A new BlueJ release

I was just reading on James Gosling's blog that the BlueJ project recently released a new version of their development environment. I first learned about this teaching environment several years ago, and it has always struck me as interesting. That being said, their book is very expensive, and if you're looking for an excellent, free Java programming book, look around for Bruce Eckel's Java book(s).

Crazy Al

Crazy Al is putting content on a new website ... not like there isn't enough to do already. Well, here's a link to his other developer's daily site, another Java, Perl, Unix open source website. Somebody stop the man, he's gone made, lol.

How many will die because of oil spill?

Okay, I hate to ask, but how many millions and millions of animals will die in our oceans because of this massive BP oil spill, and how long will our food supply be contaminated?

Massive floods in Wasilla, Alaska (many years ago)

Here's a great article about a part of Alaska that was inundated by huge floods ways back in the day.

Here's a brief excerpt from the article:

The event was one of at least four "megafloods" as Glacial Lake Atna breached ice dams and discharged water. The lake covered more than 3,500 square miles in the Copper River Basin northeast of Anchorage and Wasilla.

You can see this on Google Maps by searching for Wasilla, Alaska, and then switching to the "terrain" view.

Chasin Cars (Sarah Bettens, acoustic)

Geez, this acoustic performance of Chasin Cars, by Sarah Bettens just blows me away. I just wish it didn't make me so sad. Just an amazing performance though.

How to delete multiple iPhone photos

Here's a simple little post that shows why I love the internet 98% of the time: How to delete multiple iPhone photos at one time. Straight to the chase "Here's how you do something", in this case, deleting multiple iPhone photos at one time.

Of course it doesn't hurt that I know the guy that wrote it, but still, it's good stuff ... especially when you really do need to know how to delete multiple iPhone photos.

Can man live on PBJ sandwiches?

Question of the day: Can man live on PBJ (peanut butter and jelly) sandwiches?

For weeks I've had no desire to eat anything else for lunch, and after making another one just now, I have to wonder if this is good for me?

Well, time will tell.

How to permanently delete a Facebook account

Here's a story about how a website's traffic spiked when they release an article on how to permanently delete a Facebook account. Facebook is facing a big backlash from the community over how they routinely trample on your privacy, and I think this backlash is good, and certainly well-deserved.

Jobs on why Mac Design Awards are dropped

I'm not sure where the actual story is, but I just read that Steve Jobs explained in an email why the Apple/Mac Design Awards were dropped from the WWDC. He says this is "just the normal cycle of things".

Uh, that's great Steve (actually, no, that's not great), but why didn't you tell all the developers this a long, long time ago?

Facebook versus AOL

One of the things I've been wondering about lately is how Facebook came along and created something very successful, when this should have been AOL's game to win or lose. Was the AOL brand "Your mother's website"? Did AOL just not realize or implement all the social/sharing features Facebook has?

I don't know the answer, because I never used AOL. Maybe that's part of their problem ... I perceived them as a dialup company, and I also perceived them using their own proprietary tools (their own "browser", search, etc.) instead of internet technologies, and once I saw them that way, they were never really relevant.

So I guess that's part of it then ... maybe you can't go from being irrelevant to being cool?

Facebook's Eroding Privacy Policy (EFF article)

Wow, this article by the EFF on Facebook's Eroding Privacy Policy is so good, it's brilliant ... and, it's Facebook's own words over the years.

How good is it that in 2005 they used to start "No personal information that you submit ...", and then in 2009 they start "Facebook is designed to make it easy for you to share ...", and in 2010 they have "When you connect with an application or website it will have access to General Information about you ...", and then they have to go on and start defining the term "General Information".

Wow, they now have to define the term "General Information about you"? What happened to "No personal information"???

Go get 'em, EFF!

New "Hide Your Desktop" app

A few days ago Al posted his "Hide your desktop and desktop icons" app online. I thought I'd add to it some of our discussions on this project.

This project started off as another app that Al wrote many years ago to help with his blog writing. He created what he called a "curtain" that would swoosh in behind the main window of his app. We both thought this was pretty cool, and then discussed how to make it a general-purpose "Hide your desktop" app.

Beyond that, we started talking about Guy Kawasaki's DICEE acronym, and how that applies here. Either Al or I will write more about this in the future, but I think those are the two clear points for today: 1) Where this "Hide your desktop (and desktop icons)" idea came from, and 2) the DICEE concept.

Starlin Castro heading to Cubs MLB team

Wow, the Cubs are promoting Starlin Castro to the MLB team. He was playing very well at their AA team, but this is still a pretty amazing promotion. They plan to start playing him immediately in their series against Cincinnati this weekend. Ryan Theriot (TheRiot) will be moved second base, as expected.

