Ben Forta's Blog

Drunk People At Adobe MAX 2009 Video Posted

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:59:00 -0500

This episode is definitely worth watching! Did Dan Heick really comment on my haircut?!?!?!

New SQL Books Translations Into Chinese And Korean

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:17:00 -0500

I just received three new translations of my books, two into Simplified Chinese and one into Korean:

Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft SQL Server T-SQL In 10 Minutes is now available in Simplified Chinese
MySQL Crash Course is now available in Simplified Chinese
Sams Teach Yourself SQL In 10 Minutes is now available in Korean

Links to the new translated versions, as well as all other translations, are on the specific book pages. I am particularity excited about the Korean translation, as this is my first book in Korean, bringing the number of languages that my books have been translated into to 16. Here is a full list of all the translations (that I am aware of).

Terry White Has An App To Teach You Creative Suite

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:50:00 -0500

Fellow Adobian Terry White (a rock star in the CS world) has created an iPhone app to teach you Creative Suite. Pretty slick!

ColdFusion DevCamp This Weekend

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:58:00 -0500

ColdFusion DevCamp takes place this Saturday at Adobe's San Francisco office. This will be an interactive event where attendees will work in small teams to build projects using ideas from the team members or from a suggested list of projects. This event is free and will be led by community members and ColdFusion Program Manager Adam Lehman, and food will be provided.

Free Flex Training For ColdFusion Developers

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:17:00 -0500

Later this month we'll be running a series of free full day seminars for ColdFusion developers, focused on getting started with Flex, using Flash Builder 4, and ColdFusion Flex integration. We'll be hosting events in Plano TX, Durham NC, Denver CO, Newport Beach CA, Atlanta GA, Chicago IL, Washington D.C., and San Francisco CA (in that order) from November 13th, 2009 through November 20th, 2009. Details and registration info online.

Matt Gifford On ColdFusion As A Service

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:47:00 -0500

It looks like the ColdFusion as a Service feature is really catching on! Last week I mentioned a new SitePoint article on the subject. And now Matt Gifford has posted an excellent and thorough article on the subject entitled ColdFusion as a Service (part 1) (which I assume implies that he plans a Part 2). Matt explains the basics, and covers the ActionScript proxy classes in detail. Highly recommended!

Hosting.com Announces ColdFusion 9 Cloud Offering

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:26:00 -0500

Hosting.com has announced the availability of ColdFusion 9 in cloud deployments starting at $125 per month. (Although it looks like they have yet to update their Cloud Enterprise page to reflect this).

SitePoint On The New ColdFusion 9 Services Layer

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:21:00 -0500

SitePoint has published an article by Kai Koenig entitled ColdFusion 9 at Your Service: Image Manipulation with AIR. Kai uses AIR and ColdFusion image manipulation functions to demonstrate CF9's new ColdFusion As A Service (CFaaS) feature.

ColdFusion 9 Supports Digitally Signed E-Mail

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:22:00 -0500

A user just e-mailed me asking how to digitally sign e-mail messages sent using ColdFusion <cfmail> tag. Well, as it so happens, this was just added as a feature to ColdFusion 9. You can now specify the following, both as defaults in ColdFusion Administrator, and as <cfmail>attributes:

KEYALIAS - Alias specifying which certificate and private key within the keystore to use.
KEYPASSWORD - Password for your private key.
KEYSTORE - Path to the keystore containing the private key and certificate.
KEYSTOREPASSWORD - Exactly as the name suggests.
SIGN - TRUE/FALSE flag specifying whether or not to digitally sign generated e-mail.

There you go, in case you needed it, one more reason to upgrade!

RedMonk Covers FedEx Custom Critical App

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:05:00 -0500

One of the most talked about MAX keynote demos was the FedEx Custom Critical shipment tracking dashboard as presented by FedEx's Adam Mollenkopf. And now RedMonk's Michael Coté has posted an interview with Adam where they look at the app, discuss the business case, and explain why the solution was built on the Flash Platform and powered by LiveCycle Data Services. [Via Duane Nickull]

iPhone Tip: How To Remove A Leftover Calendar

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:15:00 -0500

This one was a pain to figure out, so I am sharing it here in case others can use the info (or for the next time I need it myself). iPhone supports syncing with multiple calendars, and displays them in a single integrated calendar using a different color for each. But have you ever tried to remove one of the calendars? There is no option to do so! And unchecking the calendar in iTunes simply prevents it from being synced in the future, but does not remove the unwanted calendar from the iPhone - all that left over data just sits there. In my case I have an Exchange calendar and a local Outlook calendar on the iPhone, and I wanted to remove the local calendar and leave only the Exchange calendar. Here are the steps that worked for me (adapt them as needed):

On the iPhone, go to settings, select the Exchange mail/calendar, and turn OFF Exchange calendar use.
iPhone will ask you if you want to delete the Exchange calendar data, confirm the deletion.
Then turn ON the Exchange calendar.
iPhone will ask you what you want to do with the existing (non-Exchange) calendar data, giving you the option of deleting it.
Go ahead with the deletion.
As soon as Exchange syncs you'll have just that one calendar.

Pretty simple (although there really should just be a simple delete option!).

ColdFusion Positions In OH, FL, DC, And TX

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:58:00 -0500

I've not posted any job listings since before MAX. Sorry about that. But, a total of 11 ColdFusion positions today:

Nationwide Children's Hospital (Columbus, OH) is looking for a systems analyst. Requirements include ColdFusion development experience, as well as experience with SQL Server and .NET. Bachelor Degree in related Computer Science areas or equivalent experience required. Details posted online (search for "ColdFusion").
ERA Europe (Orlando, FL) is looking for a ColdFusion developer. Requirements include experience with ColdFusion 7 or later, as well as experience with SQL Server and Fusebox. Details posted online.
Fig Leaf (Washington, DC) is looking for two mid-senior level ColdFusion developers, as well as a full-time ColdFusion/Flex/AJAX instructor. Contact jobs@figleaf.com.
AcisTek Corporation (Washington, DC) is looking for a ColdFusion developer for a technical lead position. Details posted online.
REOTrans, LLC (Dallas, TX) is looking for five senior ColdFusion developers. Requirements include experience with ColdFusion Components, OOP with CFCs, MVC frameworks, JavaScript libraries, as well as advanced SQL and source control. They are willing to consider Senior Java developers looking to expand their skill set. Contact Adrian Moreno at REOTrans.

Using PayPal In Flex And AIR Apps

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:36:00 -0500

Fellow platform evangelist Miti Pricope has spent a considerable amount of time working on how to integrate PayPal Express Checkout with Flex applications running in Flash Player or in Adobe AIR. He has posted his thoughts and recommendations in a new ADC article entitled Integrating PayPal Express Checkout with Flex and Adobe AIR.

Pete Freitag Launches HackMyCF

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:01:00 -0500

Pete Freitag has launched HackMyCF, a site that can test your ColdFusion servers for security holes, missing hotfixes and patches, and more. You simply provide a server host name and e-mail address, and the app runs a scan and e-mails you a report. Highly recommended!

FusionReactor 3.5 Released

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:48:00 -0500

Intergral has announced the release of FusionReactor 3.5. In addition to new features, this release also includes support for ColdFusion 9, Windows 7, and Mac OS X Snow Leopard.