Links 1

This is the first in a (hopefully) long series of 'Links' articles. Each Friday I will be presenting the 3 best links I visited over the week for your to enjoy over the weekend. Be assured that only the most interesting links will make it to this list. So let's kick start our series with the first installment:

1. The world needs only five computers, utility computing seems to be the way of the future. It is interesting to note that this really closes the circle that started in the 60's (mainframes/high level languages -> pc's/C -> grid/high level languages)
2. 50 Beautiful CSS-Based web designs in 2006, I am sure you will find some ideas to 'borrow' here
3. Little known ways to brand on the cheap, If you need to promote your Blog you will find intelligent and practical advices here

Check back again next week for another selection of interesting links!

On Java (and Javascript)

I have worked with Java since 1995. Until 2002 I have worked on a lot of Java projects. I generally liked the language a lot, until I met Ruby. It was love at first sight I was using Ruby almost exclusively since then and never looked back. Until now, that is. Even though Ruby is becoming more well known daily (I still remember our clients asking, ‘Ruby what?’) I am becoming more and more displeased with some shortcomings of the language and some bad designs of the standard libraries.

In this context, I am experimenting with other options for more than a year. Lately, I have reviewed the status on Java. Thanks to strong competition from Microsoft and .NET the language has evolved considerably over the last years (generics, annotations, iterators, new libraries). But it was the release of JDK6 under an open source license that was the breakthrough for me: The JVM is transforming to the ultimate environment for dynamic languages and implementations of Javascript and Ruby are readily available.

I admire the design of the .NET framework and the Mono open source implementation but I strongly believe that Java will prevail. Microsoft managed to keep Java out of the browser thanks to the 95% penetrations of IE. But Java can be found on just about any other device (lately on Blu Ray devices) and enjoys support from just about any major Platform/Software vendor (IBM, Oracle, Apple, etc…)

Even though I now consider Javascript on Java to be the ultimate server side scripting solution (Project Phobos anyone?) I will keep on using Ruby and evolving Nitro on the foreseeable future. However I plan to use Java/Javascript on some new ideas I have outside of the strict web application area. I will argument on why Javascript is a great programming language and why Java is ideal for a new wave of network (or should I say grid) applications in a future post.

Nitro in print

Some days ago, my copy of The Ruby Way, Second Edition arrived. I was extremely pleased to see the chapters on Nitro and Og. Given the fact that lack of documentation is this project's showstopper, I would suggest that every programmer interested on these technologies grabs a copy of this book right now! Moreover, you get one of the best books about the Ruby language for free. You have to thank James Britt for the Nitro/Og specific sections of the book.

To tell you the truth, there is one thing that bugs me about this book. Even though the names of the devlopers behind other Web Development Frameworks (like Rails and Wee) are mentioned, my name was nowhere to be found. Oh well…