Review - Java Reflection in Action

Another five star book review. I seem to be finding a bunch of excellent books. This one covers reflection. Reflection is an interesting topic but it also seems to be poorly understood out in the programming world. Everyone knows about reflection but they don't seem anxious to use it in their code perhaps for fear of performance hits or fear of complexity.

About a year ago, another publisher sent me a manuscript of a book on reflection proposed by these authors. It seemed to be geared towards college graduate students and wasn't particularly practical. At the time, I told the publisher that the topic was a great idea but that the approach was all wrong. What was needed was a book that programmers could use in their every day work which would provide them with the knowledge to make use of reflection. It seems that someone took my advice because that book was never published and instead a completely different book, geared towards business programmers, was written by the same authors. So go out and buy this book so that my advice will make me look smart! ;)

Twenty-five Years of Programming

This month is the 25th anniversary of the start of my career as a computer programmer. It was December 3rd, 1979 that I started at Dun and Bradstreet as an Assembler/COBOL programmer. I was working on an IBM 370, which was a state of the art mainframe. This was before the days of personal PC's so programmers were looked on as almost magical. No matter what information you wanted, if it was on a computer you needed a programmer to get it for you.

This first job was in New York City on Church St., just a few blocks north of the World Trade Center. I worked with a fantastic group of people and it was probably the most fun of any job I have ever had. There were a few not-so-fun things that happened shortly after I started. First, the Long Island Rail Road went on strike for a week in what was one of the coldest Decembers in memory. I had to take a bus into the city and then catch the subway. I was tempted to quit right off the start. Then in the Spring, the subways went on strike. The first couple of days I took the train in to the city and then walked, took a bus, took PATH trains, to get to the downtown office. Then they started letting us go into work at night. That actually worked out great as parking was available on the street at night.

In twenty-five years the changes that have happened in the IT field have been amazing. The things that come to my mind are: the change from mainframes to servers, the growth of languages like C and Java, object oriented programming, open source programming, and the biggest one of all, the growth of the internet. From an IT person's point of view, not all of these things have made our jobs better. In many ways, these changes have commoditized what we do making us less valuable as individuals to a corporation. Or maybe I'm just missing the good old days of my mispent youth. I do know this... I would not recommend an IT career to anyone.

Multiple Inheritance

It's been quite a while since I have had anything to say about Java but an article on JavaLobby made me want to respond. The gist of the article is that multiple inheritance is wonderful and would solve many problems for developers and Java should allow it. Let me just sum up my feelings by saying that this is an incredibly bad idea. The lack of multiple inheritance in Java is a good thing, not a defect.

There are two rules that sum up my thinking on this. One comes from Joshua Bloch and the other comes from the gang of four:

1) Favor composition over inheritance
2) Inherit interfaces and not implementations

Inheritance is abused in OO programming and allowing multiple inheritance is inviting more abuse. We should program to interfaces and use those to support multiple inheritance. We should combine separate interfaces in a single class in order to provide the appearance of multiple inheritance. On the good side, the author of the original article did write a post script in which he admitted that he could get around his problem by using interfaces. And that is exactly the right way to do it!

Easy as Dell!? %$#@%&!

If you check back to my November 9th entry you will find this throwaway line, "So I cancelled the order from Dell".

To refresh your memory, I had ordered a memory card and a video card from Dell for my daughter's computer. The video card was back ordered so I cancelled it and bought one from Best Buy. Although the actual cancelling of the order was less than simple, I didn't think much of it at the time but following events brought it to mind. So let me start at the beginning.

I called Dell to cancel the order and was immediately reminded that Dell had transferred their customer service for non-business customers to India. Because of complaints of bad service, business customers are still being handled in the USA but us lowly personal computer owners apparently don't require stellar customer service. Anyway, the person on the other end spoke English, although with a thick Indian accent. I told him that I wanted to cancel part of the order, specifically the video card because it was backordered. He told me to wait and after a few minutes he came back to tell me that the memory card had already shipped, which I knew since I had already installed it in my daughter's computer. I again explained that it was just the video card that I wanted to cancel. He again put me on hold. Eventually he came back and told me that he had sent an email to the people in the US that would cancel my order and everything should be fine. So, let me get this straight Mr. Dell, you transfer American jobs to India and then don't even give these people the tools to do their job? He has to cancel my order via email? What kind of madness is this?

