Good discussion of various model release forms

Here

Best Steve Martin clip on saving money from Saturday Night Live

Skit was called Don't Buy Stuff You Cannot Afford:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/1389

Flex deployment issue resolved

Did a clean install of only CF8 and figure out what I needed to do on my deployment machine vs. what I had on my development machine:

1) changed the service.html configuration file to list my deployment server as the actual data source
2) added my cfc components to the exported Flex folder (Flex isn't smart enough to realize it needs to do this itself).
3) renamed the parent folder to keep the hierarchy the same (in terms of where the CFC folder was in relation to the Flex file)

Could it really fix BF2142 with widescreen support?

Giving this a try right now...fingers crossed...

Uber links on how to tie a tie

Mahalo daily video episode on tie tying
Mahalo links

Good online place for cheap unlocked phones

http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

The place for cell phone info

Phone Scoop

Found the IP address to my Comcast router...

192.168.100.1

Good to know..

Another automated CRUD generator for Flex/CF

Looks like it generates XML too (which I don't want), but in case I ever get sick of the visualizer that comes with FlexBuilder, Illudium PU-36 looks like an option.

Probably better basic remoteobject actionscript example code from Adobe documentation

Found here.

ActionScript equivalent of mx:remoteobject

import mx.rpc.remoting.RemoteObject;
import mx.rpc.events.ResultEvent;
import mx.rpc.events.FaultEvent;
import mx.rpc.events.InvokeEvent;
import mx.messaging.Channel;
import mx.messaging.channels.AMFChannel;
import mx.messaging.ChannelSet;
import flash.events.Event;

import mx.controls.Alert;


public function onCreationComplete () : void
{
   //create the remote objects first    
   createRemoteObjects();
   
   //set the AMF Channel on the remote objects    
   setUpAmfChannel();
}

public function createRemoteObjects () : void
{
   ro = new RemoteObject();
   ro.destination = "ColdFusion";
   ro.source = "path.to.cfc";
   
   ro.addEventListener("fault",ro_fault_handler);
      
      //You probably want and need a result handler...
      ro.methodName.addEventListener("result",methodName_result_handler);
      //You may need this if you need to do something when a method is called
      ro.methodName.addEventListener("invoke",methodName_invoke_handler);
      //You may need this if you need to catch and handle errors differently
      ro.methodName.addEventListener("fault",methodName_fault_handler);
      //This is just sugar, you really dont need it unless you want it.
      ro.methodName.showBusyCursor = true;      
}


/* You can call the following method anytime to set the amf channel for a remote object on the fly */
public function setUpAmfChannel () : void
{
   var amfChannel:Channel = new AMFChannel("my-cfamf","http://server/flex2gateway/");
   amfChannelSet = new ChannelSet();
   amfChannelSet.addChannel(amfChannel);
   
   //repeat the following line for all remoteObjects
   this.ro.channelSet = amfChannelSet;
}

public function ro_fault_handler ( event:FaultEvent ) : void
{
   Alert.show( event.fault.faultString, 'Error');
}

public function call_methodName () : void
{
   //use this to call the method
   ro.methodName(/*pass arguments here*/);
}

public function methodName_invoke_handler ( event:InvokeEvent ) : void
{
   //this will fire when the method is invoked
}

public function methodName_fault_handler ( event:FaultEvent ) : void
{
   //this will fire when the method throws an error 
}

public function methodName_result_handler ( event:ResultEvent ) : void
{
   //this will fire when a result comes back from the method 
}

Getting started with FlexLib 2.1

This link helped me figure out how the heck to setup the FlexLib 2.1 library. Kinda flailed before reading this...yes I'm a newb.

Got stuck on Session and Global variables in a flex app

I need to keep these around for a CF8 Exchange set of operations.

Had to go all the way to this India post to find the full path for accessing variables declared in the Application scope. Not sure why Mike Chambers in his post didn't put the full path.

Oh my GOSH, getting CFEclipse installed was a total pain!

Wow, it should NOT have been this hard. Writing this down so I don't have to figure this all out again later...

- Eclipse seemed to work fine with THIS version of the Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE) Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.5.0 update 11 found here.
Eclipse versions of Java supported

- Then I installed the Eclipse for RCP/Plug-in developers

- But the FINAL trick was that you can't just double click on any CFM/CFC file. Arg! You have to create a project first with the files in the right part of the hierarchy. Aaaaaah! I think I even had this working before, but uninstalled because of the blank window issue.
See post here.

This one showed me why adding CFEclipse to the Flex Builder 2 install didn't work.

