 [September 3, 2007] Speaking at the September 4th St. Louis Gateway JUGI'm going to see my friends at the Gateway JUG and talk about Agile Project Management and Mingle. Until recently, most ThoughtWorks project managers kept track of the life of the project using Excel spreadsheets, with ever increasingly sophisticated templates. But recently that has changed because of one thing: Mingle. Mingle is an agile project tracking tool that distills much of the experience ThoughtWorks has garnered from years of agile project management into our first commercial tool. Come see what makes Mingle different from the already crowded marketplace of project tracking tools. It does this with some innovative ideas, like smart Wiki-based templates, a virtual, sortable card wall, and innovative use of categorization, tags, and properties. Mingle is designed to accommodate not just the project manager but all members of the project, allowing customizable views for each project role. This session covers how to set up projects in Mingle, how to track stories, how to manage the virtual card wall (including grouping, sorting, tagging, etc). It also discusses how to create custom workflow transitions and other common project management chores. But seeing Mingle work is just part of the story. This session also delves into some of the high-level design decisions that make Mingle possible, including details of how Mingle was developed (in Ruby on Rails) and deployed (the first commercial application deployed via JRuby). Come see both the "why" and the "how" of Mingle.And, they have one of the coolest logos I've ever seen! Agile Project Management (featuring Mingle) [handouts] [samples] |
 [May 31st, 2007] The Agile Experience Prelude: David Hussmand and I talkin' 'bout AgileAs a sneak peak to the workshop David and I are doing at The Agile Experience, No Fluff, Just Stuff caught us late last year in a video podcast about agility, how companies react to it, and it's future. It's a pretty accurate representation of how I feel about agility (minus the faux pas of saying that the Agile Manifesto was signed in Colorado, not Utah). |
  [May 15, 2007] After Session Interview at JavaOneEugene Clurana (of The ServerSide) did a quick video interview with me right after my Building Domain Specific Languages in Static and Dynamic Languages talk at JavaOne and posted it on his web site. Despite my hair looking like Seinfeld's on the episode where they had bad shower flow, it captures the essence of my talk pretty well I think. |
| [April 18th, 2007] Taking Back SOA Video PodCast What else is there to do about SOA? Back in December, Mark Richards (Enterprise Architect at IBM) and I sat down and recorded a video PodCast about SOA (which we informally named "Taking Back SOA"). The results has now appeared at the No Fluff, Just Stuff web site. Mark and I have a very pragmatic approach to SOA, and we both hate the level of hype that appears in that whole space. He and I had a great time recording this video, which proves once and for all that IBMers and ThoughtWorkers can get along after all! |
| [April 17, 2007] About Groovy Podcast A couple of weeks ago, I recorded a PodCast for AboutGroovy.com, talking about (obviously) Groovy, DSLs, testing, and how to insinuate Groovy into your company's infrastructure. Basically, Scott Davis and I had the kind of conversation we have all the time at No Fluff, Just Stuff. The only difference is that he was recording it. It was fun and the content will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me. |
 [April 1, 2007] My DSL Talk from 2006 OSCONIn 2006, I did a talk at OSCON about building domain specific languages in Ruby, and OSCON allowed those sessions to be taped. Now, 9 months later, they have realeased those videos on Google Video. My presentation appears here. The toughest part of this talk was to keep it down to just 45 minutes, and I felt like I was really rushed and went too fast. But, if you have an interestin DSLs, you can hear me talk about them, both motivation for this style of coding and examples in Ruby. |
| [March 29th, 2007] My Podcast about DSLs at the No Fluff, Just Stuff Site Back in December, I recorded a Poscast about DSLs for No Fluff, Just Stuff, and it has now appeared on the No Fluff, Just Stuff site here. This Podcast is fairly theorectical (after all, I can't very sell show source code in a Podcast!) but it does give a good overview of my thoughts on this style of development and how it will impact developers' futures. |
