Scanning - for the first time in years

For the first time in years, I found myself needing to scan a page this morning.
For the first time in years, I powered up my HP ScanJet 3300C.
It last saw action (if memory serves) when Windows 98 was the lastest thing.
For the first time ever, I plugged it into my Ubuntu box.
It worked.
First time.

I kid you not.

No driver madness.
No hair pulling.

Wonderful.

Blessed are the babelfish

So this a.m. I install the 5 updates that my Ubuntu Dapper box tell me are available. I note new kernel stuff coming down...

I reboot to finish the install and all is well except my VMWare server won't boot.

Hmmm. I hate these moments. The brow furrows. Coincidence? Co-Occurence? Causal connection?

I run with the latter theory. I run vmware from a terminal window to watch for messages spewing out the exhaust pipe. Something called "g_get_language_names" is either borked or has done the borking.

I google "Ubuntu VMware g_get_language_names".

I get a hit on a Spanish page. It looks like it might be a fix but I don't read Spanish. I get the page translated.

Yup. That fixed it.

Phew.

Outsourcing the middleware layer

"Middleware tends to be just plain hard. Middleware tends to be expensive. Middleware must work all the time which can make it very expensive indeed. Middleware tends not to be the core business of enterprises that depend on it (except of course, the vendors that sell it.). So, it is expensive, complex and not a core competency. What does that add up to?" -- Outsourcing the middleware layer

One Python per child

Python on the $100 laptop. Very interesting.

When all you have is a hammer...

I've been reading some Heidegger recently. For no good reason, these popped into my head this a.m. so I'm writing them down before I forget them.

They made me chuckle for a second but then again, maybe I'm just plain odd :-)

When all you have is a hammer, everything looks line a broken referential totality.

Or, veering towards the East:

When all you have is a hammer, you cease to have a hammer.

Have glue. Will travel.

Fact: most applications are built by combining existing applications and/or existing libraries of code.

Fact: a critical component of programmer productivity is the ability to re-use existing knowledge as well as existing code.

Fact: programming languages - especially general purpose programming languages - are examples of re-usable knowledge.

Intermediate Conclusion:
Having a "glue language" that you can use everywhere you work now and everywhere you might work in the future, from Linux to Windows to Mac to JVM to .NET to System 390 mainframe to Mobile Phone is a honkingly good idea.

Suggestion: A glue language that flows around all your existing libraries and integrates seamlessly with the feature of the local platform is a very, very desirable attribute of a glue language.

Fact: Python (or CPython if you like) runs... well, everywhere.

Fact: Jython does a stunningly good job of seamlessly integrating with the JVM platform.

Fact: Python is becoming so pervasive and so well known that it is now bordering on the (gasp) "safe" categorisation for even the most conservative enterprise application development.
(Newsflash: Python has been a completely safe bet for years now but it has taken time for the news to trickle all the way up.)

Fact: IronPython is now at version 1.0. .NET fans of my acquaintance say it features fall-off-your-chair-type excellence.

Final Conclusion:
I'll leave that up to you.

Menu Option Judo

"Armed with enough options, your application is not only impervious to blame attacks, it is seen as being more powerful to boot. You cannot lose." -- Menu Option Judo