Simon Horwith's Blog - Misc

Breaking Radio Silence

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 09:59:00 -0400

I've been really busy with work... but I'm still alive... and I have a few thoughts that I've jotted down with a note to blog about them, so I'll be blogging more in the very near future.
My wife's expecting our second son any time now... so I'll try and get some posts up before I become completely busy with bottles and diapers (again).

A Few Thoughts About Various Programming Languages

Tue, 11 May 2010 17:40:00 -0400

In my role leading development shops, I am constantly having to learn and evaluate new programming languages and tools in order to keep us current as well as in order to discover better ways to accomplish goals. As a developer, I am also constantly learning simply because I want to get better at what I do, I love what I do, and learning new languages is a fun and rewarding undertaking. From time to time, someone writes a blog entry or gives a conference presentation about the importance of knowing more than one language... of not being a 'one trick pony'. I was reading Sean Corfield's recent blog post about Clojure and realized that I've never written about my recommendations or opinions of various languages that I've used or evaluated... until now. In no particular order, here are several of the technologies that I know and my thoughts about them:

Python
- I've recently been spending a decent amount of time learning and using Python - it's very fast and powerful, and is syntactically one of the most concise and elegant languages I've ever seen... it's VERY readable and the more I use it, the more I like it. Python is definitely one of my favorite languages.
Java
- I've used Java off and on since 1995, and somehow keep ending-up having to use it on projects from time to time. The language has gotten larger, faster, and for the most part, better over the past decade and a half - I found the language improvements in Java 5 particularly useful in that they clearly tried to make it easier to do what you want in your code. That said, I don't find Java programming particularly clever or challenging and on many projects I see, deployment is a terribly painful process. Java applications tend to have ridiculous file/directory structures and I'm not a huge fan of how strict it is. Java is everywhere and does have a huge job market, so it's worth knowing for those reasons... but it would never be my first choice of languages to use based on any merits other than the large talent pool and number of open source projects.
PowerShell
- Powershell is probably the coolest new thing I've seen in a long time. For those of you unfamiliar with it - it's a fully OO scripting environment for Windows (runs on .NET) and is free from Microsoft. The syntax is slick and simple, and the power you can pack into a single line of code makes it a no-brainer for anyone who needs or wants to administer a Windows network or machine. With powershell, windows finally has a shell that's better and more powerful than those available on nix systems. Bottom line: if you use Windows you REALLY should learn Powershell.
PHP
- PHP is yet another free technology - we use PHP and CF for most of our projects, and I like PHP a lot. A long time ago, some people called PHP "poor man's ColdFusion"... well, I think it's more true today than it was back then. It's simple, lightweight, and fast... and development times really aren't much longer than with CFML provided you're not trying to do something that CF does out of the box that there's no PHP module to do. I don't see it having many advantages over CF aside from price, the huge talent pool, and the number of open source projects. There's a good job market for PHP but those jobs don't typically pay as well, so I'd learn it because of it's popularity but I wouldn't choose a career focused exclusively on it.
Flex/ActionScript
- I've used Flex since beta 1, and I enjoy seeing how it evolves with each new release. I don't particularly like programming with ActionScript for the same reasons I don't like Java - but unlike Java, I do love the end result you get with Flex... enough to want to do it. No technology to date that's tried to compete with Flash has been compelling enough to use in lieu. There's also a great job market for Flex - especially here in New York City, and it's one of the top 3 or 4 technologies I'd recommend learning to anyone who wants a successful web development career right now.
ColdFusion
- I've used CF since the beginning and continue to use it heavily. It's not the best performing technology available but it performs well enough for most needs. No, it's not free, but development/debugging time is rapid enough to easily justify the cost. These days, CF's closed architecture and code base is a real turn-off for me personally, but it's the lack of talent (and the poor quality of most "talent") that is it's only solid turn-off from a business perspective. The native support for Flex is probably its most compelling unique feature... that, and it's rapid development nature. It's a good choice when you want a very robust user-friendly platform in a turn-key solution.
LISP
- LISP is, hands down, personally my favorite language. Five or six years ago I set-out to spend 6 months of my free time teaching myself LISP, and I enjoyed it so much that I just never stopped. The syntax took a little getting used to, and emacs takes even longer to get used to - which is probably the most annoying part of learning LISP (I haven't found a better free IDE for LISP yet). LISP is beautiful in the simplicity of its design - most notably in the interchangeable nature of code and data. It is definitely the most expressive and flexible language I've used - as well as the most powerful. Be warned; it takes a while to un-train yourself and learn how to really harness the power of LISP (particularly of macros and, if you're new to it, thinking in functional terms). I also, surprisingly, find the implementation of OOP in LISP (CLOS) much nicer and cleaner than that of any other language. I strongly recommend learning LISP. Not because there's a huge job market for it (there isn't) but because it puts other languages into perspective and because it WILL make you a better developer (I've learned more from 'tinkering' with LISP than any other language).

