No wonder...

... I don't feel like blogging anymore. :) Just kidding. Narthex has an opinion on this that I happen to agree with.

Blog Pause

Just to keep things up to date, I'll be pretty scarce this week as we move. I hope to have a preview report on the upcoming Blanding game, as well as a couple of other things I've been working on posted this week, but I'm not certain as to what's going to happen time wise.

In addition to moving, work is going to be busy this week as we deal with Katrina's landfall and recovery efforts. It looks like we are going to be expanding some of the recovery and mitigation programs we manage for Florida into Lousiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. More on that later.

ColdFusion: Replacement for <cfupdate>

I've been writing ColdFusion for seven years - spanning back more versions than I can remember right now, and I've always held the CFINSERT and CFUPDATE tags in contempt. For the longest time, this was sheer snobbery on my part - anyone who can write actual SQL statements shouldn't depend on the Allaire/Macromedia provided crutches that were what I percevied those tags to be. Any developer that would listen to me would get long rants about how you should write your own INSERT and UPDATE statements inside a CFQUERY, rather than depend on the CFINSERT and CFUPDATE tags. You got much more control, and that usually ended up as more efficient code.

Well, snobbery gave way to genuine dislike for those two tags recently. I was asked to take a look at an existing CF app that was being moved from a CF5 server to a CFMX server. Once of the issues that was occuring was that when a form submited data to the MySQL database, extraneous garbage characters were getting prepended to the text. So data that was entered on the form as:

This is my text information

Was getting inserted into the database as:

??!'This is my text information

Obviously, this was less than ideal.

The database in question is MySQL v4.1, and the application server is ColdFusion MX 6.1 running on Windows 2003 Standard Edition. I tried manipulating the form variables prior to inserting the data to the database, and had no success. I then realized that the original developer had used CFUPDATE to insert the form data to the database, rather than custom SQL in a CFQUERY tag. I decided to try a CFQUERY tag instead, but ran into a large problem. The form was dynamic - there was no set list of variables that was going to be submitted. This was one of the few areas that CFUPDATE was actually useful. However, a test SQL statement showed that the culprit was indeed the CFUPDATE statement.

So how to recreate the dynamic nature of CFUPDATE within a standard CFQUERY tag? Like this:

<cfscript>
StructDelete(form, "fieldnames");
</cfscript>
<cfquery name="update_form_apt_condo" datasource="alpha">
update form_apt_condo
set
<cfloop collection=#form# item="ffield">
#ffield# = '#StructFind(form, ffield)#',
</cfloop>
ID = '#form.id#'
where ID = '#form.ID#'
</cfquery>

It's bit of a hack - particularly the redundant ID = '#form.id#' line at the end (that would also be included in the loop). But it does work like a charm. You can also remove any form fields you do not want submitted to the database by including them in the StructDelete statements at the top. You have to remove the fieldnames key from the form struct, or it will throw an error on execution. Also, this statement assumes that the database table has a key named 'ID'. That would have to be adjusted for tables with a different primary key column.

Google Joins the IM Market... Why?

Google has decided to launch their own IM product, Google Talk. This app looks like it's aimed squarely at Skype; it contains VOIP capability as well as IM chat. It appears that the VOIP component of Talk is proprietary, which is an interesting move, while the IM component uses the common Jabber protocols. That means that Google Talk users can IM with users of Apple iChat, Gaim, and Trillian Pro, but they can only VOIP with other Google Talk users. This is particularly limiting, since the the Talk client is only available for Windows. Mac and Linux users are S.O.L.

At first, I was anxious to try it, but now I have my doubts (as does Narthex). I am an avid user of Trillian Basic. It does all that I need; it aggregates my IM clients, logs my conversations, and encrypts ICQ protocol messages to deter over-the-wire interception. I have not upgraded to Trillian Pro since that version offers me little return for my $25. I do not find that I need the additional features of the Pro version, and that is the version required to add the Jabber/XMPP plug-in that allows you to connect to Google Talk. And even with the plug-in, I'd still need to run the Google Talk client to use the Voice features. Since I'd have to run a second app to make use of the VOIP features, why not just stick with Skype?

