Poker Blind Timer Version 2

A while back I wrote a Poker Blind timer, first using javascript, then Flash, then Flex. I have had a lot of requests to enable users of the Poker Blind Timer to customise the sequence of the increments. So i've implemented a very simple method of doing this, by allowing the user to enter a comma separated list of small blinds.

For example, 10,30,80,120 would be the small blinds for rounds 1-4

There are also 3 finishing options.

1. Double - This continues to double the blind at the end of the defined sequence.
2. Repeat - This continues to repeat the last increment, so if the increment was 300,500 it will continue to increment by 200 ie (500-300).
3. Stay - This leaves the blind time as is, thus the final sequence defined is the maximum.

I also redid the entire thing in Flex 4 using spark controls, I have used one of the default skins, which looks a lot better than no skin.

I've built both a Flash Builder web version and a standalone AIR version. For those who dont know, AIR is Adobe Intergrated Runtime, which will allow you to run standalone on Windows, Mac & Linux

Web Version
http://code.fraser.id.au/blindtimer2/blindtimer2Flex.html

AIR Version
http://code.fraser.id.au/blindtimer2/air/index.html

Release Notes
http://code.fraser.id.au/blindtimer2/release.html

If you have any suggestions or standard sequences you would like included, let me know.

ColdFusion 9 Disappointment

We always quickly adopt new technologies and looked to migrate to ColdFusion 9 on immediate release. But there are things that have changed between version 8 and 9 that break our application. I really cant remember that ever happening before. It is related to changes with the DHTML ExtJS components.

We were actually told that this would be fixed in a hotfix, and to my disappointment the latest hotfix hasn't fixed anything.

So we have a purchased copy of ColdFusion 9 that we cant use, with no easy workaround or solution or even timeline to a solution.

I'm starting to think that Adobe has no interest in support of legacy ColdFusion features, they have really dropped the ball over the last few releases, we use these new features only to find out later that they have no plans to fix, maintain or update them going forward. This isn't the first time this has happened to use either. Some examples.

1. We wrote a large part of our application in Flash Forms, found an issue with dates, and Adobe never addressed or fixed it. And seem to have dropped updating this technology.
2. We wrote a large number of reports using ReportBuilder and adobe seem to have left this product in the trash also, the blog for the product hasn't even had a post since 2007
3. We do a lot of HTML to PDF conversion for reports etc, and every time there is an update to this, the scale or layout changes and we have to go and fix everything.
4. Been burnt multiple times by this one, CFGRID. Its gone from a Java version to a Flash version to an ExtJS version and none of the previous versions ever get any attention.

It begs the question, that perhaps I should just abandon ColdFusion for front end applications the rapid development benefit of ColdFusion for this purpose is quickly eroded by applications that break with new releases.

I really like ColdFusion and there are lot of things in ColdFusion 9 we would like to take advantage of, such as hibernate, but how do I know Adobe wont just stop updating or supporting this going forward also.

Disappointed.