So, those are the main languages I've played with and developed feelings for recently (within the past 2 years). It's worth noting that there are other languages I left off for brevity. I've also been getting back into JavaScript these days - I have a new appreciation for it's functional nature and closures, and I think JQuery is pretty slick. I've taken a pretty good look at Objective C - it's a decent language but not worth learning unless you want to do a lot of Apple development. I've also played around with Clojure - which is essentially a pseudo-LISP implementation for the JVM - I liked it, but prefer to use 'pure' LISP... though it's attractive being able to write LISPy code that I can run on a JVM, since Java is everywhere. There are a few other languages I haven't had time to take a good enough look at yet but hope to very soon. Specifically, I'm interested in looking at Scala and Caml... and I've begun learning some Haskell and hope to dig into that a little deeper.

Apple vs. Adobe

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:43:00 -0400

Apple Wins :(
http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Adobe&word2=Apple
Yes, that really is all I'm going to say about the current Apple/Adobe war... except for a big shout out to Lee Brimelow for speaking his mind (http://theflashblog.com/?p=1888).
Right on, Lee!

Happy Pi Day!

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:01:00 -0400

Yeah, it is geeky... today is 3.14, so Happy Pi Day!
http://www.piday.org/

Figleaf Takes Adobe Training Online

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:16:00 -0400

Fig Leaf Software (http://www.figleaf.com, an award winning Adobe Training Partner, is taking their training online - they're offering free training via the web for several Adobe products. Nice job, guys!
You can register and find out more at: http://training.figleaf.com/tutorials/

British Government Finally Apologizes For Unfair Treatment of Alan Turing

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 07:41:00 -0400

Yesterday, the British Government issued a formal apology for its terrible acts against Alan Turing (http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page20571). Mr. Turing was a brilliant mathematician, who we owe so much to for his work in the fields of encryption, computation theory and lambda calculus, artificial intelligence, and computer science. Specifically, he played a very important part in developing the stored program machines that would evolve into the modern day computer, in breaking Nazi enigma machine cryptology (using his own 'Turing Machine'), and in laying down much of the foundation of Artificial Intelligence theory. Turing also studied under Alonzo Church and contributed significantly to the development of lambda calculus and other computation and algorithm theories... from which, modern day functional programming was born.

I've studied his work a fair amount and have long felt that he was one of the 5 most brilliant minds of the past 200 years. The cruelty inflicted on him by his own government was tragic and it is good to see a formal apology for the way that this hero was so wrongly treated.

Is Augmented Reality Useful For Anything?

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:51:00 -0400

Like so many other people, though I love seeing the creative ways in which people push technology to its limits, I often find myself thinking "that's cool. Useless... but cool". This was my initial reaction to augmented reality - it's very slick and it's fun to play with, but I don't find twisting a piece of paper around in front of my webcam all that interesting or useful after 2 or 3 minutes. Then I saw the light.

I just watched a demo of how augmented reality created using a mobile phone camera, GPS, and accelerometer (iPhone) can be combined with information from the internet to create... well, extremely useful augmented reality applications. Maybe everybody already got it and my lightbulb was just slow to go off on this one. Whether or not that's the case, I'm glad it did.

Take a look at this demo of an augmented reality application created by British iPhone development company Acrossair:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8193951.stm

Is Adobe the Next Microsoft?

