Tue, 24 Jun 2008

A Video Game Analyst?

OK, here's job for you -- video game analyst! I assume that this means an analyst of the video game industry (which is big) rather than an analyst of video games themselves (what's to analyze?). But it would be fun. At least you could play games under the guise of analyzing the industry!

posted 07:24 [/Technology] permanent link

Sun, 11 May 2008

JavaOne Final Thoughts

As usual, I didn't write anything for day three. It could have had something to do with the After Dark Bash, but, who knows. This year's JavaOne was interesting. I looked primarily at scripting for the Java environment. I really like Ruby, but Groovy might be best for our environment since the more Java-centric nature of the language may appeal to the majority of our Java-centric programmers.

The bash this year was more enjoyable than those in the past. Perhaps because it was outside, the noise and general sense of long-lines for everything was lessened. Smash Mouth gave a good concert and the length was just about right.

And speaking of lines. I think that JavaOne should work on a way to eliminate, or at least reduce, those. A hardward/software combination which could manage that would be very impressive. I don't think it can be done since there are just too many people in too small a space to make that practical. I also think that human beings just have a natural tendency to queue.

The general sessions were generally (little pun there, very little) OK. I prefer those which speak to the general future of development rather than provide a single company touting their achievements, but I also realize that the platinum sponsors pay a lot of money to be there and need a little perk to help them recouop that cost.

I spent quite a bit of time in labs this year. Although some of these are a bit confusing, the fact that I used my laptop for two of them means that I came away with an environment which can run the lab and I can do some experimenting myself with the techniques. I find it somewhat difficult to actually learn something during these as you are trying to get things done and following the general directions. Like lots of things in Java EE, I find the number of files and places where you have to change things confusing and just going through the steps doesn't do it for me. I need to work through the techniques later to understand just what is going on in the relationship between elements.

Anyway, I made it home OK. I rode on the train with a Sun employee who blogs about technical issues for Sun. Interesting gentleman with an interesting job. Perhaps as I get older, I should blog about something and actually try to make some money with it.

posted 09:38 [/Technology] permanent link

Wed, 07 May 2008

Day Two Thoughts

Crowds and Lines are the major impression of the JavaOne. They have some nifty new technology which, in the opening general session, they claimed would eliminate the lines . . . It didn't . . . the picture at the right is from the opening day. It's the line for the first general session. Yes, it comes down the left side of the picture and goes on down the right side of the picture. The hall is at the fare end beyond site. OK, so technically they didn't say that these devices would eliminate these lines, but they don't seem to have been effective in eliminating the lines for the individual sessions either. Oh well, so much for technology.

And speaking of technology, I have been thinking more about the monitizing of the technology and the future of technology. I'm listening to the sessions and I wondering how the profit motive is driving the future of technology. The keynote today was given by Oracle and was basically an hour-long commercial for their products. Now admitedly, some of their developer tools are pretty neat, but you wonder at the underlying licensing costs for the technologies on which those tools are based. Tool vendors have a great deal of influence over the direction of this type of market. If they provide tools which can make programmers more productive, they can sell the technologies -- databases, middleware, portal servers, application servers which are the under-pinnings of the technology which the tools implement.

The emphasis of much of the future of the Java platform seems to be connected devices and the device manufacturers are in evidence everywhere you look at JavaOne. Parts of the conference make it look more like a cell phone vendor's conference than a Java conference. Of course, the database vendors, server vendors, middleware venders, etc. are there in support of these products. After all, you'll need those databases and application servers to host all those nifty applications that you will run on those connected devices.

Those are my thoughts today. I have to rest up, it takes a lot of energy to stand in those lines -- even if they are being eliminated . . .

posted 20:36 [/Technology] permanent link

Tue, 06 May 2008

JavaOne - Day 2

The first full day of JavaOne started with breakfast and the general session. The theme this year is "Java + You". This means that Java is moving out among the people -- to the customers. Java runs on all platforms from the embedded application to the cell phone through the workstation to the server. You gotta love it. In fact, most of the talk is not about the desktop or laptop, but about applications which leverage the network through connected devices such as cell phones.

The emphasis seems to be on these devices, especially cell phones. I suppose this is because of the sheer numbers of the devices and the potential for sales. And sales is the bottom line. The speakers at the general sessions mention altruistic reasons for doing things, but come around in the end to monitizing the idea. For those of you who don't speak PRish, "monetizing" means making money. If you can't make money from an idea, it isn't worth considering.

After the general sessions, my day was supposed to consist of three labs. I made it to two. Unfortunately, as often happens, the minute you leave the office, things go to heck. Today was no exception. So I had to miss the last lab and spend my time on the phone and VPN dealing with a production system problem. I got it solved in time for dinner with my coworkers at around eight p.m. Sessions go until 10:30 or so, but I didn't see any which interested me this evening.

One of the sessions wasn't even about Java. It was about Ruby on the JVM using NetBeans 6.1 IDE. Ruby is an interesting language and its Ruby on Rails system is really fun to work with. NetBeans makes it relatively easy by running much of the Rake system for you to create the elements of this MVC framework.

The other session was on interoperable web services development with NetBeans. This one was interesting in that I volunteered my laptop to actually do the work. This means that I now have NetBeans 6.1 loaded on my work laptop.

All-in-all, a pretty good day. I'll read some tonight and be back at it tomorrow morning.

posted 22:19 [/Technology] permanent link

Mon, 05 May 2008

First Day Wrapup

My first day is over, almost. The train ride was good, as expected. There were at least two groups of kids who had taken the train to Sacramento to visit the capitol. The train, as a result, was full. But, the ride was well worth it. Far better than driving to San Francisco. I registered, got my stuff, and checked into the hotel. I met some friends for dinner. Actually, they ate dinner. I had not eaten lunch until about 3:00 PM and wasn't hungry.

