atomic object
atomic object
a. How did you find Atomic Object?
b. What excites you about the idea of working here?
c. What can you offer that will excite us about working with you?
a. I follow Atomic Object on Twitter, and since being back in Grand Rapids from 2003 to the present, I have been on the look-out for innovative firms, especially those in the software development space. I wrote a recent article on why software innovation is critical to the re-emergence of the Michigan economy. You can see that article on the Grand Rapids Social Diary's web-site, here:
http://www.grandrapidssocialdiary.com/b. I find Atomic Object's posts on Twitter to be informative and inspiring, and so I keep an eye out for projects that the company is involved in to further clients' requirements. I am also aware of the immense focus on providing a well-balanced work environment, with open offices, open source software, and less messy politics that larger companies have to contend with, to be refreshing.
And I love software, everything about it. I love that in digitized form, you can create communities, enhance commerce, and make the world safer, simply by creating better software products. I love Java, and I love Google. I have been a Macintosh user since I was in the 6th grade as my dad was head of the computer science department at Aquinas College, and he always brought home the newest, color Macs for us to use on school projects.
I miss software, and want to get back in to it, through working with a company that makes its living off the quality of its software output. I miss the struggle of deadlines, mixed with creativity, that truly only software development brings. I like to plan, and make project schedules, with deliverables that are realistic, but forward-thinking. In a sense, I couldn't work anywhere else other than a company dedicated to technology to solve problems.
c. I live Google, all of their products. I have an open source project up on Google Code, here:
http://code.google.com/p/astrocloud/wiki/PageNameI also use Google AdWords for my current employer, and all of the Google consumer facing applications. I believe in the cloud computing revolution. I saw Atomic Object's recent foray in to cloud computing with Blue Medora, and immediately thought how it would be great to get the Tivoli management console on Google's App Engine, as well as Amazon's cloud. I have a passion for open standards, that lower the cost of ownership, and therefore, allow companies to save their IT budgets for more advanced initiatives, like building out their web-sites.
I believe in a future with a marketplace of inter-operable software components, most likely built around some version of Java. This would give developers worldwide the ability to charge for their work as micro-payments, every time a component was used in the cloud. I appreciate .Net, and all of Microsoft's back-end software server technologies, such as Visual Studio, BizTalk, and Great Plains. But I believe in open standards more. Google, Oracle, IBM, Red Hat, Apple, and the thousands upon thousands of software shops and customers that have invested in open standards allow me to think that the future of software is limitless. There is truly no economic problem that cannot be overcome with the right code.
Therefore, I am invested in staying up-to-date on the latest software trends. I regularly read the Register, out of the U.K. (http://www.theregister.co.uk/), and follow developer sites, like The ServerSide (http://www.theserverside.com/) and infoQ (http://www.infoq.com/). I tinker with easy to use software tools, that make my on-line experience more productive and more expansive. I don't know what Atomic Object is looking for, outside of software craftspeople, but I would make an energetic project manager that could shepherd major initiatives through the development process. I could research and write the corresponding documentation that goes along with software products. I could become a solid team leader for any number of projects that go on within a software development shop, like AO.
I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to speak with you further about what I have written, and even beyond. Thank you.
5 years of Glassfish
Although I am in the process of advocating for new ownership, I am not going to overlook the tremendous work that has been done by the Glassfish team of product managers and engineers, even though it seems like they ditched product marketing, in favor of developer outreach, they achieved incredible penetration in a saturated marketplace, that most had assumed had solidified around WebSphere, WebLogic, JBoss, and SpringSource. But along came Glassfish, and it upended the economics, as well as the delivery cycle of the Java EE specification, to create a viable contender. It is sad to see it die in the arms of Oracle, but I do not fault, whatsoever, the people behind the project, it is first-rate, it was always honest and open, and though Sun did not know how to quantify their investment in an app server program, dating back to the time I launched Sun ONE Application Server 7. But it is still there, and there is still a sliver of a chance it will survive, it just has to be in the arms of another corporate entity.
