Speaking of SOA consultants

http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid26_gci1297761,00.html?asrc=SS_CLA_309646&psrc=CLT_26

Points the author makes applies to consultants in general, not just SOA consultants. Like many of these articles do, the author pulls back on the criticism. For example, yeah consultant are pimping for vendors, but the vendors aren’t so bad. Also, the author sells SOA as whole new thing that requires new, everything on a project. You should discount puffery on the part of consultants, but then you have to ask, who actually has extensive experience with the whole new thing?

Bored at work

I hear ping pong in the background here.

Reading about SQLite. Getting a JNI program to work in NetBeans. NetBeans not so good for C++ development.

Interesting article about undersea cables from Wired –http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html

F# blogging – http://diditwith.net/2008/01/15/WhyILoveFTheInteractiveEnvironment.aspx

The recession is here

http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/05/news/economy/recession/index.htm?cnn=yes

Stock market agrees – Dow down 300+

But worry too much yet about losing your job, relax a little while you have one:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/02/05/work.spouse/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

McDonalds’ coffee offerings

Just bought a $1.99 large iced coffee. (ice coffee in the South). It was a lot larger than I expected, as large as their large $1.00 iced tea (ice tea). Not bad will have enough to sip on the rest of the afternoon.

SOA or Bust, or enough SOA reading to keep you busy

Chapters from books (free), etc. Seems to be enough stuff here to learn all the buzzwords, bizbabble, etc you would need, maybe even a technical point or two

http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/guide/bookshelf/category/0,,sid26_tax309646_idx0_off10,00.html

Tracking politicians like bugs

Nice title.

As I edited the February cover feature of Software Test & Performance magazine—which compares open source bug tracking tools Bugzilla and Trac— it occurred to me that the same tools we use for tracking software defects could also be applied to tracking politicians.

That’s why I invented FlakTrak, a new defect tracking system for keeping abreast of where our leaders stand.

Here’s how it works. The first time a politician takes a position on an issue, it’s entered into FlakTrak and assigned to that politician. If it’s a position I agree with, it’s resolved immediately and becomes a feature. Falling into this category are promises of (or a record of) reducing taxes, building a border fence and leaving a stable Iraq.

If a candidate takes a position I disagree with, such as calling for corporate windfall profit taxes, amnesty for illegal aliens or an artificial timetable for surrender, a bug is created and assigned a priority. If a candidate has too many unresolved, high-priority defects, I wouldn’t vote to deploy that product into the Oval Office.

http://www2.sdtimes.com/content/article.aspx?ArticleID=31690

Java chasing .NET’s tail again

The above title could be provocative in some circles

http://openjdk.java.net/projects/mlvm/

According to the site:

We are extending the JVM with first-class architectural support for languages other than Java, especially dynamic languages. This project will prototype a number of extensions to the JVM, so that it can run non-Java languages efficiently, with a performance level comparable to that of Java itself.

In other words, a take on .NET’s Dynamic Language Runtime. This is of course a good idea, may be the only thing that will save the JVM in some form or another. Just that Sun has lagged behind .NET’s support of alternative languages for some years now, as is well known.

http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_002570DE00740E18002573E1007BAFDF.html

Ah the dreaded “fork” word:

Da Vinci represents an experimental branch, or even a fork, of the JVM, said Nutter. He cautioned that fork in this case is not meant to carry the same negative connotations associated with forking of a platform.

Now, will Da Vinci allow continuations?

Cable break update

Good stuff on my CIO Insider feed worth commenting on

http://www.cio.com/article/178801/Third_Internet_Cable_Breaks_IT_Groups_on_Alert/2

As usual, the comments at the bottom are more interesting than the actual content. The content gets you stirred up to respond.

Elephant in the room on the cable breaks right, how vulnerable is world communications to terrorism or sea monsters?

And remember, communication is key to offshoring

http://www.cio.com/article/137952/Communication_The_Holy_Grail_of_Outsourcing

The very top of IT execs in trouble from globalization?

http://advice.cio.com/meridith_levinson/does_globalization_create_more_competition_for_cio_jobs_or_more_job_opportunities_for_cios?source=nlt_cioinsider 

However, I think the comment below the article is more interesting.

Look up your Congress person or employer

Who’s giving what to whom this election cycle

http://opensecrets.org

For example, my House rep: http://opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.asp?cycle=2008&cid=N00002327

Top Commercial banks for contributions: http://opensecrets.org/industries/contrib.asp?cycle=2008&ind=F03