Jython is a really neat language

I just spent a day learning Jython, and I kinda like it for several reasons:

1. I know Java and like quite a few of its features. You can access any Java classes (including the Swing classes, encryption, ANYTHING Java) from a Jython script.

2. While you can access all of your Java classes from Jython, your Jyton script doesn't have all of the rigid requirements of a .java file. For example, you can create multiple classes in a single Jython script.

3. You don't have to compile Jython. You can compile it if you want (compiling creates all of the appropriate .class files), but you don't have to. The fact that you can deliver an editable script with all of the power of Java is appealing to me.

4. The language is fairly easy to learn.

The sources I used for reference are:

Learning Jython: http://wiki.python.org/jython/LearningJython

Python Library Reference: http://docs.python.org/lib/lib.html

Python Reference Manual: http://docs.python.org/ref/contents.html

Python Regular Expressions: http://www.amk.ca/python/howto/regex/

If you think IT has confusing/conflicting standards, just look at any other industry

The case in point (for me, at least), is with trying to find fittings for some tubing I'm dealing with. I'm trying to find some fittings for a hydraulic steering system I'm working on. Easy enough, right? Wrong.

It turns out that there are several different standards that are used to specify the threads on the fittings. Some of these standards are compatible/equivalent and others are not. And as far as I can tell, every company out there enjoys using a different standard for their labels. For example, an "AN-8" fitting (aka dash 8 or -8 or -08 or AN-08) is equivalent to a JIC 1/2" fitting, which is the same as a SAE J514 37° 1/2" fitting. This might lead you to believe that a half inch is a half inch, but you would be wrong. NPTF, NPSM and SAE J5143 fittings all have different (and incompatible) specs for their threads.

That's already more than most people would ever want to know about tubing and fittings. And that's in an industry that's been around for over 100 years, and which has tangible, physical products that anyone can test and verify as valid or not. Now consider the computer software industry: no physically verifiable deliverables, fairly young, full of people coming up with new ways of doing things every day. There's a loooong road ahead, and along that road, the people who can make the different pieces work together will always be in demand.

So this week I'm trying out a Sprint Broadband card. It is EVDO Rev A so it suports up to 1.8mbit connections.

I wonder where those 1.8mbit connections are...

I'm sitting in Minneapolis with the card in MacBook, right next to a Window, and at best I am getting 20k per second on downloads. That is EDGE speed - not EVDO speed. The best I've got is 79k per sec - at home within line of site of a tower.

I may trying Verizon or AT&T, but this Sprint card is going back.

Free Wifi...

I'm working from my remote office this morning, AKA - Panera. I see the sticker that says Free Wifi, I agree to the Terms and Conditions - but it never says I have to buy anything.

My issue is all of these people that are getting tickets for "stealing" Wifi, if there is no purchase required - how is it stealing? I smell a Seinfeld episode for this one.

Another thing, why are/were cities putting money into Municipal Wifi? They have thousands of poor, not enough Police Officers or Firemen, they are cutting art/band/sports from school - but they have Wifi? Why is Internet a right? Get off your ass and open a book.

10 Dirty secrets of working in IT

I found this in another blog this morning - it is so true.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=546

I, too, made the switch to a MacBook Pro

... and I'm never going back! I just got a ThinkPad T60p (2.0 GHz Core Duo, 160GB drive, 4GB RAM) in April, and I "upgraded" it to Vista, and it finally pushed me over the edge. I think Vista can (and will) be used effectively in the enterprise, but too many applications don't yet fully support it. And even among those that do, there are some problems that aren't being fixed (e.g. Picasa and Java applets consistently caused my display driver to crash). So I just got tired of having to depend on MS Vista.

So I got the smaller Macbook Pro with a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo, 160 GB drive, and 4GB of RAM. The whole experience looks, feels, and functions nicely. The specific things I've noticed and like:

1. I copied my FireFox profile folder from Windows, and EVERYTHING just works - all of my plugins, my history, etc. And it works faster than it did under Vista (or XP, for that matter).

2. It resumes from sleep mode almost immediately. With Vista and XP, it never woke up as quickly - sometimes it woke up "not so slowly", but other times it would take several minutes.

3. I installed VMWare fusion, and it's just crazy fast. Suspending a VM (running XP, ironically) with 512MB of RAM assigned to it only takes 30 seconds. Resuming that same VM takes SECONDS - it's really almost immediate.

4. The USB ports transfer data at higher speeds. I plugged a thumb drive into the T60 and copied a file that took minutes. I then plugged the same drive into the Mac, and copying the same file took SECONDS. Don't know or care why this is - I'm just happy as hell that it works better now.

5. Configuring wireless connections is easy, and it just works.

6. On the down side, I have a Treo 700w on Verizon's network, and I love it. However, there is currently no way to tether this phone with OS X. This is the reason I have the XP VM installed - I can run PDANet in this XP VM to connect to Verizon's network, then just route the Mac's traffic through that connection.

That's all I've got for now - I'm having no problems at all, and I'm happy as can be with OSX.

My favorite blogs

This is a list of the blogs that I read every day, and which seem to keep me pretty well informed about stuff that interests me:

http://www.engadget.com
http://www.gizmodo.com
http://slashdot.org
http://www.autoblog.com
http://www.jalopnik.com
http://www.toolmonger.com

Enjoy.