September 9, 2006 by Nitin Dahyabhai.

Nalin managed to get us tickets to see Bruce Campbell speak at a local theatre as well as see Bubba Hotep afterward. It was nice to hear Bruce talk about the importance of local theatres, supporting the performance arts, and how independent films and “B-movies” are increasingly the best place for fresh ideas. He then did some Q&A and signed copies of his new book. Hot news: his role in Spider-Man 3 is “pivotal“. And while I’ve seen Bubba Hotep many times, I never had a chance to see it on the big screen. It’s admittedly not for everyone (a large portion of the movie is very much reflection upon the main character’s life, and there’s a particularly uncomfortable monologue when the movie opens), but it’s a film that moved me in a way that most don’t, while still offering a good dose of humor and even some low-budget action. Even if he’s not a superstar, you can’t deny that he’s a actor who earns his pay.

Posted in Arts and Entertainment | 1 Comment »

September 8, 2006 by Nitin Dahyabhai.

“The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!”

Craig Salter and I were scheduled to give a talk on the XML Tools present within WTP, he covering the advanced UI features in the WSDL and XSD editors, and I covering some of the APIs that made it possible. In contrast to the presentation I participated in for EclipseCon 2005, our EclipseWorld 2006 presentation was in the last time slot on the last day. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a worrier, and really I spent most of the week trying to plan out what I was going to say. The distance from my hotel [which was recommended by the organizers] to the one where the event was at also made every day pretty tiring (I tried walking it the first few days to save the company cab fare), so by the time our presentation came around I was almost exhausted. I’d put everything I wanted to say into the slides not realizing that it would look like I was just reading them off instead of actually speaking. I think it went terribly, but Craig and the eventual audience feedback both disagreed.

Still, lessons for next year.

Posted in Development | No Comments »

September 6, 2006 by Nitin Dahyabhai.

“It’s certainly adequate for creating J2EE applications” -Wayne Beaton
“Hear that, our adequacity is unmatched.” - Me (to no one in particular)

Posted in Development | No Comments »

September 5, 2006 by Nitin Dahyabhai.

1. American Airlines and American Eagle have separate in-flight magazines. Madness.
2. Sky Mall offers remote controlled electronic sharks, and they’re desperately in need of a head-mounted “frickin’” laser attachment.
3. Remember to bring my optical drive next time, as the materials were provided on CD (EclipseCon provided them on some cool branded USB thumb drives–and in pretty nice backpacks, too).

Posted in Development | 1 Comment »