Blog

• Concurrency with Python, Twisted, and Flex An example of parallel programming using all the CPUs on your computer or cluster. Also shows how to add a Flex user interface.
• Speaking in Albuquerque I'll be speaking Wednesday, April 23 on the subject of "hybrid programming." All may attend.
• Hiring the Rowing-Forward 30% A business owner at a workshop I held made the very disturbing comment that he thought that 70% of programmers were "rowing backward," doing things that you had to fix in order to keep the boat moving in the forward direction.
• Will Closures Make Java Less Verbose? I just came across Steve Yegge's "Execution in the Kingdom of Nouns," which (might) provide much of the explanation for why Java programs always seem to end up being excessively verbose.
• Django Wired Wired Magazine, April 2008, page 44. Expired: ASP.NET, Tired: PHP, Wired: Django.
• Math and the Current State of Coarse-Grained Parallelism in Python One of my main objectives at Pycon 2008 was to hear about experiences regarding existing tools for parallelizing Python programs, and also to find out more about mathematical programming with Python.
• Book Preview: C# Query Expressions and 3.0 Features This is a free sample of a book that I have been working on with my coauthor Jamie King. As of March 2008, the full book is not yet available. However, this sample covers C# 3.0 fundamentals, and provides a full grounding in C# 3.0 Query Expressions.
• Should Microsoft Buy Yahoo? I read somewhere that over half of acquisitions fail. I think the percentage might be much higher than half.
• Conferences and other interactive events How do you balance the needs of all the parties involved in a conference, or in any event where people are traveling to be in one place?
• C# 3.0 Jam: One Week to Early-Bird Deadline This is the best way to get a head start on the new language features, especially LINQ.
• Java: Evolutionary Dead End This sounds bad, but it needs to happen if Java is to ultimately stay in the mainstream. That is, if feature accretion hasn't already irreparably damaged the language.
• The Mythical 5% In November, I gave the commencement address for Neumont University, a school in Salt Lake City dedicated to teaching computer science where my coauthor lectures. This is that speech.
• The End of the Vista Experiment Over a year ago, I bought a new computer. This was a carefully considered decision, as I don't change computers that often and so try to get something I will be satisfied with for as long as possible.
• JavaPosse Roundup 2008, March 4-7 You can listen to most of the 2007 sessions on the Javaposse site to get an idea of how fun and engaging the conversations were. We expect more people this time, maybe even a sellout.
• January RIA Jam, February Flex-TurboGears Jam The RIA Jam will explore (directly) Flex and Silverlight, and (indirectly, since it's not ready yet) JavaFX. The Flex-TurboGears Jam will use Flex on the front end and TurboGears on the server. For either you can choose to only drill down on a particular technology.

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Interest

• Thinking in Java 4e Electronic Book Now Available
• Thinking in Java 4e Solution Guide Now Available
• The Architecture & Design Review
• Hands-On Java CD 2^nd edition available again
• Thinking in Code Audio Interviews
• Thinking in C, Beta 3
• Notes from the Programming the New Web Conference
• Java Posse Interview:   Part I   Part II
• Thinking in Java 4^th Edition
• Audio Interview 2   MP3
  
• What is Consulting?
• Object Design
• Audio Interview 1   MP3

Quotes

If somebody comes up to you and says something like, "How do I make this pony fly to the moon?", the question you need to ask is, "What problem are you trying to solve?" You'll find out that they really need to collect gray rocks. Why they thought they had to fly to the moon, and use a pony to do it, only they know. People do get confused like this.
                                    -- Max Kanat-Alexander

You do not have to spend a lot of time and effort on those who strongly resist change. You only have to help and protect those who want to change, so that they are able to succeed. Put another way, your job is not to plant the entire forest, row by row -- it is to plant clumps of seedlings in hospitable places and to nurture them. As they mature, these trees will spread their seeds, and the forest will eventually cover the fertile land. The rocks, will, of course, remain barren regardless. ... once you have figured out who cannot be converted, you should not waste more time trying to persuade them.
         -- David Hutton, The Change Agents' Handbook

A nation ... consists of its laws. A nation does not consist of its situation at a given time. If an individual's morals are situational, then that individual is without morals. If a nation's laws are situational, that nation has no laws, and soon isn't a nation ... Are you really so scared of terrorists that you'll dismantle the structures that made America what it is? ... If you are, you let the terrorist win. Because that is exactly, specifically, his goal, his only goal: to frighten you into surrendering the rule of law ... He uses terrifying threats to induce you to degrade your own society.
                           -- William Gibson, Spook Country