Brian Meloche's Blog

It's been a long, long, long run... but it's time to end it.

At Tuesday's Cleveland CFUG meeting, I officially stepped down as an Adobe User Group manager. Dan Vega, my long time co-manager, has taken over the group. Mike Cooper, the AUG manager, has also decided to step down to spend more time with his family. Andrew Maurer, the Cleveland AUG co-manager, becomes the co-manager of a combined group. I will no longer serve in any official capacity within the group, though I will remain involved, advise, and contribute as time allows.

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This entry was posted on February 9, 2011 at 3:32 AM and has received 4663 views. There are currently 4 comments. Print this entry.

This is a late post, but I wanted to mention that I'll be presenting my Common Sense Approach to Object Oriented ColdFusion, 2010 Edition presentation in a few hours to the ColdFusion Meetup, 12pm Eastern (UTC/GMT-4) today. This is a slightly refined version to the one I presented in April at the CFObjective conference.

Watch Live Here

After the presentation, you'll find the recording posted here. I'll update this post after the fact with the direct URL.

Also, I'll finally be making the code from the CFObjective/Meetup for public view for the first time following the presentation, as well as post it on RIAForge and Github. One of the sample applications is the most extensive LightFront example posted to date, so this presentation should also show you a little bit on the framework as well. In that sample, there's also an "old school" version, as well as an unfinished Mach-ii/ColdSpring version that I'll continue to work on (but there's enough there to show the stark differences between a typical OO CF application and a simpler OO LightFront one).

I'll also be releasing a new version of LightFront (0.4.5) today as well.

UPDATE: The recording of the presentation can be found here:

http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p93791252/

Note: It went a bit long... 1:53:02

The code I show and the slide deck in the presentation is available via Subversion here.

To download a zip file, which has the code, PDF and PowerPoint of the presentation all in one, just go here:

http://svn.lightfront.org/svn/cfobjective2010/CFObjective2010/download/CFObjective2010.zip

This entry was posted on June 3, 2010 at 9:16 AM and has received 4970 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry. Download attachment.

On Wednesday, June 17th, join us for what will be the biggest Adobe user group event in Cleveland history! All of the official Adobe groups: The Cleveland ColdFusion User Group, the Cleveland Flex User Group, the Cleveland Adobe User Group and the Cleveland InDesign User Group join forces for this big, big, BIG... SOOOOO BIGGG event that you'll want to be there!

The ColdFusion 9 and Flex 4 tours are here! Adam Lehman of Adobe, who was featured on CFConversations this week, will be our speaker for this event.

If you're in or near the Cleveland area, join us! It's at 6pm, and at the offices of:

Dealer Tire, LLC 3711 Chester Avenue Cleveland, OH 44114

There will be food, beverages, and prizes, along with swag!

If you are planning to attend, it's imperative that you RSVP on the Cleveland CFUG website.

If you're not in the area, check out your user group website for more information about a tour date in your area.

This entry was posted on June 12, 2009 at 3:56 AM and has received 4675 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

We'll be having our big Flex/AIR user group meeting in Cleveland Tuesday, February 5th at 1pm. The location details can be found at http://www.clevelandcfug.org.

Kevin Hoyt, Platform Evangelist with Adobe Systems, Inc., is tomorrow's speaker. This is part of the big Flex/AIR pre-release tour going on right now, and you can see us shown at http://flex.org/tour/.

If you are planning to attend, PLEASE RSVP. Our RSVP count MUST BE ACCURATE. If you have RSVP'd and are still planning to attend... there's no need to do it again.

But, if you have not RSVP'd, and ARE planning to attend, or have RSVP'd but are NOT planning to attend, please add/update your RSVP here:

http://www.clevelandmmug.org/index.cfm?group=mmug&dsp=RSVPSpecial&date=2008-02-05%2013:00:00

As previously stated, this will be the biggest giveaway we've ever had for a single meeting. We have Flex Builder, CS3, books, magazines, shirts galore, and assorted schwag. Everyone who attends will get at LEAST one thing, perhaps more.

Snacks will be provided at tomorrow's meeting: We'll have a Decorated Cheese Tray (includes imported cheeses, fresh fruits, vegetables, dips and crackers) with a cookie tray and an assortment of chips, pretzels, and of course an assortment of drinks.. There won't be any wraps this time around, as not very many people went for those for the Forta/Lehman meeting last month. Snacks are courtesy of Adobe and our host (details on the website).

