Right after the OpenCF Summit earlier this year, I read a few blog posts in which people mention the topic of "More Apps, Not Frameworks" (or something along those lines). If you haven't heard about it, this is basically the idea that CFML already has enough solid frameworks out there, and we don't need any more. What we need are more free, open source CFML apps that can help spread the use of CFML. Now, I'm not here to argue or debate whether or not we need more frameworks or not, the point of this post is to simply ask one question. If we do start building more and more open source CFML applications, should we use frameworks for those applications?

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Tonight Greg Wilson from Adobe will be here to talk about CFBuilder 2, ColdFusion, and Flex on mobile including iPad/iPhone. The event will be hosted by the Dave Ramsey / The Lampo Group, Inc. at the Russ Carroll Financial Peace Conference Center just minutes from downtown Nashville.

If you're in the area, you'll want to be there. In addition to the awesome stuff Greg is going to be talking about, we've got some great giveaways, including a $2,100 Adobe software package, copies of CFBuilder, and t-shirts! Food and drink will be provided, so come on out and have some CF fun!

If you want your name in the hat for any of the software giveaways, you have to RSVP on the Nashville ColdFusion User Group website. And, as always, you must be present to win! :)

For a while now I've been in a rut. I'm not really sure of the cause, but lately I just haven't had the passion I once had for writing code. The spark seemed to be gone. I really haven't had much of a desire to work on any of my side projects, and getting stuff done for clients sometimes seems like a chore. Maybe it's because we've mainly just been doing tedious bug fixes at work for a while and no new development, or maybe it's because I lost a couple of my side contracts since they're moving away from CF. It may just be a side effect of me getting some non-programming hobbies and focusing my time on something else. Whatever the reason, sitting in front of my computer when I'm not at work is not something that I've wanted to do lately. In fact, I've found myself coming up with excuses NOT to get on the computer. But, that all changed last night.

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According to the U.S. Department of State, human trafficking is the world's third largest criminal enterprise, after drugs and weapons, and UNICEF reports that worldwide there are nearly two million children in the commercial sex trade. Many of these children are orphans who were taken simply because they had no one to care for them and keep them safe. There are so many orphans in this world, so many children in need of help, it's hard to know where to start if you want to do something. Well, I've decided to start in the country of Moldova.

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In this installment of my CFML 101 series, I'm going to show you how you can read and update a INI file with just a very little bit of code. I'll have to admit, when I first tried to do this I was surprised at how simple it was. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, though. Making hard things easy like this has always been one of the hallmarks of CFML. This is true regardless of whether you're using Adobe ColdFusion, Railo, or Blue Dragon. The CFML language is built in a way that allows you to accomplish a lot of work with just a little bit of code. So many things are just so neatly packaged together that all you have to do is call one tag or function, and it runs a whole whoost of java code behind the scenes for you.

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It's official, I'm heading to the OpenCF Summit in Dallas in just a little over two weeks! This will be the first conference I've been to since NCDevCon last year. I'm really looking forward to this conference, as well as seeing some of my CF pals. Unfortunately this will most likely be the only conference I get to go to this year, so I plan on making the most of it.

I'll also be bringing my family with me on the trip. My wife has some relatives in Dallas she's been wanting to visit, and one of my good friends has moved out there, so I just decided to take that whole week off from work and make a mini-vacation out of it. (although I'll admit I'm a little worried about the 12 hour drive out there with a 3 year old and a 3 month old...)

So, Look out OpenCF Summit, here I come! Who else out there is planning on going?

Just recently I came across a situation where I needed to determine if a specific method was available in a CFC. I have a case where I'm creating specific methods for specific departments. So in the code, if Department A has a method, do this, if not do that. As it turns out, this is super super simple to do from within the CFC.

How simple is it?
It is so simple that I couldn't believe it when I tried it and it really worked. I had to do a double take because, well, I'm really not used to my code working right the first time. I actually felt smert for a change, like I knew what I was doing!

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The new year is here (already??) and that means it is time to take a moment to reflect on 2010, and think about my plans for moving forward in the coming year. I'm excited to see what 2011 brings, and some of the plans I have for this year, but first let's take a look at 2010.

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In my last post, I talked about getting a Motorolla Droid 2 over the weekend. While I like my Droid and I think I'm going to be happy with it, truth be told I wanted a Blackberry. I mean I really, really wanted a Blackberry. I alway have. I have spent many hours of the last week researching and checking out the features of the various BB models, and probably just as many hours debating back and forth on whether to get a BB or a Droid.

So, why did I wind up getting the Droid?

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So, I finally broke down and got a Droid 2 over the weekend. Actually, my wife and I each got one thanks to the "buy one, get one free" deal Verizon was having. I'm still getting used to how everything works on it, but so far I think I'm going to like it. I really haven't installed many apps yet, just a few games, an email client, and some Simpsons and Dave Chappelle sounds clips. :)

There are so many apps out there that it can be overwhelming when trying to figure out what to get, especially when don't even really know what's available. So, I figured I'd ping the tech community and get some suggestions from some "seasoned" Droid owners.

So, for those of you out there with Droids, what are some of your favorite apps?