Normal Eclipse plugins

Sometimes I end up searching my blog for eclipse plugins, but I have a hard time finding them. Here's a quick list of what I have installed or plan to install.

• EclEmma - coverage tool
• Clover - commercial coverage tool
• Checkstyle
• SpringIDE - spring tools
• JBoss tools

As for maven integration, I'm divided if I should do m2eclipse or Eclipse IAM (formally Q4E) since both are now hosted on eclipse.org and look like they both have the potential of being moved into eclipse proper.

Advice is tricky

One of the things that I've just seemed to realize that when people provide advice, it's usually the same course of action that they have already taken. I'm not sure if it's just "I went through it, and this was the right choice so I did it" or if it's "I made a choice (right or wrong), and now cognitive dissonance is kicking in". Maybe it's just the brain tricking itself thinking a random choice was logically thought out (aside: I wish I could find the study that talks about that. I don't think that Magic and the Brain is it, but it's good reading anyways).

What I find more interesting is when people advise you to do something that they did not do. I think that there potentially more useful information in that decision and the discussion that follows. It's like the more valuable things to know on an assignment are the things that you got wrong, rather than correct.

I don't know how to express my anger at the use of flash

I get so freaking frustrated when sites provide content in flash. At best it's clunklier than html, at worse it's unusable. If you're providing data in tables, paragraphs, etc how much more difficult is it to provide it in html??? It means that your tables are so squished because of the data jammed into them I can't make out what value belongs to which column. I can't open features in new tabs, and how sections of their site seem to just hang.

I'm looking at you mazda.

There are places were it's great to use flash (360 degree views), but just because you've got a hammer doesn't mean that everything is a nail. :-(

It would be wonderful if every public facing website had to go through usability testing, and you know, heed the advice. For every flash developer, they should also be made to use their own app on a 28.8 connection while blindfolded and being gnawed on by wild badgers. The last part serves no technical advantage, I just hate the flash that has spewed across the intertubes and feel that someone should incur my wrath.