Rob Huddleston (SieeraMMUG manager, Adobe MAX speaker, and all-around good guy) posted a blog entry a while ago about how to build accessible forms. It's so good, that I keep going back to it whenever I need a refresher on how something should be laid out with CSS. This is mostly for my reference, but the entry is definitely worth reading, if you need a quick refresher in how to build table-less forms:

http://www.robhuddleston.com/index.cfm/2008/1/18/Should-I-use-tables-to-lay-out-my-form

For those that were in attendance at the last Saccfug meeting, this is the blog entry that Seth and I were discussing.

-Nolan

I just saw this posted on Slashdot and thought it was worth sharing...

If Programming Languages Were Religions

No mention of ColdFusion tho. Anyone want to take a stab at which religion matches ColdFusion?

Happy holidays. :)

-nolan

(This is mostly for the Sacramento area folks...)

Next week is our December Saccfug meeting. Rather than doing a standard presentation, we're going to use this as a "planning opportunity" for 2009. Bring your ideas (big and small) for things you'd like to see happen with Saccfug for 2009.

We'll also be doing a bit of a "show and tell". Attendees are encouraged to bring code they feel like showing off. It doesn't have to be a complete, fully functioning app with 1000 bells and whistles. If you've recently completed a UDF or Custom Tag that does something interesting, that'd be a great fit as well. This could be a great opportunity to see what others are working on, get new ideas, and solicit feedback from the group.

More details are available at the Saccfug site.

-Nolan

I'm in need of ColdFusion Contractor for a short-term pile of work. I can keep you busy 30 to 40 hours a week, through mid-January or thereabouts.

Most of it is under NDA, but here's what I can tell you:

We're essentially enhancing/refactoring part of an intranet app running ColdFusion 8, SQL Server 2005 and IIS (there are a few IIS specific pieces of functionality, you will need to run IIS).

The app is nothing flashy (extreme understatement) as far as UI goes, and the existing code is legacy top-down procedural code (loosely based on the "sample app framework" in the old Ben Forta books). We will be doing some refactoring of this code, and we'll be writing some new CFC based content using the MVC design pattern, however we will not be using a common framework (i.e. no Model-Glue, no Mach-ii).

Unfortunately, we will not be removing most of the legacy code, so as much as it may pain you to look at lots of top-down procedural code, there really isn't room in their budget to redo it at this time.

Qualified candidates will have all (yes all) of the following:

* Be local to the Sacramento/Rocklin area (or have a static IP address, VPN client, and dev environment matching the above, though I would prefer someone local enough that he/she can be on-site once in a while for meetings and such).

* Have an AIM account that you use regularly, an email account you check regularly, and a phone number that you are reachable on for a reasonable portion of the day (these are all especially true if you are not in the Sacramento area).

* Experience with CFCs, and object oriented concepts. I need you to be proficient with inheritance, composition, DAOs, Gateways, Beans, and Controllers. We're looking for someone that can get up to speed quickly; if you've never used those concepts before, I'm sorry but this is not the application for you.

* Knowledge of (and experience with) the MVC design pattern. You won't be using a big framework (ala Mach-ii) but the new code will be based on MVC, so you must be proficient in how this pattern works.

* The ability to work in a team environment, take direction, and write clean readable code.

* Exceptional communication and self-management skills.

* Experience with a Subversion client.

* Some experience with the new ColdFusion 8 UI tags (CFLayout, CFMenu, CF8 Ajax functionality, etc).

* Experience writing and consuming web services in ColdFusion.

Nice to have but not required:

* Experience with Ajax.

* Experience writing custom templates for the Illudium PU36 CFC Generator.

* Proficiency in ASL (American Sign Language).

Interested parties can use the "contact blog owner" link at the bottom, or send a resume to nolan dot erck at gmail dot com. Depending on how many replies come in, I may not be able to respond to everyone, but I'll do my best.

Thanks.

-nolan

Overall, I'm been very happy with my experience at Max 2008. I ran into several familiar faces, met the fine folks from The Morphic Group, heard lots of talks on interesting topics, and got some pretty sweet swag to bring home. :)

When I get time later in the week, I will start posting my reviews of the various presentations (and maybe other bits as well if they haven't already been Twittered to death). For now, I'd like to share a few overall pros and cons of the conference as a whole:

Pros --

1. Everything was extremely well organized.

From (quite literally) the second I walked in, I had people informing me of where to go, how to register, etc. We were given handy pocket guides with the conference schedule, and a nice book with several blank pages for taking notes. Kiosks were available for attendees to print up-to-the-minute schedules, and so on. I heard a few reports of people not being able to enter different talks because the bar-code scanners weren't working, but I only heard that a couple times on the 1st day (so I'll assume that was the exception, and that it was remedied by the the time Tuesday's presentations started).

2. Plenty of space.

Whether I was at the expo floor, or eating lunch, or in a presentation, I didn't feel cramped anywhere. It was always (for me) pretty easy to find a semi-quiet spot to set up my laptop, or just make a few phone calls without worrying about being shoved out of a hallway by masses of folks trying to walk by (as can easily be the case at big shows like this).

3. The party!

Wow...that party Tuesday night was great! Adobe bussed everyone to the Academy of Sciences and we basically had free run of the place for the night. Tons of food, great exhibits, and lots of things to keep us geeky people entertained all night. I'm not much of a drinker, and have been to many parties that consist solely of drinking alcohol (boring folks like me pretty quickly). This was not the case here! I stuffed my face on dim sum, enjoyed the planetarium, the aquarium, and generally ran around silly until I was too tired to continue. :) I'm definitely making a return trip to Academy of Sciences when time permits!

