Raible Designs

I'm outta here!

I leave for the airport in less than 5 hours. First I'm off to New York for my Grandpa Joe's funeral, then I fly back to Denver on Sunday and hop on a plane on Monday for vacation in Florida. I'm kindof disappointed my laptop didn't make it back from Apple in time for this trip, but it's probably a blessing more than anything.

Not having a laptop, my productivity addiction will go unsatisfied (but my stress level will subside) and I'll likely feel out of touch with Java and technology when I return. However, I hope that I turn into my old self on this trip - whom I affectionately refer to as Montana Matt. An easy-going, low-stress guy who doesn't care about much outside of family, friends and having a good time. I'd like to smile a lot, quite worrying about work, and forget about all the open source projects that need releases. I plan on laughing a lot, sleeping in every day, and tipping back a few pints with family and friends. I probably won't be reading any blogs, but I do plan on doing a little mophoto-ing.

See you in a couple of weeks - normal operations will likely resume around the end of the month.

[Montana] Great Photo

This picture was taken in the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana on August 6, 2000 by a fire behavior analyst from Fairbanks, Alaska by the name of John McColgan with a digital camera. Since he was working while he took the picture, he cannot sell or profit from it so he should at least be recognized as the photographer of this once in a lifetime shot.

Our new Tivo

I gave Julie a Series 2 for her birthday today. We set it up and now it takes 4-8 hours while it downloads and programs itself. Pretty cool. Spendy though - the Home Media Option is another $100, and if I want broadband access (which I do), I have to buy a Wireless USB Adapter. Oh well, we figure to have it for a long, long time and we love our last one. Julie was pissed that I spent more than $50 on her birthday present, but bit her toungue because she got mad at the last Tivo I bought her and now thinks its the best birthday present ever!

On a side note, I discovered that Tivo Central Online (the site to remotely program your Tivo) is Powered By Struts - sweet!

Update: I just got the following e-mail from Julie. I guess you could say that she gives the Series 2 a thumbs down.

i think we should return tivo. i don't think it's better than the one we have now. you can view another show while recording but only if you switch the channel on the tv and watch regular tv w/out tivo. it just seems like a lot of money for no/few more options. maybe we should wait a couple years for the technology to progress.

Damn

Life went from really good to really complicated. I got a call from my parents tonight with the dreaded (but expected) news that my Grandpa Joe had passed away. The funeral is Friday - which meant I could fly to Beacon, NY on Thursday and (hopefully) fly back on Friday night and make it to the conference on Saturday morning. Then I looked at the agenda and found that the conference actually starts on Friday at noon. So I sent an e-mail to Jay in hopes of getting my money back. Hopefully this is an option and I can just spend the weekend in NY and then join Julie in Florida next week. Oh well, no conference, but it'll be great to see the whole fam in NY.

How do you iterate your lists?

This seems to be a matter of personal preference, but I'm interested in hearing how other programmers do their loops. Here's how I do it most often:

List users = dao.getUsers();
for (int i=0; i < users.size(); i++) {
    User user = (User) users.get(i);
    // do something with user
}

I've seen others do it with an Iterator, and I've done it this way myself, but for some reason I prefer the for loop:

List users = dao.getUsers();
Iterator userIter = users.iterator();
while (userIter.hasNext()) {
    User user = (User) userIter.next();
    // do something with user
}

I usually add a null check as part of the loop as well. They both seem pretty much the same to me - is one more performant than the other? John Watkinson points out that in JDK 1.5, the for loop will be even easier:

List users = dao.getUsers();
for (User user : list) {
    // do something with user

At least that's how I interpreted it - please correct me if I'm wrong. Also, enlighten me if I should be using an Iterator - or at least let me know what advantages it has over a for loop.

What a great day for playing hookie

Today is and has been an awesome day - Julie's Birthday. It's actually tomorrow - but I screwed up and thought it was today. Her birth certificate, driver's license and all other legal documents say today (yeah - she's tried many times to get it fixed), but she was actually born on May 13th - so I do have an excuse for getting the date wrong. Anyway, I surprised her on Saturday night with a birthday party at our house with friends - a couple of deep fried turkeys made the night scrumptious. I surprised her again today by leaving for work, and then coming back 30 minutes later with bagels and coffee. This is after I cooked her breakfast in bed yesterday for Mother's Day.

So I played hookie today and we all went to the Denver Zoo - which is awesome. Julie bought a season pass for her and Abbie. Now we're home and a Masseuse is coming over at 4 to give her a massage. Pheewww - it's tough being married to a woman who (frequently) has her birthday and Mother's Day very close together.

This week has started off terrific, and will only get better. Julie takes of Thursday for West Palm (FL), Reloaded opens on Thursday, and No Fluff is this weekend. After the conference - which should be a blast, I'll be meeting Julie in Florida for a week of relaxation and sunshine. Life is good...

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day Mom - you're the best!

Snow in May?

Can you believe we woke up to snow this morning?!

A little cold for a golf tournament.

The ride home tonight.