Also, there will be a second February user group meeting of our three groups. This will be a special RIA meeting event on Monday, Feb 25th back at Lodestone. If you are planning to attend that event, please RSVP here:

http://www.clevelandmmug.org/index.cfm?group=mmug&dsp=RSVPSpecial&date=2008-02-25%2018:30:00

If you have any questions, please email me at brianmeloche (at) gmail (dot) com.

See you tomorrow afternoon!

This entry was posted on February 4, 2008 at 9:17 PM and has received 7815 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

If you didn't see it, Ben Forta and Adam Wayne Lehman presented "Lesser Known ColdFusion 8 Goodies" to a combined audience of the Cleveland CFUG, AUG and the new Flex User's Group last Thursday.

It was a big success! We had good weather for the winter meeting, and had a good turnout for the afternoon meeting. And Ben and Adam did not disappoint. They talked about some new features that weren't talked about much in Ben's Scorpio tour, like CFTHREAD, attribute collections and results attributes, to name a few.

They also asked us for feedback on what we'd like to see for the next version of ColdFusion. This brought a lively discussion on new features, what we'd want in an IDE (if they developed one) and things that would help increase the market, including education and training.

My CFUG co-manager, Dan Vega, already blogged about winning a pass to CFUNITED, thanks to the nice gesture of fellow user group member Kelly Green. Thanks to Nafisa, Liz and Michael at Teratech for donating the pass for this meeting, as well as a lot of other swag! Matt Hintze of Universal Mind, who was visiting Cleveland on business last week and came out to the meeting, won the entire CF 8 WACK book collection. Thanks to Jackie at Peachpit for donating the books. Last but not least, Joe Winans won a copy of CF8, and I'd like to thank Ed Sullivan from Adobe for making that happen.

Lastly, I'd like to thank Pam, Dave and Jessica for being such gracious hosts! They provided the venue, as well as food, drink and USB thumb drives for the event!

We'll be doing it all over again on February 5th! Kevin Hoyt of Adobe will be presenting to us as part of the Adobe Flex and Adobe AIR Pre-Release Tour. If you are planning to attend, please RSVP here.

This entry was posted on January 14, 2008 at 8:18 AM and has received 5401 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

For those of you in the Cleveland area, there is a new Flex user group and it's first meeting is Tuesday night.

Here's the announcement...

Announcing the formation of an exciting new user group in the Cleveland area--the Cleveland Flex Users Group, or CLEFUG! Mark your calendar for our first meeting on Tuesday evening, Oct. 9th, 2007.

Flex", made by Adobe, is a cross-platform development framework for creating rich Internet applications, or RIA's. Flex offers developers a way to create expressive, high-performance applications that run identically on all major browsers and operating systems. These applications are actually Flash programs (SWF files) that run in the Flash Player, also from Adobe. For more in-depth information on this interesting and powerful development tool, be sure to visit: http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/

CLEFUG is led by JD Schrock, a leading Flex developer in the Cleveland area. JD's main purpose in starting CLEFUG is to bring together developers of all skill levels to learn and discuss the process of developing applications in Flex. Since Flex is an Adobe product, it naturally interfaces well with Adobe ColdFusion" and should be of interest to ColdFusion developers. However Flex applications can easily be developed for the .NET environment, too, making it an ideal tool for engineering for a variety of developers.

The meetings will be held monthly at the Parma-Snow branch of Cuyahoga County Library at 2121 Snow Road, Parma, Ohio.

The meeting will start promptly at 6:30pm and will finish by 8:30pm.

For more information, e-mail clefug@gmail.com. The CLEFUG web site is under construction and should be finished before the end of October. As such, the group's not official yet (not yet listed on adobe.com), but this will be its first "unofficial official" meeting.

This entry was posted on October 8, 2007 at 10:34 PM and has received 4956 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

At tonight's Cleveland Adobe Users Group meeting, I announced that I am stepping down as manager of the group. Mike Cooper, who's been my co-manager since last year, has officially taken over as the group's manager. If you go to adobe.com's user group listing, you will notice he is now listed as the manager of the Cleveland AUG.

