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I didn't want to use the article as an ad, but if you insist... ;)

Java Indexed Serialization Package
LifeBox - A Cellular Automata Simulator
Traveller - A Genetic Algorithm for Solving the Travelling Salesman Problem

...and much more to come, when i get the time to get it documented and posted.

I didn't want to use the article as an ad, but if you insist... ;)

Java Indexed Serialization Package
LifeBox - A Cellular Automata Simulator
Traveller - A Genetic Algorithm for Solving the Travelling Salesman Problem

...and much more to come, when i get the time to get it documented and posted.

I considered running a gaming-oriented content site, back in late 1999. I bought a domain (the name was cool), and started looking to put up banner ads. Before lining up a staff and opening office space, I discovered (as would any chimp with half a brain) that banner ads weren't going to pay for a site -- so I never went live. I wrote the time off as a "learning experience", and went on to bigger and better things...

My other site, Coyote Gulch Productions, operates on a totally different financial basis: I run it because I want to, not because it makes me a buck.

Oh, all right, I have made a few bucks from the site over the years... I've sold software code libraries, sold some of my books, and used it as an online resume and distribution point for applets and open source code. The "profit" has been pretty thin, though, considering the time that goes into creating those damned little ALife applets... and regardless of its money-making potential, I'll keep doing Coyote Gulch, teaching people about neato concepts and presenting my view of the universe.

I have considered going the micropayment route for some of my book projects. Can anyone explain to me if there's something wrong with PayPal or the Amazon "honor system?" Okay, so Amazon is "patent pig" scum -- and failing scum at that. But what about PayPal?

Here's the deal: I wrote (and my wife illustrated) a children's book, which I sold to a Big Name Publisher, who was then eaten by a bigger fish, who then killed the "kid's division" before the book saw print. Rather than hunt up another publisher, I've considered putting the book online, and having people "micropay" me if they like it. Hell, if I make $50, it $50 more than the book has made me before...

But back to the central point: Your average person sees the web as an interactive TV; they're already paying for the connect, just like they pay for their cable setup. So "average Joe" thinks he's already paid for access, and he expects his content for "free", just like TV. I don't see how content-based sites can expect to pay for themselves in that kind of environment...

--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos

...is in trying to be everything to everyone.

Sun's rather dictatorial manner hasn't helped Java, either. Scott McNealy is a Gates-wannabe, trying the lead a rebellion to change dictators.

Java is, however, far from dead. On the client side, servlets and JSP provide power and structure. I don't hesitate to use Java on the server.

On the client side, Sun killed Java through rapid change and bloat. Building a solid VM takes considerable effort and stability; Sun, alas, sis not seem interested in stability. Swing is overkill for most applications; AWT works quite well, expecially when Java is used for small, focused applications.

For some of my projects (portable, graphic demonstrations of scientific principles), Java works well. I can ship an Java application to a computer scientist anywhere in the world, and he can run it without need to recompile or argue over window managers and desktop environments. But for normal, everyday applications, Java is dead, as Corel and other companies have discovered.

Long live Java on the server; long live Java in the niches it best fills. Goodbye, Java as the "everything to everyone" language.

--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos

Traditional publishing is dying in the technical fields. Where do most /.ers go when they want technical info: The book store or the web? Every standard I use, and many of my favorite resources arrive via browser and FTP...

A book takes 3-9 months to write, and another 3-9 months to be published and distributed. Software technologies move too fast for traditional publishing.

I'm pretty disgusted with paper-publishing as well, and am looking for a web-based alternative that protects and pays authors. Technical information is dynamic; books, alas, are quite static. While books may work well for describing algorithms or broad technologies, they do a poor job at presenting emerging and evolving technologies.

A "vanity" press is not a viable solution. Vanity presses tend to be focused on ego and... well, vanity. You pay to have your book published, then you have to pay to promote it... heck, I'd rather buy myself a web site and promote my book that way, with some sort of micropayment system.

I've published more than a dozen books, ranging from the very good to the "waste of paper" kind, through publishers ranging from MS Press to McGraw-Hill. In the last 12 years, I've seen technical publishing go into the crapper... the publishers pay lousy, are focused on title buzzwords, and they have little interest in the quality of what goes between the covers. It's a commodity business, focused on the know-nothing mass consumer, with real "hardcore" books relegated to university presses and (sometimes) O'Reilly.

If you want to discuss this further, drop me an e-mail.