Fortunately, ColdFusion 8 has per-application mappings - and CrystalTech have them enabled in the CF Administrator - so I was able to dynamically add mappings for all of my top-level directories inside Application.cfc and I was up and running:

We're looking forward to taking advantage of several of the new features in CF8 soon (it's been frustrating being on CF8 for localhost development but deploying to CFMX7).

For those who've looked around the site before, you'll see we've shifted focused to gyms to health clubs and networks based around those - and we've had a very positive reaction from folks at Club Industry 2007!

We're out of "alpha" now so you can self-register for an account. We are, however, still on a CFMX7 shared server so performance is not all it could be (I'm planning to push a raft of performance improvements to the site in the next day or so). We'll be moving to a ColdFusion 8 VPS in about a month which will be a big improvement.

Scazu - Making Fitness Social!

As the invitation request page says:

"We are looking for people who live or want to live an active, social lifestyle. If this is you, fill out the request form and tell us a little bit about why you want to be a scazu.com member."

As someone building a social networking website, I know what he means and, whilst "maybe" was part of our earlier design, when we launch, you will only be able to say "yes" or "no" to an event. Zeldman says:

How can you know what "maybe" means? In the context of a web service, you can't.

He also rails against five-star ratings since those have an implicit "maybe" (three stars) that tells you very little.

Thoughts?

A question then occurred to me about the trial period. You have the option to install ColdFusion 8 as Developer Edition, Serial-licensed Edition or Trial Enterprise. The former won't work for a public site (IP address restrictions). The middle option won't work either - ColdFusion 8 is not yet on sale so you can't buy serial-license keys (and, as you may have discovered, it won't accept CFMX 7 serial-license keys!).

So that meant going to production on a trial license which the installer says will last 30 days. Since I didn't want to run the risk of having my production servers revert to Developer Edition unexpectedly, I asked whether the 30 day trial was really a 30 day trial.

Damon Cooper said that the ColdFusion 8 Public Beta Trial Period actually extends to July 31st, despite what the installer says. He also asked me to blog this (since it's likely to be a common question).

We at Scazu are very excited about launching our service on ColdFusion 8 as it means that certain "Phase II" features can now be part of our initial release (leveraging image manipulation and AJAX integration specifically - as well as server monitoring functionality).

Remember: you need to get explicit permission from the ColdFusion team to take a site to production on the Public Beta build!

For the first role, we want someone who can create crisp, clean user interfaces that are intuitive and easy to use. You'll have good graphic design skills and the ability to take a UI vision and turn it into lightweight HTML + CSS, with slick JavaScript for interactivity. If you've got ColdFusion skills, that's a bonus.

For the second role, we want someone who can build high-performance, highly scalable ColdFusion systems. You'll have a good grasp of application frameworks and object-oriented development (preferably Fusebox + ColdSpring + Transfer since that's what we use - but experience with otherwise frameworks and a willingness to learn will count).

For both roles, you will be able to work independently (and remotely, if appropriate) but with a focus on delivery and collaboration. Familiarity with source code control (e.g., SVN) and bug tracking software (e.g., Trac) is a requirement.

It's early days for Scazu so we're looking for folks who can be creative about compensation in exchange for a stake in the company. Our collective success will mean you'll be in at the ground level and able to build your own teams over time so it's a great opportunity for the right folks!

On April 5th, I leave Adobe for new ventures and new challenges. I will be taking on a new role as CTO of a local startup, Scazu Inc., which will be offering interesting new ways of interacting within the sphere of the health and wellness industry (ColdFusion-powered, of course). I will also be available for consulting work, two to three days a week - something that my full-time job at Macromedia / Adobe kept me too busy to entertain.

Macromedia (and Adobe) has been very good to me - I've made a lot of friends over the years and I love the technology. Now it is time to depart the mothership and scratch that seven year itch.

I hope to be even more active in the community than in the past, evangelizing the technologies that keep us all in business and - now my time is more flexible - helping others be successful with those technologies.