It turns out that people are turning away from TV to consume news and entertainment on the Internet. Rogers and Bell are taking advantage of their near monopoly position by charging me a fee if I choose to watch movies and other programming using Netflix and/or Youtube. That’s not fair. I can watch as much TV as I want. Why are they limiting my Internet usage?

I invite you to speak up. Sign this petition: Stop the meter.

If you feel that you want to express yourself in your own words, visit the facebook group and have your say: Open Media Facebook Group.

We Canadians pay more to access the Internet, and we pay for an inferior level of service. Canada has some of the poorest-quality broadband among advanced countries. Our Internet services providers are making money hand over foot, but their profits are holding broadband adoption back.

Rogers and Bell don’t get it. Explain it to them.

Our current project uses the Prism framework. Only one member of our team can claim to be extremely versatile using this framework – the promise is that it allows developers to build applications that are easier to maintain.

Some members of the team are on a learning curve, but it seems to be a challenge for them. I experience the same thing a year ago on another project that was using Model-View-Presenter. In theory, the benefits are clear. In practice, not so clear yet. I find that I spend a lot of time learning and/or teaching, and I wonder what it will be like when we add new or different developers to the team.

I get tired of type errors in .NET – I have felt for a long time that the compiler is trying to protect me from making errors I would never make. But, I do not have have anything coherent to say about that right now. I just want to cite an interesting article that states that developers are more productive using Django than they are using .NET.

I have nothing to add – just want to say: I am feeling less productive in .NET than I used to. I like Python – I used it on a project over the summer. It felt great to deliver working code every day. Is it just me?

It is stupid to spend hours typing information on public websites and to then worry about keeping it private. Facebook was designed to share information. The Web was designed to make information widely available.

Deleting your Facebook account over issues of privacy is like boycotting the local grocery store because people gawk when you pull down your pants. Are you going to tell the grocery store owner that you refuse to return until he or she provides a means to control who sees your bum when your pants are down around your ankles? Or, are you going to refrain from pulling your pants down in public? Which makes more sense?

Facebook is a public place: govern yourself accordingly. Don’t be stupid! If you are having an affair, don’t talk about it on Facebook. If you lied to the boss, said that you were sick, and went golfing instead, don’t put the pictures on Facebook.

Of course, there are real privacy issues, but do not assume that nobody is watching you on the Internet. Break the word down: “Inter”, which means between, among or within; and “net”, which means to catch and ensnare. If your neighbors are laughing behind your back because they saw you naked in front of your window, it is silly to blame that on your landlord. The Internet is a public place. There are better places to be private.

Having said this, there is information that you share online, with a legal understanding that it will not be shared for any other purpose than the purpose you ascribe. That is a contract. Still, sometimes you need a contract, but other times, all you need is common sense.

Many people in the so-called enterprise do not take what I do seriously. There are two trends that I find silly. First, there is the plethora of books that promise that you can become proficient with any computer language or technology in just 21 days. Give me break! Read what Peter Norvig had to say in a very good article entitled Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years.

The other trend is expensive training that cannot possible provide much value. Training dollars are being wasted. There are companies who send employees off on four day courses to learn how to program in .NET, for example. These courses can cost $2,500 or more per person. What can you learn in four days? Really? One such course actually states: “Prior programming experience is helpful but not required.” Again, give me a break!

As Novig writes: “There appear to be no real shortcuts: even Mozart, who was a musical prodigy at age 4, took 13 more years before he began to produce world-class music.”

If you like what Java has to offer in terms of class libraries, but you like the Python language and its idioms, then Jython is the best of both worlds.

To prepare for my next installments on Jython, Django and DB4O, read about introspection in Python.

In recent years, I have a developed an obsessive hyper-vigilance – I watch news and events, product alerts, new releases, industry news, current events, and new programming languages. I have developed a persistent fear of “not knowing” – I am not sure what I am afraid of not knowing, but that is part of the condition. Therefore, I spend an inordinate amount of time keeping up with trends and knowledge that I do not use or apply.

Sometimes I wear myself out taking information in, but I produce nothing. I have nothing to show for what I have read – often, reading degenerates into a fit of clicking on disconnected hyperlinks, one after the other, like a man who cannot find his car keys and is starting to panic. I start by reading about computational methods, and end up reading about rumors that Stephen Hawking is being physically abused or hit.