 [March 28th, 2007] Artcle About My TSS TalkOne of the talks I gave at The ServerSide Symposium was Metrics-driven Agile Development, where I present "real" metrics for software projects. Someone there was taking notes, and produced an article that summariizes both my and Venkat Subramaniam's Agile talks. |
 [March 28th, 2007] Speaking at Le Groupe d'Utilisateurs Java de MontréalIn conjunction with No Fluff, Just Stuff Montreal, coming up in April, I'm speaking at the Montreal Java Users Group on March 28th. I'm giving my talk on 10 Ways to Improve Your Code, which is always fun at JUG gatherings. Plus, I love Montreal (what a beautiful city). |
 [March 24th, 2007] The No Fluff, Just Stuff Anthology Volume II out mid-AprilAfter much toil and effort, the 2007 No Fluff, Just Stuff Anthology Volume 2 is nearly here. Once again, some Sixteen of the world's best trainers and speakers are writing chapters on things they care passionately about. You'll find topics from the latest conferences including Groovy, JavaScript, Continuations, Web services and REST, JVM Byte Code, and Agilty These essays are a summary of the latest thinking in the industry, and range from the philosophical to the tutorial, covering the topics that the writers felt were the most important for readers today. If you feel like the neatest technology and latest ideas are passing you by, this book can help bring you back you to speed. It's all good stuff, without any fluffy filler, as these essays are based on pre sentations given at the incredibly popular "No Fluff, Just Stuff" symposium series. Twenty-six times a year, the symposium visits a city and the speakers and attendees share ideas and perspectives. The speakers are all internationally known experts in their field. Authors include well-known, previously published and best-selling authors Glenn Vanderburg, Rebecca Parsons,Ted Neward, Scott Davis, Brian Sletten, Howard Lewis Shipp, David Geary, Neal Ford, Paul Duvall, David Bock, Venkat Subramaniam, Nate Schutta, Jared Richardson, David Hussman, Mark Richards, and Scott Leberknight. |
  [Sept 9th, 2006] Reviews of NFJS Anthology from England! Looks like the No Fluff, Just Stuff Anthology has made it across the pond. The Reg Developer site has this review of the book, which is remarkable because no one in the UK has even seen a No Fluff, Just Stuff show! |
 [October 11th, 2006] Speaking at Atlanta IASAOn October 11th, I'm speaking again at the Atlanta chapter of the International Association of Software Architects, discussing my favorite pet topic of Domain Specific Languages. This is my second talk to this group, and it should be entertaining because the level of discourse is always high. Slides from the talk. |
 [September 14th, 2006] Speaking at the Boulder JUGI'm doing both sessions at the Boulder Java Users Group on Thursday, September 14th. First up, I'm doing my Real World Agile talk for the beginning talk, then moving to The Productive Programmer for the main talk. Yes, this is the same pair of talks from the night before, but apparently this is a Colorado tradition. Boulder also has an awesome Java user community - must be something in the air. Real World Agile [slides] [samples] The Productive Programmer [slides] [samples] |
 [September 13th, 2006] Speaking at the Denver JUGI'm doing both sessions at the Denver Java Users Group on Wednesday, September 13th. First up, I'm doing my Real World Agile talk for the beginning talk, then moving to The Productive Programmer for the main talk. Denver has an awesome Java user community, so I'm looking foward to a good group. Real World Agile [slides] [samples] The Productive Programmer [slides] [samples] |
 [August 21st, 2006] Speaking at Mobile Monday ChicagoOne of my ThoughtWorker collegues Kiran is active in Mobile Monday Chicago, an organization interested in advancing the ideas and technologies around handheld devices. He asked me to speak at their next meeting, so I gladlly accepted bec ause I think this is sa fascinating area. I'll be speaking on Mobile Web 2.0: Who Put the Mobile in it, and Why is it Important?. [Slides] |
