I’m using Java less and less as time goes by, not more - the heyday of the language and platform has come and gone, and IMHO, it’s going to continue to fade from relevance with increasing speed. … That doesn’t mean I don’t use Java every day still. … But in general Java is yesterday’s technology. … As a developer, nowadays I would never consider Java for anything besides a very focused set of server processes to which it was well suited. … In fact, I’d say that many of today’s current hot trends in programming are a direct result of a backlash against everything that Java has come to represent …
RussellBeattie.com — Funny, once upon a time Java was a backlash too.
The Gambit Scheme system is a complete, portable, efficient and reliable implementation of the Scheme programming language.
Version 4.0 is available. Actually, I’ve been very slow to post this, version 4.0.1 is available.
The Ash Heap of Management theories
Ever had the sneaking suspicion there are way too many management theories and fads…well here’s proof
deal architect — follow the link in the article, but brace yourself first
A Couple of Photosheadlessness — cute
Tumblelogging: don't think about it, just write
Tumblelogs are so named because they’re much more akin to a stream of consciousness. They represent the thoughts of the tumblelogger more or less as they happen, tumbling out of their brain, into a computer, then on to the web.
Telegraph
It extracts all the selectors from all the stylesheets on the page you’re viewing, then analyzes that page to see which of those selectors are not used. The data is then stored in your user preferences, so that as you continue to navigate around a site, selectors will be crossed off the list as they’re encountered.
Sitepoint — Great idea. I’ve installed it but I haven’t tried it yet.
Things is an ambitious project to create the easiest and most fun to use personal To-Do management application. Simplicity, however, will not be achieved at the expense of powerful features…
Cultured Code — From the people who did Xyle Scope (which is brilliant)… There is nothing to download yet but this thing has potential if only because of who is writing it.
Getting IE 7 and watching it ramp up among IE’s installed base has been good, but it’s only half the answer. The web needs to know, unequivocally, when we can expect more information about IE.Next, what OSes it will target, and what standards, improvements, and major fixes are on the roadmap even if they slip. Without that much honesty, this relationship probably won’t get off the ground again.
Continuing Intermittent Incoherency — Well, don’t hold your breath… I’d love to be wrong.
CoScripter is a system for recording, automating, and sharing processes performed in a web browser such as printing photos online, requesting a vacation hold for postal mail, or checking bank account information. Instructions for processes are recorded and stored in easy-to-read text here on the CoScripter web site, so anyone can make use of them. If you are having trouble with a web-based process, check to see if someone has written a CoScript for it!
IBM AlphaWorks — Hmmm… might be useful. I’ve had a short play with this and there is definitely some potential there.
brain function of liberals, conservatives differs
A group of 43 right-handed subjects were asked to perform a series of computer tests designed to evaluate their unrehearsed response to cues urging them to break a well-established routine. … Using electroencephalographs, which measure neuronal impulses, the researchers examined activity in a part of the brain – the anterior cingulate cortex – that is strongly linked with the self-regulatory process of conflict monitoring. … The match-up was unmistakable: respondents who had described themselves as liberals showed “significantly greater conflict-related neural activity” when the hypothetical situation called for an unscheduled break in routine. … Conservatives, however, were less flexible, refusing to deviate from old habits “despite signals that this … should be changed.” … Whether that is good or bad, of course, depends on one’s perspective
Yahoo! News — Ooooh… a new way to push some buttons :-)
Intranet Personalization: Does it Work?
Martin White, yet another true intranet pioneer, states that, “Over the last few years one of the ongoing issues in intranet management has been the extent to which users need to have a personalised view of intranet content. I have seen some good examples in the case of employee self-service applications, but on a broader level I have yet to see a convincing business case based on a survey of users.” … Personalization is an extremely powerful concept, and over the next 10 years, I’m sure the best intranets will use it extensively. Today, it’s a different matter. It’s about getting the basics right. You don’t need personalization to have a high quality staff directory, and that’s what most intranets badly need right now.
CMS Wire — I am deeply suspicious of personalisation, in particular I’ve seen very few convincing scenarios.
Common Lisp Testing Frameworks
I’ve been evaluating the various Common Lisp testing frameworks. I have a large body of code in my Project Euler stuff, and I use unit testing extensively; extensively enough that the simplistic unit testing package I had been using was getting unwieldy. So I figured I’d take a look at what was available and see how everything stacked up. … Since this page is long, I’ll present my summary up front: If your testing needs are simple, use lisp-unit. It you need many, well-organized tests (as I now do), use either Stefil or FiveAM, depending on whether you want highly-interactive or noninteractive tests, respectively.
Phil! Gregory — This is a huge pain in Common Lisp. Phil will save you a lot of time.
Squeak by Example, intended for both students and developers, will guide you gently through the Squeak language and environment by means of a series of examples and exercises.
This book is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license.
Looking forward to this.
However I’ve become increasingly convinced that relational databases are some kind of sinister death cult who want to lure you in and get you to wear strange stripy clothes with shiny shoes and give all your money to your superiors in the cult. And if you don’t conform, or if you conform too well, you just know you’ll end up in a pit of dismembered bodies back in the woods somewhere.
Tim Bradshaw on comp.lang.lisp — (from April 2000)
The goal of this project is to develop a refactoring tool for the Erlang functional programming language. We are investigating implementation possibilities of refactoring using our experiences from previous research, and building a refactoring framework that can be integrated with any development environment.
Good idea! Too bad that there’s a mysql dependency. But that’ll go away with the next version.
