Andrew Powell

I've been getting a curious response from some of the people I've told about the latest addition to my skill set.  When I tell them that I've taken the dive into Ruby on Rails (RoR), the first question they've asked is "Why would you want to do that?".  Well the answer is quite simple.  Around the middle of the year each year, I make a concerted effort to learn a technology that I'm not familiar with yet.  Last year I got into Spring/Hibernate, Flex was the year before.  This year, I've decided to double my efforts.  This year, I'm committing myself to the dual challenges of learning RoR and Silverlight.

I have long contended that any developer, as long as they have a solid background in a structured language (Java, C++, etc) can easily pick up any other programing language once they get past the rudimentary syntactical differences.  I believe this fact (I learned in C++ back in the day) has allowed me to pick up languages quickly and add to my value as a developer and a consultant.  This foundation has helped me professionally because I have been able to increase my value to my employer, year over year.  It has also helped to keep me sharp as I often find myself switching between 3-4 different languages in a given work day. Without this challenge I'm sure I'd grow complacent and my skills would drop off at some point.

So, am I bragging?  No.  I am challenging you, the complacent developer, to take the time, take the plunge, choose something you don't know but have been wanting to learn and dive into it head on.  It can be Flex, C#, Java, Ruby, PHP, whatever.  Just choose your target and go after it with passion and a desire to make yourself better and make yourself a better developer.

I attended my first 360|Flex earlier this year.  It was in my own backyard, in downtown Atlanta.  Well, now 360|Flex is returning home to where it all begain:  San Jose, CA.

The only thing I can say about 360|Flex is that it is, hands down, the most intense collection of Flex talent you will ever see in one place.  Maybe you're looking at your 2nd half conference schedule and trying to decide where to go....you can't go wrong with 360|Flex.  The sessions are great, the people are great, and the locations are generally pretty great too.  Beyond the intense sessions that you'll see ( they're all damn good ), the interaction you'll get with the rest of the Flex community can't be beaten.  You get to hang with people like:

• Ben Stucki
• Adam Flater
• Ben Clinkenbeard
• Mike & Mike from Digital Primates
• Jeff Tapper
• Laura Arguello 
• Many, Many More....

So I've been getting in to Ruby on Rails a little bit lately. In the course of my investigation into RoR, I took a look at JRuby, which lets you run Ruby scripts from within Java. Well, within ColdFusion, we can access Java objects as well, hence we can also run Ruby scripts from ColdFusion. How do you do this? Well, I've wrapped it up nicely for you into a little CFC called RubyLoader. You can find RubyLoader as a project on my Google Code site.

RubyLoader will read a ruby script, execute it, then give you access to any variables that were returned. You can then access those variables, just like you would any other variables in CFML.

A special word of warning here. This only works with ColdFusion 8 because it requires Java 6 for the included version JRuby to work properly. If you are not running ColdFusion 8, YMMV.

Read more, and download RubyLoader from SVN at my google code site.

Frameworks. They can be both a blessing and a curse. Recently, I was asked, by an aspiring Flex developer, which framework they should learn. They were looking at Cairngorm (and the UM Extensions) and Mate. Each framework has their high points and their low points. Mate is very slick and simplifies a lot of tasks that Cairngorm can make, well...obtuse. It's just plain facts.

Cairngorm however, is the iPod of the Flex framework market. Just as you think "iPod" when you think mp3 player, you think "Cairngorm" when you think Flex frameworks. Within the last four months we have seen the introduction of two new major players to the Flex framework scene: Mate and Swiz. Mate is the brainchild of our fine friends at AsFusion. Swiz is the fruit of Chris Scott's efforts. Mate is a totally tag-based approach to a Flex framework, while Swiz is much more focused on inversion of control (IOC).

So, which framework should you learn? Well, I can assure you that, as a Flex developer, you will run into a Cairngorm project at least once during your career. Its prevalence lends itself to this. Does this mean you should be thoroughly proficient in Cairngorm? Absolutely not. I do believe however, that every Flex developer should be able to recognize a Cairngorm application and be able to work within its patterns (side note: look to the Core J2EE Patterns for Cairngorm's inspiration.). I think that Cairngorm will make more sense to developers coming from the Java world. Developers coming to Flex from ColdFusion would probably be much more comfortable in Mate, due to its tag-based nature. Does this mean that any one is more right for you than another? No. As with anything else in this field, it depends on the task, the developer's skill and comfort levels with different technologies, and the time you have to learn something new.

If you take all this into consideration and then do your own research, you should be able to come up with which framework fits right for you. Don't rely simply on my advice or the advice of others. Frameworks tend to gather semi-religious followings, so try to wade through the zealotry and find your best solution.

I will preface this by saying this post is totally unsolicited and unsanctioned by any candidate in the race for Georgia's Public Service Commission, District 4.

My father, Jim Powell, is running for the Georgia Public Service Commission.  The primary elections are Tuesday, July 15th.  Anyone in Georgia can vote for this position, but you must vote in the Democratic primary.  You can vote in the Democratic primary even if you are not registered to vote as a Democrat. 

This is a tale of a candidate that almost wasn't.

Earlier this year, after Jim had announced his candidacy, his opponent in the primary, Bob Indech, challenged his residency.  Mr. Indech claimed that Jim didn't live in the district he intended to represent.  The case was referred to the Georgia Secretary of State, Karen Handel who took the case to an Administrative Law Judge.  The ALJ opined that Jim does indeed live in the district he intended to represent despite having another house outside of the district in question.  We thought that was the end of the story and proceeded to keep campaigning across the state, from east to west and north to south.  Jim visited voters in Valdosta, made a visit to historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in the heart of Atlanta, and even ventured to Dalton in NW Georgia.  The campaign went on thinking the residency issue was over and done with, until yesterday.

The last 24 hours have been intense to say the least.  We found out yesterday that SecState Handel had decided to go against the opinion of the ALJ and disqualify Jim.  She sent an email ordering all votes (including mine, since I had already voted in advance voting) for Jim would be declared void and signs should be posted at the polls stating he was disqualified from the election.  Well, Jim could have just laid down and taken the decision, but he didn't.  He decided to take the issue head on and took SecState Handel to court.  At the 11th hour, a Fulton County Superior Court Judge issued a Stay, putting Jim back on the ballot in every district in every county in the State of Georgia. Jim Powell will be on the ballot July 15th and your vote will count.

After having had a few hours to digest this, I have a few thoughts of my own to offer up:  Some people have likened SecState Handel's actions to that of Katherine Harris, the infamous former SecState of our neighbors in Florida.  While I find this comparison amusing, I really doubt that Ms. Harris would have been able to come up with something like this.  I do believe that Jim is the best qualified out of all the PSC candidates for the position.  This latest move is just another example of dirty Georgia politics and backhanded tricks.  The loyal opposition knows that their candidates are beatable and are doing their best to keep the one candidate that can soundly defeat them out of the election.  

So what can you do?  Get out the vote on July 15th.  Go read blogs, watch the debates, and decide for your own damn self.  Make your voice heard, vote for Jim Powell and let the SecState know that the citizens of Georgia won't stand for her dirty partisan tricks.

EDIT:  Watch the debate here.