There are two big problems with online applications. One is a limited UI – you do not have the rich controls and interoperability that you do with desktop applications. The other is connectivity – you need an internet connection, and given there’s no connectivity on the Tube or most flights this can make many applications [...]
Archive for May, 2007
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel
(Thanks to the good Samuel Johnson for the title.) Apparently Japan will now teach patriotism in schools. Patriotism is a useful tool in politics: indeed, one would be pressed to think of a better tool. For when you invoke patriotism you invoke tribalism; you invoke the spectre of your enemies; you simplify and view subtleties [...]
Write once, run once
Slowly, yet surely, J2ME is driving me completely mad. One of the nicer features of Java once write-once, run-anywhere – sure, you often need to arse around with user-interface tweaks (Swing for GTK+ and Mac OS X being prime examples), or with application server differences, but there’s a decent chance your business logic will run [...]
Java Strikes Back
Hot on the heels of Silverlight (perhaps too close to avoid calls of ‘catch-up’) comes JavaFX, Sun’s answer to Flash and like (and hopefully solution to some of the joys of J2ME). One does, however, wonder if they’ve heard of brand dilution. Unlike J2ME, however, this isn’t Java but the scripting language formerly known as [...]
Developers, Developers, Developers – as long as you use Windows
Having recently acquired a Pocket PC phone with 3.5G internet, I find myself in need of a feed-reader. I use NetNewsWire on my Mac – and it is superb – and NewsGator to ensure that I need only read once across all my devices. However, NewsGator has two flaws: firstly, there is no Linux client, [...]
Browser Wars Reprise?
Microsoft have just given the somewhat badly named WPF/E the shiny new label of ‘Silverlight‘. What’s more, they’ve actually made it interesting. WPF/E was a flash competitor built around XAML, Microsoft’s XML format for UI specification. Interesting, yet not really adding much more than you can already get in Flash or Apollo. Along with the [...]
Fighting the Man
Oh my. Someone went and leaked a HD-DVD key on Digg (far from the first place it ha appeared). The world’s worst piece of legislation is invoked (DMCA) and they get a take down notice. They try to implement, only to surrender to an overwhelming flood. Indeed, you can read about nothing else on Digg [...]