 [July 16, 2006] Speaking at the Chicago JUG on July 18thI'm making a return trip to the Chicago Java Users Group on July 18th, presenting my The Productive Programmer talk. I presented here last year and had a good time, so I hope the same is true this year. I pretty much live in Chicago these days, on behalf of the project I'm which I'm working now, so this will be a short commute. [slides] [samples] |
 [July 16, 2006] Speaking at the Seattle JUG on August 15thI'll be making my way to the Pacific Northwest in August to present my The Productive Programmer talk in anticipation of the No Fluff, Just Stuff symposium coming in September. I really like Seattle, so it should be a fun trip. |
 [May 26, 2006] Speaking at the Cincinnati JUGI'm speaking at the Cincinnati Java User's Group for their June meeting on June 19th. I'll present my The Productive Programmer talk, which shows you how to become a more productive programmer every day by using tools that you didn't know you already had. |
 [May 26, 2006] Speaking at the June Phoenix Java Users GroupI'll be speaking at the Phoenix Java Users Group for their June meeting on June 14th. |
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[April 8, 2006] No Fluff Just Stuff Anthology: The 2006 Edition published in mid-June No Fluff, Just Stuff is putting out a book this year, featuring articles written by some of the speakers, on topics they talk about this year. From the back: Twenty-seven weekends a year, the No Fluff, Just Stuff conference rolls into another town, featuring the world's best technical speakers and writers. Up until now, you had to go to one of the shows to soak up their collective wisdom. Now, you can hold it in the palm of your hand. The No Fluff, Just Stuff Anthology represents topics presented on the tour, written by the speakers who created it. This book allows the authors the chance to go more in depth on the subjects for which they are passionate. It is guaranteed to surprise, enlighten, and broaden your understanding of the technical world in which you live. The No Fluff, Just Stuff Symposium Series is a traveling conference series for software developers visiting 27 cities a year. No Fluff has put on over 75 symposia throughout the U.S. and Canada, with more than 12,000 attendees so far. Its success has been a result of focusing on high quality technical presentations, great speakers, and no marketing hype. Now this world-class material is available to you in print for the first time.
Pre-order copies at the Pragmatic Programmer's web site: http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/nfjs06/index.html |
 [February 16, 2006] Second of the 2-part Series on Dependency Injection in Geronimo on DeveloperWorksAs surely as Spring follows winter, the 2nd part of my depenency injection article on DeveloperWorks is now live. This version builds on the "raw" topic of dependency injection in the 1st part and shows how it applies to Geronimo. Geronimo has a very interesting architecture, and will surprise some people who think that "dependency injection" == "Spring". |
| [February 7, 2006] First of a 2-part Series on Dependency Injection in Geronimo on DeveloperWorks IBM DeveloperWorks has posted the first of a two-part series on dependency injectionin the Geronimo J2EE container. This article focuses on the mechanisms of DI and uses PicoContainer as the container. I did this to divorce the idea of DI from the particular implementation in Geronimo. |
| [January 30, 2006] Speaking at the February 7th St. Louis Gateway JUG On February 7th, I'm traveling to St. Louis to give my presentation SOA and ESB: Next Wave of Enterprise Development or Return of the Son of CORBA. This is a talk sponsored by Jay of No Fluff, Just Stuff. This is the first time I've given this particular talk to a JUG (I've given it a bunch of times at No Fluff shows), so it should be fun because I'll have some time to expand on some of the topics a bit. I'm looking forward to this, my first JUG appearance of the year. And, they have one of the coolest logos I've ever seen! [slides] |
 [January 15, 2006] Ruby on Rails Interview for Java BoutiqueAt the Newark No Fluff, Just Stuff show last year, someone from Java Boutique interviewed speakers during the course of the symposium. It was the end of the day and he was still missing some of the speakers, so he decided he would just interview us together. The hot topic of the conference was Ruby on Rails. Thus, myself and two of the people I respect most, Stuart Halloway and Justin Gehtland (from Rellevance), talked for about 20 minutes about Ruby, Rails, and Java. The interview is just now outat the Java Boutique web site. It's sometimes interesting what you say when you are tired, hungry, and sitting next to 2 brilliant people. |
