techno.blog("Dion")

I am finding that Ruby is “my style” of programming language for many tasks. One that would be very well suited to Ruby, would be driving the browser VM, what we end up using JavaScript for now.

Ruby would be ideal for this task IMO, and I wonder if anyone has created an extension for Firefox at least. It would be hard to practically deploy with Ruby, until there was enough of an uptake of course… but you can still dream.

One of the problems to overcome is the fact that now, we don’t really modularize our web scripting code a lot. The most we do is have seperate .js files which encapsulate logic.

What if we had a mechanism in which the script could contain metadata which would look like dependencies in Maven.

E.g.

“My script needs My::Module version 2.4, and ActiveRecord 1.0, and ….”

Then there could be a local repo which would allow us to share code. Something like this would change the way we think about web scripting on the client, and move from a ‘hacker’ perspective, to something more mature. Of course, we would have to have a sandbox-like system to stop people from doing Bad Things.

I had a strange dream last night. I won’t go into the details of my warped conciousness, but will talk about one small piece that flashed by.

At one point I was coding using IntelliJ IDEA Eclipse 12.5. As I started to write some code, a panel changed to say “Those who coded with API FOO, went on to do X, Y, Z”. The dream-like, better looking, Dion, then clicked on Y and a bunch of skeleton code was done for me.

Although this is a little out there, I do always come back to the fact that it feels like there are thousands of developers doing their own thing. As a profession, each project is making its own mistakes, and I don’t think we have avenues and ways to learn from eachother. Sure, there are design patterns, and practices which we sometimes share, but isn’t there more?

If there was a way to capture our experiences, it would be great. E.g., in some small ways…. say I started to tie together Tapestry and Spring. My IDE could see that I was doing this, and knows that someone in my social network has also done this, and shows/does this for me. Roll on the AI IDE! ;)

I just saw the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy new movie trailer.

For one, I am really excited that Arthur Dent is played by Tim from “The Office” (Martin Freeman).

Looking good!

UPDATE: A second trailer has been released. Hilarious

TiVo’s stock jumped >17% based on rumours that Apple would buy TiVo.

I wonder what Apple would do with the company? What would an iTiVo look like? Lots of classic curves…. Mac OS X instead of Linux? iPhoto, iMovie, … builtin?

Both companies DO have a similar cult following, but I am not sure if it makes sense for the merger. TiVo has a tough time fighting against the cable / satalite companies which have control :(

Wow, we are obsessed with media aren’t we? Google is a pretty pragmatic group. They normally add features when it makes sense. Now they have added a movie: tag that you can use.

E.g.

movie: tom hanks talking to a volleyball

movie: awesome car chase

movie: good chick flick

movie: Madison, WI

Next up: “realitytv:” :)

The new AspectJ 5 team has put together a survey which is aiming to gather up info on our usage of AOP. If you are an AOP-ite, help them out :)

Hi everyone.

As part of the AspectJ 5 effort between the AspectWerkz and AspectJ teams, we are inviting you to participate in a web based survey about your usage of AOP, especially in Java.

This survey will help us to prioritize and to organize our milestones according to the community needs and requirements. It consists of 20 questions with answer choice, so it should require around 5 minutes to go through.

Take the survey now : http://aspectwerkz.codehaus.org/survey.html

Thank you.
–
/Jonas

I remember, back in the day, having to write a lot of <noscript> areas, and making sure that the application that we are working on works perfectly for those that choose to turn off JavaScript in their browser (or don’t have a JavaScript enabled one).

Has the tide turned now? Of course, you wouldn’t want to abuse JavaScript just for the hell of it, and when you can give a ‘backup’ to non-enabled peeps it should be done.

But, with the likes of Google Maps, maybe we are seeing the start of the JS/dHTML revolution.

Enable JavaScript to see this site. Enable JavaScript else you will have a poor experience.

I remember turning off the feature in my voice mail that would automatically log me in if I called from my home phone number.

Since this auto-logon is done via caller id it is NOT at all secure. There are simple services out there which enable you to look like you are coming from any number at all.

This came to light with the Paris Hilton fiasco. Hackers immediately tried to get into the voice mail of Paris and the other celebs that she had in her address book. They got into Vin Diesels, took the saved voice mail, and setup a new voice mail message. Who knows who else they did that too? :)

So, turn off auto-logon on all of your voice mail systems (in fact, the option should probably be taken away by the carriers. I know it is convenient, but it is just not safe).

I read DELL == Dreadful Execution of Laptop saLes, and was a little surprised, as I have only had top service from DELL…. until….

I recently ordered a new flat panel. The flat panel was “on special” and a wireless keyboard and mouse were added ‘for free’. I have no need for these at all, since I already have the setup that I want.

The order was a couple of weeks ago, and I have been getting emails saying that the order is delayed. I called DELL and the order was delayed due to the damn wireless keyboard which I don’t give a monkeys about!

I am currently trying to get them to ship the damn monitor already, but the people on the other line are proving painful to work with :(

Update

They claims that there is NO WAY for them to ship part of the order. They *need* to have all the parts come in. Isn’t that absolutely crazy? Isn’t this the DELL that revolutionized and streamlined the process?!!!

One of my minor pet peeves with Groovy has been:

# simple list
def x = [1, 2, "three"]

# another type of list
def x = new LinkedList()
x << 1
...

And it is also annoying to have a different way to setup a Java Array:

int x = new int[] { …. }

Why not unify this? Groovy is good about consistency, and trying to unify the models, so now maybe we will get there via:

def x = [1, 2, 3] as LinkedList

def x = [1, 2, 3] as int[]

def aMap = ['name':'value', 'n2':'val2'] as TreeMap

Much cleaner!

Emmanuel Pirsch also had a good idea of using casting:

int[] x= [1, 2, 3]

x= (int[]) [1, 2, 3]

x= (TreeMap) ["name" : name, "value" : value]