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/usergroups/search_results.cfm?findType=1&country_id=D6D8274E-1954-4FEA-87FD8F85B651B29A&state_id=3C393EF7-9B3B-43A1-B8456A862C39B70B

I started the Cleveland Macromedia Users Group in May, 2004 and have served as its manager throughout its history. Since then, we've gone from 12 members the first meeting, to 191 members today. We've seen the Macromedia acquisition by Adobe, the branching off of the ColdFusion and RIA User Groups, a few website catastrophes, a name change, and several location changes. We've had some great meetings and great speakers. It's been a blast!!! And now, it's time for me to step down.

Over the last several months, I have been managing both the Cleveland AUG and the Cleveland CFUG. It's too much, and both groups are suffering. The AUG needs someone who can focus more time on it, and so does the CFUG. Three years+ is a long time to run a group voluntarily, and I have been doing less and less design work and more development and supervisory work at the office.

As the new manager, Mike will invigorate the group and help it continue to grow. He's got some great ideas, and I think he's going to be an awesome manager.

I will stay on as Mike's co-manager, help him get up to speed with everything that goes into running an Adobe Users Group, advise and help as needed. I hope to be able to present to the group once in a while, too. I'll still be attending meetings most months, too.

I will also continue on as the Cleveland CFUG manager for the foreseeable future. This change allows me to focus more of my time on the CFUG. Anyone that knows me knows that ColdFusion is my passion, and I intend on continuing to instill that passion into the Cleveland ColdFusion Users Group. Dan Vega, my co-manager, and I will continue to work on making the Cleveland CFUG everything it can be.

This entry was posted on July 26, 2007 at 9:38 PM and has received 6270 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Andy Large, a Cleveland CFUG member, has restarted the Columbus CFUG.

http://www.columbuscfug.org

Their first meeting is tomorrow night at 5:30. If you are in the Columbus (OH) area, I encourage you to join this new group! Congrats to Andy to taking the initiative to get the CFUG off the ground.

This entry was posted on July 11, 2007 at 5:38 AM and has received 5858 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

The Scorpio tour is getting underway, and I wanted to remind Northeast Ohio and surrounding area people that the Cleveland CFUG (and AUG) will be hosting Ben Forta on Thursday, May 10th at 6:30pm at the Cleveland offices of Lodestone Digital.

For details and RSVP info, go to www.clevelandcfug.org.

For a CFUG near you hosting a Scorpio event, go to: http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/events/.

This entry was posted on April 20, 2007 at 3:11 PM and has received 6670 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Oops!!!

Here's the correct link:

http://www.clevelandmmug.org/index.cfm?group=cfug&dsp=RSVPSpecial

This entry was posted on February 21, 2007 at 5:40 AM and has received 6462 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

I am PLEASED to announce that we will have Ben Forta, Senior Technical Evangelist for Adobe, speaking to a special joint meeting of the Cleveland CFUG, AUG and RIA user groups on Thursday, May 10th!!!

That's right!!! It's official!!! I got the official word on Tuesday from Adobe. Cleveland's been added as a stop on the ColdFusion World User Group Tour!

I am tentatively setting the meeting for our usual time for 6:30pm. I don't officially have the location set, but I am hoping to nail this down within the next week.

If you have not already RSVP'd for Ben, or want to change your RSVP, please go to:

http://www.clevelandmmug.org/index.cfm?group=cfug&dsp=RSVPSpecial

Tell your co-workers, friends and colleagues!!!

THIS IS BIG!!! I have been trying to get Ben Forta speak for almost three years, and more if you consider WVMUG before I moved back to Cleveland. I am very pleased that we are able to have him stop here on his ColdFusion world tour!

This entry was posted on February 20, 2007 at 10:54 PM and has received 6071 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

1. I built a little "yes, I'm interested in attending an appearance of Ben Forta" mini-app on the Cleveland AUG and CFUG websites. Just go to:

   http://www.clevelandmmug.org?group=cfug&dsp=RSVPSpecial

2. As of today, we've got 59 people who have responded! That's only 41 away from our magic number of 100! Respond NOW to get us closer to our 100 person goal!
3. IF we don't get Ben Forta, we'll get someone else from Adobe. I have a verbal commitment from another employee of Adobe. He'll come, but only if we can't get Ben for one reason or another

This entry was posted on January 27, 2007 at 4:55 PM and has received 6027 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

For those of you within driving distance of Cleveland...

