Now that I've begun settling in to the role of editor-in-chief of CFDJ, I'm beginning to incorporate some ideas I have for the magazine. The first change you'll note this month is that Tales from the List is gone. That's not because I'm too lazy to both edit the magazine and write a monthly column - far from it in fact.

When Robert Diamond asked me to take over his duties as editor-in-chief of ColdFusion Developer's Journal, my initial reaction was shock. Not so much because he'd asked me to do the job, but because his editorial would not be the first thing I'd see the next time I open a copy of CFDJ. He's been the editor-in-chief for as long as I can remember... and a damn good one at that.

The name on everyone's lips these days is Blackstone, the current code name for the next release of ColdFusion, which is coming in early 2005. Look for beta testing to start later in 2004, with info on Macromedia's site when that becomes available. Folks around the country have been getting a sneak peek at many of the features from Ben Forta, who's been on a whirlwind user group tour that just wrapped up.

Tim Buntel, the ColdFusion Product Manager for Macromedia, started a new blog about Blackstone (the next release of ColdFusion) that's well worth reading and bookmarking over at www.buntel.com/blog/. In it, he makes reference to something that we've talked about here and elsewhere before, but puts it so brilliantly, talking about the goals for Blackstone...

Spring has finally sprung, even though you can't really tell from the odd weather that we've been having here in New York lately. Along with spring, there are a few tidbits of useful news to cover this month from Macromedia and elsewhere.

As many of you know from my editorial a few months back, I made the official switch from Homesite+ to Dreamweaver MX 2004 shortly after it was first released. The new product took some getting used to and the transition stretched out; it wasn't until I uninstalled Homesite+ entirely from my machine (and was no longer able to sneak back in when no one was looking) that I finally got myself into the habit of using Dreamweaver, and really began to explore its plethora of features.

There are many excellent conferences and user groups for CFML developers, and one that consistently gets great reviews is Michael Smith's CFUN event, which will be held in the Washington, DC, area June 26-27. This preview gives you the 4-1-1 on the event.

Macromedia has started an interesting new promotional campaign for ColdFusion that proclaims a whole slew of statistics and gives a partial list of some of the big names using ColdFusion solutions. You can see it on their Web site at http://macromedia .com/software/coldfusion/ proven.

I'm writing this month's editorial from the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in a currently frozen New York City, so it's naturally got me in a 'Linux Frame of Mind.' When talking to many CFMLers at the Macromedia MAX Conference this year, I found a mixed bag of opinions about Linux and a lot of fears - some justifiable, and others not. Let's jump in...

ColdFusion as a whole faces many challenges in the year ahead, as does each of us in the CF development community. These challenges range from those beyond our individual control, like the economy, to things that we can control like our skillsets. Then there are the unexpected challenges that get thrown at us - hackers, and whatever else crops up along the way to interfere with our sleep.

I'm writing this month's editorial from MAX, the 2003 Macromedia conference in Salt Lake City. The conference has undergone both name and location changes over the past few years, but one key thing remains the same and that's the overall level of excitement of Macromedia's developer community.

Every month when it comes time to write this editorial, I look around at a variety of sources for inspiration. It's not as easy writing each month as most of us on the magazine (hopefully) make it look.

One of the most exciting times for a publishing company occurs when it's launching a new publication. Here at SYS-CON Media, we're going through that time right now as we introduce our newest publication, MX Developer's Journal.

I'm proud to report that SYS-CON.com went live with the final release of CFMX 6.1 on its launch date, and we're still up and running, with flying colors. We've participated in the beta program, as I've written about in these pages before, and have had several builds running on our main and secondary servers throughout the whole process.

Many folks on the CFDJ editorial team (myself included) have been observing and participating in the beta process for Red Sky since day one, and now the release is finally here. I'm proud to present what we've put together, along with Macromedia's help, to cover the first batch of new highlights in the product as it's being released.

No, that's not a misprint, and I haven't lost my mind quite yet. (Some friends might tell you differently, as might the leprechaun in my closet, but we'll save that for a future editorial.) Red Sky is the code name for the next ColdFusion MX release - a FREE (one of the greatest words in the English language) updater being released this summer that helps take CFMX up to new levels of greatness.

