Just got back from XML 2002 on Thursday evening. Thoughts about the conference in general below. Also some amusing observations during dimsum with Joshua and Doug plus various links to laments about the current state of affairs in America.

 

 

I leave for XML 2002 this evening. I'm rather amused by the fact that whenever I've flown to Atlanta from Seattle or vice versa on my employer's dime I've always had to layover at some airport along the way and now that I'm going to Baltimore I'm going to have to layover at the Atlanta airport along the way. Well, there goes my impression that there were no direct ATL <-> SEA flights.

Followup thoughts to the IBM <-> Rational purchase, agreeing with Shelley Powers about Clay Shirkey's Social Software Summit and thoughts on interviewing for Microsoft.

Poll: Are you going back home for Christmas?

 

 

IBM is buying Rational. Wow. Couple that with their purchase of the consulting arm of PriceWaterhouseCoopers and buying Informix it looks like they've been on quite the acquisition binge. I wonder if this recent purchase means we'll start seeing more high quality Open Source UML tools for Java. That would be nice especially since I don't plan to buy a Java IDEs (Emacs is just fine, Thank you) but wouldn't mind a free yet high quality Java UML tool.

Thoughts below on why people should and do use XML plus some news from the C# team on what the story is for backwards compatibility and generics.

Poll: Favorite Looney Tunes Character?

 

 

It looks like I'll be at XML 2002 in Baltimore doing booth duty. The higherups kinda sprung this on me at the last minute but I don't mind given that I'll get a chance to actually meet all those folks from XML-DEV I'm always arguing with. With any luck I can get some books signed. :)

Looking at the schedule for XML 2002 it looks like there'll be a bunch of XML Schema and XQuery presentations which I'll attend. The only down side is that I'll probably have to be dressed in borg attire (MSFT polo T-shirt and khakis) and not my usual work attire of ghetto baggy jeans and expressive T-shirts like the one with the chicken humping the rabbit or the one with the little green man smoking a phat blunt. That's weak.

Links below to the equivalent of Edsgar Dijkstra's blog, thoughts on a review of my XML Schema article and all the stuff I forgot to mention on Monday.

Poll: Movie of the Year?

 

 

Don't really feel like long entries today. So I'm doing a Bob Abooey style diary with bulleted lists and all that. Thoughts below on undeserved Academy awards winners, Japanese fertility festivals, a mini-review of the new Harry Potter, rap battles, Roger Moore's James Bong vs. Pierce Brosnan's and a call for reviewers.

Poll: How many serious romantic relationships have you been in?

 

 

I noticed that the Nigerian government cancelled the fatwa against the reporter which started the Miss World riots. I notice the Western media had lots of coverage of the fatwa decree I wonder if there'll be as much coverage now that the Federal government has attempted to repeal the fatwa. Doubt it, instead we'll probably see more interviews with Pat Robertson preaching religous intolerance.

It's looking extremely likely that my job description might change from SDET to PM in the coming months. I found very good description of what PMs do on the Joel On Software forums for those who wonder what the acronym means. The main thing I'm going to have to learn is talking to people who aren't as aware of the technology as I'd like. As a tester I mostly talk to devs or our standards reps who usually have more knowledge about the technology than me, as a PM the reverse will be the case. Interesting.

Poll: Favorite Part of Traditional Thanksgiving Meal?

 

 

So my schema authoring article was posted on Slashdot yesterday and a little later I got an email in my inbox from an XML-DEV regular about tooting my own horn by submitting it to Slashdot and also posting it to XML-DEV. Well, next time I write an article about a technology that may be relevant to technical people who use said technology I'll be sure to avoid informing people about it. :)

On a lighter note, I believe I just found the first instance of flirting on Slashdot I've ever seen in a response to my post on why I don't use PDAs anymore.

Thoughts on the current situation in Nigeria, James Gosling transformation into a bitter old man and the new generation of Slashdot karma whores below.

Poll: Favorite Programming/Scripting Language Creator?

 

 

In a recent diary, some people asked if I seriously thought violence would occur if my dad got directly involved in the Amina Lawal case. Well, to answer that question I provide this link to a VoA article entitled Nigeria Muslims Riot Over Miss World Contest which includes the choice quote

Muslim youths took to the streets Thursday burning churches, looting shops and smashing car windows. Witnesses say they saw burned bodies in the streets.

Poll: Favorite James Bond?

 

 

I just noticed the Demise Of The Premier .NET community site article on Slashdot. Looks like it didn't make it to the front page which is a surprise given it is negative news about Microsoft. Anyway after reading the details of the impending shutdown of ASP Friends I looked around internally to see what was up since the FAQ makes it look like a screwup on our part.

My cursory investigation led me to a response by the ASP.NET folks which seems to put some of the story in context. However some of the comments by Charles Carroll struck a chord since I have to deal with them daily and I felt like clarifying some points.

Poll: Best place to get answers to technical questions?

 

 

Even though the flames from the Java community haven't died down enough from the MiddleWare company's J2EE vs. .NET benchmark, it looks like they may be hitting another sore spot with their target community. The headline on their front page reads

According the Gartner Group, 70% of Java projects fail due to lack of skills

There are 2.5 Million Java developers in the world. Only 800,000 of them have genuine knowledge. 70 percent of these developers agree that the lack of advanced Java skills makes adoption of EJB/J2EE risky

I'm sure there are going to be a bunch of flame warriors who take TMC to task over reporting this and question the gartner results if this ever hits The Server Side