Virtual Box competes with VMWare and Parallels, but it's open source. It's a very decent virtualization product. Sun bought them a few months ago, and this is the first major release since then.
This blog entry (Sun xVM VirtualBox 1.60 Just Released for Ubuntu Hardy Heron and other Os's!) does a good job of summing up the new release.
Visit the VirtualBox homepage for more info.
This is a nice story about how a developer sold management on a Scala solution, put it in production, and handed off the maintenance to other developers.
For All You Know, It's Just Another Java Library
When you wanted to follow the advice of the Pragmatic Programmers and learn a language every year, you had to do it at home. You couldn't bring your new learning language into work.
Today it's a different. You can learn dozens of different languages and run them on top of the JVM or MS' CLR.
Also, if you're going to learn a new language, make sure it's hard enough to hurt. If you know Java, pick something very different, like Erlang or Scala. Learn to think in a new way.
I frequently hear the question at conferences... sure, we all know we should write tests, but it's like exercise. I know I should, but I don't. It would take too much time.
Recently I've been telling people that it takes only 10% of their time to create automated tests. And then I tell them about this blog entry. I decided to link to it so it'd be easier to find.
Automated Testing -- It's the thought that counts
At 6th Sense Analytics, we collect process metrics, so this is just an example of the type of insight we can pull out. After the tests were created, we knew exactly how much time was required.
I wanted to let everyone know that we'll be giving away a free pass to Research Triangle Software Symposium. The very popular No Fluff Just Stuff traveling software conference will be in your backyard if you're in North Carolina.
It's primarily a Java conference, but we've got a strong Agile track as well. And there are classes in other topics, like Scala, Technical Debt and more.
I'm a bit biased... I'm one of the speakers. :) But I really like the conference and the people it draws. It's a great chance to get a quick introduction to a broad collection of topics and network with a great national and local crowd.
And if you don't win the free pass, you could always try writing a haiku about Atlassian. :)
I never got why people liked Twitter, but I saw enough people I respect using it (like Ward Cunningham, Dave Thomas, Venkat, and Neal Ford, to name a few) that I decided to try it out... I like it. A lot.
Now that I can "twit" from my iPhone, I don't have to use desktop time to update or track other people's streams. I can post or read at a stop light or in an airport.
Also, the iPhone has a killer app called Twinkle that shows me Twitter feeds based on my location. There's something compelling to me about being able to see feeds within 1-2-5-10-100 miles from my current location. And it's amazing how many people there are "Twitting" on Twinkle within 2 miles of my house.
(In order to use Twinkle, you'll need to "jailbreak" your iPhone. You'll find a nice GUI on the ZiPhone page. It's a busy page, you'll have to navigate a bit. Also, only jailbreak. Don't unlock or activate unless you really know what that means.)
And just now I read an article titled Tweeting for Companies 101. Don't let the title fool you... while there's a decent amount of information for a corporate Twitter movement, there's tons of good information for the individual user as well.
Here's a page of Twitter Apps to get you started. Scroll down to find non-Windows apps.
Here's my link. Come visit. Get addicted too. :)
