Three Column Layout - The Holy Grail

I don't know... I guess there can be only so many Holy Grails. Till just a few moments ago, I thought there was only one - if even so many. But this tip from A List Apart certainly qualifies as a Holy Grail. Without compromises, the blog posting presents a step by step guide to how to build a three column layout using DIVs and CSS. Truely awesome!

Programming on you own

I've loved programming right from the start. It immediately became a hobby, and I would spend hour after hour of my spare time working on my own projects - programming on my own. A true geek in so many words. Of course, I rarely finished any of my projects, and most of the ones I actually completed turned out crap - in all conceivable ways.

There are several reasons for the high failure rate; lack of skill, lack of patience, lack of creativity, lack of, lack of... But it was still fun.

I have to admit I still lack, lack, lack; most of my spare time projects remain uncompleted - for many of the same reasons they were put on ice when I first started out. My guess is this is the way it will be in the future aswell, and I believe I'm not the only programmer that has this problem - if it is a problem; Michael Feathers has a really interesing take on programming on your own. It actually made me feel better about my high level of failure. Maybe there is hope for beginning, geeky, wannabe, high-failure programmers like myself afterall...

The Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming

Programmers tend to be personally connected to their code. I guess it's related to the code being the programmers creation; their baby. This connection can often be a barrier for admitting mistakes, and for learning from others. Bug reports and feedback on a poor design may in some cases be interpredeted as a personal attack. I believe that being able to handle this sort of feedback is key to becoming a skilled developer. I would not go so far as calling myself a skilled developer just yet; I need a few more years in front of the screen, but I find feedback golden; both positive and negative. Especially negative. What greater ways are there to become better, than people letting you know in which areas you can improve?

Builder.com.com has an article called Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming. Could not agree more - I will really try to live up to them! :)

Wink for generating screencasts

I bumped over a really cool program earlier today called Wink. It's totally free, and you can use it to generate Flash based screencasts. The rendered screencasts are in swf format, or an executable.

I know most people have no use for generating screencasts, but imagine you are in an educational situation, teaching some tool, or demonstrating features of a new tool, this can be really valuable. Show - don't tell! ;)

Ta-da list

I've had a few hours of free time this evening, so I'm using it to blog some of my current thoughts. And what an evening of blogging it has been! Three posts so far. That has got to be some sort of record!

Well, I mentioned 37signals in my previous post. I have been aware of them for quite a while, but only tried one of their products today. The Ta-da List. It's free, and quite excellent. As the product name suggests, it's an application (online) that lets you maintain lists; todo-lists, and share them with others, send them by email, and check off items. Ingenious simplicity.

I think I'm already hooked. You should try it too! :)

Omgili - search web-based discussion forums

Want to search web-based discussion forums? Though still in beta, Omgili looks like a tool for the job.

Predictions for 2006? I'm guessing we will see similar tools to Omgili even more powerful. Though probably not free... ;)

There is a new font rising...

I used to think Verdana was the prettiest of fonts - I used it anywhere, and the smaller I could get it, the cooler I thought it looked. Take a look around the Web, and you will see that I am not the only one who thought or think like this. Admittedly this should be no surprise; after all it was designed by Microsoft to look good on the screen.

Although it was designed quite a while ago for Apple Systems, it appears to me there is a new font rising. Being fronted by 37signals, Georgia looks even better than Verdana, and as opposed to Verdana, it looks better with big font-sizes. For instance, take a look at the 37signals-designed Ruby on Rails frontpage, or the homepages of any of the 37signals products.

"Is 37signals The New Google?" might be an extremely bold statement, but I think it is worthwhile paying attention to what this company does in the future. Its current product stack is really impressive.

I will experiment with Georgia, font-size: 18px, color: #333 in my next web pages. There really is a new font rising...

2006... Notes for the new year, Javavise

I think 2005 was a pretty exiting year for Java. Although we have not seen any new releases of Java from Sun, plenty of other interesting news and events hit the fan. Instead of telling you what I think those news and events are, I will guide you to the comments of two people who certainly know what they are.

• Rick Ross year in review.


• ONJava: 2005 Year in Review by Chris Adamson.

I think both authors sum it up well, and the articles are really worth a read.

Keeping the tradition, Bruce Tate blogs about his predictions for 2006. It's usually worth reading whatever Bruce Tate puts out there, and as always he has some interesting thoughts. Most of it is conjecture and qualified guessing, but it's hard not to agree with most of his points. I especially share his long-shot hope that Sun will realize that Java is not about the language, but about the platform. I have long hoped that Sun will accept and support a multi-lingustic platform, and back such efforts as Jython and JRuby. With the rise of dynamic languages and the ongoing move of Java developers to the Ruby rival, I think it would be wise and necessary for Java to support higher level, and more expressive languages in the future. Anyway - you should read Bruce Tate's entry.

That's all for now. I hope 2006 will bring great things for us Java developers - and I don't mean us writing Java code, but us writing software for the Java platform. ;)