November 11, 2003
Old Links - Java
Just to clear out my closet of existing links before I start posting anything new:
- Sun - the bundled versions of various Java APIs (eg for XML) in Java 1.4.1 override anything you might try to use from a JAR file unless you perform the appropriate voodoo. This piece on Sun’s site explains what you have to do.
- O’Reilly - Fluffcore level intro to distributed programming - Web services, J2EE etc. Quite a good high level overview of the topics.
- via FreshNews - functional approach to cacheing in Java
- IBM Research - Using JUnit with Ant
- DJ - Useful Java decompiler
- via Slashdot - Java unit test framework - better than JUnit?
- NetBeans - Flexible java application platform - used as basis of Forte. Eclipse is the other similar system.
- Java Animation
- JavaWorld - JUnit best practices
- Dr Dobbs - on the evils of Java new
- JavaWorld - Socket pools and threads
- JavaWorld - mutexes
Existential Horror Song
My brother’s unique composition is now online here [3Mb MP3]
November 10, 2003
Reading Diary
Finally, I’ve managed to extract my reading diary from its tomb in a CSV file extracted from Access and converted it to XML. It’s now here.
It’s of interest to me because I’ve been keeping it since about 1987 so it has practically everything I’ve read as an adult in it (except that I don’t tend to record text books or technical books in there unless they seem to have some sort of merit beyond the purely technical).
The XML based version is still something of a work in progress. Ideally I’d like to separate out the books from my readings of them (as they were in the original database) - at the moment it’s just the readings with the books duplicated.
It would also be nice to be have multiple views using different XSL transformations that can be run from the web - quite a nice little project to learn a bit more about the language I think (the current XSLT works, but I wouldn’t call it elegant).
What else? Better linking and autodiscovery of book links to Amazon maybe - that’s a bit more ambitious. It would be nice to be able to update the XML directly online too.
Still, I’m pleased I’ve finally got the thing up at all.
November 9, 2003
Clay Shirky on Weblogs
I have an ulterior motive in posting this, as it’s a posting to demonstrate how the site works to my mum. However, although they’re a few months old, the following posts by Clay Shirky are still well worth a look:
Social Software and the Politics of Groups
Power Laws, Weblogs and Inequality
Mum — try posting a comment below…
November 8, 2003
Personality Tests
A big bunch of personality tests at: Similarminds.com
I’ve done the Myers Briggs (and at another site too) and I seem to be mainly INTJ shading occasionally into ENTJ when I have to do too much managerial type work.
Both the main description and this page seemed quite accurate to me, so the tests are measuring something — either that or any type would seem equally applicable (I checked a couple and they don’t).
Just tried the test again now and I got ISTJ, so the results are a bit flexible at least. But it’s interesting that over several goes, I seem to only move in one dimension at a time.
Fax Your MP
While I think about it - the e-voting resolution encourages you to ask your MP to support the resolution. It provides a link to faxyourMP.com which is a wonderful facility as it saves all that business of printing your letter, looking for stamps etc.
There’s also a useful page of stats of MPs response rates here. My MP - Anne Campbell - seems to be quite responsive, but some are awful.
E-Voting Resolution
I just signed the e-voting resolution at http://www.free-project.org/resolution/
This is a really important issue for the future if we are preserve trust in the electoral system that underpins our democracy. More info here.
November 5, 2003
Jobhunting
Short update:
- ECM have come back with an interview with the company I don’t think I should yet mention the name of
- Thoughtworks said, “thanks but no thanks.” For now at least.
- Ditto APT - though one of their chaps (a friend of mine) has offered advice on CVs and letters if I want it.
- Rakesh at Microcom has suggested Data Connection. I’ve agreed in principle, but I am a bit unsure about it because of the location.
- John at C24 wants to meet up for a chat some time the week after next.
Royal Scandals
Normally I wouldn’t dignify this kind of nonsense with attention, but the current situation is absolutely ludicrous. While the mainstream news media can’t report anything about the story because of various injunctions, 10 minutes of Googling will bring up (for instance):
I have no idea if the story is true or not, but there’s no serious case for suppressing it, since anyone who cares to find out already can.
No comments:
Post a Comment