Ziki - James Marshall's last published content

Oops! There goes my website…

ven, 14 Nov 2008 15:13:12 +0100

My old debit card expired a couple of months ago, and although I tried to update all my online accounts that use automatic billing it looks like I missed my hosting account (billed quarterly). My hosting company sent me several emails to give me the opportunity to update my payment details, but I’m afraid I don’t [...]

Open BlueDragon, JBoss and Eclipse timeout problem (solved!)

ven, 30 Mai 2008 14:46:00 +0200

I've spent the past couple of evenings setting up a development environment using OpenBD, JBoss and Eclipse following the instructions by Adam Haskell found here. All went well until I tried to start the JBoss app server from within Eclipse. Eclipse would timeout with an error message after 50 seconds claiming JBoss hadn't started. I found a couple of solutions that were dead ends (increase the timeout or change server from "localhost" to "127.0.0.1"). Finally I found a solution that worked - install JBoss Tools (specifically JBossAS Tools). This provides a JBoss 4.2 runtime option that successfully starts the server, rather than the option from WTP which doesn't! It took a while to track down the info so I hope this helps somebody out...

Best book for learning Java?

mer, 28 Mai 2008 16:36:00 +0200

I've been meaning to learn Java for a while now (actually more like 10 years), but never got past the first chapter of any book I picked up. It's not helped by the fact that Java has so many different applications - I realise I need to learn the basics, and although "Hello World" is a necessary intro I'd like to know that I'm learning stuff that's applicable to my work (developing web apps). I know there's quite a few of you out there who have also started the journey along the path to learning Java (and quite a few who are proficient). Given that I only have limited time I can devote to studying can anybody recommend a book that will get me up to speed with Java without spending half the book describing what a variable is (or assuming I have a decades experience writing C++)? I've heard good things about Head First Java, but I'm afraid this might be a little too simplistic (maybe even annoying). Any suggestions will be gratefully received.

Still alive (and kicking)

mer, 28 Mai 2008 16:33:00 +0200

Apologies for the long hiatus between posts - I've been pretty busy with a couple of projects, but I'm now back with a vengeance (look out for several posts over the next couple of weeks).

Save our ColdFusion installations!

ven, 01 Fev 2008 12:46:00 +0100

Okay, I'll keep this brief: Our in-house websites run on CFMX 6.1 and were built using Fusebox 4. Our backoffice system is a COBOL legacy application, and over the years the system has grown cumbersome. We have performance issues that we need to address, but we largely know what needs to change and bit of server optimisation would probably also provide benefits. A new backoffice system (coded in .NET) is being rolled out and upper management think that the solution is to outsource development of a .NET web solution to tie into it. The development team just want CF8 licence upgrades and a few months of scheduled development time and believe we could save our company huge amounts of money. The current websites are already being refactored, but are only slated to have a further 12-18 months lifespan and the management are due to green light the outsourced development shortly (before our new systems and optimisations have time to prove their worth). So I ask you: Is this a lost cause, or is there an argument we can present to delay a decision long enough for management to see the benefit of our improved applications? Have any of you successfully challenged a proposal to move to .NET (or Java) and convinced your company that CF is up to the job? If so, how did you do it? Any information or links to comparisons would be greatly appreciated...

Reclaiming an expired domain name

mar, 29 Jan 2008 12:51:00 +0100

Well, I've got to say I feel pretty stupid! In my last post I was lamenting my loss of the domain name webtex.co.uk. Yesterday I figured out that when the automated renewal process failed and the domain expired it went into "registrar-lock" mode. I have read about this before but in my state of panic and disbelief I forgot how expired domains work. Basically the domain is locked for 30 days during which time it can be renewed directly using the existing registrar. After that there is a further period of 45 days when I could contact Nominet themselves and pay an higher fee to reclaim the domain. These periods may differ for each domain registry, but it should always be possible if you're on the ball. My confusion came because the page that was showing on my expired domain didn't carry the branding of my registrar, but instead was pointed at sedoparking.com. This is a free domain parking service where pay-per-click ads are displayed to visitors and the domain owner gets a percentage of any revenue. It looks like my registration company (UK Reg, a division of FastHosts in the UK) use this service on client domains that expire during the "registrar-lock" period. So despite the inconvenience a few of good things have come out of this:

I've regained control of my expired domain
I moved my blog to a more appropriate domain
I have several domain names that I don't use that I might park at sedoparking.com