Which brings me to my point: Is there room for two talk-for-free VOIP applications in the arena? And how does Google plan on competing with the large, established user base of Skype? Google Talk has almost no differentiation from Skype, in fact. Well, nothing that would be considered "positive" differentiation. Skype has a larger feature set, more users, and a pile of plug-ins already. That said, it would not surprise me to find out this was a prelude to an acquisition of Skype by Google.

Google puts out some great software, and I'm a big fan, but I think there is more to Google Talk than we are being shown right now, and I'm interested to see what it is.

NCAA decides they were wrong

Well, that didn't take long.

The NCAA has reversed their decision to impose sanctions against Florida State University for using the 'Seminoles' logo and name. They apparently decided that since the Seminole tribes of Florida and Oklahoma weren't offended, then neither should they. It's amazing what common sense (and threats of very high profile lawsuits) can do these days.

Go 'Noles!

Ney Toys: Google Desktop 2.0

It's been a pretty hectic day. I've been working on three projects for the office, one for myself, and still trying to nail down all the details for our impending move. The result is little time to blog. However, I felt the call to mention the coolest thing I've toyed with in a while - Google Desktop 2.0.

I've used the original for a while, bu this is... awesome. First off, it indexes Gmail info now. Since I use Gmail as my catch all mail storage, that's pretty great. The second item is even cooler - the Google Sidebar. With plugins to monitor email, news, RSS, a photo album, search window, and intelligent shortcuts... it's very handy. Well worth the screen real estate.

I'd recommend everyone check this thing out.

Blogger and Word

This post over at Narthex's to blog for blogging sake filled me in on the new Google toolbar for Word. It lets you post to your Blogger account straight from your word processor.

I hate it. Of course, I hate Word, too, so it had a strike (or three) against it right from the start.

I originally posted this content using the tool, and it mangled all the special characters - single quotes, elipisis, etc. Everything came out looking slightly wrong. So I'm sticking with w.bloggar, my tool of choice. It's light, fast, and feature rich. What more do you need?

Drones on the Border

This article (spotted on Bruce Schneier's blog) has some interesting info on the increasing use of unmanned aerial vehicles to surveil the U.S. borders. However, while I find the facts and figures enlightening, I do not agree with the conclusions drawn by EPIC.

First, the surveillance technology displayed by these UAV's is not anything new. Helicopters and satellites have been able to do perform the general types of missions (with various technical/operational drawbacks) for years now. So a sudden cry of "aerial surveillance is an invasion of privacy!" doesn't really wash with me. EPIC needs to call my local sheriff's department and complain about their helicopter that patrols the skies every evening. I've stuck my head in the cockpit of that OH-58A, a military scout version of the venerable Bell JetRanger, and it's all about the surveillance equipment. Between the NightSun spotlight and the FLIR pod, the crew can track just about anything law enforcement needs to track on the ground.

Second, while UAV's are expensive compared to manned aircraft, they have greater endurance, greater range, and better command and control. As an example, the OH-58A mentioned above has an endurance of three hours, vs. the 20-50 hours of a UAV. That is a massive improvement, and greatly increases the effectiveness of the system. In regards to command and control, a remotely operated UAV, feeding data back to a central location, provides folks in charge of an operation with immediate information regarding what's happening on the ground. They do not need to have info relayed from a pilot/observer.

Third, the FAA is well used to keeping civilian aircraft out of areas that may be dangerous. When I was training as a commercial pilot, the area around our home base was dotted with several restricted areas ranging from military airfields to live bombing ranges. We did not fly into those areas. In regards to border control, it would be straightforward to designate certain corridors at certain altitudes that are off-limits to civilian aviators. If an accident occurs in that restricted space, blame will fall squarely on the civilian pilot. Take into account that pilots are not like drivers on the interstates. They are perfectly aware that breaking the rules can get them, and their passengers, killed.

