Recent Blog Posts
Blogs ยป Archive for October, 2004
In search of a beginner-friendly server
For most, the first stop on the road to learning Java Web development (besides the book store), is setting up a Java-capable Web server. If you’re a cheapskate like me, the obvious choice is Tomcat, the Apache Software Foundation’s free Java Web server.
I spent this afternoon updating my JSP Quick-Start Guide for Windows article on SitePoint to work with Tomcat 5.0. Now I don’t want to diminish the achievement of the talented developers behind Tomcat, but I’m convinced that the only advantage of going with Tomcat over the alternatives is that it’s free to use even when hosting a commercial site on it.
Don’t get me wrong, Tomcat has a thriving community around it and the latest version has made great strides in usability — I was particularly impressed with the new server monitor in the Windows System Tray — but simple configuration tasks are still very daunting, and the documentation still seems like it’s written for experts in Java Web development.
None of this would be so bad if Tomcat weren’t the first stop on the road for new Java Web developers (after all, you get what you pay for, right?). So from right now I’m on a mission …
How to make more money by developing and marketing products
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/product-strategies-web-business
Many of you have asked for information about how to launch products. Please check out the above link, which discusses that topic in depth.
Enjoy, and as always, your comments are appreciated, even from transio.
High Performance MySQL
Many may have seen it on Slashdot yesterday - but Jeremy Zawodny has recently authored a new tome for the legions of MySQL fans. Zawodny, being employed by the fine folks at Yahoo, certainly has the real world practice and credentials for writing High Performance MySQL.
You can also see the Slashdot piece here, where the comments are almost as intriguing as the review..
BTW, this might be a good place, while talking about Mr. Zawodny, to link back to an earlier post in Open Sourcery on one of his utilities for MySQL, called MyTop. Read it here…
Rediscovering Java
It’s an exciting time to be a Java Web developer. Java 5 (Java 2 Standard Edition 5.0) has just been released, with a pile of new language features to bamboozle complacent developers who had gotten used to knowing the language inside and out. Major Java Web application servers have new releases out that support the latest standards in Java Web development (J2EE 1.4). And all the major development tools are being updated to support the powerful features of these standards, such as JavaServer Faces.
At the same time, Java is getting a bad reputation among everyday Web developers. There’s a growing sense that Java isn’t easy anymore, that you have to work for a company with the budget of a small country for Web development on this platform to make sense. Competing platforms like Microsoft’s .NET are winning loads of cool points for doing things that Java has done for years, while Java is perceived as a stagnant monolith by many.
A lot of this sentiment comes from the fact that Java Web development was invented in layers. First there was this cool, easy-to-learn programming language: Java. Someone wanted to generate Web pages with it on …
Two proven ways to get over the fear of rejection
Here are two proven ways to get over the fear of rejection:
1. The “no” exercise. This is a great game, and I use it in my training classes. The objective is to go up to people and ask them for things, with the intent of getting a “no.” First we do it with the training participants. People go around the room making crazy requests:
- Can I borrow $100?
- Will you buy me dinner?
- Could you give me a couple of Superbowl tickets?
- I’d like to be President of your company for a day, okay?
Their goal is to get a “no.” That way, they see that a “no” is meaningless, and can even be fun. In fact, many participants note that when the pressure is off, they are actually even MORE influential. Even though they want a “no,” their partner often reports that he or she was tempted to give in.
We then repeat the exercise in the real world. During lunch and that night, participants have to go up to 10 people, make a crazy request, and get a “no” (without getting a punch in the nose or a harrassment lawsuit, of course).
It’s a great exercise. Give it a try today: …
CFHTTP and DNS Caching
Tom Jordahl is a Macromedia Server Development Engineer and he’s just blogged about CFHTTP caching DNS Queries.
Apparently people were blaming the CFHTTP tag for caching the DNS queries forever, or at least until you restarted the CFMX services.
Tom did some digging and found the culprit is actually the JAVA InetAddress class (which MM uses to support HTTP operations). He provides a tweak to fix this and hopes to get a technote etc published.
And thanks to Talking Tree aka Steven Erat for the heads up.
SSH In-Depth
No matter how long I am immersed in a particular technology, I find I can learn something new everyday. That is perhaps one of the joys of being a citizen of geekdom.
I came across Brian Hatch’s piece at SecurityFocus.com that is the beginning of an in-depth series on SSH. Mr. Hatch starts perfectly with a rundown on SSH host keys, usage, verification and configuration techniques.
You can never read enough about security and though I know someone else coined the phrase “paranoia breeds confidence” - it is a great mantra when protecting customer and corporate assets.
Hatch’s bio is quite nice, being the author of Hacking Linux Exposed, Second Edition among other publications.
Coming soon..
Man has it been crazy around my office. We are about to start a project which has to be completed in 30 days. This is design, development, Q&A, Training, and Live release. While this isn’t a problem for us, it does mean some wicked hours and work schedules for the next month.
The project is supposed to take about 2 - 3 months to complete but due to client “needs” we are really pushing the development envelope.
So why are we doing this? It’s simply because we can. This isn’t the normal way we like to do business but we have procedures in place, coding standards and a great team of people, so we know we can deliver for our client.
The other mitigating factor to our confidence is our in-house CMS which all our sites use / run on. Everyday I see the benefits of having these “tools” available to me and my shop, and everyday our customers do as well.
It’s because of our CMS that we can deliver what our customers need, in the time frame they need it. It’s also leading me to develop a new philosophy on CMS systems.
Many people cry because there are “too many” out …
Secret of a 180 degree turnaround
It’s halftime here in the USA, and the New England Patriots are beating the Seattle Seahawks 20-6. For those of you who aren’t into USA football, the NE Patriots have won 19 straight games, an NFL record. It looks like, barring a meltdown, they’ll win 20 after today. And they’ve won 2 Superbowls in 3 years, an incredibly difficult feat in today’s sports environment (e.g. free agency, parity, etc).
Keep reading even if you aren’t a sports fan….the business lesson will come soon….
When I was growing up in Massachusetts, my Dad took me every Sunday to see the Patriots. Back then, the Patriots were losers. They had lousy players, one of the worst stadiums in football, and almost always had a losing record. The idea of the Patriots winning a Superbowl, let alone 2 of them in 3 years, was ridiculous.
So how did they turn themselves around, and what does that have to do with you?
First, a new owner (Robert Kraft) took over. Unlike the previous owners, he took a long term view, and worked to build an organization. In fact, he even let Bill Parcels, one of the greatest coaches ever, leave the team after taking the Patriots to the …
Wikis Galore
The focus has been on wikis of late - both here at SitePoint and through the general growth in exposure and popularity as developers and savvy users find ways to integrate these amazing flexible tools into their environments.
I have spent time recently trying to decide just how to best utilize this powerful tool beyond shared documentation portals — and in the process of evaluating came across a comprehensive index of wikis.
One particular engine I am spending some time with is MediaWiki, although I am far from having completed an exhaustive evaluation of wikis. Somehow I doubt I can actually test them all and will choose the one most flexible and supported (I also have loaded up phpwiki and am kicking it around as well).
MediaWiki happens to power a favorite of my research sites, wikipedia.
Some of my peers at SitePoint have also brought this to the forefront recently, including via this post in the PHP blog — Dynamically Typed.
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