JohnBs personal blog

another ‘large’ codebase update for my site. As previously blogged, I wanted to create a ‘How To’ section, with answers to common questions that get posted around the place - if it’s popular this will turn into it’s own site cfjunkies.com

Ray’s blog app allows you to host a single blog, but i wanted my how to section to be ‘blog like’ - ie, articles, categories, comments etc so rather than use the same code in another directory i hacked about abit and now can host unlimited ‘blogs’ or ’sections’ using the same Db and CFC but now storing a UUID blogID with each category, entry (only so i don’t need to use a join query). This also means RSS exist for each ‘blog’ now, so i’ll also be publishing a HowTo blog feed from this site.

I’ve just made a number of modifications to the code base for my site. I wasn’t providing categorised XML feeds of my content, but i’ve fixed that now - so if you just want to read CF stuff then go to the category and then click the XML link which will take you to the respecitve XML feed.

Also, I’ve added the following code to my section to allow autodiscovery newsreaders to pick up the XML:

Also I’ve taken into account the fact that i live in UK and host (wtih hostmysite.com) in the USA and my posts are showing up as 5hrs behind the actual time i post them!

Yesterday i was working through a problem someone had posted on the MM forums and realised that i spend a whole heap of time answering questions on there, sometimes repeat questions sometimes not so i’ve come up with the idea of collating this information in a searchable resource of articles, how2 type articles and tips. I figured some ‘newbies’ get a little bit daunted about mailing lists and such likes so figured i’d come up with a new community website.

I realise the likes of macromedia.com, builder.com have similar stuff but i’d like to see a growing resource of CF articles , how do i type stuff - all freely available, submitted from the community to help newbies to get to grips with those chunks of code we see as trivial and simple.

Microsoft and eBay will jump into bed to allow people to insert listings into eBay from Excel, read more here. Could prove interesting for other techologies wanting to leverage eBay

These days you really need to be able to play DVDs from any region, ok so the prices of DVDs in the UK are becoming a little more realistic - Finding Nemo released on Friday for £15.99 compared to £14.33 ($39.95 cdn) if bought from DVDboxoffice.com. I’ve got a Windows Media Center in my lounge so i can record Sky Digital straight to hard disk, (like TiVO and Sky+) pause live TV, access all my MP3s, digital photo etc on the one TV. I did purchase a multiregion Toshiba 100E player a few years back from Techtronics.com but ideally want to do it all though the MCE. I did a little exploring and came across ‘The Firmware Page’, located here where you find your DVD ROM/RW and grab updated firmware along with (if it exists) firmware to make your device region free. If firmware doesn’t exist or you don’t feel like updating firmware then you can download an app ‘DVD Region Free’ which sits in the system tray and lets you play region protected content, a 30 day trial exists but it only costs $40 to purchase, read more about it here