Bliki: PolyglotPersistence

"What all of this means is that if you're working in the enterprise application world, now is the time to start familiarizing yourself with alternative data storage options. This won't be a fast revolution, but I do believe the next decade will see the database thaw progress rapidly."
Bliki: PolyglotPersistence

agreed, but don't think it'll happen in the nearest future.

groovy history

From Groovy creator (wikipedia): "I can honestly say if someone had shown me the Programming in Scala book by Martin Odersky... back in 2003 I'd probably have never created Groovy."

- quite funny, but still my choice is groovy, mainly due to its full interoperability with plain java )

google reader update

yes, freshier and cleaner look and feel, but why did they remove some useful functions as:

1. suggestions when typing channel name for searching in particular subscription
2. collapsing right channel tree bar

?

Coolest RIA: smartgwt or not?

Considering GUI an effective RIA java app based on google app engine or other free java cloud hosting:

1. gwt gui library is very poor, even standart elements like datagrid - you'll have to expand to get simple things working (e.g. try to put image in a cell).
2. extgwt (gwtext) has one of the richest set of elements, but limitations with a license: you'll have to opensource your application if you use extgwt or pay.
3. vaadin - modern framework, but all things are handled on server-side, e.g. even onClick() handler. Extensive amount round-trips (commented details here).
4. jQuery/jQueryUI and other pure js frameworks - will force you programming with html/javascript/css besides java/groovy or what you are using on server-side. Do you know an cool IDE for all of that? )
5. ....
6. SmartGWT - analog extgwt with similar richest set of widgets and components with plain lgpl license (they sell only server-side java implementation)

Seems SmartGWT now is an optimal solution for gwt-based RIA where developer can concentrate on pure business logic w/o writing own datagrids, pagination and tuning html/css for different browsers.