JetBrains’ Dmitry Jemerov on Scala
I can rave about JetBrains' IntelliJ IDEA until the cows come home - it is simply a superbly executed and very well focused product. What I found especially interesting is the following quote on Scala becoming a dominant language for the JVM:
I don't believe that, however: Scala is very complicated, it's tricky, and has a lot of surprises and edge-cases. I would say that Scala is at least as complicated as C++, and with C++ you need a hundred-page style guide before you even start writing C++ code, otherwise you'll end up writing C++ code that nobody will understand.
Scala gives an impression of great elegance and simplicity at first glance but the same goes for Perl as well. The one feature of Scala I really like is the language-level support for traits which allow reusing multiple concrete implementations similarly to multiple inheritance, but with fewer gotchas.
Via Artima: JetBrains' Dmitry Jemerov on IntelliJ 8, Flex, and Scala.
SABS Files Official Complaint About OOXML Approval Process
The South African national standards body has become the first to file a complaint with ISO about the fast-tracked OOXML voting process, despite numerous outstanding issues. This is obviously great news and hopefully more will follow.
South Africa launches formal objection at OOXML | The Register
Epson Stylus Photo R2880
The A3 prosumer photo printer I've been waiting for is officially on its way - the Epson Stylus Photo R2880. But, annoyingly, the press release fails to mention anything about addressing its predecessor's main drawback of being unable to carry glossy and matt black inks at the same time (mandating expensive flushing every time you change paper types). Argh...
Update: The printer does indeed still require you to flush expensive ink every time you swap blacks. On the positive side it sounds like this may be the best prosumer photo printer yet: Photo-i.co.uk review. With several baryta papers available for inkjets, maybe matt black vs photo black simply isn't an issue anymore?
sudo read this article
Cool article about xkcd in the New York Times: This Is Funny Only if You Know Unix.
Donald Knuth Interview
I came across this fascinating Donald Knuth interview via Artima. A couple of snippets to pique your interest, one on the subject of open source software:
[...] I think that a few programs, such as Adobe Photoshop, will always be superior to competitors like the Gimp—for some reason, I really don’t know why! I’m quite willing to pay good money for really good software [...]
And his opinon of reuse, with which I wholeheartedly agree:
I also must confess to a strong bias against the fashion for reusable code. To me, "re-editable code" is much, much better than an untouchable black box or toolkit. I could go on and on about this. If you’re totally convinced that reusable code is wonderful, I probably won’t be able to sway you anyway, but you’ll never convince me that reusable code isn’t mostly a menace.
Other interesting topics he touches on include multi-core processor architectures and XP. Happy reading!
Fresh Xbox 360 Blu-ray Rumors
Various news sites have been reporting on new information about a possible Blu-ray console from Microsoft. Quote from Tom's Hardware (my emphasis):
The PS3 had the ability to draw both gamers and audio/video enthusiast, and this was proving to be a major advantage over its XBOX rival. It is estimated that 85% of Blu-ray players in use are PS3s.
Many expected the death of HD-DVD would trigger a growth in Blu-ray hardware sales. However, to the dismay of the industry, acceptance and adoption of Blu-ray has been dismal.
In a previous post I speculated that it is unlikely for the Xbox to get a Blu-ray add-on. But the recent spike in PS3 sales might have convinced Microsoft to update their optical drives.
The trouble with Blu-ray right now is that it is still of marginal benefit to the majority of consumers out there, thus prices of both hardware and software (well, physical media really) will remain high for some time. The only serious buyers right now are the home theater enthusiasts and Microsoft will have to address quite a few issues to please this group of people.
The biggest issue with the current Xbox 360 in the context of home theater is the amount of noise generated. A transition to a newer chip fabrication process could do a lot to reduce the need for active cooling; a potential Blu-ray transport mechanism would also have to be quieter than the current DVD drives. Another issue I see with the HT crowd is the Xbox remote - it is nowhere near as slick as the Sony Blu-ray remote. And that's before we even consider the substantially bigger pull of the Sony brand when it comes to home electronics.
