My Little Girl is All Grown Up... and Saving China
I apologize to regular Muse readers for taking a short sentimental journey. You might want a tissue. Oh... if you don't understand the title I added a note at the end of this post.
Life is change and change is hard. My daughter Jasmine moved into Creighton University on Saturday. Creighton is right here in Omaha - 15 minutes from my house. Yet even though we picked her up and took her to church with us yesterday I still feel a yawning hole in my heart. It is unlike summer camp or band trips or even the time she went to Nicaragua. Nothing will every really be the same for my wife and I from this moment on. We are officially embarking on our empty nest (one down, two to go).
As for Jasmine, she is the epitome of what a daughter should be. She is smart - I mean really scary smart as in the Nobel Prize committee should be checking up on her. She is sharp and witty too. She is nerdy just like her father and brothers. She is a caring and positive young woman with a natural energy and warmth so like her mother. In 18 years she has never given me cause to fear her judgment. She never used the air bags on the car. She never earned less than an A. She never broke curfew. She has never been sent to the principal's office. She has chosen her friends wisely. She has never failed to live up to and exceed our expectations. This is not the hyperbole of a doting father. It is the truth with my hand up. If she could learn to clean out her car and straighten her room I'd say she was perfect.
So here's to you Jasmine. I hope your college experience is everything you want it to be and more. I hope you find a passion for something that energizes you for the rest of your life. I hope your mind expands and opens to new and dizzying heights. I hope you find friends and companions who love and accept you and encourage you like you encourage others. Most of all I hope and pray that you will continue to grow in grace and wisdom as you embark on this new season of life. Meanwhile, hang in there and remember, the kettle is always on for you at home. I'm up for baking you a pie and the boys are always ready to bake cookies :). See you on Sunday.
FYI for Muse readers: The title is a line by Mushu, the little dragon played by Eddie Murphy in the Disney movie "Mulan". It is one line of many from various movies that are repeated around the Kruger household - to the chagrin of Mrs. Kruger I might add. Now back to our regularly scheduled technical programming.
Afghans and the Spirit of 1776
In this arresting photo, Afghan poll workers shuttle portable voting stations, ballets and ballet boxes into remote northern villages in Afghanistan using donkeys to hike over washed out roads and rickety bridges. Over 800 donkeys are being employed to get ballets in and out of some of the most rugged terrain on the planet. Today all over the country Afghans are risking life and limb to take pencil in hand and voice their choice for president. Threats from militants are non-stop and some Afghans will undoubtedly be injured and even die trying to do this simple civic duty.
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Estimating Part 2: Quality, Quantity and Visual Blinders
In our first post on this topic, Red Lobster Eyes With a Happy Meal Wallet, we began the discussion of the difficulty involved in estimating projects for startup companies. We took the time to chat about the nature of the bright people with big ideas who choose to try something new on the Internet. Our main point was that Big Idea people often underestimate the time and money it takes to complete a project. Today we will talk about one of the principle pitfalls that arise in reaction to lack of resources.
Read MoreRed Lobster Eyes With a Happy Meal Wallet
If you have read my post, Great Expectations, you know that I spend a good percentage of my time helping entrepreneurs outline requirements for brilliant new ideas as well as helping them figure out the cost. I am the "chief estimator" at my growing company. Creating an accurate Estimate is an extremely important part of running a company like CF Webtools - a large project can affect our profitability (or lack thereof) for the entire year. My goal in estimating is to charge enough to pay for the development - salaries, expenses and infrastructure - and of course to make a profit. A second, equally important goal, is to give the project its best chance for success for the customer.
In the next 2 posts we will take a look at the dynamics of this task and in particular the importance of managing the relationship between the customer and the developer or development company. But let's start with the role of the development company - or in my case, my role in particular.
