Antwerkz, Inc.

I’m in discussion with a publisher on a book about JasperReports and there’s some question of whether there’s still a market for the book. So my question to you is, would you buy a good book on JasperReports, or do you think the existing documentation is adequate? Do you think JasperReports needs a good book? Please vote in the poll below and leave any comments you may have explaining why or why not. Work on the book has been under way for some time now but there have been delays for various reasons and we feel we need to reevaluate its marketability. Your feedback would help very much.

This summer I had the opportunity to read an advance copy of “The Tesla Testament“. The book is an action/thriller built around the works of Tesla. I don’t read much in this genre. I spend most of time in the fantasy and science fiction aisles, personally, so it took me a little while to get into the book. I had the poor planning of reading this book concurrently with Alastair Reynolds so switching between the writing styles was a little jarring. Once I got past that, however, I found the book enjoyable. The technical details (at least the stuff that I know personally) was correct enough to not get in the way. I hate it when authors mangle a topic just to make things fit in the story.

The action was good also. Eugene has some experience with many of the elements used in crafting the action scenes (especially the hand-to-hand combat) so the scenes felt more real than some I’ve read. The action picks up pretty quickly at the beginning of the book and doesn’t really let up until the end. The feel of the book feels very much like “The Bourne Legacy” which I read immediately following “The Tesla Testament.” Whether that’s good or bad is probably a matter of taste but Eugene manages to match an experienced author with his first novel which is no small feat.

So if you like action books, I think you’ll enjoy this one. The combination of technical, combat, and historical elements makes for an interesting read at the least. It’s an interesting “what if” story that’s nothing if not entertaining.

Well, after months of trying to schedule and the last few frantic days of finishing up the slides, the Wicket presention is finally done. Overall, I’m pleased with how it went. There were no technical glitches to contend with which is always a concern going in to things like that. Once I finished writing the slides and going through the presentation it hit me how much info I was packing into it. Given that I only had an hour, next time I would change a few things about it. I’d drop a few of the slides so I could get to more code. There are slides with code on them but I think it’s easier to understand in context. So I went longer in the slides than I wanted and didn’t get to the code I was hoping to show.

The presentation itself went swimmingly as far as that goes, but I really wanted to show some code. Maybe next time, though. I’m putting a PDF of the slides up for those interested in seeing them again. Check the main page or click here to download them.

The Echo2 presentation was fascinating. I’m going to have to play with that one but it looks pretty nice from where I’m sitting. I’m not sure it’ll replace wicket (or struts or JSF) in my toolbox, but for certain types of applications it certainly looks appealing. We also had a special guest with us. There was a very nice lady visiting us from Microsoft who was, of course, pitching MS products over beer. So we call had a few chuckles over that and had some beers together. It was strange at first to hear that a MS was at a JUG but she’s really friendly and bought the first round of beers so it’s all good. Overall, it was a great night. If you missed this month’s meeting, you really missed out.

It’s been on my list for a while, but I finally updated the main site design. I’ve been looking around for ideas and finally found one I liked over at OSWD. I was looking at several possibilities with landscapes of some sort but I really liked the mountains in this one. Since I can see the Rockie Mountains from my window here, I thought the association was rather appropriate. I hope you like the new design as much as I do. Because, either way, I’m not going to touch it again for a while.

As software developers, we’re constantly being reminded about good UI design. Issues like color schemes (are they web safe?!?), screen layout, interface density, etc. are constantly being brought up. But good interface design also applies to things like phone menus: is the voice understandable? are there too many options in one section? etc… Case in point: I called a company today to try and get some information but sadly, it was after hours. I thought I’d try just in case they had long hours. I get transferred to the queue where I am informed that there are 0 calls in front of me. I am then put on hold and am offered some swank jazz to ease the wait. I didn’t get a “We’re closed. Please call back during business hours.” I got put on hold behind 0 other people waiting for the next available customer service representative. So I hung up. It’s kind of funny but that’s not the sort of customer service a company should want to provide…