Raymond Camden's Blog - Misc

OSX Outlook keeps asking for a password

Wed, 22 May 2013 16:39:00 -0400

Ever since day one at Adobe I've had an odd issue with Outlook on my Mac. About 3-4 times a day it would 'forget' my password. As soon as I entered my password it worked, but it bugged me that I had to keep re-entering it. I Googled but never found the right answer. I deleted and recreated my profile numerous times, but it never helped. Finally, Terry White (fellow Adobe evangelist!) made a simple suggest. Instead of entering my password in Outlook, I should be doing it in the Exchange settings via System Preferences. So first you go here... And then click Details: That was it. Seriously. I can't believe I didn't figure that out earlier, but every single time I tried to fix it by Googling around I never came across this solution. (Probably because it was too obvious. ;)

Note to folks attending cfObjective and attending my sessions

Thu, 16 May 2013 06:06:00 -0400

Due to a problem back home, I have to leave the conference early. I'm giving my Mobile Web Debugging session in the first slot this morning (this schedule change will be announced this morning). Dave Ferguson will be covering my CF10+HTML5 session and Matt Gifford will be covering my PhoneGap session.

Hear me wax poetic on Nerd Radio

Mon, 13 May 2013 16:54:00 -0400

Ok, maybe "poetic" is a bit much... but you can listen to my Nerd Radio interview here: MAX Day 3: Ray Camden and Stupid Questions

Ray Camden, Adobe Creative Cloud Evangelist, talks with us about his sessions at MAX covering topics like PhoneGap Build and web development tools.

Thanks to Leif and and Garth for inviting me!

Coolest Unboxing Ever

Mon, 06 May 2013 23:03:00 -0400

I've never understood the appeal of "unboxing videos". Don't get me wrong - I love to get new tech and I love the open it up and play with it. But watching someone else do that? Lame. But I just had to share my own personal experience with this. After my first MAX presentation today (demo assets will be posted tomorrow, sorry, this was far cooler), a woman walked up to me and handed me her "business card". Here is what she gave me: And the flip side: I almost felt guilty opening up, but I did so and began to take the items out one by one... The first thing I took out (after the mexican candy) was this: In case you can't read it, it says, "Hands On Full Stack Dev." Then there were these cards: The flip side was part note, part contact info (I erased the phone number): And finally - some trinkets: Absolutely amazing. Her name is Cecily Madanes and her personal site is here: http://ccceccc.com/.

How long ago was 1973?

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 06:08:00 -0400

A long, long, long time ago. Today I turn 40 and thankfully I don't feel a day over 39. ;)

Speaking Engagements for March, 2013

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 12:41:00 -0400

A bit late for this entry, but here we go anyway. My speaking engagements for this month are...

March 13th: Introduction to PhoneGap at the NYCFUG. Details here: http://www.meetup.com/NYC-ColdFusion-Users-Group/events/105550232/
March 19th: Introduction to PhoneGap (again ;) at my local UG, the Acadiana AUG. Details here: Ray Camden on PhoneGap, March 19
Also on the 19th, I'll be giving a TechLive talk on Brackets. This is an online, open to everyone presentation. Details here: Using Brackets to Level Up Your Web Development

Welcome to RaymondCamden.com (2013)

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:59:00 -0400

A few weeks ago I warned you that I'd be updating the site with a new design, and this weekend I deployed it. For the most part everything should work the same, but if you encounter any bugs or other problems, let me know.One of the big changes was the removal of the 'pop up' window for commenting. I now use an inline form that uses Ajax to do validation. That worked well until I needed to reload the page and focus on your comment. Luckily this StackOverflow question demonstrated how to do that: How to force a page to reload if all what was changed in url is hash? Since this theme is responsive, I've removed the jQuery Mobile subsite. Don't take this as any sign of me going sour on jQuery Mobile. I think the recent 1.3.0 release is the most exciting build yet and both myself and Andy Matthews are working to update our jQuery Mobile book for 1.4. But I just didn't need it anymore here so I removed it. The only feature really lacking now is a dedicated way to subscribe to comments without actually commenting yourself. I'll probably add that back one day if folks complain, but at the end of the day, if you have to post a quick "Just commenting to subscribe" comment, I won't complain. Finally, one small feature I like (that people will probably never notice) is the "Recent Commenters" box at the bottom. It simply lists and displays the gravatars of the last few readers who left comments: I expect some folks will not care for the redesign, which is always the case, but I hope they continue to participate and add to the conversation.

