Smart Data Processing (USA) and XOTeam Software (France) have made the French version of my e-book “Java programming for Kids, Parents and Grandparents ” available for FREE download.
Two Java experts from XOTeam , Maxime Daniel and Vincent Lataye have translated this e-book into French and now you can download it at no charge at http://www.xoteam.com/fr/products/jpe.html
I hope you “ll enjoy the reading of “Programmation Java pour les enfants, les parents at les grands-parents “.
Can you recognize the software design patterns in the real world? I ran into one yesterday hellip;
I called my colleague on the phone. His wife picked up the phone and said that Mike took their son to a soccer game. Then, she said, “I can give you his cell phone number rdquo;. These days people do not bother memorizing important phone numbers and just program them in their fancy cell phones. Besides, who said that the husband “s cell phone number is important?
Anyway, she continued, “I programmed his phone number under the title My Man rdquo;. The next minute I started explaining her what design patterns are (she is not a programmer).
“Jane, this is a clear example of a design pattern called Fa ccedil;ade. Programmers use this pattern to hide internal details of an object from the outside world. Just think about it, if for any reason you’ll decide to dump Mike for someone else, you “ll just need to change the phone number while keeping this My Man title. The only thing that mateers is that you always have MaMan. Implementation details do not matter rdquo;. When her husband came back from the soccer game, she proudly declared that she “s learned her first design pattern.
For more examples of the non-software design patterns, read this article by Michael Duell.
P.S. Mike and Jame lived happily ever after.
Try to suggest to your wife/husband to spend a week of your family vacation in a place where you’ll be getting trained in Java. No, your marriage will survive, but only if you do it in a smart way. Have you thought of learning Java in a resort-like setting where beautiful beaches (did I spell it right?), warm water, re-vitalizing spas, and gourmet food are the part of the education?
Two noted Java experts, Dr. Heinz Kabutz, and Kirk Pepperdine have pulled it off! Most importantly, they’ve accommodated the needs of wives/husbands/girlfriends/boyfriends of Java aficionados by arranging the training on the beautiful Crete Island. While you are studying Design Patterns in the beachside hotel’s training room, your spouse is studying design patterns in the closest boutiques or tattoo parlors.
Q/A sessions are conducted right on the beach. And do not forget, the training is delivered not by some unknown instructors that just read the Powerpoint slides from the training manual written by someone else. We are talking about Java Champions, a small group of people that were recognized as such by Sun Microsystems!
Congratulation guys and good luck with your future training. If you’ll need another instructor, let me know and please mail me the brochures of the nearby beauty salons: I need to approach my wife the right way.
The bad news first: we’ve lost a very talented journalist, a TV host, a conference chair, a panel moderator, a guy with a good sense of humor, and with a funny (for Americans) British accent, a person with the rich English vocabulary, and a charming man.
British born and Cambridge-educated, his “all-media rdquo; career spanned 29 years and two continents, beginning with prime time program-making for BBC TV and BBC Radio, side by side with writing for the UK “s Daily Mail newspaper, followed by an international book publishing career. An inveterate traveler and father of four, he divided his time between the USA and Europe, and most recently resided in Tallinn, where his wife is the Danish Ambassador to Estonia. He’s lost his battle to Web 2.0. During the last year he tried all possible medications to resist this enormous pressure that Web 2.0 buzz puts on all of us… He did not survive the pressure.
Now the good news: as Mark Twain famously said: ‘The report of my death is an exaggeration.’ Jeremy Geelan is physically alive and healthy, but he’s left Sys-Con to pursue a new career as a president of a Web 2.0 startup called neXplore Technologies. He’s announced his departure over here, but I strongly suggest you to get this fat Oxford Thesaurus, otherwise you won’t understand everything he wrote. If you do not have the thesaurus, I’ll translate it for you. Jeremy wanted to say that after years of promoting Web 2.0/social computing, he decided to put his money where his mouth was.