Ever had a domain hijacked?

dim, 27 Jan 2008 13:42:00 +0100

For nearly nine years I was the registrant of the domain name webtex.co.uk. The name was registered for free by my ISP and never really held any special meaning. It was only during the last year or so that I hosted my blog there that it became important to me. Renewal was due on the 5th January, and although my registrar has an automatic renewal system I knew that the payment details they had on record needed updating. Due to a security breach the registrar company had changed all user passwords and it took me a while to regain access to my control panels and it wasn't until the morning of the 5th that I managed to change my payment details. At that point there wasn't an option to manually renew the domain, so I had to put my trust in the automated renewal process. On the 17th January I left the country for a week long vacation, and at that time there were no problems - the domain was resolving to my hosting account. After having a few days break from work I thought I'd check my email and maybe write a blog post but when I typed in my URL I was surprised to see a domain parking screen where my blog should be! It seems that the automatic renewal process didn't work and a domainer snatched up my domain! Now I know this isn't strictly speaking hijacking, but I don't know what else to call it! What I do know is that I'll probably never regain control of webtex.co.uk. Although the domain name wasn't commercially important in the traditional sense there are pages listed by Google, and although these should eventually drop out of the index there is a possibility that this blog, now hosted under a new domain, will be seen as duplicate content (and penalized as such). I guess there was also some sentimental value, but what was particularly annoying was that Ray Camden had just added my RSS feed to coldfusionbloggers.org on the 16th! (Thanks Ray, for updating my feed details so quickly.) Luckily I had already registered this domain (jamesmarshall.org), and in many ways it makes more sense to host my blog here. I've spent quite a bit of time migrating stuff over during the past few days, and this post marks the end of that work so hopefully it's now back to business as usual. I can't really blame anybody other than myself for this, but I've learned a few lessons from the experience:

Make sure your payment details are always up to date with any service that you use
Never assume that an automated job has completed successfully (remember "assume" makes "ass" out of "u" and "me")
If you've got a blog that has subscribers or is aggregated use a service like Feedburner to provide a consistent feed URL in the event that you need to migrate to a new domain

Have any of you ever had a similar experience? If so did you ever get the domain back?

Maybe enterprise will finally take MySQL seriously

mer, 16 Jan 2008 17:43:00 +0100

It looks like this is breaking news, but Sun is planning to acquire MySQL. I'm sure that until the details are made public speculation will be rife, with arguments for both the positive and negative coming from all sides. My opinion is that it's great news. As the article points out Sun have a good track record with OSS and their ability to raise the visibility of MySQL to enterprise customers will be welcomed by developers who already appreciate the benefits of this fantastic RDBMS. Read the full article at: http://blogs.mysql.com/kaj/sun-acquires-mysql.html/

A response to "Common ColdFusion Arguments"

ven, 11 Jan 2008 14:51:00 +0100

This entry is a response to a post by Sean Corfield entitled Common ColdFusion Arguments. Whilst I largely agree with his views there are a couple of points that I'd like to respond to. I wholly agree that: ColdFusion shouldn't be free or open source. I know it would be nice, but we have to be realistic. There are always going to be people who think that software should be free - that's the nature of the internet. However, I'd expect developers to appreciate the need to pay for some software. If all the software we produced was free then how would we get paid? By providing support? No thanks - I hate doing support! I know it's a necessary evil, but if I had to work on the basis that I got paid for each support case I dealt with then perhaps I'd be inclined to write shoddy code (not me personally, but you know what I'm saying). Being paid for what I produce ensures that it's in my best interest to create a superior product that customers are willing to pay a premium for - one that will require as little support as possible! Don't get me wrong - I love OSS, but ColdFusion is a product (an excellent one at that), and if we all love it so much we shouldn't bitch about paying for it. I also think the community does a pretty good job of evangelising ColdFusion without the need for more paid evangelists. Speaking as a relative newcomer to ColdFusion I've got to say I was impressed by the fervour and zeal of the CF bloggers and online community, and to be honest I'm less inclined to believe the words of a paid evangelist (a more cynical individual may say a shill) than those of satisfied paying customers. And finally the one point that I disagree with: Although it's true that the languages/skills you learn at University aren't necessarily those you use during your career I still think that ColdFusion is an ideal "gateway" technology, and a greater proliferation within educational establishments could have a significant impact on uptake and mindshare. There's a great deal of people who aren't CS majors, who are nevertheless studying subjects that may touch on web design and development (marketing, graphics, multimedia, even music technology students). I studied Fine Art, but learned HTML from an enthusiastic tutor during an extracurricular class, and I only wish that I'd also benefited from an introduction to ColdFusion at the same time. The tag-based syntax would have really helped me to pick up server-side programming at the same time as HTML (two birds, one stone), and I would have had a significant head start in my (eventual) career... EDIT: By coincidence 37signals just posted an interesting entry about how to charge money for software: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/725-the-easiest-way-to-charge-money-for-software The point they make is simple - make your software useful enough to save customers time or make money. I think ColdFusion does both of these, and if you're a CF developer then you probably do too!

