XML. Simply saying that term can elicit a telling reaction from people. Some will roll their eyes. Some will wait for you to say something meaningful. Some will put their headphones back on and ignore the guy that sounds like a enterprise consultant. JSON is where it’s at. It’s new. It’s cool. Why even bother [...]
Eric F. Savage
Good stuff, updated weekly(ish)
Books as Clutter
Posted May 30th, 2011
Like the culture at large, I’m moving from physical media to digital, but the part of me that wants to move into the future, to be more mobile, more organized, more free of physical possessions has not yet found a decisive victory over the nerd who did a book drive for his Eagle project.
To switch or not to switch, part 3
Posted May 26th, 2011
This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series To switch or not to switchContinued from Part 2, we’re down to 41 languages that you could potentially build a modern, database-driven application with. I’d like to knock another 10-12 more off the list before I get into trying the language themselves, but I’m running [...]
Too much RAM?
Posted May 23rd, 2011
I’ve been spec’ing out a new desktop and am intrigued by something I’m not sure I’ve seen before. It’s actually possible to get a computer with too much RAM now. 32GB is not really high-end, or expensive, and yet I can’t really think of any consumer/business application that would use that. Programs like photoshop or [...]
To switch or not to switch, part 2
Posted May 19th, 2011
This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series To switch or not to switchContinued from Part 1, I’m looking at candidates to replace my current main language: Java. I’m not actually eager to get rid of Java, I still really like it, and enjoy working in it, but I need to convince myself [...]
affinity.txt
Posted May 17th, 2011
SEO sucks. It’s a fun little game to play for a while, but at the end of the day almost everyone loses. The searchers lose because they can’t find the best stuff any more. The search engines lose because their searchers see worse results and are less happy. Legitimate creators and business lose because they [...]
When will Google buy VMWare?
Posted May 16th, 2011
From Chromebooks to DropBox, we’re heading towards the first computing revolution that will leave the typical early adopters behind.
To switch or not to switch, Part 1
Posted May 15th, 2011
This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series To switch or not to switchI was listening to a talk the other day and the speaker derisively mentioned “those people who are happy writing Java for the rest of their lives”, and I thought “Am I one of those?” and then I thought “is [...]
The Ultimate Music App
Posted May 14th, 2011
There’s an ever-growing number of online music services out there, but none of them have really nailed it for me. Here’s my list of demands: Instant Purchase – Simple one or two click purchase, which adds it to my portfolio. Downloading from one place and uploading to another is dumb. Standard format/no DRM – This [...]
Software that isn’t afraid to ask questions
Posted May 13th, 2011
An area that user-focused software has gotten better at in the past 10 years or so is being aware, and protective of, the context in which users are operating. Things like autocomplete and instant validation are expected behaviors now. An area that software is really picking up steam is analytics, understanding behaviors. You see lightweight [...]