For example, the current state of play is that Sun’s JRuby team (Sun hired key Ruby developers Thomas Enebo and Charles Nutter, back in September) has just released JRuby 0.9.1 for Java, with version 1.0 is expected in due course.

Apparently, going from JRuby 0.9.1 to 0.9.0 apparently brings a 50 to 60 per cent performance improvement (just how slow was it then ?), improves support for Ruby on Rails and for including Java classes in Ruby; delivers various design refactorings; and fixes some 86 Jira bugs. According to Thomas Enebo,
JRuby is going really well.

And Microsoft has just hired Ruby guru John Lam, to help it add dynamic scripting languages to the Common Language Runtime platform. Apparently, he created RubyCLR as an alternative to Microsoft’s C#, so this suggests that Microsoft could soon deliver Ruby as a complement to it’s release of IronPython (which is Python for .Net). There’s certainly a rich choice for dynamic programming enthusiasts these days.

The problem I have is that delivering systems fast is popular, until the business finds out:

• that what it gets doesn’t align with its requirements well,
• that the cost of development pales into insignificance besides the cost of support,
• there’s no traceability

Of course, better dynamic languages may help but they’re still not really the real issue, as far as I can see., For example, customers and employers are thinking about ITIL and IT governance).

The real issue is that there’s No Silver Bullet. It’s an important essay from way back in 1986, by Frederick P. Brooks (he of Mythical Man-Month) that has been repeatedly proven.

Programming consists of overcoming two things: accidental difficulties, things which are difficult because you happen to be using inadequate programming tools, and things which are difficult, which no programming tool or language is going to solve. An example of an accidental difficulty is manual memory management, e.g. “malloc” and “free,” or the singleton classes people create in Java because they don’t have top level functions. An example of something which is actually difficult is dealing with the subtle interactions between different parts of a program, for example, figuring out all the implications of a new feature that you just added.

Improvements in programming languages can eliminate accidental difficulties, but after you’ve done that, you’re left with the actual complexity of software development, so the No Silver Bullet theory basically warns us to expect diminishing returns from new technologies. I’m not really doing justice to Brooks’ argument, so if you haven’t read No Silver Bullet recently, I would highly recommend it.

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These are not theories, but facts. Yet companies trip over themselves to buy others, launch change initiatives, introduce pay for performance, flit from one big idea to the next – and pay their CEOs stratospherically. It’s hardly surprising so many go belly up. If doctors were as cavalier with the evidence, a lot of their patients would be dead and many medics would be behind bars.

Bosses in love with claptrap and blinded by ideologies Bosses in love with claptrap and blinded by ideologies

Amazon link – no referrer code !!

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• Unlike a home web server, SSH is read/write, meaning you can get and put files on a server with it.
• Unlike a home FTP server, SSH is secure. All the transactions are encrypted and cannot be sniffed.
• Unlike a VNC server, SSH alone doesnt let you drive your computer remotely, and it is also secure and encrypted while VNC is not.

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The site provides an administrator username and password for every system which allows you to to add and delete content, change the way things look, basically be the admin of any system here without fear of breaking anything. Each system is deleted and re-installed every two hours.

At the upper left hand side of your screen you will see a clock that is counting down. What it shows is how much time is left in this two hour demo window. Once the clock hits 00:00:00, opensourceCMS.com will shut down and the demos are completely refreshed.

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Google gives an example of usage:
“For example, lets say you are in charge of your club soccer teams website, and you want to add a current weather forecast so your fans can plan for your games or you want to include a daily brainteaser on your site without having to come up with something new everyday. Google Gadgets lets you do this easily. Just visit the directory of “Google Gadgets for your webpage” to find gadgets that youd like to add to your own page and select your preferences for how the gadget will appear on your page. Then, copy and paste the HTML from the window into the HTML code for your own website. Its an easy way to get the content you need and want without spending hours writing code”

Previously, some gadgets could be included in Google Page Creator if you selected the experimental features.
Here’s an example (called babelfish):

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Along those lines, here’s a link to Top 10 Lies told to Naive Artists and Designers. It’s written from the perspective of a graphic designer, but can be applied to the people who post those threads about starting a hosting company, starting an at home IT service company, or even going contracting.