Flash to ten days later, and sure enough the video card arrives at my house. I call Dell again and again I get someone in India. I explain the situation and he seems to understand the issue. He puts me on hold. A few minutes later he comes back on and tells me that he is waiting for a response from the return center so I can get a return authorization number. Although he didn't state "email" I strongly suspected he was waiting for one. A few more minutes and I got my return authorization number. UPS picked up the box without any trouble.

This whole thing could have been avoided if (a) Dell's web site gave accurate information about the length of time you need to wait for back ordered items or (b) the people in the service center were given the proper tools and the proper training to do their jobs!

Family Bonds

What led me to my earlier entry about Long Island was the HBO program, Family Bonds. It got me started wondering about what other people think about Long Island. Do people think of Amy Fisher when they think of Long Island? Do people believe that shows like Family Bonds reflect Long Island? Obviously, in one sense Family Bonds does reflect Long Island. The Evangelista family is part of Long Island. But in another sense they are caricatures of Long Island, reflecting only one sample of Long Islanders.

If you haven't seen the show, then you have missed an entertaining although odd program. The show is about the Evangelista family, who live in Medford. Tom Evangelista is a bail bondsmen and the show in part is about his business and his occasional hunting down of bail jumpers. What makes the show truly entertaining, however, is the family. HBO describes them this way, "the most outrageous, fun-loving, and wild (yet somehow functional) real-life family on TV". Tom's family is made up of his wife, his married daughter, his two sons, nephew, and various in-laws.

One of my favorite scenes involves Tom's mother who has a sick dog. The vet tells Tom that he needs to get a stool sample from the dog so he tells his mom to get it. She says, "I'm not going to get it. You get." Tom says, "I'm not getting it." The scene ends without any resolution. As the credits finish, we see Tom in his mom's backyard with a flashlight hunting for a stool sample. What a good son!

Anyway, if you think the Evangelistas represent Long Island then you right and you are wrong. Long Island is a big place with almost 3 million residents and one family can not represent life on Long Island. But they are Long Islanders.

Review - Pro Jakarta Velocity

Another review, of a five star book on Amazon. I have to admit that I am a fan of Velocity so I may be biased. After all, I even wrote an article about Velocity. The book covers Velocity from end to end. There is little that I could find missing from the book where I would say, how could he have left out X. Good examples, clear writing, just a nice job overall.

Long Island

I have lived on Long Island my entire life. I often wonder what the impression of Long Island is of people who have never been here.

What Long Island really is all about is difficult to pin down. It's hard to even agree on what Long Island is. Ask someone from the area and they will tell you that Long Island is Nassau and Suffolk county. A person from Brooklyn would never consider themselves a "Long Islander". But physically, Long Island encompasses four counties including parts of NYC. Going west to east they are Brooklyn and Queens which are part of New York City, and Nassau and Suffolk. The entire island is 118 miles long (it is a long island, the longest adjoining the continental US) of which 85 miles is Nassau and Suffolk. At its widest point, the island is about 20 miles wide. Living on Long Island, it is very easy to forget that you live on an island (at least until you want to get off it).

The population of Long Island is larger than most cities. Including Brooklyn and Queens there are about 8 million people on Long Island. The population of Nassau and Suffolk is about 2.8 million. Generally, the further east you go, the less populated the island is (except for the Hamptons in the summer). For those who are interested, the population density of Nassau County is 4,655/mi²!

Long Island is often thought of as a "bedroom community" for New York City and to some extent that is still true although most people on Long Island don't work in NYC. Long Island is made up mostly of single-family detached houses. Median household income on Long Island is pretty high (although the cost of living is high) and the education system is generally excellent. Many top-ranked colleges are on Long Island. Many top-ranked hospitals are here as well.

The weather on Long Island tends to be moderated somewhat by our proximity to the ocean but we have definitely have four distinct seasons. Did I mention we have 1,180 miles of shoreline including some of the nicest public beaches in the country?