 [January 9th, 2006] Speaking at the Chicago Ruby Users Group on Windows Automation & RubyI was invited to speak at the February Chicago RUG, but because of scheduling issues, I moved it up to January. Thus, the really interesting sample I wanted to show wasn't complete (the full-blown PowerPoint driver). However, the group was very nice and supportive of my short talk, featuring how Ruby uses COM to drive Windows automation. This is a very active users group and I think it has a great future. This group meets in ThoughtWorks offices in Chicago, so it's an easy commute for me (walk 20 feet). [samples] [solution_ to_exercise] |
 [December 9, 2005] My Enterprise Development Trends article goes on-lineBack in May, I wrote an article for SDA Asia Magazine (based in Singapore) about Enterprise Development Trends, especially here in the US. The article was published in the print magazine in conjunction with the SDA.NET conference. Now, SDA has published the article on-line (as part of their normal article rotation to the web site). Now, you don't have to 1)live in Singapore and 2)have a subscription to SDA Asia to read the article. To anyone who has ever talked to me or heard me speak, there won't be any great surprises in this article, but it's nice to see these topics consolidated in one place. |
| [October 25, 2005] Generics and Eclipse 3.1 Hot on the heels of my Ruby article on developerWorks, my article on generics support in Eclipse 3.1 appeared today. Eclipse 3.1 has nice support for generics; this article shows that support. More and more people are getting to use Java 5 (about one-third of the room when polled at the last No Fluff, Just Stuff conference, in Atlanta), so robust generics support is important in IDEs. |
 [October 17, 2005] Slashdotted!My article on the Ruby Developers Kit for Eclipse was slashdotted on Monday! This is my first slashdotting, so it's sort of a geek milestone for me. I had no idea that the response to this little article would be so great, but I'm glad because maybe it will speed the promotion of Ruby in the Java community. |
| [October 16, 2005] Ruby on the IBM Site My article on the Ruby Developers Kit, a plug-in for Ruby development in Eclipse, has appeared on the IBM Developers Network. This is a great tool for writing Ruby, especially debugging. This is my attempt to lure Java developers, using the tools they use all the time, over to Ruby. Kook-aid, anyone? |
 [September 9, 2005] Speaking at the Chattanooga Java Users GroupSort of like going home, I'll be speaking at the Chattanooga Java Users Group, doing my Introduction to Java Server Faces talk. I grew up in Dalton, GA, 10 miles south of Chattanooga, and worked several summar jobs there. Looking forward to returning to the old neighborhood. |
| [September 1, 2005] Speaking at the Boulder Java Users Group At the home of No Fluff, Just Stuff, I'll be presenting 2 talks to the Boulder Java Users Group, for the QuickStart session and the regular meeting. The Quickstart talk is my Power Regular Expressions in Java talk, and the regular session is Clean Up Your Code. [Regex Slides] [Regex Samples] [Clean Up Slides] [Clean up Samples] |
| [August 22, 2005] Speaking at the Atlanta IASA Meeting on Sept 14th The International Association of Software Architects has a new chapter in Atlanta, and I've been asked to speak at the September meeting. I'll be doing my Pragmatic XP talk, with a panel of folks behind me for (hopefully lively) discussion afterwards. The first meeting was a huge success, with better than 75 people there. I hope the good turn out continues -- this seems like a great organization and the president, Burr Sutter, is a good guy. |
 [August 11, 2005] My blog entries translated into KoreanTo satisfy overwhelming demand (OK, there is no demand), Trusten Lee is translating some of my blog entries into Korean and posting them here. To quote:
I'm
an Apache Committer who is still on the way of studying English.
I'm trying to level-up my English skill translating great blog entries
from great authors.
