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One of the most requested features on any site that accepts file submissions is the ability to handle multiple uploads elegantly. The current HTML standard only permits one file upload at a time, which makes transferring a large number of files quite tedious.

This tutorial will show how to painlessly integrate Uploadify and Java using Apache Wicket. You should have at least beginner-level knowledge of Wicket before moving forward, but feel free to dive right in even if you’ve never used Wicket before. (If you haven’t used Wicket before, I can’t suggest it strongly enough for developing stateful Java-based web applications.)

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What do people expect from your brand on the internet?

In the past, companies relied on putting out a solid product or offering a quality service. Their internet presence may have been a little clumsy and unreliable, but customers were willing to forgive a painful online experience. After all, doing business on the internet was something that very few companies were doing perfectly. There was a time when a mediocre online presence was better than no online presence at all.

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Good developers always strive to become better. We spend time searching for the perfect language, the perfect framework, the perfect IDE, the perfect testing tool, the perfect methodology.

Building great software requires all of these things, albeit nothing is perfect. There is no perfect methodology, language, or tool. At times we focus so much on the most complex things that we forget how to do the most simple things, like designing software that people actually enjoy using. In some large organizations it can feel like a single line of code is a million miles away from the person using the application. In some large organizations it can feel like everyone is more interested in delivering projects than applications, meeting targets rather than delivering an amazing user experience.

Good developers always try to deliver amazing software in spite of these obstacles. The perfect methodology for our team may not integrate well with the rest of the organization. The perfect programming language may be unknown to most developers on the team. The perfect architecture may require three months to develop but the deadline is three weeks away. Eventually we discover a harmonious balance between pragmatism and idealism, or we struggle to produce quality software. How does a team who is forced to compromise eventually triumph and deliver software that is reliable, easy to maintain, and a pleasure to use?

Morale.

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A few weeks ago I did what many people dream of doing: I quit my job to become a freelancer.

It wasn’t a rash decision, or an easy one. I started saving up almost a year ago, squirreling away every dollar I could find. After a decade of working in cubicles it felt like the right time to start working in coffee shops.

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Excuse the mess, I’m in the process of migrating from Blogger to Wordpress. Things should be back to normal fairly soon.

Until mid-February, certain links may be broken, pages may not work, the economy may fail, and anarchy may grip the streets.

Buy gold while you still can.