Sounding the death knell for MySpace

mer, 02 Jan 2008 13:44:00 +0100

I just read this post over at SEOmoz slating MySpace. Although the issues raised aren't related to CF I think that the time has well and truly gone when we could point to MySpace when asked for an example of a leading edge website using CF. =( It's a shame, because for a while MySpace was the killer app... Damn those fickle kids and their new-fangled Facebook!

My top 5 development practices and tools of 2007

ven, 28 Dec 2007 18:07:00 +0100

The last year has seen me grow considerably as a developer, with changes in my working environment and my attitude to work being major contributing factors. Working in a team and joining a company with established methodologies and technology preferences has changed my working practice more than I had expected. As the year draws to a close I thought I might share a few of the things that have had an impact on me and helped me to grow over the last twelve months...
1.) Firefox & Firebug I've been doing web development for long enough to remember when the differences between IE4 and NN4 were enough to make you want to throw in the towel. This year has seen things finally begin to change for the better, with IE7 now supporting a more standardised DOM. It's perhaps ironic then that this is the year I chose to change to Firefox as my primary browser. It's actually the progress made in IE7 that has allowed me to finally switch. Now that IE and Firefox render pages more consistently I can do the majority of my development using Firefox and just do a little tweaking for IE. The add-on capability of Firefox is one of its greatest strengths, and although there are several add-ons that I swear by the one that has revolutionised the way I work is Firebug. Although I've been using it for over six months I'm sure I've barely scratched the surface of what it can do. The ability to see (and track) live CSS and JavaScript output directly in the browser has made my life easier beyond belief. My only frustration is that my co-workers refuse to be converted! As an aside, the maturity of Firefox also encouraged me to spend a couple of months using Ubuntu Linux as my home OS. Although I've since switched back to Vista, Firefox made for a much smoother transition between the two (and I've not ruled out Ubuntu as an option for the future).
2.) Fusebox/Frameworks The majority of the applications that I maintain were built using Fusebox 4.1. The common structure allows team members to understand and maintain a complex application, and even junior developers can pick it up pretty easily. The Fusebox skills I've acquired also complement my PHP experience, so is doubly valuable. As part of my efforts to learn OOP I've also started to take a look at Model-Glue, although workload and personal commitments (I got married this year) have prevented me from fully getting to grips with it yet.
3.) Source Control Although we use VSS (Visual SourceSafe), which is generally considered to be the worst of the source control systems available, it has greatly helped in my day-to-day development and maintenance efforts. Due to the nature of our business we often have to make temporary changes to accommodate time specific offers. Using the history functionality of VSS I can roll back a file to a previous state, and it allows me to see not only when source files were changed, but also who by and what changes were made. In an environment where we don't write as much documentation as we should (who does?) this can be invaluable.
4.) Maintaining other peoples code Until the past year I was fortunate in my freedom to design and code applications from scratch. The reality of working on a large scale application coded by somebody else turned out to be somewhat different from my expectations. I was hoping for robust and modular code maintained to an in-house style, but instead found an application that had grown as needs arose, with many hacks and quick fixes implemented by developers of all skill levels, many of who are no longer with the company. Looking back I realise that I was incredibly naive in my expectations and I've since learned that while best practices are always desirable it's not always possible to refactor to a more elegant solution when working to tight deadlines. I'd like to think that I've learned from both the good and the bad code that I've worked on, as well as learning to be less judgemental about other peoples code in the process (yes - I know that somewhat contradicts what I said above).
5.) Books, blogs and podcasts I've always enjoyed reading, but for the past few years I've done very little non-recreational reading. That changed for 2007 with me tackling non-fiction titles covering a variety of programming related topics. I've already got my Amazon wishlist on the go for next year, headed by The Pragmatic Programmer! 2007 was the year that I fully embraced blogs. I'd never subscribed to or consistently read a blog before earlier this year, but while first learning ColdFusion I found the blogs of people like Ray Camden and Sean Corfield to be invaluable. I'm actually putting together a separate post about the blogs I've been reading this year, so check back for that tomorrow. This is also the first year that I've fully appreciated podcasts. Recorded presentations from industry conferences and more regular podcasts like Out Loud and ColdFusion Weekly have all helped to broaden my mind and get me thinking about issues that I might not have otherwise. Naturally, as with all things it's important to find a balance. There's a danger that you can become too tied up in the academics and don't get down and dirty with some practical experience. I think that I've been somewhat guilty of this during the past year, but one of my New Years resolutions is to put into practice all that I've learned in 2007!

