Live again!

I am back from vacation. When my vacation started weather turned from sunny to rainy. After my return to the office, the sun is back. Must be related to Murphy's Laws.
In my vacation I used the time to increase my knowledge. Well, almost the truth :-) In fact, I spent a lot of time for my sports activities such as running and biking. The rest of the time I was busy because I had to prepare some articles and talks.

• I wrote an article on SCA (Service Component Architecture) and SDO (Service Data Objects). To dig into the details I used the Apache Tuscany M1 implementation for Java. My opinion: SCA and SDO are really cool technologies. They might not be perfect but go into the right direction. In detail, they address composition and modularization aspects of SOA systems as well as ESB issues.
• In addition, I had to dig deeper into .NET 3.0: WCF, (W)WF, WPF, WCS. All these TLAs address really exciting technologies. I am absolutely interested how to combine WCF (Windows Communication Foundation) with SCA.
• Another cool framework I used was Ruby on Rails. I've been a Ruby expert for a long time, but had only very little knowledge about Ruby on Rails. After using it, I am really impressed. This framework proves that a sound language design has a direct impact on what you can build. Same thing with Java and C#: maybe possible, but wouldn't feel natural to developers. It is amazing how fast Ruby on Rails applications can be built.
• I had to prepare and organize the inevitable Web 2.0 track for the next OOP Conference. Web 2.0 is exciting as it combines technologies with advanced user experience. I got Markus Völter for the track and excellent speakers from Google and Microsoft. My talk will introduce the Web 2.0 space.
• For the upcoming JAOO conference I promised a talk on Spring.NET. It is not as powerful and huge as Spring. Nonetheless, it offers a powerful dependency injection container supporting AOP stuff as well as APS.NET, .NET Remoting, Serviced Components, and more. Hopefully, .NET developers will soon recognize the power of IoC Containers which really offers a productivity boost and reduces dependencies on concrete technologies. A wizard for Visual Studio .NET would be great.

As you can easily see, I like playing and experimenting with all these new toys. It helps me in my job but is also great fun. Maybe, this was the only upside of the rainy weather in Munich.