04.13.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:37 pm by Scott
I hate Eclipse. I hate everything about it. I remember when I was foolish and thought that something that could be extended to handle EVERYTHING was a great idea. Now I see the light. I love NetBeans, but that’s because it still hasn’t been corrupted by a plugin infestation like Eclipse. Now if you download the base Java Eclipse install, you have no problems. But I dare you install about 10 plugins and see if you still have an even partially working IDE. Better yet why don’t you try something even better. Why don’t you try IBM Websphere/ IBM Rational Web Developer (who knows what they are calling it nowadays). It takes every part of eclipse that does work, and breaks it. Then it adds in all kinds of other (broken) proprietary stuff, and before you know it you have an IDE that types your text backwards, replaces all your file extensions with double the last letter (for instance .gif becomes .giff EVERYWHERE), and if your lucky it might even give you even harder errors to find, such as having the debugger and the server looking at different versions of the source files, or the server loosing your source files entirely. I know there are people who are working hard at IBM to make this stuff work. But I’m sorry, it just doesn’t. Not only does it not work. It is by far the worst software I have ever used in my entire life. BTW all the errors I mentioned earlier (text typing backwards, etc. ) have happened to me personally, on multiple occasions. I really think sun has done it right with NetBeans. Its still young and fresh, and everything still works. If Sun is smart, they will try to stop NetBeans from becoming another Eclipse, and if they don’t, well I’ll just switch to a good old text editor I suppose. Then Maybe I can stop debugging my IDE and get back to debugging my code. Ah…if only.
Permalink
03.28.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:32 pm by Scott
I recently read an article about what the current economic situation means to 20-somethings ( http://www.slate.com/id/2214712/ ). As a twenty-something, it got me to thinking about how I really feel about it all. Of course there is no really simple answer to how I feel, but there are some things that come to me. In the article I read one of the writers say they feel like they were in a game and the rules change mid-way through. I can certainly relate. I certainly think the era of people living above their means has to come to an end, but I don’t really think this is a bad thing. I think Americans, myself included, tend to put way too much of an emphasis on money. The real problem is people who put an emphasis on money not because they actually want it, but rather they want other people to see they have it. I like money, I like it alot. But I don’t want it so I can keep up with what all of my friends have. Some of my friends have really nice things, I’m happy for them, but I only want nice things that I really want. I really think its going to take a while for America to reach sustainability. I think this recession was inevitable. Everybody has developed and “buy now, pay later” attitude, the U.S. government included. I really hope this recession signals the end of that mentality, but I suspect it will not. Of course during this recession people who play by the rules and do the right thing are feeling the effects as well, and that is unfortunate. There are too few of those people, and too many people who want something for nothing. While I don’t have the answer to ending this recession, I certainly dont think we are approaching it the right way. Businesses fail for a reason. By rewarding businesses that don’t play by the rules, we are only exacerbating the problem. That said, I finally want to addres how I really think this recession is going to affect 20-somethings. I think we are going to be the ones to either clean it up, or push it past the point of no return. I think the U.S. citizen is going to have to take a drastic cut in their lifestyle. I think it’s up to twenty-somethings to understand it. I think if we do, the United States will continue to be prosperous, but if we don’t, I think the consquences could be disasterous. I think there is still plenty of money to be made. I think this is still room for billionares in the future, but I think the future will have to be made out of hard-working people, by neccesity. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe this will all blow over and we can all get back to running up credit card debt, but I really think the something for nothing mentality has got to end.
Permalink
01.24.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 7:52 pm by Scott
After reading a few positive reviews of the Windows 7 beta yesterday, I thought I might give it a go myself. The experience was far from good. I’ll admit I only tried it for about 20 minutes, but that was enough for me to determine I was not impressed. First off, the first 2 programs I opened had “compatability issues”. Now as I developer, I know its hard for Microsoft to make sure that everything that has ever run under windows continues to do so. But the two programs where Norton Anti-Virus and Google Chrome. These are VERY new products (Norton 2008) . So what’s the deal Microsoft ? Maybe since it’s still just a beta I shouldn’t jump to conclusions, but I feel that Microsoft’s problems are far greater reaching than this. Now when Vista first came out, it was pretty terrible. Not nearly as terrible as Apple would have you believe, but bad none the less. But now, its pretty solid. there are still a few performance issues and bugs here and there, but overall its a decent operating system. The problem is that Vista, as well as Windows 7, is nothing but a response to OS X 10.4 and up. Microsoft is running around like chickens with their heads cut off because suddenly they have competition. But rather than focus on innovation, they are simply copying what Apple does. Take windows 7 for example. Now there is a new “taskbar” which behaves suspiciously like the OS X dock. I like the Dock in OS X, but why does windows need one? If you ask me, what Microsoft should do is just pretend Apple doesn’t exist and say to themselves … “if we were a startup, and we wanted to make the best operating system ever, what would we do”. Don’t worry about what Apple is doing. You need to become innovative rather than responsive.
Permalink
01.15.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:46 pm by Scott
Finale discovered the ultimate cause of the bug that has been bugging me for so long. I’m not 100% sure it’s internet explorer’s fault, but if it’s not then it is the way the Kohana PHP framework was handling session variables in PHP. Anyway as it turns out, internet explorer considers the exact same cookie from collegetestvault.com and www.collegetestvault.com to be different cookies and that ultimately is what’s causing the problem. It was pretty difficult to find, but it was a quick fix. Just had collegetestvault.com forwarded to www.collegetestvault.com.
On that note, the other news is that collegetestvault.com is officially up and running. There are probably a few small changes left to be done but nothing major, at least not before I start working on version 1.1 . The site is a site where you can look at old exams from professors so you can study them. You can also of course post them and all the like.
Permalink
01.08.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:02 pm by Scott
So I think the site I’m working on is near complete. So I go to do some IE testing. Of course there were issues. I had to make a different stylesheet to make it work in internet explorer 6. After about 3 hours of getting that to work, I did some thorough testing in IE6 and 7. About half way through the IE 7 testing I go to log in. The page refreshes and I’m not logged in. Hunh…same bug as before. But this is the first time it has ever happened on my computer. So i keep trying it doesn’t work. So then I clear the temporary internet files (on a whim really ) and then suddenly it went back to working. I since have been unable to recreate the bug in either IE 7 or IE 6. In fact I’ve never had the bug to happen in IE 6 or any browser other than IE 7. If I knew for sure this was an IE bug I’d just call it a day and release it. I might put up a little FAQ about it, but thats about it. But I worry the bug is actually my fault. So I’m going to hold off releasing my site until I get back to school where there’s an abundance of IE 7 using computers for me to test with. Ugh….
Permalink
« Previous entries
