Greg Nilsen

How I Got Started In ColdFusion

 careers  No Responses »
Aug 012011
 

Back in 2004, I was attending grad school the University of Pittsburgh, working on my PhD  in Computer Science focusing on Artificial Intelligence.  I had aspirations of becoming a professor and helping to groom the next generation of CS majors.  However, I grew disillusioned with the heavy focus on theoretical Computer Science, and the lack of focus on teaching undergrads that I found at a larger school (I had completed my Bachelors in Computer Science at Hiram College and graduated with just over 200 students from all majors), and decided to leave the PhD program, wrap up my Master’s degree requirements and seek a job where I could apply what I had learned.

While searching for a job that would be flexible enough to accommodate the last of my coursework, I landed a job at UPMC, the largest medical conglomerate in Pittsburgh, working with a customized data collection and reporting application for a research study focused on childhood behavior disorders.  Having almost no experience with web-base application languages (I had seen a few pages of PHP previously, but not much), I was thrust into ColdFusion MX 7 and MS SQL to learn what was already in place.  With ColdFusion being so easy to learn, I picked up things quickly, and I got some pointers from the other developers.  I really enjoyed working with ColdFusion and the ease with which things came together and simplicity when reading the code (for the most part).  Within 6 months, I had studied for and passed my ColdFusion MX 7 Developer certification and was working to improve the application I was working with.

However, some time later I had been presented an opportunity to take a job as a MS SQL DBA at a significant raise, and I chose to pursue it.  Unfortunately, I found several months later that the job and I were not a great fit for a number of reasons, and I got back into ColdFusion development.

Now a Product Manager/Team Lead/Senior Software Developer, I continue to work with ColdFusion today, this time with Oracle PL/SQL databases, in order to support supply chain management software for the steel industry (OpenTrac).  The work we do is by no means flashy, but it is extremely functional and helps to fill a gap that the industry has struggled with for a number of years, and our customers have come to rely upon us for.  And to me, that’s important; I help people get stuff done, and do it more efficiently than they had in the past.  And ColdFusion helps me to do that for them!

A Father’s Day Prayer

 church, family, holiday  No Responses »
Jun 192011
 

I got this from my uncle today, and it was published in their parish bulletin this morning, and I liked it enough that I thought I’d share…

 

A Father’s Day Prayer

 

Holy Father,

 

You are the one who knows how absolutely special fathers are.

You made them that way.

 

How else can a man work so hard, give so much, and love unconditionally,

without your strength?

 

So first, Lord, thank You for fathers, for daddies.

For big, strong men with tender hearts,

with hands that are callused and rough,

yet so soft and gentle when hearts need mending.

 

Lord, help children to delight this day in being with their dads,

even if it must only be by phone.

 

May the precious memories flow, and bring laughter,

and new love and appreciation.

 

Lord, please take care of our dads.

Though they are brave and protective,

they must also be frightened sometimes,

when money runs low, when we need things, when we’re hurt or sick.

 

Lord, when their hearts break because they can’t do it all,

please help us to let them know how much we love them.

 

And how much You love them.

 

Lord, forgive the men who know they are not good fathers,

and help them to know when and if they can make things better,

with Your help.

 

And Oh, Lord, for those dads who keep trying and keep loving after

messing up so many times,

help their children to love them even more in return.

 

Lord, for that dad who has lost a child, please let him know that You are there,

right beside him,

for nothing else can heal a heart so torn.

 

For the father who is parenting alone, strengthen him with your love.

 

For those whose father is already with You,

 

Give him a hug Lord,

 

And tell him it’s from his children.

 

And you too, Lord.

 

Happy Father’s Day!

 

In Jesus’ name,

 

Amen.

 

Review: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader

 movies  No Responses »
Jun 142011
 

Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader

After not getting a chance to get to the theater to catch this movie, I carved out some time last night to watch the latest installment of The Chronicles of Naria movies with my wife.  Now, let me preface the remainder of this review by saying that it’s been about five years since I last read through the entire Chronicles, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was far and away my favorite of the books.  I felt it read like an abridged Odessey, with lots of rich imagery and varied adventures in an epic manner.  

That said, I didn’t have real high hopes for the movie for several reasons:

  • Hollywood struggles with storytelling, which C.S. Lewis excelled at.  It seems that you either start with a complex story that gets skimmed over, or start with a simple story that gets “jazzed up” with unnecessarry add-ins from the movie studios (see Spiderman 3, which killed that series/storyline).  The Dawn Treader would fall into the first category.
  • While The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, by far the most popular of the books, was a solid movie, the follow up with Prince Caspian came across very “meh”, and very often sequels get caught in that downward spiral.
  • The franchise was also switching from being Disney-backed to being a part of 20th Century Fox, and changing directors, and you never know how that’s going to play out.
  • I read the book first.  I already knew what to expect and had images of how things should look.  Very rarely do movies live up to one’s imagination.

