My last post on here was way back in July and I should be ashamed of myself. I start every year with the hope that I'll be an amazing blogger and the internet will adore me, I will score fans and forever be admired. As I get older, I realise that this is not likely to happen, however, I'll continue to post here and be determined to make a little comment about something everyday.

So, for my first post of 2012 I will comment on my wonderful trip to Paris. I really love that city. I stayed at the amazing Hotel Jules, one of the GLA Hotels and had the privilege of being looked after by Mr. Jean-Louis Descoins and his exceptional staff. Don't forget to stay there on your next trip to the city of love. The weather was dull and grey most days but the sites never cease to amaze. I made my way to the Musee D'Orsay and Sacre Coeur, two sites that you must visit at least once. I did have the chance to catch up on my reading, and I'll tell you something, I really love my Kindle Keyboard! I was able to power through the last bits of The Once and Future King by T.H. White and knock off the classic The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Thanks to some generous gift giving I've also got World War Z by Max Brooks and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson on my list. I know, I'm such an amateur when it comes to reading for fun but I'm hoping to turn pro pretty soon!

What's on your reading list?

I finally had a chance to look at Google+ tonight and in all honesty it is everything I expected it to be. It isn't much at the moment since being on a social network without many friends is like being at a rock concert by yourself. However, the user interface really appeals to me. In fact, all of the UI changes implemented by Google in recent days are exceptional. Yes, people will still find faults but I like the consistency across the services. The design itself makes really good use of soft lines and subtle highlights. I've also loaded the new design for Gmail, which is particularly stunning. The additional white space and sparing use of color as prominent call to actions is really exceptional. I suppose it will only be a matter of time before this is rolled out across the other properties. I know this would be a welcome change to the Google Docs section.

All in all I like the direction that Google is taking. Consistency in branding is always a big plus.

I was a big fan of Delicious because keeping track of all the sites that interest me is a hard task. The problem with this service though is that it is difficult to easily access the information unless you install a plugin on every browser that you use. This is even more of a problem when you have several machines both at home and at work. Of course, you can visit the site but the workflow is not ideal. The advent of tabs in browsers can allow you to open Delicious in one tab while working on other tabs, however, do you really want to have to keep that service open all the time? It just doesn't feel important enough.

My current solution to the bookmarking problem is to use Gmail. I email myself links then use labels to organise them. Again, not ideal, but it has two advantages over Delicious.

1. I typically always have Gmail open in a tab during the day
2. Gmail is with me everywhere, including on my mobile devices

I believe that Delicious can be resurrected if it can overcome these two main hurdles. Can the YouTube founders do this? Maybe, but it would be very difficult. The incarnation of the service will have to be much more compelling than it is currently. A utopian solution would be to get the main browser creators to include a reference to a universal bookmarking service that uses Twitter or Facebook logins for access. Hey, I never said I wasn't a dreamer!

I've not posted for a long time on this blog (or any for that matter). As with many people I seem to always have an excuse for not posting on here but then I see the trend setters of the internet able to post every day about something pretty cool. I reflect on this and wonder why I don't find something useful to post about or even have anything to say on a regular basis. I am going to write a bit more and hopefully it will be interesting and useful!

Picture this:

You are sitting on the bus,  your commute is 45 minutes long so you whip out your iPhone and start browsing Twitter. Your friend posts a link to this awesome article on social marketing, you follow the link and then sit for the next 15 minutes frustrated with:

1. waiting for the page and all it's ads to load
2. not being able to read the content because you keep having to pan back and forth on the screen.

This tends to happen to me a lot. There are VERY few sites out there that seem to understand that today there is a need for a mobile version of a website. Sure, you can get an app for your favourite site on your iPhone, Android, Symbian or Palm powered phones but these apps usually don't offer the website content or experience. The modern mobile OS and browser technology allows most websites to load and operate just as they would on a laptop or desktop but the experience is poor. With limited screen real estate, I want to execute my tasks quickly and effectively. I don't want to pinch or zoom on anything other than a map!

