AJAX and Java
Part of my responsibility at work is to be on the lookout for new technologies that give us a competitive edge that we can incorporate into our next-gen high-tech applications. Currently, I'm on an AJAX kick. Well, its really a love-hate relationship: I love what it can do for me, I hate the horror that is JavaScript and DHTML.
I do find, however, the more and more I coerce JavaScript into a Java-like format (with coding conventions, clean code formatting, etc), the easier it is to deal with. But, why isn't there a JavaScript IDE that can tell me when our code is invalid? <napoleon-dynamite>Gosh! I freakin' hate JavaScript. It freakin' sucks!</napoleon-dynamite>. Maybe the next JS standard will make lives easier. I hear ActionScript 3.0 is a good step forward, but that doesn't help me much right now.
I don't know why I digress - almost everything my teams do is related to high-throughput High Availability and Systems Integration apps written in server-side Java. But, our company does pride itself on providing super elegant GUIs on top of the enterprise business tier - we feel its what makes us different and more valuable than most other consulting shops. Plus, its also nice to occasionally dip into other languages to keep on your toes.
So, on our latest project, I've found these JavaScript libraries to be invaluable (the first time people see the app, they're blown away by how good it looks - welcome to Web 2.0):
- Prototype
- Scriptaculous
- Rico
- DWR (easy AJAX with Java)
And although I'm not at liberty to show this product (yet) due to contractual restrictions, I found an app named Meebo that is based on the same principles. Although our app is much larger (millions of users directly supported, etc) and in an entirely different vertical domain the front-end client technologies are similar. Check it out, they've done a nice job.
First Post
Ok, so I decided to do this blog thing once and for all (I suppose the 'for all' part is quite literal here). I'm really active in the IT (more specifically Java) community, and I've had a ton of people ask me "where's your 'blog?". Given that I've known what a 'blog is for quite some time, I'm almost ashamed that I haven't had one until now. At least now folks who have asked for entries have a place to visit, as sparse as it may currently be.
I guess I've always been too busy to take time out to just broadcast to the general public. Usually, my time is directed towards responding to topics initiated by someone else. Barring personal hobbies, I guess I've always felt it was a little nuts to actually divert time to something that doesn't directly or immediately solve some problem or do something I find useful. I actually like helping people though, so perhaps this can be an avenue to do so. It is my job to teach, train and manage highly skilled software engineers - so, maybe this blog will help do that in some small manner. And heck, maybe I can get lucky and this thing blows up and allows me to make a killing with AdSense 
Now, that isn't to say I'm a greedy capitalist pig (long live the U.S.A!) who wants to squeeze money out of his blog, because I'm not. I'm just a capitalist pig and will also take donations I do have altruistic intentions actually, a particular example being the open-source Java project I founded: JSecurity - a comprehensive Java Security Framework. I feel ubiquitous tools and frameworks ought to be open source and free, hence my progeneration.
Who knows, maybe this will be a good avenue just to blow off steam - I could actually find it a viable 'hobby' and enjoy it. We'll see if I find it agreeable.
One final note on this first post: I apologize with toungue-in-cheek about the title of this Blog ('Les is More'). As anyone with the first name of Les, Leslie or Lester will tell you, that particular phrase is not that funny nor particularly witty. But, since so many people think its so cool and fits me perfectly, I'll oblige for the masses.
Watch out blogging world. You've got one more to look out for! (nevermind that this is like #200,935,801, and that blogs suck)