So, after watching the movie and hoping against hope, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was still an OK movie.  It clearly lacked in storytelling depth (they spent about 12 seconds explaining why they were sailing into uncharted waters, and it felt like the characters were just jumping from one island to another), and the big fight scene was overly drawn out (you’d think someone would speak up and say “they spend more time fighting the giant serpent/bug thing than they do talking to each other…what is this, LOST?”), but it was sufficiently entertaining.

The two highlights for me were the early sword duel between Eustace and Reepicheep, which I found very amusing, and the final scenes, which did manage to depict the “edge of the world” by “Aslan’s country” almost exactly as I had imagined (my brain had no land, and a mirror-like wall of water).

In the end, I do have a hard time recommending Dawn Treader unless you’ve seen the previous movies, and are a fan of the books.  The movie is like the Cliff Notes version with every fifth word redacted, and that doesn’t make for a great standalone movie experience.

Nonetheless, I do hope they continue to move forward and create the entire series.  Word on the street is that The Magician’s Nephew is next on the docket, which is a great prelude to The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and gives the whole backstory on Narnia, which should be interesting and possibly bring back those who may have been lost by the slow pace of Prince Caspian.  The Silver Chair would be another one that could be very interesting to see, which is more of an fantasy adventure in other parts of Narnia.  Let’s hope they can get a better grasp on those movies, and be able to do them justice in a 150-minute window.

What are the benefits of ORM?

 coldfusion, programming  2 Responses »
May 272011
 

I’ve been looking at a few different ORM implementations for ColdFusion, including the native ColdFusion 9 implementation and Transfer ORM, and I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the benefits of using it.  I understand that you can write things once, and then use that same code to connect to just about any database, but it also seems like an additional layer of complexity and abstraction that doesn’t provide many other benefits.  Especially in the case where you’re not planning on interfacing with more than a single database type, it seems like a significant burden to not only create your database objects, but then recreate them in an ORM.

To clarify, I’ve been using ColdFusion for about 7 years now, and I’ve worked extensively with mySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and, most recently, four years with Oracle PL/SQL, and much of the work I do does not reference database tables directly, but calls (often complex) views and stored procedures to read and write the data I’m working with.  It’s usually no trouble at all for me to whip together what I need in the database and then call it from the ColdFusion code.

That said, are there any benefits to using ORM functionality that I’m missing?  I’ve read how much people enjoy working with it, but all I’m seeing as I read the documentation is more work without a whole lot of benefit (especially with how I’m used to working with my databases).

So, what’s so great about ORM?

While You Were Listening To The Radio…

 music  No Responses »
May 242011
 

This probably isn’t a surprise to anyone out there, but I’m not exactly a fan of mainstream music.  Instead, I tend to fine a lot of alternative and indie music that I dig through all kinds of channels, from Pandora to background music on TV shows, which often lead to the discovery of other music.  And it often drifts genres to, as I can name at least one song I like in just about every genre out there.  I’m just not a huge fan of what’s fed to me on the radio, and I always love discovering new music.

But, instead of hording it all for myself, I thought I’d share some of my favorite selections from off the beaten path (with videos!!!)…

  • The Exit – Back To the Rebels

With an awesome bass hook and cryptic lyrics, I’ve been digging this one for years.

  • Sprung Monkey – Get ‘em Outta Here

Ok, I’ll confess…I actually got this one off the radio, but the band never really experienced any real degree of success.  I always enjoy it when this song comes on my mp3 player when I’m driving around.  It always feels like a summer song to me…

  • RJD2 – 1976

While there are a number of songs from this Columbus, OH raised musician, this is by far my favorite.  A great beat and use of the trumpet hook make me want to dance, even if the accompanying video is on the depressing side.

  • The Avalanches – Frontier Psychiatrist

With a video that is almost as unconventional as the song, this diddy stops in my tracks each time it comes on, like a little highlight-of-the-day.  The mashup of the old movie clips (I’m a sucker for those, like the “special” edition of Metalica’s “One”) just keeps you jumping from one crazy thought to the next…and that’s a good thing.

 

  • EDL (Every Day Life) – Embers

With a sweet guitar hook and chorus that plays off a number of other popular song, I’ve always enjoyed this song and feel that it captures much of the late-90s/early-2000s “rapcore” feel.  Plus, the lead singer then went on to be a DJ at RadioU in Columbus, OH, which I listened to a lot in my high school days, so it’s a little bit of nostalgia for me as well.

Well, I’ll wrap things up there with five entries for you to peruse, though I could go through many, many more…and will in due time.  Enjoy, and don’t be afraid to stray from the beaten path.  There are a lot of great bands and musicians out there, but they don’t all have the backing of labels or the money to force them into rotation on your local radio stations.

Got My Google Music Beta Invite, And…

 music  1 Response »
May 242011
 

So, I got my Google Music Beta invite today, and when signing in the first time, I was asked what kinds of free music I wanted to import.  However, when I saw the the choices, something wasn’t quite right…

Google Music Setup

Seems as though just about anything will pass for “Rock” music these days.  Of course, they’re probably just following the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame’s lead.