Cons --

All that being said, I do have a few pieces of "constructive criticism" as well...

1. (This one is half for the "powers that be" behind deciding which presentations get booked, and half for the presenters themselves.)

Do. not. use. your. presentation. as. a. sales. pitch.

I sat thru WAY too many presentations where 10, 15, or even 20+ minutes were spent talking about what the presenter's company does for a living (often, it had nothing to do with the topic at hand). Please, save that for the expo floor! I paid money and used my time to schedule attending this session so I could learn something. If I want to learn about your product, I'll ask the folks at the booth.

A quick slide and a minute of "I'm from company X, we make thingie XYZ for the Photography industry" (or what have you) is fine, but please let's realize there is a time and place for more extensive self-promotion. During a technical lecture is not the place, despite what your VP of Marketing may tell you. :)

2. If the bulk of your presentation pertains to features in not-yet-released software, please SAY SO in the TITLE.

As a general rule, I don't build products in pre-release software. For me, that's defined as anything still labeled as "beta", "alpha", "preview" or any other variant of "it's not for sale just yet, and we don't guarantee it works". (If a client asked for something, i will of course break this rule on a case by case basis, but generally I stick with what is "released" as my technology stack.)

I lost track of how many presentations I sat thru that ended up being "Flex 4 only", but weren't listed as such in the schedule. Was this a mandate from Adobe? Were folks "forced" to include some percentage of content about the not-yet-released Gumbo (that Gumbo Preview DVD doesn't count as "released"...it can't even be installed in a non-default folder without Bad Things Happening).

I spent present-day money and used present-day time to learn present-day improvements to my skillset. When Flex 4 (or whatever the product is in question) is out, then maybe i'll be interested. Until then (or at least until it's very late in the beta testing phase), not so much.

Other folks came here via a boss's dime. Said boss may be waiting at the office to ask the age old questions:

"so, what did you learn? can you justify the cost of this expo?".

I assure you, that most of them don't want to hear "yes, i learned things that ONLY work 8+ months from now, IF all the things in the Preview release stay in the final product, and IF you spend even more money to BUY it".

Want to guarantee that small companies won't send anyone to Max 2009? Yeah that'd probably do it. There's no "return on investment" with present-day technology stacks in that situation.

I did attend several "what's coming in the next version" talks, which were appreciated. It's good to see what is coming in the next version, but I wanted to balance that with information I can use right now. "Hiding" Gumbo content in talks that are not properly labeled makes it difficult to find that balance. And the reverse is also true: many people may be "bleeding edge junkies", and they didn't attend the talks because "with the upcoming version of Flex" wasn't in the title.

That's all for now. I'll post "mini reviews" of the various sessions as time allows in the coming weeks.

--nolan

I got back from MAX, last night around midnight (I stuck around for the Bacfug meeting, before heading home).

Overall it was a great experience (this being my first MAX). Lots of new information, new faces, and WOW...that party on Tuesday night was great...I was especially fond of the Planetarium. :)

I've got notes/ideas for various blog posts, but obviously my time at MAX was busier than I anticipated, and now that I'm back in "the real world", I need to get caught up on a few things. MAX posts/reviews coming soon.

I learned a ton of info...now the trick is, figuring out how to apply it all to my current projects. :)

More info soon. -nolan

Last night was the User Group Mgr meetup. Traffic was terrible and my taxi never showed, so by the time I got there, it was starting to wind down. Luckily I ran into Rob Huddleston (from Sierra MMUG) and caught a showing of the new James Bond film before calling it a night.

I'm currently in the Max Opening General Session, listening to the Salesforce guy. So far the demos have been pretty slick. I'm especially intersted in that "music mixer" one that was demo'd earlier (Hobnox? something like that.)

I'll be in Flex classes for most of the day -- will try to post my thoughts on them as time permits.

PS. CF folks looking for the blue ColdFusion ringer tees...they have a few at the Max Store here, tho the clerk said quantities are very limited!

-nolan

FYI -- The slides and source code from my "Intro to MVC" presentation are now available for download in the "Presentations" section on my site. Note I've moved that pod to the left side of the screen. It's also now available on both the "main" site and the "blog" pages (before it was only on the "main" site).

Let me know if there are any questions.

And of course, the source code is "AS IS" and I make no guarantees about it. :)

Enjoy. nolan

Thanks everyone that came out to last night's "Intro to MVC" presentation! That was a brand new presentation for me; I'm glad all the code samples worked on the first try, and we didn't suffer from any "presentation gremlins". :)

We had a pretty good turnout and Seth and I received some very positive feedback at the end of the session. I'm going to clean up the slide deck and code samples a bit before posting them, but they will be shared shortly.

Also thanks to our host, Clear Capital for setting up the remote webcam so their team in Tahoe/Truckee could join in.

See ya'll at Max, next week!

--nolan

Next week at Saccfug I'll be giving a presentation on "Introduction to Model View Controllers in ColdFusion". We'll go over the basics of what MVC does, pros and cons, and give an introductory look at some code that uses this pattern.

This will be a non-framework-specific talk; no prior knowledge of Model-Glue, Mach-ii, etc is required. None of the code samples will use a framework, however, some basic knowledge of CFCs will probably help tremendously -- i.e. if you know what Beans and DAOs are for, you should be in good shape. :)

--nolan