I think that's more than a bit generous, but I'm gladly supporting this effort because, hey, it isn't costing me anything and it spreads my meaningless opinions all over the world. What an unbeatable combination. Seriously, I appreciate the hard work Trusten is doing for this, and I hope that my dribbly writing is worth translating. |
 [August 8, 2005] Speaking at the NOVAJug September 13thAhead of No Fluff, Just Stuff Northern Virginia Software Symposium, arriving in Tyson's Corner, VA on October 28th, I'm speaking at the Northern Virginia Java User Group on September 13th, on a topic yet to be chosen by the user group. I always enjoy user group presentations because the crowds are generally enthusiastic, so I'm looking forward to this one. [Slides] [Samples] |
 [August 6, 2005] Speaking at the Wisconsin Java Users Group August 31thIn anticipation of No Fluff, Just Stuffcoming to Chicago on September 16th, I'm speaking at the Wisconsin Java User Group on August 30th. Looks like both Wisconsin JUGs have requested my Clean Up Your Code: 10 Java Coding Tips, Tricks, and Philosphies, which is always a popular talk at user groups. [slides] [samples] |
 [August 6, 2005] Speaking at the Madison Java User Group August 30stNo, you aren't seeing double -- the Wisconsin JUG (held in Milwaukee) is the night before the Madison JUG (held in, you guessed it, Madison). In anticipation of No Fluff, Just Stuff coming to Chicago on September 16th, I'm speaking at the Madison Java User Group on August 30th.Looks like both Wisconsin JUGs have requested my Clean Up Your Code: 10 Java Coding Tips, Tricks, and Philosphies, which is always a popular talk at user groups. [slides] [samples] |
| [July 26, 2005] Speaking at the Chicago Java Users Group August 16th In anticipation of No Fluff, Just Stuff coming to Chicago on September 16th, I'm speaking at the Chicago Java Users Group on August 16th. I'll be presenting my Clean Up You Code: 10 Java Coding Tricks, Techniques, and Philosophies. Always a fun talk to do at a user's group. Update: here are the slides and samples from the talk. |
 [July 1, 2005] Rave Review from the British Computer Society for Art of Java Web DevelopmentI don't know why this is happening all of a sudden, but Art of Java Web Development (yes, the one published back in November of 2003) is gaining a bunch of accolades recently. I always expected that this book's sales cycle would be different from your normal API book (sharp spike at the beginning, then quickly waning) because it's primarily an "idea" book. But, I didn't expect good reviews to show up so long after the publication. Oh, well, I'll take whatever I can get! My publisher Manning is looking for rights to publish the review on their site. |
 [July 3, 2005] Java Version of Martin's Sample from the Language Oriented Programming ArticleAs I've blogged about, I'm updating my Building Domain Languages atop Java conference talk to incorporate information from Martin Fowler's article Language Workbenches: The Killer-App for Domain Specific Languages?. I wanted to show his example domain language sample in my talk but my talk is Java and his sample is in C#. So, I ported his sample to Java 5. This is mostly a straight port with a few differences:
It is a complete version of the sample (including all the supporting files to make it run + IntelliJ project file). Martin graciously gave me permission to post it here. Language oriented programming looks to me like the next big revolution in programming paradigms, and I'm spending a lot of time playing with this right now. |
| [June 22, 2005] Article on IBM developerWorks Site about Centralized Help Repositories in Eclipse See, I do use Eclipse as well as IntelliJ! This article is about one of the least-known powerful features of Eclipse -- that the help system is basically a plug-in like everything else. This article shows how to externalize the help system in Eclipse and use it to create an information portal for your development team, including help and anything else you want, and access it from right within Eclipse. |
| [June 13, 2005] Unsolicited Quote about Art of Java Web Development I received a nice quote from my publisher that mentioned Art of Java Web Development: "Again, I am impressed with Manning products and intend to purchase many more in the future. The Art of Web Development is one of the latest Manning books I've purchased and I was amazed how well the problem was explained. The same problem was solved at least 3 different ways so that the difficulties of each solution could be clearly seen. It wasn't until chapter 4 that the final solution was realized. This was an excellent way of making sure that the developer knew both what to do and WHY they were doing it that way. Excellent." |
