Category: Other

Two articles in Top 10 on JavaLobby.com of 2008

Two articles I wrote are in JavaLobby’s Top 10 Articles of 2008 by James Surgue. Thank you, it’s nice to be in top ten.

  1. Interview: John De Goes Introduces a Newly Free Source Code Editor
  2. An Introduction To JBoss RichFaces (by me)
  3. The Best Java Tools You Never Knew Existed
  4. Using JSF and Flex Components Together (by me)
  5. Ten Amazing Java Applications
  6. Looking Forward to JPA 2.0
  7. Tomcat Today, GlassFish Tomorrow?
  8. Is Hibernate the best choice?
  9. Google Android Tutorial
  10. Pathway from ACEGI to Spring Security

The placement is based on number of clicks the article received. If this article was published today my An Introduction To JBoss RichFaces article would take first place as it has 42,012 clicks while Interview: John De Goes Introduces a Newly Free Source Code Editor has 41, 380. Oh well, next year :) .

Early next year an article on how to use RichFaces with Spring will be published.

Got an exception? Call your insurance agent

I was looking at my car insurance bill and got the message below (click on image). Look what it says at the top, “Technical error has occurred. Please contact your agent“. I wonder if my agent knows what’s a NullPointerException. I’m sure there is a better way to handle an exception than to print a message to call your agent.

farmers-error.gif

Java Persistence Frameworks reviewed

When I do onsite JSF/RichFaces training, I usually get this question: “So, which persistence framework should we use with JSF?”. My experience has been using Hibernate, JBoss Seam (using Hibernate and JPA). Obviously there is no right or wrong answer here, but this article, Adopting a Java Persistence Framework: Which, When, and What? should shed some light on what’s available today and how the technologies compare.

AT&T Wireless

I recently got a new BlackBerry Pearl with service from AT&T. As I was driving to South Lake Tahoe last Saturday morning I was on the phone with my wife. As I was passing a large AT&T Wireless billboard, the call was dropped. I thought it was funny that a call would be dropped right near the billboard that advertises the service.

How fast can you type on your BlackBerry?

Last night I had dinner with friends from college. We try to get together once every month or two. One of them got out his BlackBerry device and told us how he was typing an email at a stop light. The light turned green but he didn’t finish typing the email and finished it as he was driving (very dangerous). I said: “Why didn’t you just type faster..?”. When I was in high school (that’s only a little bit more than 10 years ago), I had a Computer Applications class. We learned to use Word Perfect 5.1 (no mouse, command mode), some other applications and, of course typing without looking at the keyboard. So, what’s the connection between my friend’s BlackBerry and typing class? With all the smart devices out there, maybe kids will be learning how to type on BlackBerry’s and Sidekick’s in a few years in high school. If before you could say I can type 80 words per minute, in the near future you can say I can type 10 emails before the light turns green. What do you think..?