At times, I feel like a compulsive slot machine player, pulling the information lever, praying to hit the mother lode. There must be a fact, or an information source, that will yield some satisfaction or some relief. Instead, I come away with a list of books I will never have time to read, toys I will never own, bookmarked links I will never click on, and things I will never know how to do.

I hoard bookmarks just in case. This is my stash, my arsenal. In time links go stale: information moves, or disappears. Often I cannot find the link I am looking for. I am a digital pack rat, and I am running out of space.

Actually, I have infinite storage, but I cannot use it effectively. I cannot find a specific family picture – in fact, I spend more time taking pictures that I do looking at them. Pictures no longer represent cherished memories because I never stop to cherish them. A picture is a moment I record because I am afraid to loose it. I store the picture and never think of that moment again.

If I were to be cut off from my computer – not just my computer but the Internet, I would feel a building discomfort that could turn into a panic. How long would I last? If I lost my data, I secretly believe that part of me would have died, too. I do not know which I would fear more, a stroke or a hard drive crash.

At the same time, my data has never brought me close to my family. Nobody cares about it. Nobody will ever look at it. Nobody really considers that I have a treasure. My data and many of my files are often freely available, replaceable and redundant. It is not the bits and bytes that I am afraid of losing. I am afraid of losing the context – I am the context. I am interested in these things. To lose them is to lose myself.

Sometimes, I register domain names and never use them. I have spoken to many people who like my ideas so much that they want to start a company and build something brilliant with me. I know a man who has incorporated a few times, and registered domains names, but has done nothing. His corporations are dormant, and his web sites are permanently in construction, which is a big fat lie. If you are my friend and you think I am talking about you, then I have made my point.

If I were not to program for a year, especially this year, I would fear falling behind. That would mean that I was an old, washed-up has-been who will never catch up. It is not just tools or languages, but concepts. Continuous integration, aspect oriented programming, concurrent programming, the merging of the file system and the database, accessibility, usability, distributed concurrent databases, distributed file systems, GIS, separation of concerns, closures, list comprehensions, test-driven development . . .

I cannot stop. It is stressful. I buy too many books. I produce very little, except the boring vanilla-flavored code my clients require and prefer. My clients do not use unit tests, and do not want to pay me to write them. Many of my clients think they are on the cutting edge, but they are almost without exception afraid to try anything new.

There are kids out there having more fun then I am having. Things I wanted to try but was told would never work are being done by nineteen year olds who become millionaires while I struggle to pay my back taxes.

I also spend too much time configuring features and settings on my computer that I never use. I download and install tools that I never use. I dream of the ideal setup, and I am forever implementing it and never using it. I have no specific plans, but many how-to articles.

I have many options, but I have made no decisions. I spend time upgrading and reconfiguring software that I have never used only to continue not using it. Then I upgrade it again.

After going to the washroom, the first thing I do in the morning is go to my computer. Who sent me an email? Do I have comments on my blog? Do I have comment spam? What ‘s the news today? What is the weather like? Did I receive any friend requests? Why didn’t Jill respond to my friend request? Oh crap, I have to send Leanne those pictures. I need to check Google analytics to see how the blog is doing. I need to send Leslie an email! I received a few reminders of Fran’s birthday, but I never followed up. Why is the Canadian dollar dropping? Should I try Elastic Cloud? (Oh look: 15 Free Tools for Web-based Collaboration. I just have to read that!)

I have a problem. How about you? I think I am exagerating for the sake of making a point, but am I?

My clients used to pay me for what I could do on the backend. Now, they seem most impressed by what I do using JavaScript. They seem to want rich interfaces, but what does that mean in terms of accessibility? I have written that asking a developer not to use AJAX is like asking Spielberg not to use a camera because some people are blind.

Basically, Steve King does not write novels for the blind, but someone comes along later to produce a Braille version, or to record the book. A producer of TV content does not have to think about closed captioning – somebody else does that. Why is this my problem? If I send an email, the technology supports me. Why don’t I have more support from the people who build special readers?

My first feeling, when I read that someone thinks I should not be using AJAX is that I am being limited and held back. My clients are asking me to work on applications that are not accessible as things stand, and they will not be accessible even if I avoid AJAX in the piece of work I do. Why shouldn’t I use AJAX?