How do you feel about sick days? (I'm sick of being sick)

ven, 21 Dec 2007 16:08:00 +0100

For the past couple of months I've been trying to shake off a cold that's never really shifted. Last weekend it returned with a vengeance and was bad enough to keep me off work for a couple of days. I guess it wouldn't seem like much of an issue, but I've had four days off spread over three instances during the last couple of months. When I was self-employed and working at home I could work through minor illnesses and the logic was simple - if I didn't work I didn't get paid. As a programmer it's easy to work with sniffles or a cough and it's not until a head cold really sets in that everything goes fuzzy and you can't think straight. Now that I work in an office with a dozen other people things are a bit different. Sitting in the corner coughing and sneezing attracts looks of dread from colleagues who (understandably) don't want to catch your lurgy. Although you might be perfectly capable of performing your duties there are things to consider beyond your ability to work. If you spread a virus you could cost your company far more in sick days than if you alone had stayed away. Some people take great pride in their work ethic, and will drag themselves to work no matter what. In fact in the UK we're particularly bad for thinking that we must keep on working regardless, and illness is all too often percieved as weakness. Personally I'm of the opinion that it's better to rest up so that you can return to to work at full capacity and prevent others from getting sick (even though I may sometimes feel guilty for taking time off). So I'd like to ask you: Is it better to stay away or work through?

Ruby as a self-prescribed OO remedy

ven, 07 Dec 2007 16:25:00 +0100

I've been having a difficult time getting my head around OOP. I largely attribute this to my choice of technologies. My first exposure to programming (other than a *bit* of JavaScript) was ASP, for which I used VBScript learned from a Dummies Guide. After a couple of projects I moved to Perl CGI, which gave me a huge leap in my understanding of both web development and programming in general. After another couple of projects I jumped ship again when I found that PHP made everything so much easier, but once I got to a level of competency that I was happy with I never really felt the need to progress further. From time-to-time I'd read about the advances in the implementation of OO in PHP but I genuinely didn't see the advantage (I think the closest I ever got was using some PEAR classes, but even then I just followed the usage instructions so didn't internalise the OO paradigm). Any returning visitors will know that earlier this year I took a position at a company where ColdFusion is our main development language*. We use Fusebox 4.1 and although new developments are being done using OO I have yet to work on those systems. The point of all this is that although it's entirely possible to program Perl or PHP in an OO manner, I never made the switch. When I started picking up ColdFusion I thought I'd use it as an opportunity to learn OOP. However, I've had mixed success. I know it can take a good while to make the mental switch (I think I'm about 80% there), but I'm being held back because I spend so much time working on procedural applications and it's all too easy to lapse. So I've decided to give Ruby a try. I figure a purely OO language will force me into the right mindset and hopefully spark the final epiphany that I need. I'll also be getting C# training through work soon, and although this should push the right buttons Ruby just appeals to me more, as I think it's more in keeping with my experience (interpreted scripting languages). If all goes well I'll document anything interesting here... * As an aside, I find it interesting that ColdFusion was the main competitor to ASP when I was first deciding what to adopt. I ended up going with ASP because the only two programmers I knew gravitated to ASP. I find it ironic that I've now moved full circle. Maybe I'd be further down the line now if I'd chosen ColdFusion back then?!