Many of you know that I manage the Cleveland Adobe Users Group (AUG, formerly the Cleveland MMUG), and have recently taken over the Cleveland ColdFusion Users Group (CFUG), a group that I co-founded with the previous manager, Mick Keily.

I heard from Adobe today that it MIGHT be possible to get Ben Forta to come to Cleveland to speak to the Cleveland area user groups. For the few of you that don't recognize the name, Ben is the Senior Product Evangelist at Adobe, and is probably the most well known speaker and author in the ColdFusion world. If we can secure him, he'd speak in Cleveland during his upcoming ColdFusion 8 (Scorpio) world tour. I've been working on having Ben speak here for nearly THREE years!!! It might finally be a possibility to have him come one night this spring.

This is NOT a reality yet... it will take a BIG effort to secure him.

To get him, we NEED to show we could have a big attendance mark... really BIG. We need help from anyone out there who lives close enough to Cleveland to come out.

In order to have Adobe commit to bring Ben Forta here, we need to have 100 people say, "yes, I would like to attend". If there's NO WAY for you to attend a Cleveland meeting IN PERSON, please DO NOT respond.

If you're in driving distance of Cleveland, and interested in attending, please email me at brianmeloche at gmail dot com, or leave a comment on this thread. Just by sending messages to the two user groups, I've already got 16 people after a few hours... only 84 more!!! I'm now expanding it to the blog...

I will create a poll on the user group websites in the next day or two, but, until then, I want to gather numbers through old fashioned email and blog comments.

Please pass this on to ANYONE who might be interested in attending this meeting. Friends, co-workers, students, family, colleagues... whatever... able to attend a Cleveland appearance by Ben Forta IN PERSON. We need 100 people.

Contest: If we get Ben, the member of either the AUG or CFUG that either recruits the most new members and/or brings the most people to the meet will win a prize. I'll announce the prize at a later date, once he's been secured. If we get him, one attendee will win a copy of ColdFusion 8, once it has been released.

To RSVP, please give me your name, and how many people you could bring. YOU MUST REPLY to RSVP. For every person to be counted, I must have it documented.

I'll keep you up to date on the totals.

Let's prove that we can draw big numbers for Ben!!!

This entry was posted on January 15, 2007 at 3:52 PM and has received 8259 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

I haven't been able to blog much lately. Work and freelance work is keeping me insanely busy. We were supposed to have a CFUG meeting, but it was cancelled. Just as well for me, but we've only had the one meeting this year so far.

Here's something that some of you will find interesting...

Microsoft releases beta search

Buys to consolidate presence

Microsoft today announced the Windows Live Search beta, featuring updates to the existing Live.com and Windows Live Toolbar, intended to deliver unified, context-based search and results across different properties.

The beta also provides the ability to search images and email (sounding familiar?), news, email, RSS feeds and Microsoft's own MSN Shopping and MSN Spaces. Search will also work across planned Windows Live services, such as Live Messenger and Live Mail.

Driving the service will be technology from internet search specialist Onfolio, bought by Microsoft yesterday. Onfolio had provided an add-in to Windows Live that enables users to read RSS news feeds and share content in emails, blogs and documents.

Onfolio was founded by JJ Allaire, architect of the popular ColdFusion application server and co-founder of Allaire Corp, which was sold to Macromedia in 2001.

Microsoft has been typically bullish on the potential for Windows Live Search and its ability to come from behind and crush the current market leader, Google. Neil Holloway, president of Microsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) last week proclaimed that in six months' time, the company "will be more relevant in the US market place than Google. The quality of our search and the relevance of our search from a solution perspective to the consumer will be more relevant."

This entry was posted on March 8, 2006 at 6:39 PM and has received 6334 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

...long live the Adobe User Group Program!!!

The word came down from Adobe today. The hundreds of former Macromedia User Groups around the world got a new logo and a new name for the program...

As a result, I/we have to find a new name for the Cleveland Macromedia Users Group, change the design and get a new domain name... all in a day's work!!!

This entry was posted on February 27, 2006 at 9:58 PM and has received 5664 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Last Wednesday, I found out that Cathy Garrison, Midwest Macromedia Studio Users Group manager, my partner on the user group manager portal, and my friend, had passed away. She died on November 23, 2005, from a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lung) after undergoing successful cancer surgery 10 days earlier.

