I finally got around to getting some photos up on flickr from the webDU 2007 conference. Geoff, Julie, and the other Daemonites did a great job of putting together an awesome conference (as well as the after-party for speakers... I had so much fun playing the Wii that I bought one shortly after I got home).

Go take a look at the pictures.

I thought I had a great deal when I found a packaged flight to Sydney Australia. Because I left from Hartford, CT (United States) I have to find a connecting flight to Los Angelas.

United Airlines came through with a packaged deal that was not only US$300 less than everyone else, but was supposed to be a few hours less flight time as well (who'd pass up on a deal like that).

So I booked my 24 hour flight and left from home Sunday afternoon.

All the flights were on time and everything was going great until we were descending to land in Sydney. About 5 minutes from landing, the engines of our plane revved-up and we were climbing again. Another 5 minutes passed and the pilot informed us that Sydney Airport was shut down due to heavy fog. We were being redirected to Melbourne (1hr), would refuel (1hr), and then fly back to Sydney (1hr). Or so we thought.

Things got worse from there. We sat in our plane parked at the terminal for 15 minutes until they could decide what to do with us (it was 8am local time). Then they told us to get off the plane, take a break (drink voucher), and we'd be re-boarding in an hour (well, that sounds nice of them). However, after we got off the plane we were soon informed we weren't leaving for a few more hours. And so the delays began... one after the other.

It gets better. Around 12:00 noon they realized they let all of us off the plane (to go wherever we pleased) without ever putting us through Customs (oops!). So there answer to that was to setup a quarantine area at our gate where they'd re-check our passports, carry-on bags, and a frisk-down (not sure I see the logic in this... what about the bad people who decided to just leave the Melbourne airport?).

But wait, there's more! After 5 or so hours of sitting in the Melbourne airport we finally re-boarded our plane. We taxied to a spot (somewhere) and sat there for a prolonged time. We were then told that we had to go "back" to the terminal because engine 4 would not start (great).

So there we were, parked and waiting. Then I looked out my window (at engine 4) and I see what looks like the local handy-man on a step ladder poking and prodding with a long thin metal rod into an open access panel. He continued to do this for 15 minutes until he somehow jump-started the engine. We were told at this point it was safe to take off (oh boy, we felt so safe at that point).

Either way I finally made it to the conference hotel in one piece and took a long hot shower :).

Well, I'm off to go to webDU 2007. This will be my first time in Sydney (let alone Australia), so I'm planning to get in some site seeing after the conference before heading back home.

But first I get to endure 24 hours of flight travel (yeay!). However, Sydney is such a beautiful city I know it will be worth the trip :).

I'll once again be speaking at the ColdFusion conference CF.Objective this year (last year was a blast).

This year I'll be covering the new (yet ot be released) FarCry 4.0. A list of some of the sessions was posted earlier tonight on the CF.Objective Sessions Page as well as a mini description of my session.

My session will be convering some of the new features in FarCry 4.0 including the new object broker, "formtools" technology, instant wizards and more.

The guys at Daemon are at it again. This year webDU promises to be another great web technology conference. Speakers like Tim Buntel, Mike Chambers, Ted Patrick, James Talbot, and Charlie Arehart (to name a few) will be there to once again share their expertise in tools and languages we know and love.

This will be the first year am I going to webDU (and my first year in Oz). I will be speaking on the new upcoming FarCry 4.0 Application Framework and some of it's really cool new features that have been added in this revision that help make FarCry development even easier and more streamlined than ever before.

Oh, and if you get a chance make sure to check out the cool new mug shot of me put together by the awesome team from Nectarine.

While I'm here at Adobe MAX 2006 I decided to take the CFMX7 Developer exam. I'm happy to say that not only did I pass the test to become certified, but I got enough score (plus some) to be considered an advanced developer (w00t!).

Sorry if this post is tooting my own horn, but its not often I even try for certifications anymore.

Adobe is having a party for everyone at the Palms Resort Casino in a few minutes. So I'm off to celebrate :)

This year's CFUntied looks to be even better than the last. There is a lot to learn and I'm very ready to jump into Flex 2.0 head first.

So I'm packed and ready to go (I'm leaving Tuesday morning). After arriving at Reagan National Airport I'll be meeting Charlie Griefer and Ray Camden to catch a cab to the hotel. Andy Allen should arrive sometime later that evening (he and I are sharing a room). CJ is rooming with Scott Stroz (the man with the cooler) and we plan to have adjoining rooms (will we even get sleep... who knows). Scott's bringing the beer and Andy's bringing scotch direct from Scotland. So I guess that leaves CJ and me to stay sober ;).

I'll likely be unwinding in the evenings at the hotel's local pub, so if you see me be sure to say hi and grab a beer.

This is part 2 of my video presentation on FarCry 3.0 An Overview (based on a presentation I gave at the CF.Objective() 2006 conference).

I know I said I would get this out earlier and I only have myself to blame :). It's been three months since I recorded all 4 parts. However I'm very novice when it comes to video editing, thus it took me one full day (yesterday and part of this morning) to edit part 2 (I got the video down from 25 minutes to around 14 minutes).

I have yet to edit parts 3 and 4 (and I'm considering making a follow-up part 5), but for now please watch part 2 and feel free to send me comments.

Part 2 covers basic FarCry configuration and intro to content management within the FarCry administration system.

I have also provided the slides from my presentation. You can download them in either PowerPoint (PPT) or PDF format. You can find a copy of the presentation files in the downloads section of my website.

Since the end of the CF.Objective() 2006 conference I have been asked to give my presentation on FarCry 3.0 at a few different locations for different clients/events (one of which I volunteered for). Now that I've done the presentation several times I have decided to make a video representation of it.

Since the presentation on average is just short of an hour long I decided to break the video up into four parts for easier web distribution. This morning I completed editing the first part and you can get it from the tutorials section of the website.

Part 1 describes a little background on FarCry, topic headings that will be discussed in the presentation, FarCry's minimum requirements for installation, and a few other details. The presentation then goes into an installation demonstration using Apache on Windows (my development laptop).

Parts 2-4 will show examples of a general site configuration, a brief description of user security, and then will go into content examples (from static content like HTML pages, to dynamic content like News and Categories). I then show some examples of how to use containers, includes, custom types, verity search integration, RSS/XML content syndication, SES Friendly URLs, and more. So, keep an eye out in the next week or two for parts 2-4.

I have also provided the slides from my presentation (slightly updated). You can download them in either powerpoint (PPT) or PDF format. You can find a copy of the presentation files in the downloads section of my website.