Before meeting them, I had to spend some time working thanks to WiFi at the hotel and VPN on my work laptop. Now I'm getting ready to retire (go to bed, I'm not that old). Tomorrow, the fun begins. I have three Labs the first day. Should be interesting. More later.

posted 21:36 [/Technology] permanent link

Off to JavaOne

I'm off to JavaOne in San Francisco. I'm going to try to blog from there some. The last time, I wasn't all that successful. Sometimes, things just get too busy at these conferences. Added to this, I might have some work to do in the off hours. You know how it is. Everything goes well until you are away, then things to nuts! But I'll try. I'm taking some labs and sessions on scripting in the JVM and integrated with Java this time. Should be interesting. I'm also taking the train over to the event so that should be fun. More later.

posted 08:11 [/Technology] permanent link

Sat, 09 Feb 2008

Am I a Luddite?

A Luddite is generally considered to be a person who is opposed to technological change. I don't think so. I'm not generally against advancements in technology, but I am against the proliferation of technology without purpose. So often we add features to things just because we can rather than because we should. Look at all the things that have clocks!

Thus you end up with something which you never use, but which can cause malfunctions in the features you do use. Conversely the unused technology can cause the features your do use to fail or cost your money in repair bills because of the feature.

I am a programmer and one of the most idiotic things I have heard is someone say, let's add the feature and then promote it so people will use it. This is the if you build it them will come mentality. The technicians driving the business to features they didn't want and won't use. More projects fail because of this unnecessary complexity than the actual base features of the solution. And more times than not, these unnecessary features result in difficulties which cause the users to complain about the software you have created.

I an a firm believer in defining the business case first and then finding or developing technology to fit the way the users need to do business. This is the see a need, fill a need mentality (thanks "Robots"). If you can find out the job someone needs to do and understand the way they need to do the job, you can provide them with the technology to better do their job.

An analogy that I like to use is that, to my mind, the 3x5 card is still the best place for recipes. You an take it anywhere, revise it easily, and if you slop your creation on it, you can dry it off and not worry about damaging sensitive and expensive parts. A technological improvement might be to seal them in plastic once the recipe was proven.

OK, I realize there are cooks who may require something a bit more sophisticated to meet their needs. Take the professional chef who has hundreds of 3x5 cards and needs to purchase food on the tight margins of a successful restaurant. He might put the recipes into a computer program which could then print out a shopping list for the week for the restaurant or the catering affair or suggest one of the many recipes he has to take advantage of an ingredient in large supply or with a better margin that week. BUT, the program should be capable of printing the recipes onto 3x5 cards -- which might be sealed in plastic -- for the actual restaurant operation.

Now that's technological progress!

posted 13:11 [/Technology] permanent link

Wed, 06 Feb 2008

Technology Strikes Again . . .

Ludditeism is looking better and better!

I had to get up earlier to go to church today (Ash Wednesday). I set my alarm on my fancy electronic clock and went to bed. I got up this morning, a bit tired, naturally, and got ready to go. I went out to the kitchen after showering, brushing and getting dressed only to find out that my clock was an hour early. Instead of 5:20 AM, I had gotten up at 4:20 AM! Sheesh!

I'm going to replace the fancy clock with a much simpler one to, hopefully, keep this from happening again. I'd convert to a sun dial, but you know how dependable those are inside, especially at night . . .

posted 06:37 [/Technology] permanent link

Sat, 22 Sep 2007

Haste . . .

You know the addage . . .

Haste makes waste

No place is the more true than in Information Technology. I'm spending my day working rather than attending a company picnic because of this very thing. A major project at work ran into a situation which they could not get around with a deadline looming. The technical management made a decision which caused us to configure the test to be the simulation environment in a short period of time. Then they realized that they did not have an environment in which to test changes made because of findings in the simulation environment before placing the code back into the simulation environment. So . . .

They decided to set up a completely new "fix it" environment in which to do that. Because of the need to meet the deadline, these two environments were thrown together from bits and pieces in a haphazard and undocumented sort of way. This caused several problems which we have been fighting late into the night and this weekend. (Needless to say, the deadline was missed and we're scrambling to catch back up.

It seems interesting to me that the project management of this major problem -- consultants who are getting paid a great deal of money for their expertise in this area -- didn't catch the signs that something was wrong earlier in the process. After all, isn't that what project management is all about?

Anyway, that's water under the bridge. Now we're working long hours to make sure that things are working, at least well enough to meet the hard deadline this Monday.

posted 15:40 [/Technology] permanent link

Thu, 09 Aug 2007

Documentation . . . Ya gotta love it . . .

I write software and maintain systems. I'm in the middle of creating some documentation for a system I wrote and have maintained for several years. The framework for this documentation was created by someone and is expected to be used to run the system -- a "run book".

Let me say that, like most programmers, writing documentation is not my most favorite thing. I realize that documentation is necessary. It's just that writing it can be a pain . . . especially if you are using someone else's outline or framework. I'm trying to fill in elements that I don't understand and it appears to me that there is excessive documentation including repetition which can cause maintenance problems. The way I look at it is that each piece of information should appear only one time, if possible, to ease update. There is nothing worse than documentation which is out of date. It is almost worse than no documetation at all since it can send you down the wrong trail when problems occur.

Repetition is also a problem. In the framework I am using, backups are referenced in at least three places. This makes it likely, that, should the process change, at least one of these places will be missed.

OK, I have expressed some frustration . . . Now back to it . . .

posted 14:05 [/Technology] permanent link