10 ways to suck at programming

FinalInt has a "don't do these" article for programmers. You have to check it; it's awesome.

use an online todo list

Using an online todo list is quite practical if you don't like keeping this kind of stuff old fashioned way. If you are a gmail fan like me, I'm sure you'll find "tasks" service of gmail useful. Tasks in gmail is a nice todo list where you can assign due dates to items and where you can keep multiple todo lists. I recommend it to anyone who emails reminders to himself. You can find its link in the left side of the main gmail page just below the "Contacts" link.

use maven on eclipse

Maven is a popular project management tool and it is quite practical to use it on Eclipse with the help of m2eclipse. To install m2eclipse in Eclipse:

1. Help > Install New Software.
   
2. Paste http://m2eclipse.sonatype.org/sites/m2e in "work with:" field and press enter
3. Choose the only component listed under m2eclipse
4. Click next and finish.

Notice that it's a good idea to install JDK so that Eclipse can work with it (instead of JRE) for a fully functional maven. I recommend Karol Zielinski's article for this.

are your passwords weak?

One man's blog contains a very nice article about password weaknesses and tips on building strong passwords. I recommend it to anyone with an interest on using stronger and harder to crack passwords.

op4j - a useful java library

op4j is a cool java library with lots of nice features. Let's hear the definition of op4j from the official website;

It is a Java library aimed at improving quality, semantics, cleanness and readability of Java code, especially auxiliary code like data conversion, structure iteration, filtering, mapping.

These are the features of the library (again, from the website):

• Apply functions on object:
  Including more than 200 predefined functions for data conversion, string handling, calendar operation, math operations, etc...


• Manage structures (arrays, lists, maps and sets), including:
  Easily creating them from their elements (building).
  Modifying them (adding / removing / replacing elements).
  Iterating them, applying functions on each element.
  Transforming them into other structures.


• Execute conditional logic (execute actions depending on conditions).


• Define functions from expressions, for later use (similar to closures).

I recommend the reading of the op4j presentation here for further information.