useless Trinkets
11. 7 Seconds -- Strength -- Walk Together Rock Together
12. Billy Bragg -- She's Got A New Spell (demo) -- Workers Playtime (Bonus Disc)
13. Def Leppard -- Photograph -- Pyromania
14. Deathray -- Sometimes -- (mp3-only download from their website)
15. They Might Be Giants -- Nothing's Gonna Change My Clothes -- Then (Disc 1)

Happy Friday! Is anyone else going to watch Wrestlemania on Sunday? Will anyone else admit it in a public forum? :)

-nolan

I just responded to a post over on Alagad.com about using "homegrown" frameworks vs. using "regular" frameworks, and my comment quickly became a catalyst for a blog post of my own on that same topic.

Frameworks are a pretty common holy war these days. The phrases "always use frameworks!", and "which framework is best?" are both seen pretty regularly on blogs, message boards, or overheard at various user group meetings.

As a contractor, I don't always get to determine the requirements, or time lines, or technology stack that I have to be responsible for. And as such, I sometimes need to make difficult decisions.

[More]

Nothing really "new" here. I've been posting my "CF9 WishList" thoughts on various other blogs, and decided I'd prefer to start compiling my list here on my own blog. The list as it stands currently...

[More]

I haven't done a good mindless playlist-post in a while, and it's Friday, so here we go. :)

Recent playlist:

(Artist -- Song Title -- Album)

1. Green Day -- Private Ale -- Kerplunk
2. Dead Milkmen -- V.F.W. -- Big Lizard in my Back Yard
3. Chance 22 -- Hollow -- "Godmoney" soundtrack
4. The Cure -- How Beautiful You Are -- Join The Dots: B-Sides & Rarities (disc 2)
5. Billy Bragg -- Little Time Bomb (demo) -- Workers Playtime (bonus disc)
6. 7 Seconds -- Baby Games -- Alt.Music.Hardcore
7. The Cure -- Wrong Number (acoustic version) -- Acoustic Hits
8. Del Amitri -- Mother Nature's Writing -- Some Other Sucker's Parade
9. Metallica -- The Shortest Straw -- And Justice For All
10. Bobby Jordan -- Get Here Tonight -- "Last Day of Summer Sessions" compilation

Those of you that were at the Sacramento CFUG meeting on Tuesday, did any of you...

a) eat that sandwhich that the IT recruiter dropped off?
and
b) did you feel ok afterward?

I came down with a nasty case of food poisoning later that evening. My suspects include some leftover pizza I had for lunch, and the aforementioned sandwhich that the recruiter brought.

Maybe that's why he wasn't able to stay for the entire meeting! He had to make a fast getaway! ;)

My teammate and I just spent a couple hours debugging an overloaded function:

We had a method foo( int num ) that was called passed a (char*):

foo( (char*)"test" );

...yet the integer version of the method was still being called, and quite happily at that! Huh!? It turned out to be the same issue noted here:

Here's the mess you're in: if Base declares a member function f(double x), and Derived declares a member function f(char c) (same name but different parameter types and/or constness), then the Base f(double x) is "hidden" rather than "overloaded" or "overridden" (even if the Base f(double x) is virtual).

Alas, my compiler doesn't like the noted "using" syntax, so I have to go about solving things the "long way" (either re-defining all the methods in my derived class, or renaming the derived methods so overloading no longer happens).

I can't believe I've never run into this "feature" of C++ before! And I can't believe this is how they chose to implement things! :)

It seems to me that if the method has a unique signature that's not redefined in the derived class, the compiler should happily look in the base class for that implementation. If I have foo(char) in my base class, but happen to have a redefined foo(int) in the derived class...why should it care? Assuming the data is always cast to the correct type, I fail to see why C++ requires we go through all this extra work.

If anyone can offer more insight, I'm very curious as to why C++ is wired this way.

--n