Update

Friends,

Moving my Blog to Github Pages..

http://basav.github.com

see you there

thnks and rgds,
Basav

Java 7 New Features CookBook - Review

Java 7 New Features CookBook by Richard M. Reese and Jennifer L. Reese is a good read but could have been better. As the name suggests this is a cook book containing recipes describing new Java 7 features.
Java SE 7 (or Java 1.7) was released in July 2011.
Lots of features have been introduced in Java 7 and the authors have covered most of them.

The target audience of this book are experienced Java developers who are familiar with writing programs in Java 5 and beyond and not for newbies to Java. Most of the recipes revolve around I/O i.e. File, Paths , Streams concurrency - which means a previous knowledge of these concepts are essential.

What's good:
The book contains 11 chapters:
covering core language improvements like using String in switch, using the diamond operator for constructor type inference etc,  to various recipes related to Java I/O, to GUI improvements, event handling to JDBC enhancements.
Each recipe follows a standard structure describing how to grasp the concept thru code. It is not necessary to read from start to end, the reader can jump into any recipe and read it.
Also most recipes includes caveats and gotchas which are immensely helpful for the developer.

What could have been improved:
Code examples are very basic. The authors could have taken better interesting examples to illustrate the concepts.
The code blocks are not reader friendly. The font, the formatting etc is sub-standard. This is the crux of the recipe and developers hate to see their code badly formatted.
Examples could have been less repetitive. Seems like the authors were in a hurry to release the book :)

What's missing:
A little bit history on Java versions. This helps readers to refresh the memory and sets some context.
Something on RIA Deployment toolkit, Custom classloaders, Garbage collector etc

Conclusion:
Easy to read and understand. Worth picking up.  Highly recommended for someone who wants most of the new features in Java 7 in one place with code examples.

Thanks for reading..

Java 7 New Features Cookbook

Java has come a long way - from JDK 1.0 in 1996 to Java 7 in 2011. It has been almost a year "Dolphin" has been out with lots of new features.  Oracle hosted a series of events last year showing the power of Java 7 as this was a significant milestone.

Our friends at Packt has come with an good cookbook "Java 7 New Features Cookbook" having 100s of new features explored.  I just got hold a copy of this. Would be reviewing this and posting a blurb on this blog.

If you are curious just like me  - then head over to their site - http://www.packtpub.com/java-7-new-features-cookbook/book and explore the Table of Contents. It looks interesting.

TOGAF 9 - Enterprise Architecture Training - Day 5

Finally TOGAF™ 9 training got completed yesterday - 5 days - information overload :) .

Day 5 covered the remaining modules.

Module 24 - Phase E - Opportunities and Solutions
Module 25 - Phase F - Migration Planning
Module 26 - Phase G - Implementation Goverance
Module 27 - Phase H - Architecture Change Management
(That completest the ADM cycle..but there were few other modules)
Module 28 - ADM Architecture Requirement Management
Module 29 - Architecture Partitioning (Very interesting chapter)
Module 30 - Adapting the ADM : Iteration and Levels
Module 31 - Adapting the ADM : Security (Another interesting one)
Module 32 - Adapting the ADM : SOA
Module 33 - Architecture Maturity Models 
Module 34 - Architecture Skills Framework

It is highly un-likely anybody can master TOGAF™ 9 and it is not expected also. It's a team effort. Wisdom comes over time, age and experience.


Interesting stuff I found:
National Informatics Centre (NIC) is a premiere S & T institution of the Government of India uses TOGAF for its EA. Check the outline of the case study here.
NASCIO security framework  

Volere Requirements Specification Template 

First Order Logic to specify security kind of requirements 

TOGAF™ 9 certification coming up next ..keeping my fingers crossed..

Until next time..

TOGAF 9 - Enterprise Architecture Training - Day 4

It's cruising now..TOGAF 9 is happening and something is getting into my head.
More modules covered and lots of new stuff I discovered today..(the more you know, you realize that the more you don't know)

Module 16 - Phase B - Business Architecture
Module 16A - Phase B - Business Architecture - Catalogs, Matrices and Diagrams
Module 17 - Phase C - Information Systems Architectures - Overview
Module 18 - Phase C - Data Architecture
Module 18A - Phase C - Data Architecture - Catalogs, Matrices and Diagrams
Module 19 - Integrated Infrastructure Reference Model
Module 20 - Phase C - Application Architecture
Module 20A - Phase C - Application Architecture - Catalogs, Matrices and Diagrams
Module 21 - Foundation Architecture
Module 22 - Phase D - Technology Architecture
Module 22A - Phase D - Technology Architecture - Catalogs, Matrices and Diagrams
Module 23 - Migration Planning Techniques

Have learnt some new diagrams, will write later about these.
Until next time..

We all miss you Steve...

I fee very sad typing this on my mac. I woke up today with very sad news to find out that Steve Jobs is no more. I feel so bad- I cannot comprehend how Apple employees and his family might be going thru. People out there who use Apple products kind of feel connected with Steve - some kind of a spiritual connection. He has put his soul into the products, his company.  He devoted his complete professional and creative life to this world by giving out-of-the-world products - revolutionized how information is consumed.

Steve had rightly said - "Death is the destination we all share..."

If I can relate one person in the history with Steve it would be - Leonardo da Vinci. Both were multi talented - be in the field of creativity, design, passion, innovation, vision, foresight..

May his soul rest in peace...

TOGAF 9 - Enterprise Architecture Training - Day 3

It is getting better..keeping in mind last two days, today it was easy to sit thru for 8 long hours for the Day 3 (you kind of get used to this after two days of practice :) )

Some new stuff which I found interesting today.

1. Stakeholder Analysis - analyzing the attitudes of stakeholders and the result of this is a Stakeholder Map. Read more here and here.
2. COBIT - A IT Governance framework
3. ATAM - Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM) is a risk-mitigation process used early in the software development life cycle.
4. Value Chain Diagram- Management mumbo-jumbo :) 

The modules covered today:
Module 9 - Architecture Governance
Module 10 - Business Scenarios
Module 11 - Stakeholder Management 
Module 12 - Views and Viewpoints (something similar like 4+1 views in RUP but more exhaustive )
Module 13 - Building Blocks
Module 14 - Architecture Implementation Techniques
Module 15 - Phase A - Architecture Vision

Tommorow is another early start..
Until next time..

TOGAF 9 - Enterprise Architecture Training - Day 2

This is how I'm feeling after today's session...

The instructor covered 6 modules - 185 MS Powerpoint slides..tooo much

Module - Introduction to the Architecture Development Method
Module - The Enterprise Continuum & Tools
Module - Architecture Repository
Module - Architecture Content Framework
Module - TOGAF Content Metamodel
Module - Preliminary Phase

Some jazzy stuff that I discovered today - TOGAF is an "Enterprise Framework" - which is also a Meta-Architecture framework i.e. "Architecture" of "Architectures"- integration framework that sits above individual architectures..simply too much :)
Key takeaways: 
Helps to think the big picture - Foundation Architecture, Insdustry standard architectures etc etc
Lots of questions asked today (including myself) were from a Solution Architecture background. In EA the focus is much bigger and we have un-learn and get rid of this "baggage".
Four primary iterations - Architecture Context Iteration, Architecture Definition Iteration, Transition Planning Iteration, Architecture Governance Iteration - which lead to EA
much ..much more..
.

until next time..