ColdFusion 8 is a finalist for the 2009 CODiE Awards in the category of Best Web Services Solution.

You may be getting déjà vu. That's okay. You're not alone. We were a finalist for it last year too... also we won it last year, for ColdFusion 8.

Bill Shelton and Marc Esher, the brain-trust behind MXUnit have a new article on the Adobe Developer connection on doing test driven development in ColdFusion with MXUnit.

It's a great article and a great primer on this tough to grok concept. I highly recommend reading it.

I've been kinda quiet on the substantive discussions of ColdFusion as of late. I've been listening but not speaking too much. I boil that down to a few reasons:

1. Being new to the evangelist job is keeping me extremely busy
2. We're still not really talking publicly about the next version of ColdFusion yet.

However, looking on the horizon, I see cf.Objective, webDU, Scotch on the Road, and the upcoming user group tour. I'm excited about these, as I expect the conferences themselves to be fun – being able to catch up or meet community members is awesome. But the real reason I'm happy about this is that we'll be talking about Centaur in greater depth.

I have to admit I was afraid that seeing how the CF-sausage was made would make it lose some of its luster for me. However, I have to say it's quite the opposite. Seeing the process has gotten me more excited than ever to talk about, tinker with, and full out application develop with ColdFusion.

I know the silence from us is making the natives of the ColdFusion community a bit restless. I get it. But hold out a little bit longer, we've got some leaks coming in the next two months that will show you how the next version of ColdFusion is going to set your RAD engines on ludicrous speed.

I'll be doing the ColdFusion Flex Roadshow in Dallas and Los Angeles this coming week. The point is to give ColdFusion developers a jumpstart in Flex.

If you have always wanted to know how to get started in but haven't gotten over the initial learning curve, this event is for you. Even better - the event is free. So come on and check out the ColdFusion Flex Roadshow.

• April 21, 2009 9:30AM - 2:00PM in Dallas, TX
• April 23, 2009 9:30AM - 2:00PM in Los Angeles, CA

Register online beforehand.

I just learned this today. Did you know Adobe has an Affiliate program? You can set yourself up to get some sweet commissions on Adobe software. I won't go into the long and short of it but you can earn between 5% and 8% on Adobe software that people buy after being referred from your site. The variation in percentage is based on sales, the more paying business you refer the higher your percentage.

That means for ColdFusion Server you're looking at:

• ColdFusion Standard    $64-$103
• ColdFusion Enterprise     $375-$600

Not bad, right? Also as stated in the FAQ:

Do I earn commissions on my own purchases?

When you buy products from us through your website, you earn the same commission on your purchase that you would from a visitor purchase.

So check out the Adobe Affiliate Program.

A few weeks ago I tweeted about getting free licenses of Flex Builder for victims of the current economic craptaculon. It was an informal test balloon while we got the formal plan in place. I'm pleased to announce that as of Friday, Adobe has formalized this program. Here are the details:

Today we have launched an updated https://freeriatools.adobe.com/ and it now includes a link for "Flex Builder for unemployed developers" https://freeriatools.adobe.com/learnflex/.

A cool additional piece is that when you apply you also get 60 days of free access to Safari Books' collection of Adobe Developer Library titles.