This is the link to the audio of my carcast #7 (44Mb) where I talk about my experience in book self and traditional publishing:
Related books:
Java Tutorial for the Real World
J2EE 1.4 Bible
Java for Kids, Parents and Grandparents
Rich Internet Applications with Adobe Flex and Java
I “ll be running a new special interests group on Rich Internet Applications for New York Software Industry Association.
We are going to cover Adobe Flex, Adobe AIR, Microsoft Silverlight, AJAX, JavaFX, OpenLaszlo and more. I invite you to attend our first meeting on Oct 9,2007 , where I “ll give an overview of what “s currently is out there on the market of RIA technologies for development of the entrerprise applications.
I “ll be inviting people representing various RIA technologies to help software engineers and development managers in making the right choices for their new projects.
Please let me know if you “d like to present on one of the technologies mentioned above. Will gratiously accept the appropriate shwags for giveaways .
Careerbuilder posted a job description about Web developer “s opening in a US Base in Iraq:
Description
Title: Web Developer (must have secret clearance)
Job Type: 3 month contract (could go shorter)
Salary: $20k per month
Location: Iraq
Start date: ASAP with 2 weeks training (one in Washington DC and another in Ft. Bening GA)
# of Openings: 1
Summary:A principal Department of Defense agency is looking for programmers, developers or coders to code, support field deployment and maintenance of a new database application which will be used by Army units in Iraq. Scope These are full-time positions (12/7) located at one of the major US Bases in IRAQ. Deployment will be period of 3 months. Training on the application software will begin prior to deployment and will take place in Virginia. These positions are available for full time employment or for independent contractors. These positions are available now
Requirements
Requirements:
-A Department of Defense secret clearance within last 24 months
-Willing to work a 3 month contract in Iraq at US military bases
-2-4 programming experience preferably with JAVA or HTML
-US Citizen
-Knowledge of database systems preferably SQL
Plus:
-Familiarity with military networks and systems is desired, but not required.
-Relevant military background ( e.g. hands-on engineering background in S6 or G6 shop or MOS 25B or 74B is desired but not required.)
-AS or BS Degree in Computer Science minimum
Basically, this job description requires a junior programmer with minimum technical skills who has secret clearance. And for these skills you and I will pay him $20K a month. The war in Iraq is wrong, people are dying there for nothing, it “s lost by the USA exactly the same way as it happened in Vietnam. I support our troops by paying taxes, and decorating my car with appropriate bumper stickers., because I feel sorry for these young soldiers who have to be there. But I do not want to pay $20K a month to a rookie who knows a little Java and “preferably SQL ” to develop and deploy a database application.
I have three questions to the US Army IT commanders:
1. If this is a Web application, why do you need to deploy it on site? I “d assume that each of the military PC has standard software installed including the right version of the JRE.
2. Why can “t you hire a professional here in Virginia, who for $10K a month will tell you how to do it right without the need to go to Iraq? This will save our money and won “t jeopardize the life of junior Java developer.
3. Have you heard that Microsoft and Apple do not recommend using Java for mission-critical application? If not, read this post .
I just finished recording a 7-minutes screencast of ClearBI 1.1 Beta, our Web reporter for rich Internet applications. The cool thing about it that the end user can point it to pretty much any data source (Web Service, JavaScript array, POJO) and create a fancy custom report without help of IT crew. No installation is required – a Web browser and Flash Player 9 is all you need (most likely you already have them).
You can watch the recording (13Mb) over here: http://www.myflex.org/screencast/clearbi_ajax/clearbi_ajax.html
If you ‘d like to play with CLearBI on your own, point your browser at http://myflex.org/demo/clearbi/demo.html . Either repeat the report customization that I did or try to explore ClearBI on your own. You can download the documentation for ClearBI ( the previous version of ClearBI) at myflex.org .
I ‘d appreciate any feedback or bug reports.
July 24, 2007, New York. Farata Systems has announced the production release of ClearBI 1.0, a Web reporter and business intelligence engine for rich Internet applications. While ClearBI 1.0 is targeted for Adobe Flex and Java developers, the upcoming ClearBI 1.1 is a rich reporting component that can be used with any AJAX application.
ClearBI 1.0 is available in two versions: ClearBI Plugin and ClearBI End-User:
bull; ClearBI Plugin allows a software developer create and customize a new report in Eclipse IDE. This report can be integrated into any Flex application by including an extra MXML file and recompiling the main application. The end users will be able to work with the report (sorting, filtering, grouping, export to Microsoft Excel, et al.), but won “t be able to save this customized report. This version comes with Clear Data Builder a code generator, and is offered at $799 per seat.
bull; ClearBI End-User version has all the functionality of the plugin version, and also allows the end users create reports from the universe of the data fields without need to install any software other than Flash Player. The end users create, customize and save reports in the centralized database server without any help from the IT department.
The End-User version is offered as a server license and is priced on a per server CPU basis.
You can develop, save and view reports in Eclipse using ClearBI Plugin:
ClearBI End-User version allows end users to customize and save their reports right from the Web browser using additional toolbar. No software other than a Web browser and Flash Player has to be installed on the users ” computers.
