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CFMeetup update, and some other new online training resources to enjoy in the meantime

Some readers may be wondering "when are the next CF meetups?", it's just that between the recent conferences and normal summer doldrums it's been a little hard to find speakers.

The good news is that I do have a couple speakers already lined up the next 2 weeks (10th and 17th). I'll announce those soon, as well as any I might still arrange for this week (the 3rd).

In the meantime, I'll note that you can get some online training goodness via the many recorded CFUnited presentations that have been posted free for all to enjoy by the good folks who run the conference. You'll find 33 of them listed at my [a href="http://carehart.org/ugtv/">UGTV site.

Finally, I wanted to pass along news of a free resource from Adobe to help people learn more about Rich Internet Applications. It includes recorded online workshops, projects to work on, and book recommendations, all for free. Check it out at:

Rich Internet Application Teaching Resources

Critter's been CF_Tattoo'ed: now that's some old-school loyalty

This may be old news to some (from Sunday) but long time CFer "Critter" has tattooed the old-school "lightning bolt" CF logo on himself (looks like his leg):

his blog entry with a photo.

That's representin'! :-)

What a busy couple of months: conference season and more

Some may have noticed that I've not been writing here as much in the past couple of months. For one thing, it's been conference season! Like a couple other folks, I've spoken at each of these in the last dozen+ weeks:

What a blast, and of course it's an honor to be invited. I've not written much about them because, well, I don't know what I could add that hasn't been said by many other bloggers who attended each! :-)

Unfortunately, the schedule precluded me giving any thought to attending (or proposing to speak at) WebDU (spoke there last year) or SpringBR. And sadly I had to miss the Adobe Community Summit.

As if those events (and the commensurate travel) weren't enough of a draw on time, in the weeks since the first event in mid-March I've also:

  • squeezed in teaching 6 classes
  • written 2 tips columns and a feature article for 2 editions of the FAQU
  • organized nearly a dozen ColdFusion Meetups
  • attended an invitation-only Microsoft Tech Summit (for a couple dozen folks they picked from competing communities to talk and listen to)
  • spent a week in Germany with the fine folks at Intergral (makers of FusionDebug, FusionReactor, FusionAnalytics, and with whom I also do some consulting)
  • and provided my consulting services to many folks in what little time remained!

Fortunately, the nature of my consulting is different than most: I focus on helping people solve problems (rather than build or architect apps), so they generally need me only sporadically and for short spurts of time. We've been able to fit them in nicely in the time in between, but I've got some who've been patiently awaiting the end of what some called "the conference silly season".

I had also started my series on the tools/resource list, but after part 10 got just too bogged down. I plan to pick that up again very soon.

Just wanted to offer a bit of explanation on the relative quiet the past couple of months.

I have some other really exciting things planned and in the works which I'll be sharing in coming weeks and months. Some are new resources, some new services, and some new tools. All dedicated to helping the community. It's exciting times!

Grokking JQuery: A useful editorial overview by Rick Strahl (and why you may like him beyond that)

Folks interested in another take on jQuery may appreciate learning of this overview, jQuery Puts the Fun Back into Browser Scripting. The author does a great job of helping folks "grok" the tool at a high level. Now, it ends with some discussion of using it with .NET, but it's not enough to diminish the value for CFers. Indeed, just as the author notes that it can be used with or instead of ASP.NET ajax features, so the same is true with CF8 (and certainly for those using earlier releases of CF.) And of course, jQuery is about far more than just ajax.

If you've wondered what the hubub was about, give it a look. And if you want to read more about jQuery from the CF community's perspective, check out the blogs of folks like Ben Nadel, Rey Bango, and John Farrar, to name just a couple.

As for the article above, I'll add that the author is Rick Strahl, who, while not a CFer, has still been one of my favorite writers/bloggers over the years. Why? Well, first, he's just very thorough and a good communicator. But he also came from a Foxpro background and so his writing has often been (especially early on) from the same sort of "outside the camp" perspective that we CFers sometimes have. Admittedly, he's recently focused more on .NET and I know some CFers will just choke on that, but if you can look past it you may find nuggets of gold in his writing as I have. Besides the blog, he has a list of articles you can dig through, as well as some free tools which might be of value.

Who's on the CFMeetup this week,Thurs June 12

This week there is only 1 meetings of the Online ColdFusion Meetup on Thursday June 12.

First up is:

"Refactoring in ColdFusion: From Procedural to OO", with Dan Wilson

Thursday, June 12, 6:00pm US EDT (GMT-5)

More info: http://coldfusion.meetup.com/17/calendar/8088894/

We will also have a special meeting on Friday June also at 6pm US EDT. More about that in a follow-up note.

As always, we're looking for more speakers. If you may be interested or know someone who is (or you may want to suggest someone you think I should ask), get in touch with me.

Who's on the CFMeetup this week,Thurs June 5

This week there are 2 meetings of the Online ColdFusion Meetup on Thursday June 5.

First up is:

"5-Minute CRUD Magic with ColdFusion, Flex and LCDS", with Nick Kwiatkowski

Thursday, June 5, 12:00pm US EDT (GMT-5)

More info: http://coldfusion.meetup.com/17/calendar/8032915/

The second meeting is:

"Introduction to Building Applications with Transfer ORM", with Mark Mandel

Thursday, June 5, 6:00pm US EDT (GMT-5)

More info: http://coldfusion.meetup.com/17/calendar/8035918/

FYI: we'll have two guest hosts for these meetings. I'm in Scotland speaking at Scotch on the Rocks, and so am unsure about my schedule and net availability at the time of the meetings. Fortunately, Jeremy Petersen will guest host the noon talk, and Ray Camden will guest host the 6pm talk. Thanks, guys!

As always, we're looking for more speakers. If you may be interested or know someone who is (or you may want to suggest someone you think I should ask), get in touch with me.

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