Put the knife down and take a green herb, dude. (c) Ruffin Bailey 2001-2018

Slashdot has a pretty humourous article entitled Microsoft's Tips for Buying an MP3 Player. Here a clip from /.'s description of MS's article:

In another extension of Microsoft's 'Plays for Sure' campaign, the company has launched a web page with six tips to help consumers purchase the 'correct' MP3 Player for them. Among the insights of the article hard drive-based players suck and a stopwatch is a useful feature to have on your player.

Ha. That is pretty funny. Guess I should paste a clockwatch onto an iPod shufle, b/c heavens knows the 30 lap Ironman I've got won't do the trick.

I've seen a few people backhandedly slap the iPod shuffle for being an overpriced version of yesterday's technology that's legitimized only by virtue of having that Apple style. I believe they miss the point. What the iPod shufffle does that nobody else's USB memory stick does is allow you to listen to iTunes Music Store purchases [without the de-DRM steps of being F/OSS-Linux l33t]. I was using the ITMS before I had an iPod to purchase CDs (at least until I figured out anything that'd been on the market for than a year could be had for a lower price, usually used, on Amazon), and I still use it to bag newly released, relatively popular singles. Of course the ITMS also has a number of songs you're not likely to find on the used market easily.

All this plays into the iPod shuffle costing you a little extra to access content that you're already buying more easily. Sure you can turn ITMS songs into mp3s, but, as I've covered in some depth before, if $99 buys me an mp3 player and kills the reason I need to bother with the conversions, well, I'm getting an iPod shuffle.

(That said, I am beginning to see why people might light to listen to FM on the iPod -- and, in my case, even AM. It's ITMS or FM, I suppose, when it comes to mp3 players. Course with Ambrosia's Wiretap, you can grab NPR archives, say, and stick 'em on the 'pod.)

The jFud begins in earnest with SWT versus Swing, Eclipse vs. Netbeans, IBM vs. Sun with articles like this:
Why Eclipse Developers Are Moving To NetBeans (cld.blog-city.com):

The result is that many Eclipse developers have switched to NetBeans and others are beginning the migration to NetBeans by using both IDEs. Though the Java and Eclipse forums are littered with 'why is Eclipse slow', 'why does Eclipse freeze for 25 seconds' , 'crashes' and a number of like questions, increasingly it is becoming more obvious that perhaps the problem may not be just Eclipse's architecture but also that SWT is only optimized on Windows and is not the fast performer that its proponents suggest - a number of observers have mentioned this. Has it all been worth it ? SWT development has been a huge, unnecessary cost that Eclipse Foundation members have the burden of sharing. They have managed to implemented about a third of Java2D and have just discovered the merits of deferred layout. With a little push - SWT will be where AWT was 7 years ago. All of this and Eclipse is tasting a serious backlash from Eclipse users...

How is this FUD? Oh, let me count the ways. Here's a crazy idea -- most Java development is done on Windows. I could be wrong, but that's my fairly sure guess. What's more, even if it's not, it's a trivial investment to make it so. There's a reason SWT works well on Windows and not Linux, and it's not because its developers are big Linux users. (duh)

Starting with this idea that the article is one of those minority reports that irrationally devalues Windows, the bias becomes clear. Now don't get too worked up; I'm a Mac user. In my experience, Eclipse has worked *very* well on the Mac and generally much more quickly than Netbeans, though the latter is catching up. I don't like saying Windows is the clear forerunner any more than this fellow. But in any event, he is providing a minority report, of sorts, and that's the source of the FUDness.

Here goes... "many Eclipse developers"? You mean more than 10? Or 2,000? Give me stats. The forums question Eclipse's bugginess... on Linux? Is that really a big enough reason in the practical world to make Netbeans the clear winner? An unnumbered amount of people prefers Netbeans' interface? Wow!

And SWT is where AWT was seven years ago? Are you fookin' out of your mind?!! Ludicrous. Try, just try and make a good UI for a mature IDE or other app out of AWT -- and then tell me how it works xplat. At least SWT has a table, for heaven's sake! Any why, as the article says elsewhere, is it so difficult to find SWT applications? Is that really what we're talking about here? That's an easy one -- deployment. I'm not sure SWT is trying to beat Swing; I think it's just driving to help Eclipse be a great IDE. (That said, the recent articles suggesting SWT's advantages for creating apps that you distribute should not be overlooked, as I've been spouting here for some time)

I do feel there are issues with SWT, and there's a reason I don't use it in my apps (though I use it regularly to power my IDE). There are also reasons that AWT and SWT share that mean that I use AWT wherever possible. AWT is deployed everywhere (SWT's only dealbreaking stumbling block for me), and short of a form with a table or browser on it, I usually think long and hard about using AWT before coding. I just, as I've said before, wonder what's stopping Sun from getting with IBM to make a better AWT -- or at least making sure SWT interoperated with AWT well where SWT provides a useful superset of functionality.

