Hating Online Only Help in Creative Suite

Perhaps I'm just getting old and crusty, or perhaps it's just lack of sleep, but I'm really not liking the way the current Creative Suite 4 products go online for help. Seriously, does this content really change so much that having offline help isn't useful? Last time I checked the Dreamweaver documentation hasn't changed all that much since Mx2004.
First of all, fat lot of good it does me when I'm on a laptop on the train. Even if I had a cellular card in my machine, which I don't, would I really want to be wasting my monthly bandwidth allotment, looking up a tag or function that I don't use frequently. Not to mention, that much of my ride is underground and out of cellular range.
My second beef is that Dreamweaver CS 4 help (F1) defaults to the Dreamweaver Support Center rather than the Dreamweaver Documentation. Sure, the link for documentation is there on the right, but it is quite hard to spot. I realize that you can change the default behavior back to point to the documentation, but again, it's not easy to find.
Most likely I'll just download the PDF versions and think very carefully before upgrading in the future. It seems to me that this is yet another case of just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should.
In any event, that's my rant for the day.

Labels: Adobe, Dreamweaver, Flash

posted by Luis - 3 comments

Microsoft.com to use CFML?

Sources within Microsoft's web division revealed late last night that Microsoft is seriously considering microsoft.com to ColdFusion. Said our source, "Let's face it, if we switch to ColdFusion we can get by on 3/4 of our current staff. These days, that's a big consideration." While politics is often blamed for making strange bedfellows, it appears that adversity can sometimes do the trick as well. Should this decision come to pass, expect the announcement within days.

Labels: ColdFusion, Humor

posted by Luis - 1 comments

Broom Development

I was listening to January's Defining Moments on my way to work this morning and was introduced to the concept of broom theology by Dr. Michael Simone. The concept comes from a job at a small trucking company that Dr. Simone once worked for.

On days when work was slow, the old guy in the warehouse would say, "If you have nothing to do, pick up a broom and start sweeping the warehouse."

In churches, similar situations arise, and broom theology says, "Look around for someone who needs help or somewhere you can help." In many ways the web development world is quite different than the church world, but I think we can borrow this concept of broom theology and refactor it to become broom development.

Broom development states:
When you hit those lull times that occur even in the busiest of development shops, use the time productively.

• See if anyone on your team could use some help.
• Pay down some of your team's technical debt.
• If all else fails, there's always documentation or learning new skills.

So, the next time you find yourself in that lull and are tempted to find out how "The Woz" did on this weeks Dancing with the Stars, I encourage you to consider practicing some broom development. You might just learn something about yourself, a co-worker, or your craft.

posted by Luis - 1 comments