Are your skills in demand?

jeu, 06 Dec 2007 13:06:00 +0100

Soon I'll be getting C#/.NET training at work in preperation for the migration of our websites across to a solution developed by a third party. It sucks that ColdFusion won't be the main language at my day job anymore, but in all honesty I don't expect these new websites will be deployed for at least 18 months. During that time I'll be getting up to speed with .NET, but will continue to focus on ColdFusion. I also plan to continue using CF for all my extracurricular projects, and there are several internal projects that will remain in CF for the foreseeable future. The decision to move to .NET has come from the powers above, and was made before I even joined the company. In fact the opportunity to learn C# was one of the factors that attracted me to the position in the first place. I believe it's important to continue learning in order to ensure you don't wake up one morning to find that there's no longer demand for your skills, so every now and then I like to do a quick comparison of demand for my skills. The charts below are courtesy of indeed.com, and compare the historic demand for my existing core skills against C# and ASP.NET as both absolute numbers and relative growth.

php,mysql,asp.net,coldfusion,"cold fusion",c# Job Trends php jobs - mysql jobs - asp.net jobs - coldfusion jobs - "cold fusion" jobs - c# jobs

Although I'll be sad to lose some of my focus on ColdFusion I guess it can only be a good thing to diversify my skillset... How do you're existing skills stack up compared to similar industry standard technologies? Do you have any gaps that you feel the need to fill? What criteria do you consider when deciding where to focus your attention?

Not all podcasts are created equal

mar, 27 Nov 2007 16:57:00 +0100

A few months ago I discovered the Out Loud podcast by Hal Helms and Jeff Peters. I found them informative and entertaining, so decided to download the entire archive. Generally I'd listen on headphones in the afternoon while doing one mindless task or another and quickly caught up to date. Unfortunately Hal and Jeff seem to be busy at the moment and are only recording new episodes sporadically. I then turned to The ColdFusion Podcast and ColdFusion Weekly, and while both are great resources The ColdFusion Podcast is no longer being recorded and ColdFusion Weekly looks like it's going the way of Out Loud, with episodes no longer being recorded on a weekly basis. I guess this is good news for the authors, as I'm sure that the increasing periods between episodes is down to high workload (which can't be a bad thing)! Both were/are good, but I've got to confess that Out Loud remains my favourite. However, it's left me hungry for more podcasts, so I've been sampling a few new ones via iTunes. It's now clear to me is that I was spoiled by Out Loud. Hal and Jeff's presentation style is witty and intelligent, and their ability to discuss what are potentially dry (and difficult to grasp) subjects in just the right amount of detail is refreshing. I only wish I could be as complimentary about some of the podcasts that I've recently sampled. I'm not going to name names or point fingers, but over the past couple of days I've listened to some podcasts where the presenter has had all the charisma of a dehydrated catfish. Although I'm sure that the authors are well intentioned I just don't feel that the end result warrants my attention. On the plus side I've found a couple that are promising, covering a variety of topics from freelancing to Buddhism. I'll post mini-reviews of any that I find myself still listening to in a couple of weeks!

End of hiatus

lun, 26 Nov 2007 12:58:00 +0100

It seems like a long time since I last posted. I've been busy too busy at work recently to think about blogging, and at home we've been busy decorating. Both are calming down a little now (work is still busy but not frantic), so you can expect to see a few more posts appearing over the next couple of days.

Instructions on integrating Akismet with your BlogCFC

ven, 19 Oct 2007 15:35:00 +0200

One of my main concerns with migrating over to BlogCFC was comment spam. As soon as I'd set up my WordPress installation I started getting hit. A quick Google turned up the Akismet plugin (I needed the plugin as my blog is hosted on my own web space), which eliminated all spam. I don't know how other people have coped using just the captcha from BlogCFC, but I thought I'd be happier if only I could integrate Akismet. Well this morning I came across this post by Nathan Mische which details instructions on how to integrate Akismet into BlogCFC using Brandon Harper's CFAkismet. I did the changes manually, but Nathan provides a zip download with the necessary changes. So far everything seems to be working fine and I can even use the Akismet API key from my old WordPress installation!

Moved this blog over to BlogCFC (from WordPress)

jeu, 18 Oct 2007 19:22:00 +0200

Now that my transition from PHP to ColdFusion is complete I thought I'd better put my money where my mouth is and, so I've just finished moving my blog over to Ray Camdens excellent BlogCFC. Returning visitors will remember that I was previously using WordPress with a load of plugins, and although it was very powerful and glossy, in reality I didn't use half of the features. Using BlogCFC will allow me to learn more CF while modifying my installation, and if I find that there's a plugin that I really can't live without I can write my own (and share it)! The migration process consisted of me doing an export from WordPress and manually re-inputting the data into BlogCFC. I could have written a parser, but to be honest there weren't enough posts to justify the work.

