jr conlin's ink stained banana

At work, we use Java. A lot of java, really. Because of this, using an IDE is pretty darn indispensable. Mind you, i've got my opinions about IDEs, and to sum things up, it's pretty neutral. Still, IDEs generally prove their worth whenever it comes time to use someone else's framework (or even your own). IDE's are in effect, an editor that's been loosely tied to a database that can remember all the crap you can't.

When there are things like hundreds of classes with thousands of methods and fairly precise ordering of arguments (Ah, strong typing, how you make life an adventure. Kind of like drinking a Mexican jalapeño smoothie.), such loosely bound database is pretty damn spiffy. It frees up your mind for other things like, remembering to breathe and recognizing loved ones.

So, with the growing complexity that is modern Javascript frameworks (i'm lookin' at you YUI), IDEs are starting to become more and more useful. i'm still on the fence about ones like Komodo Edit, but i have to admit that once i did things like set it up to use VI edit commands (emacs is also available for sadists), and figured out how to get it to pull remote SCP files (hint, don't let it time out), having the YUI, jQuery, PHP and a bunch of other libraries pre-baked in is darn handy.

All in all, it's not bad. It's a kinda handy tool in the chest and i recommend grabbing a copy and seeing what you think. All i can say is that it's gotten a heck of a lot better over the past few years.

Mattresses are a scam.

i know that. Every time i hear an ad from one of the dozens of mattress retailers in the area, i know that. Every time i think about the fact that there are several dozens of outlets for said dozens of retailers offering a wide variety of selections that make me quite convinced that they could carpet the Santa Clara valley with $1000 King Sized, pillow top beasts, easily outnumbering the number of residents who might need to actually get a new mattress, i know that.

Yet, as i wake up every morning on a 7 year old, $800, pillow topped mattress feeling like i've run a marathon with a very angry midget strapped to my back, i realize that i probably do need to consider getting a new mattress.

Thing is, i've obviously failed at the fine art of quality mattress determination. Something i suspect a great many folks have also failed at. i mean, there's a sizable difference between spending 10 minutes laying on a mattress while several slowly circling sales people try to "up-sell" you on the memory-foam space mattress that is filled with freshly fluffed orphan dreams, and waking up from six to eight hours of rest. Plus, there's no guarantee that those delightfully cozy fluffy bits and sturdy springs won't give out after four or five years of dealing with your mass on a nightly basis.

Adding to the mess, it's not like there's a good resource for mattress reviews. They may be priced like fine automobiles, but it's not like there's tons of unbiased sites that can steer you away from a somnolent Yugo. Inevitably, most of the review sites have a decided agenda based around the idea of getting a percentage of the "top rated mattress" they so helpfully link to at a top price.

i know that one friend of mine (who apparently stays at finer hotels than i do) is thinking about buying one of the mattresses they use. (i wonder if i also get a selection of the little soaps and hand lotions with that?)

Sigh. There are certain things in life that one really wants to avoid, dealing with car salesmen, being audited, sitting in jury duty, and shopping for a mattress.

Oh well, it's late. Guess it's time to strap on the midget and go for a jog.

Every Tuesday is the group Work from Home day. It's a chance for us all to avoid meetings, hunker down and really focus on the tasks. As an added benefit, it also means that we don't have to drive in to work that particular day.

i do anyway.

One of the things i hate to admit about myself is that i'm not a particularly good "work from home" candidate. Maybe it's because when i'm home i spend an inordinate amount of time in my "office" as is, or maybe it's the mind shift that changing locations brings, but i just find myself being more productive "at work" than "at home".

When i'm home, i've got a set of completely different projects i'm working on, and even through the wonder of virtual desktops i can always shuffle them to the side, i've got plenty of physical notes about to remind myself to check out this library or scan that list for additional info. Heck, my browsers, readers and desktops are configured differently between work and home because of this.

Mind you, i love the distraction free day. It's amazing what one can do in eight hours when not being pulled into a meeting, regardless of where i happen to be. i guess i'm just weird.

i play hooky and go to work.

i have to admit, i'm turning out to not be a big fan of Java.

Let me clarify things a bit. i'm ok with Java the language. Yes, it's strongly bound and early binding which makes it less flexible than the stuff i'm used to dealing with, but since it's mostly object based, it's not like it's completely evil.

No, what starting to really drive me nuts is the various, weird, house of cards relationships that need to be established before anything works right. Take Tomcat for instance. It's the java interpretor that sits on top of Apache and allows you to write page templates with java in them. Now, one would think that it being layered on Apache, it would work like mod-perl, PHP, mod-python, or any of the other template languages layered on top of apache.

No, it doesn't.

It requires multiple XML based configuration files, associated error files, helper frameworks and applications, more xml settings files, and then various callback functions in java before things can even get started. And may Sun have mercy on your soul if you don't get things exactly right. It kinda makes you wonder why the hell they even bothered bringing Apache into the picture, but that's when you realize that Java is the Katamari Damacy of languages, where you keep rolling things in making larger and larger balls of code until eventually they become small planets you can live on. (Seriously, i thought Perl was bad about it, but it's got NOTHING on Java.)

This week, i'll enter my third week of utter frustration in order to get a configuration set up so i can test my 14 line modification to a class file. It took me less time to cobble together a build environment from close to 100K lines of C & C++ using gdb and tail -f, most of which was never checked into a code management system.

i just want to get an environment up that works. Because once that's in place, i am SO going to figure out some packaging structure so that i'm the last guy to ever have to go through this crap.

You know, i'm kinda glad i missed out on the BlogHer conference, if only after reading this New York Times article.

So, let's see what we've got. Bathrooms full of "nurturing" post-its saying "You're Perfect" followed by a bunch of folks whining that they're not popular enough. Beg pardon?

Look, i'm glad you've found a wonderful, supportive collection of folks. That's delightful. Now give me a reason to read you.

Lynne uses her board to record her life. She's touching and damn funny. Valette likewise has a highly skewed, and artistic outlook on life that makes rush to read her blog whenever she updates. Hetta provides great herbal advice and pointers mixed with humor that people find valuable. i read them not because they're women, i read them because they write stuff i want to read. Just like Steve's infrequent posts, or Ricky's photos, or anything else i might go to online.

i'm sorry, but but i just don't find little Billy's bowel movements quite as compelling as others may. There are hundreds of thousands of blogs out there. It's not that i hate you because you don't have a mis-matched pair of chromosomes, i don't care about you because you're boring.

i swear that if i was there, i'd sneak into those stalls and replace those bloody useless "You Talk Pretty" stickers with "Who the hell cares?"

Looking for popularity and can't answer that? Don't blog. It's that simple.

Now, if you'll excuse me, i'm going to set up a card table and yell that the folks that don't like my deep-fried, chocolate covered bacon and rhubarb "chiken" "ribs" are racist bigots.