Java Web 2.0 Niftiness

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I must sound like someone who just discovered America, but… Since I got to experiment with Spring, TestNG, serialization, Java6’s support for annotations and ExtJS, I’m enjoying developing web applications. I’m sure the novelty will wear off soon enough. I’ll meet that perfect bug that will drive me crazy and I’ll learn to hate all this Web 2.0 stuff. But in the meantime, I’m happy. Why?

Spring

Spring by itself intrigues me, and looks like an elegantly designed web framework. I’m still learning to use and understand it. Its forcing me to learn about design patterns and different forms of programming that I’m not used to. I know about Visitors, Factories, and other basic patterns from university. I’ve worked with Model-View-Controller (MVC) on previous professional projects. But Dependency Injection and Inversion of Control are totally new beasts for me. That and I need overcome my aversion to trusting a complex system to configure itself.

TestNG

I have not seriously worked in test driven development since university. I’ve done the occasional unit test suite with JUnit. TestNG feels more refined than JUnit and cleaner. What excites me the most is the prospect of working systematically with unit tests. Passing a battery of tests, reassures me that my code works according to my desires and mathematical theory and not to the whims of the rest of the universe.

Annotations

I’m infected with the urge to annotate all my code. The code looks cleaner, even if annotations potentially can introduce phenomenal cross-cutting problems. I don’t know why but there is a satisfying feeling to adding a list of @ annotations to a class. Yes, I know I’m crazy. Whoever introduced annotations to Java, you are awesome!

Ok, I’m doing with my lavish praises. I wish I knew about all these things earlier. Thanks to Nik, my project’s lead dev for introducing me to this new world of web development.

Desktop versus Mobile Computing

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Despite my best attempts to avoid the desktop, I can’t seem to completely avoid it.  Not that I can’t in practice.  Rather the desktop proves to be mindbogglingly useful as a productivity platform.  For one, typing with a full ten fingers really gets things done.  Second, screen real estate is cheap and allows for vast expanses for a UI to cover.  I can not understate the joys of working on a widescreen with a large resolution.  The only greater joy is working on multiple HUGE widescreen monitors with massive resolutions.  At work, I envy the graphics folk who get the large screens.  Coding and graphics works becomes a joy.  Third, the desktop or notebook out-competes in terms of sheer computing power.  Thats one aspect that I fear will always plague mobile computing platforms.

The last advantage is *gasp* openness.  Thanks to open source and open standards, I can freely arrange my desktop computing experience as I see fit.  Yes, there is always room for improvement but mostly it comes to avoiding some icky technical limitations.  And most of that is thanks to legacy code.  Ugh.  On the mobile, well… I tried to connect two apps together: a web browser and an office suite.  Fail.  Most likely a Symbian faux pas.

I have great hope that platforms like Android and Maemo along with more powerful and robust smartphones, will make mobile computing be as comfortable as desktop computing.  But for now, hold on to that desktop… you’ll still need it at least as a harness for your mobile gadgets.

A Return to Mobility

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As a happy owner of a Nokia 5800 smartphone, I quickly realized the potential of this gadget as a great pocket-sized mobile computer. Unfortunately, for the longest time I relied completely on wireless access points. With the lack of a physical slideout keyboard, this phone felt like a step down from the N810 Internet tablet. On top of that, while the Symbian platform is well supported. I really enjoyed both the UI and multitasking abilities of the N810. While the 5800 XM does allow for multitasking, it feels a bit uncomfortable to use. Now I won’t complain about Symbian because I understand that it is limited by its age and its original intended useage. I’m sure that Nokia and all the other Symbian players are working hard to keep the old workhorse going. But there really is a limit to what you can do with it. Hence my anticipation for the N900. Lets hope it’ll be available for Canadians soon.

Sticking to only wireless LANs has the downside of being offline most of the time. Plus it means using the office WLAN when at work. And I’d prefer not to for the obvious reason of wanting to maintain the separation of work and my personal life. So eventually, I bit the bullet and added a data plan from Fido. Everything seemed perfect, until I checked my phone bill. Apparently the data plan didn’t appear, and the bill was a lot larger than expected. Dismayed I contacted Fido, and stopped using data to avoid an even larger bill. You can imagine my elation, when a rep from Fido called me today, withdrew the charges and reinstated my data plan. Yes! So I’m back online in the mobile space, enjoying the Internet everywhere.

