Tuesday, December 26. 2006
2006 language predictions revisited
Last December, I decided to try my hand at some predictions. Now, a year later, it's time to see how I did.
So that's 4 right, out of 10. Not bad for a first attempt
I was really expecting to see more from other dynamic languages in 2006 (specifically smalltalk and lisp) and it surprises me that we haven't.
- Dynamic (late binding) languages will gain more ground over static (early binding) languages
Yes, I was right. There has been more and more movement towards dynamic languages over 2006.
- JRuby will be able to run Rails
Yes. JRuby was able to run a simple rails app by JavaOne earlier this year. Since Sun has now hired two of the main JRuby developers, progress here is now moving even faster.
J2EE vendors such as IBM and BEA will actively assist the JRuby team in an effort to preserve their investment in the Java™ platform.
This part of my prediction is partially true albeit not completely in the way I'd expected. IBM and BEA have shown no interest in JRuby although Sun has.
- IBM will implement the InvokeDynamic bytecode in their J9 VM before Sun makes it part of the JVM specification
Nope. I completely missed this one.
- There will be renewed interest in Smalltalk
Although there has been some new interest in Smalltalk, it wasn't to the extent that I'd expected so I'll give myself a NO on this one.
- IBM will re-emphasize VisualAge for Smalltalk
A definite no. IBM has shown no interest in Smalltalk.
- Not much will happen in the Python camp
Yes. Business as usual in the Python camp.
- Web development in Lisp will start
No. Although someone did create a Lisp on Lines, there wasn't any noticeable new interest in lisp. I'm surprised by this one. At the end of 2005, there were a lot of people from the lisp community looking at ruby and rails and making comments about how ruby still wasn't as powerful as lisp. I was really expecting someone to prove that statement in 2006.
- .NET will add bytecodes to assist dynamic language
As far as I know, they did not although I haven't been following the .NET community as closely as I had in the past. I'll give myself a no.
- C# will be de-emphasized in favour of a more dynamic language
No. Iron Python certainly did get attention but I haven't seen any indication that it is being promoted in favour of C#.
- Perl 6 still won't ship
Yes. There was some interesting stuff out of the perl community this year but Perl6 still hasn't shipped. This was a fairly safe prediction - it's entirely possible that Perl 6 will never ship.
So that's 4 right, out of 10. Not bad for a first attempt
I was really expecting to see more from other dynamic languages in 2006 (specifically smalltalk and lisp) and it surprises me that we haven't.
Wednesday, December 20. 2006
Tracking Santa on Christmas Eve
NORAD, and it's predecessor CONAD, have been tracking the progress of Santa on Christmas Eve since 1955. NORAD has a website for kids to follow the progress of Santa and has the full history of this operation.
The tradition began after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. store advertisement for children to call Santa on a special "hotline" included an inadvertently misprinted telephone number. Instead of Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief's operations "hotline." The Director of Operations, Colonel Harry Shoup, received the first "Santa" call on Christmas Eve 1955. Realizing what had happened, Colonel Shoup had his staff check radar data to see if there was any indication of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Indeed there were signs of Santa and children who called were given an update on Santa's position.
Sunday, December 17. 2006
Meet a billionaire
A couple of months ago, I went to a really inspirational talk given by a self-made billionaire, Bill Bartmann. Bill started out in a life of poverty and is now the 25th richest man in America.
I see that he's returning to Mississauga on Jan 18 to give another free evening talk. I've already made my reservation and I highly recommend this one.
You can register here. If you found out about this talk from this blog then please use my name, Mike Bowler, in the "who referred you" field on the form.
As you can see on the right, Bill has also written a book on becoming successful. I haven't read this yet so I can't comment on it, however, I do plan to have it read before this event.
I see that he's returning to Mississauga on Jan 18 to give another free evening talk. I've already made my reservation and I highly recommend this one.
You can register here. If you found out about this talk from this blog then please use my name, Mike Bowler, in the "who referred you" field on the form.
As you can see on the right, Bill has also written a book on becoming successful. I haven't read this yet so I can't comment on it, however, I do plan to have it read before this event.
Tuesday, December 12. 2006
Cashflow for Kids
We recently picked up Cashflow for Kids; the only one in the series that we hadn't tried. We've been waiting until our son was old enough to understand how to play the game. Although he's still probably a bit too young, he's really interested in the adult versions of the game and keeps asking to play. He was thrilled that we'd picked up the kids version and he's really been having fun with it.
I'm really impressed how they've managed to simplify the financial concepts for kids while still retaining the core ideas from the adult games. I expect that this game will be a favorite for a long time.
Monday, December 11. 2006
Java 6.0
I see that Java™ 6.0, aka "Mustang", has been released. Now we'll see how long it takes for Apple to release their version for OS/X. Although they've been very slow to update in the past, there are indications that this has changed.
Circular expandable tables
These are just the coolest tables I think I've ever seen. They are expandable circular tables that remain circular whether they're in the large configuration or the small. Words don't do these justice, you really have to see the videos of the tables being expanded.
Via TreeHugger.
Via TreeHugger.
Snake tracks
My son and I were outside yesterday looking for animal tracks in the snow. We found lots of rabbit tracks and bird tracks and what might be deer tracks.
The one that really got my interest was what looks like snake tracks coming from the composter and heading towards a clump of trees. If these had been tracks made in the mud during the summer then I would have had no hesitation saying that they were snake tracks. What has me baffled is the fact that it's very cold outside and these tracks were left in the snow. I would have expected that snakes would be hibernating at this temperature and wouldn't be active enough to leave tracks.
The one that really got my interest was what looks like snake tracks coming from the composter and heading towards a clump of trees. If these had been tracks made in the mud during the summer then I would have had no hesitation saying that they were snake tracks. What has me baffled is the fact that it's very cold outside and these tracks were left in the snow. I would have expected that snakes would be hibernating at this temperature and wouldn't be active enough to leave tracks.
Sunday, December 3. 2006
Working with Rails
WorkingWithRails.com is a site to track people using Ruby on Rails. It's interesting in that rather than just listing a bunch of names, they are providing a way for people to indicate "authority" so you can get some idea of how much experience they have with the framework. I've created an entry for myself.
About me
Email: mbowler
@GargoyleSoftware.com
Mobile: (289) 385-0120
Skype: mikebowler-soc
My businesses
- I'm a distributor for Send Out Cards, which is a phenomenal way for businesses to improve customer retention and increase profits. It's also a great way for individuals to create an extra source of revenue. I use it both ways and can't recommend it highly enough.
- I'm the founder of Gargoyle Software Inc, a Canadian company focused on improving the software development process. We offer consulting around Agile methodologies such as Scrum and Extreme Programming (XP) and technologies such as Ruby on Rails and Java.
[More...]. - I'm one of the founders of EasyBrandingTools.com
My other blogs:
My profiles at:
Open source projects I started:
- HtmlUnit a project to simulate a web browser for testing
- GSBase which contains lots of common pieces for UI's and testing and ...
Recommend me at:
