Java EE 5 Performance Management

Performance-related considerations arguably belong to the Art department of software engineering. The JVM itself is a wild beast and complex technology stacks such as J2EE bring even more intertwined stuff to the table. Recently I came across a very interesting book sorting out quite a few important questions in a coherent and mostly vendor-independent way.

Pro Java EE 5 Performance Management and Optimization strives to address the whole J2EE application lifecycle but the real substance is concentrated in part II. A conceptually simple performance tuning methodology (Chapter 6), a nice discussion of both Sun and IBM approaches to garbage collection (Chapter 7) and testing of cluster configurations (Chapter 8) deserve a few hours of reading.

For hard-core R&D folks it might be instructive to skim also the explanation of the four support levels (Chapter 11). This mostly managerial topic demonstrates the way bugs are supposed to travel from a production deployment into our bug-tracking system.

[Online] Life 2.0

After a few months in the vicinity of the place the hi-tech world revolves around my life has reached the point where I am inclined to write again. Which might as well be a bad sign – burning time online is similar to the way the TV set owners wasted their lives in the 20^th century. Aggravated by the fact that the SFBA is not exactly the place with poor outing and career opportunities more deserving one’s attention.

Taking into account all the changes this year it makes sense to start from scratch with a freshly minted new blog. I seriously believe I opened a totally new page in my life and the new perspective could lead to insights of the kind I lacked before. Onward!