Awhile back, I read on somebody’s weblog that there are basically three ways to write modern business applications, and by that I mean applications written for internal usage in a company. The three are Microsoft .NET, enterprise Java, and open source Java. Those may not be the names he used, I can’t remember any more. To clarify, enterprise Java is Java development with expensive, unwieldy EJB containers like Weblogic and IBM WebSphere. Open source Java relies on things like Tomcat and the other Jakarta code. I’d personally throw JBoss into the enterprise category, even though it’s open source.

When I look at job listings for developers, it seems to me that the skills people ask for specifically beyond just Java, servlets, and EJB, are things like Weblogic, WebSphere, MQSeries, and other things in the enterprise family. The only open source Java things I see listed specifically are occasionally Tomcat and Struts. By nothing more than dumb luck, my development experience is fully centered on the open source Java world. Both the places where I’ve done Java development have eschewed the enterprise route in favor of going with servlet based applications. Unfortunately, I feel like to be as competitive as possible in the job market, I need to broaden my skill set. I’ve decided that I’m going to focus on improving my Java skills and learning more enterprise Java, so I’ve begun reading Mastering EJB II, which is pretty well regarded and is available for free on the Web for sampling.

I’d like to pick up some .NET knowledge, too, but first things first. The two big things I’m looking to learn right now are EJB, and UML. I’d like to know enough about both of them so that I can discuss them intelligently in interviews, and understand when they’re appropriate to use. I actually know some UML, mainly class diagrams, but I need to know more. And I’d like to know enough EJB to be able to look at projects and make a fact-based determination about whether using EJB makes sense. My impression right now is that EJB is the most misapplied technology in the Java world, but surely there has to be a category of project where EJB is most appropriate.

Working on learning new skills for the sake of a job search is never fun, but focusing exclusively on only one of the three platforms for business applications is a luxury I feel I can no longer afford.

This bizarre tale of love and loss provides proof once again that life is stranger than I can imagine. Just read it.

Looks like US companies are freezing out al-Jazeera.

Did you know that the US government is spending millions of dollars to launch a pro-American satellite television network? Robert Satloff argues that this is a bad idea. I just find it ironic that the same people who oppose spending money to provide intelligent news and entertainment to Americans via PBS and NPR now want to do so for people who speak Arabic.

Here’s a nice story about a soccer match between some British marines and a local soccer team in Iraq that arose spontaneously. In the meantime, I hear that Congress is already working on plans to make baseball Iraq’s official sport once we win the war …

The poetry of D. H. Rumsfeld

Chris Suellentrop writes today about the fact that Al Jazeera is just as fair as CNN. Of course Al Jazeera has an Arab slant on the news, what’s less obvious to Americans is the strong slant toward America of the US news networks. To be frank, I’m willing to simply dismiss people who look at Al Jazeera as a propaganda outlet as simpleminded or ignorant. Today they suspended their broadcasts from Iraq because two of their reporters were expelled. Obviously they’re doing more to tweak Iraq’s government than folks like Peter Arnett.

My problem with the common dismissal of Al Jazeera as a propaganda network is that it betrays a lack of perspective that offends me utterly. I can deal with conservatives and liberals equally well, what I can’t deal with is people who can’t get beyond their own biases. For example, I’m amazed by people who think it’s perfectly fine for us to detain people captured in Afghanistan as “unlawful combatants” rather than as prisoners of war, but who howl with outrage when Iraqis don’t treat our captured soldiers properly under the Geneva Convention. Our soldiers should be accorded the rights of prisoners of war but so too should we honor the convention even when it doesn’t suit us.

The inability to step outside one’s own political outlook, or nationality, or race, or gender and look at the big picture from other perspectives is an intellectual flaw that I find to be fatal. Everyone comes at every issue with biases, I’m a liberal white male who grew up in a small town in Texas, and that background certainly colors my thoughts on pretty much everything. However, I pride myself on my ability to compensate for those factors and look at a situation from the perspective of other people, although I’m obviously far from perfect.

In any case, the one piece of advice that I’d give anyone who wants to achieve a greater understanding of the world is to examine yourself for your biases and then attempt to set them aside when reading or watching the news. Things that seem utterly irrational through the lens of your own experiences may seem perfectly reasonable through someone else’s. Those people may still be completely wrong, but at least you might get a clue as to where they’re coming from.

Can I just say that when you make your résumé fully public on the various job boards, the total sleaze comes straight out of the woodwork? There are a lot of people out there who are trying to separate job applicants from their money.

There’s a new Mozilla Development Roadmap, and it’s a departure from what we’ve seen since the original Mozilla release. They’re going to move away from the big monolithic suite and toward multiple independent applications, a browser based on Phoenix and a mail client based on Minotaur. Makes sense to me. Oh, and the Mozilla 1.4 alpha is out, for people who like to live on the edge.

An LA Times photographer has been fired for submitting a Photoshopped photo that ran on the front page of the paper. The altered photo is better than either of the originals, too bad it doesn’t capture a real moment in time.