Now I find that Eclipse 3.3 isn't compatible with FlexBuilder 2.0.1. Ack! Looks like Flex Beta 3 might fix it...

Decent post on DOA's, Gateways and beans

Found here.

Oh MY gosh, this killed me for two days...

Couldn't figure out why all the examples were breaking...until I remembered to do a Google on the error message I was receiving:
"VerifyError: Error #1053: Illegal override of subtopic in mx.messaging.Consumer"

The answer is to:
If you look in the properties for a Flex project under FB2 w/a CF8 server, you'll see that there's an entry pointing to {cf_install_path}/wwwroot/WEB-INF/flex/libs/fds.swc. This library conflicts with the Flex2 framework SWCs that come with FlexBuilder. The solution?? Pretty easy.

In the project's Properties panel (right-click the project and hit Properties...) you'll see a Flex Build Path entry in the list on the left. Click it, then choose the Library Path tab on the right. Now click "Add SWC Folder..." and navigate to your CF server's {cf_install_path}/wwwroot/WEB-INF/flex/libs folder and click Choose. This will add the {cf_install_path}/wwwroot/WEB-INF/flex/libs folder as a Flex2 library folder to your project.

Arg! Full original post with more info is here.

A whole doc on CF MX and Flex 2

Right here.

Secret sauce to hooking up CF to Flex

Looks like the simple example I was looking for is here from the Flex Doc team.

Create mysql database

mysql> CREATE DATABASE menagerie;

To list db inside of MySQL server

Can't remember this stuff...
Just type "show databases;" from sql command line.

How to backup an MySQL db

Described here.

To restore just type:
mysql projecttracker < bobber.sql

May need this later...

http://www.jeffryhouser.com/index.cfm/2007/10/9/Why-does-ColdFusion-return-a-CFC-to-Flex-as-a-generic-object

Custom keyboard shortcuts on 10.3+

Couldn't remember if I needed to enter the parent menu name; answer no. Also saw that to enter ellipses you hit Cmd+;. Nice.

Article here.

To install CF Extension wizards to FB2

Follow the instructions in the folder installed during FB2 install:

Installing the ColdFusion Extensions for Adobe® Flex™ Builder™ 2

Before you install the ColdFusion Extensions for Flex Builder, you must have the following products installed:

Flex Builder 2
ColdFusion MX 7.0.2
Note: If you installed a previous version of the ColdFusion Extensions for Flex Builder, you must uninstall that version before installing the ColdFusion Extensions for Flex Builder feature. To do so, stop Flex Builder, delete all files that begin with "com.adobe.coldfusion." from the plugins folder that is under the Flex Builder folder, and then restart Flex Builder.

To install the ColdFusion Plugin for Flex Builder 2:

In Flex Builder, select Help > Software Updates > Find and Install.
Select the Search For New Features To Install option, and then click Next.
Click New Archived Site.
Select the ColdFusion_FlexBuilder_Feature.zip file, and then click Open.
When the Edit Local Site dialog box appears, click OK.
Ensure that the ColdFusion_FlexBuilder_feature.zip is selected, and then click Finish.
In the Search Results window, select the check box next to ColdFusion_FlexBuilder_Feature.zip, and then click Next.
Select the I Accept The Terms In This License Agreement option, and then click Next.
Click Finish.
Click Install All.
When the installation is complete, click Yes to restart Flex Builder.
To uninstall the ColdFusion Extensions for Flex Builder, you must first disable them, and then uninstall them.

To uninstall the ColdFusion Extensions for Flex Builder:

Select Help > Software Updates > Manage Configuration.
Select the ColdFusion Plugins feature.
Click Disable and then click OK.
Click Yes to restart Flex Builder.
When Flex Builder restarts, select Software Updates > Manage Configuration.
Click the Show Disabled Feature button, if you don't see the ColdFusion Flex Builder feature.
Select the ColdFusion Flex Builder feature and click Uninstall.
Click Yes to confirm that you want to uninstall.
Restart Flex Builder.

CF Wizards in Flex Builder?

I'll have to look at these videos...

Coupon page

Looked pretty decent, at least for Franklin Covey stuff. Fabulous Savings.

Local candy maker - for future wife gift...

Gateau et Ganache

When to use # marks in CF code and when not

I was getting really confused for a while. Per page 179 in Ben Forta's web app construction kit book:

The following is the same functionally:
<cfset fullname="#FirstName# #LastName#">
<cfset fullname=FirstName & " " & LastName>

But his rule is: only use number signs when referring to variables and functions WITHIN A BLOCK OF TEXT.