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I am speaking at the June 14th Central Iowa Java User Group meeting, talking about web frameworks with Justin Gehtland (another No Fluff, Just Stuff speaker). I'm talking about Struts, JavaServer Faces, Tapestry, and WebWork, and Justin is going to talk about Spring MVC. Should be a fun meeting. |
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I have an article on Enterprise Development Trends appearing in the SDA-Asia .NET magazine's special supplement in conjunction with the SDA.NET conference in Singapore. This article discusses some history and trends in software development, including methodology, Service Oriented Architecture, Ruby, and a bunch of other topics that seemed relevant. It was interesting to write, and it's the first article I've written that discusses the impact of Ruby and Ruby on Rails on the software development landscape. |
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Terry and I ran the Cherry Blossom marathon on Saturday the 19th (my 2nd Cherry Blossom, his 4th). To preempt the normal question I get when I tell people that I've run a marathon: "How was it?", I'll supply my stock answer: "As good as it gets!" We took it easy, chatting and site-seeing the whole way. The weather was absolutely perfect this year, but a little early for the actual cherry blossoms. Maybe next year... |
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On behalf of No Fluff, Just Stuff, I've been invited to present my Regular Expression talk at the Raleigh JUG in March. |
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Another instructional DVD titles delivered by me for DVPress. ~ Jakarta Struts Available early in 2005. Check the DVPress web site (or Amazon) for availability. |
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Codefez is a developer portal created by our good friends over at Falafel Software. They have created a portal site that welcomes developers of all persuasions. When they asked if I would contribute some material, it was a no brainer. They are a first class organization and I am happy to be associated with them. Over the next few months, you'll see lots of my material show up at their site. Wander over to the Codefez site, have a look around, read about why they chose this name, and join up. |
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As part of the build-up for Northern Virginia Software Symposium (a No Fluff, Just Stuff conference), I was invited to speak at the Richmon, VA Java User's Group. It was a very nice group of folks and I had a good time. I presented a slightly modified version of my Clean Up Your Code talk to a warm reception. Lots of fun. |
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Terry and I completed our 3rd Berlin Marathon under wet and cold conditions. We had a fun run, not pushing the pace at all. We chatted with the crowd, ate from the rolling buffet of items (including hot tea!), and generally just had a good time. One guy in the crowd ran out onto the course and offered us a beer, but it was still a little too early (about mile 18). Always a fun race, with great crowd support. |
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jaxmagazine.com has published the second in my article series on Frameworks, this one on Struts. It builds on the previous article, comparing and contrasting Struts with "just" Model 2 architecture. The article appears here. |
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jaxmagazine.com is a new on-line magazine, published by the promient German publisher Software and Support Verlag. In early May 2004, it featuries the first in a series of articles on web frameworks. The first installment is the kick-off for the series, and covers the basics of Model 2 development without using a particular framework. In subsequent articles, I will use this foundation to talk about Struts, Tapestry, WebWork, Java ServerFaces, and others. The first article appears here. |
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Art of Java Web Development has arrived!Art of Java Web Development is finally published! What seems like the longest book project in history (about 2 years from first inception to final printing) is done. It has been an interesting project! I hope that enough people read far
enough into the book to understand the particular combination of topics
and coverage. It seems like even the technical editors for the book had
a hard time "getting" it. If you can't figure out why I'm talking about
what I'm talking about, I urge you to read the preface which presents
the rationale for my choice of topics. |
Sept 26, 2004: 3rd Running of the Berlin Marathon
June 29, 2004: The first of the instructional DVD's is out: Beginner's Java 2 v1.5 2004
