Java

I really hate it. I always look for something new. This time, it's Java. I've already spent quite a solid amount of time for learning Java and the longer I read a try, the more things I have to do to get satisfied. The problem is, I'm not a Java developer by all means.

The list of what I'm going to learn is: IDEA, GWT, AspectJ, XText, Maven, Maven + TeamCity, Ant, Ant + TeamCity and probably I'm missing something. The reason is: I have to know all these words just to make sure I'm at least a junior-level Java developer. Otherwise, all the time I've already spent for it is just lost.

And then, I know what it means. XText means I gonna learn some more about DSLs, AspectJ means I gonna learn some more about AOP, etc.

"I know that programming language"

1. You'll never manage to learn the only programming language. You don't know language unless you have something to tell about it. There's nothing you can tell about the language unless you can compare it to anything else.

2. I don't understand the people who only know either Java or C#: both these languages (platforms) are too similar to atone for one's familiarity with only one of them.

3. I go mad when someone tells me that I have to think specially, write specially and build specially when I use "language A", because "it's not the same what you always do in your language B". Especially, when the person who tells it to me is not both p.1- and p.2-compliant.

Anonymous classes in C++

int main() {
  [] {
    struct A {
      void func() {
        std::cout << "hello" << std::endl;
      }
    };
    return A();
  }().func();
}

The most amazing feature of new C++0x, I believe.

New Android tablet

Lol I can connect mouse and keyboard to my new android tablet. Looks like I need HDMI-enabled display :-)

WiX installer

WiX is the best thing to illustrate the Bad Tool Design. It's absolutely fine as long as your application's install process only consists of copying the files and creating the shortcuts. You just write 20 lines of XML and it works. But when you need to add a couple of custom steps to the wizard, you have to copy all the code related with standard steps and fix it as you want. No ways to extend it, you either take what they give, or implement 90% of things from scratch. I know about Microsoft Installer limitations and all other stuff. But what the fuck? Why don't they do all this stuff the right way? There's no way to inherit the UI. If you create the dialog, you have to implement all the stuff it should do. You have to describe all the controls from scratch. Moreover, the manner you should do it is like X=10, Y=20, Width=100. What the fuck is Width? Why do I have to spend my time for deciding whether 100 is enough for "qwerty"? I DO FIRMLY believe that WiX is ideal crap.

Disappointment of the year

Hello [here comes my name],

We have some exciting news to share. Intel Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Advanced Publishing have made a $30 million investment in Kno.

As part of the deal, we are working with Intel to accelerate the design of education tablet computers for students around the globe. This partnership allows us to focus on creating the world's leading education software for different devices and platforms. It also means that we will no longer be manufacturing and distributing the Kno tablet.

I wanted to personally thank you for your support and contributions in helping us reimagine what is possible in education. We’re currently baking up some amazing products and we will continue to call on you for your feedback and advice. To stay in the Kno on what were whipping up in the kitchen, like us on Facebook.

Thanks again for your continuing support.


Osman Rashid,
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

I DO FIRMLY believe that in a year we'll have 14" tablets from Shenzhen. Just for $100. With free shipping.

Compiler's thoughts

result is error:
false, because:
 shit happened
  false, because:
   failed to get bin op result type
    false, because:
     shit happened
      false, because:
       cant get condition value, because condition failed
        false, because:
         shit happened
          false, because:
           cant get left type rank
            false, because:
             shit happened
              false, because:
               cant get type
                false, because:
                 shit happened
                  false, because:
                   no such type
           cant get right type rank
            false, because:
             shit happened
              false, because:
               cant get type
                false, because:
                 shit happened
                  false, because:
                   no such type

Compile-time humor

struct Govno {};
struct Konfetka {};

int main() {
 Govno g;
 Konfetka k(g);
}
-----------------------
main.cpp(6): error C2440: 'initializing' : cannot convert from 'Govno' to 'Konfetka'

Bug tracking software

During the last couple of years I had an idea to have a bug tracker for my home projects. Here's a summary:

1. Trac
Looks very raw. Really hard to understand what it does and how to do what I want. Installation is really painful, too.

2. JIRA
Is fine, but requires much more powerful hardware than I used to run it: Samsung netbook with 2GB of RAM. I believe that this hardware should be enough for hosting a 1-project 5-user bugtracker. Also, JIRA is not free. You either have to pay, or use it for open source project.

3. Redmine
Is great. It's simple, intuitive and it runs fine on my "server". So, I think it's what I'm going to use. Can be easily installed using Bitnami.

Also going to try Mantis.

Update:
No, I like Redmine more, than Mantis

BitNami

I have just stumbled upon this site. Have not yet tried, but the whole idea looks great. They provide a minimal packages to use a "technology" or "software" which requires 3-rd party services to run (if you want to use Django you have to install Apache/MySQL/Python). The packages are either Windows/Linux installers or VMWare/VirtualBox images.