But the real story here is that Java is fighting Java, while Microsoft is buying Sun servers. The battle's over. MS seems to have won. It's a shame to see political infighting with what should be pretty good allies. I believe, overall, in Gosling's belief that competition in the IDE 'space' is good for all developers, but moreso when it's [at least more] friendly competition.

title: Put the knife down and take a green herb, dude.	descrip: One feller's views on the state of everyday computer science & its application (and now, OTHER STUFF) who isn't rich enough to shell out for www.myfreakinfirst-andlast-name.com Using 89% of the same design the blog had in 2001.
FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY!!! Back-up your data and, when you bike, always wear white.
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Wednesday, March 30, 2005
AWT vs. Swing Swing is faster than AWT? No way! Check this post on forms.java.net: It seems that Sun was right--Swing is nearly twice as fast as AWT, on my machine at least (2 GHz Athlon, GeForce 4 video car, running SuSE 9.0, KDE, and Sun's J2SE 1.4.2). I don't happen to have SWT installed right now, but I would be interested to see how it comes out--my guess is that it would probably beat both AWT and Swing. It might be also interesting to test components besides buttons. :) Running the fellows benchmark at the iBook, however, gives a different story. Here are some results from Mac OS X 10.3, with whatever resources running that I usually have running when I'm hacking around -- which is to say this isn't exactly a clean room. But the results are still interesting: `iBookG4:~ smack$ java AWTSwingBench AWT AWT: 30548 milliseconds iBookG4:~ smack$ java AWTSwingBench AWT AWT: 30509 milliseconds iBookG4:~ smack$ java AWTSwingBench Swing Swing: 112100 milliseconds iBookG4:~ smack$ java AWTSwingBench Swing Swing: 112828 milliseconds` Swing is approaching four times slower than AWT in Jobsland. All about the implementation. Looks like this is another example of Swing apologia built into the runtime, which reminds me of when Netbeans went well out of their way to ensure it acted more Windows-like. That is to say, non-trivial resources seem to have been expended to give Swing the upper hand, as the expected result does, indeed, happen in at least one alternative implementation of Java. Who has a blackdown.org example? ;^) posted by ruffin at 3/30/2005 07:36:00 PM
0 comments
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
awt and swing speed; xplat influences Swing is faster than AWT? No way! Check this post on forms.java.net: It seems that Sun was right--Swing is nearly twice as fast as AWT, on my machine at least (2 GHz Athlon, GeForce 4 video car, running SuSE 9.0, KDE, and Sun's J2SE 1.4.2). I don't happen to have SWT installed right now, but I would be interested to see how it comes out--my guess is that it would probably beat both AWT and Swing. It might be also interesting to test components besides buttons. :) Running the fellows benchmark at the iBook, however, gives a different story. Here are some results from Mac OS X 10.3, with whatever resources running that I usually have running when I'm hacking around -- which is to say this isn't exactly a clean room. But the results are still interesting: `iBookG4:~ smack$ java AWTSwingBench AWT AWT: 30548 milliseconds iBookG4:~ smack$ java AWTSwingBench AWT AWT: 30509 milliseconds iBookG4:~ smack$ java AWTSwingBench Swing Swing: 112100 milliseconds iBookG4:~ smack$ java AWTSwingBench Swing Swing: 112828 milliseconds` Swing is approaching four times slower than AWT in Jobsland. All about the implementation. Looks like this is another example of Swing apologia built into the runtime, which reminds me of when Netbeans went well out of their way to ensure it acted more Windows-like. That is to say, non-trivial resources seem to have been expended to give Swing the upper hand, as the expected result does, indeed, happen in at least one alternative implementation of Java. Who has a blackdown.org example? ;^) posted by ruffin at 3/29/2005 05:45:00 PM
0 comments
Saturday, March 26, 2005
Slashdot \| Microsoft's Tips for Buying an MP3 Player Slashdot has a pretty humourous article entitled Microsoft's Tips for Buying an MP3 Player. Here a clip from /.'s description of MS's article: In another extension of Microsoft's 'Plays for Sure' campaign, the company has launched a web page with six tips to help consumers purchase the 'correct' MP3 Player for them. Among the insights of the article hard drive-based players suck and a stopwatch is a useful feature to have on your player. Ha. That is pretty funny. Guess I should paste a clockwatch onto an iPod shufle, b/c heavens knows the 30 lap Ironman I've got won't do the trick. I've seen a few people backhandedly slap the iPod shuffle for being an overpriced version of yesterday's technology that's