John Blayter

Meeting tonight: Database Tips, Tricks, & Secrets Presented By Nate Nelson

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:59:00 -0500

Have you ever wanted to know how those strange database experts are able to do their job without going insane? This session will cover some heavily used database tips, tricks, and secrets from multiple database platforms. These tips are have been used first hand and compiled for you in one presentation. Every developer that has any interaction with a database should find this session of value.

RSVP

Sturm Hall
2000 E. Asbury Ave.
Room 323 (or some room close by)
Denver, CO 80208

Using Airfoil for syncing audio

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:09:00 -0500

This past weekend was the 8th annual Labor Day party in my neighborhood. We close down the street and party until early the next morning. There are a couple of us that have receivers in our garages that we crank up to provide tunes for the party. In the past we have tried satellite radio and the buffer would be off by a second or two. We also tried wireless speakers and they got too much interference from cell phones. This year we used Airfoil from Rogue Amoeba to sync the music. What Airfoil does is hijack the audio signal from a software application to then broadcast it across a network in sync. I hopped on my neighbors wireless network that happened to be centered between the houses with radios in the garage. This allowed me a strong 802.11G signal in both locations (about 300' apart from each other). I then installed the Airfoil application in combination with my Pandora One application. On the other end I installed the Airfoil Speakers application. Once this was all setup I was able to perfectly sync the audio from the main computer to the other computer. We ran this all night and had perfect audio entertainment for the evening. For $25 it is well worth the money to broadcast your audio across your network in prefect sync.

Recipe: Paloma

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:58:00 -0500

This has to be one of my all time favorite summer time drinks.

Glass filled about 1/2 way up with crushed ice
1 shot of 100% agave Tequila
1/2 of a lime juiced
Tiny pinch of sea salt
Add the spent lime as a garnish
Fill cup with Fresca and stir

How to cancel your MySpace account

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:51:00 -0500

I have not logged into MySpace for over a year and I thought that I would go ahead and cancel my account since the last activity from any of my friends was in November of last year.

Log In
Click on My Account in the main navigation bar
Click on Account in the secondary navigation bar
The 3rd heading is Cancel Account
You have to fill out a couple of forms as to why you are canceling your account. From there an email is sent to you.
You then have to click on the link in the email that launches MySpace again
Click on the cancel account button
After that your request to cancel your MySpace account has been made and it takes 48 hours to process according to the site.

Review of KFC's Grilled Chicken

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:49:00 -0500

I was just going to stop for a A&W root beet float but I gave into the chicken cravings. So i tried out their Grilled Chicken and it was tasty. I have to disagree with their definition of grilled chicken. When I think of grilled chicken it is without the skin. Their version still leaves the skin on. It was properly marinated, seasoned, baked and then grilled for about 30 seconds to give it some lines. I wouldn't doubt if they had a Forman grill in the back to do that. I really wish that KFC would come out with a true skinless option for their chicken. At least they still give out those awesome biscuits and plastic sporks.

Tips for home shopping

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:55:00 -0500

Over the past 10 years we have bought 3 different homes in 2 different states and we have learned a lot in the process. Here are some tips that we have accumulated over the years about things to look for when shopping for your next home.

