Posted on Fri. December 31, 2004 by Ryan Guill #
Entries for December 2004
This may be old news, but update.mozilla.org has had a much needed face lift. This design rocks my socks off, especially compared to the old design. Good job guys!
wow, 2004 has been a crazy year. Its been a year of firsts for sure, and I must say it has been awesome. If 2005 goes half as well I will be happy. There are several things I want to be thankful for, these are just a few.
- First and foremost, my God. He has been there for me through some tough times and carried me the whole way.
- My family, including but not limited to: my immediate family including my parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters; my extended family, my aunts, uncles, and cousins, and my other extended family, my girlfriend and her family. They have opened their home to me in Memphis, and I will always be grateful.
- My friends. I have some amazing chums, and I couldn't have done it without you guys!
- My job. I started my own design and development company this year, and have managed to do well with it so far. I started turning a profit in only three months, where the average is three years. I can only hope that I continue to do this well in 2005.
- My laptop. I always said back in high school (hard to believe that has almost been 4 years ago) that if I had a computer of my own to work from that I could get a lot done, and I have proven that.
- Macromedia. They make some of the best products on the planet, and I must attribute some of my success to them. I wouldn't be where I am if I had to use php and notepad!
- My health. I have been very fortunate to have my health in these past 12 months. When you work for yourself, you can't call in sick!
Posted on Thu. December 30, 2004 by Ryan Guill #
Ever since I learned IP v4 back in high school, and then heard about IPv6 I've been waiting for it. It is going to be awesome, but unfortunately the shortage of ipv4 addresses wasn't quite as dire as they tried to make it out to be. Either way, when it gets here ill be ready for it.
but its good to see china stepping up to bat although from the sound of it they really dont have a choice. 40gbps over a line? man, i cant wait.
Posted on Wed. December 29, 2004 by Ryan Guill #
Well im safely back in collierville tn and I must say its nice to be home. We left for biloxi on the 23rd despite warnings that the roads were in a bit of a mess. Everyone left it up to me to drive on the inch thick sheet of ice. we finally got out of it about 5 hours later (a trip that normally would have taken around an hour and a half). But we had a great christmas (i got a new ps2 that is the size of a dvd case and san andreas!) and we are now back safely. I hope you all had a merry christmas, and a have a great new year!
Posted on Tue. December 28, 2004 by Ryan Guill #
In just a few hours we will be on the road from Memphis TN to Biloxi MS for christmas. Im not sure if I will have internet access down there (somehow I doubt it), so this may be the last post for a little bit.
When I do get back though I hope to enlighten you guys on some of my new years resolutions and goals, and also to start showing off BLAIR a little bit.
Until then, happy hollidays!
Posted on Thu. December 23, 2004 by Ryan Guill #
A follow-up to the previous entry, I got curious about what other tweaks you could do to firefox. I came across this entry on google, Secrets of Firefox 1.0. You have to scroll down the page a little bit to get to the good stuff, but there is a lot of good information here. Have fun!
Posted on Wed. December 22, 2004 by Ryan Guill #
I have to admit, I was skeptical. I mean, I already think firefox is faster than any alternative save a couple browsers on linux. It can't really get any faster can it??
I was wrong. Very wrong. fullasagoog gave me this link to devnulled this morning, and after following the instructions he gives I am surfing faster than a speeding bullet. Amazing really.
And the about:config in firefox is amazing I must say, I didn't know that it was so easy to modify registry entries in firefox. There is probably hundreds of tweaks you could do. Great stuff.
Posted on Wed. December 22, 2004 by Ryan Guill #
Ben Forta gave us an update on books for the new version of ColdFusion today, saying they will be ready as soon as blackstone ships. That makes two things I cant wait for in the first quarter of 2005. All my ColdFusion books I loved so dearly were purchased by my previous employer, and Ive been itching to buy them again, but Ive told myself I was going to wait till the new blackstone books came out. So they can't get here soon enough.
Posted on Tue. December 21, 2004 by Ryan Guill #
I have come across a couple sites lately that made me go "wow". That doesn't happen much any more so I thought I would mention them here.
First is hicksdesign. This is quite refreshing, very interesting, and now with 20& more whitespace it says. I love a site that can still display correctly with styles turned off, and I love the simple, yet catching header.
And I don't mention flash sites much, not because flash isn't cool (nothing could be further from the truth), but because I don't develop in flash. But this site, which I beleive is actually japanese, is amazing. hybridworks has awesome art, awesome functionality, and just overall a great design. Oh and good sound too. Definately worth checking out.
