Why don't you try NetBeans? I know most Eclipse users loathe NetBeans, but I use both and, frankly, NetBeans from version 4 on is faster than Eclipse in my machines (plus I hate its graphic designer, to tell the whole truth about it).
a) Telefonica is a near monopolist respect to ADSL services in Spain. b) Most people in Spain have no cable; thus there is no real broadband alternative for home users. c) There is _absolutely_no_way_ for any Telefonica customers to reach their network administrators; Telefonica help desk system sports a unique combination of long waits, hidden cost telephone numbers, terrible background pseudo-music and a (possibly patented) circular structure of help desk operators who route your call back and forth until your ears fall to the ground or your bank account is exhausted, whichever happens first. Go figure what the situation is for non-customers...
Therefore, I can safely predict that most of Spain e-mails will remain forever blocked.
Iván
p.s.: Slashdot is blocking several IPs that correspond to a proxy-cache managed by Telefonica; a month has passed since I (among many others) complained to them and nothing was done. Not even an acknowledgment! Their operators even deny that such a proxy cache exists!
Full disclosure ahead: I am a Spaniard, I lived for 2 years in Morocco (Casablanca) and I work in the railway business (software engineering, not civil engineering, but you can't have it all, can you?)
Believe it or not, but this is actually possible. Spain might not be any more the country many of you thought it was. Civil engineering in Spain and the rest of Europe is pretty advanced these days, as far as huge tunnels are concerned. Just look at Madrid's Metro and its spectacular growth here: http://www.metropla.net/eu/mad/metrosur.htm. The Line 12 was put in service in just 3+ years, and spans 40+ kilometres of underground tracks and stations. Look at the 27 kilometre high speed rail double tunnel currently being built beneath the Sierra de Guadarrama, a granitic mountain range 2500 metres high (http://www.geodata.it/english/progetti/gallunghe/ guadarrama/), which will connect Madrid to the northern cities of Segovia and Valladolid. And last, but not least, the longest metro line in Europe, currently under construction, is the Line 9 in Barcelona, which will also feature fully automated trains (http://www.finanzas.com/id.5214701/noticias/notic ia.htm, in Spanish).
However, having said this, I don't believe we will actually see this happen in our lifetimes. First of all, 27e6 euros (30e6 $) aren't enough even for preliminary studies of such a complex undertaking. The current Spanish government is extremely interested in infrastructure and development work if and only if two or more of the following apply: a) political gains are to be obtained, b) civil engineering firms tycoons line up their pockets even more and c) the european union foots a significant percentage of the bills.
And then comes Morocco, a developing country en route to democracy. Morocco has comparatively few transportation infrastructures deployed: around 1000 km of electrified, standard gauge railways. You simply don't build a tunnel to nowhere, unless Spain and the EU are strongly commited to finance development works there (and they currently aren't, and most likely won't be in a foreseeable future, even though it might be a hell of a good idea to even out differences and further good neighbour relationships in the Mediterranean area).
Lastly, governments of Spain and Morocco are at odds over several issues, the least important of which are the ones that got more attention in previous comments: territorial disputes and terrorism. The main troubles between Morocco and Spain (and the rest of EU) are immigration and commerce, and both of them receive a harsh treatment by the Spanish government. No compromises will be agreed upon unless forced by a third party, just because such an attitude improves the outlook of Aznar and his cabinet among the population right wing.
So, unfortunately, I believe this tunnel is just vapor, and will dissipate sooner or later depending on the result of the ongoing UN-sponsored Western Sahara negotiations...
I can't really thing of any technology more un-hyped than Swing. NetBeans would be a close second to this. But the reality is both are at least good enough, and in most cases excellent, to address the needs of cross platform Java client developers.
My personal experience in the building of a huge client, Swing based applications suite for near-real-time railway traffic monitoring, control, planning and simulation, currently being deployed the Spain's second high speed railway (Madrid-Lleida, and Barcelona and on to France in the coming years), speaks volumes about the ability of Swing to give out the needed performance, and NetBeans as a high productivity environment for Swing applications development.
Just imagine: a whole bunch of applications featuring autodeployment (via Java Web Start), interactive geographical and chart specialized data displays (with the help of ILOG JViews), and lots of 'plain-Swing' apps with customized components like tables supporting 1000's of rows at any moment, and keeping everything up-to-date thanks to a Tibco-based Message Oriented Middleware that broadcasts near-real-time data to every client, be it Swing or web-based... And everything performs exceedingly well in custom quadruple-headed displays (virtual screens of 6400x1024 pixels) under Windows 2000! (The server big iron is HP-UX, so no need to worry about a 350 km/h train blue-screening... And despite everything being IP connected and XML enabled, the control networks are fully isolated -not just firewalled- from the outer Internet; no script-kiddies sending to Huesca a Zaragoza-bound train).
So please think twice before dismissing Swing and NetBeans as 'dead tech'. I myself did a test-drive with Eclipse (there wasn't a stable version, so it was some time ago) and I wasn't even able to compile HelloWorld.java; and despite that I don't run around in circles, screaming how terrible Eclipse is, as I assume it must have got better with time. Just as Swing has.
In the interest of promoting foreign cultures knowledgement, I'd say that the quotation looks familiar to a Spaniard like me. There's an equivalent popular adage, which states "Lo que no mata, engorda" ("Any [ingested] thing that doesn't kill you [i.e., because it's poisonous], makes you fatter [!]"). It reveals a lot about the idiosyncrasy of the Spanish language and of Spanish speakers, ironic to the brink of satire and materialistic. All in all, an attitude that the character of Sancho Panza in "El Quijote" by Cervantes reveals in full.
