Category: Archive

I like reading stuff in the pdf format. But it “s even better if you can easily create pdf files. By easily I mean a button click. Literally.Since I have Adobe Acrobat, my Microsoft Work and PowerPoint just have an extra menu to create it. But it “s kinda boring. Let me share with you a couple of better ways.

1. Last year I purchased a USB device from Fujitsu called ScanSnap S510. It “s one of the coolest widgets I have. Just put any sheet of paper, single or double sided, a photo, color or black and white. Press a large green button, and select a directory where to save your pdf file.

2. Last week I got to know an Internet service that allows to converts most of the files and Web site into a pdf file. Just go to PDF Converter ‘s site and select a file or a Web site, and in several seconds you “ll get it as a PDF. This is a software as service deal. If you do not want to pay for it, you “ll have a very modest limitation ndash; one conversion per 30 minutes. But if you are an established person or business, pay several bucks a month an do as many conversions as you like. An interesting thing that I noticed is that this software produces smaller pdf files than Adobe “s original converter. It can convert into pdf lots and lots of file formats (yes it knows how to work with your Excel spreadsheets too).

I have only minor complain – if a Web page has Flash Player parts, you “ll see empty rectangles there. But creators of the PDF converter ensured me that SWF conversion will be complete too in a months or so. But overall, this is a really handy tool.

Needless to say that PDF docs look a lot more professionally than essays written in MS Word or Notepad.

How do you present your documents? Do you think they look OK without converting them to PDF? Big mistake.Huge.

I “ll be running public Adobe Certified Flex 3 training class on June 2 ndash;6, 2008 in New York City.

Details at http://www.faratasystems.com/?page_id=46

It ‘s a small (about 10 people) hands-on class. You bring your own laptop and by the end of the class you ‘ll build and take home a fancy looking online store.

This training course is designed by Adobe and I ‘m using their original corseware that includes the following two courses:

Flex3: Developing Rich Client Applications (3days)

Below is a brief course outline. For more details, please see

http://www.adobe.com/support/training/instructor_led_curriculum/flex3_drca.html

Introducing Adobe Flex 3

Getting Started with Flex Builder 3

Learning Flex Fundamentals

Handling Events

Using Simple Controls

Laying Out an Application with Containers

Laying out an Application Using Constraint-Based Layout

Using View States for Application Design

Creating Application Navigation

Customizing the Application

Using MXML and ActionScript Data Models

Exchanging Data Between Components Using Custom Events

Retrieving XML Data with HTTPService

Displaying Data Using the DataGrid

Applying Design patterns

Flex 3 and Live Cycle Data Services: Integrating With Data and Messaging (2 Days)

Below is a brief course outline. For more details see

http://www.adobe.com/support/training/instructor_led_curriculum/flex3_lcd.html

Accessing Web Services

Introduction to LiveCycle Data Services

Using Java Classes as Remote Object Services

Validating and Formatting Data

Manipulating Complex Data

Using the Flex Message Service

Using the Flex Data Management Service

Processing XML with E4X

Working with BlazeDS

Productivity plugins for enterprise developers

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Hope to see you in the class.

My age allows me start grumping. These young programmers don “t read books anymore. They google. They argue, “When I need to find a solution it “s just a click away. Why bother purchasing books that are outdated by the time of printing? Real programmers learn by doing ndash; trial and errors rdquo;.

But I “ll tell you the real reason why they are no purchasing computer books ndash; they are cheap. And as an old saying goes, “cheap pays twice rdquo;.

This is how I look at it ndash; if you found five useful pages in a book that saved you at least one hour of work, it “s already paid itself off. Do you make at least $30-40 an hour? And one book averages the same amount. Get it? One saved hour is equal to the price of one book. Don “t agree? In this case you are not cheap. You are dirt cheap.

The lecturing part is over. Let me pick several books from my book shelf. They are listed in no particular order ndash; I just like the way they are written and published.

1. High Performance Web Sites by O “Reilly.

This book is written by Steve Souders , a performance Yahoo! guy. He came up with a set of rules to follow to make a Web site faster. Even if you are not challenged with a task of fine tuning a Web site, this thin book will give you lots of insights about what “s going on under the hood of a commercial Web site.

