There are several independent services provided by Google. Firstly, Google introduced support for XMPP/Jabber. It can be used for chats inside Google or beyond, since they follow the XMPP standard. In addition Google fostered the development of Jingle and supplied a good implementation for Audio/Video chat, File transfer and other goodies. They also developed a XMPP chat client called GoogleTalk which can be used for communication over Google servers only. Secondly, Google provides the Web Applications they use for GoogleMail/Google+ accounts for use for user domains. They still host the software for the users, but there is a pretty decent level of customization available and you can run the services on your own domains. The classic use case is for example to use Google as a mail service for the entire mail communication. In doing so, instead of user’s mail servers, the Google Mail cluster is responsible for receiving, storing and delivering mails – they support IMAP, POP3, SMTP and in addition provide a Web Application, known from GoogleMail. Since GoogleMail is only an example, the entire platform is called “Google Apps for Your Domain”.

The combination of those things looks like following: for a particular user domain, you can use “Google Apps for Your Domain”. Then you could decide to use GoogleMail for E-Mails and in addition activate Jabber/XMPP for chat. Google promotes their own client (GoogleTalk), but I’m a big fan of comfortable software and have multiple Jabber Accounts, so I use another Jabber Client: psi. Starting some time ago, I could use Jabber only with GoogleTalk, but not with psi, which is very strange, since Google didn’t change the protocol, and psi is a reference implementation of Jabber. In order to shorten up the story, I provide the installation instructions for psi running with account for Google Apps with your Domain:

Setup

• Download psi: Go to psi download page and download the version matching your operating system.
• Register existing account: use username@your-domain as JID and enter talk.google.com as manual server and 5222 as port. Allow transmission of plain text passwords over encrypted connection and encrypt connection when available. At this point, if you never used XMPP or mail services using 3rd-party clients (in contrast to Google’s clients), you could receive the not-authorozed error during login. The reason for that is that Google want you to enter a captcha, as used in the web-based user interface.
• Disable captcha: Goto https://www.google.com/a/[your-domain]/UnlockCaptcha captcha disablement page and log-in for every user you want to use Jabber and provide the captcha.

That’s it. Enjoy Google’s service again.

Zunächst gibt es ja keinen grundsätzlichen Unterschied zwischen Menschen unterschiedlichen Alters. Im Laufe unseren Lebens macht jeder Mensch Erfahrungen, die durch Beobachtung und Bewertung von Handlungen entstehen. Die Bewertungen fallen dabei sowohl positiv als auch negativ aus – beide Teile der Wahrnehmung sind gleich wichtig um unseren Erfahrungshorizont zu erweitern. Wenn die selben Erfahrungen immer wieder gemacht werden, dann verstärken sie sich und es entstehen Werte. Erwachsene haben meistens mehr Erfahrung als Kinder und so ist das Wertesystem eines Erwachsenen meistens ausgeprägt. Das Wertesystem dient uns als Kraftfeld zum Handeln – es beeinflusst unsere Entscheidungen und hat damit einen Einfluss auf unser Verhalten. Diese Kopplung ist nicht kausal – wir können gegen unsere Werte handeln und vor allem kann nicht von Handeln auf Werte geschlossen werden.

Jeder Mensch interagiert durch das Handeln mit seiner Umgebung. Die betroffenen Menschen spiegeln ihre Wahrnehmung und Bewertung zurück in Form von Lob und Kritik. Diese Reflexion entsteht durch die Interpretation einer Beobachtung im eigenen Wertesystem, die anschließend durch die Kommunikation mit anderen Menschen als eine Meinung ausgetauscht wird. Ein Handelnder erhält also eine Rückkopplung zu seinem Handeln – auch diese Erfahrung ist wichtig und formt unser sozial-gesellschaftliches Verständnis.

Fehlt diese Rückkopplung oder fällt diese einseitig aus, führt es zur Verzerrung der Wahrnehmung. Fehlt es an der Kritik, so häufen sich die Erfahrungen, dass jedes Handeln ohne Widerstand angenommen wird, die Stellung der eigenen Meinung wächst. Fehlt es an Lob, so wird jedes eigene Handeln mit der widerständigen Reaktion der Umgebung assoziiert. Zuckerbrot ohne Peitsche, oder Peitsche ohne Zuckerbrot – beides hat eine Konsequenz auf die Bildung unsere Werte. Aus diesem Grund ist es insbesondere wichtig, dass junge Erwachsene oder Kinder das System der Bewertung richtig kennen lernen. Wer in einer reinen Lob-Umgebung aufwächst, hat es später schwer und wird vielleicht sogar überfordert, wenn er mit Kritik konfrontiert wird.