Another Lafayette Job - Game Programming Teacher

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:21:00 -0400

As before, I'm just passing it on, but I'm so happy to see cool tech jobs in beautiful Lafayette, LA.

The Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE), the leading educator in game development, 3D animation and VFX, is looking for an experienced game programmer to deliver our courses in Professional Game Development (Game Programming) at our Lafayette campus. Our courses are strongly practical and intensive and focus on the core skills required by game programmers. The successful applicant will develop, update and deliver the course content, administer course requirements, and provide assessment and direction over the school year. Teaching experience is great, but not necessary. Strong communication skills, a team oriented attitude and commercial games programming development experience are essential. The successful applicant will be working within a supportive and highly skilled team, across all campuses. Duties and Responsibilities

Delivering the course content for our courses using a combination of lecture style sessions and practice tutorials
Planning, creation and development of new course materials
Reviewing, as part of a team, current curriculum and updating as required
Advising and assisting students on both programming and technical issues
Monitoring student progress including attendance, course competencies, informal and formal assessment
Evaluating student course work in both practical and theory exercises
Essential

Detailed, practical, up-to-date knowledge of C++ and C# for game programming and the application of middleware
Ability to keep knowledge current with industry standards and further own learning as required
Excellent verbal and written communication skills
Ability to work effectively within a team
Desirable

Prior teaching experience an advantage
Formal qualification in a relevant area
This position is preferred full time, but permanent part time will be considered (min. 3 days per week) for the right applicant. Salary is negotiable based on skills and experience. Please send resumes to kristiet@aie.edu.au

Local Job Opportunity: After Effects Designer - Louisiana

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 18:28:00 -0400

Just passing this on. The company is one I've known for a while and is a darn cool local shop.

Lafayette, LA design studio looking for freelance content creator proficient in Adobe After Effects CS6 with motion graphics skills for online content, presentation templates, etc. Project-based work. Deadline oriented. Understanding of typography and creative ad design a must. Send details of your After Effects experience and a link to your portfolio to jobs@graham-group.com.

Ten Years Ago Today...

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 06:41:00 -0400

Ten years ago today this little blog of mine launched with a simple Welcome post. I started this blog with the intent of sharing knowledge and random things I thought were "cool." In the past ten years there have been...

4831 blog entries
An average of 0.75 posts per day
50,527 comments (an average of 10 per blog post)
17 million 'views' per entry (based on a simple stat per entry I store locally, not a Google Analytics stat)
500+ people signed up to get emails when I post a new entry

I've posted 2,969 times on ColdFusion, 302 on jQuery, and only 129 times on HTML5. The post with the most comments (972!) was an entry on iPhone iOS 2 written back in 2008. My most popular entry based on views was one on Subclipse and Subversion (both things I don't use anymore). When I started this blog, I worked for Mindseye, a web shop out of Boston now defunct. After that I spent some time at roundpeg as a VP of Technology (guess what - I suck at management), ran my own little shop for a while (guess what - I suck at business development), joined a startup (Broadchoice, where I worked with the smartest developers on the planet), returned to my own company (by way of the startup crashing), landed at FirstComp as a senior dev, and then finally found my way to Adobe. I've spent most of the past ten years focused on server-side technology. The past few years though I've shifted to the client side. As I've seen HTML, JavaScript, and CSS grow at a phenomenal rate (sometimes roughly), I've been enjoying writing (and presenting) about how this can help developers build new and more powerful web-based experiences. I've been incredibly lucky in my career. I've also been lucky to have a great "community" here (hell, I even have a troll). Will this blog still exist in ten years? I have no idea. But it's going to be fun getting there! For your enjoyment, here are some screen shots of the blog (via the Wayback Machine). I've got a new blog design chosen and hope to launch it next month. Click on the screen shots below for a larger version. Pre-blog but a great example of what happens when I design. (No larger version for this one.) This - as far as I know - was my original design. I didn't create this design, but I certainly don't remember where I got it. I think from a Wordpress demo. Anyway, make note of the Royale entry. This was Flex before it was Flex. Three years later... The "big ass green header" begins. Also note the link to my Amazon wishlist. Did I mention I have a wishlist? I do! You can find it here. Bring on 2008. Note the entry on CFGRID. The amount of questions I got on CF UI stuff (from Flash Forms to CFCHART to Ajaxy stuff) is incredible. I had to eventually ask people to stop sending questions on Flash Forms. I'm near doing that for the Ajax UI stuff as well. And here is my last design - more big green top. (Did I mention my favorite color is green?) I'm still talking about Eclipse here (blech) and mentioning my acceptance to MAX 2011. I've spoken at every singe DevCon and MAX except one. I've got two sessions for MAX 2013. For folks curious about my next theme, you can see it here. I normally save my redesigns as a surprise, but as it may take me longer to get to it than expected, I figured why not share it. It is fully responsive, which means I'll be removing the jQuery Mobile "sub site". It has worked fine for me in general but I think a responsive design will work better for my blog. Anyway, thanks for coming along for the ride! p.s. I actually wrote this on Sunday. Today is Mardi Gras and I hope to be having too much fun to be writing. ;)

