Raible Designs

iPhone Unlocked

My only good reason for not getting an iPhone? You have to switch to AT&T. I had AT&T a few years ago and their customer service sucked. I've been on T-Mobile for a few years now and couldn't be happier. Now it looks like the iPhone will work with any provider. Very nice!

It's high noon, Apple and AT&T -- we really hate to break it to you, but the jig is up. Last night the impossible was made possible: right in front of our very eyes we witnessed a full SIM unlock of our iPhone with a small piece of software. It's all over, guys. [Read More]

Will I get one now? Probably not, I don't spend enough time on the phone and I'm perfectly happy with my Blackberry Pearl. With that being said, I have seen and fondled one and they are quite nice.

RE: One 30" monitor or two 23" monitors?

My post asking about one 30" monitor or two 23" monitors generated quite a few comments. After reading The Large Display Paradox, it seems like I should either find something like WinSplit Revolution for the Mac, or get 2 monitors. I agree with everything that Jeff Atwood says about maximizing windows, that's why I originally thought two 23" monitors might be better.

However, the problem with two monitors is I'd need to get Matrox's DualHead2Go Digital Edition to run both on my PowerBook MacBook Pro. Frederic notes some issues I might experience with this device:

It worked ok with 2 17" LCD monitors but did have some issues with most games... One thing to keep in mind is that it may not have the bandwidth to drive anything over 2x1280x1024.

I don't play games (too addictive), but if I can't drive both monitors at 1900x1200, it's probably not worth it.

So you're getting a 30" monitor then?

Maybe, but there's a problem with the 30" that I didn't think of: I'd need dual video cards in my Windows box to drive it. Not only that, my KVM switch probably can't handle a 30" monitor. If I'm wrong, and I can drive a 30" monitor through a single DVI KVM switch, let me know. In the meantime, I'm strongly considering a single 23" with my MacBook Pro on an iCurve next to it. That gives me dual monitors when I'm on the Mac, but not on Windows. That's OK - I don't use my Windows box that much anyway.

Sun changes its ticker tymbol to JAVA

When I first read The Rise of JAVA - The Retirement of SUNW, I didn't think much of it. I believe I read it on some sort of news website, so I didn't realize folks would be so passionate about it. Reading the comments on Jonathan's blog is quite entertaining and smells somewhat of a TSS thread - except there's no back-and-forth banter. Dave provides a good roundup of reactions in Blogs on Sun's new stock ticker.

For me, one of the most interesting things to fall out of this is James Duncan Davidson's Remembering Java Naming Blunders Past.

Back in 1998 or so, there were a bunch of people in Cupertino?working in a building that used to belong to Apple?working to finish up the largest and most complicated release of the JDK to that date: JDK 1.2. Compared to JDK 1.0 and 1.1, it was enormous. It had slipped schedule a few times. And there were lots of changes and new APIs everywhere. So many that it was the first release where it was almost impossible to know how to use every Java API out there.

The powers that be really wanted to commorate this in a big way. They wanted to make a big splash when they officially launched the new version of Java in December of 98 at the Java Business Expo in New York. So, they decided to rename Java. I found out about this, along with all the other engineers working on Java, at an all-hands meeting in Cupertino.

The name was? wait for it? Java2000.

I met James at a MySQL Conference a few years back and he's full of stories like this. If you ever get a chance to hear one of his stories about the early days of Java at Sun - I highly recommend it.

Jack's New Cast

On Monday, I took Jack to the doctor to see about getting a cast on his broke foot. We thought he might have to have surgery because the fracture is on a "growth bone", but they never mentioned it while we were there. He picked out his favorite color (red) and they wrapped his ankle up in a nice little cast. He liked it so much he was able to walk out of the doctors office.

On Tuesday, I took Abbie and Jack to the Zoo and again he did great. It's like he doesn't even know it's there. Yesterday he was running around like a madman. No, the new cast isn't slowing him down at all. The doctor said it'll be off in a month.

I'm hosting Jack's 3-year birthday party this weekend - I'd better find some markers so people can sign it.

Choosing a JVM Web Framework: Stories Wanted

My last post on choosing a web framework got quite a few comments. Some seemed to like the application categorization technique as a means to narrow the choices. However, others seemed to disagree. So if application categorization is not a good methodology for narrowing the choices, what is?