Two sites that have provided excellent mobile versions are:

1. Amazon - who understands user behaviour better than the users themselves, provides a slick, easy to use interface which makes shopping a breeze
2. Wikipedia Mobile - utilizing a minimalistic design, Wikipedia provides quick, relevant information on the go, no matter what your screen real estate!

These are just a couple examples but there are countless businesses and website owners out there who choose to ignore the tremendous mobile market to be tapped. Wake up people, it's 2010!

I'm a big fan of Nandos, it's comfort food that's a little better on your arteries than KFC, what else could you ask for? A few weeks ago my wife as accidentally charged  twice for our meal. She only discovered this after reviewing her bank statements which happened to be a week later. She promptly called up the store and asked what had happened. They responded that they would need proof and if it was possible to fax a copy of the statement so they can investigate further. So, the next day the statement was faxed and she received a call a short time after asking how she would like to receive the refund. Since we go there every so often, my wife suggested we get a voucher that we can redeem. They agreed. On our next visit we went to the restaurant, the queue had at least 30 people in it and the wait time was 30 minutes. We decided to skip the meal but pick up the voucher and use it another time. My wife was allowed in to speak to the manager and in an instant we were given a table and ordering.

I was amazed at this entire scenario. Not many fast food companies have such excellent customer service. I rate it as excellent, not because we skipped a 30 minute queue but the fact that from top to bottom everyone was helpful. The finance department was more than accommodating to my wife's wishes (allowing her to use the voucher instead of a refund to her credit card), the manager at the restaurant was friendly, courteous and was the one who suggested we stay and eat, and the staff at the counter was just as friendly when they were presented with the voucher. Everyone was professional, friendly and made me want to write a blog post about it!

This is what every organisation should aim for in every customer service instance. There are times when you get customers who are not so easy to deal with but a little creative thinking, friendly attitude, compassion and patience can go a long way in making your business customer friendly. And, well, every business loves customers!

For the past few weeks I've been incognito due to some memory leak issues we've been having with our new app. It is essentially a rewrite of our existing web application using Object Oriented techniques and embraces the Model-View-Controller paradigm. It really is a pretty little thing but unfortunately she crumbled under the weight of the world wide web. Anyone who has faced the memory leak problem will know that it is not an easy one to crack and it takes time to determine the exact issue. There are a lot of articles around that have excellent information which were all very helpful in my quest for a solution.

The system made a lot of use of the session and application scope for caching objects which was the first issue that we had to overcome. It seemed like a good idea, you've got loads of memory, you have a finite amount of objects that can be called for each session why not persist them. The problem is that ColdFusion 8 seems to have an issue with complex objects (i.e. CFCs) stored in the session and application scopes. The reason I say this is that we were seeing a very, very strange thing happening to the memory on our server. When load testing was run, the server was fine, the memory steadily increased until the initial sessions began expiring and then the average of memory usage plateaued, which is what you like to see. However, once the load test ended the memory steadily increased until it crashed the CF instance. Weird right? And so the search for a solution began. I came across a few helpful articles:

http://www.ghidinelli.com/2009/07/16/finding-memory-leaks-coldfusion-jvm

http://www.schierberl.com/cfblog/index.cfm/2006/10/12/ColdFusion_memoryLeak_profiler

http://www.alagad.com/blog/post.cfm/troubleshooting-coldfusion-performance-analysis-part-ii

These were tremendously helpful in assisting me in finding the solution. The last post from Alagad was the one that helped cure my issue in the end. You need to ensure that when making copies of persistent scoped variables that they are deep copied or used in a local scope within CFC functions. However, bear in mind that there are many causes for memory leaks and you should spend the time in figuring out the exact cause of your problem. I found the MAT tool supremely useful.