I wish some of the sample code was more clear on this (like that generated by DW wizard).

Had to use this link to figure out how to get the demo code to appear.

But turns out it's a little harder than that. Tags like cfinvokeargument expect strings for each of each named value pairs, so we require "#variable#" syntax if we are passing in a struct...oy...

How to insert a row in Excel using keyboard shortcuts...

There really should be a direct keyboard shortcut just for this...

Jonathan, on February 22nd, 2007 at 11:39 am Said:
Insert a new row…
1 - Shift Space to select the row
2 - Control + to insert a new row
Delete a row
1 - Shift Space to select the row
2 - Control - to remove row

or even better
Alt+Enter to avoid having to use the shortcut key (after selecting a row)

Quick directions for getting IIS up and running

I always forget the right permissions to set. Wizard included with IIS makes it easy. Instructions here.

Finally figured out how to do a cluster/stacked column chart in Excel 2007

I got confused about the instructions here.
I couldn't figure out at a high level what the steps were about. Now that I better understand what's going on, here's the conceptual idea of what's going on:

• We first select a dummy table of data that contains only the labels we want to use on the horizontal axis. All values are 0 so this can be shown on the graph without actually changing the view of the data we really want to see.


• We then copy in all the data we really want to use. Map that data to be plotted on a secondary axis. We want the secondary axis for this info since the tick marks for secondary data always show by default at the top of the chart (you can change this, but it doesn't quite line up).


• We also change the overlap of each data bar to be 0 so we get the look we're going for.


• Explicitly ask for the Secondary Axis to be shown so that it behaves as we expect.
  


• Adjust the selected data so that the first blank row of data is used (for spacing purposes).


• Go to the HORIZONTAL axis options dialog and change the secondary VERTICAL access to appear Low (that is to the left, stupidest UI I've ever seen...). Vice versa for the primary vertical axis.
  


• Hide the appropriate tick marks and data labels for the axis we're not using.

Here are the semi-step by step instructions:
1. Select the small table of data you want to use for the blank horizontal axis and create a Stacked Column Chart from that data (see example file here).

2. Now select the real data you want to use and paste in the data into the chart we just created.

3. Select one of the data bars that has real data, and then right click. Select Format Data Series...

4.Change Gap Width to be 0%. Choose to Plot Series On: Secondary Axis. Click OK.

5. Do this for the rest of all the "real" data bars (you will only have to the Plot part).

6. Go to Chart Tools, Layout, Axes, Secondary Horizontal Axis, Show Left to Right Axis. Now things should be looking better (real axis on the bottom, fake one on top).

7. Right click again on one of the real data series. Choose Select Data...

8. Click each of the Legend Series can contains real data (not the dummy one) and edit the "Series name" so that it doesn't include the first blank row. Also adjust the "Series values" to INCLUDE the first blank line. Do this for all of your columns of data.

9. Go to Chart Tools, Layout, Axes, Primary Horizontal Axis, More Primary Horizontal Axis Options.

10. Change the "Vertical axis crosses:" to be "At maximum category". This switches the primary axis to be to the right.

11. Go to Chart Tools, Layout, Axes, Secondary Horizontal Axis, More Secondary Horizontal Axis Options.

12. Change the "Vertical axis crosses:" to be "Automatic". This switches the secondary axis to be to the left.

13. Turn off all unneeded tick marks and labels by changing them to None in the appropriate More Axis Options dialogs.

14. Turn on/off the appropriate horizontal gridelines.

15. Delete the dummy series from the legend.

16. Yikes! That was waaay harder than it should have been.

Wow...

Great webpage on secondary axises in Excel

I finally understand what a secondary axis is and how some of the hacks work.

Dr. James Watson - when genetics loses its soul

An interesting set of comments the co-discoverer of DNA has made over the years.

Another recap/fact check on Inconvenient Truth

Washington Post fact check

Drive space hierarchical tools

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/technology/circuits/11askk-003.html?em&ex=1193371200&en=dd7e5992516f2324&ei=5087%0A

Article from NY Times on possible tools.

Named and dynamic ranges in Excel

Sooo exactly what I needed...go Excel...did I just say that?
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/named.htm

Autism Video Glossary

Great resource. Requires setting up a username. Quick video experience kinda stinks, but great stuff.
http://www.autismspeaks.org/

Why is it so hard to find screenshot utilities for cell phones?

Kinda a basic thing...for any UI designer that is.