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1. Install plugin.
2. Choose which page to be the home page.

Thats the functionality I’m using at the moment.
I’m also experimenting with the appearance of a subdirectory – not really much use for me as this blog appears under the playpen directory anyway, but for the sake of science and to while away another SAP install…

1. Install plugin.
2. Choose which page to be the home page.
3. Declare the directory you wish for your blog.

OK so that’s a tiny bit more complicated… It even double checks the structure for permalinks, and tells you how to create a home page template.

BTW, doing this without a plugin is covered in the wordpress documentation at Creating a Static Front Page.

EDIT: as it turned out, the virtual subdirectory link is usefull… It lets me put a link to ../playpen/blog over in the sidebar, so that every page can go straight back to the latest posts.

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One issue I did come up against is that although you can put Template Tags and PHP code into a Page Template, you cannot put these into the content of a Page and expect them to run. This meant I had to use a PHP evaluating Plugin (example: RunPHP) to enable the < ?php randomFeedList() ?> feature of the Feed List plugin.

EDIT: October 10
I’ve completely revamped how I use this plugin.

• I have a WordPress Page with it’s own template (page_rss_parent), that is an exact replica of my standard Page template except it incldues the Dynamic Ajax Content from www.dynamicdrive.com. As you select a link to a particular RSS feed, this Page loads it dynamically.
• The RSS feeds are each in their own page, using the FeedList plugin . These pages have their own template ( page_rss) that has no call to sidebar or footer. This is because these pages will be loaded into a DIV on already already existing page, with the header, sidebar footer etc already present.
• I have another page that is the parent of the pages with the RSS feeds. This means I can exclude this page (and therefore the underlying RSS Feed pages) when using wp_list_pages in my header.
• I don’t need the runPHP plugin.

Next step is to write it up as a plugin. The big issue is where to store the RSS feeds:

• If I store them in WordPress as Pages, you’ll need to do the wp_list_pages hack described above.
• If I store them in another table, it raises issues of tidiness and compatibility with later versions
• If I store them as a text file in the plugin directory, there’s issues around the read/write permissions

from http://arstechnica.com – arstechnica.

1. AT&T, Feds neglect low-price mandate designed to help schools - Schools that uncover overcharging are often punished.
2. e-Books may take a page out of digital music's book - The International Digital Publishing Forum is considering a lightweight DRM.
3. Facial detection startup changes privacy policy after Friday launch - SceneTap's policy now states it will not store "facial mapping metrics."
4. Chinese authorities approve Google's acquisition of Motorola - The move looks like the last step as Google works to develop a smart phone.
5. Make mainframes, not war: how Mad Men sold computers in the 1960s and 1970s - Celebs, comics, and—at times—computing itself helped sell the young technology.
6. SpaceX launch aborted, next launch window on Tuesday - Countdown hits T-minus 0, but an engine issue keeps the rocket grounded.
7. Ryan Montbleau Band brings concerts to the fans through DIY livestream - Want higher quality live audio? If you want it done right...
8. Hands on with Glassboard 2.0 for iOS: simple, private group sharing - Introducing sharing and collaboration for the boardroom, or some friends.
9. The Listening Machine converts 500 people’s tweets into music - Composer Peter Gregson turns the words of hundreds into music.
10. Week in Apple: stalkers, antivirus, and MacBook Pros. Oh my! - Perian, Airplay speakers, and jailbreaks, too.

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Whether you’re looking to make a somewhat involved chronological timeline, or just a simple from Point A to Point B kind of deal, this tutorial’s got you covered. Create a Timeline in Excel [Microsoft Education Center]

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