Here are some tips for curing memory issues:

1. Install cumulative hotfix 4 for ColdFusion 8.0.1 (Get it here)
2. Update the JVM to the latest provided by Sun, in my case it was JDK 1.6.0_18 (Get it here)
3. Add the -XX:+AggressiveHeap option to the JVM configuration (Read about it here)
4. Set your min and max heap to the same size to reduce the number of garbage collection calls
5. Run varscoper against your code and ensure all local variables are var scoped (Get it here)
6. Limit the use of variables scope within objects, use the THIS reference instead
7. Limit the number of complex objects (cfcs) being stored in SESSION and APPLICATION scopes
8. Clear the variables scope onRequestEnd (this doesn't really work when using Application.cfc though)
9. Run load tests! We used WCAT for Windows (Get it here)
10. Turn off CF monitoring use FusionReactor (or something similar) (Get FusionReactor here)

Hopefully these will help someone else going forward.

UPDATE 16/05/2010: Point #6 should be, ensure you scope your variables correctly. The THIS scope has its own set of limitations. Ensure that all variables (including loop indices) have the proper scope to avoid leakage.

Yes ladies, you heard me right, it is not dead, it's just under cover. Like Jack Bauer infiltrating a Columbian drug cartel, Chivalry has assumed a new identity and trying to fit in or die. Men blame their lack of chivalrous behaviour on women (as we do with most things) and to be honest we are a bit confused with what should be done and what should not be done. I believe that most men would like to open doors, help little old ladies cross the street and help neighbours with their groceries, but, how many times has this backfired on the average man? In today's world of sexual innuendo it seems that every gesture is framed as a possible attempt to hit on the person on the receiving end of the gesture. Just recently, I saw two ladies moving a table down a flight of stairs. They seemed to be struggling a bit, so I asked (I've learned from experience that you just don't rush in to help anymore!), "Would you like some help?". To which the response was, "I don't need a man to do anything!". Now, it was clearly said as a joke but with undertones of determination. Like most things in life, men aren't necessary to women, but we are nice to have . The statement really took me by surprise. It's not that I was being macho, but more that I was genuinely willing to help, if it were two men doing the same job I would ask the same question. To be clear, there are jerks out there, men who have no regard for anyone in the rush of getting through their day. However, there are some diamonds in the rough.

So today ladies, take a step back, look around you and see the hints of days gone by where men still do the little knightly things that make us nice to have around......sometimes.

The now iconic book Getting Things Done by David Allen, provides an excellent blueprint for, erm, getting things done. Some people seem to be able to work so efficiently that it is irritating while others struggle to accomplish one task. After struggling, like most people, I've come up with a very simple solution to my problem which may help you:

1. Lists are good - Writing things down in lists have a two fold purpose, the most important of which is that you have the task written somewhere so it can get out of your head and it also provides a way for you to prioritise. You can choose your medium, it doesn't have to be paper, it could be on your phone, your computer, your arm (okay so maybe not your arm) but you get the idea. This tip is taken directly from Mr. Allen's book.
2. Do one thing at a time - We can't multi-task. Focusing on one thing at a time is the key to getting things done. All of the people who seem to be super human and appear to be doing a million things at once don't, they just put it on a conveyor belt and work through the items individually as they come in.

Give it a try today and hopefully it will work for you as well.

Is the glass half full, or half empty? I say neither! The glass should ALWAYS BE FULL. All you have to do is imagine a smaller glass. Does this sound like a load of horse crap (or worse, bull crap)? There are too many people who are unhappy with life because they seem to be looking over the fence and wishing for more. While there is nothing wrong with ambition and striving for more, to be happy, you have to realise that what little you have is a blessing. This is easier said than done, as we all know.

This train of thought can make one lazy though and some will fall into the trap of settling for what they have and never trying harder. I would challenge people to always strive for a bigger glass. This may sound contradictory but you can be content with what you have while working to achieve more. I don't have any scientific facts or studies to back this up but it's a simple concept that I think should be adopted by more people.