Adobe employee marginalizes ColdFusion

mar, 16 Oct 2007 13:00:00 +0200

I just came across this article while searching for Agile ColdFusion resources. This is another example of the sort of "journalism" that harms the image of CF, specifically with the following:

Meanwhile, an Adobe official at ZendCon cited use of PHP at the company in a presentation on RIA (rich Internet application) development.

"I've never written a line of ColdFusion in my life and we use PHP all the time at Adobe," said Lee Brimelow, Adobe platform evangelist. Intended for building Internet applications, ColdFusion is Adobe's server-side Java application partnered with a markup language.

It doesn't look good to the outside world when somebody who works at Adobe (and a "platform evangelist" no less) so blatantly disregards ColdFusion. Obviously the article was written to promote PHP, and having Adobe staff show support for PHP isn't necessarily a bad thing. What annoys me is the mention of ColdFusion in the article at all, with a member of staff marginalizing it! Also there is a comparison made between PHP and Flex?! Come on people!

What could Adobe do to promote ColdFusion

lun, 08 Oct 2007 13:48:00 +0200

This post by Sean Corfield drew my attention to an article by Brian Meloche on Promoting ColdFusion to non-ColdFusion developers, focusing specifically on community efforts to evangelise to the masses (as opposed to efforts by Adobe). While I think this is a great idea I also see some ways in which Adobe themselves could up the ante for the marketing of ColdFusion. PHP and Ruby have managed to find widespread acceptance not just because they are both great technologies, but because the (financial) cost of adoption is so low. Now, I'm not complaining about the cost of the ColdFusion app server, as I think it's actually a small investment for the productivity gains it gives me. Unfortunately I'm already a convert. Adobe should be making enough from ColdFusion sales to be able to make some free software donations to a couple of demographics that could greatly increase uptake. First and foremost is making sure there is new blood coming into the community. There is no doubt in my mind as to the value and camaraderie of the online developer community and we should never underestimate this as a factor in creating and retaining loyal ColdFusion developers. However in order to get more people learning CF in the first place Adobe could make a multi IP developer edition free to universities. CFML is a great first language to learn, with a relatively gentle learning curve. If you're a tutor with only 2 hours a week to teach a whole class web programming ColdFusion would seem to be a very good option, but try explaining to the finance controllers that you need a couple of thousand for an app server license that competes with free alternatives and you might have difficulties! Perhaps Adobe need only make it free when you purchase educational licenses of Dreamweaver or other Adobe apps (this could provide verification of entitlement), but either way it would ensure that there is a fresh supply of developers out there.(Please note that it's a long time since I was at university and I have no idea what kind of educational discounts Adobe already offer.) In the commercial sector, ColdFusion can seem to be a costly investment if you're running multiple servers, especially if you're a startup without huge amounts of VC funding. It's hardly surprising that startup efforts rarely utilise ColdFusion and instead opt for open source, free (as in beer) alternatives. These same startups are often the ones that skyrocket into the media spotlight. Until recently MySpace was commonly touted as an advert for ColdFusion, being a highly visible enterprise that became a household name overnight. With the decision to gradually move MySpace to .NET many naysayers are using this to support arguments of ColdFusion's imminent demise (not to mention inadequacy). I would therefore like to see Adobe offering a "grant" scheme whereby startups could apply for a free server license if their business idea was deemed innovative and/or creative enough. As these companies grew they could receive discounts for future licensing as requirements grew. This would serve to strengthen the association of the Adobe brand with creative solutions, and public exhibitions of philanthropy are rarely a bad thing! Neither of the above should significantly impact Adobe's bottom line as the users this scheme would be aimed at would ordinarily end up using an open source (PHP or Ruby) or freely available (.NET) solution. A third, and maybe less innovative proposal, is allowing existing businesses who run alternative CFML engines to apply for discounted cross grades to the official app server. This would allow businesses to begin development with one of the free CFML engines then upgrade if/when they found that they needed functionality only available in Adobe ColdFusion. Of course this all just pie in the sky, but it's nice to daydream isn't it? Update: It looks like Brian's original talk/post this has struck a chord with quite a few people. An interesting post here talks about getting CFML applications and projects on Sourceforge rather than RIAforge. I think both are good, but being an open source proponent I spend quite a bit of time over at Sourceforge and think it would be a great idea. A lot of people who work with the web aren't developers but need to find forum scripts and similar. If I need free software then Sourceforge is the first place I look.