VoxBlog

Granted, it is several years out, but I think android is the leading contender to supplant windows–even over Ubuntu and OS X.

One of the largest drivers keeping windows entrenched is that it is what people are used to.  Many argue the superiority of OS X and Ubuntu and have for years, but for the majority of users, they are both are not-quite-right-clones of windows. Buttons are in the wrong spot, Office doesn’t work the same, some websites don’t render right.  It doesn’t matter what the merits of the other operating systems are, they loose because they are different.  That … Continue Reading

For those of you interested, you can now follow me on twitter at @nvoxland.

I have been trying to think of a twitter related project to better understand it, but so far every idea has already been implemented. One was even implemented exactly as I imagined it, even down to using google app engine for the platform. I think there are too people on the Internet…

It is official: Google App Engine now supports Java in addition to Python.  While I am a happy about the news, it doesn’t change my view of app engine: good for hobby and side projects, but not a platform for a “real” application.

What makes it limited in my eyes is not the language support, but the database support.  Python is a fine language.  There are things I like about it compared to Java, and some things I don’t like.  On the whole, it is easy to learn and yet very powerful.  I can not think of any web application I … Continue Reading

I was very exicted today to see that Code Consultant was selected as “Most Addictive Plugin” in the 2008 IntelliJ Plugin Contest!

I had a fun time making the plug-in and it is good to see that others are enjoying it too.  Plus, the prize money will go a long way towards the Guitar Hero Fund…

I would like to introduce http://www.WhereDoKidsEatFreeToday.com, my first Google App Engine Site. It is a site that allows you to quickly look up what restaurants near you have free or cheap kids’ meals for a given day.  I created it because I am both cheap and forgetful, and because I had been looking for an excuse to try out Google app engine.

If you are interested, it took about 600 lines of Python code and about 400 lines of HTML.  If I wrote the Python code as “real” Python code it would have been about 400 lines and much … Continue Reading

If you didn’t get what you wanted for the holidays and are looking to buy a little something more for yourself, consider Clean Code by Robert Martin et al.

I finished reading it this past weekend, and think that it is a book everyone should read.  As a developer, you spend your whole day reading code, the least you can do is teach yourself how to write it well.

Plus, if you loan it to your co-workers, it may well be the best gift you could ever get.

At work we recently hired a couple .Net developers and are busily converting them to Java developers.  During my “what makes a good developer isn’t how well they know the syntax and libraries” and “you need to use the right tools for the job” speeches, I realized how long it has been since I really moved outside my own comfort zone as a developer.

I started life as a Perl coder around 1998 and made the jump to Java in around 2001. I remember how tired I was every night after work, but how great it was to be exposed … Continue Reading

Watching Life on Mars the other day got me thinking: If I suddenly ended up back in the 1970s what would I do?

The obvious answer is to use my knowledge of future events as a primary source of income.  Stock trading and sports betting would be a great source of income, but since I only have a big-picture view of 1970s markets and I know next to nothing about sports, they would be more long-term investments.  So, while I am waiting for those investments to go up, what would I do?  Would I get a job as a … Continue Reading

Looking to impress the boss before the upcoming holiday Bonus time? Looking to improve learning across your organization? Did you recently delete valuable data and need to make up for it?

The answer to all these problems is simple: introduce RSS. A recent Forrester report shows that only only 11% of people use an RSS reader, which means that there is a very good chance that the vast majority of people in your company are not RSS users.

To make things easy for you, I have created a sample email you can send to anyone and everyone in … Continue Reading

If you haven’t read Robert Martin’s Design Prinicpals and Design Patterns PDF before, go read it!

If have read it before, I read it again!

It is very dense, but has a ton of great information that should be in the front of your mind continually as you code.

• Five signs of bad code (Rigidity, Fragility, Immobility, Viscosity)
• Four class design principles (Open Closed, Liskov Substitution, Dependency Inversion, Interface Segregation)
• Three package design principles (Release Reuse Equivalency, Common Closure, Common Reuse)
• Three package coupling principles (Acyclic Dependencies, Stable Dependencies, Stable Abstractions)
• Five common architecture patterns (Abstract Server, Adapter, Observer, Bridge, Abstract Factory)

Once you have read … Continue Reading