I was reading this post the other day and thinking about my particular challenges with software developers. Which I believe I have some…
I was reading this post , which raises some interesting points, but it sidesteps what I believe is the absolutely most important reason…
I've been writing recently, mostly because our ThreeWiseMen.ca website needs an overhaul for content. Three Wise Men is my software…
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…
Have you tried this? I mean really, sat down, tried to make something simple. Not simple for you, simple for others. People always say they…
Life is a learning exercise. I have two contrasting projects on my mind right now that are at different stages of complexity, although they…
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…
Apple didn't ship Java 1.6 with OS-X Leopard. I've been hoping for this for months. At least they updated Ruby to 1.8.6.
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…
Yeah, you heard me. I love those sensationalist headlines. I've been frustrated lately trying to bring some associates along in their web…
This started as a post about how Java EE 5 has improved my experience in writing webservices based applications. However, for the past hour…
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've blogged before on the fallacies of software development estimates. I found this posting particularly well thought-out and…
So, an associate of mine is really enjoying programmatic database query criteria, and now it's spilled over onto me :) The use-case that…
I've always lived at the fringe of computing, with a foot in the popular and a foot in the obscure. When I was a kid, I had a Tandy TRS-8…
So I went to the TSOT Rails Project night last night, it was good to see some familiar faces and I enjoyed the presentations. There was some…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Lately, software project estimation has risen to the surface as a discussion topic at Three Wise Men . The flurry of smaller proposals we…
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…
We as an industry forgot this for a long time, and I am proud to be part of the movement to bring it back. I hear all the time from people…
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…
I'm proud to announce that we're releasing one of our newer frameworks into the open-source community - specifically under the Simplified…
We write software today , it's important to always remember this. Often when we are asked to write software, we are typically provided with…
Those that know me know that I'm not afraid of change. I'm a big proponent of "strong opinions loosely held". When something makes sense…
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…
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…
So, how much of a part do your feelings play in how you write software? Feelings are important. Feelings are your "spidey sense", your…
More than occasionally, I get asked, "How can I learn programming as a beginner?" I have many thoughts on this, and here is just one of them…
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 believe we are experiencing a diversity crisis in this field. Too few voices and life perspectives shaping the devices and software we use…
More than occasionally, I get asked, "How can I learn programming as a beginner?" I have many thoughts on this, and here is just one of them…
This weekend I attended a "hackathon" and was surrounded by folks who didn't really understand the word hacker. They struggled to get…
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…
We have built, unwittingly, a fundamentally flawed environment for delivering software. Incapable of dealing with bugs and viruses…
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…
Popular media loves to talk about "artificial intelligence" these days. It is a hot topic, one riddled with misunderstanding. Artificial…
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…
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…
This past weekend, I took part in the PTBOGameJam03 event in Peterborough, Ontario, an event that has steadily grown since August 2016. In…
I drew this picture to illustrate a few ideas, and it’s long overdue for an explanation beyond the few folks at whom I’ve stood in front of…
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…
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…
I sat in a meeting yesterday that was probably the best illustration of conflict between business models and systems models that Ive seen…
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…
I'm talking to more people lately who are fearful for their profession in an age of AI. I keep coming back to "The Map Is Not The Territory…
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…
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…