It seems like every Mac user is obsessed with productivity and Getting Things Done (GTD). As a result there is a plethora of tools to improve efficiency, track tasks and get your work accomplished. I’ve tried my fair share and have recently reached a steady state with my tools. Here’s an overview of what I’ve [...]
Entries from March 31st, 2009
MacHeist
March 25th, 2009 · View Comments · Mac
MacHeist draws a lot of opinions. Here’s one of them. It made me curious. What kind of deal do the developers really get? MacHeist doesn’t publish the numbers because different developers get different deals. Apparently some developers get a flat fee and others get a percentage. So let’s make some quick estimates.
Let’s assume that MacHeist [...]
Tags:Mac
Handling null values in Java
March 24th, 2009 · View Comments · Java
Like most Java developers I have a hatred for null values. They are incredibly annoying to deal with and Java gives you no good way to handle them. “Scripting” languages tend to be much more forgiving of null values which is one of the reasons they are popular. But, if you’re in Java, what are [...]
I give up on the Mighty Mouse
March 24th, 2009 · View Comments · Mac
I love Apple’s bluetooth Mighty Mouse. It works flawlessly. I like the design. You can’t see any buttons yet left and right clicks still work perfectly. It fits my hand. The side click buttons work great. It doesn’t lose connection like the Microsoft bluetooth mouse. It doesn’t need special drivers. The trackball on top is [...]
Tags:Mac
Clueless
March 23rd, 2009 · View Comments · Computing
I am often stunned by the lack of understanding in comments and opinions on the web. Here’s today’s example, culled from reactions to the possibility that IBM could acquire Sun:
Sun should stay independent. The only way Sun can retain the integrity of it’s research and vision, along with freedom to improvise would be without any [...]
Super-malware
March 23rd, 2009 · View Comments · Security
A couple of new software attacks have been published recently by security researchers. They are different from past attacks in that they are resistant to normal detection and removal techniques. As far as I am aware they aren’t in use in the wild yet but are scary enough that I decided to discuss them here.
The [...]
What it means for IBM to buy Sun
March 19th, 2009 · View Comments · Java
There’s been a lot of talk about the purported acquisition of Sun by IBM. Now Computerworld is piping in with some interesting observations. The biggest piece of news is that IBM supposedly has no interest in the hardware portion of Sun’s business. According to Computerworld, IBM only wants the software assets. If true, that’s the [...]
Tags:DTrace·GlassFish·IBM·Java·MySQL·Solaris·SPARC·Sun·WebSphere·ZFS
What does a REST interface look like?
March 19th, 2009 · View Comments · Web
I run into business developers who don’t know what REST is. REST stands for Representational State Transfer. That’s a complicated phrase for a very simple concept – using HTTP GET/POST/etc. as an API. Even that can be confusing because most people will say, how is that any different from a normal web application? In many [...]
Sun and Cloud Computing
March 18th, 2009 · View Comments · Computing, Java
Tim Bray, one of the moving forces behind XML wrote a blog entry about his work on cloud computing at Sun. It has lots of interesting information in it:
Sun is working on an open specification for creating, administrating and controlling cloud resources
Sun is implementing Amazon S3 interfaces
Sun is morphing the Q-Layer software [...]
iPhone OS 3.0 Town Hall Announcement
March 17th, 2009 · View Comments · iPhone
The iPhone OS 3.0 release is a huge jump for Apple. They’ve thrown a ton of updates into this one release and most of the pain points have been addressed.
Apple had their iPhone OS 3.0 announcement today. Quite a few changes with the platform, but first some interesting stats:
17,000,000 phones
13,000,000 iPod Touch [...]
