I found this good site today with some Java Quoteshttp://www.cafeaulait.org/quotes2006.htmlI wondered what a Java Quote actually was, it is a collection of quotes for the last 8 years about computers which are very funny. I also wondered how to quote someone who is quoting a quote. In the end my head almost fell off, so I thought I would add a...

I was off installing some the companies software again today. Installing is something which I have mixed feelings about. on the one side you get to go out of the office and mainly spend the day installing some software and not really doing that much work (well it is but it's different from normal work so it isn't, if you get my...

I did a blog entry recently about average Java wages and thought I would do a blog about pay/yearly reviews. I can only talk about my experiences of reviews and they probably aren?t the same as other peoples but perhaps it?s similar to other people out there.I feel people seem to get a bit too excited about pay reviews and suddenly start to...

Andy Hunt is famous for his pragrammatic programming books and website, so when I saw some links on his site to some podcasts I thought they would be pretty good. I was surprised initially by the content. About three of the podcasts are excerts from books. One of the books is "my job's gone to India and all I got was this lousy book" and...

I have been working in Flash this week and it's so different from Java that I usually give up trying to write good object orientated code and just write code that works and get the job done. Firstly with Flash the way everything is worded and set out I find really confusing, you have to drag components onto a "stage" and then "publish"...

I have read recently that there are a lot of thread questions on the Threads and Concurrency in the Java 5 SCJP exam. Not only are there are lot of thread questions but they are also some of the most difficult. I haven't yet taken the exam yet and am still revising for the Java SCJP. So I suppose I won't know until I do it. I think with...

This blog is about static code in Java and enclosing of constructor so it can never be instantiated and using what I call Static classes. I often wanted to create classes that weren't instantiated and I wasn't sure how to do this until I read Effective Java where one of the points it talks about is that. It still can be slightly...

I have recently started using the CheckStyle plugin for eclipse. When I initially installed it, nothing happened. I was slightly surprised I thought the code would have flagged a few areas for improvement. aha, I then found out you that you had to turn it on, I wonder why they would code it like that. I turned it on and baam, yellow highlighter...

I found a link to a Java 5 article resource at the IBM developer works website. http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/views/java/libraryview.jsp?search_by= taming+tiger: one article in particular I found useful, it gives a good overview of what you will be tested on the SCJP Java 5 exam. There is also a good article about collections...

Collections in Java 5 is a fairly big topic and one of the tricky exam areas because there is lots of options and it comes down to knowing what collection you need for different scenario's. Collections is also made extra difficult in the Java 5 SCJP exam because Collections are heavily linked with Generics because one of the main...

I have recently been thinking about constants and in particular static final constants. I know it is frowned upon in the OO world but sometimes I need to put a two strings in a few places which I have called /** a constant value for a blank String. */ public static final String BLANK = ""; /** a constant value for a blank space String. */...

I often implement the Decorator Blog Pattern. When I say this I am referring to my blog entries where I link to an article I found interesting but instead of just having the link and nothing else I like to talk about the article or sample chapter and give my opinion or thoughts on it. If you do not know what the decorator pattern is here is a...

One of the most confusing parts of Java our nested classes. The syntax can be very tricky with classes inside methods and methods overwriting others and semi colons on the end of curly brackets, the bottom line is it can be be very confusing. Nested classes are probably one of the biggest SCJP Java 5 exam gotchas out there. The Java exam has a...

This weeks post has links to pictures of the NEW (and improved) Rambo film.  Lyrics to Mel and Kim, facts like what is an octogenarian, why 2007 is year of the dolphin.  Various youtube videos, boulderdash is the retro game. We have jokes, a drinking game and why women hate star...

Amusing blog featuring the Mighty Boosh clips, retro games of Turrican 2, Zool.  As always links to amusing new stroies this week and an explanation for money for old rope.  We have funny pictures and cartoons, links to funny youtube videos.  Word of the day, explanation of the Defcon settings and lots more. oo oo plus Johnny...