2. Enterprise Ajax by Prentice Hall.

If you “ve read at least a dozen of my blogs or articles, the chances are that one of them was about Ajax being a bad choice for enterprise development. Yes, this remains my position, which does not mean that I do not read books about AJAX. When smart people start using a painful set of techniques to develop an enterprise application, they have to overcome challenges on a daily basis. Then some of them write books sharing their findings. Why not learn from their experience? This is one of the rare AJAX books that is not boring. It gives you an intro to AJAX programming and a good overview of a development cycle of enterprise applications with such an unpleasant weapon as AJAX.

3. Continuing the subject of books about Web applications, I “d like to mention again a good tutorial on Javascript by No Starch Press. It “s called “The book of JavaScript. Second Edition rdquo;.

It “s a well written and published book on basics of modern JavaScript. Last year I “ve interviewed the author of this book. This interview is located here.

4. Java Fundamentals I and II by Prentice Hall.

If you “ve been around in the industry for a while, you remember excellent and colorful books by Deitel and Associates. I have not seen them for a while though. But this one is not exactly a book, but a multimedia item, which includes more than fourteen hours of video lessons on Java.

Paul Deitel accompanied these videos/screencasts with printed source code of all examples.

Learn Java, repeat after Paul. He knows how to teach programming.

5. Founders at Work by apr egrave;ss.

This book is about business of programming, a subject that is often more interesting than the programming itself. It has thirty two chapters, which are thirty two interviews with people like Joel Spolsky, Paul Graham, Steve Wozniak and many other good software engineers and successful entrepreneurs. Keep this book on your night table and something good will definitely come out of it.

6. Learning ActionScript 3.0. A beginner “s guide by O “Reilly.

I bought this book last week, and this is the fourth book on this language that I “ve purchased during the last year. I am not exactly the beginner here, but this book is written well and printed in color, I just could not stop myself and bought it. The authors of the book mainly address the crowd of Flash programmers gently introducing them to more object-oriented way of programming with ActionScript. But this book is useful even for people who are traditional enterprise software developers that are trying to walk on unfamiliar grounds of visual programming. I found a lot of new (to me) and useful information in this book.

7. Beginning Spring 2. From Novice to Professional by apr egrave;ss.

Spring framework is the most popular framework among the Java enterprise programmers. If you want to find a quick and up to the point overview of the Spring framework, this 150-page book is a way to go.

8. SQL for Smarties, third edition by Morgan Kaufmann.

This is not exactly a new addition to my book shelf. I bought the first edition of this book by outstanding Joe Celko more than ten years ago. I am one of these die-hard people who prefer SQL to Hibernate. There are not too many people in the world who understand SQL like Joe does. He signed and gave me the third edition of this book a couple of years ago, and I “m honored. When I read these kids ‘ declarations that “I “d rather google then purchase an outdated book rdquo;, I just smile. This is one of the books that won “t be outdated in the foreseeable future. Remember, google helps when you know what to look for. But sometimes you just don ‘t, and it ‘s better to rely on other people who did their research to weed out real gems for your consumption.

9. If you are one of these lucky Java geeks who get to go to JavaOne next week, check out the book store that operates right on premises. This is one of the seldom occasions when you can meet and greet the well-known and respected authors. Check out the signing book schedule there and find the author you “d like to meet in flesh. If I “d be there, I “d definitely picked a copy of the second edition of the Effective Java by Addison-Wesley. This is what James Gosling wrote about this book: “I sure wish I had this book ten years ago. Some might think that I don “t need any Java books, but I need this one. rdquo; Josh Bloch will be there in person and you can get your copy of this book signed.

10. I “d like to use this opportunity and introduce my new electronic book called “Enterprise Software without the BS rdquo;. This politically incorrect book shows you my view of what it takes to be an enterprise developer. I “ll be sharing my view on advancing your career in the enterprise IT, looking for jobs, preparing for the interviews, comparing incomes of employees and contractors, political stuff and more. This small book is available for free download over here.

I know that publishing industry is rapidly changing. People read books online, they download them into Kindles, iPods, and other electronic gadgets. If you prefer this format of book delivery, fine. Just do not stop reading.

