As embarassing as this is to say, I, a web developer, don't know CSS. Any good books to learn this quickly? I know the high level concepts, just not how to put them into practice. I usually work on back-end systems (spring/hibernate/daos/business logic/etc...), which is why I never even attempted to learn it. Its not a requirement for me to learn it, but I think I've ignored it long enough...

Oh, and in Java 1.5, I'm using enums to their full potential. Great little things, those enums. Can have their own methods, implement interfaces, and even have constructors! I even use a visitor pattern in the enum to seperate some sql building from the enum logic...

I am a big Bond fan. Seen them all multiple times, know the trivia, etc... Sean Connery is the best Bond, followed by Pierce Brosnan. When Daniel Craig was selected as Bond, I hated the idea... Clive Owens was meant for the role. I even considered not going to show my displeasure...
Well, my inlaws were in town and watching the kids, we wanted to see a movie, and I was outvoted. We saw Casino Royale.
Having said all of that, I was going in to hate it and hoped to maybe be surprised and it wasn't terrible.

While I STILL think Clive Owens would make for a great Bond, Casino Royale is easily one of the best Bonds ever! Yeah, I said it... one of the best. Right up there with Goldfinger.

While there was a lot of action, there was a ton of character development. This movie was really a big character development. It is the first story of Bond, and even starts BEFORE Bond is a 00 agent. They wanted to change things around, so you won't see Q (or R), no martini's are ordered shaken and not stirred (in fact, he orders his martini exactly how Ian Fleming wrote it in the book), and the comic relief is few and far between. Even without all of the traditions, its one of the best Bonds. Even if you don't like Bond, this is a great movie, if you have only seen a few, you will understand all the subtleties. Really a quality movie, IMHO...

While I'm working from home today, the heater guy comes in to clean the heater. I have them come in every spring and every fall to clean the heater/ac/water heater...

It should be noted that I just replaced my roof a few weeks ago and replaced my water heater last week...
So I find out there is a crack in the heat exchanger. That brings carbon monoxide into the house and spreads it around. My daughter puked last night, and I can't help but think this could be a reason (or at least a factor).
So I have to replace my furnace. So much for having a Wii anytime in the next year.... My bonus next year should handle the roof, but it'll take another year bonus to handle the furnace. When it rains it pours, eh?

Yeah, I watched the big game, but it was nice to see my alma mater play on ESPN during primetime... ALMOST over, and THEY PULL THE UPSET! Heard about the possibility of Rutgers playing in the BCS championship? IT AIN'T HAPPENING!

Yeah, a football fan went to a basketball college (I went to UC instead of OSU... better engineering program).

Ugh, I just spent hours of research to find something. I know this only pertains to <5 people that read this, but I wanted it to be available to the rest of the net in case someone else has the same issue:
If you are using a 'like' clause in hql (I use spring's hibernate template), this is wrong:

getHibernateTemplate().find("from Upc upc where upc.upcNumber like '?%'", new Object[]{param});

HQL doesn't like the look of %'s in its queries... so you have to change it to:

getHibernateTemplate().find("from Upc upc where upc.upcNumber like ?", new Object[]{param + "%"});

The error message I got was out in left field:

IndexOutOfBoundsException: Remember that ordinal parameters are 1-based

REALLLL helpful, there.... sheesh...

In my new job, I have to review consultant resumes.
As I've mentioned before, we use the powerhouse three in the java world:
Struts
Spring
Hibernate

As I page through these resumes, I see quite a bit of struts, and that's it. Those with spring/hibernate experience are powerhouse architects (probably too expensive).

So if someone has WORK EXPERIENCE in spring and/or hibernate, they are getting an interview. Its that simple.
Blathering idiot? But you used spring at your last job? Come on in!

And for god sakes, don't make up design patterns then put them on your resume (or say that a core GoF pattern is a J2EE pattern)... if I interview you, I will embarass you in front of the other interviewers. What you put on your resume you should be able to talk with me about, in depth, and I will ask lots of questions ranging from what I expect a correct answer to architect type questions that have no right answers.

But, seriously, just having java experience for 20 years doesn't fly... someone with 3-5 years experience with those new techs will get you a great job with great pay (at least in this area). So for you aspiring Java developers (here's looking at you Sam), consider learning those techs when you feel ready for them... or consider switching to using them in your current job:
Struts is a front end web api, spring is a transaction/middle tier api, hibernate is an object/relational mapper (DAO/DB interaction). Hibernate is a stiff learning curve, but you can learn it very quickly. Struts takes time and maybe some guidance. Spring is, by far, the most complex, but when you learn how to use it to its full potential, you will be heavily coveted.

