JohnBs personal blog

In line with Microsofts XP SP2 release, Windows update has been treated to an overhaul. Whilst its looks remain similar to v4 you now get the option of Express or Custom scanning. Express will check for high priority updates (used to be called Critical updates) whilst Custom will check for high priority updates and optional components. The EULA screen has been modernised along with the download screen informing you of each update being downloaded and then as each update is installed. On the whole it looks like the wording has been changed to make it more ‘consumer’ friendly probably for those with limited IT skills whilst remaining concise enough for those in the know.

Last week i blogged that SP2 was imminent and sure enough the beta is now available for download on the MSDN subscriber site. So it’s kinda quiet in the run up to xmas so i thought i’d bite the bullet and install it.

So far so good. I’m actually using less space on my hard disk now - probably down to all the post SP1 hotfix uninstall information being removed. After installing and then rebooting it immediately prompts as to whether or not download updates automatically (this was prelogin) and the firewall certainly has been improved, this will warrant a whole blog entry itself.

As for IE, the popup blocker is pretty neat (once activated) it simply puts an icon down in the status bar next to where the SSL padlock appears, you can right click it to allow sites to ‘popup’ - on the whole pretty similar to the Google toolbar. IE Addon manager let’s you view ActiveX objects that are installed and you can enable/disable them from the menu.

Under add/remove programs you can now specify whether to show updates!!! What a great setting, it was really annoying before to open it up and have to wade through all the post sp1 pre sp2 hotfixes and such like to find the app you wanted to remove.

Most importantly everything i expect to be able to run is running, local CFMX server, DWMX etc - that’s a load off my mind, so now let’s see how long it lasts!

Well, you’ve probably noticed i finally put a less ‘bland’ template onto my blog now, I’m still messging with some bits but it’s looking more like home.

It’s been kind of weird though - being that this blog is using a non Fusebox backend it’s been adventurious editing the backend to perform how i want it to and customise it to my liking. It’s felt odd editing CF without it being broke up into the little discrete modules i’m used to and i’ve found myself jumping all over the shop - i guess that could be since it’s inherited code, but nonetheless it’s brought back interesting memories from pre-Fusebox days.

yes it’s technically wrong, how can 4 articles exist in a trilogy -But Ike has published a fourth article comparing the common Frameworks HERE. Rather than amend his 3rd article using new found knowledge from various members of lists, forums etc he decided to write the 4th installment to the trilogy leaving the contents of the previous articles ‘as is’.

Previously his tests were using ColdFusion debug times for measurement but a number of people commented that using GetTickCount() would be a better choice to measure performance via, especially (as he’s proven) Mach-II executes a mamouth 7 times faster when debugging is disabled!!! This time using production mode switches and an efficient code base, execution times ranged from 114ms to 276ms for 50 events per request on CFMX. Fusebox4 code was 6ms slower than the level top performers Fusebox3 and MachII in 114ms.

Whilst performance of code isn’t always the determining factor when choosing a framework these figures put all frameworks on a relatively level playing field when it comes to performance, it’s then down to the developers/project team to weigh up the pro’s and con’s of each.

Microsoft are now wafting the end of the first half of 2004 for release of SP2 for Windows XP under our noses, although rumours are rife that it could be released early in the new year. Along with numerous bug fixes Microsoft are seriously addressing security (security by default) the inbuilt firewall in XP touted using parts of ISA, including enabling it by default and allowing outbound/inbound filtering .Disabling the Messenger service to stop those annoying popups from net send messages. Windows Update is also getting an overhaul to v5 with it also installing critical updates by default.

Something else useful is the overhaul of IE. Whilst MS have confirmed that IE6 will be the last major release of a browser (remains to be seen) with SP2 they’re giving it a number of new features. An Internet Explorer add-on manager will let users view and control what can be loaded into the browser, gone are the days of self installing tool bars and all those nasties that are such a pain to get rid of. If IE crashes as a result of an add on, the user will be prompted to disable the add on. Just like the Google Toobar IE will now feature a popup blocker but the user will be able to allow sites to ‘popup’. Something which could affect web developers is this;

 ”Script-initiated windows with the title bar and status bar would be constrained in scripted movement to ensure that “important and informative bars” remain visible after the operation completes. Microsoft has made this change to block scripts from positioning Web windows so that the title bar or address bar are above the visible top of the display.”

Microsoft have now released a ‘Change List Document’ for SP2 which is worth a look, HERE

As many of you know, S Isaac Dealey from New Epoch has been publishing a series of articles on his site comparing the various frameworks. In his final article he’s put all the common CF frameworks up against each other, Fusebox3,4 MachII, OnTap. Comparing both an inefficient application and an efficient application (I’m yet to discover the differences) Fusebox 4 has come out on top. Changing the Fusebox4 efficient application from development to production mode halves the response time. This doesn’t come as a real shock but it’s been nice to see some relatively independent tests of the frameworks and the results certainly bode well for Fusebox 4.

There are a number of corrections to the table noteably the XML DTDs for Fusebox4 and Fusedocs do actually exist and Fusebox4 is GOLD not Beta, I’ve sent these to Isaac for inclusion. Also, i feel that Adalon is worth a mention being the first commercial product fully supporting visual design of Fusebox 3 applications. On the whole, nice job and worth a read!

Microsoft have released an update, KB832333 which supposedly increases the detection of the spam filter to a higher level. The spam filter was pretty good before so it’ll be interesting to see how well this performs.

I finally fixed my RSS feed issue, I’d messed with the blog.cfc file and put in a <P> tag but didn’t close it, nevermind i didn’t actually need the <P> anyway!!!

Also, on the backend i’ve followed a number of peoples suggestions and have implemented SoEditorLite for message editing, so far so good! If you’ve seen Ray’s blog HERE then you’ll of seen the cool colour coding down the page. I’ve contacted Ray and this is yet to make it into the public release of blog.cfc but it will be very neat when he releases it.

if you’re like me you’ll make use of the CreateUUID() function that exists in CFMX, what you might not be aware of is the fact it can cause the system clock to speed up!!! Can you believe it? Macromedia have release a technote HERE which describes steps to work around this minor ‘issue’

I’ve been following the work of S. Isaac Dealey from Turnkey on his comparisons of the various Frameworks that exist for Cold Fusion. In his first article (published HERE) he compares Fusebox 3 to his own bespoke framework called onTap. With an unbiased approach the figures certainly do Fusebox3 justice with it performing significantly better than onTap, the article is certainly worth a read. In the most recent article he now puts Mach-II to the test against his (currently unreleased) onTap 1.4 framework, see it HERE. If I’m interpretting the results correctly it doesn’t seem like Mach-II holds up against Fusebox3 and Fusebox4 apps, his article is certainly likely to create a stir!