Java User's Group: REST tools in Java

Srini Penchikala presented "REST Web Services Support in Java EE 6 and Spring 3.0" to about sixty java enthusiasts last Tuesday.
The meeting was sponsored by TEK who provided the pizza. The TEK spokesman said Agile skills would probably become a de facto requirement for most jobs within a year.
Srini talked about the different syntax for supporting REST within EE6 and Spring, with examples of doing things in both frameworks.
A small discussion centered around the movement of configuration data from code, then into XML, and now a trend back into code with the use of annotations. John Heinz made the point that annotations, although in code, are really declarative programming.
Srini mentioned that with Spring3 annotation in the code can be overridden by XML configuration, which seems to be the best of both worlds. He also used RestClient from Wiztool.org to test his demo code.

Taking the Pulse of Shopper's Identity

A great story about the future of shopping and identity management using finger vein patterns instead of credit cards is at NewLauncher.com.
We need to use credit cards less since they are so easily stolen or forgotten at home. I like the finger vein method or iris pictures to confirm identity, although neither is perfect, it takes criminals a lot more work than swiping a credit card blank through a magnetic writer.

A related story on using finger vein identity in a coke machine is here

VeinID - Finger Pulse Vending Machine from CScout on Vimeo.

Agile ATX Lunch Crowd at Central Market

I had a great time at the Agile ATX lunch today at Central Market on 38th and Lamar. The group meets every other Thursday at 11:30.
Some of today's topics were Mercurial vs. Git vs. Subversion, Domain Driven Design, SSIS and RhinoETL, and raising babies.
As usual I didn't understand many of the conversations, but its good to be humbled sometimes.
Come join us if you enjoy talking about the latest trends in software development especially in the Agile arena.

Can You Name the Most Popular Programming Languages?

Fun Quiz to test your knowledge of the most popular programming language (well, fun if you are a languages geek).

Java User's Group on March 2, 2010

Norman Richards, long time java guru, gave a presentation to about 40 people on JSR 299: "Contexts and Dependency Injection for the JavaTM EE platform". It was very interesting to hear about the merging of Spring, Seam, and other technologies being baked into the latest version of Java.

EventBrite Integrates Amzaingly Well With Twitter, Facebook, and Calendaring

In Matt Hinze's tweets this morning was a link to Austin Code Camp registration at EventBrite. While registering I noticed a myriad options for publicizing the event - you can click on convenient links to post on Facebook, your Yahoo or Google calendars - or even Twitter which is how I got to EventBrite in the first place. It's an amazing self-reinforcing process.

Wiping Disks Clean with Free Software from dban.org

Recently I needed to wipe the hard drives of a few machines. I was very pleased with Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN"), a free program from dban.org. Before you donate your old computer, or even put it out at the curb for trash pickup, be sure to wipe the drive clean; even erased Quicken data can be read from your old hard drives.