Martin Lippert's recently announced move to SpringSource is one of the most exciting events to happen in software so far this fall.

Speculation - Good Things that May Now Happen:

• Fills gaps in OSGi and STS development at SpringSource
• Many half finished pieces have prospect of now being glued together in a nice fit.
• Critical last mile issues such as training and taking OSGi to the market, are now within reach. 

  Read more »

Dangerous Fred

Every big team has seen one or two of these guys. Dangerous Fred. Brilliant and stupid at the same time, breaks the wrong rules and still gets pretty amazing stuff done. But you don't want him touching your code.

I think I've been Fred in decades past, at least once or twice. Sure have written a couple things I'm not so proud of, on the way to becoming a slightly better programmer. Read more »

Google released 4 tools for free today! Seriously good stuff.

If you've ever followed the Instantiations group, you know that it puts out some very useful stuff. Google just purchased this shop a few weeks ago, we were wondering what was going to happen...

http://googlewebtoolkit.blogspot.com/2010/09/google-relaunches-instantiations.html Read more »

I was wrong to think of UI developers as lightweights. A good UI developer is anything but a lightweight.

There. I've said it.

Arrogance, thy name is Pete

10 years ago I felt I had to make a choice. I could either specialize in the back end stuff, architecture, databases, such as that. Or I could do UI. 

DId I make the right decision career wise? Maybe. I chose the back end, and it's been a really nice ride. I'm a systems guy, and there's enough there to keep me always learning, the money hasn't been bad, all is well. Read more »

Ten years of "the desktop is dead, web-apps are the only way" makes a great corporate religion. If you're a true believer in this religion, read no further - I'm a non-believer. Requiring a web app should never mean I don't want a desktop - even more.

I want web apps and mobile web apps, sure. But I want the default as a desktop app that can shuffle as much of the computing to the local CPU as is reasonable.

And of course, I want to write the app one time. The platform should be super powerful and fully developed by others. It should update automagically, have superb installers, and a  phenomenal list of features, yada yada. An impossible dream. Read more »

If I'm going to break up with my main squeeze: Eclipse - the Platform, especially after I publicly admitted I was seeing another platform, the least I could do is give our relationship an honorable recap. I already vented my long term gripes yesterday. Read more »

Yesterday I hinted at how far back my loyalty to the Eclipse Platform goes, as if I was really gun-ho on this relationship. I glossed over warts that bugged me, because I'm a loyal guy.

The truth is, I'm not so excited about this relationship. Not most of the time.

The problem with Eclipse as a Platform is exactly what you would expect from a super powerful, super flexible, open source platform. It is frightfully challenging to maintain a working relationship with, for a small enterprise like my own. Read more »

Woohoo! I'm in love!  What a great feeling, to find such a sweet platform that does almost everything I need, and most of it very well.

Sweet! I didn't know 

My main squeeze, Eclipse didn't know I was checking out other fish in the sea, but really I wasn't. I was just googling for "Swing OSGi" and here comes NetBeans releases an OSGi version.  Read more »

I'm a big Groovy enthusiast, but I only use it myself for build/deploy scripts.

A real pro demonstrated Groovy's power last night:

Paul Woods ran us through 90 minutes of groovy features last night, and demonstrated how powerful the language can be in the hands of someone who works with it exclusively every day for a year. Read more »

Compact, Helpful, Well Produced - All in One Place

OSGI isn't just a technology, it's a different way to think, a different kind of design. It can be a real trick to get one's head around. This screencast from SpringSource might help. Read more »