In testimony about surveillance technology generally, including UAVs, the president of the National Border Patrol Council said at a House subcommittee hearing last year that “[s]ubstituting detection technology for staffing and equipment lawbreakers is unwise. While such technology can be useful … it cannot catch a single violator. Only trained people can accomplish that task.”

While this statement is true; a Predator B is not going to slap cuffs on an alien trying to cross the Arizona border, UAV's could dramatically increase the effectiveness of the forces available on the ground. Talking directly about border interdiction, wouldn't it be better to be able to vector officers directly to an area that a UAV has seen possible activity, rather than relying on folks standing on top of their SUV's with night vision binoculars? I think so.

On two occasions, the article points out that the military UAV' are sometimes equipped with weapons.

...the U.S. military has used them in reconnaissance missions in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some UAVs are equipped with weapons.

The planes also can be equipped with targeted weapons systems.

Yes, and some OH-58A Kiowa scout helicopters flown by the U.S. Army are equipped with weapons. This does not mean that the OH-58A flown by the local sheriff's department is packing a minigun or 40mm grenade launcher. And that Hummer down the street? It doesn't actually have that M-2 .50 Cal machine gun up top, either. That argument is inflammatory and ridiculous.

All in all, I'm in favor of increased border surveillance. This is one of the jobs of the federal government that I consider part of their core mission. And since this type of technology can increase the effectiveness of our already stretched thin border security folks, how can we say no?

ColdFusion: Write Protection and <cffile>

Last week, while working on a utility to import data from a .zip archive, we came across a frustrating error involving the move action and cffile. This is the error message that appears in the CF logs. The first thing that was strange was that the error did not appear on the client browser - all that was returned was a 500 Server Error.

The file/directory ""C:\inetpub\wwwroot\training\links"" provided as the ""Destination"" is ReadOnly.The ""Move"" cannot be performed. The specific sequence of files included or processed is: C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\testadmin\projectimportprocess.cfm

After looking in the log, and seeing the error, I headed to the directory in question, and saw that it was not read only. After more looking around, I remembered rule number one of NT/2000/2003 server administration: It's always a permissions problem. Even though everything looked fine on the Security tab, I re-ran the Permissions Wizard in IIS, and reset everything. After that, I then enabled "Write" permissions in IIS, and everything began to run perfectly.

When I went back to look at the permissions on the target folder, I saw that the settings appeared the same. However, the one thing I noticed differently, was the folder was now set to force inheritance on child objects and folders. I'm not certain if it was before, but that may have been the difference.

In summary, remember to check permissions issues first, and use the tools (Permissions Wizard in this case) available. Also, remember that the CF logs can often shed more light that the error (or lack thereof) reported to the client browser.

TiVo sets me straight

I'm back from my trip, and while browsing around the news this morning, I found this post from Narthex (original post from PVRBlog). It looks like my TiVo is about to get even more useful, and I'd like to thank TiVo for proving me wrong on at least one of my points.

I still haven't seen confirmation that TTG .tivo files are going to be importable... but since they are MPEG-2 encoded, I'd think they will work.

Monday, Monday

I'm going to be scarce over te next couple of days. We are headed to Orlando today to put on a Public Information tabletop exercise for state officials. It's turned into a pretty major undertaking, complete with drop shipped laptops and custom code. Here's hoping that it comes off properly, or I'm going to look stupid in front of about four hundred folks.

My son started Kindergarten this morning, and I think he's going to be fine. It was probably more traumatic for his mother and I than for him. He's looking forward to it, and I think he's going to have a lot of fun.

While I'm traveling, news posts will be scarce, but I should be back into the swing of things later this week. I have a couple of things to type up for here, including a solution to an obscure ColdFusion issue, and a rant on sci fi blunders.

For now, I'm out.

Yeah, I'm having trouble with this

My son starts Kindergarten tomorrow, and I really can't get my mind around that. We sat around tonight, and went back through all the paperwork, folders, forms, and booklets that we've received, and it really started to hit me.

