As The Register reports on more folks being sued, Podgy people all over the world are preparing themselves for an onslaught of legal action from Apple. Any "Pod"gy weighing in at more than the theoretical weight of 20GB of MP3 is apparently infringing on Apple's IPOD trademark and Apple believe people may confuse the two things... the 20GB IPOD, and the podgy person. Apple's official stance is ... "Lose the weight Podgy!" *Disclaimer... The above is obviously completely false and entirely stupid. Just like Apple's claims. Coincidentally, we call the toilet cubicles here at work pods ... and I'm off to take a <cfdump> in Pod number 2. UPDATE: A new program called FairUse4PodgyFolk has been released. Similar to the FairUse4WM which strips the DRM from protected Windows Media files, FairUse4PodgyFolk protects Podgy folk from the mean hearted laywers from Apple. UPDATE 2: Gareth just pointed out this video which explains exactly what Apple are trying to do to Podgy people.

Well, after my rant about BA earlier today (yesterday actually) I thought I would give the old blog an update to Ray's latest version. Considering I was still running v3.9 I think it was overdue. It was relatively painless, though that was mainly down to the lack of customisation I had in place. With any luck I'll start getting hammered into JRun/CF again and continue where I left off some time last year when I was on a hunt for finding issues(and solutions) to various clustering/sandboxing/jvm type nonsense. But for now, let's hope this update actually works :)

So, I've been back from CFUNITED for a couple of weeks now, and I had planned to blog before this, however I wanted to wait until my wrangle with BA (British Airways) was over. You see, I'm none to pleased with BA.My trip to Washington got off to a bit of a shaky start after I landed in London (from Glasgow) to find out my flight was delayed by 90 mins. This meant I would now land in Washington around midnight. Ack well, it could be worse. It got worse. We eventually boarded around 4 hours late and by the time I got to Washington, and to the hotel it was somewhere between 3.30 and 4am. Considering Jeff Coughlin's alarm then went off at 6.30am ... yuk things weren't good. Luckily Scott Stroz had some beer for me to kick off my day. Yes, nothing like a 7am beer to get you going. Anyway, after an excellent conference (which I'll blog about later), I left the hotel on the Sunday afternoon and headed for Dulles. Upon arrival at the airport I found that my flight to London was cancelled. *sigh* At this point, all the BA staff could tell us was there was a crew shortage, and no backups to take over. Some folks were lucky in that they got slotted in to a different flight that day, or booked onto another airline to take them to London. However, because I was going to Glasgow I was told that the best they could do was the same flight 24 hours later. It's currently 3pm and my flight now isn't until 9.55pm the next day. I'm then told I should have known this, as BA emailed me earlier that day. That just plain pissed me off as how could they assume I would actually have access to email? I should also point out there was NO email. Anyway, so apparently BA have arranged to put me up in the local Hilton and will pay for my dinner and breakfast. The least they could do. So, I finally get to the Hilton only to find out that no one from BA has contacted the Hilton to tell them that passengers from the cancelled flight are coming to stay. FORTY minutes later the Hilton finally manage to get in contact with someone from BA. She's not pleased. BA are giving them the run around too. Next up is the meal voucher fun. I'm issued with a voucher for $18 for dinner and $8 for breakfast. It's plain to see that no one from BA has visited a Hilton lately. Do they really think there's anything on the Hilton menu that is covered by those vouchers? ... oh and don't forget the tax too. So I'm also now out of pocket. This blog, just like the whole BA fiasco is now dragging on so let's skip to the following day. I arrive in the airport for 2pm. I want to see if I can get a free upgrade so the earlier I get there the better. I get to the desk, get checked in but told I can't have an upgrade. Oh well. There's a heated discussion going on at the desk next to me. The passengers are pushing for more information as to why yesterdays flight was cancelled. I wish I had got this (BA) girls name but she then tells these passengers that the reason the crew never should up was because of a football match. Yes ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the crew never showed up because they were watching the World Cup match between England and Portugal. Anyway after numerous exchanges with BA, they point blank refuse to pay out any sort of compensation (even for the additional costs at the Hilton) claiming their staff watching the football instead of coming to work was outwith their control. That seems like a serious management issue to me.

