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November 27, 2002

Baroque EJB

what's next?

The great thing about Java when it arrived was its simplicity and portability. Over time, the J2EE libraries have become pretty complex IMHO. For example, there have been many conversations on various news groups complaining about the learning curve and performance associated with EJB. .NET is definitely simpler than EJB for building server-side components, and so Java badly needs a new and simpler way to build portable and scalable server-side components.

I've been thinking for awhile that Sun's profligate way with Java APIs is becoming a problem. J2EE in particular takes on almost a Byzantine mainframe-like quality. As far as I can see, what usually gets put into practice are JSPs and servlets. The above is right though - we need a vastly simplified server side model for Enterprise Java. Right now EJBs are becoming far too unwieldy.

Posted by John at 1:27 PM | | Comments (2)

November 22, 2002

Self-organizing mobs

Via smartmobs.com,BBC NEWS | Business | Bill Gates spots the next big thing

He said that from within Microsoft Office a user would be able to find the nearest Kinkos, order the print job, bill their account and have the documents delivered.

Unless the Kinko's is delivering significantly higher quality printing, I fail to see why this is a good thing. It actually seems to entail a good deal more expense and inconvenience than the desk printer model. This seems like technology in search of a solution.

This seems true of the Smart Mobs stuff I've seen so far, which mainly consists of pie-in-the-wireless-sky speculation about what all this could mean. Very different from the rest of the world, where they got the tech and just started using it. Here we must endure the endless handwringing and pontification (vide the Smart Mobs subhead "The next social revolution") as to what all this means, with enormous dollops of breathless hype. I'd still like to read the book, but I just might not be cut out for the emerging technologies world; perky futurism usually just raises my skeptical hackles and makes me wonder what you're selling.

Posted by John at 11:28 PM |

November 15, 2002

This ain't Pamplona

Seen today in a message on the iBob list about riding in traffic:

Who needs to run with the bulls when you ride with the Tauruses?

Posted by John at 4:35 PM |

November 13, 2002

No accounting

CamWorld: Thinking Outside the Box, A Weblog

This movie has forever ruined Ravel's Bolero for me, a song beautifully introduced to many people through the great love scene in "10" with Dudley Moore and Bo Derek.

Did he really say that? I must admit, I never understood the appeal of Bo Derek, who struck me as wooden and unsensual. Almost unworldly. Far too hard and gleaming for my taste. Chacun a son goût.

Posted by John at 12:45 PM |

November 6, 2002

Some changes

In other news, we finally bid adieu to the Related Stories boxes. I'd been mulling it over and decided the results were just not all that interesting; plus I think they made the page harder to read. I'm playing round with some changes in the template for the site, so if you see some weird stuff in the next few days (besides the usual, that is) you know why.

Posted by John at 3:03 PM |

Wakeup call

OK, it sucks. It really really sucks. But what it ultimately means is that we have to get a message and fucking sell it. No more of this blurring. Hopefully, some world will remain in 2004. Until then, organize, protest, donate, march, do what you ahve to do. Act like progressives and not the Bush Lite types that pass as "leftists" (ha!) these days.

Posted by John at 2:35 PM |