Slashdot Mirror
Why don't you try NetBeans? I know most Eclipse users loathe NetBeans, but I use both and, frankly, NetBeans from version 4 on is faster than Eclipse in my machines (plus I hate its graphic designer, to tell the whole truth about it).
Some interesting tidbits for you:
a) Telefonica is a near monopolist respect to ADSL services in Spain.
b) Most people in Spain have no cable; thus there is no real broadband alternative for home users.
c) There is _absolutely_no_way_ for any Telefonica customers to reach their network administrators; Telefonica help desk system sports a unique combination of long waits, hidden cost telephone numbers, terrible background pseudo-music and a (possibly patented) circular structure of help desk operators who route your call back and forth until your ears fall to the ground or your bank account is exhausted, whichever happens first. Go figure what the situation is for non-customers...
Therefore, I can safely predict that most of Spain e-mails will remain forever blocked.
Iván
p.s.: Slashdot is blocking several IPs that correspond to a proxy-cache managed by Telefonica; a month has passed since I (among many others) complained to them and nothing was done. Not even an acknowledgment! Their operators even deny that such a proxy cache exists!
Full disclosure ahead: I am a Spaniard, I lived for 2 years in Morocco (Casablanca) and I work in the railway business (software engineering, not civil engineering, but you can't have it all, can you?)
/ guadarrama/), which will connect Madrid to the northern cities of Segovia and Valladolid. And last, but not least, the longest metro line in Europe, currently under construction, is the Line 9 in Barcelona, which will also feature fully automated trains (http://www.finanzas.com/id.5214701/noticias/notic ia.htm, in Spanish).
Believe it or not, but this is actually possible. Spain might not be any more the country many of you thought it was. Civil engineering in Spain and the rest of Europe is pretty advanced these days, as far as huge tunnels are concerned. Just look at Madrid's Metro and its spectacular growth here: http://www.metropla.net/eu/mad/metrosur.htm. The Line 12 was put in service in just 3+ years, and spans 40+ kilometres of underground tracks and stations. Look at the 27 kilometre high speed rail double tunnel currently being built beneath the Sierra de Guadarrama, a granitic mountain range 2500 metres high (http://www.geodata.it/english/progetti/gallunghe
However, having said this, I don't believe we will actually see this happen in our lifetimes. First of all, 27e6 euros (30e6 $) aren't enough even for preliminary studies of such a complex undertaking. The current Spanish government is extremely interested in infrastructure and development work if and only if two or more of the following apply: a) political gains are to be obtained, b) civil engineering firms tycoons line up their pockets even more and c) the european union foots a significant percentage of the bills.
And then comes Morocco, a developing country en route to democracy. Morocco has comparatively few transportation infrastructures deployed: around 1000 km of electrified, standard gauge railways. You simply don't build a tunnel to nowhere, unless Spain and the EU are strongly commited to finance development works there (and they currently aren't, and most likely won't be in a foreseeable future, even though it might be a hell of a good idea to even out differences and further good neighbour relationships in the Mediterranean area).
Lastly, governments of Spain and Morocco are at odds over several issues, the least important of which are the ones that got more attention in previous comments: territorial disputes and terrorism. The main troubles between Morocco and Spain (and the rest of EU) are immigration and commerce, and both of them receive a harsh treatment by the Spanish government. No compromises will be agreed upon unless forced by a third party, just because such an attitude improves the outlook of Aznar and his cabinet among the population right wing.
So, unfortunately, I believe this tunnel is just vapor, and will dissipate sooner or later depending on the result of the ongoing UN-sponsored Western Sahara negotiations...
Ivan
I can't really thing of any technology more un-hyped than Swing. NetBeans would be a close second to this. But the reality is both are at least good enough, and in most cases excellent, to address the needs of cross platform Java client developers.
My personal experience in the building of a huge client, Swing based applications suite for near-real-time railway traffic monitoring, control, planning and simulation, currently being deployed the Spain's second high speed railway (Madrid-Lleida, and Barcelona and on to France in the coming years), speaks volumes about the ability of Swing to give out the needed performance, and NetBeans as a high productivity environment for Swing applications development.
Just imagine: a whole bunch of applications featuring autodeployment (via Java Web Start), interactive geographical and chart specialized data displays (with the help of ILOG JViews), and lots of 'plain-Swing' apps with customized components like tables supporting 1000's of rows at any moment, and keeping everything up-to-date thanks to a Tibco-based Message Oriented Middleware that broadcasts near-real-time data to every client, be it Swing or web-based... And everything performs exceedingly well in custom quadruple-headed displays (virtual screens of 6400x1024 pixels) under Windows 2000! (The server big iron is HP-UX, so no need to worry about a 350 km/h train blue-screening... And despite everything being IP connected and XML enabled, the control networks are fully isolated -not just firewalled- from the outer Internet; no script-kiddies sending to Huesca a Zaragoza-bound train).
So please think twice before dismissing Swing and NetBeans as 'dead tech'. I myself did a test-drive with Eclipse (there wasn't a stable version, so it was some time ago) and I wasn't even able to compile HelloWorld.java; and despite that I don't run around in circles, screaming how terrible Eclipse is, as I assume it must have got better with time. Just as Swing has.
Ivan
In the interest of promoting foreign cultures knowledgement, I'd say that the quotation looks familiar to a Spaniard like me. There's an equivalent popular adage, which states "Lo que no mata, engorda" ("Any [ingested] thing that doesn't kill you [i.e., because it's poisonous], makes you fatter [!]"). It reveals a lot about the idiosyncrasy of the Spanish language and of Spanish speakers, ironic to the brink of satire and materialistic. All in all, an attitude that the character of Sancho Panza in "El Quijote" by Cervantes reveals in full.