James Allen

Member since Dec 11, 2008

Recent Blog Comments By James Allen

Ode To ColdFusion On Valentine's Day

Posted on Feb 14, 2011 at 12:49 PM

Wow. Now all you need to do is take up Parkour and you will be my new god.. ;) You nut job. Love it.... read more »
Applying Twitter's API "Best Practices" In A ColdFusion Application

Posted on Jun 1, 2010 at 10:06 AM

I really enjoyed the presentation Ben. The best part for me though was the way you handled the error handling. Loved the way you surround the processing segment with a CFTRY and then throw your own error at varying points to handle the correct return code to the caller. Very clever and clean way of ... read more »
Muscle: Confessions Of An Unlikely Bodybuilder By Samuel Wilson Fussell

Posted on Mar 2, 2010 at 9:31 AM

Wow this sounds awesome! Gonna have to get myself a copy now. The whole body building 'scene' is so interesting - especially to those who take things to the ultimate extremes. I remember watching Arnies come back body building documentary and being captivated by it.. If you recommend this book Ben... read more »
jQuery 1.4 Reference Guide By Karl Swedberg And Jonathan Chaffer

Posted on Feb 15, 2010 at 9:48 AM

@Ben, Ah sitting in style - I like it. I'm thinking of grabbing an Ergohuman Leather. When we sit as much as we do a quality chair is essential I'd say.... read more »
BenNadel.com Gets Its First Valentine!

Posted on Feb 15, 2010 at 8:26 AM

Yeah I don't buy this for second.. I did at first then Terry reminded me that this is most likely another Nadel wind up like the whole manly PHP vs Coldfusion bar brawl. Damn you Nadel!! Though awesome post.. ;)... read more »
jQuery 1.4 Reference Guide By Karl Swedberg And Jonathan Chaffer

Posted on Feb 15, 2010 at 8:23 AM

Great reminder that I need a up-to-date JQuery book, however I am actually more interested in your office chairs. Look like they are pretty ergonomic and comfy.. What are they? ;) Love that classic office shelf unit in the background. Overloaded with books, cds / dvd's and tech.... read more »
NYC + Snow + ColdFusion + jQuery = Winter Wonderland

Posted on Dec 21, 2009 at 6:13 AM

Man your writing is amazing in snow! I can hardly read my own when on paper, let alone snow. lol. Looks like awesome fun - proper xmas weather. The city grinding to a halt with 12 inches of snow is totally understandable. Here in the UK we get 1/2 inch of snow fall and the country descends into ch... read more »
jQuery In Action By Bear Bibeault And Yehuda Katz

Posted on Oct 14, 2009 at 3:54 PM

@Ben, I know what you mean. Always difficult with books, but with something as ever evolving as JQuery it may be prudent to get the updated version to avoid learning old techniques or syntax. I know they changed a few fundamental things in 1.3 and improved a lot. The price of staying up-to-date in... read more »
jQuery In Action By Bear Bibeault And Yehuda Katz

Posted on Oct 14, 2009 at 3:47 PM

Ah another reason why I shouldn't let cool books just sit on my dev shelf! I have the first edition but never finished it - even though it's a fantastic book. Is it worth going back to it or should I just junk it and get the second edition do you think?... read more »
Do Remote CFC Method Calls Add Any Value In ColdFusion?

Posted on May 19, 2009 at 7:27 AM

@Ray Yeah when I wrote that I knew I should have mentioned that once instantiated the controller will sit in the application scope. It was more to illustrate the number of processes involved in an MG request. Your second point is a good one. As my model is all Coldspring controlled, my light weight... read more »
Do Remote CFC Method Calls Add Any Value In ColdFusion?

Posted on May 19, 2009 at 7:18 AM

@Ben, Ah I see what you mean and a very good question. It's probably good to clarify what data is retrieved via my proxy and remote facade. I'm using it for fairly small data requests - deleting a message, posting a message / question etc. Some requests don't actually return any data. A MG request... read more »
Do Remote CFC Method Calls Add Any Value In ColdFusion?

Posted on May 18, 2009 at 7:26 PM

@Ben, The MG framework takes care of everything else which isn't served via Ajax. So it builds all my pages and handles exposing the model to the frontend. With my Ajax approach I'm simply communicating with the model in a different, more lightweight way. I can still make use of the same model whe... read more »
Do Remote CFC Method Calls Add Any Value In ColdFusion?

Posted on May 18, 2009 at 5:38 PM

This has been a very interesting discussion. In the big application I've been working on for the past year I decided to go the CFAjaxProxy route. I have developed the site in ModelGlue 2 and it didn't really sit right with me to think about calling the framework for every Ajax call required. It jus... read more »
Preventing Form Caching With Javascript And jQuery

Posted on May 10, 2009 at 5:05 PM

Aha yeah, I see where you coming from now - I hadn't considered the form being interacted with if the page was slow to fully render. I was thinking that you must have had a very good reason for going with the non-JQuery method. Your solution handles this issue very well indeed. I know I've said it... read more »
Preventing Form Caching With Javascript And jQuery

Posted on May 10, 2009 at 7:05 AM

Hi Ben, If your using JQuery a more elegant solution might be to utilise the document ready method and a selector to access the form. This way you don't have to worry about using a timeout. I just tested this and it works in all 3 browsers (hoping the code will display ok): $(document).ready(funct... read more »
ColdFusion 8 Per-Application Settings Get Partially Cached (And There's Nothing You Can Do About It)

Posted on May 10, 2009 at 6:41 AM

Just wanted to say that I loved the screen capture used in the post Ben. It's the first I've seen you use and actually came here to see how you were using Jing after we talked about it on Twitter. It worked brilliantly in this example and engaged me a lot more than just reading the blog post. I lik... read more »
Dig Deep Fitness iPhone App Gets A Huge Usability Upgrade

Posted on Apr 1, 2009 at 9:57 AM

It sounds like a superb project Ben and one which is obviously a big passion of yours (always the best types of project). I have recently got into calorie counting and was toying with the idea of building my own online version. I know there are tons of services like that already but liked the idea ... read more »
Dig Deep Fitness iPhone App Gets A Huge Usability Upgrade

Posted on Apr 1, 2009 at 9:51 AM

Aha, I see - sorry, I just assumed it was an IPhone app as I saw you mention you were getting into Objective-C on another post. I did think it was pretty quick to get to production level.. Although knowing your skillset I didn't put it past you. :)... read more »
Dig Deep Fitness iPhone App Gets A Huge Usability Upgrade

Posted on Apr 1, 2009 at 6:32 AM

Looks like a great app Ben. Out of interest, how long did it take you to pick up Objective-C and build your first IPhone app? Did you have any C experience etc before learning this? I was initially interested in maybe looking into iphone development but my cursory glance at the syntax made my head... read more »
Is It Time For "Practical" Object Oriented Programming (OOP)?

Posted on Mar 31, 2009 at 3:29 PM

Some great contributions here Ben that hopefully show you that you shouldn't be doubting yourself when it comes to learning OO or your ability to do so. It sounds to me like you are somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to these things and what to know 100% that you are 'doing' OO in the perfect... read more »