If you want proof of how "effective" CCTV is in the UK, just look at the 7th July attacks in London a couple of years back. The "effectiveness" can be measured by the fact that the attacks occurred.
I've just been reading "Big Bang" by Simon Singh, a compelling account of the history of astrophysics and in particular the history of the Big Bang theory. I'd never appreciated how much observational astronomy had contributed to this theory beyond Hubble's original work, and I'd strongly recommend it as a fascinating read. (I haven't attached my Amazon associate id to the above URL - in case anyone's wondering!)
A great factual programme on the BBC is 'In Our Time', which is now available as a Podcast. See here for more info. Recent topics include dark matter, the Cambrian explosion and Machiavelli.
I can assure you after seeing her in London several times that she is *not* bulimic!
Re:Buffer overflows, bad pointers, stack problems.
on
Debugging
·
· Score: 1
If you over or under run an array you get an ArrayBoundsException thrown, and the read/wrtie doesn't occur, so no corruption occurs (except your operation failed)
Are we talking about the same thing ? What's safer ? A Java collection that takes *any* object without type-checking, or one that's restricted to a particular type/subtype ? I know which one I'd take.
The compiler performs at 30% of it's former speed ? Not with the 1.5 beta release. Or the pre-release available last month. Or the generics add-in from last year. Have you tried these ?
Finally I've worked in the finance sector for the last 10 years. Nowhere are templates forbidden as suggested above. I'm desperate for these to be widely used to give the run-time object-typing security that Java has lacked in its collections. This is a huge gain in my book.
The advantage that this could have over JBoss is the potential for certification as a J2EE container.
JBoss have spent ages negotiating with Sun over the costs of certification, whereas Apache (as a registered charity) aren't eligible for the certification fee.
I'm not making a case for certification, but for some people this is a big deal.
[background: I work in technology for the financial centres in London]
multi-platform
a huge, standardised API
a large base of expertise available (especially at the moment)
it's especially productive for most programmers
None of these are really technical reasons for Java being good at anything, but the combination allows enterprises to hire people easily, not have to cross-train them, and to get products out the door (usually within their own environment).
None of the places I've consulted at use Java extensively on the desktop. Mostly it's used for back-end work. Front end is Microsoft / web, with a little Swing occasionally.
for an out-of-the-box solution. To deply an app, just copy the app into the deployment directly. To configure, fire up a browser and point it at port 8080 (I think).
Haven't come across many app servers as simple as that.
Re:I doubt that Java will succeed.
on
Preview of Java 1.5
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Wake up! When it comes to delivering enterprise solutions (I work mainly in the financial industry) then Java is the primary choice currently. I'm not (necessarily) defending the language, but as a consultant I wouldn't have the same choice of work specialising in any other language.
That may change over the coming years with.Net, but the current 'standard' is Java. Like it or lump it.
public class Coord {
private int x;
private int y;
public Coord(int x, int y) {
this.x = x;
this.y = y;
} }
just about does it. No Perl blessing, shifting $self and so on...
Re:JDO vs EJB Entity Beans?
on
Java Data Objects
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
My main gripe with EJBs is that once you use them you're tied to a platform. That platform is an application server.
Using JDO (or Hibernate or other solutions) allows you to deploy your solution inside an app container, inside a web container, or simply standalone.
The biggest benefit I've seen from deploying standalone comes from unit testing (using JUnit). My most recent projects have all had sizeable sets of standalone functionality tests. Once those several hundred tests succeed in a standalone context I can then deploy into my container and perform further tests using Cactus. But the majority of testing takes place outside without any deployment grief or the extra pain of writing client/server (Cactus) tests.
There is a similar situation in the UK, with contractors typically working only 9 months a year, and thereby gaining a massive saving in tax by being classed as self employed.
Rubbish. Any accountant in the UK will tell you this has no basis. 50% of contractors are worthless more interested in their wallets than technology Probably more than 50%. And that means they want to create a good impression - get rehired - deliver value to the customer etc.
I'm a contractor. I run my own business, and I look to satisfy my client. If that means that I focus on a pragmatic solution rather than embrace the latest technological fad, then so be it.
Slashdot Mirror
I've just been reading "Big Bang" by Simon Singh, a compelling account of the history of astrophysics and in particular the history of the Big Bang theory. I'd never appreciated how much observational astronomy had contributed to this theory beyond Hubble's original work, and I'd strongly recommend it as a fascinating read. (I haven't attached my Amazon associate id to the above URL - in case anyone's wondering!)
"i'd like to point out that dubya actually declared the axis of evil before the Twin Towers fell."
