The Lighter Side of Code

Just because I typed it doesn’t mean it is true. I for one am a little annoyed that there are people who say things like, “ColdFusion is a dead language”. I am looking in your direction Mr. Lowe. Ok, I get it…you don’t like that there isn’t a framework to do all the work for you. Ok, I get that you don’t like the fact that you can’t use polymorphic design principles or interfaces and the like. ColdFusion isn’t OO enough for you. We all understand that, just leave the language and enjoy the greener pastures. It makes no sense to bash a language because it doesn’t coddle you enough. Why not switch to .NET, there you can let the IDE do all the main tasks for you and all you have to worry about is how you set up your objects and interfaces and data models.

I always thought it was a little lame to say that a language is dead and that another language is SO much better. Especially when you complain about how the previous language didn’t have a framework that did everything for you. If I don’t like a language, I just stop using it. I don’t go around telling the masses how much it stinks. Truth be told, it probably doesn’t stink. Maybe it doesn’t fit my needs for a given project. Maybe I don’t know it well enough to use it. It could also be true that I don’t want to invest the time to design/develop a framework to “make life easier”.

As a developer, and aspiring pragmatist, I tend to use the language that suits my needs. I don’t go trudging into the dark with one language because it is good for me at the time. That would lead to me proclaiming that the new language is dead when I find something better.

I just hope that Python and the DJango framework, the most ultimate in programming, don’t become dead languages in a few years just because another language is better at the time.

The more I work with Flex, the more I love it. Well, I am thinking of using it as a blog. I am working on the features, but I think I will release it with minimal features for now and then ask for a feature list from people who are interested. I figured the hardest part would be making the system easily customizable, so I am using a lot of css. I have put in a basic editor using the built-in rich text editor, but I am going to do something a little different when displaying images. The basic features for a blog will be in place. I am hoping to release the first build sometime this weekend, but I went ahead and put up the project so I can get some feedback and some ideas for features. If you are interested, feel free to comment with some features.

Alright, this is the kind of thing that makes me afraid to ever be in court! A friend of mine forwarded me this transcript of a friend’s recent debut in court for speeding. Obviously the judge had no interest in looking at the evidence. The guy had charts of the area and the speed data from a GPS tracking system installed in his car.

Judge: [My friend's friend's name]

Me: Ready your Honor

Judge: anybody who carries a chart to court is pleading not guilty, that’s a given

Me: Correct, not guilty. (We are then sworn in)

Me: I have just one question of the officer and then I should like to present my case
Judge: Proceed

Me: Officer, can you read the signature on your copy of the citation?

Officer: [My friend's friend's name]

Me: Can you read the signature on my copy of the citation?

Officer: There is none.

Me: Let the record show that the officer gave me a copy of the citation BEFORE I signed it.

Me: Describe being “boxed in by traffic” and present photos of the area. Congestion shows no line of sight from officer’s vantage point

Me: Offer GPS data from Mazda

Me: show notarized and certified data from Ty as independent verification, display map that Sheriff loving holds and parades in front of officer and Judge.

Judge: Is that it?

Me Yes, your honor.

Judge: How fast were you actually going?

Me: 55 mph as of the last time I remember checking my speedometer.

Judge: I’m going to find you guilty. There will be some Court costs, and a fine of $76. Total $136. Good Day.

Courtroom: Gasp….

Sheriff: Damn!

I kid you not, the f___ing Sheriff was surprised!

I always wondered why people I knew hated DSL, but I figured it was just the company they had service through. Well, it’s a little of both. I currently have Bellsouth, and although the phone service is fine, their DSL is horrible. As a telecommuter, I need my connection to be live as much as possible. Well, for the past few months I have lost my signal every 5-10 minutes in the morning. During the afternoon it is a little less flaky, but usually every hour it craps out. I tried talking to the tech support, and quite frankly, I know more than they do. Finally, I decided to take my money elsewhere…Cable modem. Hopefully Comcast will be just as good as it was when I was back in Virginia. Anyway, this is my public goodbye to Bellsouth DSL. Good riddance!

I just saw this on ColdFusionBloggers.org and it’s from Tim Elsner’s blog. Got API has loads of different languages, including ColdFusion, and it is using AJAX searching. Quite nice. Man, I love AJAX.

If you have used Spry, then you might already know this behavior. If you try and set up a cfform and use the datefield item you might have an issue if you set your form up like this:

<table>
<form>
<tr><tr><cfinput type=”datefield” name=”duedate” size=”30″ maxlength=”250″ validate=”date” class=”" value=”#dateformat(now(),’m/d/yyyy’)#”/></td></tr>
</form>
</table>

You are going to have to use this to get this to work. Otherwise your datefield will not work. Notice the form and table tags and how they are nested.

<form>
<table>
<tr><tr><cfinput type=”datefield” name=”duedate” size=”30″ maxlength=”250″ validate=”date” class=”" value=”#dateformat(now(),’m/d/yyyy’)#”/></td></tr>
</table>
</form>

You can also use <div></div> tags and you won’t have to worry about it.

Let the venting begin:

I apologize, but this will be a disjointed ramble! I have been having problems with my DSL line for some time now. I have called Bellsouth repeatedly and have had to go through the “basic troubleshooting” each time. I have often wondered what happened to the previous conversations I had with the “Bellsouth technicians”. Well, apparently they keep a log of phone calls, but they don’t actually use them. I call in this morning having intermittent problems and I am told that they have to go through troubleshooting.

As an aside, I am writing this blog entry and my connection just dropped AGAIN! It looks like I am going to have to get cable modem and pay the absorbadant fee to get another wire run to my office. YAY me!

Anyway, back to my initial thought. The troubleshooting steps included, turning my modem on and off and the same with my router. Oh, wait, I do this every time I have a problem with my connection. Then she says that having a printer near my modem will cause a problem. I respond with, “Are you sure that everyone who uses DSL doesn’t put it near their computer”? The tech replies with no they put it 4 feet away. I chuckled and moved on with the conversation. So hear I am with 10 minutes of connectivity and a mound of work to do. Why are T1 lines so damn expensive! I hate talking to tech support, especially DSL and Computer tech support. All I ask is for one person to know what they are doing when I call in for support. It’s not like I do it often.

End of rant

I had to update the way I was implementing the Formulate code. It worked, but it made me mad the way I did it the first time. I changed the cfc a bit and added some extra features. I should get this out soon, hopefully after the update to Pronto.

In April I started a project on RIAForge called Flexorum. Well, this is my first large project with Flex, and I want to make sure the system is good before releasing it. Of course that means it has taken way too long to get out. I am still working on it and I hope to it out soon. I noticed today that their were 999 views, I hope those people are bitter. I will have the app out soon.

In the next few weeks I will be updating this Pronto a few times. I just loaded up the project with some bug fixes and a Quicken Export for use with the Quick Books timesheet feature. I am going to be adding in milestone tracking and custom invoicing and payment tracking. After that I will put in some productivity graphing. If there are any features that anyone would like to see, let me know!