Anyway, now time to actually check out the service…

The Friday Shuffle

 music, random  No Responses »
Jan 072011
 

So, it’s Friday, and that means casual dress and a more relaxed office atmosphere, including the music.  Several years ago, a number of bloggers would put their music on shuffle and record the first 10 that come up (no skipping).  It’s all just for fun (and maybe a little embarassment), and if you’d like to add your own, feel free to comment with yours, or link to it below.  For this morning, here is mine:

  1. Busta Rhymes – What’s It Gonna Be
  2. Everclear – Otis Redding
  3. Veggie Tales – The Dance of the Cucumber
  4. Don Moen – Sing For Joy
  5. Cutting Crew – (I Just) Died In Your Arms Tonight
  6. The Clarks – Penny On The Floor
  7. Delirious – When All Around Has Fallen
  8. Billy Talent – Worker Bees
  9. Joel Engle – My Jesus I Love Thee
  10. The Offspring – Can’t Repeat

That’s it for this week.  Feel free to add your own!

6 Reasons Why College Football Is Losing Me As A Fan

 sports  No Responses »
Nov 112010
 

There once was a time when college football was the king of the sports world: a great and entertaining game steeped in tradition, filled with rivalries, and flush with pageantry.

And now, they’ve pissed that all away.

Sure, college football has always had the problem that a true champion could never be crowned.  The champion has always been rather arbitrary depending on the controlling interests involved, but for a while that was tolerable because it was always “close enough” to being right (both before and after the BCS).  It’s an issue that has continued to go unaddressed even as it has become increasingly clear that this isn’t going to be an acceptable solution to the public in the long run.  So, let’s kick off our list with that.

  1. Lack of a Clear National Champion – Quality teams continue to be left on the outside looking in because they are not part of the conferences that decided to put themselves in charge by creating the BCS.  Until the NCAA steps in and organizes a season-end tournament resulting in a singular, definitive national champion, my interest will continue to wain.
  2. Conferences Can’t Read Maps – The news that the Big East was considering persuing TCU as a new member was the straw that broke the camels back for me.  It’s bad enough that the Big Ten is expanding westward with Nebraska, and the Pac-10 moves eastward with Colorado and Utah (though neither is as egregious as the ground covered by the WAC), but the blurring of regional conference lines not only increases travel times and expenses and decreases time spent in the classroom by all student athletes.  So it’s messing up both the tradition of regional conferences, as well as going against the claims that the academics come first.
  3. Violating the Dress Code – Have you seen some of the ridiculous uniforms that some teams have been wearing lately?  It’s not just Oregon any more!  I mean they are really getting out of hand.  Even teams that have classic uniforms are being subject to these monstrosities, and I always have to do a double take and ask “Who’s playing?”.  Ohio State in red helmets?  Miami dressing up like Florida A&M?  And in many cases they claim to be referencing different historic uniforms, but in most cases that’s misleading.  For once, I have to give a team like Michigan credit for sticking to their guns (so far).
  4. When Do The Weeks End? – First, it was Thursday night games.  Then, it was Friday night games (typically a no-no, as that’s traditionally high school football night).  Now, there’s even Tuesday and Wednesday night games.  When does one week end and the next begin?  How many people are sitting at home intently tuned into Lousiana Tech @ Wyoming on a Tuesday night?  (And I’m sure this scheduling makes it so much easier to put the “student” in “student athlete” as well.  </sarcasm>)I don’t have time to keep track of all that, so I like to stick with the Saturday games.  But…
  5. No Meaningful Games Before 3:30pm…If You’re Lucky – I can’t even remember the last game between ranked teams that started at noon on a Saturday.  They’re all now getting moved to “prime time”.  However, I’d much rather be watching these games earlier, and Saturday nights I’d rather be watching a movie with my wife or going out to dinner.  The only chance I’ll actually tune in is if one of my teams of interest is playing (Ohio State, Pitt, UConn or BCS-crashers).  Otherwise, I may tune in to an earlier game, but I’ll be tuned out for the “prime time” offering.
  6. The Bachelor Chow Bowl – Forgive the Futurama reference, but since there’s only about 73 bowl games being played now, some people may have thought that was real.  So, now there’s a lot more teams getting to play in extra nationally-televised games, but most of them still don’t matter and aren’t all that interesting as they’re played in front of about 27 attendees each.  Amazing.

Basically, I wish that college football would stop pushing itself like they’re marketing on us like a pop music “star” and trying to milk it for all the money possible before that shimmer fades in a few short years.  But that happens when universities stop trying to help shape young adults and start running themselves like corporations.

But then again, even pro sports aren’t this reckless with their products…

Hit It!

 life  No Responses »
Oct 072010
 

Yea, so I got rear-ended again…in the same exact spot on my bumper as last December!  Not a fun way to start the day, but at least nobody got hurt.  This time it was on an actual road instead of in a parking lot, but it’s still a hassle to got through all the insurance paperwork and make the arrangements to get the car fixed.  Ironically, the damage is actually less severe (at least it appears that way to the eye), which just shows how crazily the idiot in the parking lot was driving last year.

But on we go…

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