Move It!

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Today I realized I need to get a move on.  I realize now that I must capitalize on the opportunity that is justCheckers.  Originally I set up as a project to learn and advance my skills in programming Java and project management.  I learned a great deal from that project.  And after the project’s stalling, I assumed that no more real opportunities arose from it.  Today I realized I was wrong.  There are a multitude of possibilities that I can exercise in either this project or a similar one.  I’m debating what would be the better move, but I’m leaning towards working on justCheckers for now.
Also I planning some rather massive work on this blog too.  I have plans, and I see clearly how I can capitalize by achieving them.

A Mobile Internet for a Frantic Lifestyle

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Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day, and I hope everyone not had a great holiday but also found a myriad of reasons to be thankful for. I know I did.

But now I’m going to hijack that thought. I’m thankful that I subscribed to that data plan. Well, we’ll see how thankful I’ll be with the inflated cellphone bill. Thankfully I’m young, foolish, employed and single so don’t need to rationalize such purchases. Having the Internet in your pocket can be terribly convenient. There can be downsides though. Most sites scale down too well, onto a small screen that is. Thats where something like Nokia’s WRT can really shine. Consider it like a website thats been turned into an application. Its been done before for desktop browsers. But still a desktop with its fast connection, ample screen size and comfortable standard input allows for developers to sweep a good many UI and workflow decisions under the rug. Developing for a mobile device is far more demanding. Demanding not only terms of computing and engineering. But also demanding in terms of usability. And also the problem of handling offline and caching comes to mind. Fortunately for all you mere mortals out there, there are nuts like me who dream about the next big thing and how to make it actually useful. Hmm… Though I should do something about it. And not just write about these things. I have a few ideas, that I plan on putting into practice. In the meantime, I wish there was a WRT widget or decent S60 app for blogging…

The Madness Subsides

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I apologize for the silence of in the last few days.  Things really picked up at work, to the point of insanity.  Fortunately yesterday I managed to get the component I was working on out the door.  Still a good amount of overtime was required by the entire team to get our part done.  Hopefully the client will be pleased with my initial contribution.  I’m sure they’ll be satisfied with my latest work as I’m adding the final touches to that component.  Another reason for my silence, is that I’m transitioning to using my cellphone as my main computing platform.  It can feel cramped at times, but the portability is amazing.  I’m sure it will be even better if I get a nicer device like the N900.

Ok, well all I have time for today is a quick update.  I still have a good amount of work ahead of me, and very little time to do it in.

By the way, the new beta release of Kubuntu is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.  Definitely worth the upgrade.

Identi.ca Updates for 2009-09-29

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  • Apparently today I woke up as a braindead, clumsy zombie. So far no casualties at work due to transformation. Still I need braaaainns. #
  • Reached hypercaffeinated state, will code like crazy until the next refill. Fingers crossed that I make it before the code freeze. #
  • Alright! Now on to fleshing out 2 or 3 database calls. #
  • Thanks RIM for giving me more work thanks to your BlackBerry PIN nonsense. Cause you can’t be like all the rest of the world and use IMEIs. #
  • Wow. I fear this maybe a long, long day. #

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Looking Forward: Ubuntu’s App Store

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Ubuntu developers will be releasing the beta of the next major version of Ubuntu Linux: 9.10 sometime in the next two weeks.  Yours truly, plans on upgrading my main home system to help with the beta test.  With every release I’m expecting a rather incremental improvement.  However the real interest feature (which I doubt will show up in the Kubuntu side of things just yet), is the new Ubuntu App Centre.  On the face of things, it will be an improvement over the “over-techy” Synaptic and friends, that most Ubuntu users are used to.  Also it will look and feel more polished, so that will be a very welcome change.

The potential game changer comes into play with the possibility of buying software, for Ubuntu.  This buying does not imply that a deluge of proprietary software will sweep into Ubuntu.  But rather buying can also mean donating money to upstream projects, and that will help resolve the long standing issue of how to fund open source/libre software projects.  An option to buy software, would also create incentives for the software industry to create professional software for Linux.  What really excites me is this: I envision that the Ubuntu App Centre, doing for Linux gaming what Valve’s Steam has done for Windows gaming; providing a convenient platform for digital distribution and marketing which will be HUGE for independent gaming studios and small software houses.

Additional Sources: FLOSS Weekly episode on Ardour and the issues of funding FLOSS development