Autopilot in the ColdFusion Updater Minefield
If you manage a ColdFusion 8 or 9 server, you are likely aware of the complete and total train wreck that is applying security updates from Adobe. Not only are directions vague, but on occasion Adobe...
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CFHTTP Error Handling for Status Codes
We’re discussing some refactoring before releasing a cfpayment 1.0 and one of the things I’m working on is figuring out when to use ColdFusion’s in-built error handling and when to use HTTP status...
View ArticleJune Sprints Video
I posted last year about my run to the SCCA June Sprints at Road America. I just came across the GoRacingTV.com video recap of the race which has my car in it a number of times. The race starts around...
View ArticleTime in SQL
If you’ve built an application, it probably included some time/date fields. If so, let this get you thinking (&& means “overlap”): CREATE TABLE b (p PERIOD); ALTER TABLE b ADD EXCLUDE USING...
View ArticleCFPAYMENT 1.0 Released!
Payment processing is a lot of boilerplate code that isn’t much fun to write. More importantly, when you make a mistake, it usually means a lost sale or, worse, a double charge you have to track down...
View ArticleBypass Oracle License Agrement to Download JDK
Oracle recently switched to force everyone to acknowledge their license before downloading the JDK. That’s not a big deal, except that it doesn’t work from text-mode console browsers like lynx or...
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Sonoma Sprints & Spec Miata Festival Video
Been a crazy couple of months but I got the #12 out for a couple of race weekends at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and Infineon/Sears Point. As a San Francisco Region board member for the last year and a...
View ArticleUnit testing trick for developing against remote APIs
I’ve been doing a lot of development of API libraries over the past year while integrating remote services into MotorsportReg.com. I struggled with how to best perform unit tests to verify the code...
View ArticleDoesWhat Interview
I was recently interviewed by Alex Hawke of DoesWhat.com – they have a very cool library of interviews with entrepreneurs from the tech/software space. There are a lot of big names and I feel...
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Cover Photo Published
I shot this photo at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca a couple of months ago and it was published on the cover of an SCCA magazine this month! GoPro is a big advertiser which might have had something to do...
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25 Hours of Thunderhill – 2012
This is how I spent my last weekend: I returned for a second year to co-drive the #3 Tiger Racing BMW M3 in the world’s longest sports car endurance race. For 25 hours, the goal is to keep circulating...
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Happy New Year
2012 was like a bolt of lightning. I hope 2013 is as exciting as Graham Hill taking pole at a wet Spa Francorchamps in 1965: Pic linked from wren.
View ArticleFaster unit tests with ColdSpring and MXUnit
Nerd post today. Most of my MXUnit unit tests look something like: <cffunction name="setUp" returntype="void" access="public"> <cfscript> variables.beanFactory = createObject("component",...
View ArticlejQuery TableSorter finds new life
Many moons ago, I helped write the docs for TableSorter, a jQuery plugin for sorting HTML tables. It was last updated in 2008 but it’s as useful today as it was then. Thankfully, Rob Garrison has been...
View ArticleTurbo Stack Traces for Tough Debugging
Here’s a guerilla debugging tactic based upon an old post of mine, Finding Memory Leaks in Coldfusion JVM, and some inspiration from Charlie Arehart. I’m in the process of migrating from ColdFusion 8...
View ArticleCFPAYMENT now on GitHub
I see people in ColdFusion land still reinventing the wheel in writing payment gateways. Stop! Believe me when I tell you there are 502 ways for a payment request to fail and I’ve experienced every...
View ArticleSelectively applying Hubspot (or other) tracking code
My company uses Hubspot to help support our marketing efforts. One thing Hubspot provides is great tracking that shows all of the touch points you have with a potential customer as they read your blog,...
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How do I steer this thing?
I had the awesome chance to race at Road Atlanta a few weeks ago driving a brand new, zero-mile Spec Miata built by Atlanta Motorsports Group. The car is a bit nuts… from the powdercoated chassis to...
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SCCA Majors Victory
Fantastic race weekend coming from 7th to best a field of the 45 best racers on the west coast: Spec Miata came in its traditional form, with six cars up front in the lead back through the early...
View ArticleGood APIs should accept foreign keys
I’m automating online marketing for event organizers at MotorsportReg.com by synchronizing event listings with third party calendars. I’m working with a typical API which is modeled such that you...
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