However, now I have to think about accessibility. One day, I will be asked to work on a web application that is accessible. How do I continue to build usable, responsive apps? I cannot answer all of these questions right now, but here is part of the solution, as outlined by Simon Wilson, in a presentation of JQuery: Unobtrusive JavaScript with jQuery.

I was interested by a recent post by a writer who is not fond of Ajax. He seems to feel that we should stop using AJAX, or at least avoid it. I am trying to be sympathetic, but I would like to register the following thoughts. I do not mean to disagree so much as I mean to make some general observations.

1. I am currently working on an application that is intended for sighted people. It uses a map component and a GIS database. This application will never be used by blind people, and I am using AJAX. I do not believe that this is a bad choice.
2. I believe that information should accessible, but an application in more than just a web page. A web application composed of web pages held together with hypertext is an unsatisfying experience.
3. Making a building entrance wheelchair accessible in no way diminishes my access to the building. However, I feel as I have to give up functionality to meet the special needs of others. Asking developers not to use AJAX is like asking Spielberg not to use a camera because some people are blind.
4. Perhaps it is time to point a finger at the people who design and build readers that cannot cope with AJAX. Why aren’t they keeping up with the web?
5. The writer of the article I reference above repeats several times that AJAX is immature. AJAX used to be called “remote scripting”. AJAX is a new name for a technology I have been using for almost 10 years. When can we call it mature?

I would be upset if I found out that my blog was inaccessible.I mean to reach an audience, and I hope to reach any interested person.

On the other hand, my clients rarely ask me to build completely accessible applications. I do not know how to create menus for blind people or how to build forms that deaf people can fill out, nor do I have any illusions that it is easy. I feel hampered, and unfairly faulted.

If there were a framework that I could use to make my application accessible in an alternative format, and my clients were willing to pay me to do the work, I would use it. However, I have become good at developing highly usable applications for sighted people – that is a lot of people! A heck of a lot!

Give me an alternate means to interact with people who struggle with various challenges, and I would be happy to do it, but let me use my AJAX. Please.

I promise to learn more, and to come up with strategies. We should all learn more. Developers are always learning – many find they cannot keep up. I will learn. But, give me time. The so-called accessible web may be accessible, but AJAX enabled pages are so much more usable. Doesn’t that matter?

Ok, let’s admit it. There is a gap between the promise of the Internet and the way most organizations use technology. Maintaining servers, and the software that runs on them is expensive, and training the teams that do the work is prohibitively expensive. I have watched people tie themselves in knots to solve problems that I thought were easy.

I am learning about new ways of doing things, and I am excited. During the day, I provide code in old style shops for clients who are often doing things the hard way. I may think I know a better way, but who asked me? Last night I stayed up too late, looking at the exciting work that Google is doing, including the App Engine.

It strikes me that my clients are paying me too much to do things that could be more easily done in other ways. In fact, to be honest, I am beginning to notice that other people are doing what I do, they are doing it better and they are doing it for less. It is time to change. I am running the risk of becoming obsolete.

I suggested to a client a year or so ago that she did not need a mail server. Just use Google mail, I said. This small association was not ready for that idea. However, Arizona State University was. Check this out!

Attention deficit disorder is the norm. Our culture encourages it. Change has been happening since the dawn of time. Commercialism has been with us a long time, and the rat race has, too. But, I saw something when I went to the gym today that is becoming more common and I do not like it.

A young man was getting dressed in the locker room while also trying to eat an orange and a high fiber muffin. I noticed him while he was making sucking noises to keep a slice of orange from falling out of his mouth as he put on his shoes. Later he made a cell call while trying to pack his gym bag. He dropped his towel at my feel, scooped it up and did not even seem to notice me. Then he dropped his keys as he started to put on his coat, all the while continuing his conversation. “Where are you now?” he said into his phone as he looked at his watch. Gotta go! Gotta go! Gotta go!

Do we really live this way? We go to meetings with our cell phones on vibrate. We use out blackberries on the bus. Multitasking is no-tasking! Nothing is done well, and even if it is, it is not enjoyed or appreciated. Imagine how I feel when I realize that I am high priest to the machine that makes this possible. Do I like what technology has become?