He's five, and he's starting real school. Will he do well? I'd like to think so, but it's still nerve wracking to think about. And most of all, will he be okay having to do so much on his own? How will he handle that?

In the end, there's very little I can do to change things now. We've prepared him socially, and it's time for him to go start learning things for himself. But I still feel pretty overwhelmed.

Firefly is starting to catch...

I watched another episode of Firefly this evening, and it's starting to catch on with me. I'm almost past the weird costuming and weapons, and starting to enjoy the characters and high concept.

The episode, however, tripped one of my 'B.S. SciFi Alarms'. That's not always a deal breaker - SG-1 and Atlantis trip those alarms often enough that I had to learn to ignore them. In other words, it's forgivable if the characters and plots are good (read as: fun).

Hmmm, I think I'll save the specifics on what it was the grated on me for a post/rant that isn't specifically about the show Firefly. That'll be fun. Stay tuned.

New Look

Well, I abandoned the 'totally custom' idea in favor of a customization of an standard template. I really like how it came out, and it will probably keep me satisfied for the next six months or so.

The photo in the header was taken by me, overlooking a lake in Grand Teton National Park. Go visit, it's some really pretty country.

Yup. I want that!

Narthex has the links to the coolest TiVo feature I've seen yet. Well, maybe. My only questions about the TiVo Download service are these:

1. Will you ever be able to pull your own digital movie content (including my archived TiVo2Go files) to the TiVo, or will you always be locked into 'approved' content?
2. How will the bandwidth performance be?
3. Will I ever be able to share TiVo recorded shows with other TiVo subscribers via this service?
   

For the record, I believe the answers will be (in order): "Hell no", "Horrible", and "Are you outta your ever loving mind?!?".

Prove me wrong, TiVo, please. :)

Can you hear me now? Crap!

I have a sudden urge to drop my Treo 650 in the nearest toilet. This article out of the Guardian (UK) talks about how public surveillance is getting more and more common in the UK. London already has one of the largest networks of dedicated surveillance cameras, and that network has proved helpful in identifying the bombing suspects. Please note, however, that is failed as a deterrent.

Anyway, about halfway through the article, my jaw hit the floor:

The main means of tracking terrorist suspects down has been the monitoring of mobile phone conversations. Not only can operators pinpoint users to within yards of their location by "triangulating" the signals from three base stations, but - according to a report in the Financial Times - the operators (under instructions from the authorities) can remotely install software onto a handset to activate the microphone even when the user is not making a call.

This means (if factual) that British authorities can turn cell phones into walking bugs. It simply makes my skin crawl. Hence my sudden impulse to get rid of my phone.

There is a fine line between safety and privacy, and it's facinating to me to see how two similar societies approach it. I'm pretty sure that something like that would never get any type of public support in the U.S... but I might be wrong. I hope I'm not, but who knows?

Go 'Noles!

I agree, this is ridiculous. According to the NCAA, Florida State University should be ashamed of its Native American nickname and mascot. Since the university has been endorsed by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and they even make the costumes and rigging for Chief Osceola and Renegade, I'm not clear on who we are supposed to be offending. Apparently, neither is Gov. Jeb Bush:

The NCAA's finding that the school's Seminoles nickname is "hostile and offensive," instead of honoring American Indians has the opposite effect, the governor said, because the tribe supports the school's use of its name.

"I think it's offensive to native Americans ... the Seminole Indian tribe who support the traditions of FSU," Bush said on his way into a Cabinet meeting. "I think they insult those people by telling them, 'No, no, you're not smart enough to understand this. You should be feeling really horrible about this.' It's ridiculous."

All in all, doesn't the NCAA have better things to worry about?

Studio 8 Arrives, Without Freehand

I use Macromedia Studio all day, everyday. I love Dreamweaver as an IDE for ColdFusion - in some ways more than I enjoy working in Visual Studio .NET. Macromedia has announced that Freehand will not be included in the new version of Studio; it will be replaced with versions of Contribute and FlashPaper.