In today “s cooking class you “ll add to your cookbook a delicious recipe. It “s quick and won “t cost you a dime. I “m sure you “ve been in one of these situations when you have unexpected guests arriving in 20 minutes and need to make a good impression. Let “s do it.

Ingredients Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers: http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/Adobe Flex Builder 3 plugin version: http://www.flex.orgAdobe BlazeDS 3.0: http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/blazeds/download+blazeds+3Clear Data Builder 3.0 Beta plugin for Eclipse from Farata Systems:

http://www.myflex.org/beta/site.zipApache Tomcat 6.0 http://tomcat.apache.org/download-60.cgiIBM DB2: http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/db2/express/ .

If DB2 is not spicy enough for you, replace it with other seasonings like MySql Server, Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle. Out of these ingredients only Flex Builder 3 is not free unless you are a student, faculty or are willing to cook it with a 60-day trial version.

Time of cooking After all ingredients are installed, creation of a basic CRUD should take you less than 10 minutes.

Video If you prefer to start with watching a nine-minute video of how this CRUD was cooked, you can download the screencast at this URL (5Mb).

Detailed directions Detailed directions of how to prepare this CRUD can be downloaded at this URL.

Serves more than 10,000 people With this tasty RIA CRUD recipe you can feed more than 10,000 people. Tomcat 6.0 uses a non-blocking I/O, and apparently there are benchmarks showing that it can withstand as much as 16,000 concurrent connections (see this article for details ).

This recipe uses the beta version of Clear Data Builder (CDB). Originally, CDB was released as a command-line open source code generator called daoflex. It was submitted to Adobe Flex component exchange about two years ago and quickly became one of the most downloadable components. Its next incarnation was a commercial plugin CDB 1.1 for Flex 2 (see http://www.myflex.org ). And the upcoming release of CDB 3.0 is a freely available Eclipse plugin, which is a yet another contribution of Farata Systems to Flex community.

The other free products that Farata Systems will release this Summer include:

– Fx2Ant 3.0 ndash; a generator of optimized Ant build scripts for your Flex projects

– Log4FX 3.0 ndash; an advanced log facility for Flex/Java projects

– DTO Creator ndash; a utility that can take any Java data transfer object (formerly value object) and

create an efficient and customizable matching ActionSript DTO

Stay tuned.

My son Yuri has released his first musical album. His band is called The Diplomat and all tracks are recorded by Yuri and his friend Jared playing on different instruments. Yuri has written all the music and lyrics for this CD.

You can listen to six tracks of this album at this Myspace page.

If you like this music by The Diplomat, support the young musicians and purchase the album.

I know, it ‘s not nice and I should behave as if it ‘s not that important to me, but I can ‘t. During the last two and a half years I ‘ve been writing, openly speaking, whistle-blowing, and whispering that AJAX is a wrong way to go for developing rich Internet application. But 99% of the software developers were singing hosannas to AJAX.

Forrester was selling this 7-page report for $379, while I ‘ve written dozens of pages for free. But who am I! Forrester said that AJAX does your body good. The author of that report has published yet another article explaining when it makes sense to use AJAX. But it seems that Forrester is turning 180 degrees now.

Here ‘ a new 8-page report that costs only $775 titled “Ajax Disappoints Power Users Looking For Web 2.0-Style Business Apps “.

I wonder if people who purchased the first report are entitled for the money back even though they did not ask for it within three weeks from the date of purchase?

To Forrester recruiters: I am happy with my current employer.

Last week I noticed the signs “Are you Green? rdquo; all around the firm I work for. Two days ago someone put two specially produced plastic beverage cups with “Save the Planet. Reuse. Recycle rdquo; imprints. It was clear ndash; yet another Green campaign has been waged.

I like the planet Earth, and want it to be healthy. But mass-producing plastic cups does more damage to the planet. It seems that the main goal of the organizations that run these campaigns is to put a check mark next to the goal “Run the Green Campaign rdquo; and add an article to the PR section of their Web pages.

