Boring History
To blog or not to blog? If you'd asked me that question back in 2005 I would have said, "Who has time for that nonsense?" And I held to that line until I was handed an assignment to write a semester-long Java blog detailing my efforts and discoveries in the process of tackling the projects that were on my plate. I was slightly annoyed, but dutifully complied. Luckily, I already had web space, so I just installed some blogging software, customized it with a geshi plug-in to automatically format and highlight my code, and I was off. I really wondered what the heck I was possibly going to write about. But, as soon as I started coding, I noticed that ideas just popped up. Anytime I did something that I thought was "cool" or out of the ordinary, I blogged about it. Anytime I solved a problem for which I could not Google an answer, I blogged about it. I soon realized, that I was, not only providing information and assistance to others, but I was strengthening my own grasp on topics and providing myself an archive that I could peruse should I ever need those snippets again. Suddenly, writing a blog had a purpose for me. As an homage to David Letterman I named my blog, "Stupid Java Tricks." I thought the title expressed exactly the vibe I wanted: Interesting (hopefully) and eclectic posts/discussions concerning Java that don't take themselves too seriously. Since then the blog has survived being hacked and I've also had to manually move and restructure the database and to a couple of different blogging software apps before finally landing on WordPress. God that was painful, and explains the giant lapse of posts during 2006. But, anyway, here I am. And today I moved my blog to its own domain (http://www.stupidjavatricks.com), which will hopefully clear up any blacklist problems relating to the 2006 hack.

Why I'm posting here
Why not just stick to my external blog? Well, that was my intention when blogs first became available at DIC because they were not very....er...popular. Plus, I like having my own space where, If I decide to, I can place ads or keep it ad free. It's also nice to be able to customize the look-and-feel, including having code syntax highlighting and other goodies that I can plug in at the drop of a hat. But, in recent months DIC blogs have been getting lots more attention, and the main point of blogging is for others to read. So, to that end, I will be posting links to new external posts here in my blog. I may also make more DIC-relevant and miscellaneous posts here that will not be on my external blog (hence the "DIC edition" nomenclature). So, stop on by when you see a new post. Hopefully it will be something that is both helpful and engaging. If it's not, let me know and I'll be sure to give my editor a good bollocking.

So, see you around and happy coding.