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.

I’ve been reading Gary Vay-ner-chuk’s book Crush It! and there was a line in there that says business is not only about making money. Gary says that something is wrong with you if you think otherwise. I’ve had this discussion before with my very good friend @Jahriv. He shares the views of Mr. Vaynerchuk and believes that business should be rooted in passion with money being the side effect of that passion. I still tend to disagree with this theory. I believe that the only reason for a “business” is to generate revenue and it is possible for someone to look at the cash in the bank as the only reason for being in that business.

Why is passion important?

1. Motivation is derived from passion. We all know someone who sits in a cubicle ruing the fact that their higher ups rake in all the profit while they slave away at their tasks. The successful people among us usually like what they do, this allows them to go to work with the “can do” attitude, which in turn, usually, translates into success in their career path.
2. Passionate people are excited about the thing they are passionate about, they spread the word, they try to infect you with it as well. Which can’t be a bad thing in business.

How can one truly do something well without passion?

1. Motivation can also be derived from other sources. People can do things simply out of necessity. For instance, Gary ended up in the wine store founded by his parents because he had to. His passion at that point was something else, however he still successfully built the business into a multi-million dollar wine empire.
2. Simple twists of fate. I had my heart set on becoming a Chemical Engineer but a clerical error put me in the department of Natural Sciences at college so I chose Computer Science, not because it was what I wanted to do but because of the available choices at the time it was the one most likely to provide me with a decent job and potentially a decent life. I believe I do my job well and I do it because I’m good at it and the pay is good.

In the end though, it comes down to the individual, depending on circumstances you should find the right motivation for whatever you decide to do. If you find a niche market for slug farming and are sufficiently motivated to work hard and do what it takes to be the best slug farmer then you will succeed. But let’s not kid ourselves, if your dream is to buy the New York Jets, then you are only growing your business so you can have the money to buy the Jets. I don’t think that can be termed passion.

I may be wrong, since I’m obviously not on the level of success with Gary. Do I have to find a passion for what I do? Or maybe the problem is that I’m not doing what I want to do but what I have to do? Is the source of motivation the difference between mediocre and excellent?

So it’s that time again, the point where we say goodbye to the old and promise that this year we will stick to the resolutions we’ve set forward. Even though today is just another day, it serves as a significant milestone in our life time. Let’s take it one day at time, live life today like there was no yesterday or tomorrow. Do the things that will make you and others happy and make the most of the day.

Happy New Year to all!

I hate cliches but always seem to end up using them. For some time now I’ve been wanting to do another blog relating to other interests. I’ve very passionate about the world and things that go on in it and wanted to have a blog “The Talking Lemur” and another about weight loss “The Walking Lemur” but have decided to use this blog to deliver all my messages. I will use categorisation to separate the content which will hopefully still be relevant to specific audiences.

I’ve not posted anything on my blog for a while, it always amazes me how the top bloggers in the ColdFusion world find the time to post almost daily about tips, tricks, resources and I hardly every find the time to write a note to myself. My posts don’t seem as interesting or as insightful as some of the ones posted by the CF elite. I do thank them for their great posts and continued support of the ColdFusion community.

I’ve been working on a website recently that has soaked up all of my time. I’ve been having some problems with memory leaks and JVM tuning but I think I’ve finally found solutions to my problems and will be posting them in a separate article shortly which will hopefully help someone out there.

I know this is a bit off topic but I felt I had to write about my trip to Paris, France. I’m not the most travelled person in the world but I have to say that Paris has to be my favourite city so far. Sure it was for vacation and maybe if I lived and worked there I may not feel that way but you just get the feeling that there is something special about that city. It truly is a very beautiful place.

I had the opportunity to stay in the best hotel in the world! Hotel Jules on Rue LaFayette is a design hotel in Paris and one of the world’s most exquisite locations. What does it mean by design hotel? Well just look at the photos on the site and you will see. The very slick interior design is very pleasing and very chic. The staff is temendous and the hotel itself is superb. It really was one of the highlights of the trip. It is located about 10 minutes from Gare du Nord train station. If you would like a really nice place to stay, I strongly recommend this hotel.

Paris is a city for walking. From the hotel it was a straight trek down to the Arc de Triomphe which was our first stop. After visiting that monument we hopped on the metro over to the Eiffel Tower. The lines were daunting but you can’t come to Paris without going up the tower. We decided not to go up to the third floor because that was an additional 60 minutes to get up there and after having spent an hour to get tickets we really weren’t going to do that. Here’s a tip, get tickets in advance when you want to go. The view was awesome. we could see all of Paris from the second floor. We even caught a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty (yes, there really is one in Paris as well). It is much smaller than the one in the US but it really is a bit strange when you see it there the first time. Next we did a cruise on the Seine. I would recommend taking this trip at night as well as the day. The history of this city is truly amazing. After a  long day out we had dinner in a superb little cafe, Au Petit Riche. The service was wonderful and the food excellent and the prices were not that bad. Paris is expensive. Eating out can cost you so be aware of this when you are budgeting.

The second day had miserable weather. It drizzled all day long. We, however, went indoors and visited the Louvre. This was the highlight of the trip for my wife, who is a huge Da Vinci Code fan. There wasn’t much of a croud and getting in was quite quick. I like the ticket machines, this makes things very efficient. The most crouded part of the museum was the Italian Painters section and of course the painting of the Mona Lisa. We had to slither through to get a picture. But in the end my wife was happy to see it up close (well as close as they would let you get to it, which is about 10 feet away).

One thing to note for people with young children (under 12) most attractions are free, which I think is a huge plus because the cost of taking the kids is basically the cost of transportation and lodging.

Visiting Paris is one of those things you must do once before you die. I intend to return for a longer time next time, time to start saving!