legitimized only by virtue of having that Apple style. I believe they miss the point. What the iPod shufffle does that nobody else's USB memory stick does is allow you to listen to iTunes Music Store purchases [without the de-DRM steps of being F/OSS-Linux l33t]. I was using the ITMS before I had an iPod to purchase CDs (at least until I figured out anything that'd been on the market for than a year could be had for a lower price, usually used, on Amazon), and I still use it to bag newly released, relatively popular singles. Of course the ITMS also has a number of songs you're not likely to find on the used market easily. All this plays into the iPod shuffle costing you a little extra to access content that you're already buying more easily. Sure you can turn ITMS songs into mp3s, but, as I've covered in some depth before, if $99 buys me an mp3 player and kills the reason I need to bother with the conversions, well, I'm getting an iPod shuffle. (That said, I am beginning to see why people might light to listen to FM on the iPod -- and, in my case, even AM. It's ITMS or FM, I suppose, when it comes to mp3 players. Course with Ambrosia's Wiretap, you can grab NPR archives, say, and stick 'em on the 'pod.) posted by ruffin at 3/26/2005 10:34:00 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Gimp.app Gimp.app is by far the easiest way to get the Gimp up and running on your 10.3 OS X box. Download X11 from Apple, download Gimp.app, install, and double click. No dev tools, no fink building. Very Mac like process. ;^) A self contained application bundle of the GNU Image Manipulation Program for OS X. posted by ruffin at 3/22/2005 03:11:00 PM
0 comments
The Black Crowes Return Big In Pittston This has absolutely nothing to do with normal fn content other than that the set is available on Furhurnet right now. It appears that the Black Crowes are back The Black Crowes Return Big In Pittston Tuesday, March 15, 2005 The Black Crowes returned from a three and a half year live hiatus with a bang last night in Pittston, PA. Playing under the name Mr. Crowes Garden, the boys played a number of their revered tunes both originals and covers. Personally, I thought it was over. Rich has been doing some great writing (with passable singing and great pickin') with Hookah Brown and now on his own, and Chris has released some, um, less rockable stuff. Hope this isn't a flash in the pan. posted by ruffin at 3/22/2005 01:58:00 PM
0 comments
Sunday, March 20, 2005
Griffin Technology Ye olde iBeam: Introducing the Griffin iBeam set, ready for your dock-connector iPod or iPod mini. The snap-on flashlight is great for finding keys in the dark. Silly? Probably. But then, as cell phones with cameras show (which, I recently learned, are apparently outselling 'dedicated' digital cameras), "Sometimes the best [insert widget] is the one you've got." posted by ruffin at 3/20/2005 12:15:00 PM
0 comments
Monday, March 14, 2005
Why Eclipse Developers Are Moving To NetBeans (cld.blog-city.com) The jFud begins in earnest with SWT versus Swing, Eclipse vs. Netbeans, IBM vs. Sun with articles like this: Why Eclipse Developers Are Moving To NetBeans (cld.blog-city.com): The result is that many Eclipse developers have switched to NetBeans and others are beginning the migration to NetBeans by using both IDEs. Though the Java and Eclipse forums are littered with 'why is Eclipse slow', 'why does Eclipse freeze for 25 seconds' , 'crashes' and a number of like questions, increasingly it is becoming more obvious that perhaps the problem may not be just Eclipse's architecture but also that SWT is only optimized on Windows and is not the fast performer that its proponents suggest - a number of observers have mentioned this. Has it all been worth it ? SWT development has been a huge, unnecessary cost that Eclipse Foundation members have the burden of sharing. They have managed to implemented about a third of Java2D and have just discovered the merits of deferred layout. With a little push - SWT will be where AWT was 7 years ago. All of this and Eclipse is tasting a serious backlash from Eclipse users... How is this FUD? Oh, let me count the ways. Here's a crazy idea -- most Java development is done on Windows. I could be wrong, but that's my fairly sure guess. What's more, even if it's not, it's a trivial investment to make it so. There's a reason SWT works well on Windows and not Linux, and it's not because its developers are big Linux users. (duh) Starting with this idea that the article is one of those minority reports that irrationally devalues Windows, the bias becomes clear. Now don't get too worked up; I'm a Mac user. In my experience, Eclipse has worked very well on the Mac and generally much more quickly than Netbeans, though the latter is catching up. I don't like saying Windows is the clear forerunner any more than this fellow. But in any event, he is providing a minority