I’ve enjoyed all these years working with Jeremy, I’ve learned a lot from him, and I wish Jeremy and his new start-up all the best. But I miss him already (or as they say it in London, “Darling, I’ll miss you dearly! Indeed! “)
I hope that Sys-Con management will invite Jeremy to sing his swan song at the upcoming Rich Internet Applications Conference in October.
THE main today’s news is the Bill Gates, the world’s most respectful and famous software engineer, will step aside in two years to work mostly on Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
He was the main target for all kind of jokes and hate posts. Most of these writers a hypocrites: during the day they make a living using Microsoft’s products, and in the evening, instead of taking a shower they post their thoughts on why Microsoft is their worst enemy. They will never stop bashing Microsoft.
But there are some interesting articles, of course. This article has a really cool phrase commenting on the fact that Bill will remain a part-time employee and a chairman: “Part time for Bill Gates is full time for anyone else in this industry. ”
You can find some facts on their foundation over here.
And here’s an interesting article (as always) by Joel Spolsky.
Other people have commented on this news over here.
I wish you all the best, Bill!
Java Developer
JDJ published a brief overview of the RIA technologies by Coach Wei. And I thought to myself, “If he could do it, I can do it too “.
So, boys and girls from the Java camp start playing in the Adobe Flex 2 sandbox.
Bobby, what do you have to say?
Your Wall Street daddy said that Flash is just a toy for playing movies and animation? Tell you daddy that major banks and brokerage companies are already paying for licenses for a product that “s still in Beta and will be released in two weeks. Ask him to give you another example when his bank pre-paid for any beta software.
What “s wrong, Jessica? Mom did not give you the money for Flex Builder? Ask your mom if she remembers this ABBA song: “Money, money, money must by funny in the RIA world rdquo;. No worries, just use Notepad or vi.
I “ve asked these adults from Adobe to give away Flex Builder for free to good kids like yourself. They still have a couple of weeks to think about it… Your mom ain’t gonna pay for no stinkin’ software? Well, use Open Laszlo then. Lots and lots of kids have downloaded this product.
Hey, kids from the .Net camp hellip;do not cry hellip;your chancellors are working hard on a similar thingy called WPF. So next year you “ll also join the new and exciting world of rich internet applications.
Yes, Veronika, you’ve got it right: they all go in the same direction: XML-based declarative programming of GUI that stands on the shoulders of a rich components framework and runs in a virtual machine.
And you, Java Swingers hellip;you are still too young to do this hellip;Yes, it “s powerful but not easy. Yes, they work on data binding. Will wait? Fine, you may not trust me, but how do you explain that uncle Bruce has included in his Java bestseller a chapter on how to create GUI using Flex?
And who are these sad kids in red swim trunks? Come on guys, leave this wooden AJAX toy alone… Come over here hellip; Remember what aunt Emma Lazarus wrote to AJAX developers? Missed this class? No, she was not an AJAX developer herself, she was a Flex 2 guru… OK, I “ll remind you :
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door! “
Today’s eWeek has published two articles on outsourcing to Russia. One is called Russia Revealed and the other one “The Russians are coming “. The author brings describes dealing with russian programmers as a positive experience. When I wrote about cultural differences in outsourcing, some people have accused me in stereotyping based on the nationality. Sorry guys, but it seems that eWeek is also jumping to the same conclusions.
The bottom line is, Russia can provide you good quality programmers…with an attitude. But if you know how to deal with them, the ROI can be just great. The major Russian cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg) can be a little expensive by now. Consider Novosibirsk – a Syberian Silicon Valley. Another country that has a great potential is Ukraine. Their programmers have have similar educational background, but will charge a lot less for the same job. As always, management of the offshore team is crucial for the success of your project. If the project did not succeed, it’s your fault. This explains why some companies are abandoning offshoring ventures, while others are increasing their presence over the ocean and in Russia too.