Is that true ? State of the Union speech, 2002
I thought this was the speech that first used this phrase.
This was done by a bunch of upper-class pranksters in London (Piccadilly Circus) in the 1910s or so. Can't remember any more details unfortunately.
A great factual programme on the BBC is 'In Our Time', which is now available as a Podcast. See here for more info. Recent topics include dark matter, the Cambrian explosion and Machiavelli.
Dovecot will do this natively
It's an old epic (17min) Marillion song. Lifting heavily from Genesis and Rush.
Why not ? Turner did it
There's no reason why you can't combine the two. For instance the 3-Michelin-starred Heston Blumenthal does this. See his weekly Guardian columns for more info. BAcon and Egg ice cream, anyone ?
Java stack traces tell you the exact line number something went wrong
No. Java stack traces tell you where the exception was thrown.
They don't tell you (for example) where you set a reference to NULL when you shouldn't have! (NullPtr pattern)
I can assure you after seeing her in London several times that she is *not* bulimic!
If you over or under run an array you get an ArrayBoundsException thrown, and the read/wrtie doesn't occur, so no corruption occurs (except your operation failed)
ESR's comparison based on share price is clueless given that he's writing to a CEO.
Are we talking about the same thing ? What's safer ? A Java collection that takes *any* object without type-checking, or one that's restricted to a particular type/subtype ? I know which one I'd take.
The compiler performs at 30% of it's former speed ? Not with the 1.5 beta release. Or the pre-release available last month. Or the generics add-in from last year. Have you tried these ?
Finally I've worked in the finance sector for the last 10 years. Nowhere are templates forbidden as suggested above. I'm desperate for these to be widely used to give the run-time object-typing security that Java has lacked in its collections. This is a huge gain in my book.
Threading in Outlook (at least Outlook 2000) can be done using Organize->Using Views->By Conversation Topic.
I don't use it much, but it appears at first glance to work. Not easy to find, though.
The advantage that this could have over JBoss is the potential for certification as a J2EE container.
JBoss have spent ages negotiating with Sun over the costs of certification, whereas Apache (as a registered charity) aren't eligible for the certification fee.
I'm not making a case for certification, but for some people this is a big deal.
Thanks. I was worried that everyone had had a humour bypass...
[background: I work in technology for the financial centres in London]
None of these are really technical reasons for Java being good at anything, but the combination allows enterprises to hire people easily, not have to cross-train them, and to get products out the door (usually within their own environment).
None of the places I've consulted at use Java extensively on the desktop. Mostly it's used for back-end work. Front end is Microsoft / web, with a little Swing occasionally.
Dude! Java sucks! Like, I downloaded Java in 1997 and my 133 Pentium ground to a halt. And it's not even open-source! PHP roolz!
[just to save everyone else doing it]
for an out-of-the-box solution. To deply an app, just copy the app into the deployment directly. To configure, fire up a browser and point it at port 8080 (I think).
Haven't come across many app servers as simple as that.
Wake up! When it comes to delivering enterprise solutions (I work mainly in the financial industry) then Java is the primary choice currently. I'm not (necessarily) defending the language, but as a consultant I wouldn't have the same choice of work specialising in any other language.
.Net, but the current 'standard' is Java. Like it or lump it.
That may change over the coming years with
public class Coord {
private int x;
private int y;
public Coord(int x, int y) {
this.x = x;
this.y = y;
}
}
just about does it. No Perl blessing, shifting $self and so on...
My main gripe with EJBs is that once you use them you're tied to a platform. That platform is an application server.
Using JDO (or Hibernate or other solutions) allows you to deploy your solution inside an app container, inside a web container, or simply standalone.
The biggest benefit I've seen from deploying standalone comes from unit testing (using JUnit). My most recent projects have all had sizeable sets of standalone functionality tests. Once those several hundred tests succeed in a standalone context I can then deploy into my container and perform further tests using Cactus. But the majority of testing takes place outside without any deployment grief or the extra pain of writing client/server (Cactus) tests.
There is a similar situation in the UK, with contractors typically working only 9 months a year, and thereby gaining a massive saving in tax by being classed as self employed.
Rubbish. Any accountant in the UK will tell you this has no basis.
50% of contractors are worthless more interested in their wallets than technology
Probably more than 50%. And that means they want to create a good impression - get rehired - deliver value to the customer etc.
I'm a contractor. I run my own business, and I look to satisfy my client. If that means that I focus on a pragmatic solution rather than embrace the latest technological fad, then so be it.
Who thinks Java is dead ? Certainly not the agents who phone me on a daily basis with their client's requirements!