I am a big movie buff. I watched every episode of Project Greenlight on HBO. If I lived anywhere near one of the theaters that was playing it, I would have gone to see "The Battle of Shaker Heights". While watching Project Greenlight, I started to become very frustrated. Not about the show, but about my job.
Monday, our architect took it upon himself to upgrade a part of the database. This wasn't a release or planned or anything, just a minor upgrade... That killed the search capabilities of the system. Many authors (de Marco for one) have been saying for a long time that the software industry is not like the manufacturing industry. To my knowledge, no one has really come up with a parallel industry for software, so I am going to take a stab at it now.
The software industry should be like the movie industry. It is more about the definition of roles than anything else. The producer is in charge of the entire movie, you won't find him telling the actors how to act. That is the director's role. Now the producer will try to influence the director, but that is the producer's job. The actor doesn't tell the camera man how to shoot a picture, that is the Director of Photography's job. Everyone in the movie industry has a very distinct role, and the industry knows that there is a NEED to have these roles filled. Even for small films like "The Battle of Shaker Heights" they have a lady whose job it is to follow the directors around with a script and tell them what the actors are actually supposed to be saying.
I think there are some very interesting parallels between the software industry and the movie industry. Unfortunately, few people in the software industry take their roles seriously. They want to get involved with everyone else's role.
Also, it is expected that they will not have the ENTIRE team up and ready to go from the very beginning. The set builders don't hang around for post production, they go work on other movies. The actors aren't involved or even hired when the set is being built. People roll on and off of the team when they are needed. We are done with our GUI designer, so why is he sticking around waiting for the product to launch? Couldn't he be helping out another project? If not, wouldn't this be a good time to send him on vacation? I mean, it has to be better than him sitting around doing continuous tweaks to the interface. Right?
Let me know if I am off my rocker on this one. I think it has some potential. But then, I think it would be cool to have secretaries be testers too.
Ahhhh!! Mixing static content with MT is a bit of a challenge. In an attempt to avoid having all of the html files in one directory is causing great pain and suffering. I am about to create a php file that will be a content redirector, just so I can have content below the root. It is dealing with the MT style tags and the php style tags that is driving me bananas.
I thought it would be easier to build a CMS based sight that also had alot of static content using a mix of PHP and MT. It is doable... Just not as easy as I thought it was going to be.
UGH! I found this really cool site a couple of months ago. I just happened upon it. Unfortunately, I can't find it again. I don't remember what I was looking for when I found it in the first place. I don't remember a name. All I remember is it had menus that were hidden in the side of the browser, and when you moused over a patch the menu would pop out. The site was black, and I remember the guy seeming to be REALLY smart about JavaScript and DHTML. But for the life of me, I can't find the site. HELP!!
Equilibrium takes Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 and then twists them into a Matrix like world. Very good film. The pace gets a bit slow in the middle, but if you bear through to the end, you will feel like it was well worth the wait. I highly recommend renting this one soon.
Why does Europe and Asia get all of the cool Nokia phones?
I have started using Mozilla. I am a HUGE fan of IE. It is fast. Writing DHTML for it is easy. But I have fallen in love with tabbed browsing. I said I never would, but I really dig it. That is the primary reason why I have "switched". What's next? Start using a Mac? Using the horizontal view? LOL Each of those is doubtful, but so was using Mozilla two months ago. I also said I would never use an aggregator. That has changed as well, I use Beggregator to satisfy all of my reading needs.
So, lets get back to Nokia. Look at these phones. And then check out these phones. I seriously want an 8910i and the 7650 isn't that bad either!
Brian brought up a point that has me just a tad concerned. IDEA is starting to go down hill. As a company, JetBrains must continue to improve their product. But how do you improve a product that is already nearly perfect? Hani and Ara have touched on the subject as well. I think the generics support will be cool. It is just like supporting JSP's and XML. No other IDE supports those other file types as well as IDEA, so it is no surprise that they are going to be first in this new format for .java files. I think the same goes for AOP. Even though I will probably never use it, it is nifty to know that it is there in case of a need in the future. So, what do I want from IDEA?
I want IDEA to stay easy.
I can set up a project in a matter of seconds in IDEA. It has always "made sense" in this department. I can't figure out how to start a project in JBuilder that will connect to CVS. At least not without having to read the docs. Together ControlCenter wasn't much better. This was one of the main reasons why I purchased IDEA with my own hard earned cash. Brian was right. Bring back the Classpath, Project Path and Source Path. If these new forms are for some future multi-component ability, then just ensure it all makes sense.
I want a GUI editor.
I think if IDEA makes a GUI editor that rivals VB (which if anyone can, JetBrains will be the group to do it) Java will start becoming a consideration on the desktop again.
I want better CVS support.
IDEA already has it, but it could be better. Right now I use WinCVS and IDEA to handle all of my CVS needs.
I want IDEA to stay cheap.
I truely believe this is one of the reasons why it caught on so well. Bang for the buck was HUGE. If JetBrains needs more cash, then charge for maintence and support. That is where you get the companies usually. I don't usually need support for IDEA, but you know companies purchasing large quantities are going to need it and want it. They will pay for it. I have a sneaking suspicsion that this is one of the primary reasons JetBrains is raising the price, to be more attractive to larger companies.
Overall, there is not a better Java IDE. I just hope that JetBrains starts innovating again and brings new life to the IDE world.
I just bought a new camera (Canon S230). I am looking forward to sending out emails to friends and family pointing them to the latest and greatest pictures. I wish I would have bought it two days ago because my kids were in a dance recital today and it would have been great to start off with a grand occasion.
Humorously, the driving factor for my purchase was business. I will be building a web site for my kids' dance studio in the very near future and I know that one of the things that will really make that site stand out will be constantly updating pictures. I will definately post a link to the new site when it is finished.