Looking at the new iMacs the 27" quad-core looks like it would make a superb pairing station for programming. I've been waiting to see what the update looked like before looking at end of year purchases. Here's how I see it:

There are a decent number of books out there on Ruby. In my mind I consider Chapter 11 of The Ruby Way, 2nd Edition the most important chapter you can read. Here's why.

Here at the Oredev 2009 conference in Malmo, Sweden, I had the chance to connect with Herbjorn Wilhelmsen, one of the members of the SOA Manifesto Working Group. Herbjorn presented a 'lightning talk' on the Manifesto, describing its vision and overarching values. While 15 minutes is far from enough time to cover a document of such constitutional magnitude (he wasn't able to go over all the principles), Herbjorn drove home one very essential point that is implicit in the document -- that SOA is not a product. You can't buy one nor bake one. It must be built with people. processes and most importantly, business values in mind.

I got into a spat with Eric Raymond the other day about some code he's written called ForgePlucker. I took a look at the source code and posted saying it looks like a total hack job by a poor programmer. Raymond replied by posting a blog entry in which he called me a poor fool and snotty kid. The problem with writing code like ForgePlucker is maintenance. It's got all sorts of little assumptions and special cases. A much better approach is to use an HTML parser than knows all about the foibles of real HTML. Here's the equivalent function written using the BeautifulSoup parser:

10 things you should know about Model Driven Development. An introduction into MDD with some highlights of more advanced topics.

Thoughts about testing in an agile environment.

Java is here to stay, but what will happen under Oracle's leadership?

I am a big fan of Uncle Bob and I think he is a master of object-oriented programming and architecture. However, in my opinion his Bowling Game kata (solution for the bowling game scoring problem) it's not the right example to explain design via Test-Driven Development.

Can dynamic language be staticly compiled

With another year coming to a close, it’s time to look toward the near future. The following are my predictions for the web in 2010.

Quite some time back, I read an article titled "20+ Free Look and Feel Libraries For Java Swing". I have evaluated most of the libraries mentioned in that article. Personally, I prefer the System look and feel that is bundled in the JRE. However, I like Substance, PGS and JGoodies as well. Which one do you use?

There are a ton of great articles around that concentrate on nice footer designs, but sadly there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of posts highlighting the amazing work designers are doing with website headers right now.

On Thursday, Google caught the eyes of Web developers around the world with the company's move to open source its Closure JavaScript compiler, library and template system to the Web community - the very same tools that power popular applications, including GMail, Google Docs, Google Maps, Google Reader, and no doubt many others.

At the center of just about every personal productivity system are lists – GTD has it’s context lists, Pomodoro has it’s action inventory and daily to-do lists, todoodlist has, well, the todoodlist, and so on. But there are a lot of different kinds of lists besides your task or to-do list that can help you be more productive. Lists in general are powerful tools

Thinking outside the box is more than just a business cliché. It means approaching problems in new, innovative ways; conceptualizing problems differently; and understanding your position in relation to any particular situation in a way you’d never thought of before. Ironically, its a cliché that means to think of clichéd situations in ways that aren’t clichéd.

If you want to succeed as a freelancer, you must get your name out there. You can be the best in what you do but if no one knows about you, your freelancing career is as good as dead (sorry to be so harsh, but it’s true). While many freelancers are obsessed with being web celebrities, there are ways to stay under the radar and still have a successful freelance business.

My mother is a psychologist and recently visited me us here in Idaho. We spent some time talking about the psychology behind some agile practices. Pretty cool! Additionally, we ended up on the one mystery topic that has always eaten away at me. That mystery for me is simple: Why does one person or team pursue excellence relentlessly while another hits the door at 5:01 and doesn’t think about software development until tomorrow morning?

A defining factor in any freelancer or agency’s success in gaining new business is their ability to market their skills effectively. In this three-part series, we will explore ways in which designers can strategically promote themselves to get new clients. Securing new business by approaching companies can be a very challenging process, full of pitfalls. Here, we will look at 10 steps to impressing potential clients and avoiding the most common mistakes.

Rick Freedman explains why facilitation is a skill every consultant should develop. He also describes how facilitators can help a client team set meeting goals and objectives and understand organizational issues.

During my childhood I was told by many that I was what they called an --- 'introvert'. As far as my side of the story was concerned; I found human beings; hugely complex creatures who were very difficult to understand and establish a connection with. If I can be honest here; it was not the human race that was a problem. I actually liked interacting with other human beings. It was just the first five minutes; the small-talk; the phony smile and the how-are-you-doing or how-is-the-whether-there discussion that I found hugely complicated and pointless.

Now that IT pros have started kicking the Windows 7 tires, it makes sense to consider the next round of improvements. Alan Norton shares his list of the changes he hopes to see.

I get a lot of email from people who find themselves in dreadful work environments. Last week, however, I got a rather unusual email from a woman who has pretty much resigned herself to a bad work environment and has managed to survive the resident tyrant. Her issue is: What can she do about tyrannical behavior that she sees being inflicted on others?

Despite its extremely ambitious agenda and questionable conflicts of interest, Google has maintained public trust with minimal backlash. Here’s why.

The past several weeks I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the work associated with and the consequences of rebranding something. In part, I’m talking about my Blog but also some of the products that I have developed and some of my services offerings through my consulting company. The process made me sit down, think about re-branding in general, and do some research. Here’s what I learned.

My goddaughter is now of an age where she can talk, understand, and learn pretty well. She’s six, so she’s pretty on the ball with things already. The things that she experiences and sees are so different to mine, and she’s only 16 years younger than me. Times change quickly, I know, but it hit me like a wave of elderly welfare benefits disguised as a petrol tanker last night.