From Java to Ruby

I ended up mostly finishing my Grade Calculator program today, but I ended up going to Slick Willie's (hence the delay of this post), so I'll release it, as dinky as it is, tomorrow evening. To compensate for the tardiness of the post I'll show you something really funny: the video for "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk". I guarantee that you will laugh. Yes, it's real. Anyway, Bruce Eckel is an very well-respected figure in the programming community, and he's written a thoughtful editorial on the movement of hyper-enthusiasts from Java to Ruby and Zope. It's really an exciting time to be a web applications developer right now because of how big Python and Ruby have become almost overnight, towering over Perl. If you don't know what I'm talking about, skip this paragraph. When Java first came out, do you remember how it was supposed to do everything short of wiping your ass? Could we be approaching that same point here? I kind of doubt it, because these languages have really grown out of the wants and needs of the developers. Eckel doesn't presume to answer questions like this, but he does ponder whether Python users really even bother with Ruby, and that's what makes it so cool! It's an extensible language! Anyway, I'm only bringing all this up because I think it's important that web frameworks are created that are easy to use, and that's what we're starting to get with stuff like Ruby on Rails. Java was painful and slow, and Perl was just annoying for OOP fans, so this evolution is just great. This article is a joy to read if you have a few minutes for it.

The creator of the interpreted Python language, Guido von Rossum, has actually been scooped up by Google, which is the latest acquisition their series of high-profile hires. I wonder how much guys this brilliant are getting paid? If you're curious about what you search about, then you should check out Google Trends, which apparently will also better tailor results to you. They're definitely pushing the envelope as to how much they can garner from people's searches. All three of my female readers may be happy to hear of a drug that, if taken daily, can rid you of your period! It's still being approved, but some experts warn that taking away menstruation could thrown a woman's whole physiology out of wack and may make you more susceptible to STDs. If you're confused by that, then just read the article. Nintendo is trickling out their information on the Revolution to us, and we now know that for the Revolution of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, you will be able to use your sword interactively! How cool is that?! They are going to be filthy rich. Lastly, Microsoft is losing their fight in Europe and if they don't open up some of their software interface information in a five weeks, they'll face $2.4 million fines each day. I'm very impressed with the EU sticking to their guns.

Is that the Lady in the Water? I'm not sure, but IGN got it from the movie so it should be someone important. There are quite a few trailers going on today. If thrillers tickle your fancy than the semi-realistic scenario posed by the trailer for When a Stranger Calls may entice you. If you're more of the Scary Movie type though, then you'll probably get a kick out of Date Movie, which actually had a mildly funny trailer. The last trailer today is from Click, during which I actually laughed out loud so I hope that it'll be good. If you need more video though then there's an extremely short Ghost Rider clip at Superhero Hype. Oliver Stone's 9/11 movie (the one with Nicholas Cage) will be called World Trade Center from now on, but it's nothing really striking. I hope his movie is more creative than that. Lastly, AICN put up a list of what really encompassed the classic movie geek movies of the year (with a couple that us normal folk haven't been able to see yet), and I bring it up for those of you looking for movies to rent and see with family this weekend.

Now for the 3x Thursday meme, albeit a little late:

1. Do you and your family celebrate the holidays? What do you do? If not, do you do something instead?
We do celebrate Christmas Eve (mass) and Christmas Day, where we just go over to one of my dad's family's place for lunch and/or dinner. However, this year we're also going to hit up my mom's side, which may be less interesting for me since all the people over there are like married/engaged! Oh well, I'm sure we'll make the most of it.

2. Did you get all of your shopping done? Did you have to buy for a lot of people? What kind of gifts do you tend to buy people?
Except for my parents, yes. I don't know what we're going to do about our parents, but hopefully my brother thought of something. I bought everyone very different stuff, but it was all things I figured they'd like.

3.. What's up for Xmas (the holidays in general, actually) this year? Doing anything fun?
I already answered above. Though we are going to my uncle's place for a while after Christmas Eve mass.

What was a typical Xmas like at your house when you were a kid?
It was more or less the traditional race to the tree when you get up in the morning to see what Santa brought you. We opened our gifts in our nuclear family, and later in the day usually spent some time with relatives.