Some Info about Long Island:

Long Island History

Wikipedia - Long Island

Special bonus picture from my front door:

Review - Effective Enteprise Java

Another review, this time of an excellent book. I gave it five stars on Amazon. This is similar to the book Effective XML, in that it is a collection of various topics. You could open the book anywhere and start reading an item and not feel lost. Not a tutorial or reference but more like a collection of articles by someone who knows the topic.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The good: Mikey has been qualified for the Medicaid Waver program. This is going to be a huge help. We are already getting extra therapy in the house for Mikey and we will be getting an aid soon. I think this is going to take a lot of pressure off of everyone especially with Michel being sick. Which brings us to...

The bad: Michel needs more surgery. Her Chiari Malformation has developed to the point where they need to put a shunt in and do some extra work at the base of her skull. This will require two surgeries, two days apart. The plan is to put the shunt in on December 14th and do the other surgery on the 16th. Michel will be bald for Christmas! She will be in the hospital for five days. Fortunately, Michel's parents will be staying with us and I have some vacation time left over. I just hope that this is the last of the surgeries.

The ugly: We went out to a barn dance with our friends on Saturday. My sister, Barbara, (who lives in Medford near the stars of Family Bonds) watched Mikey while Beth had a sleepover at a friend's house. It was good to get out and see some of our friends. The ugly part? You should have seen them dancing! ;-)

Review - Java Garage

I just wrote a review of Java Garage by Eben Hewitt. I gave it two stars on Amazon. I think this is a book that could have been good but the author was too much into this I have to be different mode.

I noticed that the book got several very good reviews on Amazon and one review similar to mine. That review seems to have been hit with a bunch of unhelpful votes. Some people miss the point and think that the voting on Amazon is for whether you agree with the review or not. The question is, was the review helpful.

Memory, Cards, Roller Coasters, and a Kiss

If you recall from a few days ago, I had bought Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 for Beth for her birthday. But darkness reigned o'er the land as it was revealed that great heaps of memory and fancy new video cards are needed to run the complex 3-D games of today. So it was off to Dell to order the above mentioned items. Dell was quick to deliver the memory but the video card was backordered. Not to worry, Beth, the box from the game says we can run the game with the pitiful old 32meg video card that you have in your computer. But it was not to be... the game complained that more and more was needed. And darkness once more descended upon the land.

So I cancelled the order from Dell and went to Best Buy where I got the required 128meg video card. Installing the hardware was easy. When I installed the memory, Windows XP recognized it instantly and started using it. But the video card was different. Installing the card was not too hard. Pop out the old one and slip in the new one. Plug everything back in and start it up. Insert the installation CD and install the drivers. reboot. Uh-oh! A blue screen of unhappiness has appeared on the monitor. Start it up again. OK, this time it starts and we get to windows but we start the game and again the blue screen appears. And there is much gnashing and wailing at the evil name of Gates in the Paul household.

Let's google ati3duag.dll which seems to be the offending program. Hits! Someone else had the same problem and they installed the updated drivers and all was well. Off to the ATI web site and download the new drivers. Uninstall the old, reboot, install the new, reboot. Looking good so far. Start the game and... rejoicing! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! Daddy is the hero!

Well was it all worth it? Beth came down and said, "Daddy, this game rocks!" and gave me a kiss. So, yes, it was well worth it!

The Blogger Hits 46

Today is my birthday and I turned 46! Dwight Eisenhower was President when I was born. The Giants and Dodgers had just completed their first season in California. Movies released in 1958 included Vertigo (I always liked that film), The Bridge on the River Kwai (top grossing film of the year) and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. Ice-T, Madonna, and Dan Castellaneta were born that year. It was also the year my wife was born. You can read more about that wonderful year here.

Today was a nice day. The weather was perfect and the kids and I played in the front yard throwing leaves in the air. It's better than raking. The wind carried all the leaves over to my neighbor which is only fair since I don't have any trees on my property. I took Mikey for a drive and we listened to his current favorite song, "Word Girl" by Scritti Politti, about 100 times. My son obviously has excellent taste in music. Michel didn't have a great day. She overdid it a little (laundry, cleaning) while Mikey and I were out and was hurting for the rest of the day. My mother-in-law gave me 47 cents. I think it was one cent for each year and then a penny for good luck. Either that or she miscounted.

Mikey is in bed and Michel is resting so I'm going to watch a little football and work on the NY Times crossword until 10:00 when my new favorite TV show, Family Bonds comes on. I think that show might be the subject of a blog entry!