Update: Oh, and don't put you have 'spring experience' at the top of your resume, then not have it in any of your work experience of hobbies. You have spring experience? Where? How?

I was finally able to crack open the gift the fellow slashdotter (who wishes to remain anonymous) bought me for my birthday. A Sid Meier game, so its automatically good, right?

What I was planning on doing is playing the game a couple hours, then writing a 'first impression' of the game....
Well, I started at 10pm last night. When I was done for the night, I thought "well I did a lot in those two hours!" Then I looked at the time... 2:30am. Definitely not the first time I cursed Sid Meiers name for 'forcing' me to sit and play his game well past what I had planned... reminded my of my old 6-10 hour one-sitting games I played of Civ2 and SMAC (we liked the name 'smack' for a reason) ;)

What can you do in the game? Well, you have a ship, can pick a country to initially fight for (spanish, dutch, french, english), then you can kick some ass.... well, there are 'legit' ways to play the game... trading between ports and such (BOOOORING). I played for the english (was suggested for beginners) and started by only attacking those against the english flag (lets just say the french were PISSED at me for quite some time). You come into ports and can get more crew, sell the stuff you stole, repair/upgrade/sell ships, etc. You can also talk to the governor. He will either yell at you (for attacking ships of his country), congratulate you (for attacking his counties enemies), promote you (for REALLY attacking his countries enemies, doing missions for him, etc...), introduce you to his daughter. She will ask for jewelery, or other stuff based on your rank (the prettiest will only talk with high ranks). If you are good enough, you can 'dance' with her, which is a game of 'figure out the next move, and hit that key at just the right time... which is surprisingly like fencing in the game). The real meat and potatoes is sailing. Its just 'turn left' and 'turn right', and adjusting your sails... you have to SAIL with the wind and such. Sailing into the wind with the wrong kind of ships can be pretty slow going (watch how much food you have!). The map is enormous, and hard to manipulate (as the wind is mostly heading west, so once you start going west, getting back can be hard going). Battle can be chosen by any ship (unless you really piss someone off and they come after you). Battle is just like a naval battle should be. Cannons are on the sides of the ships, you get to pick your balls (round for hull destruction, chain for sail destruction, and grape for crew destruction). If you get close, they will either surrender due to damage, or you board, and you have to fence the captain. Fencing, like I said, is like dancing (press the right button at the right time). Its surprisingly quick and I've had games that I go either way, so its not really 'easy', but it can be.

Anyway, my 'first impression' was that the game was a little too easy. It 'told' you how to dance with governors daughters... it 'told' you how enemy captains where going to strike in swordfight... it was pretty easy to kick ass and take names...
But the neat part of the game is that even though you can get a whole fleet of like 5 ships from stealing from enemies... after 9-12 months of sailing, the crew grows restless, and you ahve to dock, divide the loot (you get like 10%), and you only get to keep that 10% AND only your lead ship. Well, when you do that, you also can 'level up'... now the things the game 'told' you are no longer available. Dancing I find incredibly hard, cause you have to go by hand signals the governors daughter gives you which happens one beat before you have to press the button... I just lost two sword battles (and now I have to pick which type of sword to use!). Enemies realize when you can outmanuver or outgun them, so they try to quickly run in for sword battle....

Whats the best, though? I still haven't scratched the surface of everything you can DO in this game. I've only covered maybe 25% of the map, I haven't looked for buried treasure, I haven't tried to attack a town, I haven't found any of my family (that's the plot of the game... evil baron enslaves your family, you escape, grow up, and are part of a mutiny and are voted the new captain...).

Not turned based like normal Sid Meier games, but just as ridiculously addictive as the rest of his.... not recommended unless you have several hours free ;)


Giant thanks to that anonymous slashdotter again... going to enjoy this one for quite some time!

What I really want to see is a website that has all the things that will be on my nov ballot. I want to see each person, their party, and their views. No mudslinging. Then I want to see all the issues and their pros and cons.

