I'm currently at EclipseCon (
www.eclipsecon.org
), the conference surrounding the adoption and use of the Eclipse framework and its collateral projects. I call it a framework because not even the most jaded person can call it simply an IDE any more. This is true even though those who have downloaded and used Eclipse have done so in order to develop software applications, mostly Java-related applications.
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Posted by Peter Varhol on 03/02/20050 comments
No, Valentine's Day is past for this year, so I am not referring to the feeling of affection toward another human being. Rather, I'm referring to the specter that haunts all thinking software developers – the ghost of product liability. In the Feb. 24
th
Wall Street Journal (
www.wsj.com
; I would provide a direct link, but the site requires a paid subscription), a feature entitled Companies Seek to Hold Software Makers Liable for Flaws describes efforts by some customers of enterprise software to make software vendors reimburse for lost time, revenue, or labor due to bugs.
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Posted by Peter Varhol on 02/27/20050 comments
Over the years, I've observed a number of shifts in the technology landscape. DOS gave way to Windows, client/server moved aside for N-tier distributed applications, and other sea changes have made the software industry dynamic and exciting, but each shift has come at a cost. One of those costs has been the professionals skilled in that specific technology, and unable to make the shift to the Next Big Thing.
While that proposition sounds dubious, I call your attention to the thousands of certified Novell Netware engineers of the late 1980s who were skilled at getting IPX/SPX networks to operate, but were lost when TCP/IP became the dominant set of networking protocols. When I was in academia, I had my own lost cause – a student highly skilled in Borland Turbo C++ and DOS applications. While he was no doubt the master of this domain, he was completely unprepared to attack any other language, platform, or even IDE. He was out of computing entirely within five years, not even certain of why he had no staying power.
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Posted by Peter Varhol on 02/21/20050 comments
Monday night at VSLive! (I was speaking at the accompanying Software Architecture Summit), I went out to dinner in San Francisco's Chinatown with a former colleague and longtime friend who for the purposes of this missive will remain nameless. It was an early night because, as my friend explained, he wanted to log onto Disney's Toontown Online in order to engage with his friends.
Now, an explanation is in order. Disney Toontown is a children-oriented adventure game and chat facility where visitors take on a persona from a list provided by Disney, and interact with one another using a limited number of words and statements provided by Disney. Persona team together to accomplish goals within the game that can't be accomplished individually. It's all very child-friendly and not at all like many open or topical chat rooms, or multiplayer adventure games, on the Internet in general.
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Posted by Peter Varhol on 02/13/20050 comments
I've always thought Microsoft keynote speeches had to have been assembled using BizTalk, and Eric Rudder's Indigo talk at VSLive! was no different. BizTalk, of course, orchestrates application components into fulfilling a business process, and Microsoft's keynotes are always well-orchestrated affairs, with multiple speakers, supported by special hardware and software setups and comprehensive slideshows.
Eric outlined the benefits of and developer path to Indigo. The benefits were stated as productivity, interoperability, and Web services orientation. The Web services orientation was a given, so the most impressive thing about Indigo was productivity. A part of that was in net lines of code to implement specific Web service features. For example, Eric showed how Microsoft reduced the manual effort of implementing Web services security, reliable messaging, and transactions from more than 56,000 lines of code to just three.
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Posted by Peter Varhol on 02/08/20050 comments
At VSLive! and its affiliated conferences (I am speaking at the
Software Architecture Summit
), Microsoft will be talking more about its big developer release of the year, Visual Studio 2005 and the
Visual Studio Team System
. While I normally write about Java topics, or at least remain technology-neutral, I have some insight on these new products that might be helpful to those looking at them for the first time.
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Posted by Peter Varhol on 01/31/20050 comments
Whenever everyone buys into a particular idea, I start to view that idea with some suspicion. Everyone simply can't be right about it. That's how it is with SOA today. Virtually all software vendors (including my own employer) are delivering on one or more pieces of an SOA solution, while enterprise IT departments are running around frantically trying to get the latest Web service to work, in the belief that it will make their operations more efficient.
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Posted by Peter Varhol on 01/20/20050 comments
As I mentioned last week, this is the completion of my own list of events that should happen in 2005, even though they probably won't. If you missed the first five items,
you can read them here
. If you're not interested, you can at least be relieved that this is the only list I have compiled to date.
6. The Linux controversy is resolved, providing a means for open source software in its many forms to continue moving forward. Given the speed at which the U.S. legal system advances, this one might be a real stretch, but enterprises might finish the year with some guidance on their use of open source in general and Linux in particular. This will be essential for anyone seeking to make further investments in such software as a part of an overall strategic direction.
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Posted by Peter Varhol on 01/10/20050 comments
I've never done a list before, so that is both my motivation and my excuse. I apologize in advance to those who have had more than enough of lists during this season. If it turns out miserably, I promise I'll never do it again. I'll title this list, "10 Things That Should Happen in Technology in 2005, Even Though They Probably Won't." This list features my ideas for stimulating innovation in technology. While we don't necessarily have to start another technology boom (followed by another technology bust), innovation is our lifeblood; without it, technology would be just like any other business. Innovation brings excitement and growth, both of which drew me to technology in the first place.
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Posted by Peter Varhol on 01/03/20050 comments
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was getting ready to change jobs, and I wanted to say a little more about that now. Today I now toil by day for < color="#003399">Progress Software, a developer of a fine database management system and business development language, along with lifecycle tools supporting application development and management using that database.
When I was considering the job, I queried several acquaintances about Progress. The answer almost invariably came back, "Oh, yes—the database that doesn't require administration, and doesn't go down." That must have been a difficult reputation to achieve, and I'm looking forward to finding out how we did it and continuing the tradition.
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Posted by Peter Varhol on 12/26/20040 comments
This is the holiday season for most major religions, as well as for popular culture. During this time, even the most devoted techies among us should enjoy the company of family and friends, and to be cognizant of our individual good fortune.
I have a friend and former colleague; let's call him Bob, because that is his name. Over the last year, Bob has suffered debilitating illnesses that have left him disabled and with a poor quality of life. After months of pain and blood clots, his primarily ailment was diagnosed this fall as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome. According to the Web site www.rsdhope.org, RSDS is a progressive disease of the autonomic nervous system that can follow a trauma. Its symptoms include chronic burning pain, inflammation, and spasms in blood vessels and muscles of the extremities. More recently, Bob has been diagnosed with a growth in his brain that is giving him almost constant migraine headaches. Bob is in his forties, with a wife and three children dependent upon him for support.
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Posted by Peter Varhol on 12/14/20040 comments