Java Editor

I've been using a combination of BBEdit, TextPad and VIM for a few years now. My heroic trio does not really excel with Java code, but I've yet to find a more suitable replacement.

I just recently stumbled on a sexy^* Java-based editor, jEdit. It is too early to tell how it'll ultimately fair in the long run, but I have to admit such features as code completion, BeanShell and JavaDoc API lookup are quite appealing.

Linux Ramen Worm

I was glad to find out I already had patched RPC.statd and wu-FTPd.

Dubya Countdown

Think Different: Worse by the Headline

Apple loses $195 million in fiscal first-quarter.
Apple loses 73 cents per share.
Apple loss: $247 million.

^*Circa Geert Clemmensen.

1.	Cool	4.	C00l	7.	Kool	10.	Kewl
2.	Linux	5.	Kool	8.	C00L	11.	Cool
3.	KOOL	6.	Kewl	9.	COOL

Hell Freezes Over

I turn on the tube and what do I see
A whole lotta people cryin' "Don't blame me"
They point their crooked little fingers at everybody else
Spend all their time feelin' sorry for themselves
Victim of this, victim of that
Your momma's too thin; your daddy's too fat

Get over it …

Sun Day

Yesterday was a good day at Sun's TechDays developer conference. Some of the sessions were a little too R-rated for my taste, but still quite informative.

James Gosling

The keynote was non-other than the father of Java himself. He answered questions jolted down by the audience. I wrote some of the good ones down:

Q. When will asserts be available?
A. Asserts will be implemented in JDK 1.4.

Q. What do you think of C#?
A. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Q. What are the top three JSRs to watch?
A. I could not say, but my favorite is Typed Polymorphism (aka. Templates.)

Q. Which IDE do you use?
A. NetBeans and Emacs.

Q. What would you consider to be Java's most compelling feature?
A. Its strong memory integrity model. You just can't smash objects around.

Q. When was the last time you had sex?
A. This is the one and only question I have ever refused to answer, so let me respond in the form of a joke… A retired colonel is asked:

"When was the last time you had sex?"
"1947"
"That's quite a long time, isn't it?"
"What do you mean? It's only 2030"

2Day

Today is bound to be X-rated. Most of the sessions are code camps.

Tech Day

I'm going to be attending Sun's TechDays today and tomorrow in Seattle.

There's really nothing quite as exhilarating as the prospect of spending the day in rooms packed with geeks like me.

Apple on the Radio

The DJs on my favorite radio station are pretty funny… I quote:

"Did you see Apple's new laptop? 5 pounds, titanium… and you still can't open it up when you fly coach."

Today is Pampering Day

First, the car. Oil change, inside cleaning, outside wash.

Second, me. Hair cut, buy new pair of shoes.

I screwed up and forgot to make an appointment with my regular hair stylist (that's what they call themselves nowadays.) I will most likely end up at SuperCuts or some place even scarier.

Whatever happened to the days when I didn't care who (or what) cut my hair?

I Love Java

Brent Simmons beat me to the punch answering Simson Garfinkel's I hate Java article. Brent rightfully points out that Java on the server-side makes sense.

Garfinkel complains about Java's poor performance compared to C/C++ solutions, a moot point when dealing with server-side applications. Granted, the interpreted nature of Java will most likely slow down the processing of the very first sever-side request, but all subsequent requests will be processed by code which has already been converted to bytecode and resides in memory. In other words, without substantial differences from native code. This is nothing new, I was making the exact same point back in 1998.

There are quite a few popular, powerful and reliable Enterprise solutions which are build around Java technologies such as Servlets, JSP, Beans, etc. As a matter of fact JSP-powered sites are popping up all over the place, from Omaha Steaks to the United States Postal Service.

Garfinkel also complains about Corel's inability to complete Office for Java. Don't blame it on Java, Corel hasn't been able to complete anything in a long time. If you're looking for an Office solution look no further than Sun's StarOffice. Just like the other office, it's huge and bulky, but it's also open source.

There's more to Java than some mortgage applet as Garfinkel seems to think. Applets are the tip of the iceberg, and Garfinkel has done as much research on the subject as the captain of the Titanic did.