The SquizLog

Why JavaServer Faces?

"Why would you use JSF?", a curious student asked.

The question was asked in the context of a brief discussion about Struts and JavaServer Faces at the end of a day of focussing on JavaServer Pages and the Servlet API.

We only had a few minutes left so I congratulated the student on his question and deferred it to another day. But it set me thinking. It has been a couple of years since I first delved into JSF and I haven't used it on a serious project since.

One of the stated benefits of JSF is ease of use. Sure, there are tools that enable easy drag and drop style development but that's not the whole story. It's still important to understand the technology behind the tool and I think it's fair to say that there is significant complexity in JSF.

A couple of years ago I had the impression that J2EE developers were in general underwhelmed by JSF. It's now June 2006.

Are you using JSF or intending to? If so, why? If not, why not? (No points for answering "because it's a standard".)

Too Much Sport is Never Enough!

It's early Saturday evening on a long weekend here in wintry weather on the NSW Central Coast. Perfect conditions for armchair sports activities.

As I write this Carlton are threatening to score a huge upset win against West Coast in the AFL. In the third quarter they are well ahead, 81 points to 37, at Subiaco. And tomorrow my beloved Collingwood Magpies tackle the Melbourne Demons in what could be a close tussle. I'm hopeful but not confident due to some recent injuries to the Woods.

The Aussie Rules is just a local fanatical football code.

Tonight the Wallabies take on England in what is being billed as a rematch of the 2003 Rugby World Cup Final. Go the Wallabies!

And of course there is the French Open tennis at Roland Garros in Paris. Will Roger Federer stop Rafael Nadal's unbeaten run on clay in tonight's final?

Plenty of sport already for the armchair enthusiast. But, of course, I haven't yet mentioned the biggest event. The soccer... sorry football. The World Cup of Football has kicked off and tomorrow night the Socceroos open their campaign against Japan, having made the finals for the first time in 32 years. Go the Socceroos!!!

Too much sport? Never!

Update (13/6): What a finish by the Socceroos!

A Test of Patience

Patience. A word that is at the heart of the game of cricket. The first of the "three Ps", Patience, Partnerships and Pressure. In the context of cricket, patience is a word that I usually use when I am coaching players.

However, like many other cricket fans, I am being asked by Cricket Australia to be patient after missing out last Thursday on buying tickets to the upcoming Ashes series. There were many others who experienced similar frustration to me (I tried repeatedly but could not get past the Ticketek "busy" message on the web and their phone number was continually engaged) as widely reported on Friday.

Predictably scalpers are trying to make a killing. But one major source of frustration on Friday was that the numbers didn't add up. The media release from Cricket Australia reported that 71,000 tickets had been sold for Sydney, which included the first four days of the Test Match as well as the Twenty20 International and one dayers. Now the SCG holds over 40,000. So how many tickets had been allocated? How many were left over for the general public on 19th June?

Then I read Will Swanton's article in the paper today and the situation began to become clearer. It would seem that as a consequence of a deal between the SCG Trust and Cricket NSW, the number of tickets allocated for sale to the so-called "Australian Cricket Family" was limited to 9,800 per day of the Test (more about this at Cricinfo). This compounded Cricket Australia's ill-conceived method of selling tickets early to supposedly loyal Aussie cricket fans.

This whole fiasco is most definitely a test of patience. Now I feel doubly dudded.