The company states that this better reflects the everyday use of web developers (and I tend to agree), but I also cannot believe it is not related to the upcoming Adobe/Macromedia merger/acquisition.

Since the Adobe purchase of Macromedia was announced last spring, I immediately forsaw the eventual demise of Freehand and Fireworks. Adobe would be foolish to not funnel the userbases of those two software packages into Illustrator and Photoshop. Granted, they should probably expend some effort to make the transition relatively painless by merging feature sets, etc., but I still think those two are going to go away. At the same time, I suspect that FlashPaper will slowly fade to nothing, as Adobe smothers that under their ubiquitous PDF products.

Frankly, the only Macromedia products that Adobe really needs are Flash and ColdFusion - and that's only if CF is allowed to continue. I hope that it does, but it wouldn't surprise me to see it die off in a year or two. (My resume is screaming about that).

We'll see what happens.

Welcome Home Discovery

The shuttle Discovery touched down safely at 0812 EST, at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Welcome home.

Weekend Update. Oh, and rant on bad TV.

No, not the SNL one - I just wish I was as funny as Tina Fey.

Anyway, just a few notes here as I wrap up my weekend. My on-again/off-again deal to sell my house is on again. We had a sit down with the buyer and ironed out all the glitches in the deal. I think. We'll see, won't we? I have to say, the emotional roller coaster got pretty old last week, and I pretty much ended up in the IDGAF zone. If the deal closes, it closes. If not, the sun will rise again.

Other than that, I spent a great deal of time this weekend doing nothing. It was glorious. I did catch some TiVo, including my SciFi Friday lineup, a new show from Fox called Wanted, and the second episode of Over There. Well, let's be clear, I only watched the first fifteen minutes of Over There before I deleted it from the TiVo, and made sure it would not get recorded again.

Yes, it was that bad. I thought the first episode was rough as hell; full of stupid stereotypes, rehashed plot points and enough technical and tactical goofs to annoy the crap out of me. That aside, I thought I'd give the second episode a try. This time around, the squad that forms the main focus of the show was placed on ad hoc roadblock duty. It looked like six guys and one unarmored HMMWV manning a position of sandbags across a desolate road.

When a vehicle without lights approaches during the night, the soldiers open fire (after one yelled something at the vehicle). Two M-4's and a M-240 (all fired from the standing position) riddle the vehicle, causing it to swerve of the road and crash about fifteen meters from the blocking position. The soldiers (including their 'seasoned' sergeant) simply stand and stare for a moment, before another vehicle (with headlights) approaches. This car does not get shot up (presumably because their lights were on). A soldier approaches the car, and asks for identification. He lowers his weapon and comes up with a penlight, which he uses to examine the papers presented to him. He then waves the car through. Shortly after this, the sergeant is asked by one of the troops what to do about the car they shot up, and the people inside. He is told, by the gruff sergeant, that the people inside are dead, and "not to touch it, go near it, do anything", and that he would radio it in in the morning.

By this point my mouth was open in awe. This was inane. A squad shoots up a car, which may or may not contain the guy they are looking for in the first place, and doesn't report it? They don't search it? They just let it sit there, fifteen meters away? If you read the official reports on the roadblock incident that killed an Italian intelligence officer in March of 2005, you can easily determine some of the standard procedures troops use to warn oncoming cars. These methods include spotlights, lasers, and warning shots; none of which were evident in Over There. Hell, I would have liked to see anything that was evidence of the background work necessary to produce a show on such a sensitive topic. These troops came across as stupid cowboys, not exactly a flattering image. In fact, I found it rather disturbing.

So I voted with my feet, as they say, and stopped watching. There nothing else I can really do about that, except gripe about it here.

While I am not implying that I have any time in this or any other combat theater, I do have some knowledge on how things go, and this show misses the mark on almost all of them. For a more authoritative look on how bad this show is, read some of the entries in blogs written by guys who have been downrange.

