The internal messaging model used for concurrency in languages such as Erlang and Scala is undoubtedly compelling. Every time I try I get frustrated, though. I’m simply more comfortable with java. With this in mind I’m very interested in Kilim, which claims to provide a similar model usable directly from java, and with better performance than Scala.
Twitter is all over the media these days. It was a top topic of conversation in the pub last night. It’s interesting to see it developing from a toy into a useful communication “platform”.
Twitter Fast Growing Beyond Its Messaging Roots | Epicenter from Wired.com.
A Brief Overview of Java EE 6
12-Sep-08
A report of a presentation at a user group about Java Enterprise Edition (JEE) version 6, written in slightly unusual language – I can’t quite imagine that the main reason to try Spring is “to get high”.
I tend to agree with the author that a JEE “profile” with servlets, messaging (JMS) and transaction management would be a very useful idea, though. Despite the improvements and the hype I still have not found a compelling use for EJB other than a brief flirtation with message-driven beans
More research on that old chestnut about everyone being connected, this time based on data-mining of MSN instant messenger records.
Instant-Messagers Really Are About Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon – washingtonpost.com
A typical InfoQ summary of an interesting discussion, this time about the merits and problems of polling REST resources, and how some other approaches might help solve these problems.
Skype: The ultimate collaboration tool?
13-Jul-08
Skype seems to be gently emphasising its messaging abilities at the moment as it squares up against the might of Google’s inter-operable XMPP/Jabber-based system. A recent addition to Skype’s portfolio is persistent public “chat rooms”. Apart from the same stuff that chat rooms have long been used for, the wide adoption of Skype in corporate settings may offer some more interesting uses.
Here’s an article about using Skype chat rooms for a kind of Virtual shared office space to improve communication in distributed teams.
Information distribution and ownership
13-Jul-08
I’m currently mulling around a bunch of thoughts and half-formed opinions on the distribution, ownership and attribution of ideas and information in an age of free-flowing digital media.
One of my current concerns is the tension between perceived needs one the one hand for attribution, academic traceability and ownership of ones own words; and on the other hand for privacy. This is seen in sharpest relief in solicitations for academic surveys. Routinely such instruments come with a disclaimer pointing out that all answers will be anonymous. Well-structured surveys and questionnaires, though, often also contain a section for general comments and feedback. In most cases I do not want this to be anonymous – indeed I would rather it formed part of a dialogue between the researcher and subjects, allowing both to benefit, learn and develop.
I am considering taking up a habit of always adding my contact details to academic survey submissions to deliberately challenge the assumption that I wish to be an anonymous donor of information, and to encourage researchers to participate in a community of interest.
Some things I have read recently on associated topics include:
Mathemagenic » Blogging research: attribution and ownership of ideas
Although I don’t do much with Erlang or Ruby at the moment, I really like the approach taken in this article of connecting applications using the Jabber protocol. It looks as if it really has a lot to offer as a messaging infrastructure, a potentially key component as yet unexplored for “rosebud”.
nutrun » Blog Archive » Distributed programming with Jabber and EventMachine