Dec 20, 2007 . Comments (0)
Apparently they are good for detaining burglars. I came across this page while looking for a new firewire cable. Let's just say the 5th feature got my attention.
If you need to detain a burglar until the authorities arrive, this FireWire cable can render approximately three perpetrators immobile when properly hog-tied. For more help, contact a Geek Squad agent immediately.
Just in case they update the page, here's a snap shot (no Photoshopping).
Hopefully I'll never have to try that feature, but if I do I'll let everyone know how I made out.
Dec 18, 2007 . Comments (9)
After installing a pile of applications onto my new Mac the next order of business was installing server software, including Coldfusion 8. Intially I thought this would be a very easy process but that was not the case. Apparently Leopard and Coldfusion 8 do not play together nicely and a bit of massaging is neccessary to get everything in order. A some Googling I came across this post which works perfect. I found the text version of this same process in some other places, but having a video to watch seems a bit easier, you can see exactly what you need to do.
One thing that is a little misleading in the video is that he states you can only run Coldfusion pages from within the htdocs folder. This is not the case. In the httpd.conf file (/applications/MAMP/conf/apache) you can define virtual hosts that map to any directory on your machine, any Coldfusion pages within those directories will run just fine.
# NameVirtualHost *
NameVirtualHost *:80
NameVirtualHost 127.0.0.1
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName local.mr.mrn.com
DocumentRoot "/Users/derrick/Documents/workspaces/mrn/MRN"
</VirtualHost>
One other note. Be sure to use MAMP and not MAMP Pro. I tried numerous times and Coldfusion 8 refused to run on MAMP Pro. I suspect it has something to do with how MAMP Pro manages the httpd.conf file. Regardless, it won't work, so don't waste your time.
Dec 13, 2007 . Comments (11)
After a long hold out and years of essentially plugging my ears, covering my eyes and saying "na na na na" I finally caved and purchased a Mac (I went all out and got a 17" MacBook Pro). All I have to say is "Wow" ... and I can't believe I waited so long. Before yesterday I had not touched a Mac in 6 or 7 years. Boy has a lot changed. The Mac OS X is simply mind blowing and the ease with which things can be done on a Mac is insane. When people say "it just works on a Mac" they literally mean "it just works". I suppose I'm eating a huge amount of crow in writing this post but hey, crow tastes pretty good when cooked properly.
A friend of mine once said...
Leaving Windows is like leaving an abusive relationship, you know you need to do it, but when it's all you know it is very difficult, you're comfortable with what you know and afraid of what you don't.
That about sums up how I felt about moving from PC to Mac. Windows now seems archaic compared to Mac OS X, absolutely no comparison, no contest. I'd like to get all those years I wasted back from Microsoft. Talk about being a lemming. It was painful to use, wasted a lot of my time and, caused numerous headaches. I'm sure I'll find some warts with my new Mac, but hey I lived with an awful lot of warts on PC's for over 20 years so I'm sure I'll survive anything that does turn out to be a negative on the Mac. In the meantime I intent to thoroughly this wonderful piece of technology.
I'm sure I'll have more to write about this in the future, as a whole new world of computing has been opened up for me, but for now it's time to get back to figuring out how all this stuff works.
Dec 03, 2007 . Comments (1)
I have seen many posts and pages lately about how to learn Flex fast. What are the best methods? Which books are the best read? Whose blogs should one read? The short answer, there is no "fast" way to learn Flex. There is no "fast" way to learn anything that is complex. Sure you could pick up some quick hints and hack something out, but did you really learn anything ... likely no. The best way to learn Flex, or any programming language for that matter is to work with it, and work with it, and work with it. Read some books or online resources, experiment, talk to other developers who are using it. It takes time to get proficient in a programming language, much like it takes time (and hard work) to become fluent in a spoken language.
I ran across a post on Flexcoders that planted the seed for this post. There are some war stories there about marathon coding sessions, countless hours spent working and learning, on and on. It all sounds very impressive but I suspect it contains a certain amount of bravado. The truth is, learning something new will take hard work and time. It's not easy, if it was there would not be the demand for Flex developers (or developers in general) that there is. You have to be dedicated to learning, dedicated to putting in the time and thought to mastering something. You can't just read a "Learn Flex in 7 days" book and expect to be some master (or even competent) coder. There's an excellent little post on learning a programming language ... in ten years. The author states it perfectly, it takes years to develop expertise in a wide variety of activities, why should programming be any different.
As someone who has been developing applications and systems for over ten years I can attest to the fact that there are no shortcuts, no overnight epiphanies when it just all clicks. It takes time to build a foundation of knowledge and experience and then more time to hone your skills and build on that foundation. It took at least five or six years before I can honestly say I started writing code that was "really good" code, concise, easy to read, efficient and robust; work that I was happy to have my name on and knew it could stand up to scrutiny.
So you came here looking for quick answers and instead got an earful from someone who says there are no quick answers. Don't worry, I'm not another blow hard saying it's awful, tedious and give up. Quite the contrary, I want to encourage anyone who honestly wants to learn to not give up, dig in, ask questions, and do it.
Oh, and since you likely came here looking for some quick answers, here are some links to resources I would recommend to get you started.
Adobe Devnet has lots of good tutorials, how to's and sample applications.
Flexcoders is a great place to post a question or find an answer.
Flexcomponents if you are looking for help on figuring out component development.
The Flex 3 and Flex 2 API References, the best place to start learning how Flex works.
Flex.org is a Flex portal with a growing list of resources.
