RapidRed is now open for business. Rather than open up yet another blog within another restricted community, I thought I’d take a little time and carve out my little kingdom where I can be a little more free. Thanks to all at java.net who hosted me for so long. You were good to me and I enjoyed the experience tremendously.
I’ve gotten a whole lot of email over the past year. Here are the top 10 things I learned between my last blog entry and now.
- Books with bj in the title sell better than books without bj in the title. (Objects for OS/2 had neither a b or a j. The truth comes out after all of these years.)
- Don’t ever say Java is dead like COBOL, not like Elvis. I had no idea there were quite so many Elvis fans around.
- You can’t code a real application in four days. You probably can’t even code a real application with a team of four people.
- Writing technical books is a lucrative experience. I’ve been making more money off of Beyond Java than I think I have.
- You can’t make any real money doing Ruby. I’m afraid that the JCP is going to show up and ask me to give it all back.
- Productivity doesn’t matter nearly as much as having “enterprise scalability”.
- The Java language is increasing in popularity, especially in large cities. I really do believe this one. I also believe that the population base of Java developers is shifting east. Way east.
Seriously. The rules are changing. Offshoring is increasing, and development is getting more complex and riskier. All languages must consider these realities. If a new technology or framework helps you deal with these risks, by all means, take advantage.