Blogs
Infoworld: Which Freaking PaaS Should I Use
Most of the buzz around the cloud has centered on infrastructure as a service (IaaS). However, IaaS is no longer good enough. Sure, you can forgo buying servers and run everything virtually on Amazon's EC2 server farm. So what? You still have to manage it, and to do that you'll have a growing IT bureaucracy. Companies that want to focus on writing their code and not have to think about application servers at all are now looking to platform as a service (PaaS).
Infoworld: Ill-informed haters go after MongoDB
NoSQL databases like MongoDB are great for some tasks but not for others. Is it MongoDB's fault if misguided developers use it to solve the wrong problem?
With any new technology comes a wave of marketing happy talk, which in turn leads to inexperienced developers "jumping on the train" of a new fad. Inevitably, these newbies find themselves disappointed that the technology doesn't deliver on their inflated expectations.
Event: OSI Developer Jonathan Freeman Speaks at Chicago Javascript Meetup
Chicago Javascipt Meetup: Emerging Web Tech, September 25 2012, Enova 200 West Jackson 13th floor conference center Chicago, IL
Jonathan Freeman will be speaking at the meet up discussing getters and setters in the object API, what they can be good for, when you could use them, and why you shouldn't. He will also be talking about the use of try/catch/finally. Jonathan Freeman is an associate developer at Open Software Integrators. Freeman has worked on numerous UI projects and has risen quickly among the ranks of developers within the company. Open Software Integrators is an open source professional services company that specializes in consulting, training, software development and support.
Press Release: Open Software Integrators’ CEO Andrew Oliver to Speak at CouchConf San Francisco
Cloud Integration a Challenge for Testers | See What Andy Says...
Infoworld: Is a computer science degree worth the paper it's printed on?
Self-taught technologists are almost always better hires than those with a BSCS and a huge student loan
A reporter recently asked me what advice I had for kids coming out of high school. I said, "Go into computer science and you'll probably always have a job." I wonder if I should have said: "Skip college and spend all your time teaching yourself computers."
Especially in America, where an education incurs tremendous debt and most educational institutions teach you so little of what really matters, you have to ask: "Can't I just do this myself?"
JBoss Tattletale Tells All
I recently worked with a client migrating some ancient Websphere applications to JBoss EAP 5. The applications had loads and loads of old packages with obsolete dependencies: Spring 2.0.8, compatible versions of Tapestry, chenillekit, hibernate, and ibatis, and proprietary JDBC2 drivers--an enormous sum of technical debt coming due.
Infoworld: 6 home truths about rock star developers
You want the best and the brightest money can buy. Or do you? In fact, you're better served by a group of developers with mixed skill levels who focus on getting the job done
A big, important project has launched -- and abruptly crashed to the ground. The horrible spaghetti code is beyond debugging. There are no unit tests, and every change requires a meeting with, like, 40 people.
On the other hand, maybe not. A team of senior developers will often produce a complex design and no code, thanks to the reasons listed below.
Press Release: Neo Technology and Open Software Integrators Partner in Graph Database Program
Durham, NC - August 23, 2012- Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal announced Neo Technology's Graph Database Partner Program. Among those in the partner program, Open Software Integrators was claimed as an intricate part of the portfolio due to its outstanding track record in delivering valuable solutions to clients. OSI is excited to collaborate with Neo Technology and eager to provide successful solutions with Neo's graph database program.
Infoworld: What developers can learn from Anonymous
I've been credited with coining the term "do-ocracy." When I've had the opportunity to lead an open source project, I've preferred to "run" it as a do-ocracy, which in essence means I might give my opinion, but you're free to ignore it. In other words, actual developers should be empowered to make all the low-level decisions themselves.
When you think about it, the hacker group Anonymous is probably one of the world's most do-ocratic organizations. Regardless of where you stand on Anonymous' tactics, politics, or whatever, I think the group has something to teach developers and development organizations.