I wanted to post a little message letting everyone know that Free ColdFusionHosting.Com (Formerly CFM-Resources.Com) now supports ColdFusion 9 for your account. I upgraded it last night to provide you with the latest and greatest features. More features are in the works as we speak, the control panel is getting an overhaul so you can create your own datasources and more.... things are about to get "fun" again..... So what do you get for free?

You know, as the times change the requirements change for pretty much all things in life, being a superstar developer is no exception. No matter what development field you are in!

I remember the days when being a superstar was simply knowing how to do one thing, and knowing how to do it well. Well times are always changing, this much I know.

I view my career as I view a business, the saying "You're only as good as your last success" is something that my parent's instilled in me at a young age. Knowing that today you are a superstar, doesn't necessarily mean you always will be; is generally a good thing to always keep in the back of your mind.

So what does it take to be the superstar year after year after year? To me it's dedication and hard work. I've known all kinds of people in my life. The ones that stand out the most are the ones that face challenges head on, figure out a solution (or at least provide valuable ideas towards a solution) and more importantly apply themselves to always be better. This means going above and beyond and to never stop learning.

If you look back to the early 2000's technology and the approach to development was different. In those days, standing out was simple and easy to do. Learning a new method or technique enabled you to provide real value to the company and its clients. Sure, the idea is the same these days, but a lot has changed. A lot.

For starters the days of just doing ColdFusion on your website are pretty much gone. As I mentioned on my previous post "What does it mean to be a ColdFusion developer these days?"; these days you need to know more than just the basics. You have to have a whole bunch of knowledge in design, servers & hardware, in methodology, in frameworks, in database architecture and then even more importantly in business. Now I don't want people to get the idea that if you don't do all these things (or know them) that you cannot succeed; because there is luck in it too; but without them you will find yourself to be an average developer time after time after time.

If you look at the shift of technology these days, with API's all over the place doing all kinds of things and integrating the web more then ever before, you have to learn more and more systems to stay above the rest. Knowing more things means more time; which means less personal time... I have a saying that I say all the time... (I didn't invent it; but over the years it kind of stuck with me)... "I'll sleep when I'm dead... While I am still around I'm gonna go full speed and learn everything I can..." And it's the only way to truly stay ahead.

I look around at my peers in the ColdFusion community and I laugh, because I know how hectic their lives are and yet they still push forward, day after day after day. Look at Ray Camden, the guy works literally 4 full time jobs.... One pays his bills, the other pays his knowledge and curiosity and the other two pay for his passion! Have you ever thought about it? How he writes, teaches and attends conferences, blogs like 50 times a day and on top of that he writes out cool apps for people for free.. Why? Simply because he wants to.

Next, let's look at Sean Corfield... The guy is a beast. The same level of dedication as Ray and always has a smile on his face I've message Sean at 4 am before and got a response...!

But you know what, the list goes on and on... Ben Forta, Hal Helms, etc, etc, etc (if I left you out of this mention, not my intention.. if I had to write everyone's name.. I'd be here until I was 50)... yeah it's that long!

So back to my point, to be a superstar, it takes dedication. Though there is nothing wrong with working 40 hour weeks and then going home and relaxing; if you want to compete with people that are standing out.. it's completely on you to push yourself, to dedicate your free time to learning and testing new ideas and to continue to challenge yourself daily. Don't ever get comfortable!. Never stop testing yourself and putting difficult challenges before you... the moment you do start thinking about a career change... because catching up will be very hard.

In all my years doing what I do, I can honestly tell you that not only do I love what I do, I cherish every moment. Having built some pretty intense solutions online, having the honor to work with all the best people in the field, an more importantly the ability to reach so many people world-wide with my work I think that in the end I will look back and smile... And still wish I would have done more... (Hey, it's just me...)

So to summarize my thoughts... here's what I think it takes to be a superstar:

1. First and foremost, it takes heart. You have to really love what you do and truthfully want to do it... otherwise it's just a job and a paycheck so who cares anyways.

2. Next, once you put all your heart into it, it takes dedication. And I dont mean a little, I mean you're all in like 200%.

3. Time, Time, Time.... You can't learn new ways to do things if you don't spend time working out the kinks. You have to have a lot of failures before you can have success.

4. Next, you have to be able to take criticism... As I like to call it.. "Impactful" Feedback. I believe it was Bill Gates that said; "you learn the most from your maddest clients." So true... :)

5. Next, you have to help the person next to you. No one ever makes it to the top alone. We all need help and we all need to work together.. otherwise what's the point... If you get to the top alone... who do you have to enjoy it with?