report, of sorts, and that's the source of the FUDness. Here goes... "many Eclipse developers"? You mean more than 10? Or 2,000? Give me stats. The forums question Eclipse's bugginess... on Linux? Is that really a big enough reason in the practical world to make Netbeans the clear winner? An unnumbered amount of people prefers Netbeans' interface? Wow! And SWT is where AWT was seven years ago? Are you fookin' out of your mind?!! Ludicrous. Try, just try and make a good UI for a mature IDE or other app out of AWT -- and then tell me how it works xplat. At least SWT has a table, for heaven's sake! Any why, as the article says elsewhere, is it so difficult to find SWT applications? Is that really what we're talking about here? That's an easy one -- deployment. I'm not sure SWT is trying to beat Swing; I think it's just driving to help Eclipse be a great IDE. (That said, the recent articles suggesting SWT's advantages for creating apps that you distribute should not be overlooked, as I've been spouting here for some time) I do feel there are issues with SWT, and there's a reason I don't use it in my apps (though I use it regularly to power my IDE). There are also reasons that AWT and SWT share that mean that I use AWT wherever possible. AWT is deployed everywhere (SWT's only dealbreaking stumbling block for me), and short of a form with a table or browser on it, I usually think long and hard about using AWT before coding. I just, as I've said before, wonder what's stopping Sun from getting with IBM to make a better AWT -- or at least making sure SWT interoperated with AWT well where SWT provides a useful superset of functionality. But the real story here is that Java is fighting Java, while Microsoft is buying Sun servers. The battle's over. MS seems to have won. It's a shame to see political infighting with what should be pretty good allies. I believe, overall, in Gosling's belief that competition in the IDE 'space' is good for all developers, but moreso when it's [at least more] friendly competition. posted by ruffin at 3/14/2005 01:34:00 PM
0 comments
Saturday, March 12, 2005
Microsoft's Sun server fetish revealed \| The Register All good hate comes to an end, when desperate capitalists are involved. posted by ruffin at 3/12/2005 07:34:00 PM
0 comments
Saturday, March 05, 2005
Unbiased reporting about Linux is good reporting Stripped from the headlines of, well, um, an email I sent to a proverbial college buddy... eWeek tends to do a pretty good, if executive level (understandably; that's their market), review of the uses of Linux in business, and I thought you might enjoy seeing what they had to write about Gentoo. They've got about an article a week that you'd probably enjoy, actually, but this one seemed right up your alley. It is refreshing to see eWeek next to, say, Visual Studio magazine. VS mag has on its back page this month an article dedicated to saying, with no real reasoning why, that you lose money by not investing as many unpaid training hours as you possibly can so that you can learn as cutting edge a Microsoft programming tech as possible. Moving from VB6 to .NET or .NET 1.1 to .NET 2.0 are two examples they hand out. You do it, the article says, not just b/c it's useful, but b/c you need the new features in each update. Drives me mad. As Jay told me, "It's all zeroes and ones." There's essentially nothing you can't do in assembler and my old Powerbook 150 that you can do with .NET 2.0 if you know what you're doing. [/end rant] Guess I'll fn this one... Anyhow, article attached. posted by ruffin at 3/05/2005 11:14:00 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Linux Magazine \| April 2003 \| FEATURES \| Watching the Eclipse Essentially from the same source as earlier today, but ah, it's nice to see in the know people agreeing with me on SWT/Swing: What is SWT? Think of SWT as AWT "done right." ... This design was intentional -- it leverages existing native toolkits and provides tighter integration. When an SWT button is created in Windows, it creates a native Windows button; on the Mac, it creates a native Mac button using Carbon. When Microsoft released Windows XP with skinning support, SWT got that behavior for free just like all of the other native Windows applications. Things like drag and drop or embedding in other applications tend to be much more straightforward with native toolkits. Yes, SWT is less feature-rich than Swing, and SWT is not nearly as flexible. However, you still have a great deal of power, evidenced by the fact that Eclipse itself is built atop SWT. Indeed, if initial response is any indication, developers agree. posted by ruffin at 3/01/2005 08:59:00 PM
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On the Thought: Gosling on SWT My thoughts about SWT vs. AWT/Swing exactly. I'm not sure why Sun doesn't acknowledge Swing failed. posted by ruffin at 3/01/2005 02:55:00 PM
0 comments