Another month in the world of CF has passed, and as always, it's certainly not been a dull one. This month's editorial will be devoted to a handful of important CFDJ housekeeping items before you turn the page to get into the technical meat. The 3rd Annual CFDJ Readers' Choice Awards are now in full swing with hundreds of votes in so far and more coming in even as I write.

One of the topics that comes up most often when talking with CF developers about ColdFusion is performance. Recently, I assisted two CF developer friends with some site speed problems that they were having. One of them is a beginner, a developer who couldn't understand why his site was running slow, or why his Web hosting company was yelling at him that his pages were spiking CPU usage on their server (the horror!).

If you're at all like me (in which case, let me say 'good luck to you!'), you spend a decent amount of your developer week traipsing around Macromedia's Web site. They've got an enormous wealth of information on there for those of us using CF, Flash, Dreamweaver, and the rest of the Macromedia product line as well.

A fairly big announcement related to the ColdFusion industry came out this week. No, not about a new version, or another service pack just yet, but a 'personal news announcement' straight from the top. After eight years with Allaire, and then with Macromedia, Jeremy Allaire announced to the world via his blog, that he is leaving the company to pursue other projects - namely a Boston-area venture firm.

You'll notice more product reviews than usual in the next few issues of ColdFusion Developer's Journal. We've got three in this month's issue alone. This is simply the direct result of more CF-related products on the market. It's a great thing for all of us, because many of them can help make our lives easier. There are lots of good add-ons out there, as well as full-featured products running off of ColdFusion. In addition, many of the existing products that we've all used for years have recently been upgraded to take advantage of the new features of ColdFusion MX.

In this month's issue, as we start the fifth year of ColdFusion Developer's Journal, we've paused to look back at the past. Charlie Arehart wrote the retrospective cover story for this month, and I think you'll enjoy his trip down memory lane, starting back in version 1.0 of ColdFusion (1995), advancing to our first issue (1999), and stopping to look at all the major highlights that happened in between and since. How well do you know your CF trivia? Do you remember the fist logo? Do you remember when ColdFusion was the Cold Fusion Application Server (our editorial staff loved when they removed the space)? Would you like to know how ColdFusion moved on to the Java platform? For answers to these questions and lots of other facts, give it a read.

At DevCon, in October, it was great to see the passion and commitment of the ColdFusion developer community. Since 2001, Macromedia has made a significant investment in ColdFusion, taking it to a whole new architecture with the MX release, partnering with IBM and Sun to support ColdFusion adoption, and integrating it with Macromedia Flash and Dreamweaver.

The ColdFusion world traveled down to Disney World this October - without even having to win a major sporting event first. The occasion was Macromedia DevCon 2002 - the world's largest gathering of all things Macromedia - which took place October 27-30. It was a very successful conference on all fronts, with a keynote by Macromedia chairman and CEO Rob Burgess, and appearances by Ben Forta, Jeremy Allaire (via Flash video), and other Macromedia executives and product managers.

Welcome to a visually new and improved ColdFusion Developer's Journal. You'll notice subtle changes in certain aspects of the design and layout of the magazine. We've also made a few behind-the-scenes changes to the roster of in-house sous-chefs, those who help cook the magazine each month and deliver an even better CFDJ.

As October comes around, it's time for another Macromedia DevCon, generally regarded as the largest gathering of ColdFusion developers each year, along with users of Macromedia's other technologies. The theme of this year's conference, which reflects the strategy we've watched unfold throughout this past year, is clearly one of integration.

One of the ever-repeating themes here at CFDJ since Macromedia and Allaire merged has been the converging of their technologies and our place in the ever-changing technology landscape as CF developers. We spoke about it first while looking into the future with a sense of hope when the merger took place. Then we covered it as details began to emerge on what they had planned.

We often talk in CFDJ about using ColdFusion and other technologies. While capable as a solution on its own for a lot of things, many large projects, and advanced developers, wind up combining ColdFusion/CFML with a number of other technologies. With articles covering lots of those options, we don't get much of a chance to see how all the pieces can fit together.