Posted on Tue. December 21, 2004 by Ryan Guill #
Gmail has got to be one of the joys of my life. Sure it's lacking a few things, but overall, I really couldn't ask for much more. Andy Jarrett is hosting a little competition and handing out gmail invites as prizes. He ran out, but graciously allowed me to join in the Christmas spirit and hand out a few on his behalf. So stop by there, tell a joke, and see what the fuss is all about.
I beleive I have 5 invites left, but could probably get some more. So don't hold back!
Posted on Tue. December 21, 2004 by Ryan Guill #
http://www.wired.com/news/space/0,2697,66079,00.html?tw=wn_story_page_prev2
Read that first.
At first im thinking, cool, this is going to be pretty sweet. I mean, they are talking like they are going to get pictures as detailed as 20 cm objects. (that must be some serious shutter speed, its going to be a 22,000 mph collision....)
But then I get to thinking.
"Though the collision has been engineered to kick up debris and leave behind a crater, project planners say the impactor will not drastically alter the comet or its course.
"It's sort of like a bug hitting the windshield of an 18-wheeler," said Yeomans. "The spacecraft will slow the comet down by 5 ten-thousandths of a millimeter per second. Over the next five years, that will change the comet's trajectory by just over 100 meters." "
Kick up debris? Where will that go? only 100 meeters? ONLY 100 meters? I mean, I know in space terms thats not too much, but still, isn't 100 meters enough to cause it to hit or miss another object (like EARTH!) later on? I mean this thing is going to be getting close enough to earth that it makes it a prime target for inspection...
I dunno, maybe im just worrying for nothing, but I just hope NASA has everything thought out.
Posted on Mon. December 20, 2004 by Ryan Guill #
From the Coldfusion MX 6.1 Documentation:
"Using component.cfc
All CFCs automatically extend the ColdFusion WEB-INF\cftags\component.cfc component. (WEB-INF is in the cf_root/wwwroot directory on ColdFusion configured with an embedded J2EE server. It is in the cf_root directory when you deploy ColdFusion on a J2EE server.) This CFC is distributed as a zero-length file. You can use it for any core methods or properties that you want all CFCs in your ColdFusion application server instance to inherit. "
Actually, I could not find the component.cfc at all, so all you have to do is create it in the right directory. This is a great place to put methods you will use in all of your components, or in other words, a great place to use base.cfc methods!
UPDATE:
After talking with Sean Corfield, Ben (im sorry, i have forgotten your last name) and Scott Barnes last night, it seems that they have some reservations and concerns about using the component.cfc. I will try this and see what ramifications come of it, but they are probably right. They described another way to do things, besides extending the base.cfc through the use of extend="" to use the base.cfc methods. I am going to try it and I will post the steps to do so and how it went here later.
Posted on Tue. December 14, 2004 by Ryan Guill #
I have developed a component that I use in every component I design and build. Every last one of them. It is intended to be extended and in a future post I will explain a quick and easy way to do this with a one time effort and then you don't have to worry about it anymore. But first let me explain base.cfc.
continue reading...
Posted on Tue. December 14, 2004 by Ryan Guill #
From the New York Times:
"Google, the operator of the world's most popular Internet search service, plans to announce an agreement today with some of the nation's leading research libraries and Oxford University to begin converting their holdings into digital files that would be freely searchable over the Web.
"It may be only a step on a long road toward the long-predicted global virtual library. But the collaboration of Google and research institutions that also include Harvard, the University of Michigan, Stanford and the New York Public Library is a major stride in an ambitious Internet effort by various parties. The goal is to expand the Web beyond its current valuable, if eclectic, body of material and create a digital card catalog and searchable library for the world's books, scholarly papers and special collections. "
Does anyone else see the potential and intelligence in this? Creating a vast library of millions of books at anyones fingertips, this should fuel research projects and overall progress like never before. And isn't this exactly what we all hoped the Internet would become? Its the information superhighway, seriously starting to evolve into something more than just ecommerce, email, and blogs.
Personally I think the notion that it may take a decade to finish is a little dissapointing, but I really don't believe the figure either. I would say in two years, I'll be able to search for 1800 manuscripts. And I for one, can't wait.
Posted on Tue. December 14, 2004 by Ryan Guill #
Remember in Fight Club (awesome movie) where edward nortons character (his original character) was going to group meetings to help him sleep? Well now you can too, with little worry that you'll be discovered as a faker, if in fact you really are faking.
