Comment left here - it's also worth following some of the links in the article.Never install the Java Decompiler, JAD, and look at the library code you are dependent on.Just don't.If you do, however, never run the FindBugs utility (which I re

Here lies the one that works, not the old one I posted ages ago. It also uses dates instead of timestamp differences and should therefore not break if you ask it to go before the Epoch (some time in 1970 I think):

Start here to see what this is in response to. ... how many of you go back to the pre-web days? I do - graduated in 1987, I've had to practically start again 3 or 4 times in the last 20 years - Un

Following on from the talk I tried to give on why Java is bad for your brain at Barcamp I thought I'd dig out some of my old blog posts and present them here - try and explain the argument (which is more of a feeling

Create an active record object, retrieve some stuff from a soap service and then get this:NoMethodError: You have a nil object when you didn't expect it!The error occurred while evaluating nil.has_key?        fr

Java: finding nodes with xPath and how to Dump out XML DOM as a string

Have a look at http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html

Wot is says on the tin

Carry on, grasshopper

More recent writings on the history of programming languages

http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2005/12/11/cohesive_code_packages/Hi KevinI know what you mean about the java.util package.On a slightly related note I'm studying for the Business Components Devloper exam and you need to learn serveral interface specs.

This is a reprint of something I wrote ages ago. Thought it might amuse.

What I'm reading and working through to prepare for my Java Business Componets Developer Certification

Response to an article in the Register about rules of thumb.

I installed Mandriva Linux on an extra drive I put into my big server machine. Could not get the US Robotics wireless card to fly at all. Found some stuff on source forge but it didn't work for me (needed kernel source to build it - way too hard).Wen

Nulls have been the bane of my life as a database programmer and they got me again today. I was getting a constraint violation on an optional foreign key from MySQL.My PHP data entry system was returning the empty string when the user hadn't entered

Part one of an article about how I managed to create a dynamic data entry system using PHP

HmmmJust got asked to remove a feature I demoed over 6 months ago because it "scares" users. Relatively sophisticated way of refining a data set with a pop-up that allows you to refine the what you can see in a column on the web page, then

MySQLDecided to move my project to MySQL because it seems to be more of a standard compared with Postgres. This is a pity because I like Postgres a lot, but you have to go with the flow and if I'm going to work on some non-Oracle skills I should at l

Lots of competent people, who think carefully about the problem, making small contributions is how it works. Don't knock it. I'm a bit jealous of people who have made a contribution, which I know is weird of me. At times I feel like I'm trying to do

Say you are trying to validate that at least one element in a radio group has been selected.This hacking is because if a radio group only has one element you can't treat it as an array so if the length is === (points to the the same object) as an und

What's the matter with peopleToday I remembered why I hate driving.Incident 1:Coming up to a set of lights just before a 30 zone. I'm in the outside lane, doing about 40. Car on inside wobbles part-way into the outside lane, sees me and wobbles back.

Thought I might make some notes about this to help the next person along.Firstly, PHP5 on windows just has the XML SAX parser installed by default so, even though there is a PEAR XML library, you don't need it.AttributesThe Java classes have a org.xm

If you want to see a very coherent and logical explanation of why software patents are such ridiculous nonsense see http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/3/9/93357/91614.Can you imagine a world where the particular genius of your favorite author's rende

Got talked into looking at PHP rather than Python.I really like it: it's got a lot of the lovely features of the unix shell (heredocument and `), you can have nice structures likeif ( cond ) : exprendifSo you can block your code properly. I have alw