Framework Complexity
Is this what abstraction has truly come to?… Incremental Operations » Java call stack – from HTTP upto JDBC as a picture
OSCON ’06 Review Five: Funny
I had to mention something rather funny. Jason Robbins, in the middle of a jam-packed session announcing Google’s new open source project hosting offering, accidently displayed an administration screen of the web app showing his password. “I’ll have to change that.” Is all he said.
OSCON ’06 Review Four: Codependency in the Age of Mashups
David Sklar gave an excellent presentation about service dependency in the age of mashups. The irony of the presentation is that David’s connection to the projector kept crapping out every 15 seconds or so. A presentation on dependency when a dependency to the presentation kept failing. Wow. Sorry I had to spell that one out. [...]
OSCON ’06 Review Three: Dangerous Indifference
Atom and the Atom Publishing Protocol was discussed in various forms and fashions. I’ll post later about Tim Bray’s session specifically on the Atom Publishing Protocol? One session, however, not directly on Atom itself, caught my attention. Rasmus Lerdorf of PHP and Yahoo fame gave an insightful presentation PHP. It was detailed with everything from [...]
Ignorant or Intentional: Doctor Fee Avoidance
The thing that amazed me about the medical treatment wasn’t the quality of the doctors, nor the amazing advances in medicine, but that nobody could tell me how much the procedure would cost. It was exasperating. Get Rich Slowly » Why Don’t Doctors Know How Much Their Services Cost? One of my favorite blogs, “Get [...]
OSCON ’06 Review Two: Appliances
Every MindTouch [Managed Office Server] comes with a subscription to the MindTouch “Zero-Maintenance” Service. You never have to worry about installing, configuring, backing up, upgrading, patching, or anything else, because we take care of it all for you… MindTouch – Learn More About the Managed Office Server (MOS) One trend I noticed at OSCON this [...]
JSON: Or why this love affair may soon end
JSON. It promises much. Using native browser Javascript parsing, the client can magically operate on data retrieved from the server with a trivial eval function call. Using <script src=”…”/> to pull down data from another domain, something XMLHttpRequest cannot do. JSON, as you all know, is an acronym for JavaScript Object Notation. Objects are not [...]
Tri-XML and all those “Hidden” Conferences
How did I not know about this conference? It was right in my backyard. Someone needs to create a conference feed organized by date and by location. The big ones are easy to find and are rewarding. But it is often these smaller ones where the real issues are hammered out. This 4th annual conference [...]
REST vs. WSDL
Steve over at NetKernel has an interesting take on the current state of Web services (the WSDL kind). It is the latest, and certainly not the last, that is helping me to shape my thoughts around the whole REST vs. SOAP/WSDL or REST compliments SOAP/WSDL debate. Steve’s comments are in reaction to Simon of salesforce.com [...]
Let’s REST!
A bunch of links to RESTful resources I’ve collated here and there Alex Barnett blog : Let’s REST! Alex Barnett has a list of REST resources discussing the good and the bad, the how and the why. Since I have an affinity to the Atom Publishing Protocol, all of these have been read and read [...]
More on Queso
put a web front-end onto [an] RDF store ~wingerz » Blog Archive » A Queso Example Over at ~wingerz, a more thorough explanation of what technologies are involved with Queso. RDF Atom JSON XHTML RDFa SPARQL Microtemplates Scenarios are spelled out and how all these technologies interact to create a simple, yet cohesive, application. The [...]
A Web 2.0 Server…Elias’ new project
Elias Torres has a new project brewing and a great demo. As I am greatly interested in all things Atom, thought I’d pass it along… …if you are an Atom hacker, all you need besides your knowledge of the protocol is Vi and curl. Elias Torres » Blog Archive » Queso – a Semantic Web/Web [...]
OSCON ’06 Review One: Web Technologies
Ajax was big at this year’s OSCON. Whereas the phrase “Web 2.0” seemed to be accompanied by awkwardly constructed sentences, noticable hesitations, or nervous laughter, “Ajax” flowed of the tongue like sugar. Although this is only my second OSCON in as many years, from discussion with a sample of those I met this last week, [...]
Unpackit: An offended user of Backpack
Update: It has been a few weeks. Now that the dust has settled, I’d like to note that I made an enormous mistake posting these thoughts. I am, in fact, embarassed that I even had them to begin with. I apologize to 37signals and applaud their strategy to convert freeloaders to paying customers. I am [...]
Service Provider
Why didn’t I know about this before? http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/jar/jar.html#Service%20Provider A service provider identifies itself by placing a provider-configuration file in the resource directory META-INF/services.
Asynchronous ColdFusion
In a past life I was an avid ColdFusion developer from 1998 to 2004. In fact, it was the transition from ColdFusion implemented atop of J2EE that got me into Java. I had opportunity on several occations to provide feedback on Allaire and then Macromedia about features and enhancements. One feature I suggested for the [...]
The Boon and Bane of Folksonomy
Elias makes an interesing point about tagging and folksonomy. Typically tagging’s shortcomings can be categorized into false positives and false negatives. The false positives are obvious. The false negatives are somewhat more subtler. Not everyone has the same folksonomy. This is both the boon and bane of folksonomy. The boon is those with similar folksonomy [...]
OSCON is a week away
I’ll be attending OSCON next week. This will be my first conference working for IBM. It will be different attending the event from something different than an academic mindset. However, my position with IBM allows for more research and prototyping than a typical developer position. I’d love to meet up with other OSCON attendees. Check [...]
OSCON Schedule
I can’t decide between several sessions. I wish I had that thingy from Harry Potter that Hermoine uses to attend classes that overlap. Regardless, here is the tentative plan. If you have any suggestions let me know: OSCON Google Calendar
This is it
And here we go. I have things to say…they’re going to get said. This is a blog primarily about my interests. Technology, life, and family. Mostly about the stuff I’m currently researching and prototyping for my job with IBM. Clearly never any specifics, etc. about such projects, but enough depth and to wet your taste [...]
Introducing My Family
Brooklyn (1), my wife, Tassi, and myself in the fall leaves of Pittsburgh. Autumn 2005
About
Hi. I am Brandon Smith. As I travel through life, I record it here. A little about me… I’m a husband and father I work at IBM I write songs that make loved ones cry I played bass in a previous life I am a music snob