Yakov Fain

There are a number of developers that know some programming language, but adding Java and Java EE (formerly J2EE) to their resumes could increase their chances to find a better paid jobs. For example, I'm dealing with lots of Adobe Flex developers, and about half of them have no ... (more)

Java.net published a well-written article by Markus Karg titled "Release late, release rarely".  The author doesn’t like that the quality of the software goes down the drain.  He blames outsourcing and suggests hiring a small group of well-paid experts, which would be place... (more)

Back in the nineties, I was helping Russian immigrants living in the greater New York area to acquire the right skills and become software developers. Majority of the immigrants had Bachelor or Masters degrees in disciplines not related to IT. But high motivation to get an intere... (more)

Today Russian Prime Minister Putin ordered all federal workers and all governing structures to start moving to Linux and open source software. Someone has convinced Putin that using Linux and open source software saves money. In the long run it may, but for the next several years... (more)

One blogger wrote the following,  “The startup time (on my crappy laptop) of the latest JBoss application server is only 28 seconds”.  I’m not going to talk about JBoss here though. I didn’t like “on my crappy laptop” part.  I don’t know ... (more)

Earlier this year a new conference for Flash/Flex developers has been born. The father of this event is Elad Elrom, but it’s not clear who’s the mother. Actually, in the software world people are accustomed to single parents – Father of Java, Father of AJAX, Fat... (more)

First, there was One Tier, and it was good. Back in the eighties, there was one mainframe and users’ dumb terminals were connecting this one and only Big Iron. These 3270 terminals were called dumb because they had only a keyboard and a monitor. No CPU. It was simply an I/O devic... (more)

This morning I went to Amazon Web site to order the book “The good man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ”. The book is available in paperback ($10.17), in hardcover ($16.32) and in Kindle edition ($8.74).  Recently I got the Kindle as a gift so started thinking if I shou... (more)

This morning I went to Amazon Web site to order the book “The good man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ”. The book is available in paperback ($10.17), in hardcover ($16.32) and in Kindle edition ($8.74).  Recently I got the Kindle as a gift so started thinking if I shou... (more)

There are many ways to have various software components to communicate in Java EE enterprise architecture.  The same is applicable for integrating rich Internet Applications written in Adobe Flex and Java EE systems. Let’s consider the following scenario: An application A is bei... (more)

Earlier this year, in an interview for Oracle, I made a statement defending hacking. Yesterday, I found a thread on theserverside.com where java developers were sharing their view on the subject. In this blog I’ll take the same two quotes that ignited some arguments and will try ... (more)

Apache Software Foundation left the JCP Executive Committee. This step caused turmoil in the Java community. Java developers started take sides. How do you take sides these days? You twit, you blog, you facebook. Some die hard folks sent emails. Why won’t I take a side too? But ... (more)

I spent a day today attending Adobe and RIM (producer of all-over-the-place Blackberry) seminar about developing software for the upcoming Playbook tablet.  If you haven’t heard about the Playbook yet, it’s a 7” dual-core 1Ghz machine with 1Gb of RAM, two video cameras, and multi... (more)

Unfortunately, I had to demonstrate how to install JDK SE 6 under Windows. I needed it for the book. After spending an hour trying, I decided to take a break and recorded a screencast showing how a process that had to be a one-click deal was responding to my attempts to install O... (more)

Most of the innovations in software come from the USA. The best software products are created in the US. The most popular social networks were invented in the US.  Harvard’s most popular course is “How to be Happy”. So what? Everyone has some form of depressio... (more)

During the last six months I had a pet project for Wiley Publishing. I’ve been writing a new Java tutorial, which teaches Java programming in a little bit different style than traditional books. The title of the book: "Java Programming 24-Hour Trainer", and I can almost hear the ... (more)

 I've submitted the following hands-on workshop proposal to the Flash And The City conference: "Java for Blondes In Java community, Flashers are considered second league. While Java developers build highly-available scalable multi-threaded systems for Wall Street, Flashers are ... (more)

A good mix of practitioners and Adobe Evangelists will be presenting on various topics related to using Adobe Flex in the real-world projects. Farata Systems will be represented by Victor Rasputnis and myself. Hope to see you there. Victor will show you how to generate complete ... (more)

I'll be teaching a hands-on Java/Java EE class in December in New York City. If you know any other programming language, this may become your chance to jump into the enterprise Java development. It won't be easy to get from zero to hero in just five days, but it's doable with the... (more)

In my 2-year old MacBook Pro the trackpad stopped working. Well, it works when I’m on the ground, but when I’m up in the air (on the board of any aircraft) it stops working.  Smart me decided to purchase the new toy from Apple – the magic trackpad . Proud of my ... (more)