When you are looking at homes take your digital camera with you. Before you walk into each house take a picture of the MLS print out that the realtor has. You end up looking at so many houses that they get confused very fast. When we moved into our current home we thought there was a loft on the top floor... There wasn't. Not a big deal but it was just a feature of the house that we got mixed up with another home we saw.
Buying a house with a pool is a lot cheaper than buying a home and then putting in a pool afterwards. Save your time and the money and just buy a home with a pool and then hire a pool service. I had a pool for 3 years and I knew almost nothing about it.
Go to the house you want to buy many times at different times of the day. Go there at night. Does the grade and curve of the roads shine headlights into your master bedroom? Get there just before the evening commute. When traffic gets heavy do people start cutting through your street? Stop and look up. Are you in a landing pattern for the local airport?
Talk to your future neighbors. Knock on the door and introduce yourself and ask them about how the neighborhood is. They have nothing to loose by talking to you and you might just make a friend in the process.
Don't buy a home that was built in a housing boom. A lot of times the homes that were built in the housing boom were done in a hurry. This leads to shotty construction and future problems that may not show up for 10 years later.
Circle for running children. This is not a must have for a lot of people but with having 3 little ones we have to have it. When the weather prohibits the kids from going outside and burning off energy we have the kids run laps in the house. Our floor plan is in a circle so they can go from the entry, family room, kitchen, dining room, living room and then back to the entry with out stopping. Small thing but important for our little ones.
Is there a coat closet? (Assuming you live somewhere you use coats) Only 1 of the 3 homes we have owned has had a coat closet.
Are there towel racks? We have a neighbor that has a wonderful home but the design of the bathrooms didn't allow for towel racks. There isn't anywhere to even put a new one on a wall.
Do you live in a cold environment? Having a driveway facing west or south will help melt snow and ice off of your driveway. I shovel about half as much as my neighbors across the street.
Does you the home have a basement? Where does the black water go out to the street? The house we have now was dug about 3' too deep and if I want to put in a bathroom in the basement I am going to have to get a special pump because I can not rely on gravity to carry out the waste water to the street.
Look to see what windows open and if you can catch a breeze through the house. Nearly every window of our current house opens and a slight breeze gives a wonderful cooling effect in the house. This allows us to use nature for our AC and we only turn on our air a couple of days a year. Also a couple of well placed trees can make a huge difference in your monthly utilities.
Is there room for toys? Kid toys, big boy toys, bikes, and all the crap that you can't live without. I don't know what I would do without having a 3rd car garage.
Trust your heart. You know deep inside what house is right for you. Go with your gut.

Do you have any other tips for home buying?

Pandora One vs. Slacker Radio Plus

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:56:00 -0500

I stopped my XM Radio subscription at the in January of 2009. I moved to listening to streaming radio on my iPhone. In the first couple of weeks of listening to it in the car I realized that the audio quality in Slacker Radio was far superior to Pandora. I have an after market stereo in my Equinox and you could hear an noticeable compression of the music on Pandora. So I ended up signing up for Slacker Radio Plus. Oh what a mistake that was! [More]

Overriding a UDF in ColdFusion

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:03:00 -0500

This morning my friend Don asked me the question of "I have a UDF defined in Application.cfc. Is there a way to override that with a UDF of same name in another template?"

[More]

It can't be that hot! ... It sure is

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:26:00 -0500

This afternoon I went with some coworkers to Yazoo BBQ for lunch. I had their "Bob" with some fried pickles and peach cobbler. When we went to sit down my friend Matt started reacting to the temperature of the BBQ sauce. I didn't believe him so I took a small sample too. Needless to say that the bottle is right and my mouth was on FIRE for the next 15 minutes from a tiny sample. I would highly recommend Yazoo BBQ as everything I have had there is outstanding and at a great price.

Next Generation Flex & ColdFusion Tour

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:39:00 -0500

We will not be having our normal meeting on June 8th. Please come join us as we team up with other user groups to bring you the Next Generation Flex & ColdFusion Tour. We will have pizza, soft drinks and a live band from 6:30 - 7:00 followed by the main event!

Come learn about the newest features in the Flex 4 framework, Flash Builder 4 and the newest Adobe product -- Flash Catalyst from Adobe Evangelist Kevin Hoyt. See product feature demos, and learn how the new Flex framework powers both Flash Catalyst and Flex Builder to speed the development and testing of rich Internet applications and content.

Pair this with the power of ColdFusion and you've got a really great thing going!

We will also be discussing Centaur, the next version of ColdFusion, and Bolt - code name for the highly anticipated ColdFusion IDE from Adobe. Learn about exciting new features and discover how Centaur and Bolt will accelerate your ColdFusion application development.

Make sure to watch Adobe Labs to download the beta versions of these products as soon as they are available!

