Blog

More on Remote Procedure Calls The feedback from my previous article has been very helpful, and it has raised more questions about RPC technology. I've also included notes about converting Python libraries from Python 2 to Python 3.
Calling Go from Python via JSON-RPC Although it's often uncomfortable, I think the best approach to learning a new language or technology is just to grab your nose and jump feet-first into the hole in the ice.
Java 7: Too Little, Too Late? One of the things I've loved about Python is that it was built as a community from the beginning. Language design decisions are genuinely discussed and struggled with as a community. But with Java, I've always felt like the adults were telling me what to think.
Odersky Explains Shared-Memory Concurrency In his 17-minute keynote at O'Reilly OSCON Java 2011, Martin Odersky gives one of the more succinct and clear explanations I've seen on why shared-memory concurrency is virtually impossible to get right.
Coffee with James Ward James is in Crested Butte for the month because his wife is doing a medical residency rotation here. This morning we had a couple of epiphanies over coffee.
JavaScript Redux (and Closures) It appears we are stuck with JavaScript, at least in the near-to-mid term. Although the language is an abomination, some things are getting better. I discovered a couple of great lectures and a book that might change your perspective (a little) about the language.
Scala: The Static Language that Feels Dynamic The highest complement you can deliver in the Python world is to say that something is "Pythonic" -- that it feels and fits into the Python way of thinking. I never imagined that a static language could feel this way, but Scala does -- and possibly even better.
Programming Summer Camp: July 25-29 2011, Crested Butte, Colorado A new event takes place this July in the mountains of Colorado: we decided to call it "Programming Summer Camp" because we're emphasizing outdoor activities in the morning, and programming activities in the afternoon (when the thunderstorms usually happen).
Windows 7 ... Kind of Rocks I waited extra-long before making the move to Windows 7, because I had such a terrible time with Vista. But my brother -- who installs and maintains computers and whom I rely upon to know what's good -- said it was worth upgrading.
Kindle From Another Planet Despite being part of the microcomputer revolution from the beginning, the Kindle is the first piece of technology I've seen that feels alien to me. And I mean that in a good way.
Roundup 2011 Summary and Upcoming Summer Event I've posted my summary of the Java Posse Roundup 2011 from last week. We're also having a workshop event in Crested Butte July 25-29 on Scala, Flex and Design.
Conference: JavaPosse Roundup, Feb 22-25 Registrations are now open for the upcoming Java Posse Roundup, which will be held in my beautiful mountain town of Crested Butte, Colorado during the height of ski season.
The Successor to Facebook A follow-up to my previous piece on Facebook.
The Decline of Facebook This is another article that originated on my Reinventing-Business blog but might also be interesting here.
Google Groups Data To Be Destroyed! I'm not sure what's worse here: the fact that some of my data is going to go away, or the fact that I found this out almost by accident. Someone is going to get burned by this.

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Quotes

The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.
-- Yeats (Paraphrasing from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound)

Throwing a book of rules at a terrible programmer just creates a terrible programmer with a bruise on their head where the book bounced off.
-- Jeff Atwood

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.
-- Benjamin Franklin

If somebody comes up to you and says something like, "How do I make this pony fly to the moon?", the question you need to ask is, "What problem are you trying to solve?" You'll find out that they really need to collect gray rocks. Why they thought they had to fly to the moon, and use a pony to do it, only they know. People do get confused like this.
-- Max Kanat-Alexander

If I'd asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a better horse.
-- Henry Ford

I don't care if it works on your machine! We are not shipping your machine!
-- Vidiu Platon

I'm beginning to wonder if the sum total pain caused by the box-and-arrow crowd has outweighed the occasional usefulness of UML.
-- Carson Gross

You do not have to spend a lot of time and effort on those who strongly resist change. You only have to help and protect those who want to change, so that they are able to succeed. Put another way, your job is not to plant the entire forest, row by row -- it is to plant clumps of seedlings in hospitable places and to nurture them. As they mature, these trees will spread their seeds, and the forest will eventually cover the fertile land. The rocks, will, of course, remain barren regardless. ... once you have figured out who cannot be converted, you should not waste more time trying to persuade them.
-- David Hutton, The Change Agents' Handbook

... no institution can put all its energies into pursuing its mission; it must expend considerable effort on maintaining discipline and structure, simply to keep itself viable. Self-preservation of the institution becomes job number one, while its stated goal is relegated to number two or lower, no matter what the mission statement says. The problems inherent in managing these transaction costs are one of the basic constraints shaping institutions of all kinds.
-- Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody

A nation ... consists of its laws. A nation does not consist of its situation at a given time. If an individual's morals are situational, then that individual is without morals. If a nation's laws are situational, that nation has no laws, and soon isn't a nation ... Are you really so scared of terrorists that you'll dismantle the structures that made America what it is? ... If you are, you let the terrorist win. Because that is exactly, specifically, his goal, his only goal: to frighten you into surrendering the rule of law ... He uses terrifying threats to induce you to degrade your own society.
-- William Gibson, Spook Country