ClearBI designer allows you to specify styling, filtering, sorting, groupings, create formulas and more.
Both versions support report export to Microsoft Excel from Internet Explorer:
We “ve asked Yakov Fain, Managing Principal of Farata Systems about the upcoming versions of ClearBI. He answered, “The next version of ClearBI 1.1 (currently in Beta) will support connectivity of this Flex component with the server-side Java using improved OpenAMF communication protocol, which may present an interest to the organizations that do not have Adobe LiveCycle Data Services. ClearBI 1.1 will also become a reporting solution for AJAX developers. We were able to decouple ClearBI from the data source. For example, this pre-recorded video shows how you can create a Web application that uses ClearBI 1.1 with a data feed provided by a Web service rdquo;.
For more information please visit http://www.myflex.org or http://www.faratasystems.com .
This is a link to the audio of my carcast #6 . The covered topics are:
1. P/E and ROI in software training. My upcoming training classes on Adobe Flex:
Intro to Flex 2 at NYU :
A week of intense Flex training in November:
2. Discount coupon for a one day seminar “RealWorld Java ” in NYC.For JUG members the discounted rate for this event is $395, which is less than half price – do not ask me why the list price is so high. To get this discount, enter the coupon code “JUGgold ” while registering
3. AJAX ndash; there is no way to stop the water, you can just redirect it.
Top 115 (!?) AJAX frameworks
4. Salesmen is not a profession, it “s a diagnosis. “They typically do better on tasks that involve spoken language and memorization than on visual-spatial tasks such as writing and drawing. Affected individuals have outgoing, engaging personalities and tend to take an extreme interest in other people. rdquo; This quote is taken from the Web site describing Williams Syndrome .
5. A great little book: Java Phrasebook
Cheat sheets on working with collections, files, threads, Web servers, DBMS, regular expressions, reflections and a lot more.
6. A smart move ndash; open sourcing JavaFX compiler ndash; OpenJFX Compiler Project
This is a short story about my friend (let “s call him Joe). The last 15 years prior to his retirement Joe spent working as a mainframe programmer for a large financial firm in New York City. He stopped working at 67, collected well deserved retirement package and was looking forward to a new life going places around the world and meeting new people. His lovely wife Mary is a food critic and is also into travel. We often travel with Joe and Mary, and like these trips a lot. We never feel any age difference because Joe and Mary are a lot more energetic and interesting people than many 40 years old that I know.
To make a long story short, after a year of enjoying his retirement, Joe got a call from a former boss asking for help. Outsourcing of their system to young people did not work out, because the system was rather complex, and knowing the syntax of a programming language did not cut it ndash; they needed people who understand the application really well. Joe signed a 6-month telecommuting contract paying very good hourly rate.
Needless to say, this 6-month contract turned into a 2-year gig. Finally Joe could afford to start traveling full time. We “d join Joe with his lovely wife Mary whenever our busy schedule permitted. This month, we “ve spent a week with them in Europe, returned back in the USA, while Joe,72 and Mary continued their journey. Joe loved this lifestyle and often expressed his happiness with the fact that his programming career was finally over.
Last week, I got an email from Mary saying that Joe had to break his vacation and return to New York hellip;to start a new 6-month contract with his former employer who was looking for Joe around the globe and managed to convince his to accept this offer.
It “s yet another 6-month gig, but let “s not fool ourselves – Joe is facing yet another 2 years of programming.
I wish Joe all the best with his new contract. I know it “s not about money but about being in demand, which is very important for any professional.
Many years ago The Beatles wrote a song “When I “m sixty four rdquo;:
“I could be handy, mending a fuse
When your lights have gone.
You can knit a sweater by the fireside
Sunday mornings go for a ride,
Doing the garden, digging the weeds,
Who could ask for more.
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I ‘m sixty-four. rdquo;
Well, Joe asks for more at 72. Now I have a dream to get a programming gig when I “ll be 72. What can be better?
Good luck, Joe! Many more contracts to come! Mary, do not be angry, let “s plan our next skiing vacation. By the way, have I mentioned that Joe is a good skier too?
Yesterday, my colleague and I participated in an interesting event where several presenters were given 15 minutes each to show off their rich Internet application. Each presenter was promised a prize, and the first prize was the iPod Shuffle. We did not win the iPod even though our RIA application was way more advanced than any other presented that evening.
In the first five minutes we ran through a short slides presentation, during the next five minutes we “ve created from scratch a CRUD Flex-Java-DBMS application in front of the amazed audience. Our code generator did it for us, it also deployed the Java part of the application under Tomcat, the front end was done in Adobe Flex and MySql with the data about employees was our DBMS. During the final 5 minutes we “ve shown a report writer that allowed either developers or end users create, customize and deploy fancy reports online.
At the end of the event the audience was asked to vote for the best presentation, and the iPod went to hellip;.the guy who showed his application that allowed to display and manipulate photos of female models. The users could select photos, put them side by side for comparison, zoom and rate the images. The most thing I enjoyed in this presentation were several pretty models in nice underwear. Every month, someone in the blogosphere publishes yet another photo-album-type application. This guy won the iPod, and I open heartedly congratulate him for this.