TechLive Presentation - HTML5 Storage

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:56:00 -0400

I blogged earlier this month about my speaking engagements, but I thought a reminder would be nice. In one hour I'll be presenting (over Adobe Connect) on HTML5 Storage techniques. Free and open to everyone! Event Details

Sunday OT Post: Yes, I know it isn't Sunday...

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:04:00 -0400

I meant to post this last night, but got rather involved in Guild Wars 2 instead so I completely forgot. For years now I've been meaning to get back into board games. As a teenager I played some war games that I absolutely loved. Now that my eldest is near 13 I've been hoping to get back into it and - obviously - involve him.Last night my son and I played our first game of Mage Knight. (Associate link below. ;) It was an incredibly cool, but complex game. It took about 2 hours of setup to get started and my son was definitely running low on patience. But then something magical happened. We both went form struggling to "get it" to, well, I still don't think we get it completely, but we got to a point where we could actually play, and his face lit up, I got excited, it was just fun as hell. That being said, while we plan on playing again, I'm curious what games folks would recommend that are a bit simpler. If Monopoly has a skill rating of 1, Mage Knight is somewhere at 100. That's cool and all, but I'm hoping for some middle ground in terms of complexity. Any suggestions? I'll point out that no one else in the family is that interested, so 2-player support is kind of required. Nuclear War is already on my list to pick up.

Speaking Engagements in January

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 11:53:00 -0400

Just an FYI - if you want to catch me live (or virtual in some cases), here is where, and what, I'll be speaking on this month.

Next week I'll be in Sandusky, Ohio to speak at CodeMash. I'm doing a 4 hour presentation/lab on PhoneGap.
On January 15th, myself and other Adobe Evangelists will be hosting an online version of the Create the Web tour. Details may be found here.
On January 16th I'm presenting to IndyFusion, the Adobe User Group for Indianapolis. This will be a Connect meeting where I'm giving an overview of ColdFusion 10. (As with all my Connect to User Group meetings, I may, or may not, share the Connect URL. It depends on the group and if it makes sense.)
On January 17th I'll be doing another open PhoneGap session with Andrew Trice. This is also part of the new TechLive site. Details may be found here.
On January 23rd, again via the TechLive site, I'm giving my presentation on HTML5 Storage techniques. Details may be found here.
Finally, I'll be traveling to San Francisco for Mobile+Web DevCon. This is held January 29th through 31st. I'm giving a 3 hour session on JavaScript development (Designers Can't Do JavaScript!) and a one hour session on IndexedDB.

Most-viewed blog entries of 2012 (thanks Charlie!)

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 18:51:00 -0400

Ok, I'll admit it. I'm not afraid to steal a good idea when I see it. Earlier today Charlie Arehart posted his top ColdFusion blog entries for the year. I thought that was a great idea and figured I'd share it as well. Interestingly enough, none of my top ten is ColdFusion-related. They are almost entirely PhoneGap-related (with jQuery Mobile being the other top topic).

