4 things I read more recently

Yet another list of 4 things I read more recently:

• New Features in Java Server Faces 1.2 - With the release of JDeveloper 11g TP, and its adoption of JSF v1.2, Rakesh Manganellore provides a summary of what new facilities are incorporated into the v1.2.

• What is the history of Structured English Query Language and what is its relationship to SQL? - I've taught SQL courses before, and even teach about good ol' Dr E F Codd to give students a perspective on this whole RDBMS gig, but never knew the history of SQL as separate to the RDBMS. Chris Collins tells us a SQL tale from yester-year.

• Ruby (on Rails) vs the world - Ruby and RoR confused me for sometime as there just didn't seem to be any negative publicity. I'm a solid believer in there is no golden chalice in software development, so I viewed the RoR advocacy with a fairly skeptical eye -- I'm not arguing Ruby or RoR isn't great, but technology is at its best when the marketing remembers to include the "not so good bits". Seems Ruby and RoR has been getting a bit of hard going over more recently from Joel, and in turn a reply from the Oracle AppsLab blog. Reminds me of the Apex vs JDev argument I (accidentally) started sometime back.
  

• The Cyclists - having lived in Melbourne Australia for the last few years, I'm an avid bicycle rider thanks to the hellish car-traffic mess that means travel by car or tram is slower thank bike in the inner city, and backed up in my general interest in all things to do with the environment. On a less serious note this YouTube video made me chuckle and reminded me that cyclists can be a fairly arrogant bunch -- me included (Original post thanks to Treehugger).