Greetings from Vermont! We begin this NixMashup with the need for speed to the upcoming Eclipse Conference. The Elementary OS Dock Application gets an upgrade and is available for Ubuntu. We’ve got free Scala books and Gimp (also free) shows its muscle in transforming an elephant to a dinosaur. An in-the-know and articulate developer captures the state of client-side development in 2014, while in 2013, skillset keyword search statistics indicate that Java Developers had a pretty good year on both sides of the app. Our Environment Story describes a real company making real plastic products from carbon pollutants in the air.
Being a recent Eclipse Convert, I didn’t know about the Eclipse Conference coming soon to San Francisco on March 17 to the 20th. The last conference I attended in San Francisco was MacWorld in the mid-nineties. EclipseCon would make an awesome sequel!
Plank Dock is the default desktop docking app in Elementary OS. This post shows you how to install the new 0.5 release in Ubuntu. I’m using it on my Linux Mint laptop and it’s a great light-weight alternative to Cairo-Dock.
Top 5 Free Scala Programming Books for Java Programmers
Good resources for Java Programmers on learning Scala. Some are earlier editions of popular books, but are still valuable. One such earlier edition available for free is Programming in Scala from O’Reilly and co-written by the language’s designer, Martin Odersky.
Java Most In-Demand Tech Skill in 2013
Stack Overflow compiled the most-searched keywords used by companies looking for specific skills in 2013 and found Java scoring highest at 22%. Java was followed by PHP at 11% and C# at 10%. A Dice survey also listed Java as the number-one developer skill sought-after in 2013. Great quote, “What should job seeking developers take from this? Trendy skills and languages may come and go, but employers are still boosting for the classics.”
Transforming an Elephant to a Dinosaur in Gimp
I use Gimp several times a week and after a decade of using Photoshop as a Windows Guy, I’m perfectly happy with Gimp on my sweet Linux desktops. This video shows what Gimp can do in the hands of a talented graphic designer who transforms an image of an elephant to a dinosaur. (I couldn’t find the video anywhere except on Google+. Still gets the point across.)
Tim Bray is a developer who has an insightful perspective on the state of software development in 2014 and a gift to articulate it. Well worth the read if you’re a developer. Great lead-in, “We’re at an inflection point in the practice of constructing software. Our tools are good, our server developers are happy, but when it comes to building client-side software, we really don’t know where we’re going or how to get there.”
Making Plastic Out Of Carbon Pollution
The idea of extracting carbon pollution from the air, storing it, then using it to make plastics sounds fantastic, but it’s exactly what a company called Newlight Technologies is doing. Today. With products expected to appear on shelves soon. Wild, yes, but here’s the kicker. The company hopes that in the process they will also “stabilize and end climate change.”
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Today’s Vermont Photo is provided by NASA Videographer, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.