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:02:00 -0400

Adobe could be the next Microsoft... and that's not necessarily a compliment. Today, ZDNet News published an article titled "Is Adobe the next (pre-2002) Microsoft?" in which they compare the rising number of security holes being found and exploited in Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Acrobat Reader with the problem Microsoft had with vulnerabilities being exploited in their products years ago. It was so bad that among many circles, suggesting Microsoft products as a solution to whatever requirements you needed to meet was grounds for public humiliation. Their products were known targets and it was understood by many that using certain MS software was risky. No software is really 100% safe, but Microsoft took it seriously and became very proactive about addressing the (technical and image) issue both internally before software is released and publicly when a vulnerability is found. The article does give Adobe credit for being proactive and doing a reasonable job addressing vulnerabilities when they're found, but doesn't hide an opinion that Adobe still has a way to go.

The ZDNet article is online at http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-329118.html

Recent Interviews and Advice from Shantanu Narayen and Jeremy Allaire

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:01:00 -0400

I read two interesting interviews this weekend that I thought I'd mention. The first was an interview with Jeremy Allaire in which he offered his thoughts on the current and future value of online media. That interview is online at http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/07/16/had-i-been-at-sun-valley/ - Jeremy's a smart guy and generally always has something insightful to say.

The New York Times ran an interview with Shantanu Narayen, CEO and President of Adobe, this weekend. It was interesting to read what he had to say about management and productivity. I particularly liked this quote from the interview:
If I can complement people?s strengths by surrounding them with people who can complement their areas of weakness, that?s probably a better recipe for success than trying to say, "O.K., you need to change."
The Shantanu Narayen interview is online at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/business/19corner.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Adobe%20CEO&st=cse.

Rackspace Cloud Releases New API

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:48:00 -0400

We have used Rackspace (http://www.rackspace.com) for a lot of our dedicated server hosting for years without complaint. When they bought Mosso (the cloud company) we tried it out. We'd already been researching and testing other cloud services, and the pricing and fact that it's Rackspace, made the service very attractive. Unfortunately, we had a few not so great experiences with their cloud, and the lack of a robust administrative control panel left me generally feeling not-so-impressed with the service (Amazon, on the other hand, has a great control panel). Today, Rackspace announced the release of a new API for Rackspace Cloud, and I intend to take a second look. Based on the information I've read so far, it sounds pretty nice. Hopefully I won't be let down, as it'd be great to be able to consider Rackspace among the good quality cloud services available. You can check out Rackspace Cloud online at http://www.rackspacecloud.com/.

Google Wave - Redefining Communication and Social Networking as we know it?

Fri, 29 May 2009 18:40:00 -0400

I don't have much to say about this yet, as it's still a closed technology, but we at Nylon Technology (http://www.nylontechnology.com) pay a lot of attention to new trends and new products from trend leaders like Google, and think Google Wave (http://wave.google.com/) looks to introduce a very interesting shift in communication paradigm - with strong impact potential in the social networking arena. Only time will tell. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Nylon Technology is Currently Hiring in New York

Wed, 20 May 2009 13:46:00 -0400

Despite what they say about the economy, Nylon Technology has a pretty stacked pipeline and is going through a growth stage. I'm looking for Flex developers primarily, but we also have demand for ColdFusion and PHP experience. We're open to contract and full-time arrangements but candidates must be able to work on site in New York. If you, or anyone you know, is interested, email me your resume, availability, type of work you're looking for, and rate/salary requirements at shorwith@nylontechnology.com.

CNET Announces Best WebWare 2009 Winners

Wed, 20 May 2009 10:43:00 -0400

CNET has released the winners of the best 100 in web software for 2009: http://www.cnet.com/html/ww/100/2009/winners.html?tag=mncol;txt. Some of them are great apps - many of them I've never heard of but will check out. If anyone has some free time, I'd be curious to know what percent of the apps are written in .NET vs JAVA vs PHP vs CF. There are definitely a good number of them on there that make great use of Flex/Flash.

Google Released Their Analytics API

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:50:00 -0400

Google released their analytics API yesterday (http://analytics.blogspot.com/2009/04/attention-developers-google-analytics.html). I haven't played with it yet, but am really looking forward to doing so very soon. A large number of our clients use analytics and it will be great to finally be able to integrate our software with it in a better, more client-friendly manner. I'm also curious to know who out there has already used the API and what you thought? Any gotchya's you want to share?

Flight of the Conchords (and more)... streaming to a Flash Player near you

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:13:00 -0400

Adobe and Time Warner announced a strategic partnership yesterday (http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10186110-2.html) which included the announcement that HBO will be relaunching their site with heavy use of Flash.

Sweet.