Deployment Descriptor Purgatory
It's not quite as bad as "DLL Hell", but I just spent the past 2 hours trying to track down a bug in my Java code only to find out the root cause was due to a mis-configured element in one of the many and multitudonous deployment descriptor XML files on my Web Container.There's definitely something to the new lightweight movement afoot in J2EE-land. Note to self (and others) Check-out the design patterns used in Rails to see how applicable they are to non-Ruby implementations. It seems like Rails has taken the DRY (Do not Repeat Yourself) philosophy to the extreme.
Paul Graham's latest
He's even more spot-on than usual.
I sure do wish that wish that Arc was still in active development.
Databases as "underwear" (Azul bytecode server)
"The network and database software stacks are not in Java so to run the Java middleware you also have to run the enterprise legacy underwear."—Nathan Brookwood , Insight64Hmmm...does this make the GUI "outerwear" or "outerware"? I don't think Azul has a prayer of being financially successful, but I love the quote.
All I want for Christmas is a Zigbee kit, a Zigbee kit...
A Zigbee development kit is finally here. Let's hope Zigbee doesn't become the next Bluetooth.Great, uh, er seminar ad
Gotta love Adaptive Path's "user experience seminar" (i.e. Burning man) advert.More companies need to have a sense of humor.
Common sense from the judiciary
The 9th circuit court of appeals has soundly and succinctly rejected (pdf) the U.S. Government's motion for "secret hearings" on the John Gilmore case.
Gosh, software can't actually pirate anything (until we have really, really, advanced AI I guess)—shocking.
<a href="..." .../>
I don't think I've ever typed an <a> elment without immediately following the 'a' with 'href="..." '—ever. Even though html/xml attributes are orderless, href always seems to come first.
Note to self: Do some google-spidering to build a histogram of the attribute ordering of <a>. I bet it's a totally skewed distribution.
Secret hearings, Secret laws, Zero disclosure, Oh my
The functioning princples behind the Government's right for limited disclosure of materials in court proceedings have been around for decades.
I do not understand how these could possibly apply in this case nor why anyone with a semblance of common sense can corrolate "positive ID" (highly unlikely given the present and future pace of digital and analog copying technologies), with a greater level of "security" for large-scale logistical operations such as national airline transportation.
I think Ashcroft and Co. should take a glance at David Brin's work.
How much is that stamp in the window?
- New Pet Peeve
- 'Vanity' postage stamps which do not clearly state their value.
I came acroos a book containing 6 'older' stamps this morning and I have no convenient way (i.e. worth my time) to determine if they're $0.32 USD or $0.37 USD.