It remains to be seen whether the entire range will be updated or if only a high-end model will get the Blu-ray treatment. Xbox 360 games are released on regular DVD, so I suspect Microsoft will want to keep their price advantage at the low end and stick to DVD drives for the Arcade/Core consoles.
The big question, is are there enough HD afficionados out there who have been holding out for a Blu-ray Xbox that don't already have a PS3? (Or at least would be keen to trade their existing 360 for a Blu-ray model?)
Update: Taiwanese trade press reports on an updated 65nm Xbox GPU being manufactured on behalf of Microsoft. With last year's 65nm CPU revision, this should finally make the Xbox 360 a cooler (and hopefully quieter) beast.
Chase Jarvis Doesn’t Use a Light Meter
I am glad at least one pro agrees with me in that in the age of digital cameras and instant histograms, light meters are basically redundant. Also, check out this amazing Dubai shot (also via Chase's blog):
Useful Reading for Game Developers
Established game studios' staff as well as would-be game developers should check out The 7 Commandments All Video Games Should Obey over at Cracked.com. Commandments #5 and #6 sum up everything that is wrong with Assassin's Creed, but it's #7 - be playable with real friends in the same room as you - that I wish more games paid attention to. Even among the few games that do offer split screen, too many manage to get it so horribly wrong it's worth asking why they bothered in the first place. Just look at the various G.R.A.W. and Rainbow 6: Vegas titles - Ubisoft devs should sit down and play Halo 3 and Gears of War end to end with a buddy to see where the bar is at.
Uncle Bob’s upcoming book: Clean Code
Awesome - finally something to bash people on the head with when they write ugly code! 
(Ok, the "code smells" from Refactoring are a good start too but this seems more pedagogic in nature.) There are a lot of technical books out there, but few focus on good general practices. One of my favourites is Effective Java by Joshua Bloch, but it's focus is slightly more architectural and less on day-to-day coding. I love Bob Martin's writing so I didn't have to look long at the table of contents to order my copy as soon as it's available!
Office Open XML Standardised; Does It Matter Anymore?
Many might wish that this was a bad April Fools joke, but Microsoft has at last managed to push OOXML through as an ISO standard. The New York Times reports that an overwhelming majority of voters supported the notion with only 10 countries' standards bodies voting against (Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Ecuador, India, Iran, New Zealand, South Africa, and Venezuela).
The main problem with OOXML is that it is a hugely complicated specification (the document is nearly 10 times bigger than ODF and there are doubts as to whether it is complete); aside from the fact that it is riddled with bugs, legacy workarounds and potential patent traps for competitors, not even Microsoft currently ships a working implementation of the standard. So it is hard to imagine anyone writing new OOXML-compatible software just for the fun of it.
As Joel Spolsky explains, the reason why Microsoft's binary Office formats are so complicated to start with is that they are just binary serialized forms of Microsoft's proprietary OLE object model. The OOXML standard describes how to store the same structures but this time serialized in XML instead. Sometimes a fresh start is the best course of action.
The benefit of open interfaces in computer systems is much the same the same as in real life. Take the common electrical plug for instance - it allows for a multitude of devices to be plugged into a multitude of sockets to draw power. You can be fairly certain that any one device will operate correctly plugged into any one of the vast numbers of sockets out there. And this is where the plug analogy becomes relevant - your valuable data becomes locked in, and only available via Microsoft's proprietary and commercial sockets.
From a developer's point of view, I think the standard is largely irrelevant. There are few incentives to support the format besides the creation of conversion tools. Simplicity has always been key in ICT and there is no reason to select OOXML in places where previously a custom format might have been used.
The danger of having OOXML accepted as an ISO standard is that Microsoft can and will use it as an argument in favor of selling Office into governments and companies concerned about the portability of their data. Of course in practice, with Microsoft being the only supplier of OOXML tools, the data is no better off than it was stored in their undocumented binary formats. Undoubtedly, Microsoft will also try to use its new-found standards compliance as a defense against monopoly accusations.