6. Last of all, I think you really really really need to leap before you look. Most of the projects that I look back on that I consider big successes at the time I was like, this is never going to work... but what the heck.. Let's do it, we'll figure it out! Not only do those end up working out well in he end, they become the ones that you really remember.(Its like they are the superstar projects!)

I am currently taking some additional classes at University and the courses are on Graphic Design and Interactive Media. (Let's just say I'm a better programmer then I am a graphic artists.. but I'll get it...ehe) At School I have a classmate that is just starting out in our field and he asked me the other day;

"You've done this forever... what does it take? I mean 10, 15 years ago.. there were so few people doing this that it was easier to stand out... Now there are web designers, graphic designers and web developers everywhere... how do you stand out?"

That got me thinking... how do we stand out? Well, I thought about it for a few moments and then my answer to him was simple...

"Dedication and lots of hard work! It's that plain and simple! Though the number of developers increase daily, the rarity of complete dedication does not. And in the end, only the ones that give it all stand out.... Do your best, then do more and always help the person next to you... chances are in the end both of you will stand up together because you challenged each other to do more!"

Anyway, I just wanted to put my thoughts to paper (even if it's digital paper) because at the end of the day, if we're all going to be superstars we have to learn from one another....

Pablo

We have fixed a small glitch that existed with the helpdesk, and have gone ahead and created all the database/datasource requestes. All existing requests for datasources have been processed and are now live. Check your helpdesk ticket for details!

We're also in the process of automating the process, we have ran into a snag with the sandbox configurations with ColdFusion, but are almost done with this process. It should be wrapped up and you will have the ability to create your own datasource shortly...

Please let us know if you have any further questions or issues, we are closely monitoring the helpdesk tickets to ensure you get all your needs taken care of in a timely manner!

More to come...
Pablo

EasyCFM.COM has changed the way ColdFusion authors get compensated for their work, in the past we would hold contests and sweepstakes and if your tutorial won you would get a prize! We understand that as rewarding and exciting as this is; most people love to get paid for their work (even when they are helping others) no matter what!

With this in mind, we have created a new system to compensate authors posting their work on our site. Every tutorial you post will pay you out real money (based on a few different criterias):

1. Length of your tutorial - By length we mean how many words exist in the tutorial, how much explanation do you put into it, do you really drive the user to understand your topic, etc. We're looking for the best authors out there, that can provide good explanations of how to do things with ColdFusion, so get creative, explain it in full detail and get paid more money!
2. Quality of your work - We provide bonuses (after-the fact) to the most successful tutorials posted on the site. (and you can get more then one for a single tutorial... so you can continue to make money even after the tutorial has been on the site for a long time!) The bonus structure is based on feedback from our community, popularity of your tutorial, visitor ratings & feedback, etc). We will track it and then add money to your account instantly for providing high quality work!

So start making some money today, upload your fresh tutorial content and together we'll make EasyCFM.COM bigger and better; but more importantly; get some cash in your pocket!

New, bigger and better things are coming on EasyCFM.COM.... here's a taste of what we've done so far!

I wanted to announce some changes done recently to EasyCFM.COM. These changes were done at the requests of our community using Firefox (mostly) and to go back to our original style designs. (People said they missed the "reddish" colors).

Here is a list of items that were recently changed.

• Forum was modified to display color scheme in firefox. Previously it would not keep the same look at Internet Explorer. This was due to a bug in the original forum software. I went through and modified all the code to correct the issue.
• Corrected the layout of all the pages throughout the site to ensure that the intended design was consistent throughout all browsers.
• Modified the site logo to keep a constant link to our twitter account (Tweet!!).
• Changed the site-wide stylesheet design and color schemes to the original colors, bye bye blue! Woo Hoo!
• Modified the menu for the site (top area) to be CFMENU driven to take advantage of newer better built-in ColdFusion technology. Look for new areas to be developed on the site; so we can continue to add to the menu!

If you have any additional suggestions or would like to see anything else added/modified.... please let me know! After all it's all about our community! You make this site the success it is, we never forget that!

More great things to come!

First off I thought the title would intrigue you... But let me say that it's so far from the truth that literraly it's amusing!

I have been doing ColdFusion for going on 12 years (really shows my age; man I am getting old) now... and I hear the "CF is DYING" or "CF is DEAD" comment like every other 10 minutes... It's not only ammusing at times; it's plain old ignorant!

I love to get into debates with students, people learning at EasyCFM.COM or even at User Groups about the topic; and you know what I find everytime? The people that make the comments have no clue; and can't take constructive critism well... It's like I am in the school playground and you just can't get through to these "trouble kids".

With that being said; I want to point out a few things for people reading this. Now sure someone can say CF is your preffered development choice and that is why you fel that way; but that is just not true.

