Overall, MAX 2008 was a good experience. It was extremely well-run and well-organized. The location was excellent. There was a huge amount of content, even if not much of it appealed to me directly.

You can order a print or PDF subscription and there are options to order a year's subscription with all back issues as well, in case you haven't gotten around to subscribing yet.

It's a very high quality journal and makes a great reference work for your bookshelf within reach of your computer.

FAQU 7 focuses on data with articles on (getting and exposing data via) web services, type validation, stored procedures and views, system tables, data mapping, data manipulation for Excel and Blaze Data Services. In addition, Doug Hughes provides an introduction to Model-Glue 3: Gesture and Mike Henke explains how to get the best performance out of Eclipse.

So Fusion Authority in conjunction with An Architect's View is offering a year's free subscription to FAQU to the first person to contact me with the answer to this simple question:

How many full articles have I written for FAQU so far and what were they called?

Hal was an early advocate of adding Java-like features to ColdFusion but has changed his position for a number of reasons and thinks ColdFusion's success depends on allowing developers to innovate quickly, which means providing unique features that help get certain types of job done quickly.

I like the article but I don't think it's really a "new vision" (as its title claims) because ColdFusion has always been about providing unique features that help developers innovate quickly.

For a contrasting view, read Vince Bonfanti's evaluation of Hal's article - and Hal responds in the comments (in fact, the whole comment thread is very interesting!).

Issue 1 (Summer 2006) covered a lot of things in ColdFusion MX 7 that you might be missing, written by developers who are reaping a lot of benefits from those features.

Issue 2 (Fall 2006) will cover OOP and frameworks and I can tell you that it'll be a great issue and a must-have journal!

How do I know it's so great? Because I've been involved with reviewing all of the content over the last several weeks. A huge amount of work has gone into creating a very professional, feature-packed issue that is beautifully designed and easy to read. Props to the editorial and design team behind it.

So hurry over to the Fusion Authority site and subscribe - and pick up a copy of Issue 1 while stocks last!

One of the major events at CFUNITED was the launch of the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update, a high-quality, perfect-bound digest-size ColdFusion journal, produced by Judith and Michael Dinowitz and their team of "elves".

The introductory issue was freely distributed at the conference but this is going to be a paid subscription journal (I already paid my $50 for my first year's subscription).

The first issue mostly covers ColdFusion MX 7 features that you may not be taking advantage of: Application.cfc, Flash forms, Reporting and the Asynchronous Event Gateway. There are also (what will be) regular columns covering the state of ColdFusion and hints and tips, as well as a section covering leading edge techniques and concepts. The first issue covers duck typing, test-driven development and Model-Glue: Unity. There is also a great introductory article on CFEclipse.

The journal is beautifully put together - layout and color contribute to the readability of every article. There are just a handful of subtle adverts throughout the journal.

If you're serious about keeping your skills up to date, you need to subscribe to this journal (and, if you missed the introductory issue, opt to buy it for $14.95!).

I have several copies that I will be giving away at BACFUG (in August, probably, since I most likely will be down in San Jose for the July meeting). That should convince you to subscribe. As I said above, I've already paid my $50 for the next few issues - you should too!