The Problem: I work with some people that are using PC’s and windows XP. One of the users is about 100 miles away from me and was having some issues with some PDF files, so I needed to get him a copy of our Adobe Acrobat Pro and fix his issue. I am a MAC user and I wanted to create an .ISO image and get that to him so I could install and repair remotely.

The Solution: Use the MAC Disk Utility and create a .CDR file then use Terminal and convert the file to a .ISO file, here are the instructions:

1. Insert the disk you want to copy into your CD Drive.
2. Launch the Disk Utility: Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility
3. Choose “New Disk Image from Folder” located under File > New or (shift,command,N). Make sure that it is uncompressed and use the CD/DVD master option.
4. Select your disk that you want to copy in the resulting dialog box.
5. This will create a .CDR file so save it where you can find it, the desktop is fine.
6. Open Terminal
7. Assuming your new image is called ~/Desktop/myfile.cdr (the file is on your desktop and called myfiler.cdr) type the following commands in your Terminal Window:
8. cd ~/Desktop
9. hdiutil makehybrid -iso -joliet -o myfile.iso myfile.cdr
10. This will create an ISO/Joliet .iso file.

That’s it. It worked really well. You will also need an way to mount the image on the PC and I found a great free utility to do that @ http://tinyurl.com/58lqkd to use it on a windows box just right click the file and choose mount via file disk and choose a drive letter then open My Computer and viola there is the drive mounted just like a disk, double click and install away!

Ok before you get excited as of this post it is only American Airlines, and at that, it is only on selected long haul domestic flights, but you know this is only the beginning. Reuters reports that several other airlines, including Southwest are making strides in the right direction. Not free $12.95, but heck neither is extra luggage at this point.

As promised readers, I am going to take my own learning experience and use it to explain ColdFusion TAGS and how one might make use of them. Of course you can get a really in depth view using the livedocs provided by Adobe. But I thought that perhaps sharing my experience outloud would actually benefit me as well as be helpful to others that are learning this excellent development language.

<CFABORT>

Let’s take a closer look at this handy little devil. This tag falls under the category of Flow Control and for good reason because that is exactly what the tag does. It stops the processing (or flow of), a ColdFusion page at the point that you place the tag in your code. The great thing is that it returns everything that was processed preceeding the tag. Therefore this is a handy tool to use to track down errors in your application.

It has a very simple syntax consisting of only one attribute.

So that’s it on this easy to use flow-control tag. Remember livedocs is a great reference tool visit it.

I used to be a good CF programmer. I was certified on all available training levels. Then I decided that a career change was in the best interest of my family so I moved away from coding. Fast forward 2 years and once again I was offered a position with my current firm which has required me to reacquaint myself with  ColdFusion and all of the companion technologies that help to create a pleasing user experience. I must say that it is like starting all over again, (yes I am whining). That said though, I thought that I would use the opportunity to do just that and start all over again. While doing that I realized that there are just as many people as ever out there that are looking for a great way to create dynamic content and know absolutely about ColdFusion. There are many popular choices like Ruby and PHP and of course .NET but for my money and the growing demand on speed to market there is only one clear cut choice and that is ColdFusion.

I am going to explore a new Coldfusion Tag at least once per week so stay tuned all you new CF’ers.

Whoa, what a surprise it was for me today my first Kernel Panic. I was happily working through my day when all of a sudden my mac book flashed a fancy screen and told me that I had to hard boot my system.

Hmmm, can you say blue errrr, gray screen of death? well I booted the thing as instructed and the message came back. Well as a new MAC user (and very pleased I might add) my cute little Apple bubble was bursting so I called tech support because after trying everything that Apple suggested I couldn’t get any response from the operating system. So naturally since nothing that Apple suggested worked I was driven to keep trying those things over and over again as if by some chance my nightmare was going to end. Not to be - after a few more tries I couldn’t even get the Kernel Panic error to show up, the computer just started beeping, 3 beeps over and over again. Time to take it to the shop. Got to the shop and this was the dialogue:

TECH: So it just beeps 3 times over and over again

ME: Yeah

TECH: Do the beeps sound like MEM-O-REE, MEM-O-REE, over and over again

ME: Huh?

TECH: I think you have some bad RAM lemme check…

5 minutes later tech walks out of the back room and the nightmare had ended as quickly as it had started. All because of a bad RAM stick.