We've released Merrimack (the code name for the latest version of ColdFusion, v7.0.1) which extends platform support and refines several of the new features in ColdFusion MX 7. This new release builds upon the success of ColdFusion MX 7 and adds "polish" to what has proven to be a really incredible ColdFusion release.

Get an introduction to Merrimack in the "Welcome to Merrimack: An Even Better ColdFusion MX 7" DevNet article.

I'd like to especially extend a special "Welcome!" to Apple Mac OS X customers! Sorry it took so long, but I think this ColdFusion release is truly the perfect combination of Power, Productivity and Polish you've come to love and expect from this excellent platform.

To all of the many Merrimack Beta testers, "Thank you!" Once again you've helped produce a great release (and kept us on our toes!)

To everyone, welcome to the best release of ColdFusion ever!

Check out the following details for more information on the ColdFusion MX 7 Updater (7.0.1):

• Read the ColdFusion MX 7 Updater Release Notes.
• Read the Frequently Asked Questions about ColdFusion MX 7 Updater.
• Download the appropriate ColdFusion MX 7 Updater for your platform.

Damon

The second CF mini-survey is online and has some specific questions for CF customers using or evaluating ColdFusion MX 7. If this is you, and you could possibly spare just 5 minutes to help us make ColdFusion even better, we’d love to get your feedback on these questions!

The survey can be found here:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=451701362888

Again, thanks very much for your feedback, and thanks for the awesome response to CF Online Survey #1!

Damon

Research is underway on the ColdFusion team, and we've created several various research teams, each focused on various research "themes", and they're currently collecting data from every conceivable source (internal and external, existing customers and new potential customers).

From time to time during this process, one or more CF engineering research teams may have some questions they'd like to pose to a sampling of customers, and while results from these mini-surveys are not, by themselves a scientifically accurate sampling of our customer base, they do provide important data points along the way.

The first mini-survey has some specific questions for CF customers around J2EE/OS/DB support, etc in CF, and has a handful of questions that we’d love to get your feedback on. This one should take less than 5 min of your time and can be found here:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=299931348825

We would very much appreciate your input on this and future mini-surveys. You can help drive the direction of CF, and we appreciate and value your input very much. Look for more of these in the near future, as we look to integrate YOU directly into the design of Scorpio!

Again, thanks very much for your feedback!

Damon

If you grew up on Sesame Street like I did, this will have you rolling on the ground laughing out loud with tears in your eyes...

Remember those "alien" Muppets ("Brrrrrg! Brrrrrg! Yip-Yip-Yip-Yip..."):

I found the clips below on the net somewhere one night after some searching, and made it my default ringtone on my phone (an Audiovox 5600 Windows Mobile Smartphone). The look on people faces when I get a call these days with the ringer on is pretty much priceless. :)

Some variations:
YipYip.mp3 (378k)
YipYip2.mp3 (54k)
YipYip3.mp3 (112k)
YipYip4.mp3 (115k)

Capabilities/methods vary for your phone/device, but to make one of these your default ringtone on Windows Mobile/Smartphone:

1) Copy the .MP3 files to your "\Storage\Application Data\Sounds" directory on your Windows Mobile/Smartphone device, and
2) Select one of them as your ringtone option in Settings

Have fun!

Damon

The patch is now available as promised here:

http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=b39b42b5

Damon

Just a quick note to let you know that RDS support for CFEclipse is in the works...no timeframe yet, but we have resources actively working on it now. We like CFEclipse, and as we announced at CFUNITED this summer, we are committed to working with the CFEclipse team to make it a productive tool for CF development. We also see a great opportunity for developing CF + Zorn applications using Eclipse and will be working to make this development experience a productive one. More to come on that subject later...

ColdFusion RDS support in CFEclipse is one way we think we can be useful in contributing to this effort, and we hope we can add value to the CFEclipse experience in other ways as well.

We're looking to the future to try to help ensure that CF developers will be advantaged in every way possible and are able to leverage the newest technologies with the power and ease-of-use of ColdFusion to build truly amazing applications for a long time to come.

Damon

Google-Talk recently began requiring SASL PLAIN auth, and we're now working to enable this in the ColdFusion MX 7 XMPP Gateway.

We hope to release an update/patch with SASL PLAIN and SASL [MD5 DIGEST] added as soon as we have it ready.

Sorry about that to anyone who was experimenting with Google-Talk (Beta) service and the ColdFusion MX 7 XMPP Gateway!

Damon

Just a gentle reminder: folks really need our help right now. If you haven't already, please give generously to help those in need:

http://www.redcross.org/

Damon