On Thursday evening (Nov 12, 2009 @ 5:30) I will be speaking to the Twin Cities Language User Group about CFML.

The Twin Cities Language User Group is, to me, a unique group. It is not focused on a particular language or family of languages, its concept seems to be to bridge the divide between languages and to expose developers to new ideas and methodologies. It seemed like a perfect place to pitch CFML and show other developers just how great CFML is.

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Last night I had a great time presenting to the Boston ColdFusion user Group on Application Security. It seems like we had a great turnout both in Boston and in the Connect room.

As promised during the meeting, I am posting the slides, in both OpenOffice and PowerPoint format. I am also posting a PDF handout that has code sample, best practices and other information that may not have been in the presentation.

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Well, not exactly AT the Boston CFUG. As much as I would like to visit Beantown, I will actually be presenting via Adobe Connect at 6:30 PM EST on Wednesday September 16th, 2009.

I was honored to be asked to present on application security. I am also excited, because I love talking about this geeky stuff. I think it is important for all of us to know more about application security.

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Last night we did a hands-on Adobe AIR session at the Twin Cities ColdFusion User Group meeting. We had a great turnout of about 18 people and I was very happy to see so much interest in Adobe AIR. I think it is a lot of fun to work in and I am glad I piqued the interest of so many others.

As promised at the meeting, I am posting the source code of the completed application.

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On Wednesday, September 2nd, I will be presenting at the Twin Cities ColdFusion User Group meeting. At this meeting we are going to be trying something new (at least for me since I have been going to the CFUG). We are going to do some hands-on work with the technologies we love instead of just doing a lecture-style presentation.

The work we will be doing is with Adobe AIR, JavaScript, jQuery, and SQLite. Here is the description for the session:

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Congratulations Kyle Dodge on winning my drawing for a copy of the Lynda.com ColdFusion 8: Beyond the Basics training DVD. A total on 23 people entered, which was great, I am glad to see so much interest in learning ColdFusion better.

Even if you did not win, by all means, check out Lynda.com. I think it is a great resource.

Last night I got together, online, with Todd Raffery, Ben Nadel and Andy Matthews to talk about Adobe AIR and jQuery.

Last week, while twittering, we came up with the idea of having a "virtual classroom" setting, using Adobe Connect to get together and work through building an AIR application from scratch. So we did just that. This was a private session, so don't feel like you missed an announcement. I wanted to keep it small and informal so that we could feel OK about speaking freely, having fun and learning through questions and discussion.

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NOTE: I have closed the comments on this entry. The contest is now over, I have selected and notified the winner. I will blog about that shortly. - Jason 7/24/2009 13:10

I have come into possession of a copy of the Lynda.com ColdFusion 8: Beyond the Basics Training DVD. For those unfamiliar with Lynda.com, it is an excellent resource for training videos for an array of different technologies and concepts. I have been a member of Lynda.com through my job, and prior to that, on my own and I think it is an excellent service.

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UPDATE: For anyone that may have missed this, here is the recording URL:
https://admin.adobe.acrobat.com/_a17673838/p99669686/

Unfortunately, we cannot all be in the beautiful city of Nashville tonight to see Andy Matthew present his jQuery and AIR: Desktop Development for the Front End Designer. And we weren't all at cf.Objective to catch it there (I was, it was great). But, you can still see it in person or online TONIGHT!

I think this presentation is a "must see". Not just for the Front End Designer, but for any of us who want to see the power of Adobe AIR when combined with something as fantastic and jQuery.

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I have recently given up trying to keep up with Microsoft Office. I have nothing against the product, I just don't want to afford it. Especially when there is an excellent free alternative, namely OpenOffice.

I've been using OpenOffice Impress (the OpenOffice alternative to PowerPoint) for a while now, and I really like it. It has done everything that I have needed it to, until last month's Twin Cities ColdFusion User Group meeting.

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