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Tom Mollerus

Member since Dec 11, 2008

Recent Blog Comments By Tom Mollerus

  • My First Year As A Mac User On The Apple MacBook Pro

    Posted on Jun 7, 2011 at 3:32 PM

    I agree with Ben that OSX's windowing isn't as good as in Windows, but to me that's a minor flaw. One of the biggest reasons I like the Mac platform? As Paul Carney said, *Time Machine*. I don't care whether you're on a PC or Mac, your hard drive will fail at some point (or you'll lose your laptop).... read more »

  • JavaScript Web Applications By Alex MacCaw

    Posted on May 31, 2011 at 9:10 AM

    Ben, have you investigated the JavaScript MVC framework called Backbone.js? I've just started looking at it myself, but it seems to provide just enough MVC functionality to be very helpful without requiring or enforcing any other libraries, styles, or back ends.... read more »

  • Project HUGE: WTF, Waist Line, And Money

    Posted on Sep 16, 2008 at 1:27 PM

    Ben, I have to admit that after listing problems of health, spending, and diet, I found it ironic that the first solution you mention (wrist straps) is more spending. I hope they weren't too expensive! ;) Seriously, good for you for getting back into shape. My company has moved to a new office bu... read more »

  • Ben Nadel's Easy Tips For Writing Better, More Optimized SQL

    Posted on Mar 27, 2008 at 4:36 PM

    Eric, it's a good point that you don't want to create indexes *everywhere*, but I don't know of any rule of thumb to help guide you... other than do it if it makes your queries perform faster. On certain tables of mine (where we store millions of records of click-tracking data, for instance), I'm su... read more »

  • Ben Nadel's Easy Tips For Writing Better, More Optimized SQL

    Posted on Mar 27, 2008 at 3:19 PM

    I'd go one step farther than Tony's good suggestion on creating indexes on foreign keys. I'd suggest creating indexes on ANY column that you use in a WHERE statement, no matter whether it's a foreign key. I've found it really speeds up queries on large tables: http://www.mollerus.net/tom/blog/2007/... read more »

  • Ben Nadel's Easy Tips For Writing Better, More Optimized SQL

    Posted on Mar 27, 2008 at 2:05 PM

    Jeff, I agree with you-- I think that the database will cache just about any query that it comes across, regardless of whether or not it uses parameters, pushing the least-recently used item out of cache as it needs to. Parameter binding just makes more queries identical and therefore makes the pla... read more »

  • Ben Nadel's Easy Tips For Writing Better, More Optimized SQL

    Posted on Mar 27, 2008 at 1:46 PM

    @Scott- I think what Ben means with the technique of using "1 = <cfqueryparam value="1" /> is not that you'd add a WHERE clause to a query that didn't have one before... I think he means that you should use query params even for values that don't ever change in your query. For instance, I ofte... read more »

  • Name vs. Variable In ColdFusion

    Posted on Mar 12, 2008 at 10:46 AM

    Yup, I'd agree with the comment on WDDX's usefulness. It's great if you need to serialize/deserialize a complex variable in order to store it somewhere for later retrieval. For instance, we use it to store someone's workflow state in our database so that they can log out, then come back later and ... read more »

  • Odd MySql CFQueryParam Truncation Issue (Help)?

    Posted on Feb 28, 2008 at 9:47 PM

    Ben, have you tried using the maxlength attribute of cfqueryparam?... read more »

  • EasyCaptcha() For Multi-Image CAPTCHA Creation

    Posted on Feb 13, 2008 at 4:17 PM

    Absolutely, the trick is to make something that is easy for the human brain and very hard for the computer one. Sadly, one of the great purposes of software development and microchip development is to make a computer brain that works exactly like a human's does. There are lots of little advances th... read more »

  • CSSRule.cfc - Parsing CSS Rules In ColdFusion

    Posted on Feb 4, 2008 at 11:22 AM

    Ben, I'm familiar with using POI to generate Excel docs, but I've never heard of the use of CSS with it. Does Excel actually use CSS rules? Otherwise, I think your CSS parser/generator is rather handy if you have to create dynamic styles. Nice work!... read more »

  • Generic Form Processing / Emailing In ColdFusion

    Posted on Feb 1, 2008 at 10:15 AM

    @Ben, On the subject of deleting file attachments, just to be clear, there is an attribute of cfmail called "spoolenable" which lets you enable or disable spooling on a case-by-case basis. You could set it to "no" for any email which had attachments, and leave it set to yes for all other emails, w... read more »

  • They're All Just Text Files (Adobe ColdFusion IDE Survey)

    Posted on Jan 7, 2008 at 1:28 PM

    So Ben, if you don't use CFEclipse, what ARE you using? Like you, I've tried CFEclipse, but 'll admit to a preference for Homesite.... read more »

  • ColdFusion CFPOP - My First Look

    Posted on Nov 29, 2007 at 9:28 AM

    @Ben, Regarding whether changing the javaService's pop3 properties affects other applications or other sessions, the answer is that I think it does , but not in a bad way. After changing the javaService properties to enable SSL in one session (for a connection to a Yahoo! mailbox over port 995), ... read more »

  • ColdFusion CFPOP - My First Look

    Posted on Nov 28, 2007 at 9:45 PM

    Hey Ben, I was just researching CFPOP and SSL tonight when I came across your post. It turns out there is a way to support CFPOP over SSL: just go into the JVM properties and set it to use SSL over the specified port. I learned of this technique by looking at the code in a UDF at http://cf_sslpop... read more »

  • Graceful ColdFusion Timeout Disaster Recovery (Thanks Barney Boisvert)

    Posted on Aug 23, 2007 at 3:48 PM

    @Ben: Good to know that it works on Standard as well as Enterprise, and CF7 as well as CF8. (Anyone care to test it out on CF6, for the heck of it?)... read more »

  • Graceful ColdFusion Timeout Disaster Recovery (Thanks Barney Boisvert)

    Posted on Aug 23, 2007 at 3:34 PM

    This is fantastic! I see that this technique works on CF7-- this isn't limited only to the Enterprise version of CF, is it? (I ask because Enterprise is all I can currently test on.)... read more »

  • Ask Ben: Upload And Email File Using ColdFusion

    Posted on Jul 17, 2007 at 11:40 AM

    Also, if you're specifying multiple file upload fields you're always guessing at the correct number of fields to offer your users. Is 4 fields too many or too few? To get around that issue, you can use GMail's technique of dynamically creating upload fields as the user needs them, as Pete Freitag ... read more »

  • Ask Ben: Tracking File Downloads In ColdFusion

    Posted on May 15, 2007 at 4:06 PM

    Whoops-- I shouldn't have included the double foreslash in my comment above. The proposed path info URL should be "index.cfm/file/6/filename/Business Plan.doc"... read more »

  • Ask Ben: Tracking File Downloads In ColdFusion

    Posted on May 15, 2007 at 4:04 PM

    @Simon- I've experience the same problem, where the Save File dialog box presents you with a .cfm filename. The inclusion of "filename=..." in the cfcontent tag, like Ben does, is supposed to specify the filename but doesn't always work. I find IE to be a particularly problematic browser for this... read more »

I believe in love. I believe in compassion. I believe in human rights. I believe that we can afford to give more of these gifts to the world around us because it costs us nothing to be decent and kind and understanding. And, I want you to know that when you land on this site, you are accepted for who you are, no matter how you identify, what truths you live, or whatever kind of goofy shit makes you feel alive! Rock on with your bad self!
— Ben Nadel