Grey Matters

I’ve just been alerted to the fact that Coldfusion is not enabled on AAA.* test accounts (server win.scorpio.olduvai.). This is due to both the JRun filter settings not being inherited by new virtual hosts, and our CP software not interfacing with or at least recognising the CF installation properly.

 For now, the Coldfusion connection needs to be run for each virtual host that is added to allow .cfm files to process properly - this will also enable any additional vdir based or filter based behaviours (that’s good, mkay).

Hopefully you’ll be able to trigger the connector manually by this time tomorrow, but at the moment a ticket needs to be lodged with Dev-Team.

~V

For any DevLab server connection params (we use non-standard ports and what-not) that aren’t included in a trial account “welcome” email, you can email our support via dev-team@fasthit.net.

The majority of information you will find in that welcome email or in the control panel. I’ll regpost it for ease of access though - I’m often toying with these things on the road, and would rather not have to get at my ‘on file’ email just for a summary sheet.

I’m afraid it’s somewhat of a policy that we don’t leave specifics on public access forums, so I’ll post a registered user followup shortly. It’s simply a case of registering for my blog (you need to to leave a comment anyway) and letting me know that you will need access to the DevLab posts. Those (R) titles will then be followed by an actual post. : )

They’ve been rolled out - sorry about the wait, folks, I’ve been entirely focused on support for the last week or two. I meant to get these going while GM was in Russia, but it just didn’t happen. I was staring at a vanilla PE6650 (forgot to get snaps of it, sorry : ( ) for almost a week! What restraint! So it’s about time for some toys : )

 We have two plans set up for testing, either:

 ColdFusion 8 (Release Candidate) + SQL Server 2005 (Stable)
http://control.fasthit.net/psoft/servlet/psoft.hsphere.CP?action=signup&plan_id=7281&signup=yes&template_name=signup/begin.html

ColdFusion 8 (Release Candidate) + SQL Server “Katmai” (CTP)
http://control.fasthit.net/psoft/servlet/psoft.hsphere.CP?action=signup&plan_id=7280&signup=yes&template_name=signup/begin.html

If you need anything, let me know - direct or via dev-team@fasthit.net (Dev Team department in the helpdesk).

~V

Well, this is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. We now have a functional DevLab for testing new things (*cough*toys*cough*) in a pseudo-production environment. \o/

In the initial deployment I’ve put up Adobe ColdFusion “Scorpio” 8 RC and SQL Server “Katmai” 2008 CTP for our shiny new tech testers, and CFMX7/8 + Flex 2 Data Services/LCDS will be following for experimental code monkeys. There are some other products that have just entered early beta that I’m keen to get running here too, but more on that later. I’m open to requests if you have them, too. I’ll be posting here when new techs are going up, and we will also have a disgustingly cliched portal type site once I’m happy with the backend on that one - so as to have an easier way to communicate with y’all.

The TechLab is a closed environment - currently only for internal testing. I have some plans for this, but I can’t say too much just yet. Stay tuned. :)

 When joining new tech (community technology preview, public beta or release candidate) testing groups you can expect to have any single version available for one month. Beyond that we generally see new stable builds or new stages (alpha/beta/rc) being released by vendors, and the testing environment may be ‘reset’ to another version of the underlying platform(s). Just keep an eye out for announcements, and get in touch if you like.

 The true development environment (RTM) groups will have a much longer lifecycle, given that a product version tends to be quite stable at this point (no snickering, please). We will be making it available in a standard shared hosting configuration for running ’Experimental and Potentially Dangerous Code’. It’ll also give you an opportunity to have some of our programmers/application server admins - or other community developers - have a look at your code and make suggestions for improvement or solving the problem at hand in a public workspace.

 If you want to get in touch about the Labs feel free to shoot me an email or an IM, but it’s “safer” to email dev-team@fasthit.net. Just incase I’m unavailable, inconvenienced, or otherwise indisposed.

 ~V

These things don’t seem to last too long for me for one reason or another. I can’t seem to find the time (blog or sleep, hmm, tough choice), and when time isn’t an obstacle I can’t find the words. When I can find the words I always seem to be in the car, stuck in traffic, and likely to forget whatever superbly eloquent prose I came up with before getting back to a PC (funny, that). Then there’s the whole scope issue, but I’ll leave that for another rant. It’s about time I started my professional (see: work-related) blog.

It’s something I’ve been meaning to do, if only to get some of the bugfixes and obscurities we come across out there and hopefully save someone some frustration. The number of times I’ve spoken to people after they’ve seen one of our fixes mentioned on Guennadi’s blog, for example. Sheesh.

 Just a couple of disclaimers before I get started:
* Given that I still don’t have time to be doing this, I just ask that you bear with me while I find my rhythm. I’m going to be posting a fair few bits and pieces that need to be made accessible, but I’m sure I’ll have to come back and edit them afterwards.
* Don’t expect me to obey chronology or other conventions when posting.
* Pretend you didn’t notice that I’ve just grabbed the same Graphite skin GM is using (hey, I like it). Thanks.
* Oh, and I use parentheses too much (sorry). That, and “unnecessary” punctuation. Don’t hold it against me.

~V