London Town · I’m speaking at FOWA and will be a London resident October 6th through 9th. Any meetups or drinkups or geekfests or other events I shouldn’t miss? [Update: I’m thinking dinner at the Lahore Kebab House Tuesday Oct. 7. Anyone interested, drop me an email or direct-message me on twitter or, best of all, just drop in a comment here.] [OK, there are two or three interested, a couple people asking “When?” I suggest 8PM? I’m flexible.][7 comments]
Blues Pix · I’ve got a touch o’ them old autumnal-financial-meltdown blues, so I’ll post a couple of garden shots as therapy ...[1 comment]
Twittery · Last night, after the Canadian election party leaders’ debate, the analysis had a section where they graphed Twitter responses to various verbal sallies and bons mots. Innovative and useful I thought; admittedly a bit left-leaning, if only because smart well-connected young people tend to lean left. Then when I got to work this morning, someone sent me a pointer to Charles Arthur’s What effect will the financial crisis have on the tech sector? in The Guardian; it quotes my Twitter stream, twice. Once again, the spectrum of human communication shifts perceptibly.[1 comment]
On Regulation · Speaking from middle of the financial storm, voices are raised blaming the tumult on the speculators, on the banks, on the hedgies, on the shorts, on the Republicans, on the ratings agencies, on the Democrats’ Community Reinvestment Act, on CDO’s and CDS’s, on people buying houses above their station, you name it. This is all at one level right, but that level doesn’t matter. The system, by definition, will always contain a measure of knaves and fools, because it’s populated by instances of homo sapiens. Thus, it has to be regulated to keep it running. Thus, the current meltdown is a failure of regulation and nothing else. The long term solution has to be about regulation too ...[11 comments]
Enterprisey but Good · In the old days I was a Perl guy and now I see the Web through Ruby-red spectacles. Like most people in the open-source and dynamic-language communities, I never really warmed up to Java EE; tons of moving parts, too many layers of indirection, too much XML configuration, and anyhow I didn’t want to use that language for writing Web apps. But it turns out you don’t have to like EE to be real interested in app servers. [Update: Check the discussion in the comments; there’s more to this than meets the eye.] ...[4 comments]
Learning REST · I was talking to a colleague who has to become savvy in a hurry about modern Web applications and he asked “How do I learn about REST?” Good question. I thought of a couple of suggestions, then asked Twitter and got some more. Here they are ...[5 comments]
The Summit · I attended about half of the the JVM Language Summit, from Wednesday through Friday at Sun’s Santa Clara campus. I’m not really an expert on the deep nuances of JVM constructs like call sites and permgen and classloaders and so on, but still, I’m sorry I missed some. There were 70 or so people there, mostly way smarter than me. Herewith impressions and pictures. [Update: See also write-ups from Ted Leung, Cliff Click, and John Rose.] ...[4 comments]
Next POTUS · The numbers, considered carefully, make an Obama win look like a safer and safer bet. Herewith a Canadian spectator’s opinions as to why this is and why it’s a good thing ...[9 comments]
Video? I Doubt It · Canon’s much-ballyhooed but not universally welcomed 5D Mark II also (and this is a new thing for SLRs) operates as a high-def videocam. There are two videos linked from The Online Photographer and they are mind-bogglingly, jaw-droppingly beautiful. But it won’t work for you. The pictures you take with this camera will almost certainly look great with little effort, while your videos will require huge effort and probably still end up lousy. [Update: The comments, after only a few hours, are outstanding, full of erudition and common sense. Check ’em out.] [Also: See Tim O’Brien’s two-parter in response: Getting Started with Video and Part 2: Steady Shooting.] ...[30 comments]
Rules · Business failure is much in the news. I have personal experience, having on a few occasions been in the management of a hard-pressed company that needed money to stay afloat. I learned the Golden Rule: He Who Has The Gold Makes the Rules. I’ve also been there advising people trying to deploy money to save a troubled business. I learned something else: making good rules is hard.[1 comment]
Seems Simple To Me · The world’s finance industry, led by that of the United States, bet the business on the proposition that real estate prices always go up. Seemed plausible at the time, but they lost the bet. Now the world’s taxpayers, led by those in the United States, have to pick up the pieces. But I’m old-fashioned, I actually believe in the benefits of both free markets and intelligent regulation. One of those benefits is accountability. So pick up the pieces all right, but the people who bet their businesses now have to lose their businesses; and with no compensation, because they’re losers. Putting them in jail is probably not cost-effective, but we taxpayer/voters could revisit that finding if we hear any whining. Otherwise capitalism doesn’t work and we’re looking for Plan B.[18 comments]
Driving · Like most people on the left half of the New World, driving has informed and constrained and enriched my adult life. I’ve enjoyed it. Indications are that mine will be one of the last drive-everywhere generations. The shape the tribe settles into may be more pleasing, and strengthening local culture is a fine thing, but the loss of the time-behind-the-wheel, with the music playing, going places, well, it’s sad ...[9 comments]
Ruby I18n · Being a brief code fragment that makes me happy ...[5 comments]
The Horror · Being a photo of a wasps’ nest ...[10 comments]
Trying Again · Being three photographs of a lonely old rose. In June of 2004 I said I’ll try again next year, and I did too but this is an elusive target; follow that link to read why. This year, what with the cool spring, it didn’t bloom till September ...[1 comment]
Testing REST · I’ve been using RSpec in a way that’s probably inappropriate, but has got me thinking about Test-Driven Development and REST ...[13 comments]
Pronounced “Keen-Eye” · We launched Project Kenai very quietly last Friday. It’s a developer hub with SCM and issue tracking and forums and all the other stuff you’d expect. We built it because we needed it, but it’s open for use by the world for free. For a newborn infant, it looks pretty good. Anyone can visit, but to create a project requires an invitation, which I have some of; contact me if you want one. There are lots of interesting things about Kenai; among other things, it’s a Rails app. Herewith the details. [Update: Nick Sieger responds to heat over “control”.] ...[14 comments]