Apple, iPhone, iPad; Google, Android/Nexus ... tablet?

Another article on Google looking to put the Chrome OS on a tablet.

All I can say is that Google has a tremendous appetite, and their relationship with Apple these days must be horrible. The go from having two people sitting on Apple's board to competing with Apple in the mobile phone and tablet market in less than a year.

Does Apple respond by realizing they have to get into the search market to grow their revenue?

Is Tony Dungy trying to sabotage the Colts?

I was shocked and appalled to read Tony Dungy say that the Colts will win the Super Bowl against the Saints easily. This is the same Tony Dungy who wold never say anything like that when he was the coach, and would never allow his players to say that.

He could have just said, "I think the Colts will win", and everyone would have thought, "That's the understated Tony Dungy we've always known", but instead he's given the Saints some locker-room reading material and extra motivation.

I have to think there's just a twinge of jealousy in Mr. Dungy about the Colts success this year, whether he'll admit that to himself or not. I can't think of any other reason a "friend" would give motivational material to the Colts coming opponent.

Links related to the NoSQL movement

A quick note here to follow up my previous NoSQL blog post with several great links I've found

• The NooSQL discussion has nothing to do with SQL (Michael Stonebreaker)
• NoSQL - Distributed and scalable non-relational databases
• Are object databases NoSQL technologies?

As Mr. Stonebreaker states, "There are two possible reasons to move to either of these alternate DBMS technologies: performance and flexibility." (If you don't know who he is, here's a link to Mr. Stonebreaker's wikipedia page.)

David I and the NoSQL movement

I also want to take a moment to acknowledge the NoSQL movement. I just ran across this SQL and NoSQL article by David Intersimone (who I met at Borland many years ago), where he gives a nice history of traditional SQL products and tools, and also talks about the NoSQL movement, and the factors spurring on the need for non-SQL databases (data stores).

For the record, David I is now an evangelist for Embarcadero. He's a very interesting person, and I really like his "Programming is Life" mantra, which he shares at the end of that article.

Latest Java tutorials

I've been a little busy working on several different Java projects lately, so I haven't taken the time to add any posts here. But I do want to highlight five Java tutorials I've helped work on lately over on the devdaily.com website:

• Java exec with ProcessBuilder and Process (Java System exec)
• Java ping class/program
• Java file open, read, and write methods
• Java Action, ActionListener, and AbstractAction
• A collection of JFrame examples and tutorials

Personally I'm very happy with the work we've been producing lately, and I'm also glad we've gotten rid of the popup (popunder) ads on the website.

I think we all hope that in the next year or two we will have a really great website going there. This is at least partially reflected on Alexa.com, where the devdaily.com traffic rank has moved from 90,000 a year ago, to under 30,000 today. (That's an increase in ranking of over 60,000 websites in less than a year.)

How and why Apple does "controlled leaks"

Think what you will of Apple and their legendary silence before releasing new products, but this MacObserver article really hits the nail on the head from a business perspective.

In the case of this week's leak to the Wall Street Journal, the author states that Apple needed to release the tablet information early because they wanted:

• to light a fire under a recalcitrant partner
• to float the idea of the US$1,000 price point and gauge reaction
• to panic/confuse a potential competitor about whom Apple had some knowledge
• to whet analyst and observer expectations to make sure the right kind and number of people show up at the (presumed) January 27 event. Apple hates empty seats and demands SRO at these events.

The author, John Martellaro, is a former Apple marketing manager, so (a) he should know what he's talking about, and (b) FWIW, humble little me agrees with his statements.

I'm surprised more companies don't take this approach, but I guess that Apple has an advantage here of releasing "game changing" products, from the original Mac, to the iPod, and the iPhone (along with some duds as well).

New Palm phones look nice, but are they enough?

Catching up on the CES news, Palm has come out with some nice-looking new versions of their phones, but I'm afraid it may be too little, too late for them.

I think history will show that Palm had the chance to be a dominant player in the cellphone market, but for one reason or another (bad design or bad management) they never got it done.

Hey Apple - wake up

Wow, a great post here titled "Hey Apple, Wake Up, It's Happening Again", about how Google having Android running on all mobile phone hardware platforms (versus the iPhone) is just like the original Mac/PC battle of the 80s and early 90s.

Once again we get the choice of one Apple product running against software and hardware from a variety of companies.

Funny Drupal cartoon

For anyone that uses Drupal, this image of Mr. Obama typing a Drupal path from Dries Buytaert's website is funny stuff.