I spec'd a new project the other day. Nothing new, we do this all the time, probably a few dozen times a year. We went through the usual…
I was reading this post , which raises some interesting points, but it sidesteps what I believe is the absolutely most important reason…
This post set me off today. Apparently, because I want a modern Java on my Mac, I'm being selfish. Actually more specifically I'm being a…
So my ranting continues. My friend is adamantly refusing to change his Servlet/JSP habits and I'm afraid I have to take it out on everyone…
This started as a post about how Java EE 5 has improved my experience in writing webservices based applications. However, for the past hour…
So, an associate of mine is really enjoying programmatic database query criteria, and now it's spilled over onto me :) The use-case that…
OK, so around 2005 we did some projects with WebServices. They were successful, but we wrote a lot more code than we wanted to. We hand…
I often see a lot of complaining about the Apache Maven build tool. In fact, sometimes I do a lot of complaining about it myself. The fact…
So, I decided I had had enough of looking at 400-600ms server prep times for Seam pages on a project we're working on. It just didn't seam…
On my last post, I began dissecting what might be causing JBoss Seam to be "slow" on one of our projects. In this post, I'm going to show…
Wow, so here's a short one for you. I'm tuning an application to utilize the Hibernate 2nd level cache. The application uses Hibernate…
Today. Today we are better than yesterday, but not as good as we will be tomorrow. Today our tools are better than they were yesterday, but…
I say again, ?! I have used SSL Explorer for years, it's an incredible piece of software that gives you a simple web console to initiate…
In this guide, I'm going to go through how I've configured high-performance web applications in the past using Squid and Apache to front-end…
Since I've been back at TWM and getting involved in the day to day operations again, and I'm back on task to formalize our procedures…
It's finally here, Java EE 6 represents another serious step forward in the core Java server technology stack. It's kind of anti-climactic…
So this month, Java EE 6 was released. So many new capabilities are now part of the baseline stack, it's very cool. After tweeting about how…
Trying to work something out and it just doesn't look possible right now. Since Java EE 6 was officially released earlier this month, I've…
OK, so some progress has been made. I've abandoned using the Maven dependency indicated by Netbeans 6.8 and the org.codehaus.mojo.archetypes…
OK, found another brick wall :) So if you recall, I have a Maven 2 build. I now have discreet API jars isolated for JPA 2, Servlet 3, and…
I have to say, I admire Steve Jobs for taking the hard line on so many issues. It isn't easy, and he's sure taking the flack for it these…
I'm proud to announce that we're releasing one of our newer frameworks into the open-source community - specifically under the Simplified…
Something has been weighing heavy on my mind for a while now. Years, in fact. I didn't realize it however until the past few weeks while…
1. Imagine an end-result in only the coarsest detail Let's face it, we're all human. We can't juggle everything in our heads, and we don't…
Your project is lying to you. That comment that someone wrote way back over that block of code? Yeah, it was relevant a year ago. Today, it…
There is a particular class of problem, a Wicked Problem , that denies solution. These problems are difficult or impossible to solve due to…
Yeah, you heard me. I love those sensationalist headlines. I've been frustrated lately trying to bring some associates along in their web…
When you've done a code kata many times, it helps to find new ways to increase the level of difficulty of the kata. We often introduce…
It is so easy to sweep things under the rug. I’ll fix that comment later. One day, I’ll need to refactor this. Oooo this code is stinky, no…
In 2011, Daniel Kahneman launched a book called Thinking Fast and Slow. It summarized decades of research and presented one core thesis…
I have found a new thing. A test culture so pervasive and intrinsic that they want to test everything . So much so that they have chosen an…
The Stable Dependencies Principle (link on C2 - wiki.c2.com/?StableDependenciesPrinciple) is often expressed as a principle applying between…
So, how much of a part do your feelings play in how you write software? Feelings are important. Feelings are your "spidey sense", your…
So, this hit my newswires today: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23331144-500-ai-learns-to-write-its-own-code-by-stealing-from-other…
I've been coaching other teams for over a year now (I spent 15 years coaching my own teams), but I still have a small software development…
I see a lot of misunderstanding around doing code kata in the work that I do. Just this week, I had a conversation with my apprentice about…
Our friends who live down the road from us, always have such a beautiful garden and take amazing care of their animals. The way they've…
I started wearing glasses a few years ago, entering in to that cycle of a new prescription every few years to renew my focus. Thinking about…
The Past Software development today is very different than 10 years ago, and worlds apart from what it was 20 years ago. 20 years ago, we…
What’s your job title? What does it say about you? What doesn’t it say about you? We are human beings, doing what we can with the tools we…
This past weekend, I took part in the PTBOGameJam03 event in Peterborough, Ontario, an event that has steadily grown since August 2016. In…
Thinking over Typing 2.0 As a developer, I've found it possible to describe to ChatGPT my general programming style and have it generate a…
A Simplistic Example Let's start from a simplistic example so that you can get a sense of where I'm thinking. The way I work as a developer…
The idea of an Agent is something that has developed over the course of applying Large Language Models (LLMs) to problem solving. You can…
I've been doing a lot of my ML coding in Python. Honestly, for a long time I resisted it, but the tooling moves so fast and is so simple to…
Back in June, I was playing with structured semantics as a way to interact with an LLM for applications. Today, I watched a video that made…
You gotta love the "AI" newsfeed these days, fast and furious. So, along the path of writing this 6th instalment, a number of things emerged…
Stepping Up the Complexity Up to this point in the blog series, we've laid a little groundwork, and demonstrated a very simplistic example…
London and Chicago Style TDD, A Design Perspective In the field of TDD, two primary schools of thought have emerged, that are often used in…
This post has moved, I have renamed it. Read the post here - What Is A Developer? I've been using the word "bionic" for a few years now as…
Thanks to a colleague, I came across this article today, and it's been energizing. The author and his editors at O'Reilly have put together…
Today, in "building LLM agents is hard". I'm experimenting with a novel problem-solving model using the little Qwen2.5 14B parameter model…
A group of us sat down to do the Bowling Kata the other day, to see if we could get the GenAI to do the implementation as we wrote the spec…
The seed for this article series is here , it's long and a bit ranty, but I wanted to draw a bunch of ideas into one place that we could…
It's been 4 months since the last post, and I wanted to put out this interstitial post just to cover the time lapse. Since my last post…