Wouldn't be tough to MAKE a site like this. Have the reps sign themselves in and put in their own views (though there will have to be rules against trickery or trying to sit in the middle of the fence).
I don't want to WRITE the site... I just want to USE the site. I hate having to do my own research, cause candidates only smear the other candidate instead of actually telling us their views (Jean Schmidt is my congresswoman... not a fan of her, but her opponent is equally inept. I have no idea which to choose and will have to spend time researching it only to find that I'm screwed regardless of how I vote...). Anything like this already exist, by chance?

Wow... Yesterday marked my five year anniversary of writing online journals. Looking back I can see everything from the birth of my children to my days as a thorn in the side of the slashdot editors to my current general apathy of the whole thing to when the 'JE circle' people started forming... Wow... I've been doing this for five years and you suckers have been reading it most of the time ;)

For those that don't read The Straight Dope, its an old weekly newspaper article from Chicago where a really smart (cynical, funny, etc) journalist (Cecil) has a whole slew of researchers and they answer pretty much any question ever asked (go through the archives... anything from 'could a plane take off from a treadmill going the opposite direction' to the 'nutritional breakdown of semen').

Today's article will be a classic.... discussions on what happens when werewolves and vampires fight, how much blood a vampire needs daily, and sex with zombies.... funny stuff!

The only thing I wish for this country to truely change in politics is the removal of smear campaigns. I want candidates to tell us who they are, what the stand for, and the platforms they support. The end.
But now its just 'look what he did!', 'can you believe she did this!', 'look at how undecisive he is!', 'She flipflopped and here is her history on it...'
Smear back and forth... back and forth. So when we vote, we aren't voting for who we support or who stands for what we stand.... we are voting for the lesser of two evils, which is dispicable in my opinion....

Another thank you to an anonymous person that bought me a game off my wish list. I'm guessing it was a birthday gift, and I intend on installing it and playing it... But I don't know how soon... You see, my wife opened it, then told me it was something she thinks she'd enjoy, so I'll have to pry it off her hands, first ;)

Anyway, a big thanks... can't wait to rip into it :D

Yes, its an NFL football topic, but you don't need to know or care about the game to enjoy this. Only football game out there is "Madden"... want to know what its like to be the worst rated player in the game?
Ethan Albright, the worst rated player in madden has a few choice words to say about the subject. Its an open letter to the producers of the game, and Mr.Turducken, himself...

Since I'm in external training today and tomorrow without the net, I thought I'd write this late tonight for tomorrow.
Yeah, 10/19/76 (or 19/10/76 for our European friends).

Its funny to look back at life... I remember calculating back in high school when I would turn 30. 2006 seemed like such a long way in the future. Little did I know how quick it'd pass.....
I didn't even think about what I'd want to have accomplished by 30. It wasn't until after college I set goals. I've exceeded most of them.
Have a house, wife for 5 years, and two great kids. I'm balding more than I'd like and have enough greys that I gave up on plucking. Better than most at my age, but I was hoping to be in management by now. Guess I'll have to just wait a few days on that. Starting Monday I'll be the tech lead and chief architect for our next big project (biggest project we've had for a good three years). I'll have two people under me for the project, and my boss has been setting me up for this for months. Can't wait. Funny, too... you know that external training I'm taking? "Improving Leadership".... didn't know it'd be timed like this ;)
Anywho, its not a 'real' promotion, nor a 'real' management/supervisor role, but its enough to prove what I can do to move into those 'real' positions...

Anyway, my wife did what I hate this past weekend, and threw me a surprise party. I hate being the center of attention, but still had a great time. This would explain my last JE (for the record, I have far too many podcasts, now), as I got a few great presents, like the new iPod Nano my brother gave me (Thanks, J). I actually was going to detail the party, but lets just sum it up as I was completely taken by surprise (which is quite an accomplishment, cause the wife has a tendency to give EVERYTHING a way... like telling me the ending of a movie as soon as she finishes watching it), my sister (and brother in law) flew in from Atlanta, old college buddies drove in from out of town... it was just nice catching up with everyone.

Oh, although I'm not quite 30 yet, I'm pretty sure it feels just like 29 ;)

Its finally happened... I know I was the last person in the world to have one, but I finally got my hands on an ipod (the reason I got it I'll explain on Thursday... but I have to give a huge 'thanks' to my brother for the gift).

Anyway, I need to get up on all the podcasts that are good and popular. So far I'm subscribed to the 3 top "Lost" podcasts, the Dane Cook podcast, and the "Java Posse" podcasts. What podcasts do you listen to??