Think you know Adobe web technologies? Do you like the idea of working on some of the world’s most interesting web engineering challenges? Do you want the freedom and variety of independent consulting, but want bigger projects and more of them? Then search no further. Universal Mind, the undisputed leader in bleeding-edge RIA development, is looking for a few good developers. 

Are you up to the challenge?

Why should you join Universal Mind?  Universal Mind offers you a unique opportunity. We focus exclusively on solving hard problems in the performance and architecture of web applications based on Adobe technologies. Not only are these problems difficult, they are the problems that keep our business customers up at night. They’re also the problems that have biggest impact on users. In short, at Universal Mind you will have the opportunity to do something great.

At Universal Mind, we want you to be both hands-on and strategic. You’ll connect the dots between business priorities and technology performance. You will also write the code, configure the servers, and run the diagnostic suites.

Your interface will be IT management, web developers, database admins, sys admins and business unit managers. You’ll be the person technologists call first when they have a web technology problem. 

You’ll feel equally comfortable working onsite, anywhere in the world, or remotely via Internet and phone. The value you bring clients will be in the business advantage you deliver, not in where you sit.

In fact, if you’re really good, you have probably already thought about working at Universal Mind.

Does this sound like a challenge you'd be interested in?  Send your resume to me at andrew.powell [at] universalmind.com and we'll get the conversation started.

 

I've been a bit busy since leaving St. Paul, so I've not had the time to collect my thoughts on cf.Objective() until today.  

My initial thoughts are that it was a better show than last year. The content was, again, top notch.  The food and hotel were great, and the people were, as always, the best part.  It was good to meet new faces and reconnect with old friends & people I only know via blog comment conversations.

There were very few sessions that I went to that disappointed me and didn't meet my expectations.  The first highlight, for me, was the coming out party for Mate (http://mate.asfusion.com) & Swiz (http://code.google.com/p/swizframework/).  I think that by this time next year, they will have matured into full fledged alternatives to Cairngorm.  They're both well on their way now.  

The second highlight was the ColdFusion 9 BOF.  It was, without a doubt, the single most rowdy session I've ever attended at a conference (my & Brian's contributions not withstanding).  As much as there were a lot of truer OO functionality pieces asked for, I couldn't help but think:  "Why not learn Java?", but that's another blog post.  The knowledge gap in the room was almost palpable, but I think the "thought leaders" of the CF Community (as someone so eloquently put it in another review) should accept the challenge and step up and help close the gap for those that want to get into hardcore CF development.  How do we do that?  I don't have a damn clue right now, I'm just throwing ideas out.

I'm going to go on record as saying that for both price and quality of content, cf.Objective() is the single best conference for ColdFusion developers, hands down.  There is no competition.  And, yes, I was a shameless shill for my buddies at 360|Flex, the Flex world's equivalent.  

That being said, you sure better know what you're doing with ColdFusion when you walk in the door.  All content can be considered "200 level" and above.  If you're a cfNoob, you'll be way lost and over your head.  Plain and simple.

On to my session.... 

I had a LOT of blank stares in my session, but I kind expected that.  I know the stuff I was doing was going to be way over a lot of people's heads.  I will be posting a comprehensive HOWTO document on setting up Spring & Hibernate with ColdFusion in the next few days.  There are a few people who really got it and even extended it to work with ColdSpring (good job, Joe).   If I confused you, just try to remember to look at ColdFusion (the server) as just another J2EE app and it will be an easier task for you.

That's about all I've got.  Feel free to comment on my session or whatever you like. 

OK, so I'm really pissed off.

I'm sitting in a presentation at cf.Objective() (I will not name names) where the presenter has blatantly stolen someone else's code and passed it off as their own for the presentation. How do I know this? The person it was stolen from is sitting right next to me.

That is not cool. If you're doing a presentation, make sure you materials are you own, OR if you must use someone else's example, don't be a tool. Give credit where credit is due.

This post came about over a Twitter discussion about a blog post comparing Flex remoting servers. The article was not very clear and said the engines supported Flex Messaging. Flex Messaging is not the same as Flex Remoting. Remoting is the access of remote objects (Java, ColdFusion, PHP, Ruby, etc) over a http connection. Messaging can use http and AMF, just like remoting, but is not object based. It's message based. Those messages can either be objects (typed or not), or just plain text. With Flex Messaging, you're not calling an object directly, you're sending to or listening to the messaging service.

Any questions?

When I work with Flex and BlazeDS, ColdFusion, or LiveCycle Data Services in my preso samples, I frequently connect to a database. People have asked me what database I use because often times the internet connection at conferences is spotty and I am presenting live examples on a Mac. The answer is simple: HSQLDB, a pure Java database, included with JBoss. You cannot use it straight out of the box though with the family of Adobe products. Some configuration is required to enable functionality. Luckily for you, I've done the configuration for you. Simply drop this file into the server/default/deploy directory in your JBoss root (replace the existing file) and restart your JBoss instance. This will enable the HSQL DB to be accessed via TCP/IP on port 1701.

Read more on HSQLDB here. You can also get the JDBC drivers to use with ColdFusion there as well.