Parse.com - dynamic data storage for mobile	48134
Example of Autocomplete in jQuery Mobile	21844
Example of form validation in a jQuery Mobile Application	17225
Downloading files to a PhoneGap application - Part 1	15654
How I cheated Mozilla's new HTML5 Game	14150
Getting URL parameters in a jQuery Mobile page	13885
Context Menu Example with jQuery Mobile	11775
Converting a dynamic web site to a PhoneGap application	9568
PhoneGap RSS Reader - Part 3	9299
Building a Parse.com Enabled PhoneGap App - Part 5	9084

Sunday OT Post: Transformative Media

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 08:38:00 -0400

I apologize for what is, on reflection, an incredibly obtuse title. Frankly, I couldn't think of a better way to describe what had been in my head this week but as it is Sunday, my brain is officially off the clock so I'm not going to worry about it too much. So what am I talking about? Earlier this week I was driving my kids to school when a particular song came on the radio. This song was, to me, one of the most interesting songs I have ever heard, and I got to thinking about how when I first heard it, the song had completely opened my mind to a new genre and a new way of thinking about music in general. This got me thinking about other things like that and I thought I'd write it up on my Sunday post. These are the things (music, movies, etc) that have "transformed" my thoughts about media in general. While not necessarily my favorite items, they are things that opened my mind.

Music

Since music started this I figured I'd start with music. There's three things I want to mention here. I'll start with the one that will, probably, make most of you snicker. As a young kid, Duran Duran was the first band that I really cared about. I liked other bands of course but Duran Duran was the first that I really seemed to notice and follow. There's one song though that I can remember the exact time I heard it first. (Well, it is a bit vague. I can remember being in a car listening on a walkman I believe, but that's it.) It was the remix version of The Reflex. (I was going to link to the Youtube version of this but there were too many to choose from.) The Reflex was an OK DD song, not my favorite, but before I heard the remixed version, I didn't even know remixes existed. I'm not sure why, but I was completely fascinated by the idea of a song modified by someone else. Later on I'd discover cover songs and mashups, and they still fascinate me today. The next one (and this is the one that was playing on the radio), is "Where Is My Mind" by the Pixies. I can remember the first time I heard this as well. I was in my teens, and had some small inkling of "alternative" music, but I hadn't really gotten into it yet. I can remember hearing this and realizing there was a whole area of music I needed to get more exposure too. The final item I'll list here is Disintegration by the Cure. I think the older Cure is a bit better, but I list this album because it was the first time I thought of an album as a complete whole. Again, I can remember the first time I listened to it. I remembered thinking how well the entire album played and just how much it felt like a cohesive whole. I rarely see that nowadays.

Books

This one is a bit more difficult. I've been reading intensively for close to thirty years now. I love books. I'd walk away from music, film, and gaming in a heart beat if necessary but I never want to be away from something to read. I can think of many examples of books that have expanded my mind so I'm unsure of what to select here. I can remember the first series that made me truly sad to finish - the "Twins" series from Dragonlance. (I've heard Dragonlance doesn't hold up too well now but I'm still hoping to get reread them one day.) I can remember reading "1984", which probably everyone has read, but the concept of Newspeak still fascinates me today. It was the first time I began to think of language as something more than just words on a page. I can think of one book though that truly surprised me: The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Novel Believe it or not, this was discussed at a week-long summer camp I went to in high school. Kundera's prose was just so... different... I remember being blown away. It was the first time I looked at how a story was told as much as, or more than, the story itself. It's been far too long since I've read him. I'll end this section with a recommendation for China Miéville. His novels can be a bit dense sometimes, but they always tend to expand my mind in some way or another. I'm not sure what to compare him too. In a very tangential way perhaps you could compare his stories to "The Twilight Zone", but I don't think that does it justice. My favorite novel of his is certainly The City & The City. Start with that one first.