Prefered choice is one thing; best tool for the job is another. When a client (be it web or corporate or goverment) comes to you and spec's out a particular project for development, that client could care less what you write it in; what they care about is two things:

1. How long?
2. How Much?

Now, if the client does not have "CF licenses" and you choose to use ColdFusion for that project; the how much includes the license fees. Free, is not always free... they [the client] will pay for it in the development and project lifecycle; so even if they don't spend say $10,000 in a license; they will still spend the $10,000 sticker elsewhere. (Note: If they can't or dont want a license; consider a managed server.. usually a few hundred dollars a month gets you a CF license (usually enterprise) at most hosting companies, so what is the problem?) And I know people will say; shouldn't the developer make it instead of the license fees? That is a matter of business logic, and individual honesty. Sure; we all want to make more money; but shouldn't honesty to your client be more important? Shouldn't providing the best route (for the client, not you) be the route suggested? I tend to think so!

(This usually ends up making you more money in the long run anyways with referrals and repeated business).

I have built hundreds (sometimes it feels like thousands :) ) of applications [Some Enterprise level, some not]. Some in C# (both for the web and as stand-alone ditributable applications), Some in JSP, some in CF, some in othe languages (anyone remember htmlOS?) and to be honest; a language is just that... a language..

It's the person who speaks that language that makes it what it is. I speak 3 languges (you know this; if you read my 25 things about me post) and I cannot say Spanish is better then English or Italian is better than English.. Each one has its place; when in Rome guess what? Italian is better... when in California; English (or in some cases spanish) is better.... So naturally the same is ported over to the programming language arena. Or at least, it should be!

Let's go back to say 1998, when flash got really really popular and you would see fully developed flash website (which cheesy animations and unusable content).... In those days; doing this was considered tacky and very unprofessional. Today with Flex; that is not only the NORM; but it's encouraged. But why? because technology got better; the ability to streamline data to the flash interface is easier and mor seemless; therefore making the "user experience" better.

Life is about timing; knowledge; and plain ol' salt. Salt? WTF?!?

In life; you need to take everything with a grain of salt (at least I think so)... When you read posts like Aral Balkan's (CF is dead) post; or Steven Errat's (CF is NOT Dead) Post ; or even this post; you have to read them and take them in with a grain of salt... Because you have to inform yourself; then make a judement on to what is best for you with seeing all of the pictures in the bulleting board; not just the one someone wants you to see.

What is better... what is not better? Is too "general" and high level of a question; without knowing the situation; it's useless... A better question would be:

What is better for my task as hand (my project, my client, etc.)? That is the question no one ever touches when they say CF is dead... better for what... you (the developer), them (the client)

In my years (over a decade now) of teaching programming (I teach PHP, Java, C# and CF) (both in seminars, classes and universities) I can tell you that CF can compare to any other language out there... It can deploy .NET, Java, CFML, and more... but let's forget that for a second; and look at the other reason why ColdFusion is not DEAD or dying...

I hear this one often; it's too expensive! First off; I have said this before; but the price sticker on ColdFusion is not expensive for a company. If you're company cannot fork over at least a professional license; then you should start asking can they pay my next paycheck... But that aside; Railo anyone? If FREE is too expensive; then you have issues....

Next I hear; CF developers are not real programmers; they are scripting (or tagging) kiddies... So I asked myself; let's prove it.

So I began the language test with some univesity students. I gave 8 students (2 using JSP, 2 using .NET, 2 using PHP, 2 using CF) the task of building a fully working; tested application (I selected the application; in thise case it was the dreaded "Address book" application) and the one's that got it working quicker an could support a lot of traffic (using a stress tool - Mercury) would win the prize.

Now; putting this in perspective yes the CF team did it quicker; followed by the PHP developers, then the C# developers and then the JSP developers. I put them all through Mercury; and all 4 of them withstood the stress test of 5,000 concurent users. Sure that is not a lot when you compare it to Twitter or MySpace or whatever; but it goes to show that it can work (correctly) under presure. All other aspects were the same (same OS, Same DB backend, the only thing that was different was the language they used) and they all behaved accordingly. But this takes me back to the "How Long?" and "How Much?" questions clients asked.

CF Developer Team - 3 weeks
PHP Team - 4.5 Weeks
.NET Team - 5 Weeks
JSP Team - 5 Weeks and one day.

The CF Team even created a partial Flex front end that invoked their web services (since all they had to do was switch a setting on the CFC to enable web services) as extra credit. The other teams didnt have time; and came in just under the gun (deadline was 6 weeks).

When I spoke to the developer teams individually; they all said that this was a great excercise because they are seeing (unbiasedly - is that even a word?) that each situation has it's place... CF was just better here; in this case and point.