Everyone working on the portal knew Cathy was sick and needed to go in for surgery to remove her cancer. We wanted to give her time to recover. When we hadn't heard from her by the middle of December, we feared the worst. Last Wednesday, after trying to email her several times, and calling once, I was able to reach her husband, Bob, who told me the terrible news.

The former Macromedia (now Adobe) developer community already miss her presence, and her passion. She was a dedicated volunteer, and worked very hard on her user group and the portal. She felt very strongly about the need for the portal, believed in my ability to (eventually) deliver it, and I know that she's looking down at me now, pushing me on to continue to get it done.

This entry was posted on January 12, 2006 at 7:35 PM and has received 5242 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Dear Macromedia Community Members:

By now you most likely know that Adobe has finalized its acquisition of Macromedia, combining the leading-edge technologies of two pioneering software companies. We'd like to take this opportunity to let you know what the acquisition means to you as a valued member of our community and what you can expect from Adobe in the days ahead.

With the acquisition of Macromedia, Adobe is dramatically advancing its ability to deliver a platform that provides you with powerful solutions for engaging people with digital information. We are now better positioned than ever to assist you in meeting and exceeding your business requirements and goals.

Moving forward, we will bring together some of the industry's strongest brands and most ubiquitous technologies, including Acrobat, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, PDF, ColdFusion and Flash. Customers who have relied on Adobe and Macromedia solutions will benefit from a consistent platform and common user interface, as well as the outstanding care they've come to expect from both companies.

At a high level, by bringing our technologies together, we will provide the community with the software solutions you need to meet the increasing demands of today's competitive environment. Now more than ever, we are positioned to help you securely extend the reach of your information, business processes and services to engage and interact with customers and constituents online, via mobile devices - by whatever medium you choose.

As you may know many of Macromedia's leaders are now in leadership roles at Adobe. Kevin Lynch is now Adobe's Senior Vice President and Chief Software Architect, Platform Business Unit. Kevin's responsibilities include the Flash Player, Acrobat Reader, and Developer Relations. David Mendels is now Adobe's Senior Vice President of Enterprise and Developer Solutions, and is responsible for products like Flex, ColdFusion and LiveCycle. Tom Hale is now Adobe's Senior Vice President of the Knowledge Worker Solutions Business Unit, which includes Breeze and Acrobat. And lastly, Stephen Elop, Macromedia's former President and CEO, is the President of Adobe's worldwide field organization.

Our efforts with user groups around the world, developer events and conferences, and throughout the community will continue as they always have, and we're excited about how we can enhance and expand our relationships with our development community.

We look forward to sharing more information with the community in the coming weeks. For more information about the merger, please visit www.adobe.com. If you have questions, comments, or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me directly, or any of your contacts on the developerrelations team.

On behalf of all of Adobe, and the Developer Relations team in particular, I want to thank you for your continued commitment to our community, and I look forward to new opportunities to work together.

With best regards,

Sara Spalding, Director, Developer Relations sspaldin at adobe dot com

This entry was posted on December 16, 2005 at 1:25 PM and has received 5592 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

I haven't had a chance to blog since the macromedia.com website changes... you will notice a more Adobe look if you check out the macromedia.com website.

http://www.macromedia.com

Last night, I had a chance to watch a recording of a Macromedia User Group Managers/Team Macromedia session (couldn't sit in on it because of work), and I thought I would share what I am able to...

Don't expect to see any major changes in either the Macromedia User Group or the Team Macromedia programs for the short to medium term. Everything's as normal for now. There will probably be name changes coming, but they are telling us to sit tight and not act too hastily.

This entry was posted on December 8, 2005 at 8:23 AM and has received 4072 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Hey there!

I am writing this blog entry at the Cleveland MMUG meeting, where I am showing my members how a CFC works through this blog!!!

This entry was posted on November 30, 2005 at 5:31 PM and has received 5540 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

I am still working on my articles, but I wanted to mention that the Cleveland MMUG has a meeting tonight. We are fortunate to have Rob Dillon coming in from Pittsburgh to show us Director MX 2004. I have wanted to cover Director in the MMUG, and we finally have a speaker that can do it for us.

I am also going to be talking about MAX 2005. Things that are in my articles I am working on will be covered tonight.

If you are in the Cleveland area, come on out! Meeting location and more information can be found at http://www.clevelandmmug.org.

This entry was posted on October 26, 2005 at 8:32 AM and has received 2783 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.