that’s great…

java posse says please leave…

So some guy (I wont link to him) had complaints about podcast lengths. He happened to single out the Java Posse. They didn’t take that laying down. Next podcast - episode 161, the English guy (Dick Wall) politely notes that unsubscribing is not a difficult task. The other guys were more forward - they asked the guy to please unsubscribe.

I have to agree w/ the posse. Stop crying about the length of a free podcast! Who cries about unfinsihed podcasts literaing their itunes? Who blames amateur content producers? Wow.

certified in spring…

Spring has definitely made my life easier. Not just on all of my side projects, but at work too. At this moment, I have all our domain objects and services wired and working via Spring-2.5. Mostly JPA, two JDBC Daos. A bunch of POJO services with some some basic transaction management. Client/Server, so some RMI invokers, and some JMS. Nothing too crazy. All of this took about 3 months. But I assure you, this would have taken double, maybe triple that time if I had to write any of real boilerplate junk. I’m not a fan-boy, just thankful.

Anyway, so you mightunderstand why I’d consider getting some level of SpringSource Certification. At only 150USD, it’s not that bad. Sun’s exams were about that, and more in some cases. Speaking of Sun’s certification, did it really help? I don’t mean just after you got it, but now. If you are a Sun certified JEE developer, and you’ve interviewed for a position in the past 3 years, do you believe having that certification helped you get a position? Maybe it did.

Personally, I fought with this between 2004 and 2006. In the end, I realized simply knowing your stuff probably goes a bit further. A reasonable technical interviewer will know exactly what to ask to weed out those lacking the required knowledge; certification or not. With that in mind, I wonder, how would I really benefit from the certification. Some might say, if it wont break your bank, do it. In some ways, this is like college: I know many who did not go to college, and are great at whatever they do. I also know some fellow CS alumni who are just rubbish.

the show me campaign…

If you can, and care, here’s a charity to consider: the show me campaign. I came upon it watching a John Legend video for his song, Show Me. At first I thought he was doing a take on the two footprints in the sand inspirational. But it wasn’t… It was about 2 stowaways that lost their lives trying to escape poverty by climbing into the landing gear section of a plane. It seems this case, among many pulled on John’s heart strings… I hope it does the same for you.

the sound of silence…

OK, last week my car battery died, so I replaced it. Aside from a trivial thing like the clock being reset, you might also have to enter some security codes. The anti-theft system on my stereo/CD system required some code, that I didn’t receive when I purchased the car (5 years ago). Long story short, I had to make the time to go to the dealership near me, and get that all figured out.

That’s just some background. The real issue is the silence. I have never experienced as much silence in my car since I started driving. Being that I love music so much, this actually changed my mood – in a very bad way. I usually drive at a fast pace, err, at the speed limit. I blast a tune, and I enjoy the ride; no matter how short. Without the sound system, it was like driving Sadness to the mall, to meet her friend Anger… Everyday, for a week.

Well, onwards to better things: the dealership reset my system, and on the way in from the dealership I blasted some Kanye West. There was one positive thing about this experience: more time to further expound existing ideas. And in my head, Simon and Garfunkel’s classic The Sound of Silence quietly played. You know, like elevator music.

bill gates’ last day…

Brian V just hit me w/ this video, and it’s hilarious. A few major of cameos too. Regardless of what you think of Bill Gates, you wish you could stay at one company from the age of 17, and then retire to be a full-time philanthropist! It makes sense, he has to get started on spending his and Buffet’s money…