Auch die technische Asymmetrie des Austeilens von Lob und Kritik führt dazu, dass diese Erfahrungen unsere gewohntes Verhalten beeinflussen. Wer mit einem Klick etwas Lobt – tut es eher, als ein Kommentar zu schreiben und die eigene Argumente darzulegen. Wer es dabei noch als Benutzer Nummer 8103 tut, wo schon andere 8102 es schon getan haben, sieht die eigene Handlung als bestätigt an – durch das einfache Anschließen an die anonyme Gruppe der Befürworter füllt man sich dazugehörend, ohne sich mit der Gruppe und vielleicht auch mit dem Thema auseinanderzusetzen. Für den Autor wirkt es natürlich enorm verstärkend, wenn sein Beitrag von 8103 Anderen gelobt wurde. Diese Erfahrungen ermutigen zum weiteren Erstellen von weiteren Beiträgen – egal welchen Inhalts. Die Widerständigkeit der sozialen Umgebung wird durch dieses ausgehüllt. Das Ergebnis ist die Generation von Ja-Sagern, die es weder gelernt hat sich kritisch mit einer Thematik zu beschäftigen, noch auf Meinungen von Anderen zu hören.

Das ist für mich die Erklärung dessen, was bei Facebook stattfindet: die einen Schreiben sinnfreie Beiträge, die wiederum Andere sofort ganz toll finden. Als Ergebnis verblöden sowohl die Einen, als auch die Anderen. Nach Meinung von Sascha Lobo, ist es auch kein zufälliges Nebeneffekt, sondern Teil einer Strategie, die Soziale Netzwerke verfolgen, um die Benutzer an das eigene System zu binden. Mehr dazu hat er in diesem Beitrag erörtert: Warum soziale Netzwerke sich nicht durchsuchen lassen.

• From a technical point of view I didn’t like the user interface. There are too many ways of doing the same. Just take a simple feature like posting a picture… You can post it on a wall, or post it into your pictures and then reference this post from your own wall or a wall of someone else. It is just not implemented well.
• There is a prvacy and traceability aspect. I don’t want my customers to search for facts about me. The facts are mine and I want to control who knows them and who is not supposed to know. Facebook is not a platform I trust my facts, since it is designed to share my private facts with other parties.
• I was bored by poor, brainless, first-idea-came-in-mind posts. I just want to read something with substance, and in 99,999% of Facebook posts there was no substance.
• I hated the notifications and messages. I switched off all email notifications. Even not notified by email, the messages are collected and stored in your personal Facebook inbox. In general, the way notification works in Facebook is very similar to a message sent to wrong mailing list. Did it already happened in your company that you receive a incorrectly sent message and then continue to receive the “I don’t understand….” and “Remove me from the mailing list…” messages several hours, since people send those to the entire mailing list again? In particular, I don’t like broadcast-broadcast mode of communication, since it work only in cases in which all participants write the same and have the same opinion. I believe, that in such case the communication is not required anymore…
• I don’t like the word “Friend” or at least how Facebook define it. In the beginning, there is a collecting phase – people tend to add everyone to the “Friend” list – a classmate, a former co-worker, the wife of a former co-worker which had a red dress on the last corporate event – in general people you don’t know. This list also contains some real Friends – people you spend time with. After some time and tons of spam delivered from people you don’t know you may decide to go to the shrinking phase – delete all the people that are not real friends. On the other hand, you don’t need Facebook to be connected to your friends, but you need it to be connected to those people, who are not your friends! Especially you possibly would be interested in recovering a friendship with someone from the high school if you find out that the person goes to the same parties or concerts as you do. (In fact you again don’t need Facebook for that). So my last phase was anti-friend. I deleted all but my classmates, since I don’t have much contact with them and Facebook was the only way to stay connected. In doing so I ended up in having a Friend list of people I don’t really know anymore.
• People tend to post more stupid things on Facebook than the post over other channels. It is a paradox, but pretty serious “Friends” post a complete nonsense, which is not a problem in general. The problem is that 100 other “Friends” instantly vote for that nonsense. I really think that this is a problem and this problem is a part of the system Facebook. You are just one click away from liking something, but a whole post away from a dislike. This seems to be a general feature of Facebook and an extreme effective way to distribute nonsense.
• And last, but not least, people who use computers only for emailing and Facebook underestimate the privacy feature. They post over their entire life there, spending an incredible amount of time on scrolling through those nonsense messages of others and hitting the like button or leaving a stupid comment. It is addictive, and yes, I know at least five people who should go to a specialist with that problem.

In my opinion, the technology as art should move us forward. You may call me conservative, old-fashioned or just stupid, but there should be some aim in all that communication, picture sharing and messaging. Facebook doesn’t provide this aim – it is a social network for its own (Just compare it to some social network with an aim, like linked.in, FlickR or Xing is).

And finally no, there is no “like” button under this post – just a comment field, empty and waiting for your idea…
(Image taken from here).

In comparison to other Sun Certifications, this one is not focusing on a test of how good you learn the API of a JEE Specification. The theory questions aim to test a general understanding of the JEE technologies, their usage areas and their purpose. There are also some questions testing your understanding of the advantages and caveats of JEE Stack. In general it was not very difficult – I spend several days on preparation and got my 89% (you only need 57% to pass).