Yesterday, when I came home, my younger son proudly stated that he contributed to the “clean the Earth rdquo; movement. He took a garbage bag, went to a field that belongs to our town, and filled it with last year “s dead leaves and other nature “s garbage. I asked him, “Why did you have to go and clean that field? Look at our backyard ndash; we need some Spring cleanup badly! rdquo; I “m sure, he did not come up with this idea by himself. He “s got it from the public school he attends. I wonder if municipality workers ever thought of cleaning the abandoned land that belongs to the town? Wouldn “t this be the right way to help the Earth on their part?

Every week I throw in the garbage at least four pounds of junk mail and local paper filled with ads with the coupons and other stuff I do not need. I do not even open these letter and papers. Can you please stop wasting the Earth resources and polluting it by not printing and emailing all this garbage that I do not even open?

If I need to apply to your credit card, I know where to find you. If I want to donate I know how to find you. The last time we “ve bought something at Macy “s was about ten years ago. Why do you keep sending me your brochures if it “s obvious that I “m not shopping there? Macy “s, please help the planet Earth. Stop printing so many brochures and sending it to everyone who happen to visit your stores in the past. It ‘s not too easy to filter potential buyers? I know. It “s a lot easier to bombard everyone with your magazines.

Now the big ticket item ndash; the gasoline. Last week, the prices started to go up like crazy. Soon it ‘s going to be as bad as in Europe. I “m running a project for a company that “s located 60 miles (100km) from my house. This is 120 miles a day. Carpooling is not an option for me as I “m not employed by this firm, this is a short project, and no one I know lives in my area. Talking about polluting the plane Earth! If you care about the planet, enforce the rule in your firm: everyone MUST work at least two days a week from home. Not just allow to those who ask, but enforce it! Trust me, the planet Earth will really appreciate it.

The gas prices will keep going up making richer Mr. Chaves, Mr. Putin, and many Arab countries who are considered to be important while keeping majority of their population at the poverty level. The USA has a gasoline reserve that no one can touch. This may be the right policy. But why not helping the Earth for real? Why not build dozens of nuclear plants that produce the energy in a clean way? The answer is simple ndash; oil companies do not want it and will lobby in the Washington reminding bad Chernobyl experience. What a baloney!

Anyway, I am not green, because I do not like the way green campaign is being run.

Sometimes I hear statements like, “I do not want my child to be a software developer because s/he’s not too good in math.” This is a mistake. Software developers do not need to have any special math skills. They should not have problems with arithmetic, and I’ve offered a simple test in this area in my free e-book “Enterprise Software Without the BS “.

They also should be able to think logically, and I’d like to offer you a quick test to see if a person can write computer programs.

In March of 2008, I spend a week vacationing on a large cruise ship called Adventures of the Seas from Royal Caribbean line. I took the photo shown below on the pool deck. If you are a programmer, you should be able to tell what’s wrong with this sign immediately. If you want to test someone who’s thinking of pursuing software development career, give him or her 60 seconds to answer (I’m being generous here).

When our company needs a graphics/Web designer, we hire a contractor. This time we needed a new version of our company “s brochure and gave this job to the a person we “ve dealt before from New York City. The job was due today, but three days ago, after several e-mail requests and voice mails, he sent us a response stating that he won “t meet the deadline cause he “s spending a couple of days with his family.

I immediately said to my colleague who was running this mini project to fire this guy and never use his services in the future. My colleague though that this would be a too tough decision. He said something like this, “You know these creative people hellip;.They are tattooed and pierced. They are, well creative. We should treat them differently. rdquo; I did not buy this. I understand that anything can happened in life, deadlines are set to be postponed, but there should be valid reasons for this, and not just, “Nay hellip;.I “d rather spend a couple of days with my family rdquo;.

We fired the guy and found someone else, who did a good job with our brochure in one day.

Also, any business is driven by supply and demand. In the past, I was wondering, why policemen here in New York works for such modest salaries ($40-50K a year)? Aren “t they risking their lives daily and have to deal with the lowest layers of our society? Then I realized, that the answer was simple. There are plenty of people who are willing to do this job for this money, who can “t /want do any other job to earn this salary and benefits. Supply and demand.