Couldn't get FExplorer 1.7 to install on my test Nokia N75. Finally found this for my old Treo 700w:
http://www.iliumsoft.com/site/fp/screen_capture.php

Phew!
Bob

Judge's ruling on Gore's Inconvenient Truth - where he exaggerated

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/10/an_inconvenient_truth_for_al_g.html

Tutorials on how to create a combined cluster stacked column chart in Excel

Links to tutorials:
http://www.peltiertech.com/Excel/ChartsHowTo/ClusterStack.html

Nice quick library to concatenate two queries in CF

Code found here.

Article on how to parse 2 buttons using CF

easycfm tutorial on this

Techie explanation of EAR and WAR files

Still only kinda get it...but good enough for now...
Here

Nice guide for setting up IIS on windows XP

Here it is

SJ Mercury News article on CEA and EQ coverage

http://www.mercurynews.com/pattyfisher/ci_6850326

Quick link: Microsoft instructions on how to enable remote desktop

Are here.

When doing a clean install, follow these steps (for me only)

- Back up all files
- Back up Outlook data files
- Back up Outlook rules

- Reformat
- Blow away Bootcamp partition
- Recreate Bootcamp partition
- start XP install
- Format using NTFS Quick option
- Install XP

- Fix mouse pointer, Start menu, view options (file extensions, invisible files), show computer on desktop
- Install all updates, including optional Windows Media player 11
- Install more updates
- Join wireless group
- Rejoin/install printers
- Install VPN
- Install Acrobat
- Download and install office
- Install office 2007 updates
- Start Outlook, quit
- Restore Outlook data files
- Restore Outlook rules
- Restore Windows files
- Add Windows Search
- Do VMWare Fusion Unity fix

Trying WinClone

Ok, previous tip on backing up using Disk Utility didn't work for me. Going to try WinClone now. Sounds like what I need.

When restoring Bootcamp remember to...

- Save all files
- Export all Exchange rules!!!

CFC Flex 2 data exchange example, using RemoteObject

http://blog.739saintlouis.com/2007/09/27/moving-data-from-coldfusion-cfcs-to-flex-2-applications-using-remoteobject/

Google hints I learned today

Date range:
Add &as_qdr=m3 for 3 months
http://www.google.com/search?q=photoshop&as_qdr=m3

Daterange finds files based on when they were indexed using the Julian calendar
photoshop daterange:2451544.5-2454370.5 (="photoshop" between 1/1/2000 and 9/27/07)

Filetype filters:
filetype:blah (such as filetype:pdf)

To get dictionary/wikipedia type answers:
define:word
or for more context
definition word

Operators:
| means OR
(picasa OR photoshop) site:gov

~ means synonyms
site:edu
inurl:wharton.upenn.edu

Alternate sites:
thumbshots.com to compare results between search engines, how many are unique
rollyo.com

VMWare Fusion 1.0 network problem/solution

This was the magic that worked for me.

Hi Folks,

Hoping you all can learn from the multiple-days worth of pain I endured. It all makes sense now in hindsight.

Setup:
MacBook Pro C2D 2.33 GHz, 3 GB RAM
Bootcamp 1.4 installed, XP SP2 on 30GB partition
VMWare Fusion, GM version installed

Problems:
- Over time Outlook 2007 stopped syncing to Exchange reliably. Some email would come in, but other email, some that was even sent earlier, didn’t get delivered to my Outlook Inbox until AFTER I quit and restarted the app. Hitting “Send/Receive” would not deliver the “stuck” email even though I could see it using Webmail. I also found that after losing and then restarting a VPN connection on the Mac, that browsers in my virtual machine we able to see sites inside the firewall, but Outlook said it still couldn'’t connect to the Exchange server.

Solution:
Turns out that the whole problem was that I was using the NAT networking option for my Bootcamp VMWare virtual machine. Once I switched to Bridged mode ALL the above problems went away. I had originally used NAT so that I could just open one VPN connection when at home (now I also have to launch Cisco VPN within my virtual machine when at home), but launching VPN twice is a small price to pay for getting this all to work. Got this tip from the VMWare forum (looks like NAT is a bit buggy).

If only I could have figured that out without having to have first clean installed both Windows and OS X…alas… Fixed a Bootcamp 1.3->1.4 error in the process and also uncovered an LCD screen hardware issue (machine in the shop now). What a week…

Hope this benefits someone else out there,
Bob

The real deal behind the Canon Dioptric Adjustment lenses

Probably don't need it, but man the numbering is super weird.
http://creativekarma.com/ee.php/weblog/comments/dioptric_adjustment_lenses_for_canon_eos_digital_slrs/

Best example on how to dynamically refer to worksheets

Right here
See last post with attachment.

