web development with NetBeans IDE larry's blog

Hey there!

To kick off the New Year, I been wanting to change my ways and become somewhat more productive. This is been a New Years resolution every year for the past 8 years I think, but this time I figure I got to do it otherwise there'll be no way to climb out of this pit of sloth I've been slowly digging. So I'm going all in, as they say in the gambling hall (where I don't frequent no more), and am gonna write about my experiences with the stuff I work with on a daily basis.

So without further adoo, I present all friends, and foes, with this here my weblog. And for anyone who might be interested, here's a list of not-so frequently asked questions about the person responsable for this blog:

• Who are you?  I am currently a technological writer and have been, off and on, for software products for about 15 years. I began documenting a stock, shipment and inventory application on a quesadilla farm back in 1993 in New Mexico. Unfortunately, the software didn't work right in the first place, and besides most of the employees did not speak English anyway. When the business eventually collapsed, I packed my belongings and moved to Tijuana where I later opened an Internet cafe and tequila bar with my first wife. I am also working as a free-lance web developer in my spare time.
  
  
• Do you really work for Sun Microsystems?  Well technically speaking, no I don't. I'm a contractor who is currently being outsourced documentation that was already outsourced to the NetBeans OutSource team.
  
  
• So what are NetBeans?  NetBeans is the name given to a free, open source IDE (Integrated Development Environment). An IDE is a big computer application that helps you create web, desktop and mobile applications of your own. You can find more information about it here.
  
  
• Does this blog reflect Sun's policies and stratagies?  Nope. This is all just my own thoughts and opinions related to whatever I'm working on. I'm just one small fish in a big pond, just like you or anyone else. So be adviced: I'm first and foremost a writer, and secondly, a novice developer. So any code you find here, or stuff I do in the IDE is probably not the way an experienced engineer would do things.
  
  
• Do you have a real picture of yourself?  I've got this one, which is 3 years old and was taken in an insurance claims office by my third ex-wife:
  
  
  
  
• Can old dogs really learn new tricks?  At the ripe age of 47 I am living proof. Shortly after starting this job in 2007, I'd harbored beliefs that NetBeans was a type of smartfood that Sun was secretly feeding to its engineers, and if I poked around in the car park level in the basement, I'd eventually find cans of baked beans with NetBeans labels. It only took a few days before I realized: NETBEANS IS NOT FOOD. But they can make you smarter my freind. And it's never too late to learn. The amazing thing about getting to document this technology stuff is that your forced to learn about it! You have to understand how things work and why they do, otherwise the documentation will be crap. So here I am, trying to wrap my head around things like JSTL, databases and data sources, connection pools, servlets, frameworks, and the like.
  
  
• What do you do in your spare time?  I bowl. Also, another New Years resolution is to learn how to cook well. I like good, tasty food. I got a cookbook by Jamie Oliver called "Jamie at Home" which is great for beginners who don't want to be too careful with proportions. I also been visiting Open Source Food to learn about new recipies and see what other fokes out there are doing.