kyleshiflett.com

So you like roller coasters, eh?

Kyle — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:15:57 +0000

If you really like roller coasters, you need to make a pilgrimage to the best park in the nation for coaster fanatics, Cedar Point. From the site:

The park boasts an unheard of 17, yes, 17 roller coasters (more than any other park in the world)! With a lineup that includes three of the top 10 steel roller coasters in the world, Cedar Point is a coaster lover’s dream come true.

It was well worth the trip from Atlanta, GA. In fact, it was so worth it that we went again the next year! We’ve been talking with a few friends here about going back with a group, which should be an absolute blast. Take my advice on a few things, though:

give yourself at least two full days in the park, otherwise you’ll be hard pressed to ride everything you want.
Keep your schedule open – we originally planned a day off in between our two days in the park, but we went two days in a row to avoid a rainy forecast for the third day. There are some other interesting things to see within a couple of hours drive if you’re not from the area.
Research your dates and try to pick dates that are historically not busy. It is excellent to be able to ride a great ride twice because the line was reasonable; it would stink to only be able to ride Top Thrill Dragster ONCE on a trip to CP.

Voting Rant

Kyle — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:01:37 +0000

I just voted in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election. As of yet, we still don’t know who will be the next president, but for this post that doesn’t matter. This election cycle has made me a little cynical because of the huge amount of mud-slinging and name-calling that has gone on (especially on the internet – just check out some social bookmarking sites like digg or reddit). The political *noise* has been unbearable for the last few months, and in the last week it has gone completely off the charts.

Voting is one of those things that many of us in free countries take entirely for granted; for me, extreme views (from both sides) contribute to this and make me wish that we could find some common ground. It would be refreshing to see a candidate with a more moderate view, and that person might actually be able to bring us together and make a difference for this country.

Image Functionality in ColdFusion 8

Kyle — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:56:14 +0000

Back in September, I did a presentation for the Atlanta ColdFusion User Group (ACFUG) on the new image processing functionality that is part of ColdFusion 8. Since the presentation was well received, I’ve finally gotten the source code cleaned up a bit and posted it here. The samples are not intended to be production ready, but should give you a good starting point for adding or updating image processing in your own apps.

Download: manipulatingimages.zip