Read MoreAsk-a-Muse: Using Implicit Constructors
Muse Reader Howard Asks:
I'm trying to implement the Impel HTML5 ORM on the front-end of a CF powered app. The Impel docs have an example of a PHP JSON web service that is used to return some table version information. They say that the service should return an "array of objects, but I'm a bit stumped as to how their PHP snippet would translate to CF. Could this be a struct? Here's the snippet,
<?php echo $callback?>([{ "table" : "card", "version" : 1},
{ "table" : "stack", "version" : 1},
{ "table" : "similar_card","version" : 1},
{ "table" : "card_score", "version" : 1} ]);
?>
While I'm not certain I have enough information be sure I'm answering your question, I can tell you that implementing an array of objects is pretty easy if you are using ColdFusion 8. Check this out:
<cfset callback[1] = {table = "card", version = 1}/>
<cfset callback[2] = {table = "stack", version = 1}/>
<cfset callback[3] = {table = "similar_card", version = 1}/>
<cfset callback[4] = {table = "card_score", version = 1}/>
<cfdump var="#callback#"/>
Howard, you sound like you already know a good bit of this, but for the rest of you out there I believe this is usually refered to as an "implicit" object constuctor - meaning the type of object created is assumed due to the way the values are arranged in the code. It is a common feature of most languages - including PHP. It is something of a late comer to ColdFusion, but better late than never. Rather than bore you with my own inimitable style I will refer you to the excellent writing and analysis of ColdFusion Guru and all around smarty pants Ben Nadel. See his post on Implicit Struct and Array Creation.
Examining isDefined()
While perusing one of my email lists I stumbled onto a behavior of the "isDefined()" function that bears repeating. This function is commonly used in most ColdFusion applications. In fact, I would put it in the top 10 of functions used (perhaps the top 5), so any bug or interesting behavior related to isDefined( ) should warrant some notice. The short description of the problem is that isDefined() may throw an exception during a lengthy request. The conditions have to be just right.
If you are wondering if this behavior is related to an error you are experiencing, one clue is in the exception information. If you are seeing something like "error Error while reading header [VARNAME]" in conjunction with a socket write error (connection reset by peer: socket write error) then you should probably take a closer look at this post.
But before we discuss the behavior, it's important to understand how "isDefined()" works. As you know everything in ColdFusion belongs to some scope or is a member of some object. So ColdFusion has to work it's way down an order of precedence when trying to figure out if something is defined or not. Something like this.
Read MoreThe Muse Takes Another Crack at Qw...uh... Pest Communications
I had another cold call from the phone company who's name fittingly rhymes with Pest. I know I know, I should give it a rest already. But these folks are so darn persistent it is hard not to take a poke at them. Here's how it went:
- Jane [with a noticable Hindi accent]: This is Jane from Pest Communications. I would like a few minutes of your time. This is not a sales call. I just need to ask you about your current voice and data services.
- Muse [While hating myself for thinking "Jane... really? Not Jalaja?"]: I don't think we are a Pest customer. Are we?
- Jane [undeterred]: It will only take a few minutes sir, I just need to ask you a few questions about your current voice and data service.
- Muse: ...and this is not a sales call.
- Jane: No sir, we just need some information about your current contract.
- Muse: ... and you know we are not a Pest customer right?
- Jane [A bit like a bad rap song now... or maybe I should say a bit like a rap song]: Yes sir, we just need some information about your current voice and data services.
- Muse: ... and Jane (may I call you Jane), why does Pest feel like they need this information?
- Jane [sounding desperate now]: We just need to ask a few questions about your current contract. It will only take a few minutes.
- Muse: But I don't think my current contract is any of Pest's business. What is Pests interest in the information?
- Jane [wailing like Hermione after drinking the Cat's Polyjuice potion]: It will only take a few minutes sir. We just need to ask you a few questions.
- Muse: No thank you, I don't wish to tell you anything about our current service or contracts. Could you take us off of your list?
- Jane [calm now]: Thank you for your time.
Lest you think I'm alone, I have noticed that our society is becoming more and more jaded when it comes to marketing. I suppose it is inevitable. As consumers (particularly the under 40 crowd) get more savvy they become inoculated to most run of the mill sales techniques. Speaking for myself I never click on text link ads (nor do any of my readers apparently) or banner ads. I don't read marketing emails. I don't peruse the ads in the paper, or watch TV commercials (except for Geico commercials which I find amusing). And of course, I immediately cut off anyone I don't already know who calls me with a sales pitch.
The way I see it (and perhaps it's just me), the Internet has opened up the whole universe of knowledge, services and products to me as a searcher. I can usually find whatever I need. There is practically nothing I want or need that requires a sales person. I even bought my most recent pair of shoes on line. Indeed, I'd rather be stuffed with celery and onions, and periodically basted with butter in a 400 degree oven until golden brown than have to spend more than thirty seconds talking to someone who is trying to sell me something for which I'm not already looking. Now I'm off to work on my CF Webtools sales campaign for the 4th quarter (expect a phone call).
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