New Look

Since I've now found three other blogs that I occasionally read using this free template, it's time to customize. Stay tuned for a new look and feel!

Well. That didn't take long

Windows Vista has already been targeted by a virus author.

A virus writer has published the first examples of malicious code that targets Microsoft's upcoming command-line shell, code-named Monad, according to Finnish antivirus maker F-Secure.

I guess, all things considered, that this isn't a huge surprise.

We're getting the band back together

It's shaping up to be a great scenario game at the Camp Blanding MOUT. Several of the guys I used to play with are heading down to play, and that should be interesting. It'll be like old times.

I've started thinkning about what gear I need to get ready. Since I plan on staying in a hotel again, I have less to worry about, so that's a good thing. I plan on packing pretty lite in everything except the paintball stuff - for that, I'm bringing it all. Never can tell what you might need.

This fall, I'm going to try and cement the identity of The Black Company. A little self promotion never hurt anyone. :)

Delivering Emergency Medication

Health and Human Services secretary Mike Leavitt said in an interview Tuesday that the U.S. Postal Service was being considered as a method to distribute medications in an emergency.

"We're looking at having more points of distribution, for example. We're experimenting with having the postal service being able to deliver them, because they walk those routes every day."

This is an interesting idea, and it might even be effective. Currently, the Centers For Disease Control in Atlanta maintains the Strategic National Stockpile. This stock of antibiotics and other drugs is designed to be delivered to a targeted area fairly quickly, and logistics plans are already in place. However, with the existing plan, immunizing an entire geographical region or even the whole country would be a huge issue. In fact, I can't think of how the USPS could really handle that either.

Leavitt said the government's goal is to have the medicine delivered within 12 hours of decision to deploy the medicine, but that exercises have revealed flaws in the delivery system.

"We're finding that the distributions systems are not adequate to put medicines in the hands of people fast enough, so we're beginning to look at alternative ways to speed that up," Leavitt said.

That doesn't even factor in the human aspect of this idea. When the postal carrier knocks on the door and hands the (probably frightened) person inside a 100 count bottle of broad spectrum antibiotics, how do accurate instructions get conveyed? Who ensures that there are not any allergies? Who confirms that medications the recipient is already taking are not contraindicated with that antibiotic/antiviral medication? What happens to folks who can't read the printed material? What about the language barrier? I just can't see putting that kind of responsibility on a mail carrier.

Now, this is not to say that the idea is completely unsound. I can see how a combination of mail carrier delivery, along with the current POD (point of distribution) might work. And the local firehouse concept has merit - but that is basically a smaller scale version of the current POD system.

What I do know is that a lot of folks are working on this issue, and I'm sure we'll see some innovative solutions get approved.

Please, Let IE7 Play Nice With CSS

As a guy who makes his living making applications work well *and* look good to the client, I'm really hoping that the new IE7 will improve it's CSS standards compliance. I use Firefox almost exclusively, with two exceptions. First, WebTrends requires that you use IE to view online reports, and second, I use it to see how horrible my code looks when rendered in IE. It never fails, I then have to spend hours tweaking (read as: cheating) the CSS to get things to look somewhat the same between IE and Mozilla.

Here's to hoping that this issue is going to get easier to deal with. To support that slim chance, we have these comments from Chris Wilson:

In IE7, we will fix as many of the worst bugs that web developers hit as we can, and we will add the critical most-requested features from the standards as well.

That MSN blog entry also lists quite a few bugs they've already squashed, as well as a promises that more will go with Beta 2.

Can't Call AAA

Discovery astronauts are going to perform and unscripted spacewalk to repair a defect in the orbiter's heat shield. Full coverage here, and here.

Good luck, and Godspeed to the crew.

Slow news day

Well, maybe not, but nothing caught my fancy anyway.

Starting to ramp up several projects at the office, some cool stuff, so I should be able to avoid boredom for a while.

One thing to note, the new FX series "Over There" was not very good. More on that later.