Take this to the next level and build something like YouTube...Would CF be the best route to build something to that scale? Probably not because of a few reasons; however; could it be used? Sure look at a site i built in less then a day: ColdFusion.TV; but it required me to use third party applications to handle the video compression, etc. But keep in mind I said I wrote this in a day. (Not weeks, months or even a year, but a single day).

Does it have all the bells a whisltes of a YouTube? No; it was just a day; does it have full capabilities to upload videos of any format; conversion to FLV (flash video) the ability to play and place it on your own site (like YouTube) yes it does! And all that in just one day! What else could you do? With more time?

Going back to YouTube; writing this in JSP or C# would be better because you can get to a more granular level and control the file conversions more powerfully; then you ever could in CF... so does CF fit every mold? No, it doesnt. Does this mean it's dying? I think not! In layman's terms:

"If you have a screw, a hammer might not be the best tool.. but if you have a nail; then start hammering!"

Lastly, let's leave you with one last piece of information.

ColdFusion 8; when used correctly can work perfect and seemlesslesy (especially in a 64-bit environment). To the same standards that a PHP system, C# system could. Don't blame the technology; because you have met some people that didnt know what they were doing and we're dangerous enough to build something that didnt work!

If you are a developer starting out; don't leave ColdFusion out of your "things to learn" just because you read a post on someone's blog that says its dying.. If you do your thorough research and still dont want to learn it; then that's cool... Can't know every language perfectly; so find the language [or languages] you feel confident with and run with it [them].

Hopefully it's ColdFusion... But I It's something like C#, PHP or JSP (or more graphic userface related (i.e. Flash, AIR, etc) then that's cool too...) We need all kinds of people with all kinds of knowledge to make the web what it is... If we ll did the same thing; that was is the point!

Together we can all make it better by challenging ourselves; and most of all the technologies we use.

With my book length post (sorry); I leave you with this. Coldfusion is NOT dying; it's just getting started.

Your thoughts? Let me hear them!

Having attended many conferences; I always like to ask and find out why people go to them... some go for networking, some to learn new ways to do new things and some just to get out of work (you know who you are :) ) So why are you going? Be honest! :)

I wanted to see if anyone out there is interested in helping me build a new CFML framework.

Why build a new framework when you have 50 of them out there now?
I want to make a Mobile Phone framework powered by CFML, Stylesheets and more.

I would like to build a CFML tag framework that would enable developers to build mobile compliant website, easily and quickly. If you have experience building mobile compliant web sites, please let me know (even if you can't help.. I might be interested in asking some questions or getting some feedback from you to get this framework going!)

I have registered a domain name "cfml.mobi" which I am finihsing up a site for; however if after we got this going we want to change the name as a team; I am willing to do that too, just trying to be pro-active! :)

I wanted to see if there was anyone out there interested in being part of the development of the framework. Let me know your thoughts and if you're interested in being part of the team... Drop me an email in this post!

Thanks,
Pablo Varando

I am excited to announce that ColdFusion.TV is now live! Check it out!

I'd like to thank Randy Johnson, the previous owner of the domain, for his help in getting the domain pointed to our name servers so we could launch the site sooner! Thanks man, I appreciate it!

ColdFusion.TV allows you to upload ColdFusion Video Tutorials, CFUG Meetings, Conference Videos and more.... Then you can view them on the site or you can copy/paste the flash code and stream it on your own site... It works very similar to YouTube; but strictly for the Adobe product line community...

I'm hoping the site becomes the "ColdFusion, Flash, Flex, etc. Streaming" site for all developers and desiners to use to stream their videos...

Though the web site has banners through out it; we will not be puttings popup ads within the video. I think that is tacky and takes away from the viewers experience. Let me know your thoughts and suggestions; I'd like to perfect the site with everyone's requests and expectations, so it achieves what you guys need it to do! So check it out and let me know what else you'd like to see added.

So the current EasyCFM.COM ColdFusion Network of sites, include:

• EasyCFM.COM - Learn ColdFusion Easily, with over 380 Free ColdFusion Tutorals!
• Free ColdFusion Hosting - Get Free ColdFusion Hosting (ColdFusion 8 Enterprise & Windows SQL Server 2005 - All Free
• ColdFusion Careers - Post, Find and Apply to the perfect ColdFusion career.
• ColdFusion.TV - Free Video Streaming Site - Video Tutorials, Video Conferences and more!
• Co.ldFusion Blog- Pablo Varando's Personal Blog.
• The ColdFusion Shop - A full service ColdFusion shop that offers training, development service, and more.
  

I look forward to your comments, feedback, requests for ColdFusion.TV... I know that together we can make a great resource that will benefit all of us!

-P