Jon Hartmann

Another program I can't live without

• September 29, 2008 2:05 PM
• General
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And I just installed it today! Taskbar Shuffle is probably something that only a software developer or someone that works at the computer all day would want to use. It might be my OCD, but I always end up opening the programs that I use all day first, and have them to the left in my task bar, while the things I open and close all day long like text files and web browsers tend to be center to right. It always annoyed me to no end if one of my long running programs crashed, because when I restarted t the app, it would end up on the right hand of the stack. Now with Taskbar Shuffle, I can just drag and drop it back where I want. I can also rearrange the running service icons, if I needed to do such a thing.

Now if I could just figure out how to make the CTRL + T command to launch Chrome from the desk top I'd be very happy indeed.

Well, I can launch Chrome with CTRL + ALT + T, but that isn't exactly what I want either. Good enough for now though.

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BlogCFC Broke

• September 23, 2008 5:01 PM
• BlogCFC
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So, recently my install of the blog CFC client for this section broke and started kicking a really weird error. I tried fixing it by reinstalling the client, which failed... so I dumped a fresh org/... folder in as well, which caused me to have to update my database because my blog was out of date...

Blarg. Now my old theme is gone for this site.

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Five Applications I Can't Live Without.

• September 18, 2008 5:37 PM
• General
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Its always hard to find something to talk about in my general blog (which is why it will be much less prominent next time I redesign the site), but I realized that I just had to post about the things that i have to install on all the computers I use frequently.

1. The Zune Theme

   Ok, so this technically isn't an application, but its my list so I'll do what I want. The Zune Theme for Windows XP transforms XP into something you can stand looking at all day. The default "theme" of blue and green bars looks like it was designed for Playskool, not a work machine. The black and orange design is modern, slick, and wont make you feel like you are playing with Mega Blocks.

2. Winamp

   If you need music, Winamp is your answer. Its simple to use, rocks solid, and it can play your CDs, MP3s, videos, whatever. It also includes a visualization plug-in that can keep you in supply of amazing visuals to accompany your tunes. Even better, the current theme matches well with the Zune Theme.

3. Launchy

   Launchy is a "keystroke launcher" which means it can launch your programs based on key strokes alone. This may not sound like much, but it means you'll never have to dig through your Programs list trying to find what you want again, just pres "Alt + Enter" type what you want, and Launchy matches the cloest program, or lets you choose from a list of options if it didn't bring up the one you wanted. Also, the "Mercury" skin fits awesome with Zune.

4. Trillian

   If you use any kind of instant messaging app, then Trillian is for you. Trillian lets you connect just about any instant messaging service all through one window. This means you can chat with your ICQ friends, your AOL friends, and your MSN friends all through one interface. Also, some of the optional skins have a black color that works well with Zune... see a... umm... theme here?

5. Google Chrome

   Well you shouldn't have! My last application is Google Chrome, and at least so far, I've found no way to make it look black and orange at all! That doesn't keep it from being the best browser I've ever used though. It has some quirks, and things that simply don't work (spelling mistakes are highlighted, but you can't autocorrect them), but it has all the basics, and its FAST. Plus it uses WebKit, one of the most up-to-date rendering engines for the web ever. Top it with the intelligent "home" page, and I'm a happy camper.

Maybe one of those will be useful for you.

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"Failure in browser during Loading phase"

• September 11, 2008 8:43 AM
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An error: ERROR encountered loading https://myapp.company.net/reports/createReport.cfm: Failure in browser during Loading phase : Insufficient memory occured during the rendering process of this document.

I was having problems running a report in one of my ColdFusion 8 applications that generated a PDF, and in debugging the issue, I found an error message above. I've not seen it before, and I even tried using the interwebs to find the source, but to no avail.

The URLs have been changed for those that are wondering.

Its a big file, so I'm not surprised something is off, but this message actually cites the browser as the source of the issue. I was hitting the page using Google Chrome, so I wondered if I should check it in other browsers. I loaded up Firefox 3 and got the dreaded java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space error. Tried reloading it in Chrome and now got the heap space error as well... did I flood the memory running the test, or did Firefox handle something differently?

I'm confused, as the original message cited the browser as the cause, and when I switched browsers the error changed.

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Ruby on Rails: What I Like

• September 9, 2008 6:18 PM
• Frameworks
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I started a short series of blogs about what I like in a number of modern frameworks/web programming environments. This is part of an effort to find what really works in these languages, and to see how best I can port them to ColdFusion. This time around its the king of RAD, Ruby on Rails.

Rails is all the rage these days, so its hard not to compare any framework to the "RoR". Its even harder when lost of frameworks for existing languages are inspired by Ruby on Rails, and try to re-implement things it does in their own language. You know what they say: "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." Now its time for me to see what I like.

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CakePHP: What I like

• July 24, 2008 11:48 PM
• ColdFusion, Frameworks
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I've been doing a lot of thinking about frameworks lately, and about how much work it is to get a MVC/Model2 framework going in ColdFusion compared to in other languages/servers. This lead me to investigate the documentation for a number of non-ColdFusion server/frameworks that I've used, or are popular, and I've been trying to round out a list of what I like and why.

The first installment of this mini-series is on CakePHP. Please remember that while I may have used some of these frameworks, I'm not an expert, so I might be missing the thing that makes that framework cool. If so, let me know that you think the best parts of the framework are, and I'll see if I agree.

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