TV

Unfortunately, TV is 99% utter garbage, but the 1% does tend to be real good. Sadly, those of us who like 'geek' TV are used to getting screwed in this regard. You'll commit to watching some great sci-fi/fantasy story only to have it cancelled before any resolution. Jericho was the exception. Not only did we nerds resurrect it but it's had a great continuation in comics. But in general, there isn't a lot out there. This is where Netflix has been awesome for me. This year I discovered that a typical hour-long TV drama was about 40-45 minutes without commercials. That's perfect for my treadmill workout. This year I watched Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and am now catching up on Sons of Anarchy. All of these are pretty darn great (with Breaking Bad being the best) and makes me forget the rest of the crap on the boob tube. But in terms of "mind opening", I can think of only one thing that really fits here. I was home from college one weekend and flipping channels. This was in a small house on my grandparents property (my great grandmother's place before she died) on a small TV with no cable. I'm not sure what channel I was on, but this show began that was trippy and weird. Very much a 60s show, I decided to give it a chance and watch the complete episode. It was the Free For All episode of a show called The Prisoner. For folks who have never heard of it, The Prisoner was a show about a spy (of some sort, for some government) who retires (for some reason) and is taken prisoner (by someone or some government or something) and is tortured, coerced, pushed, etc over the series to explain why he retired. You never truly learn why. You never learn the man's name. It's... weird. It's also a very interesting look at individuality versus society. If you can get past the 60s-ish decor and give it a shot, I definitely think it is worth your time to watch. Do not watch the remake.

Film

I often think of advice I'd like my kids to learn. Not the serious stuff about being honest, but the more simple, low level, practical stuff. Like, I can remember my wife wanting to buy a new mattress. She wanted to spend what I thought was way too much money. I mean crap, it's just a mattress, right? Yeah, I can still remember the first time I sat on it. I never complained about the cost again. (In fact, when she was considering replacing it after ten or so years I got scared since I was convinced any new bed wouldn't be as good!) One of things I plan on telling my kids when they enter college is to take a film class. Yeah, it's sounds like a cake-walk class, but I freaking loved it. I got exposed to all kinds of movies I never would have considered watching. Noir, westerns, etc. After this class I found myself really noticing how movies were made. The editing, how scenes were shot, etc. I don't consider myself an expert by any means. (You guys see my reviews. It's nothing that great.) As much as I love films though it is a bit difficult to think of something that really fits the topic here. Everyone knows I'm a Star Wars freak, but as much as I enjoy it, it isn't necessarily that mind expanding. I can also watch classics like the Godfather Citizen Kane again and again. They are definitely masterpieces. If I have to select one film, it is one that I know many people don't care for. But it is the one film that truly surprised me. Everything in it is just plain worked for me. Frankly, I don't know exactly why yet. I can't say it is this piece or that factor. Vanilla Sky, with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. Yeah, I know it is a remake (and I've got the original film but haven't watch it yet). I also know a lot of folks don't like Cruise. Personally, I've liked every film he has been in pretty much. I just remember being totally surprised by the direction of this film and where it went. (I almost wonder if it would be nice to skip teasers and trailers altogether and just go in with no idea. I've heard folks who did that with Terminator 2 were shocked by the twist. I plan on trying that with my eldest and see what he thinks.) I'll give Inception a close nod for being pretty mind-blowing as well. The only reason I'd not list it first is because it was marketed as such. Vanilla Sky was more of a surprise to me.

Video Games

As someone who has been gaming since before the 2600 (ok, not much earlier), I've played more video games then I care to admit. I definitely consider video games a form of art, but one that is perhaps still somewhat new comparatively. I've played some very good games over the last 30+ years and have seen an incredible amount of innovation. My math skills failed me at Calc 3, but I can truly appreciate the knowledge it takes to create dynamic water. I feel like video games are only now getting to a point where the technology can be paired with good story telling to create a good experience. But I think the story telling is just approaching the "good" level. I don't say that to diminish the fine games I've played recently, but overall I feel like it's just coming into its own as an art form. In terms of really mind-blowing though, I have to go to the past. Many years ago there was a company called Infocom. They created text-based games that involved puzzle solving. (You can find modern text-based games too.) Many of the stories were simple Sci-Fi/Fantasy stories, but due to the limited technology they typically had very good writing. Some of these games were very different. The best example of this was A Mind Forever Voyaging. The Wikipedia link does a better job of describing it, but the basic premise was that you played the role of an AI who needs to test how proposed social reforms in America would help turn things around. Unlike most puzzle-oriented games, this one had you exploring a simulation of America and taking notes of how things have changed. It was utterly fascinating. I'll give honorable mentions here to Ultima 4 (the game that asked you to become a better person as opposed to slaying some evil wizard) and Sim City (so wait, you never "win"??). If I had to select anything more recent, it would be the "No Russian" mission from COD:MW2. Ok, well, thanks for listening. If you actually read this entire post, congrats. ;)