Coach Wei

Coach Wei's Blog Here is a question that I have been pondering on and off for quite a while: Why do "cool kids" choose Ruby or PHP to build websites instead of Java? I have to admit that I do not have an answer. Why do I even care? Because I am a Java developer. Like many Java developers, I get along with Java well. Not only the language itself, but the development environments (Eclipse for example), step-by-step debugging helper, wide availability of libraries and code snippets, and the readily accessible information on almost any technical question I may have on Java via Google. Last but not least, I go to JavaOne and see 10,000 people that talk and walk just like me. The other reason that I ponder this question is that  the power of Java is a perfect fit for the areas where websites may need more than markups or scripting, such as middleware logic. PHP and Ruby etc ... (more)

The Culture Root for Web 2.0 and Barrack Obama

Coach Wei's Blog What is the reason for this Obama phenomenon? Why is it happening right now, at this moment of history? Is it because of his eloquent speeches? Is it because people in this country are so tired of the current reality that they want to depart from it as far as possible? Is it because of some of the strategic mistakes that Hilary made? As a web 2.0 guy who blogs on “Direct from Web 2.0”, I did not see this coming. In fact, my preferences were Mitt Romney from the republican side (maybe McCain too) and Hilary Clinton from the democrat side. I think the... (more)

JavaScript Execution Context, Closure, Eval and “this” Keyword

These are a few key concepts of JavaScript language that developers should know: execution context, activation object, variable instantiation, scoping, closure, eval and “this” keyword. Knowing these would help one tremendously in Ajax development. For example, when you write an inner function, you know that you can access the local variables defined in the outer function as if they were defined locally. You can also access the global variables. -Why? How does the host environment resolve such variables? Another example: When you pass arguments to a function, you can access these... (more)

Web 2.0 Re-Examined: Nexaweb's Coach Wei On The Paradigm Shift, Technology Stack and Business Value

The Paradigm Shift, Technology Stack and Business ValueAbstract This essay  re-examines web 2.0 by looking at its technology stack and impact on enterprise computing, in contrast to the common consumer-centric point of view. Categorizing the landscape into Consumer Web 2.0 and Enterprise Web 2.0, the essay establishes a web 2.0 technology stack that forms the foundation of a paradigm shift called “architecture of partition”. In the end, the business impact of web 2.0 technologies on enterprises is presented. Table of ContentWeb 2.0: the State of Confusion What is Web 2... (more)

JavaFX and Rich Internet Applications

Coach Wei's Blog (May 8, 2007) - Quite a few people are asking me what I think of Sun's JavaFX announcement. It is funny and we saw this coming - Who wouldn't anticipate Sun to make some big announcement at JavaOne? People were predicting the announcement is going to be "open sourcing Java" - Oh, no, that was last year :-) It is quite amazing that rich internet application is suddenly getting so much attention. Adobe has been pushing Flash as a platform. Microsoft is pushing .NET via Silverlight, and now  Sun is positioning the Java Platform for RIA via this JavaFX announcement.... (more)