I took a vacation a few weeks ago, traveling to Los Angeles for a couple of meetings (can never get totally away!) and some fun under the sun. I arrived at the Orange County airport about 20 minutes ahead of schedule and phoned the friend who was going to pick me up. Her husband answered and informed me that she'd forgotten her cell phone so he had no way to contact her, but the plan called for her to run by their house and then to pick me up.

I'm writing this editorial on the way home from CFNorth in Toronto. It was, I can honestly say, one of the best times I've had at a conference, ColdFusion or otherwise. This was the case for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the amazing effort that Kevin Towes and his team put forth in creating the most CF-friendly environment possible, with, simply put, some of the best speakers and the biggest names in the industry.

As a jaded computer user and developer, it's hard to excite me with a simple new release. As a magazine editor, with products and demos flying across my desk, it becomes even harder. I've seen many products and releases come and go over the past few years, and it's been a very interesting journey. I've seen what I thought were great products fail miserably and a few rather mediocre ones that are now widely adopted because they managed to fill a special niche.

On May 3 I'll be packing my bags and trekking north from New York to Toronto to participate in CF North, the only Canadian developer's conference for ColdFusion. A large chunk of the ColdFusion world will be heading up that way with me, both those in the area and those elsewhere looking to network between now and the Macromedia DevCon this fall. It's a worthwhile event - enough for me to leave my new dog at home. (Say Hi to Max, the world's cutest pug and the first dog determined to learn CFML.)

No, not Christmas, but our annual ColdFusion Developer's Journal Readers' Choice Awards announcements. Categories for this year's awards are Best Book, Best Consulting Service, Best Custom Tag, Best Database Tool, Best Design Service, Best E-Business Software, Best Education and Training, Best Testing Tool, Best Web Development Tool, Best Web Hosting, Best Web Performance Tool, Best Content Management Tool, Best Web Site, Best Web Application, and last, but not least, Most Innovative CF Application.

In today's tough economic climate, the working world is becoming a more difficult place for everyone, including ColdFusion developers. Budgets are getting leaner, workers are being laid off, and work pressures are increasing as well. A recent discussion with fellow developers revealed that most of them were working longer hours than they used to - to deal with the decrease in staff. Several expressed the belief that they're now doing the jobs of several people, which is probably true, as the majority of companies are 'tightening their belts' to ride through some rough economic waters.

Well, we're at the start of a new year, and before we look forward, I thought it might be an appropriate time to look back and reflect on . With this January issue we enter our fourth year of publication, proudly covering the world of ColdFusion since January of 1999.

Over the past few months we've previewed the development of ColdFusion 6.0 - affectionately codenamed 'Neo' by the Macromedia development crew. In many of those articles we also discussed the new Java support, one of the brightest new features and also the one that could help carry ColdFusion to its next level of acceptance and support. At DevCon, Macromedia brought that promise a bit closer to reality with announcements about Neo and its brand-new partner support.

The Power of Flash: Dennis Baldwin's article ['ColdFusion Meets Flash,' Vol. 3, issue 8] was very thorough and not for the novice developer. I've looked through the source files and implemented the menu on my own site. The code was well documented and straightforward. A job well done.

We've often provided coverage of the massive lists of 'big name' companies that are using ColdFusion on their Web sites. I find this to be an excellent example of the health and growth of the ColdFusion industry. One new site alone of course isn't enough to propel ColdFusion forward, but every bit helps. It's certainly good news for all CF developers when a major site gives its stamp of approval to the language by relaunching or adding CF-based areas to its site.

No, isn't a new ColdFusion tag coming in Neo that you just haven't read about yet. It's my witty (at least I think it's witty) way of introducing debugging, one of the focuses of this month's issue. It's something that every developer has certainly faced at one time or another, and if you think you haven't - well, you're probably kidding yourself.

Plaudits for Christian Schneider Thank you for the article 'Live Monitoring of User Sessions' [CFDJ, Vol. 2, issue 8]. I've implemented the live monitoring system on my company's Web site. I wanted to enhance this functionality by showing the name of a page where each user is. I know it can be done in OnRequestEnd.cfm page, but I can't find any variable that will give me the name of the page. Can you throw some light on this?