All you ever wanted to know about J2ME: http://www.billday.com/j2me/index.html
All posts by ajohnson
ADA requirements
I’m working on a small consulting project for a local chemical company that wants to make sure that they meet ADA requirements. Looks like there are a ton of resources on the web regarding accessibility, here are a few I need to read more on:
Practical accessibility: Core concepts [from Dartmouth]
Section 508 Web Standards & WCAG Priority 1 Checkpoints [JimThatcher.com]
Amazon Web Services contest
Mike sent me a link to the contest that Amazon is putting on in conjunction with the launch of the version 2 of Amazon Web Services. This would be such a cool project to devote some time too. I think I could fill up about 3 months, day and night, with no sleep, just working on interesting projects and contests like this. Too bad we have to sleep AND work.
MLB Most Memorable Moment
MLB Most Memorable Moment, Cal Ripken’s consecutive game streak wins! (a moment? it lasted 16 years!)
Java best practices
A wonderful collection of Java best practices.
Terrorize your cat!
great Flash site
Information Week on the rich internet
Information Week on the rich internet. Relevant quotes:
“‘We had a pretty strong sense that we were losing customers,’ says VP of IS Dennis Shockro (at Yankee Candle). The $380 million-a-year company also couldn’t tell how many customers bought products online or by telephone.” >> This is a rich internet problem? Sounds to me like you have a poorly designed server side software application, not a problem with the presentation layer.
More… “Forrester Research has coined the term “executable Internet” to describe these Web applications–largely based on Macromedia Inc.’s new line of Flash MX software–that harness computers’ local processing power. ‘HTML pages are extremely limited in functionality,’ says Harley Manning, a Forrester analyst. ‘The interactivity drops to almost none.'” >> Ironic that the web was originally christened as bringing interactivity to the consumer… we were supposed to be leaving the one way communication to the radio and television and living this new exciting ‘interactive’ revolution through the Web, but now that turns out to be false, at least according to Harley. I’ve been living a lie! The web isn’t interactive! We need Flash to have interactivity!
Most interesting though: “And sources say Microsoft is developing a new Windows user interface, code-named Avalon, based on vector graphics, and due in a future version of Windows code-named Longhorn.” If it’s cross platform, say goodbye to Flash. Course, is Avalon really all about vector graphics? This story makes it seem like it’s a different kind of UI, something entirely different than the ability to bring interactivity to the web browser… And this article portays it as “… a layer of plumbing that will extend the existing Win32 development platform at the heart of Windows by building in support for the Longhorn networking, storage, digital-rights-management and graphics enhancements that Microsoft plans to build into Longhorn.”
Angels vs. Giants
Watching the World Series, Angels vs. Giants. Tonight featured Russ Ortiz against Kevin Appier, both of whom where showering before the 2nd inning was over. I knew that I played against Russ in high school (he played for Montclair Prep), in fact he threw a no-no against us. Found out that Brad Fullmer went to high school with Russ, so I played against him too. Baseball is fun, but there sure is alot less pressure hacking than there is hitting a 98 mph fastball in front of 50,000 people in the stands and millions of fans watching on television.
microserfs
Finished microserfs by Douglas Coupland last night (2 days total).
Various quotes:
On VC’s running due-diligence checks: “.. What is the significance or defensibility of the technology underlying the idea? What is the overall viability of the idea? What do you have that others don’t? Is the necessary technical acumen on the team?” (pg 152) — Good principles to apply to any business plan.
“I say ‘Ummm … ‘ a lot. I mentioned this to Karla and she says it’s a CPU word. ‘It means you’re assembling data in your head — spooling.'” (pg 176) — What a great way of explaining ‘Ummm…’!
Ethan, the CEO of the young startup, upon being barraged with dog fur and goo by the house dog Misty: “Quite often I feel like pawing and slobbering over people I like too, but I never, of course, actually do it.” (pg 177)
On Fry’s and men shopping: “The Fry’s chain completely taps into MSE: Male Shopping Energy. This is to say that most guys have about 73 calories of shopping energy, and once these calories are gone, they’re gone for the day — if not the week — and can’t be regenerated simply by having an Orange Julius at the Food Fair.” (pg 185)
On CES (which is now Comdex right? [ps: actually, no CES is a different show]): “Karla pointed out that there’s really not that many types of things a person can have in their house in the end. ‘You can have a stereo and a microwave and a cordless phone . . . and the list goes on a bit from there . . . but after a certain point you run out of things to need. You can get more powerful and expensive things, but not really new things. I guess the number of things we build defines the limits of ourselves as a species.” (pg 356)
On the company probably becoming something: “… but you know what? All I care about is that we’re all still together as friends, that we’re not enemies, and that we can continue to do cool stuff together. I thought the money would mean something, but it doesn’t. It’s there, but it’s not emotional. It’s simply there.” (pg 358)