I think one of the best ways to figure out a good methodology is to find out what people have done to choose their web framework. I'm looking for stories from developers who have evaluated 2-3+ frameworks for a project. I'd like to come up with 3-5 stories as part of my talk to highlight how some teams have chosen their web framework. What were your important criteria? What made you choose the one you did? Was it a tight race between a few of them? Did industry buzz or application categorization play a part in your decision?

Please send any stories you'd like to share to [email protected]. Of course, you can also post your story in the comments - but an e-mail gives it a bit more validity. If you'd like to share your company name, that'd be great, but it's by no means required. I haven't decided if I'm going to prevent all cases as anonymous companies or not. If you do send a story, I'll make sure and ask your permission before I share any of your personal/company information. Thanks!

Want a kick-ass Java/UI Engineering Job in Mountain View?

The last month working at LinkedIn has been an absolute blast. I'm new to the whole "treating developers like royalty" thing, so that's taken a while to get used to. It's definitely nice, especially when the company gives you ownership of the things you're working on. Sure, there's schedules and priorities, but it seems like each and every engineer has control of their own destiny. As a consultant, I've been very impressed with the way I've been embraced and folded into the team like a regular employee. There's lots of team lunches, a tech meetup every now and then, and I even played hoops with a bunch of guys last night. This is probably the coolest company I've ever worked for.

Wanna have fun like I am? LinkedIn is looking to hire quite aggressively over the next several months. There's new faces almost every week and hopefully I can "hook you up" to be a part of the festivities. Below is a position that we're currently hiring for in the UI Engineering team. Working remotely is not an option at this time, you need to live in (or relocate to) the Bay Area.

I don't know if JSF and Facelets experience is still a requirement (now that I'm here ), but a passion for UI frameworks and web development is. You should know at least two leading Java frameworks and have a lot of experiencing with testing web applications out-of-container. We're not looking for Java Developers turned web developers, we're more looking for Web Developers that know Java.

If this sounds interesting to you, shoot me your resume in an e-mail. Don't forget to include a link to your LinkedIn Profile.

Jack broke his foot

The scene looks innocent enough - a 2-year old boy and his 4-year old big sister having some fun playing together. They're in the 4-year old's room, being awfully quiet. The sister comes up with a great idea - they clear some toys off the book/toy shelf (which is built into the wall) and use it as a launch pad to get to the bed. A blood-curdling scream shakes the foundation of the house 3 minutes later.

I don't know how many successful jumps they made, but Jack didn't quite make the bed on one of his jumps. Julie called me yesterday to tell me he'd gotten hurt and couldn't walk. Neither Abbie or he could recall how he'd gotten hurt. He laid on the couch for a few hours before Julie decided to take him to the emergency room. It was a good thing she did - x-rays verified he'd broken his foot.

It's not a bad break, but it's a small fracture on a growth bone, so he's going to have to have surgery on it. I've been out of town this week, so I didn't get a chance to witness all the fun. After the x-rays, apparently Julie was able to pry the story out of both kids.

I'm pretty impressed that my little boy broke his first bone before he was 3. He must be a Raible.

Display Tag 1.1.1 Released

Display Tag version 1.1.1 has been released. This is a bug fix release - see the changelog for more information. Thanks to Fabrizio Giustina for continuing his work on this project.

• Release Notes
• Download

Jetty 6.x versus Tomcat 6.x

An AppFuse user asks:

Has anyone done any performance benchmarking between Jetty 6.x and Tomcat 6.x to see which one is better for production use in terms of scalability, performance and ease-of-use? I'm gearing towards Jetty 6.1 but want to hear other's opinions first.

I admit, I completely changed the wording in this quote to make it more readable.

Most of the companies I've worked with in recent years have been using Tomcat (very successfully) in production. However, I also know the Contegix and JavaLobby guys continue to swear by Resin for the most part. What's your opinion?

IMHO, I don't think it really matters - they're all good enough for production use.

Seeley Lake Fire Update

As reported last week, the town where I went to high school is on fire. Here's an update from my sister's friend, Aliselina Strong:

The Seeley Lake fire is the # 1 priority fire in the nation due to the number of residences threatened and the town itself. Spooky, eerie, yet beautiful too. This is taken from a dock in Seeley Lake, so you can see how close it is. Yesterday was a good day as the fire remained grounded and lines were reinforced, but predicted winds today and continuing and hot weather again as well will not help. It had cooled off into the high 80's for a couple days.