I don't know if Google will ever get around to saving it, by giving Oracle their Linux implementation in exchange for controlling interest in the Glassfish properties, but at least it is possible, and at least Oracle has something that Google just may want, or even need. They don't need Sun's servers, they don't need Oracle's database, they may never use the Fusion ERP set, in-house, or as a supported platform for their enterprise push, but Glassfish would give them something to give back to developers, and keep them in the conversation when discussing Enterprise Java, which is not going to die, any time soon. Glassfish after five years introduced the best clustering solution in Shoal, the best ESB solution in JBI, and the best open source system, even considering what JBoss continues to achieve. Its just not in Oracle's interest to keep it around, and therefore, it is time to do a deal.
App Engine is nice, it compliments the cloud story at Google, but its not realistic to expect the myriad of Google enterprise AdWords customers to deploy on the cloud for some time. Its a testing ground, a play that keeps clients in the game as the cloud shakes out what it really wants to be. But by having an app server program, a Google account rep. does not need to say Guice in the face of .Net, they can repeat the extraordinarily successful mantra of Java on the server, and maintain credibility. It gives Oracle a return on investment, even as people continue to blind themselves to the reality that Solaris is dead. No one is coding to it, only legacy apps are reserved for Solaris, everything is on Linux, and with the slow death of Novell, there really is only Red Hat as a supplier, and that is too much control in one vendor's hands, especially if IBM buys Red Hat.
What would an Oracle Linux program look like, if it were given access to Google's version of it in the datacenter? It would immediately remove the need to copy and fork Red Hat, and put the engineering teams of Google and Oracle OS working together, with a combined R&D that would not be matched even if IBM were to buy Red Hat, and it would give Oracle cache, at a time that they desperately need to show something for their inflated Sun acquisition. There does not seem to be much clarity on the hardware strategy, even considering what Fujitsu is saying about Sparc, so Oracle needs something, and they do not need the cost of a second app server program, even if it is the Reference Implementation, so let's do a deal, and get the two heavy weights of Silicon Valley software on the same side of the competitive argument. Glassfish needs a home, and I just don't have the resources to pull off a fork, and Google probably doesn't need the drama that would come with a fork, why not just give Oracle their flavor of Linux, and get an app server in-house.
So, as we celebrate the 5th year of Glassfish's existence, why not give it a second-life, and extend Enterprise Java in to the only competitor in a position to fight proprietary extensions, whether that be from Apple or Microsoft. I know I sound like a broken record, but what would the eco-system look like, if Oracle and Google were to work together on Java: it would provide cross-platform portability between the two vendors, and along with JBoss, there would be three guaranteed platforms to deploy to, and that makes a marketplace. Google does not need to ditch Spring, and IBM would be forced to stay in the standards game, whether or not they buy Red Hat and get JBoss. Its a natural win-win, and all Google has to do is give up their secret sauce on Linux, which actually helps them in the medium-term, as Oracle account reps carry Google Linux in to accounts, and gets Google a place in the enterprise. Follow on that with WebLogic and/or Glassfish, and you have a competitive hedge against anything Microsoft does with .Net. From there a true inter-operable applications marketplace is within reach, and could even extend to Java components, that will be part of the cloud, eventually.
I congratulate all the Sun people, whether employees or not, who contributed to making Glassfish relevant and viable, but now it is time to turn it over to a company that can truly invest in it, and with Google you have an entity with favorable resources to take on .Net on the server, whether thats Great Plains, BizTalk, or Visual Studio. I may be myopic sometimes, but this one makes sense, and it is time for Oracle to get a deal done, and time for Google to get value for their Linux asset, by getting Oracle to sell it. Give Glassfish away, let Google make money off of the account control that they would exert with Glassfish in their arsenal, and let WebLogic get completed with Fusion. I have yet to think of a reason why not to do this, other than Google's historical reluctance to give up their secret sauce, or Oracle's reluctance to have competitors in their markets, but this one makes sense, its a calculated risk, that helps the Enterprise Java developer. Neither Google nor Oracle wants to see Java EE die on the vine, and so by working together, they extend its life and quite possibly counter the coming push by Microsoft to convert enterprises to .Net. Please give me a reason not to do it.
