What is happening? Well, there is a @Override annotation on one of the methods, but it doesn’t have a superclass–it is annotating a method that is being implemented (from an interface), not a method that is inherited (from a superclass).

The @Override annotation is a Java 1.5 feature, and the error message I was getting was coming (correctly) from a 1.5 compiler. However in Java 1.6 the @Override annotation can also be applied to methods that are implemented from an interface.

Someone started using Java 6 and Java 6 features in the project, without updating the pom.xml file to fix this. Grrr.

The fix was to update the configuration of the maven-compiler-plugin to use 1.6 as both the source and the target, rather than 1.5. set my JAVA_HOME to point to Java 1.6 and that was that. I wound up putting the config for maven-compiler-plugin back to 1.5. Which doesnt seem quite right, either, but fixes the UTF-8 error I am getting. Ugh!

<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<source>1.51.61.5</source>
<target>1.51.61.5</target>
<encoding>UTF8</encoding>
<optimize>true</optimize>
</configuration>
</plugin>


My favorite multi desktop solution on XP was multidesk, which was in beta forever and never updated and only available via download.com; I was delighted to find that there is a new version, Multidesk Expert, that works on XP. Shareware, I’m definitely going to send this guy some money.

Multidesk is fast, easy to use, and stays out of the way. No fancy animations, just lots of room to work…

 UPDATE

Completely changed my mind. After about a week, I started getting weird crashes in Multidesk Expert. And by that time, a new version of Vista Virtual Desktop Manager came out that had quicker animations and was more stable.  So hurrah for Vista Virtual, and so long, Multidesk.

I wound up focusing more on content management, integration of design and the backend, and left Javascript to those with the patience to do extensive cross-browser testing and willing to live with the limitations of doing everything on the client side.

I got my first look at what Javascript could really do in 2000 or so (fuzzy on the exact dates) when I came across a service called HalfBrain that had a great Excel-like spreadsheet running in the browser. The only catch was: it only ran in IE5, on Windows.

Now, I could be making this all up–but I’m pretty sure that company closed down, but the developers resurfaced at oddpost, who did a great web-based email client, but, again: IE/Win only. (oddpost is, of course, now Yahoo Mail’s interface.)

But the Javascript folks have kept at it–and now that we have Firefox (and I need to write some time about how great Mozilla is)– and other stable, standards-compliant browsers — it’s enabled the current wave of Javascript development.

Well, I’m a late to the party. (That’s okay, before the party there was a lot of pain. I’d rather be a little late than early.) But it’s a great party, and there’s certainly a lot of enthusiasm and momentum in this space.

Enthusiasm was particularly apparent a six weeks ago when I attended the “Future of Javascript” session sponsored by Mozilla Japan and the Shibuya.js Javascript user’s group. The talk given by John Resig was especially interesting, and made me determined to look closer at JQuery as well.

At any rate–I’ve done work with scriptaculous and prototype in the past year, and am just starting with JQuery. As a technologist, you have to pick and choose what you are going to learn. There’s just too much out there to learn everything.

Well, I’m going to work on learning JQuery.

John’s presentation was not just about JQuery–he laid out the roadmap and opportunities for Javascript the language. Ten years ago, I would have groaned about working with Javascript. But this time, I’m cautiously excited.

I registered the filsa.net domain exactly ten years ago today.

I chose filsa.net because it was short, and when people say my first and last name aloud, they tend to run it together into one word.

This domain has not been especially active over the years–there was certainly more activity in the first 3 years then there has been in the last seven.

Still, filsa.net is more of a symbol of all the work I’ve done since I started doing web work professionally. A milestone, of sorts.

So, ten years. I’ll toast myself, and wish for ten years more. Banzai!

yes, i spent most of saturday afternoon, listening to the rain fall outside while i ground away at a new site design for filsa.net. it’s pretty satisfying to have a mental image of what you want the site to be, and be able to express that design in a few lines of html and a few more lines of css code.

also, you have to love the no-compile instant development cycle for html. edit, save, reload the browser. wha-la! (flourish).

i managed to pick out some great non-commercial for-attribution Creative Common licensed photos on flickr for my banner images. i need to recut the images because i did them as pngs for some reason. but they are great images and add a lot of punch to the design.

but a design is not enough. i got pretty far with a design, but there’s so much more i want to do:

• i want to add interactive elements.
• i want a randomly rotating banner image.
• i want the banner area to be shrinkable.
• i want the home page to have content that toggles on and off.
• and so on.

and then i take a wander through some of my friend’s websites. it’s a truism that you maintain your website more when you are looking for work, or when you think people will come to look at your site. so my friend’s websites are in various stages of development:

brandon has always had the best, richest, deepest personal website of anyone i know. it’s impressive technically, has great content, and has a consistent design and user experience. it’s humbling, how well he knows how to put a site together.

florian has both a great eye for design and an ear for honest conversation. he puts both to good use on fangohr.com.

other friend’s sites are stagnant because they’ve been busy with work or other website projects.

i notice that one of my friends has taken down his personal site. he got a full time gig a few months back, so there’s no need to hang out the shingle, as it were. all his site says now is:

you have been cursed by gypsies!

looking at brandon’s site, i think i might need a heavy duty backend system to help me manage my content. i don’t mind coding a couple pages by hand, but more than 5 or 6, it’s time to use tools to help me out. so i’m evaluating a little content management system called mephisto. i’m pretty sure that it’ll frustrate me in some way–all the cm systems i’ve ever used have had limitations of one sort or another.

it feels good to be developing a website again.

it’s certainly overdue. not that i haven’t been blogging elsewhere, but i’ve always been super reluctant to put myself online and into the conversation. partly because of personality–i’m more interested in listening than telling. partly because of image–there’s the image of the blowhard self-promoting blogger, who feels obligated to bless the world with his opinions.

i’ve been around blogging since, well, for as long as it has been around. (more on that later). i’ve even written some blogging software.

so why start blogging now?

well, i want to be a better writer. apparently doing something consistently, day in and day out, is the only way to improve.

additionally, i want to keep track of my ideas and development. there’s definitely been an evolution in my attitudes towards technology—what it can do, what it can’t do. let’s just say the endless optimism of the early to mid 90’s has worn just a little bit, and an appreciation that technology for it’s own sake isn’t all that interesting.

it will be value to have a written record to point to, both when i’m right and when i’m wrong. and i want that record to be public. turns out, it’s no fun to be right if no one knows it. no fun to be wrong–if there isn’t someone to correct you.

i think i can learn, about myself, and the world i work in, by blogging. being accountable for what i write will force me to be a better researcher, deeper thinker, and clearer communicator.

finally, i want to tell my story. i want to clear the air, set the record straight, explain the world.

you know. as i see it.