Julian Halliwell

Recent Blog Comments By Julian Halliwell

• Zen, Motorcycle Maintenance, And Producing Software

  Posted on Nov 25, 2008 at 3:20 AM

  Ben, it's a few years since I read the book, but that's the passage that still sticks in my mind. But I interpreted it slightly differently: rather than peace of mind for the user of the machine, I understood it as the mechanic who experiences a sense of calm when the machine has been well engineere... read more »

• The Fine Art Of Small Talk By Debra Fine

  Posted on Dec 6, 2007 at 3:53 AM

  Ben, without having read the book, I'm not sure (!) I agree with the advice to avoid saying "I'm not sure". It's true that extroverts (the vast majority of people) tend to be decisive and respect decisiveness in others, but I'd argue it's a virtue of introverts that we tend to see the merits on both... read more »

• Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner!

  Posted on Aug 30, 2007 at 2:44 AM

  I remember when it first came out but only recently got round to watching it to find out why it's become such a cult. It's a classic chick-flick no question, but I have to agree with its central premise: dancing = the time of your life (whatever your gender/orientation). No need to feel ashamed, Ben... read more »

• jQuery v1.1.3 Now 800% Faster (At The Same Size File)!

  Posted on Jul 9, 2007 at 10:08 AM

  Jim, yes it's a known issue: http://dev.jquery.com/ticket/1331 Looks like it will be fixed in the next release, either 1.1.3.2 or 1.1.4 For the time being, I'm sticking with 1.1.2... read more »

• jQuery v1.1.3 Now 800% Faster (At The Same Size File)!

  Posted on Jul 9, 2007 at 9:42 AM

  JQuery is superb, but this new version causes Safari to crash. The 1.1.3.1 update hasn't fixed the issue either, so I've had to downgrade all my sites back to 1.1.2. It may be 800% slower, but at least it's stable cross-browser.... read more »

• Ask Ben: Tracking File Downloads In ColdFusion

  Posted on May 18, 2007 at 5:44 AM

  Adam is absolutely correct on the impact of using CFCONTENT for file downloads. Avoid it unless you absolutely have to have the security. If you can't avoid it, make sure you're using your own server/instance and that the simultaneous requests setting in the CFAdmin is set high: not 3 times the no. ... read more »

• My First Experience With Model Glue

  Posted on Apr 8, 2007 at 3:48 PM

  Sorry, thought you were a different Steve.... read more »

• My First Experience With Model Glue

  Posted on Apr 7, 2007 at 7:08 PM

  Steve, like you I'm a long-time Fuseboxer, but for the last few years my models have been entirely CFC-based, so no more act or qry templates. The only .cfm files left are those in the View and as Ben says having them all start with dsp is redundant. I've just tried removing the prefix from the temp... read more »

• My First Experience With Model Glue

  Posted on Apr 5, 2007 at 4:50 AM

  You've got a point about the dsp file naming convention though, Ben. Not really necessary if the view/display folder only contains dsp templates.... read more »

• My First Experience With Model Glue

  Posted on Apr 5, 2007 at 4:29 AM

  Agree with Steve. Re-use/DRY is one of the main benefits of separation/modularity: the more you de-couple the better, and that includes physical files. A single CFC might process several forms in different display files. You can't place your one CFC next to each display file in that case without Rep... read more »

• Creating Excel Documents With ColdFusion And XML - GOTCHA!

  Posted on Jan 12, 2007 at 4:00 AM

  Just a footnote that you can output Excel files using <cfreport> and the ReportBuilder (guess that's what the bundled POI class is for). Formatting is quite limited but you do get a binary file that's smaller and can be opened in older versions of Excel.... read more »

• Clark Valberg On Interface Driven Architecture Methodology

  Posted on Dec 17, 2006 at 3:48 AM

  Like Brian we've been using FLiP for years and always build the front-end first as a prototype. The client can then literally see if it's what they want. They will almost always see things they hadn't thought of and want changes, but that's ok because it's only HTML. When there are no more changes y... read more »

• Large Mistake In My Session Management Logic

  Posted on Nov 28, 2006 at 1:50 PM

  Ben, I don't see why you couldn't disable sessionManagement for bots and users with cookies off instead of just changing the timeout. That should save even more overhead as the vars aren't even created. But you're presumably also having to be very careful with all session references in your code, no... read more »

• Large Mistake In My Session Management Logic

  Posted on Nov 28, 2006 at 1:23 PM

  Thanks Ben for publicly exploring this issue in such detail. Along with Michael D's posts it's really helped me get a handle on it. In case you're interested I've come up with a somewhat simpler implementation which still seems to cover your bases, although I'm with Michael in preferring to limit t... read more »