PBDJ – Intro to WebServices in PowerBuilder

Posted on January 11, 2006 by Doug Porter

My first article has been published in the November issue of the PowerBuilder Developer’s Journal. A link to a PDF of the article is below:

PBDJ_Intro_to_WebServices.pdf

So now I can add Doug Porter published author to my list of accomplishments. It is really exciting to see my name in the actual print version. Well worth the time involved in writing the article. I’m currently working on a followup article on XML parsing that will hopefully appear in a future issue.

The publisher of PBDJ is Sys-Con Media which also publishes pretty much any other magazine that ends in “Developer’s Journal”, so I’m hoping to also contribute some article ideas to Java Developer’s Journal and see what happens (maybe related to some stuff I’m doing at work with BIRT and XML).

I have to thank the Editor-In-Chief of PBDJ, Bruce Armstrong, for helping me with some of the finer points of the article. Bruce is a very actice member of Team Sybase and does a great job giving back to the Sybase user community. You can usually find him (along with myself) hanging around the Sybase newsgroups.

Update: The article has now been posted to the PBDJ website here – Working with SOA & Web Services in PowerBuilder

Also here is my author page at the sys-con site and an rss feed for tracking any future articles.

Posted in Articles, Sybase, Technology | Leave a comment

WordPress 2.0 Upgrade Complete

Posted on January 6, 2006 by Doug Porter

This blog is officially upgraded and running on WordPress 2.0. Pretty painless upgrade. Backup, copy new stuff over, run upgrade.php file, replace some custom content in my template files (my contact info, statcounter info, etc.), done.

Not sure yet what I think of the new bells and whistles, but the upgrade is done regardless. Need to find another Captcha style plugin for comments (probably try and find one that gives a simple math problem to answer), but other than that I am finished.

Posted in Misc | 3 Comments

What is your most dangerous idea?

Posted on January 6, 2006 by Doug Porter

Edge.org has posed an interesting question to some of the great minds (somehow I got left out) of the world and posted the results online.

What is your most dangerous idea?

The history of science is replete with discoveries that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally dangerous in their time; the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious. What is your dangerous idea? An idea you think about (not necessarily one you originated) that is dangerous not because it is assumed to be false, but because it might be true?

Well worth reading through. Scroll down to where it says Contributors and that begins the responses. Ray Kurzweil has an intersting one dealing with longevity and nanotech. Most of the physicists seem to be devout atheists and write about how there is no God and all that is out there are atoms and quantum particles. But still some very thought provoking stuff.

And just so you don’t think that all physicists are atheists, here is an article by Paul Davies discussing where God fits into the picture.

Physics and the Mind of God: The Templeton Prize Address

And while we are talking about things that make you go hmmmm. Here is a free fiction e-book written by Scott Adams (yes, the Dilbert guy) that poses some interesting ideas

God’s Debris

Posted in Technology | Leave a comment

Is Java Bad for Computer Science Programs

Posted on December 29, 2005 by Doug Porter

Joel Spolsky just put out another fantastic article. This time it is on The Perils of Java Schools. It talks about how the ease of use of Java (feature of the language) tends to not weed out those that don’t really have the mindset to be good computer scientists.

In part I do agree with this. I have seen this firsthand at the university I graduated from. I took a data structures course in C++ that was the most challenging course I have ever had. Lots of pointers, lots of crashing my development machine while incorrectly manipulating those pointers, lots of Big O Notation and efficiency talk. Good stuff, and it made me a better programmer through the experience.

Fast forward to today, and the department at that university has moved to eliminate data structures in C++ except for those doing a pure Computer Science path (versus the other two tracks in Information Systems and Information Technology which do a “data structures” course in Visual Basic).

While I love Java dearly (and am certified in it and use it daily in my day job), I agree that data structures in C or C++ is hard and necessary to weed out those that don’t belong in the field. I have a friend that worked in the department and taught the data structures course in C++. He caught an amazing amount of flack from the administrators for the drop and failure rate in this course. They viewed it as a bad thing, I think he was doing these kids a valuable service by making the course challenging (and fair I might add). He was also doing a great service for programmers as a whole. Nothing worse than second rate programmers watering down the quality and pay scale in our industry. Hurts us all in the long run. Things like this tend to highlight that higher education (like almost everything these days) is really a business at its core. The adminsitrators want warm bodies paying tuition for 4 to 5 years so they can pay salaries, get raises, and eventually retire. The focus isn’t always on education, lifelong learning, and achieving a well rounded intellect.

Check out the article and let me know what you think…

Posted in Java, Technology | 1 Comment

December 2005 Free Credit Report – Experian

Posted on December 26, 2005 by Doug Porter

As many of you may know, you are entitled by law to a copy of your credit report from each of the 3 credit bureaus once per year. It is a good idea to spread these out and request one report every 4 months. This lets you keep an eye on your credit report throughout the year and makes it more likely that you will quickly notice any inaccuracies or problems with the report.

I just retrieved my credit report from Equifax and all is well. Another 4 months and I’ll check with TransUnion.

To request your free credit report go to: AnnualCreditReport.com

The credit report is free, but the credit bureaus try and convince you to pay for additional services (credit score, credit monitoring, etc). So be sure to say No to any of these items if you want a truely free credit report.

Now go ahead and pull yours and make sure everyting looks ok. It is a sad fact of life that your credit history is extremely important and can open or close many doors based on what information it contains.

And of course a late Merry Christmas to everyone and a Happy New Year.

Posted in Credit Report, Privacy | Comments Off on December 2005 Free Credit Report – Experian