Group Hug
You can go and confess, the only thing they take is your confession and a random number to identify it, and the date.
A note of warning though, there is some vulgarity on there, you never know what people are going to confess. Proceed with caution, but it's a very interesting idea.
Posted on Tue. December 14, 2004 by Ryan Guill #
Oftentimes in my code I employ a switch to validate input, such as for an argument passed into a method. In many of theses cases I only want to do something if the input is not an expected value, or in a group of expected values. Until now, I just had empty blocks like so:
blocks if you had several values to test for. Well today I decided to try something that wasn't in the documentation to see if it would work. When you have an empty block, you can make it a self terminating tag, making your code much easier to read like so:
<cfswitch expression="#Variables.Expression#">
<cfcase value="expectedvalue1">
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="expectedvalue2">
</cfcase>
<cfdefaultcase>
Expression is not one of the expected values...
</cfdefaultcase>
</cfswitch>
In the code above it isn't such a big deal, but you can see how quickly your code can become bloated with empty <cfcase value="expectedvalue1">
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="expectedvalue2">
</cfcase>
<cfdefaultcase>
Expression is not one of the expected values...
</cfdefaultcase>
</cfswitch>
<cfswitch expression="#Variables.Expression#">
<cfcase value="expectedvalue1" />
<cfcase value="expectedvalue2" />
<cfdefaultcase>
Expression is not one of the expected values...
</cfdefaultcase>
</cfswitch>
this makes things much neater and easier to read, not to mention faster to type out. There are several tags in cf that you can do this with, but some of them require specific end tags, so be careful when trying them.
<cfcase value="expectedvalue1" />
<cfcase value="expectedvalue2" />
<cfdefaultcase>
Expression is not one of the expected values...
</cfdefaultcase>
</cfswitch>
Posted on Mon. December 13, 2004 by Ryan Guill #
I don't think I have already posted this on my other blog, so it seems like a good time to post it here on my new one.
Have you tried the new Google Suggest? It is a very good example of some of the magic that is possible with good js. It is not only good for people who may not be able to spell very well, but for you to find things you have never thought of searching for.
Its creator explains on Google's Blog that it came out of 20% of their time. Google allows each of its employees to work on a new project of their own intrest 20% of the time. Now that is a great company, and a great idea. And just look at the work it can produce.
Posted on Mon. December 13, 2004 by Ryan Guill #
if you are working on a cf application and you need to update it, and you dont want anyone to try to be working with the application in the mean time, you can use this little bit of code to help.
put the following code in your main application.cfm file:
<cfparam name="Application.LockApplication" default="0" />
<cfif IsDefined("url.LockApplication") AND IsDefined("url.Password")>
<cfif url.password EQ "password">
<cfif Application.LockApplication>
<cfset Application.LockApplication = 0 />
<cfelse>
<cfset Application.LockApplication = 1 />
</cfif>
</cfif>
</cfif>
<cfif Application.LockApplication>
<p>The Application has been locked for maintenance. Please see your administrator.</p>
<cfabort />
</cfif>
of course you will want to chang password to something more secure, and there are other things you can do to make it a little more secure, but this quick and dirty script will get the job done. just use [anyurl]?lockapplication&password=password to lock the application, and use the same to unlock it.
easy.
<cfif IsDefined("url.LockApplication") AND IsDefined("url.Password")>
<cfif url.password EQ "password">
<cfif Application.LockApplication>
<cfset Application.LockApplication = 0 />
<cfelse>
<cfset Application.LockApplication = 1 />
</cfif>
</cfif>
</cfif>
<cfif Application.LockApplication>
<p>The Application has been locked for maintenance. Please see your administrator.</p>
<cfabort />
</cfif>
Posted on Sun. December 12, 2004 by Ryan Guill #
for historic reasons,
my previous blog was ryanguill.blogspot.com
Posted on Sun. December 12, 2004 by Ryan Guill #
I also have plans, when I do have time, to revamp the blog.cfc from mr. Camden.
I have only been using it for a little while now, and it is very nice, very inclusive, and well thought out, although there are a few things I would like to improve on.
Please don't get me wrong, this is a very nice project, and I am very proud to say that I am using it. But there are some things that could easily be improved on.
continue reading...
Posted on Sun. December 12, 2004 by Ryan Guill #
Lets try this again.
Welcome to my new blog! I am now using the blog.cfc by Ray Camden. I hope to use this blog to feature more work related content, and to hopefully introduce some of my work into the coldfusion community.
continue reading...
Posted on Sun. December 12, 2004 by Ryan Guill #