This time last year - in fact a year ago today - the Scottish ColdFusion User Group (by that I mean me) organised a two day conference, which took place in Edinburgh that covered the then recently released ColdFusion 7. It was an excellent three days worth of drinking, and the talks over the two days were pretty good as well. We had some excellent speakers including one time CF Snr Product Manager Tim Buntel, Adobe's Senior Whisky expert Andi Hindle, Mr Flex himself; Steven Webster, those crazy Romanians from InterAKT; Alexandru and Bogdan, Philipp Cielen from Germany as well as some home grown folks. We gave away around £10k worth of goodies; including software, an iPod, books, t-shirts, etc, etc. We had about 65 people at the event and this provided some excellent networking opportunites for folks. I've kept in touch with a lot of people and although I came out of it with a fair amount of debt (it was only £25 to attend) and a lot less hair, it was definately worth it. So I guess the big question is, why is there no Scotch on the Rocks 2006? After last year I knew there was no way on earth I was going to arrange a conference by myself ever again. It's not good for your health or your finances. So I knew I had to get more people involved. Unfortunately either no one was available to help, or they didn't want to help (people are busy and have their own lives, hey I understand). Sponsors ... no one was interested. Actually that's not true, but we didn't have enough to even get started. Macromedia UK ... I'm not even going there as I'll just get really angry (maybe Adobe in the UK will be better). As an aside, Macromedia in the States were(are) FANTASTIC. Ed Sullivan is a god! And I'm sure it'll just get better with Adobe at the reigns now. Out of interest, I actually went out to Boston last November to meet with Ed and discuss sponsorship for the event (I paid for the trip myself) and I came home a happy chap. We were going to get a lot more support than we had for 2005 but we needed more than just Adobe's sponsorship. And not to hark on about it, it never happened. Additionally, the last 12 months for me have been ... interesting. I've had more things go on in the last year than I have in the 27 before that. The biggest stumbling block has been my new job. Quite simply I don't have time for anything else. Throw in buying a house, relationship ups and downs ... mainly downs and I'm just happy to sleep at night. My ultimate goal was to have Scotch run every year, to keep it fun, and not to let it become some big corporate money making exercise. But alas, it wasn't to be. The interest wasn't there and I couldn't do it all myself. Anyway, here's some links to the 2005 event site (with photos) and I for one look back with a smile on my face. Especially at the drunken antics on the Friday night. http://www.scottishcfug.com/go/scotch2005/ http://www.scottishcfug.com/viewer/scotch/2005/index.html

Nicked from The Register I used to work about 5 mins from there, before I moved jobs, and to East Kilbride last year.

So, I've been fairly quiet as of late in regards any sort of technical postings. This is mainly due to being all out at work and when I'm not working I'm either drunk or sleeping. Anyway, I get home tonight at 9pm, knackered and stressed as usual, and drive up to my house. And there, in the front garden is a big bloody For Sale sign. Yes, those bastard estate agents Remax are playing funny cnuts again. It's bad enough I get a "Do you want to sell your house" leaflet through my door every week, but instead of sticking the sign in the garden of 19 .... Coatbridge, they stuck it in mine. After pulling the sign out of the grass and leaving a huge hole in it's place - I think I'll go smear their window with ... - I phoned them up and gave them hell. It's amazing how much better I feel. Of course, all my neighbours probably think I'm moving now.

For my first blog in ages I will hi-jack Sean's posting, which hi-jacked Jeff's Four jobs I have had in my life (the most recent four-ish): 1. Bell College - Graduate Placement 2. Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre(SECC) - Web Developer 3. Babtie Group/Jacobs - Web Developer 4. Learning Assistant - Senior Developer Four movies I watch over and over: 1. American History X 2. Heat 3. Ronin 4. Backdraft Four places I have lived (well, three or six depending on how you read it): 1. Scotland (Coatbridge) Four TV shows I love to watch: 1. Family Guy 2. Scrubs 3. Bottom 4. Will and Grace Four places I have been on vacation: 1. Helsinki, Finland 2. Lisbon, Portugal 3. Barcelona, Spain 4. New York/Chicago/Boston Four websites I visit daily (I guess I'm very functional about my web usage?): 1. Bloglines.com 2. Gmail 3. Macromedia/Adobe Forums 4. theDvdForums (bargains) Four of my favorite foods: 1. Curry 2. Walkers crisps (salt'n'vinegar) 3. Fillet Steak 4. Square sausage Four foods I dislike: 1. Peas 2. Coleslaw 3. Sprouts 4. Turkish Delight Four places I would rather be right now: 1. Aberfeldy, Scotland 2. Angel Falls, Venezuela 3. Cologne, Germany 4. The pub (i.e. anywhere but work :/ ) Four friends I have tagged to do this: Like the others, nope.

I'd never heard of this site until a fellow User Group manager brought it to my attention mere minutes ago. http://sites.gizoogle.com/ I damn near wet my pants running numerous websites thru it. Nothing like something so simple to cheer you up!

http://www.telltalegames.com/comics/samnmax/ Now all we need is the follow up to Day of the Tentacle