Excel INDIRECT=eval(), vlookup

Was looking around for a way to dynamically evaluate cell references and finally after some digging found INDIRECT, which was just what I was looking for. VLOOKUP looks handy to transfer over data without having to specify a cell range.

Other basic, but key Excel learnings

Ok, so I obviously wasn't an Excel jockey before.
$A$1 means always refer to cell A1 and don't update the cell reference when copying.

Sheet4! means this reference is in sheet for of the same workbook. Haven't found a way to put a reference in front of the bang (a la A3! where the text of the worksheet is found in A3).

Array formulas in Excel, thank you...

Was trying to do a dynamic search for text within a range of Excel rows. Array formulas to the rescue. Great examples here:
emailoffice.com article

Be sure to hit "ctrl+shift+enter" when done entering the formulas or it won't work.

Cool Flash life expectancy calculator

http://www.poodwaddle.com/realage.swf

Faith, Reason books

From old article in the amhersttimes.

"The Language of God" Dr. Collins
"God's Universe" Dr. Gingerich
"Evolution and Christian Faith" Dr. Roughgarden

"Breaking the Spell: Reiligion as a Natural Phenomenon" Daniel C. Dennett
"The God Delusion" Richard Dawkins

Aetna 24 hour nurse health line

1-800-556-1555

Health DB
www.aetna.com, click on Take Action on Your Health, Treating Illness, Health A-Z

Korean War book I wanna check out

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/books/review/Frankel-t.html

Way to try out a different vocation on your vacation

http://www.vocationvacations.com/

How to play the guitar for newbies

http://www.mahalo.com/How_to_play_guitar_for_newbies

Design a room online

http://www.designmyroom.com/

Drag & dropping of rows in a Flex Datagrid

Don't know if I'll ever need/want to do this, but in case I want to find it later...
http://blog.flexexamples.com/2007/09/19/dragging-rows-between-two-different-flex-datagrid-controls/

Free stock photo resources

www.morguefile.com
www.photolib.noaa.gov

Two software packages to take images of Bootcamp partitions, sigh, only NTFS

http://www.twocanoes.com/winclone/
http://www.bombich.com/software/netrestore.html

Resize Mac disk partition without reformatting

Article on Macworld:
http://www.macworld.com/2007/02/secrets/marchgeekfactor/index.php

Maybe better way to backup Bootcamp partition more reliably with FAT32 format

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=717201&start=0&tstart=0

Enabling Start menu in Fusion Unity view

From Fusion release notes:
VMware Fusion provides a hidden option that displays the Windows task bar in Unity view. To enable this option:

Make sure that Windows Explorer is set to display hidden files and folders.
In the Windows guest, go to: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Tools.
Open the file tools.conf in a text editor such as Notepad.
Add the following line to tools.conf:
unity.showTaskbar = "true"
Save and close tools.conf.
Restart your Windows guest.
The next time you enter Unity mode, VMware Fusion will show the Windows task bar.

Backing up BootCamp partition

To do a fresh install back to a previous backup:
- Backup using Disk Utility at some good point to take a snapshot (some problems here)
- Use BootCamp assistant to combine partitions into one large one
- Use BootCamp assistant to recreate BootCamp partition
- Go ahead and start to install Windows by inserting disk (but only to format the new partition)
- Choose the right partition and format using FAT32 if you want to see files from within OSX
- Allow file copying to begin, but intercept on restart
- Hold down Option/Alt key and launch into OSX
- Use Disk Utility to restore image now that the partition is clean and recreated (won't work if you try to use the "Erase partition" option).
- Delete VMWare Fusion original virtual machine file and let it be recreated by VMWare
"I simply deleted the VM config file (/Users/[your_user]/Library/Application Support/VMWare Fusion/Virtual Machines/Boot Camp/[your /dev/disk#]/Boot Camp partition.vmwarevm), and then let VMWare Fusion rebuild the VM file... That did the trick, and I just hit cancel to avoid re-installing the VMWare tools (since they're already installed)."

See http://lonewolf-links.blogspot.com/2007/09/mbp-w-bootcamp-seamless-hdd-upgrade.html for more details.

What is this blog about?

Bob's Public Service Announcements blog are all the random things I figure out that:
a) I don't want to lose, but won't likely use again for months
b) Might help some other random soul out there

I won't likely check the comments, but feel free to discuss away.
Bob