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One more step in the right direction

I’ve already said countless times how much I like TED. It brings to the web content of astonishing quality. I thought I should let you know about Academic Earth.

Ok, its not really the same. The latter is more about college lectures made available online, like the Openware has been doing for sometime. But this one, does that in a simpler way. It collects lots of great content in one place.

I only complain about the missing comments on the lectures. I can’t get around the idea that a website like this wouldn’t try to create a two-way discussion on the available subjects.

Looking for Zam3D

I’m looking for the trial of Zam3D. Its a great application, that for reasons I don’t know, isn’t available as Trial anymore.

If you know where I can find, please tell me. Or just send over the installer if you have it.

Thanks.

Two way HashMap in Java

I recently had a project in hands were there was the need to use a two way hash map in Java, so I just wanted you to know the alternatives I found.

It shouldn’t be a surprise to you, if you sometimes need a different kind of data structure, that Apache Commons provides this in the Collections component. This library is very useful in this matter. In the current version (3.2.1) they implement a BidiMap class that offers bidirectional access to a map, that assures constant access time for both ways (just like we want) while assuring a 1:1 relation between keys and values.

My problem with this library, is the missing generics support. I’m a programmer that loves the type-safety that generics offers in all kinds of data structures, so I kept searching.

Fortunately, there’s a sourceforge project named Collections that provides just this. Its a branch of the original Apache Commons code, but with generics support.

Its precisely what I’ve been looking.

But, because Google gives me more than 1 result, I found out about Google Collections Library. Its built with the same purpose as apache commons (different and advanced data structures) with built-in support for generics.

I end up using the Google lib, just because its getting more “attention”. The Apache Collections isn’t updated for some months.

Stack Overflow Launches

What a cool new website.

Stack Overflow has been upgraded to public beta. Right now, I would say its going to be a cool resource for programmers.

I been hearing about this project for months mainly from Jeff and Joel (from the team) and this is my first look at it, and I must say it is very well built. I still have my doubts on some features like the badges, but I like a lot some others like the points system where you have more power of editing when you contribute more (Once the system learns to trust you, you’ll be able to edit anything, much like Wikipedia).

The description from the site:

Stack Overflow is a programming Q & A site that’s free. Free to ask questions, free to answer questions, free to read, free to index, built with plain old HTML, no fake rot13 text on the home page, no scammy google-cloaking tactics, no salespeople, no JavaScript windows dropping down in front of the answer asking for $12.95 to go away. You can register if you want to collect karma and win valuable flair that will appear next to your name, but otherwise, it’s just free. And fast. Very, very fast.

Take a look…