Monthly Archives: February 2006

Joel On Software Update and Conclusion

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I am in the final pages of a great book. Joel On Software has been a great trip down memory lane and has validated many of the thoughts and disciplines I have adhered to for years. Just about everything in the book is easily agreeable if “you get it”. I am not saying I am one of those rare breeds that only understands things that most do not. What I am saying is some people have a connection with writing software, writing code has been my primary hobby since I was 11 years old so I have had a lot of time to think about it. One of the biggest tips I could give someone is to reach out and do other technologies. I had a rule for the longest time, if I did Windows C++ at work then I did Java for fun at home. The funny thing is, that has now changed to doing Java at work and other programming at home (mostly game programming, check out the neo-engine project). This book truly emphasizes those that reach out and understand many technologies and areas but also mentions mastery of at least one or more. If you can master several languages or “camps” you will without a doubt have an extremely broad perspective and can appreciate a platforms positives and negatives. I loved Joel’s ending stories about Ben and Jerry’s, bloatware and Open Source. What amazes me is this guy wrote this stuff over 5 years ago and it is all very relevant! Once again, get the book and study it.

Mac OS getting attacked more and more…

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Is it me or are we seeing more and more viruses on the Mac OS these days? I think now that the Mac is a basic flavor of Unix we are going to see the same type of attacks Microsoft has been plagued with for years. As the API’s and system in general get more people who are familiar with it there is no doubt the dark side will attempt their nasty actions.

OS X Trojan appears
Critical browsing flaw found in Mac OS X
Second OS X worm appears

Is Free really Free?

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I just read Ed Brill’s blog and while amazed another company has done this I think it is a clear sign that business models are changing and companies like IBM and Microsoft need to adapt.

Ah yes, the pennywise-and-pound-foolish mentality. Here we have a customer who was still running software from 1996 and wondering why it didn’t do what they wanted in 2006. It’s like buying a perfectly good car and believing that one never has to do oil changes, tuneups, or even take it through a car wash occasionally. Oh, and no insurance either — they hadn’t bought a maintenance agreement at any point in that time.

I think Ed makes some valid points but I also think we are going to see companies moving more and more to Open Source and Out Sourced based applications and architectures. The reason is simple, the Open Source applications are slowly catching up to the ubiquitous functionality contained in the pay-for-use applications and outsourcing your IT infrastructure is way cheaper than paying a bunch of IT guys to run the show. So in general, if the candy and value-add contained in the pay-for-use applications is not justified by the cost difference then you will see companies opting for these free solutions. The same goes for IT outsourcing, as long as the results are the same, better or maybe slightly worse but acceptable it will most likely always remain cheaper.

While on the surface the company is being branded as “the penny wise-and-pound-foolish mentality” the company may also only use basic Email! So why pay for a Caddilac Application Architecture like Lotus Notes if you simply want mail? I do find it strange this company chose Web mail, they must have zero off-line requirements.

Java's new For-Each Loop

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I was always a fan of the Visual Basic For-Each loop syntax. It was simple, anyone could read it and it made life very easy. I am so glad that Java now has a For-Each Loop! Your basic Java loop with an iterator looks something like this (using the new Generics syntax):

void cancelAll(Collection c) {
     for (Iterator i = c.iterator(); i.hasNext(); )        
        i.next().cancel();
}

Now with the new For-Each loop your code is extremely simplified, look at the same code but with the new syntax:

void cancelAll(Collection c) {    for (TimerTask t : c)        t.cancel();}

That is amazing. As the referenced web page states the new loop reads as “for each item of type TimerTask t in the c collection“. This is very streamlined and the best thing I like about this is Java is taking the good things from other languages and putting them into Java. This is what will make Java become even easier to use and more widely accepted in the programming world.

Reference: Java 1.5 Docs -> link

My Outline Processor Markup Language File

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OPML is what you can use to send all of your RSS feeds around to people. So if someone asks you “what RSS/Atom feeds do you subscribe to?” You can now just send them your exported OML file from Thunderbird.

To see the feeds I subscribe to and basically “get information” daily you can use my opml file here. If you save that file with your browser just open Thunderbird and in the News & Blogs section click “Manage Subscriptions” and then you will see an Import option. This is only available in Thunderbird 1.5+.