In Review
It’s that time of the week again I’m afraid. Time to go through a mostly boring recap of responses, taunts, and veiled threats.
First, regarding my proposed JRoller TOS. It should be clear to even the halfwits amongst you that there is absolutely no way in hell a single one of my items will ever be put in place, so you can safely straighten your panties now. The one thing I’d like (in all seriousness) is some requirement to be very vaguely Java related. Sadly though I doubt that’ll get on the list either. Rick Ross’ wife now has a blog which is (refreshingly?) devoid of anything to do with computers, let alone Java.
The comments on that thread though deserve some mention. I’d kindly request that people comment in English. Yes, it can even be Grotty English. Posting in Spanish is highly irritating, because I (and pretty much every non-Spanish speaker out there) is incredibly unlikely to bother finding a translation of your comment, so your witticisms will be lost and you’ll be sad. The second issue with comments is people embedding html. It was cute the first couple of times, but please try to avoid it unless it’s mildly amusing instead of destructive/stupid. Any comments engaged in deliberate sabotage will be summarily executed.
Another point regarding commenters. Please please, for the sake of sanity and general good behaviour, pick a name and stick with it. Having multiple people called ‘Anonymous’ is annoying. At least I know that there are only two ‘Anonymous Bastards’, but one would be ideal. Pick any name you want, just be consistent!
Perhaps I wasn’t too clear in my NullPointerException rant on their proper usage. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with throwing them. The problem is when a developer doesn’t explicitly handle it or mention it. Hell, even a javadoc comment saying ‘this method can throw an NPE if param1 is null’ would be a godsend. I was also horrified, shocked, and downright scared when someone mentioned the ‘Null Object’ pattern. From what I can tell, this object is in every way a null, without the telltale sign of passing tests like null equality and throwing NPE’s. I can get my eyes to bleed just by imagining such code. As a couple of people wisely mentioned, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with explicitly throwing an NPE, as long as it’s helpful and says exactly what is null.
Finally, credit to Jason Carreira who hit the nail on the head with what’s wrong with GUI tools (even incredibly helpful easy to use ones). It might be faster the first time, but doing it 20 times over just results in an angry irate user. We all know that when we have angry irate users, we have people who dislike their lives. When we have people who dislike their lives, we have people wondering whether it’s all worth it, the pain, the price one pays for all the suffering, and suchlike and so forth. When that happens, well….THE TERRORISTS WIN.
October 27th, 2003 at 12:42 am
I’m bene wrokign on a jm2e and jtax gui for hndaling nullpinteresclations. Jsut did ym fnial refrctoring to remvoe Strnigs in fvaor of StrnigBffurs.
If your thnki its dumb, your an ASS.
October 27th, 2003 at 1:22 am
A fake Grott. Wow, somebody hit an all-time low.
October 27th, 2003 at 4:49 am
First Post!
October 27th, 2003 at 11:55 am
What do you mean there’s two?? Except for one posting, I haven’t seen any that bears my name, that are not from me.
October 27th, 2003 at 1:03 pm
I second AB’s comment.
October 27th, 2003 at 6:57 pm
re: non-java-related blogs by wives.
So Hani, when do we get to see a blog by your significant other? Is there a BileBabe? Or is s(he) dutifully relegated to kitchen?
October 27th, 2003 at 8:27 pm
Nathalie, all bloggers are welcome at JRoller. I’m genuinely pleased at the strong Java focus in many blogs here, but I also enjoy the dimension that others (some of whom have lives beyond technology) add to the overall atmosphere. I’m glad to see Elizabeth here, and since she’s tough enough to have handled me for 14 years I really doubt Hani could represent any threat to her. He’d be well advised to leave her out of things, or at least address her by virtue of her own expression and not her relation to me. – Rick
October 27th, 2003 at 8:36 pm
BTW, Hani, I thought it was quite clear that your proposed JRoller TOS was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, although I think you could have been a good deal more smooth in expressing contempt without sounding bigoted. I try hard to keep an open mind and consider what you say, since occasionally there’s something I’m glad to have read in your postings. For example, I definitely identified with your feelings about the current course of Aurora betas, although I tend to feel tolerance is mandated due to the EAP nature of our present access to Aurora. Anyway, I just wanted to acknowledge that I find some value in BileBlog even though your tone and methods are regularly objectionable to me. – Rick
October 28th, 2003 at 8:34 am
Rick, the whole point of the bile blog to sound bigoted. Haven’t you read any of the other entries?
You’re welcome to join #java some day to see where it all comes from.
October 28th, 2003 at 9:32 am
Hey, don’t pick on us Anonymous Bastards…
October 28th, 2003 at 12:29 pm
Ugh, a post with “open mind”, several “feel”s and “tolerant”. My PC meter pegged at MAX.
“tolerance is mandated ”
That sounds too funny. How tolerant can one be if you mandate anything?
October 28th, 2003 at 12:35 pm
Loke, I left #java years ago, before hani made it a favorite haunt (assuming he still does.) I am only too familar with the sense of superiority many of the regulars there exhibit. I have met several of them in person, and I fail to understand the origin of the sense of superiority! – Rick
October 28th, 2003 at 1:47 pm
Eres un gilipollas Hani, cómeme la polla.
October 28th, 2003 at 1:59 pm
HA! I claim this name.
October 28th, 2003 at 3:14 pm
rick, many people believe hani renders an important service in an entertaining fashion. if vulgarity bothers you, then why not stop reading? do you really believe hani is bigoted? what does that mean, that he actually discriminates between the good and bad features of different products? or that he hates people? it seems clear that it’s the former.
October 31st, 2003 at 10:25 am
Anyone who gets really worked up over the BileBlog needs to meditate every morning. Let go of thoughts. Let go of the self. Get some perspective. The BileBlog is fun, take it with a grain of salt and go home happy, chuckling as you go. If you are so honored and privileged as to be biled you should thank Hani endlessly for acknowledging your existence (if you look deep within, you’ll discover this is what you desire). Take for example, Gavin King’s reaction to getting biled. As we all know, Gavin is very wise.
Anyway, I read a passage in InTheBeginningWasTheCommandLine by Neal Stephenson http://www.spack.org/index.cgi/InTheBeginningWasTheCommandLine and realized why I read the BileBlog everyday, “…it is commonly the case with technologies that you can get the best insight about how they work by watching them fail.” So true.
Yes the BileBlog is offensive and obnoxious and at times I fear for Hani’s personal sanity (although I have my own to worry about). I have also noticed other blogs entries of late which seem to faintly adopt the BileStyle. Although mitigated with some Maalox, yes, the bile fashion has arrived! Everyone wants a taste! Eew.
The Gladio