RSVP NOW

Wednesday, June 24, 2009 from 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM (MT)
Magnolia Hotel Denver
818 17th Street
Denver, CO 80202

A clock for kids

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:03:00 -0500

This has to be the best invention for parents since disposable diapers. A few months ago we had problems with Grant waking up at 2am and going down in the basement to play Legos. He didn't get the concept of time nor how to read a clock. I then found the Teach Me Time! Clock. This clock will glow an orange, green or no glow at all. I have it set to go from the off state to the "orange glow" at 6:30pm. We put the kids to bed about 7:30pm so it also doubles as a nightlight. It stays orange all night and then turns green at 6:00am and then turns to the off state at 7:30am. So with Grant and Anna we told them that they can not get up until the clock turned green. I have to say that this has been an absolute life saver. If your children can't tell time this device is well worth the $40 for a good night sleep.

Here is a picture of the clock glowing green.

A lesson in working for what we want

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:54:00 -0500

In my last post I described how getting all the kids iPods saved me over $1000. We gave Grant one a while ago and Anna is getting one for her birthday here in a couple of weeks. Rusty now being 7 we thought it would be a good opportunity for him to learn the lesson of working for what we want in life. Joni and I sat down and talked to him about getting an iPod and he would have to work for it. He agreed that he would do extra jobs around the house and earn it. The next morning I had printed out a list with 100 places where he could write down the extra things we asked him to do. The next morning he was 110% self motivated to start earning his iPod. He spent the next 2 weeks doing whatever he could to earn lines toward his reward. From pulling weeds to cleaning 1600 sq ft basement of toys up by himself. He worked so hard. In the end Rusty did understand the lesson we had set out and we were so proud of him! Here is a picture of Rusty when he got the iPod.

In car entertainment system

Sat, 23 May 2009 06:00:00 -0500

About 5 years ago we purchased a custom in car entertainment system for our mini van. We had 7" screens installed in the headrests, a DVD player installed between the two front seats and a remote start also installed. I want to say that the system cost about $1500 to do. Over the years the technology has improved but the price has stayed about the same. We found that dealing with the DVDs in the car was a huge pain in the butt. The disks would get scratched up and getting them started was a huge pain. You can't see the screen while driving so you would end up memorizing the menus to get a movie started. A little over a year ago I saw that you could play movies on an iPod. I purchased an iPod classic and started ripping all of our movies to it. It was perfect! We could plug in the iPod and get a movie started for the kids in 10 seconds flat all while doing 75mph down the interstate. Now come about 2 months ago we decided that it was time to get rid of the van and get something with 4WD now that we live in Colorado. So off I went on the perfect solution for in car entertainment. I was disappointed to see that the cost was still about the same and the technology still relied on using DVDs. Then came the moment of falling off the toilet and figuring out the flux capacitor. The iPod works like a charm for a movie jukebox so why don't we just get each kid their own iPod. I found that you can get a refurbished iPod Nano for $100 on apple.com. Then you can pick up the 2 year apple care for $39. So for 3 kids it was $417 for them to watch their own movies. That is saving of about $1000 and we don't have to deal with the hassle of DVDs. From a parent's perspective this is fantastic!
The kids can put on whatever movie they want to and not fight over what to watch
We don't have to hear the movie that they are watching either!

Messages in the dust

Fri, 22 May 2009 16:22:00 -0500

The past couple of days I attended a conference that my employer put on for our clients. As I was walking through the parking lot I noticed a car that was covered in dust. Not a little amount either. Months and months of dust had settled on the car. I walked over to read some of the writing on the windows and was surprised to see that the car clearly belonged to someone who was no longer with us. The car windows had been inscribed with messages by the hotel employees to their former coworker. Some called this morbid and wrong. But in a way I was glad to see this. While it is just a dirty car in a garage. I am sure that it serves as a reminder to the hotel employees about their coworker and about how precious life is.

Release of SessionSwap

Sat, 09 May 2009 11:06:00 -0500

I have released a little tag that I have used for a couple of years now that persists the session information to the database. It has worked like a charm and has little impact on performance. SessionSwap