HostMySite is offering free ColdFusion 8 (code name Scorpio) hosting, which includes everything you need to test the new functionality, such as .NET framework 3.0, SQL Server Access... not sure if they're going to give me a restricted CFAdmin account to check the server monitoring ... but worth the money -- cough, free -- ... get your Scorpio account now.
I'll post an update as I start playing with it.

So it took me too long, but I just realized that IIS6 does not uses gzip compression by default. IIS6 ships with gzip compression capabilities, but they're turned off by default, and moreover, not straight forward to turn on. You can turn them on for application/dynamic files and static files... the static ones are rather simple, but for the dynamic you need to specify the extensions either through scripting or editing the metabase.xml.

Nevertheless, guess what, couldn't get cfm/cfc files to compress ... well, haven't spent more than 10 minutes, but it shouldn't really take more than that. After these 10 minutes I remembered that there's software out there to tweak and ease up configuring the IIS settings. The most popular one is port80's httpZip, and there's also pipeBoost. After after reading Microsoft's instructions and looking at the two commercial products, which one would you recommend? Have you guys have any experience with either and ColdFusion servers?

Until not too long ago, Google did not allow you to ping their blog search engine, but they finally added support for it. They support XMP-RPC and REST pings... for BlogCFC users, both are in theory rather easy. A couple years ago I wrote a generic XML-RPC client for blogCFC, which if you're using, you can easily ping Google using this method, however, if you're not, it's just as easy ... BlogCFC can ping urls using regular http gets / REST if you specify the URL in the config.ini.cfm file. Simple find the pings parameter and add the following line:

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping?name=[yourBlogName]&url=[yourBlogURL]&changesURL=[yourBlogRSSURL]

Can't get any easier... if you need more info, you can check the ping API docs.

Cannes Lions is the largest advertising even in the planet, capturing 11,000 visitors from 75 countries and this year I get to go -- so excited! Is anyone from the community making it over there? Go figure, the official site is ColdFusion based :)
Then I'll be flying to CFUnited the very same day I come back, fun-times.

I'm presenting a really small preview for my Flex Intensive CFUnited pre-conference class tomorrow at the CF Meetup. It will be at 12:30 and you can access here. The presentation will cover basics of Flex, why you would want to learn it, show you the huge amount of topics I will cover, and some Q&A... so it will be 1/2h tops, thus you can easily connect during your lunch time and check if you're interested in attending.

I'll post my slides tomorrow after the presso.

Cheers.

We’re looking for someone who eats, sleeps, and breaths Flash ActionScript.

iChameleon Group offers an incredible career building full-time position working with notable National + International companies. Some of our client projects include Mini-Cooper, EarthLink, Slim Jim, De Beer’s, Bridgestone, and Coke. Our fast growing company develops various exciting, innovative, and high profile websites and applications fusing media, video, audio and Flash.

We strongly suggest viewing our portfolio at www.ichameleongroup.com to understand the quality of work.

We are a fun, eccentric, hardworking, creative group in a business casual environment.  We are looking for a dynamic, motivated team player who will enjoy working in a fast-paced, deadline driven, ever changing development and solution-based environment.



Requirements, skills + abilities:

     Team Player
     Self Starter
     Interactive site development experience
     3+ years of experience                        
     Flash MX 2004 / Flash 8 / CS3
     ActionScript 1.0 / 2.0 / 3.0, XML
     Strong Motion Graphics
     Ability to create animation via ActionScript as well as the traditional timeline.
     Knowledge of Flash Components
     Experience with Flash Remoting
     PC fluent (Mac A Plus)
     Solid communications skills (written and verbal)
     Outgoing, Energetic Personality
     Good Organizational Skills
     Detail oriented, strong follow-up skills and ability to work on multiple projects.


Additional bonus skills:

     Flash Communication Server
     Photoshop
     Illustrator
     Dreamweaver MX 2004
     HTML
     CSS
     Experience in producing games and game interfaces.
     ColdFusion, ASP, PHP, PERL, or any other web language.
     After Effects
     Final Cut
     Ability to levitate things with your mind.

Want to come join our team? Submit your resume and cover letter, including salary history, to hr@ichameleongroup.com

iChameleon Group offers an incredible career building full-time position working with notable National + International companies. Our fast growing company develops various exciting, innovative, and high profile applications fusing media, video, audio and Flash.  

We are a fun, eccentric, hardworking, creative group in a business casual environment.  We are looking for a dynamic, motivated team player who will enjoy working in a fast-paced, deadline driven, ever changing development and solution-based environment.  

The successful ColdFusion web developer candidate must posses:

    * The ability to support for the full application development life cycle activities of software products and development.
    * Demonstrated skills in documenting development.
    * Strong problem solving and debugging skills.


requirements, skills + abilities:

    * Team Player
    * Self Starter
    * Interactive site development experience
    * 2-5 years of experience                        
    * ColdFusion MX 7
    * Object Oriented Programming  
    * Experience with Flash Remoting
    * Database design and SQL
    * HTML, JavaScript, and CSS
    * PC fluent (Mac A Plus)
    * Solid communications skills (written and verbal)
    * Outgoing, Energetic Personality
    * Good Organizational Skills
    * Detail oriented, strong follow-up skills and ability to work on multiple projects


additional skills:

    * Macromedia Certified ColdFusion MX 7
    * Framework Knowledge (Fusebox, Mach II, Model-Glue,Tartan)
    * Design Patterns
    * UML
    * AJAX
    * ASP, PHP, PERL, or any other web language
    * CVS and/or subversion experience

Want to come join our team? Submit your resume and cover letter, including salary history, to hr@ichameleongroup.com

Every day you discover a little more about Google, this one is quite interesting.

CFUnited posted a small video summary of some of last year's random interviews and I'm featured in the first slot :) ... so check me out at CFUnited and try to make it this year to say hi ... The conference has improved every year and promises to do so this year again.

BTW, if you have any interest in Flex, don't forget my pre-conference 8h intensive Flex class, for all levels.

Due to popular request, I added an example showing how to easily submit an entire form through Ajax with the fastSerialize jQuery plugin.

All you require to do is to include this plugin: