Archive for the 'computing' Category

Java fighting a losing battle

Published by Glen on April 7, 2008 under computing, programming

Interesting article from Zend co-founder Andi Gutmans on how the Java world is leveraging dynamic languages such as Ruby and PHP in order to remain relevant in the web application world. The obvious question is, though, whether using JRuby has enough advantages over using Ruby or PHP in a plain Linux environment without a JVM.

Today Sun is investing in JRuby Ruby and Jython Python support for its Java EE solution; the IBM Websphere group has realized the ineffectiveness of the Java EE platform for running modern Web workloads and has invested heavily in Project Zero which aims to make big blue a Web 2.0 player and initially delivers support for Groovy and PHP; BEA has also had some incubation projects going but with the upcoming sale to Oracle it is unclear whether any of those efforts will materialize.

Andi on Web & IT: Java is losing the battle for the modern Web. Can the JVM save the vendors?

Ridiculous SQL

Published by Glen on March 19, 2008 under computing

I miss playing around with SQL. It can be fun, sometimes. Other times, however….

I need help on simplyfying this Update query!

Creator of ELIZA dies

Published by Glen on March 7, 2008 under computing, programming

Joe Weizenbaum, the creator of one of the earliest examples of Artificial Intelligence, has died. Weizenbaum created ELIZA, the “virtual therapist”, which I’ve played around with in various implementations over the years. It inspired me to investigate Lisp, so for that reason alone I hold Weizenbaum in high regard.

“A computer will do what you tell it to do, but that may be much different from what you had in mind”

cyclotram: Joe Weizenbaum dead at 85. ELIZA in denial.

My favourite monospace font

Published by Glen on February 5, 2008 under computing

ProFont has been my monospace font of choice for many years now, and I’ve yet to find a font that comes close to its clarity. I use 9pt ProFont in both my text editor and Terminal, with no anti-aliasing applied.

ProFont for Windows, for Macintosh, for Linux

Stephen Fry on the EEE PC and Open Source

Published by Glen on February 3, 2008 under computing, open source

“The two great pillars of Open Source are the GNU project and Linux. I shan’t burden you with too much detail, I’ll just make the outrageous claim that your computer will be running some descendant of those two within the next five years and that your life will be better and happier as a result.”

Deliver us from Microsoft

Computers I have owned

Published by Glen on February 2, 2008 under computing

I have been reminiscing today, so to continue the theme, here is a list of the computers I have owned over the years, starting with my earliest:

  • Amstrad CPC 464
  • Amiga A500
  • Amiga A1200
  • Apple iMac G3
  • Apple iMac G4
  • Apple iMac Intel

I’m going to detail my experiences with each over the next few weeks… what a treat!