On the same note, about two hundred thousand of New Yorkers put “Artist rdquo; in the field “Occupation rdquo; on their tax return forms. This means that there “s plenty of people with design skills here, and they should behave if they are interested in getting my business, are they?

As a matter of fact, such graphic designer can live anywhere in the world as long as s/he agrees to work in the following hostile environment :

1. The same day answering my emails is a must, otherwise you are fired.

2. The same day answering my voice mails is a must, otherwise you are fired.

3. You can be tattooed, have ear , nose, or nipple rings as long as you know how to design and obeys the rules 1 and 2.

4. Your age does not matter (people older than 80 have to provide a physician “s note confirming that this person does not have Alzheimer, which would complicate compliance with rules 1 and 2.

5. You can not be a drug addict, cause it would complicate compliance with rules 1 and 2.

6. You can be gay, lesbian, or shemale as long as you know how to design and obey the rules 1 and 2.

7. Your race or caste is not important as long as you know how to design and obey the rules 1 and 2.

8. You can work any hours you like as long as you know how to design and obey the rules 1 and 2.

Am I asking for too much?

In the world of rich Internet applications, there is a trend to bring together developers and designers. It won “t be easy, let me tell you.

My e-book (PDF) “Enterprise Software Without the BS ” is available for free download.

What “s this book about?

I was always interested in observing human relations in the IT business:

Why some people are more successful than others.

In which ways are some people a little “better rdquo; than others?

Why people fail job interviews?

Will IT outsourcing hurt your career?

What “s a reasonable salary for a person with YOUR skills?

Are there underpaid or overpaid people?

How often should you change employers?

Do you even want to have an employer or would you rather work as an IT contractor?

Do you want your child to be a programmer?

How to publish your book?

Me coming to America.

What “s one of the main motivations of innovations in the corporate world?

Prior to this one, I “ve written technical books, which did not make me richer financially, but definitely served my IT career. I do not expect that the book you are about to read will be become New York Times bestseller (actually, I lie ndash; I do expect this otherwise why even bother?). This e-book gives you somewhat different perspective of the day to day life of enterprise software developers.

Since this is an electronic book and is not available in a printed edition, I have the luxury of updating it with new materials in the future. If you have an interesting story of how you became an IT person, please get in touch with me.

This e-book won “t give you the answers to all your career questions, but it summarizes my observations formed during my 25+ years of wearing different hats in the Enterprise IT. The odds are that you will not agree with some of my observations, or find some of them cynical or even insulting. But this is how I see things today, in 2008, in the greater New York metropolitan area.

You can download this e-book at this URL.

I ‘d really appreciate your comments.

Feedback:

Great book! Congratulations and many happy returns.

Joel Spolsky

I just read your e-book page to page. I can honestly say it ‘s some of he best material I have read in a while. I think you should consider publishing it. What ‘s makes it great is that it is indeed very politically incorrect and states things that should have been long

stated loud and clear…

Cheers to you,

Reza Rahman, book author

I just read your new e-book last night. Great work! Although you are a few light-years ahead of me in terms of certifications, that you had to say was very helpful and touched on many experiences that I had.

Editor note: “Use Case 6 “. It is tradition that the engagement ring should be equal to 3 months salary, so $15,000 and a salary of $60,000 is right on the nose. Personally, I had to take out a loan for mine, and that is not uncommon. But this tradition seems to be falling out of favor these days since so many young people have bad credit and cannot get a loan.

At the end you quoted “When I ‘m 64 “. I just laughed. That song has been stuck in my head all week long. What a coincidence.

Good luck in your endeavors.

Ryan Powers, Bulldog Software, Inc.

I came across your book ESnoBS earlier today, and enjoyed it so much that I was compelled to finish it. I just wanted to compliment you on a fantastic read. The stories were down to earth and relevant to almost comedic proportions.

I “m an relatively young consultant working in the SOA Enterprise Development realm with a background in Java and Flex. Your observations have really shaped my perspective and added another level to my view of the industry. Every section of ESnoBS was just teeming with accuracy and relevance. I want to thank you for writing and offering this book for free.

I “ll be keeping an eye on your articles in the future. Thanks again and keep up the great work!

Nick M