Later today I’m going to update my piece How I Got A Career. There is a section on how you can get started with programming that is real, real, old. These days, with free IDE’s and compilers available all over the place, it’s even easier to get started.

Thanks to Dave Bauer for the useful critique. I wrote that piece ages, and ages ago. Man it’s a different world 🙂 Python, Perl, and Java seem the most appropriate starting points now. Not VB or Delphi.

I let ya know when it’s finished.

A fun tutorial from Sun where you build a desktop GUI app. I’m a little outta practice so I’m giving it a whirl.

The NYTimes piece A Rift Among Bloggers is getting alot of commentary.

Like Rafe I realize Garret is a weblogger who doesn’t normally go on a rant. But this time he certainly did and lays down how it is.

I like Shelley’s view point on it as well. Read the NYTimes article… Seems like a big club doesn’t it?

Jonathon Delacour nails how I feel on the whole blogging == journalism track. Summary – it doesn’t. And that is a good thing. Why define a new means of expression in terms of an old one he asks. I feel the same way.

As far as my view point goes? Well to tell ya the truth… I see nothing new as far as what people are doing blogging-wise. Blogs have been here since the start of the web. But what I do see are many new faces. Some of which might not have been here were it not for advances in technology. Others that would have made it here no matter what. And that’s a good thing.

Rifts? Yeah sure there are those that like to trump up differences between certain cliques… and yes weblogging reminds me of HS lunch tables. Back in ’94 you had Justin’s Links from the Underground and now… well it’s wide open. But don’t say that techies havn’t been weblogging about politics. That something new is going on – cause it’s simply not. Certain developers have been weblogging about politics from day one. Re-read Garret’s piece. It’s just more of the same.

It’s still rock n’ roll to me. And please can we get some real weblogging articles? Some on the sociology of it all?

Speaking of the sociology of it all, here goes a new fast growing clique of bloggers Catholics. Look at this huge list. It looks like the crisis in the Church has been a catalyst. Just like 9-11 was for the ‘warblogger’ clique. So the cycle continues.

Billy Joel – It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me

What’s the matter with the clothes I’m wearing?
“Can’t you tell that your tie’s too wide?”
Maybe I should buy some old tab collars?
“Welcome back to the age of jive.
Where have you been hidin’ out lately, honey?
You can’t dress trashy till you spend a lot of money.”
Everybody’s talkin’ ’bout the new sound
Funny, but it’s still rock and roll to me

What’s the matter with the car I’m driving?
“Can’t you tell that it’s out of style?”
Should I get a set of while wall tires?
“Are you gonna cruise the miracle mile?
Nowadays you can’t be too sentimental
Your best bet’s a true baby blue Continental.”
Hot funk, cool punk, even if it’s old junk
It’s still rock and roll to me

Oh, it doesn’t matter what they say in the papers
‘Cause it’s always been the same old scene.
There’s a new band in town
But you can’t get the sound from a story in a magazine…
Aimed at your average teen

How about a pair of pink sidewinders
And a bright orange pair of pants?
“You could really be a Beau Brummel baby
If you just give it half a chance.
Don’t waste your money on a new set of speakers,
You get more mileage from a cheap pair of sneakers.”
Next phase, new wave, dance craze, anyways
It’s still rock and roll to me

What’s the matter with the crowd I’m seeing?
“Don’t you know that they’re out of touch?”
Should I try to be a straight `A’ student?
“If you are then you think too much.
Don’t you know about the new fashion honey?
All you need are looks and a whole lotta money.”
It’s the next phase, new wave, dance craze, anyways
It’s still rock and roll to me

Everybody’s talkin’ ’bout the new sound
Funny, but it’s still rock and roll to me

Now this is kinda neat and shows you what you can do with Java, XML, and XSL. Check it out.

Excellent TheServerSide.com thread. I know how he feels. via rebelutionary.

Taking on my Company: My Response

A “controversy” has been created over whether I should be publicly beating up Knight Ridder for its decision to break old Web links.

Read it. And may I suggest e-mailing him your support and understanding. What’s happened I feel is wrong to say the least. I can say that much even if I am biased on the matter.

Note I took down my previous post. I don’t want mud slinging – that’s entirely not the idea. I’m hoping for discourse. If I can put it back up in some manner that’s reasonable – I will. Admittidly I’m too close to the matter. I admit I have conflicts of interest right up front. I work for the same company as Dan. In any case – like Dan – I gotta get back to work and life.

Thanks for the hello 🙂.

I’d love MT to avoid all that re-rendering too. It’s one of the issues you face when dealing with static file generation systems. If it served up requests dynamically (preferably from a cache of somekind), in a Cofax, Manila, or Zope (if I recall) like way, (not Blogger, Radio or GreyMatter which are static file generators also), the updating of design wouldn’t have to involve so much re-rendering since that would happen on a per-request basis. If you had a site with thousands and thousands of pages, static file generators can be real pains in the ass, re-creating each peace of content with the new design. Some conceal this behavior better then other’s but it’s still occuring. Of course a dynamic system has a whole host of other fun issues 🙂 I wonder if you can have clean URLs with a CGI based system? Hmmmmm. Gotta look into it. It’s all about compromises 🙂

The last time I attempted to talk about this kinda stuff at my site I got misunderstood and flamed. Let’s see what happens this time.

If I’ve misunderstood something – e-mail me before flaming me ok? Let’s be civilized.

They say things to inflame you. To draw you in so that they can try and clobber you.

But as a mentor of mine once said, “If someone gives you a gift and you don’t accept it, who does the gift belong to?”.

Edit: Took away the link. People are obviously trying to have an argument instead of a discussion. Oh well. Gotta listen more to my old mentor.

So asks this excellent summary of when you should use EJBs over at rebelutionary.

If your application doesn’t involve a lot of true distributed computing or require distributed transaction management, the odds are very good that there’s a better way to do it.

Using EJB often prohibits quick deployment to multiple application servers to compare true performance; servlet containers are actually much friendlier if you’re concerned about portability.

I’ll add in addition that EJB development is an order of magnitude more complex and developers with experience are harder to find and thus, much more expensive, then Servlet->JSP->Bean->Database development. I suggest using them only in the scenario described in the quote above.

Mozilla is 1.0!. Congrats on defeating the naysayers and making it to one dot oh. Mozilla is much, much more then a browser. Although as a browser it competes head on with MSes best efforts.