April 2006 Archive

Mail Scam in the UK

I’ve just been sent this and can confirm that this is not a hoax:

If you receive a card through your door from a company called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) saying that they have a parcel awaiting delivery instructions and can you contact them on 0906 6611911.

DO NOT call the number as this is a mail scam originating from Belize.

[ inaccurate information removed ]

If you do receive a card with these details, then please contact:

• Royal Mail Fraud on [ removed by request ]
• or ICTIS at http://www.icstis.org.uk
• or your local trading standards office.

ICTIS have the following information about this number:

• This is a card posted through your letter box from PDS Parcel Delivery suggesting that they were unable to deliver a parcel and to call the premium rate number in question. This service costs £1.50 per minute.
• This service is under investigation by ICSTIS.

Please be aware of this scam and forward this information to as many as possible.

Should you receive a card from this company please follow the above instructions.

Update: I’ve removed the number as requested.
Update: I’ve was forwarded this by a client who had received this from their IT department.

Posted by Niklas Richardson on 05 Apr 2006

Firefox 1.5.0.2

Just a quickie to note that Firefox 1.5.0.2 has popped up over on Mozilla.org. Obviously, if you are using 1.5+ then this will automatically update. If you aren't then I suggest you go download it now.

Posted by Neil Middleton on 14 Apr 2006

Model-Glue performance tweaks

Over the last few days, you may have seen people talking about a performance test that Webapper have run against a few of the more popular CF frameworks out there, namely Model-Glue, Mach-ii, Fusebox 4.1. Also included was a homegrown app from Simon Horwith.

The results? Well, not so bad, even if the showing from MG was by no means complete. As it turns out, after some more testing, Joe Rhinehart, the author of MG, has found a couple of low level bugs in the framework. Nothing drastic, just some bits that could be a bit cleaner.

So, the framework previously known as MG 1.1 is getting a revision. 1.1.01 is in the pipeline (and also in the MG Subversion repository for anyone wanting to test it).

Posted by Neil Middleton on 20 Apr 2006

Jumping on the bandwagon..

..if a little bit late. Here's my (quite surprising) Nerd score:

Posted by Neil Middleton on 21 Apr 2006

Model Glue and Reactor, a winning combination

Just a quick reminder of the UKCFUG meeting this Thursday:

The Model Glue is a MVC (Model – View – Controller) based framework for ColdFusion applications. It provides a way to easily link your presentation layer (view) to your model layer by the use of controllers. Model Glue provides configuration and powerful control over over this “gluing” of your layers through XML files. Working along side it is the Reactor framework, a “Inline Dynamic Data Abstraction” API, which allows you to very quickly and easily access your database model without the need to write SQL or configure Data Access Objects.

In this presentation Mark Drew will be presenting what these frameworks are in detail (and what they are not!) and also develop from scratch a blog application using these two frameworks to demonstrate the power and speed that you can gain in your development environment.

Where:
Room U215, City University, Northampton Square, (main campus entrance), London EC1V 0HB.

When: Thursday 27 April 2006

• Doors open: 1800
  
• Meeting starts: 1830
  
• Meeting ends: 2030

Directions:
By Underground: Angel (Northern Line – City Branch) or Farrington (Metropolitain and City Line). By Bus: Routes 4, 19, 30, 38, 43, 55, 56, 63, 73, 153, 205, 214, 243, 274, 341."

If you're going, see you there.

Posted by Neil Middleton on 24 Apr 2006

UKCFUG Meeting Tonight - Reactor and Model Glue

Don’t forget that it’s the UKCFUG monthly meeting tonight. Mark Drew (of CFEclipse fame) will be giving a presentation on Model Glue with Reactor. It’s at City University as usual.

Should be a great meeting.

Unfortunately, I’m in Edinburgh consulting with Adobe Consulting at the moment, so I won’t be there tonight. However, I’m leaving it in the capable hands of Mark! Thanks Mark!

I look forward to hearing all about it!

Posted by Niklas Richardson on 27 Apr 2006

The Stealth UK Community...

As you may or may not know, I trekked up to London last night's UK CFUG with one of my works new padawan CF developers. After seeing Mark D talk at length about the Model-Glue framework and Reactor, I head off back to the upper-class realms of paying the babysitter.

However, today I am confronted by something the feed-squirrel is telling me, namely who was at the same meeting who is also an active contributor to the UK blogosphere. I knew Mark D was there, obviously, and I also saw Andy Jarrett (the offers still there Andy ;-)) sat down at the front, but other than that, everyone else was a unrecognisable face. Well as it turns out Nick Tong, Kola Oyedeji, Neil Roberts, Martin Laine and Alistair Davidson also made a show, most of which I have exchanged email with in the past at some point.

Tell you what guys, next time, let's get some name badges sorted out, or have some sort of introduction session going. It seems silly us not knowing each other is there. (On the other hand, stick a mugshot on your blog if you haven't already to at least give people a fighting chance.)

Posted by Neil Middleton on 28 Apr 2006

A concerted effort

Recently, I have been neglecting my blog somewhat, mainly due to spending too much time working on the feed-squirrel main site.

Well, not I am hopefully going to have a little more time to talk CF now, so you should start seeing more from me.

Oh, happy days I hear you cry.

Posted by Neil Middleton on 28 Apr 2006