Success, Arrogance, Rise and Fall
I'm not implying that behind the mergers and acquisition news of every software company lies arrogance. I'm saying if you can't really afford to be arrogant, don't use the arrogant giants of your...
View ArticleJava Editorial — Unofficial History of Programming: '96 - '06
I want back in the '90th...seriously. Ten years ago I didn't know Java: I'd been using PowerBuilder and was able to program pretty much everything in this RAD object-oriented tool. To find a job back...
View ArticleSocial Computing Will Turn the Web World Upside Down
Since most any two words can and will be put together in this world, what with us being Homo Loquens and all, it's easy just to shrug when you hear new colloquies like 'social software,''social...
View Articlei-Technology Viewpoint: Is This the Advent of the Post-Modern Internet?
The question that forms the title of this editorial was recently asked by a young observer of the Web 2.0 scene, Skinner Layne, who contends that the key thing to determine about Web 2.0 is whether it...
View ArticleIs the Rise of Google the End of the Game for Everyone Else?
As I write this, the stock price of Google, Inc. just exceeded $500 for the first time in the company's still-brief (two-year) history as a public company. That gives the search colossus a market cap...
View Article'The AJAX Moment' Has Arrived – What's In It for Java?
When the fast-paced, three-day program of AJAXWorld Conference & Expo in the Santa Clara Convention Center finally ended earlier this month, with over 90 technical sessions and presentations from...
View ArticleJava Editorial — Not Invented Here: Reject, Repulse, and Reinvent
The phrase 'not invented here,' or NIH, when applied to technology, describes a resistance by a group to use a perfectly valid solution to a problem they're encountering because they'd rather build the...
View ArticleJDJ Editorial —Conference Presentations, Magic Shows, and the Five-Ring Circus
Having attended two conferences in the past three weeks and seen untold presentations, I've come to the conclusion that irrespective of the subject matter, each presenter invariably falls back on the...
View ArticleMy Friend Is a 72-Year Old Programmer
This is a short story about my friend (let's call him Joe). The last 15 years prior to his retirement Joe spent working as a mainframe programmer for a large financial firm in New York City. He stopped...
View ArticleDesktop Java Slims Down to Enter the AJAX Race
A number of very significant development efforts are underway that bode well for Desktop Java's future. On the language side is the Java FX script project http://www.sun.com/software/javafx/index.jsp....
View ArticleDoubtful Diagrams and Far Out Figures of Web 2.0
In a recent presentation I attended, the speaker warmed up with a couple of bulleted lists that outlined the agenda of the session before moving onto his third slide that was clearly many days, work of...
View ArticlePointless Places, Boring Faces, and Useless Cases
Often in software I find myself preaching restraint to those who wish to move platforms for no apparent reason than to keep up with the IT fashion industry; however, even harder than the silver-bullet...
View ArticleWhat Does the Future Hold for the Java Language?
Before Java I was a Smalltalk guy. I remember switching from one language to the other and the tipping point that you reach when you've mastered the new language and how many months it takes, not to...
View ArticleDesktop Java Editorial: Management – The Final Frontier
The finest programmer I've ever worked with told me recently that she was giving up coding altogether. The reason – a succession of inept and incompetent managers had just destroyed her faith in...
View ArticleThe JavaFX SDK Has Landed
At last year's JavaOne Chris Oliver gave a presentation on JavaFX in which he discussed how he was interested in programming Java2D not in terms of JComponent paintEvent methods that launch into...
View ArticleShould Java Assert that Network I/O Can't Occur on the UI Thread?
Doing network I/O on the user interface (UI) thread is bad. Most developers know that and can tell you why; unfortunately, it’s still done. At this year's JavaOne, one of the keynote JavaFX demos...
View ArticleDevils, Demos, Details, and Demons
When a product a colleague worked on recently shipped its first generally available release, the event was accompanied by a marketing fanfare of podcasts, press releases, and conference trips to...
View ArticleCatching the Test Bug
The software industry is often obsessed with progress be it in the form of a new language, wire protocol, specification update, or some other technology-driven feature. For me, software is a means to...
View ArticleThe Trials of Software Testing
Software testing while one of the most important tasks done in a development project is often misunderstood and abused by everyone from programmers and managers to testers. Wikipedia calls testing “an...
View ArticleDialog Boxes, Habituation, and Single Threaded Thought
In Jef Raskin’s excellent book, The Humane User Interface, he discusses how the human brain is able to perform many tasks simultaneously while only having the ability to focus on one conscious thought...
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