The assignment part is pretty interesting. You have to submit a document describing the architecture of the system under development, which contains a set of UML 2 diagrams (class, sequence, deployment, use case). This part is a good excersize for any architect. In addition, you have to identify the main three threats and describe mitigation strategies for them. I found this part interesting, since I noticed that I’m usually not doing it on such level of detail, but judge about the risks based on my own experience. The second and the third parts are evaluated together. You can get at most 160 points and need 114 to pass (71%). I spend almost a week every evening for creation of the assignment and was happy of getting 140 point (87%).

You are among the elite 1% of certified Java professionals who have gone on to achieve the Java Enterprise Architect certification.”

That’s really funny.

At any rate, I enjoyed the preparation time, the exams and I’m glad about the result.

Bei der Einführung von Serviceorientierten Architekturen (SOAs) ist Wiederverwendung nur eines von vielen Zielen, die miteinander um Priorität konkurrieren. Wiederverwendung erreicht man also keinesfalls allein durch die Wahl einer entsprechenden technischen Platt form, sondern nur in Verbindung mit vielen Entscheidungen auf organisatorischer Ebene. In diesem Artikel wollen wir die aus unseren Erfahrungen wichtigsten Vorgehensweisen und Erfolgsfaktoren beschreiben, die bei der Erreichung einer hohen Wiederverwendung innerhalb einer SOA kritisch oder hilfreich sind.

The main idea of the BlackBeltFactory is to create an e-learning platform around computer engineering skills. The site provides so-called courses and workshops: real educational content to different subjects. In order to access the course material, you not only need the account at the site, but should also have a coach, helping you to consume the material. If you get one (I’ll tell you later how this works), you can study the content and solve excersises. On any questions you can contact the coach who is intended to help you, usually via skype or email.

Once you are done with studying – you should test yourself by registering to an exam. An exam is a set of online multiple-choice questions. In order to pass exams, you also require some contribution points. You get contribution points for any kind of community activity: connect you status update with twitter, edit questions, post comments, translate course materials – everything you do for the site and community gives you contribution points. In addition, you can create groups and invite people into them.

Every passed exam gives you some knowlegde points. For a number of knowlegde points earned, you get a belt. Belts have different colors: white, yellow, orange, green, blue, brown and finally black. For the black belt you not only need enough knowlegde points, but also have to be a successful coach for two other students, which means that they have to pass the exams and give you feedback.

After you get a blackbelt, you may offer coaching for money. You give 20$ + 15% of the coaching proce to BlackBeltFactory, but I suppose this is fair enough. The site gives you a possibility to create coaching offers (free or paid) and manage the students, who are looking for the coaches – a real e-learning marketplace.

I had an idea to get the black belt by passing exams of subject I think I’m expert in, without taking all the courses. It turned out, that the exam questions are pretty good – you easily pass the subject you are good in, but you ultimatively fail in subjects where you have knowledge gaps. Another problem you face is the lack of contribution points. For this purpose, there exist a so-called belt track, a series of exams in which passing an exam enables the next one without spending contribution points. The exams are predefined but cover basic Java, OO, XML and Web technolgoies, so I could use the track to achieve the blackbelt quickly.

I like the site because I have the possibility to test my knowledge. The tests are not trivial, but reveales subjects you should deepen. On the other hand the site lives from the contributions. You can do anything – from commenting bad exam question to designing new questions, exams, courses – whatever. I also liked the education part, where you have to teach a Java fundamental course for free. That’s not trivial if a person you teach really starts from scratch, but very interesting and challenging. I also like the fact that you can do a lot without paying money – very good business model.

Sometimes, the site shows strange behaviour, but you can ever finish your work. At some places the site seems to be not following its own styleguide and look&feel, but these are details. I’m a big fan of BlackBeltFactory.

Martin told about the OSGi technology and the usage of it in big projects. He advertised the OSGi module system but also pointed on some pitfalls during design of the architecture. I was a little dissapointed, since it was a kind of entry-level talk, and its main emphasis was to recollect the importance of the service-oriented principle during system design. He pointed out the importance of loosly coupling and implicit dependency which foster maintainability of the system for many years. In the same time the fulfillment ofsuch architectural principles does not come for free.

Jan Köhnlein made a talk on DSLs in general and Xtext 2.0 in particular. The guys from itemis did a nice job in developing Xbase, a new language which can be used inside of the user DSL. For me, it is a huge step towards ubiquitous application of DSLs in software projects. Xbase give the ability to specify behaviour inside of DSLs. It is statically typed, compiles to Java, supports closures and type inference, operator overloading, etc.. – many nice features to use a little more functional programming language features in your DSL. Especially the ability to mix Java Types with Types defined in your DSL in combination with higher-order functions seems very powerfull to me.

Finally, Ralf Ebert made a very decent presentation on Git – the popular distributed versioning system. I am a big fan of Git and use it for many things i develop and saw many different presentation on those – but Ralf’s was the best one. He explained very plastically the difference in usage of Git to other versioning systems like SVN or CVS. He also showed a nice demo by showing some interesting branching and merging scenarios by switching between two users (Alice and Bob) on his machine and developing a simple web application. It was fast, precise and understandable – very nice talk.

The next Nordic Coding is planned for the August 19th, 2011.

More pictures in my FlickR set…