I have a project where I need to do something constantly, roughly every minute. There are a lot of ways for me to do this with external libraries, but I want the EJB3 spec to enable me to initialize timers without involving application code.

I've been playing with the Netbeans 5.5 preview; here are more little, uh, things I've noticed about it so far.

You know, if I was a troll (no comment, and shame on you for thinking it!) I think the last thing I'd do is hang out under a bridge with the sole purpose of preventing people from crossing over...

Dana Reeve is dead of lung cancer at 45. This is very saddening, for a lot of reasons: she was still young, there's no cure for lung cancer, she had a 13-year-old son who's now an orphan... rest in peace, and we'll continue the search for a cure.

CIMEntertainment offered me the privilege of reading a draft of "The Tesla Testament" last week. He's been dribbling hints about it to me for a while, even letting me read the first chapter a while back, so I had to take the opportunity.

Firefox is simply not working well enough, consistently enough, for me to stay with it. I can't stand IE, so Opera wins... as long as it works better than Firefox.

My son is doomed to a life in software engineering - he already has mangling requirements down pat.

I just got done reading "Dear Elena..." and I cannot imagine how horrible it must be.

"Word Up!" What a horrible song. Am I the only person in the world who thinks that there's not really a way to wave your hands in the air like you do care?

I really hate the fact that - with one exception - I'll have looked forward to when each and every American President I've seen is out of office. I've supported Bush grudgingly, just like I supported Clinton grudgingly, and the previous Bush, and.

Whew! The not-being-home part of my longest vacation ever (except my honeymoon) is over, and lots has happened. Hospital visits, falls, caves, Java in Action, and... no work.

"Theater piracy law snags first victim" -- this sounds like the law is victimizing criminals. Um, sorry, folks - the guy carrying a camcorder into the theater to copy the film is doing something against the law, whether you agree with it or not.

I took an OKCupid politics test... and surprise! Came out a libertarian.

"The Open Door" is probably the first song I really tried to compose using electronic media, back in something like 1987, and it's survived all this time to finally be rerecorded.

CNet made me laugh: "Extra Storage is for the Young" is talking about 18-to-24 year old kids' insatiable desire for storage. Boy, am I in for it: my ten year old son sneers at mere 200GB hard drives, saying they're not big enough.

I rerecorded "True Believer" yesterday - here's the first mix... and a test of podcasting on blog-city.

Life is just God's way of lowering your expectations until they fit what you're going to get.

I run a community portal for OrionServer, a J2EE application server, called OrionSupport.com. It's running a portal called Epix, which is really nice. You may notice, though, that it may be nice, but it's not online.

In "Coming to campus: E-books with expiration dates" from ZDNet, Princeton University is offering discounts for students who purchase e-books. The e-books expire after five months. The article focuses on the usage problems - but it got me thinking.

Paul Graham has another essay, this one called "What Business can learn from open source." As usual, good premise, great writing, crap essay.

Joel Spolsky has written another essay, this one called "Hitting the High Notes," focused on emphasizing why one would want to hire the best programmers - because they hit the "high notes," the watershed moments in software development.

And now we see if invading Iraq was worth all the blood, sweat, and tears. I'm sort of "for" the Iraq war, with a number of reservations. For one thing, I hate war. I recognize that it's not always avoidable, and I think that once you've commi

I watched CBS' coverage of Live 8 last night to catch the resurrection of the Floyd. Very disappointed, as "Money" got interrupted after the lead. I've decided I can't sign the Live 8 petition. Some great music, from what I saw - especially depen

Recently, the US Congress and the Supreme Court have done some really stupid things, like, oh, making a law that says that webcam operators must provide their physical addresses and proof of age, and ruling that communities can seize private property

I can't explain the pain that lives inside It hurts my head, I bled and nearly died My eyes wept tears, my fears were magnified My end becomes a flame that came, denied. I saw a glass, alas, my face within With no surprise, my eyes betray my s