But what “s the lesson learned?
We did not win because men like images, videos and women. BTW, there were about 40 men in the audience and one woman. Even though our applications were a lot more advanced from the coding perspective, you can ‘t beat a program that put images of the models on the screen and allows you to play with them (I mean images).
Do we even have a chance to win? Of course we do, but there are two types of markets: tools for enterprise and for consumers. The enterprise market is ours even though one should never forget that enterprise managers are human too, and they also like sexy looking applications. Recently I “ve written an article called SOA, RIA and the Human Factor , which deliver the same message ndash; never underestimate the look and feel of the enterprise systems.
As to our future presentations, I “ll consider replacing our sample boring database with employees with the one with porno stars. We already know how to apply formulas, grouping, styling and do export to Excel, we just need to add a link to each row of the report, which would open a corresponding image of a female porn star. Ability to filter the report by boob “s size will be a killer for any audience. Adobe Flex allows to easily zoom into any particular part of the body pretty easily. We can also add an ability to filter report by gender, but this won “t be too useful for the presentations, because a typical audience in the software conferences, seminars and workshops consists of 90% of straight males.
So let “s roll up the sleeves and get to work. Can anyone recommend an inexpensive relational database populated with quality images of porn stars? Can I find it for a reasonable price in the USA or I ‘d rather look offshore?
Here ‘s the link to the mp3 file of my fifth carcast dedicated to the issues around H1B visa workers.
1. To H1B or not to H1B
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201000479
2. H1B ndash; how not to hire Americans
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199905192
3. Silverlight Airlines
http://on10.net/Blogs/tina/microsoft-silverlight-airlines/
4. How many wires do you expect to see in a wireless optical rechargeable mouse?
http://www.amazon.com/HP-Wireless-Optical-Mouse-Rechargeable/dp/B0009JR5E6
5. Gotan Project – Santa Maria (Del Buen Ayre)
We ‘ve crafted a special public training program that is aimed at Java developers with no or limited experience in developing enterprise-grade J2EE application with Adobe Flex front end.
“Real-world Flex for Java programmers ” is an intensive, five-day hands-on training program for Web developers who need to create and integrate rich Internet clients written in Adobe Flex with enterprise J2EE applications. This is one of a kind hands-on workshop because during this week attendees will
create two fully functional Flex/Java applications,learn how to properly set up a Java/Flex enterprise projectstart using Flex Eclipse plugins that will turn your Java project into a Rapid Application Development (RAD) environmentstart working on their projects in the class under the guidance of two experts and certified Adobe Flex instructors Yakov Fain and Dr. Victor Rasputnis, co-authors of the book Rich Internet Applications with Adobe Flex and Java . Pre-requisites Each student has to bring his/her own laptop.
Students should have a basic knowledge of Java
Curriculum Day 1. Overview or Rich Internet Applications technologies, introduction to Adobe Flex, working with XML data, data binding, Basics of LiveCycle Data Services, working with remote Java applications deployed under Apache Tomcat server, creation of an RSS feed application.
Day 2. Creating reusable flex components, configuring LiveCycle Data Services, fundamentals of building Flex-Java-DBMS applications, logging and debugging, where the sessions belong, batching database operations, data-aware Flex components.
Day 3. You ‘ll be given an assignment to create a Java-Flex-DBMS application and will work on it in the class. You ‘ll learn how to set RAD environment, how to speed up and improve your productivity with Eclipse plugins for Flex and most importantly, you ‘ll get this CRUD applications up and running.
Day 4 and 5. You ‘ll start working on your own project in the class under the guidance of the Flex/Java mentor. If you are ready to work in this mode, bring your own sample database pre-configured for work with Tomcat, and we ‘ll help you to start your project from the right foot. If you are not ready with your own project spec yet, we ‘ll provide a sample spec and the database for you, and you ‘ll be working on this project under our guidance.
Location New York, NY NYC Seminar and Conference Center (see http://www.nycseminarcenter.com/ )
For hotel info visit http://www.nycseminarcenter.com/visiting/hotels.cfm
Dates November 26 – 30, 2007
Tuition The cost of this bootcamp is $2495. Register by September 26 and save $300.
Each student will get free licenses of the following Eclipse productivity plugins ($846 value, see details at http://www.myflex.org):
ClearData Builder
FX2Doc
Log4Fx
Fx2Ant
Instructors Yakov Fain is a Principal Consultant of Farata Systems. He ‘s responsible for the Enterprise Architecture and emerging technologies. Yakov authored several books and dozens of technical articles. Sun Microsystems has nominated and awarded Yakov with the title Java Champion. He leads the Princeton Java Users Group. Yakov holds BS and MS in Applied Math. He is Adobe Certified Flex Instructor.
Dr. Victor Rasputnis is a Managing Principal of Farata Systems. He ‘s responsible for providing architectural design, implementation management and mentoring to companies migrating to XML Internet technologies. Victor is a co-author of the book on programming with Flex and Java and is Adobe Certified Flex Developer. He holds a PhD in Computer Science.
Registration The number of seats in this class is limited so early registration is suggested. To register, follow this link.
yakovfain.com 