Tag: Google

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Computing Java Web Development

Google App Engine: Brief First Impression

Started playing with the Google Apps Engine last night. Now that Java is supported, even I can be lured after the magical charm of what is close to the infinite scalability holy grail. These are my impressions spending a couple of hours with the tutorial:
1. Eclipse makes it easy
Google created a pretty nifty plugin for the latest generation of Eclipse to help you with app engine development. It generates some of the code you need and hides the boring stuff. It also contains a Jetty app server that helps you deploy apps locally for debugging.

2. Old Java, new tricks?
Google appears to want to simplify the uptake and adoption. Therefore the tutorial uses old school servlets and JSPs. Need to test deeper to see if there is any reason not to use more modern Sping framework and templating engines like Velocity. Doubt that.

3. It’s JDO, JPA: not your average ORM
This will take some getting used to. To gain access to the bounty of ‘infinite’ no headache (supposedly) storage you will need to get cozy with JDO or JPA. These mainstream Java standards are less popular than Hibernate and other ORM libraries. You will need to learn yet another framework. Had one nit here with an annotation specifying the type of primary key causing a bug.

Overall, though, things appeared polished and working. Cannot wait to play more.

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Computing

Hey Microsoft: Outlook Web Access does not work that well with IE 8

An add on to my angry post about Internet Explorer 8; having accessed my company’s Outlook Web Access application – the webmail side of the Exchange server we use (Exchange 2003), I was unable to forward an email using IE 8.

Google at least claims to have Chrome tested before unleashing it unto the world. Microsoft apparently does not even test its own products. Trashing mercilessly. I know.

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Computing Web Development

Google Chrome: First Impressions

I am proud to put my happy fanboy glasses on and say that I installed Google Chrome on its first day. Better yet, I am writing now using it. Can you believe Firefox is no longer the cool kids’ browser. So sad. So what do I think of it having used it for precisely 10 minutes:

Yay:

  • Wicked Fast
  • Sorta cute looking
  • Search in the address bar works very well
  • Design outside of Mozilla’s reach
  • Process-based design is interesting, maybe it can actually work, hey think outside the box, yo
  • Download manager looks like the Firefox Download Bar extension, only looks waaaaay better
  • No Mac version. Please talk to the genius at the genius bar. I am bitter.

Nay:

  • No ad blocking. Yeah, Google – the ad people – will let you f- with that. I bet that is like, motivation #1 for this whole adventure
  • A remarkably sad day for web developers. Not only are companies going to want to test for another browser like Safari or god have mercy, Opera, you really need another pain in the but in the form of Chrome. And yeah, it renders like Safari, but its JavaScript is all new. Wheee
  • No integration yet with del.icio.us and web developer tools that make Firefox sing
  • Google needing to support users on Windows. Welcome to hell.
  • Only god know which nameless, oh-so-private stats are being collected on us when we use a product from a company that makes money off of that. Yeah, it’s open source, but did you read a million lines lately?
  • Facebook not like, 100% with Chrome: The next/previous links in the Facebook image gallery don’t work; the comment on news feed stories do not work; photo tagging is a fail too; the more I try the list gets longer – in short, FB is shafted in Chrome. Petty, I know, but I am sharing. Doubt Facebook, on the Microsoft side and a Google wannabe anti-Christ, wants to care.

Regardless, I root for Google. Another ballsy, way beyond uber-cool idea. Seems to be running. Was a pain to download because apparently they are so deluged with requests it hurt their servers.

How’s this for low-to-lowest brow review?

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