Some western firms use the-more-the-merrier policy to staff the offshore teams. They get overly-excited by the dirt chip hourly rates and just assign several programmers to the same task assuming (or praying ) that someone will do it right. If you are looking for such a setup, Russia/Ukraine/Belorussia are not for you. In my opinion, the best model for these countries is having one Russian-speaking (preferably hands-on) manager onsite and a team of strong programmers offshore. Hiring process is extremely important. Even if you are shooting for a fixed price deal, cherry pick each programmer. Always send your recruiter there. Just being a strong techie is not good enough. Try to get a sense if this person has an attitude… Price-wise, you can find excellent programmers working for under $30K a year. A New York programmer with the same set of skills would demand at least $90K. You pay these extra $60K for better English, people skills and understanding of how Western corporate world operates.
So here’s possible outsourcing scheme: a Project Manager (English-speaking) deals with Business Analyst (English), who communicates with a team leader (English-Russian), who communicates with the team of developers (Russian). This team leader is a key figure and success of your project depends on this person a lot. And this facade should be trustworthy. The project manager must make sure that this project is well documented, the latest code is in the version control repository…otherwise this team leader may become an indispensable prima donna and a single point of failure. If you are familiar with design patterns, this team leader plays the role of a facade. This can be a win-win solution, but you have to do it right.
I was born in the Ukraine, got my degree in Russia, worked in Ukraine for a while, and during the last 15 years I live and work in the USA. Let me know if you need help in finding or dealing with a reputable Russian, Ukrainian or Belorussian outsourcing partner.
In my opinion, one of the Adobe “s most important goals in regards to adoption of Flash-related technologies is to get attention of the enterprise architects and developers.
I often speak about Flex in front of the Java audiences. At the time of this writing I do not work for Adobe, but I like their Flex technology, and often play a role of a volunteer Flex evangelist. During such meetings I “ve noticed that the vast majority of the enterprise developers assumes that Flash is useful only for creating and playing animations, splash intro screens or online ads. They do not see it as a serious tool applicable for running GUI of enterprise Web applications. The press speaks about Flash Player, Flash Animation Engine, Flash media authoring tool hellip; Not too many people realize that Flash is a virtual machine, that runs literally on each available platform, has a small footprint and runs compiled program files. These files can be produced by pure Flash developers, by developers that use Flex, or by people using Open Laszlo. I “m sure there might be some other less known tools that can also generate these .swf files for Flash virtual machine.
To change this perception, Adobe should modify the name of the Flash Player to something like Flash VM or Flash Player VM. Their marketing department should find a way to add these two letters to all product brochures and other advertisements. It won “t happen overnight, but people need to start getting used to the fact that it “s not a toy, but a VM that plays a role similar to Java, offers an easy integration with Java, and is also a cross-platform programming environment.
This Web site made my day. No, it made my weekend!
Ladies and Gents,
Enjoy the listening of 101 covers of one of the best songs: Stairways to Heaven, originally written by Led Zeppelin.
You do not know who’s Led Zeppelin? Google will give you a couple of links…
I’m a long time subscriber of SD Times magazine. This is an interesting publication for software architects. In particular, as a Java person, I read a well written Alan Holub’s column. In May, I had a chance to chat with Alan at the recent JavaOne conference.
Anyway, SD Times has published Fourth Annual SD Times 100 Awards. This list has not been built by the readers of the magazine, but as stated, is an opinion of the editors of SD Times. But I have a feeling that this list was created by one person based on his/her knowledge and personal preferences. Otherwise, how would you explain the folliwing mistakes:
1. The Test and QA category does not even mention a serious testing software from Parasoft.
2. Rich Client : I wonder if SD Times have heard that Adobe kinda bought Macromedia last year?
3. Rich Client : What Ruby on Rails is doing in this category?
4. Build management: Where’s Maven?
If more that one person would be working on this list, it’s quality would be a little better. I might be wrong though…
yakovfain.com 