Glad THAT's Over, But ...
Well, I finished that monster prototype, with much credit to my coding partner, Maciej. I figured that over 11 days, I worked 165 hours. Whew! Yesterday, we gave the presentation to a large multi-national corporation. To my relief and gratification, they were very impressed. Which leaves me, now, with only one small problem...
Guilt. I heard from a number of people who were really disappointed that I wasn't there. I felt the decision I made was the right one, but it was tough. I hate disappointing people. So, now, I'm going to try to make up for it.
If you can make it to beautiful Sarasota, FL on December 5-6, I'm going to hold a weekend class. We'll cover the topics I meant to cover in my talks -- and have a lot of fun. Escaping chilly climes to sunny Florida is cool enough, but to do so with other developers -- well, that's way beyond cool.
To make up for missing CFUnited and disappointing people who wanted to hear my talks, the charge for this class will be...nothing. You'll just have to get here and find a place to stay, but the class itself will be free. I've got limited space, so if you want to come, please let me know as soon as you can.
Form validation.
Dealing with difficult customers.
And a bonus: jQuery for programmers.
I was looking forward to your session on form validation at CF United. Too bad you couldn't make it out. I think you did the right thing by focusing on your work though. Times are tough and most of us need to cling onto the work we can manage to get our hands on. You have to keep your clients happy. No question about that.
I noticed a few other community gurus weren't there, so maybe the same thing happened with them.
On a side note, it's good to see that you're tweeting links to nifty blog posts once again.
Take care,
Jose
As for the being sorry part, I appreciate you volunteering as my judge, but I think I'll pass on the offer.
Sounds like an offer of kindness has been converted into an obligation.
I did what I thought I had to do: put the prototype ahead of CFUnited, even though I had already purchased tickets and wanted to go. You disagree, apparently. That's fine. But why would you think it's a good thing to challenge my motives, John?
I vaguely remember a man, many years ago, warning people against judging others. But -- I understand -- he's very unfashionable these days. We have no need for such gentility.
This season on "Hell's Kitchen", two people have told Gordon Ramsay to "F*ck off!" How...classy.
Adam Haskell demands that Teratech turn over Fusebox to him, heedless of the fact that they own the brand. Perhaps they have not done a good job, but does that give him the right to demand that they surrender their property to him? Then others jump on the bandwagon. Amazing to me.
One of the things I always liked very much about the CF community was that, unlike some other programming communities, it was inclusive, collegial. But something has happened and boorish behavior is now celebrated. It's perfectly OK to launch personal attacks on others. In fact, it's a quick way to make a name for oneself. And fame, as we know, truly is the American idol.
Personally, I prefer the humility and contributions of people like Ray Camden, Luis Majano, Ben Nadel, and Joe Rinehart (among many others!) Ah, but I'm sure you have a wonderful rejoinder explaining your churlishness. Only do me this favor and take your accusations elsewhere.
BTW... those other community contributors you mention... Ray Camden, Luis Majano, Ben Nadel, and Joe Rinehart (among many others!) were all at their promised location. They all did a great job at the conference. Wish you were there also. My point is we want you to post your stuff at CFUnited and above all not to wait till December. The choice is yours of course as you and some will point out... but it is the right thing to do.
P.S. The issue of things like Fusebox and A.H. ... That is a personal attack on him. I remember your stand on 'owning' fusebox so it makes sense that you would attack Adam on this. I will take my admonisions elsewhere for they have apparently fallen on a deaf ear that expresses guilt but does not see the need to correct the position it put people like Liz into at CFU. (And it was a great conference just the same, Liz was up to the task with leadership and creative solutions. Great conference and great leadership... you should have added her to your list of those contributing to the community!)
The weekend session will be much better for foks who are interested in spending time and learning from Hal, this gives them a great opportunity to get more than a few hours of sessions.
Correct me if i'm wrong, but doesn't CFUnited cost money for folks to attend anyway? With the price of the ticket, hotel, travel, etc... It's quite a bit of money.
Anyhow, I have attended one of Hal's classes and for me it made a big impact in a positive way. Sure, if you're not in Florida you have to travel and have some expenses involved, but it will be worth it in the end, you'll definitely walk away learning something that will benefit you.
P.S. I simply deleted my comments I was aobut to make... I wish you good luck.
So I understand why Hal made the decision he made and would not judge him on this. My appeal and adomonition is to produce the conf. materials online because that is part of the service that Liz offers. I believe Hal indicated this made more sense via Skype than my comments on the blog. LOL, if we were all as elloquent as Hal... he wouldn't be so special!
If you can't make headway with Teratech, I think the best plan would be simply to fork the code (assuming the license allows for this). My objection is the idea that because someone isn't doing a good job with a product, a third party has the right to demand that they hand over that product to them.
I spoke out about it because I was so surprised that no one else had and that, indeed, you got encouragement for that position from others. I think, perhaps, if you think about the philosophy behind that position, you'll see that it would lead to utter chaos.
My statement really was not meant as a slam on you -- I don't know you and have no animus towards you -- but to try to counter the notion that seems to me so upside-down in its logic. I reject the notion that a group that adopts something has some inherent, moral right to that thing. I understand that you were the principal developer -- that certainly makes you something more than part of a group -- so your decision to fork the code makes sense to me. Demanding that Teratech turn over their intellectual property, on the other hand, doesn't.
I hope that makes sense to you.
I'm not a business man (consultant etc.), I'm a corporate associate. I work most of my days happily behind a firewall on ColdFusion and Java project with no concern of getting prospects day after day. When I look at Open Source I see it in the truest sense; do it for fun not for profit. I see it as a place to learn new concepts and help grow the community. Point of clarification possibly I hold no ill will towards those that do have OS as part of their business model, I'm just not at the point in my life I would want to do that. I think this stance on open source projects puts me in a different position than Teratech, and possibly yourself. When I put myself on the other side, I can see why you would feel as you do, it makes perfect sense. I would never ask Red Hat to turn over the rights to JBoss or vmWare (after the purchase happens) to turn over Spring Security.
Understand though that I was under the impression that Teratech brought in Fusebox for the community, to remove the potential of Fusebox becoming a very closed project with little community involvement. It was never stated that Teratech did this to gain IP or to build a brand around it. Being that I considered it done for the community I felt it was time for Fusebox in name move back to the community. I feel Teratech has done a poor job foster the framework and to a small extent has damaged the brand around it. This was the reason I asked for it to be relinquished back to the community. Indeed had I thought that Teratech was owning Fusebox for the brand or IP, as you are presenting it, things would have proceeded much differently. Honestly, I probably would have approached working on Team Fusebox much differently. I'm not sure I would be ok working for free in my spare time to help another company profit off my work.
Again thank you for the thoughts and challenge Hal, I truly do appreciate the openness and doing so as a named individual.
- When is it scheduled to begin on Saturday? (to determine if a hotel is needed for Friday night)
- Which hotels are most conveniently located to where you will offer the class?
- Do we need to feed ourselves? What should one budget?
- What is the best way to confirm attendance?
I'm in Tampa and am rather certain I will avail myself to the chance to attend. I'm also giving a flex presentation to a group of fellow Tampa Bay CF developers in a couple of weeks and want to be able to let them know about it.
Thanks for this opportunity.
Yes, I'm still offering the class. I have only two spaces left.
1. It starts on Saturday morning at 10am
2. If you google "hotels near 7069 s. tamiami trail sarasota fl" you'll see quite a few.
3. Meals aren't included, so you'll need to buy/bring your own. We'll head off to some of the places on the water for lunch. It might cost $20 or so.
4. To confirm attendance, please email me at hal at halhelms.com