Rob Brooks-Bilson

Ben Forta and Tim Buntel are up on stage demoing various features in Blackstone. Here's a stream of consciousness of what we're seeing:

1. Flash forms with built in validation, new controls such as a tabbed control. All done using CFML.
2. cfdocument tag for preserving printing and formatting of pages. Can output in FlashPaper, PDF, and HTML
3. Report designer showing how to design reports for new cfreport tag. Very similar to other report designers you might be used to ala Crystal, Access, Actuate, etc. The big difference is that it has lots of CF specific functionality built in such as binding with cfquery data. Can output in FlashPaper, PDF, and HTML.
4. Event Gateways. Allow CF to work beyond the web. You interface with gateways using CFCs. CF ships with several included gateways including SMS (comes with a cell phone aggregator for testing). You could also use gateways to interface with IM, JMS, etc. There's a demo gateway to allow you to SMS Blackstone to get updates before your next session, get your schedule, and more.

Kerry wins the 2004 MAX election 54 to 42 percent. The point of this post isn't political. What's interesting is that the "election" took place real-time during the keynote via SMS messaging. Participants were told to text their vote to a number given on the screen. A RIA built using Flex on the front end and Blackstone on the backend tallied the results real-time and reported them graphically on the screen. It was pretty cool to watch the graphs update in real-time as the votes came in.

More interesting was a demo given a little later where they were able to show the breakout, by state, of how people voted. This was based on an area code lookup of the captured phone numbers from the SMS voting.

The actual SMS work was handled by a new feature in Blackstone called the SMS Gateway. More on gateways later.

Not big news, but it lends more credibility to the value of Flash for Rich Internet Apps. IBM, Microsoft, CNet, Amazon.com, and Salesforce.com are all using Flash in various ways on their websites.

Although not entirely new, the team over at iteration::two has released a unit testing framework for ActionScript 2.0 called AS2Unit. The framework is available for free, and the project is currently looking for additional support from the community to help grow the project.

Update: Lance Linder points out that a 2nd unit testing framework (and more) is also available, as2lib.

No official attendance count yet, but here are some interesting stats of the attendee makeup:

Education & Government = 35%
Big corporations =54%
ColdFusion users = 60%
Dreamweaver users = 90%

If the wireless connection here holds, I'll be blogging updates live from the MAX 2004 Keynote. Stay tuned...

If you're at MAX and looking for a great place to hang out with other ColdFusion developers in between sessions, or after hours, then get yourself over to the ColdFusion Community Suite, hosted by Michael and Judith Dinowitz of House of Fusion. The community suite is free for all, and can be found at:

Hampton Inn (Across from Hall E of the convention center)
Room 213
Opens 9am

After picking up my official registration packet this morning, I went through the materials to see what goodies Macromedia had included this year. To my surprise, there was a nicely packaged CD labeled "The Future of ColdFusion - Blackstone Beta 2". So, it looks like all MAX attendees now have a copy of the Blackstone beta code.

It's going to be interesting to watch the reactions as people realize what they've gotten access to. I'm hoping to see a lot of excitement and energy around Blackstone at MAX this year. Expect me to blog a lot more about Blackstone over the next several days as more of what was previously covered under NDA becomes public.

Update: After actually opening the package, it looks like your access to the beta program requires you to first login to the Macromedia beta site and enter your email address (used to register for the conference). You are then given an access code to activate the beta. So, Blackstone beta 2 is not a completely open beta, but you do get to be a part of it!

That said, I'm guessing everything Blackstone is still NDA other than what Macromedia has already publicly released, and what will be demo'd at the general sessions and sneak peek sessions.

This post is a little late, but after arriving on Friday night, I headed over to the Acme Oyster House to get my fill of fresh oysters. Living in Phoenix, we just don't get many decent fresh oysters.

Acme Oyster House is nothing fancy, and they don't take reservations (I waited in line for about a half hour for a table to open up). What they do do, however, is oysters. I had a dozen on the half-shell, and then a combination oyster/shrimp fry. Mmmm, mmmm, good.

If you want to get really close to the action, sit at the marble bar, where the guys behind the counter shuck oysters with speed and skill for all to watch.

Last night, I had a wonderful dinner at Susan Spicer's flagship restaurant, Bayona. I had tried to make a reservation before I left for New Orleans, but the only open table left was at 10:30, a little later than I wanted to be eating. So, last night, I called over to Bayona around 4pm to see if they had any last minute cancellations. Luckily for me, they had an opening for 6pm, so I took it.

If you've never been to Bayona before, I highly recommend it. I sat outside on the patio. At first , it was a bit hot, but quickly became more pleasant as the night drew on. I started my meal with Susan's signature garlic soup. It had a wonderfully smooth texture, with a present, but not forceful garlic taste. The soup is made from a chicken stock base, onions, roasted garlic, and cream.

For my entree, I had butermilk fried leg and tenderloin of rabbit with grits and greens. The rabit was as close to perfectly cooked rabbit as I've had. I paired the rabbit with a Clos Pegase 2002 Chardonnay. I'm normally more into red wines, but the chardonnay was a great matchup with the rabbit.

Desert was an unexpected find. I ordered the crepes. Not any crepes, mind you, but chickpea crepes with tahini ice cream, and fig compote. They totally rocked. Our waiter said that Susan is working on a new cookbook, and plans to include the recipe. I can't wait!

All in all, an excellent meal in a great setting. I would highly recommend Bayona if you get the opportunity to dine there.