Scala, Java, Unix, MacOS tutorials (page 374)

Perl hash tutorials FAQ: Can you share some Perl hash tutorials, or Perl hash examples?

I've recently written a number of articles about the Perl hash construct (or "Perl array hash"). In an effort to try to organize the Perl hash tutorials I've written, I've created this article to help link them all together.

Perl hash size FAQ: How do I get the size of a hash in Perl?

Short answer: To get the size of a Perl hash (the Perl hash size), use the Perl "keys" function, and assign it to a scalar value, like this:

For anyone making a New Year's resolution of finding a new developer/programming job, here is a collection of links to my "developer jobs" articles that I've written over the last few weeks.

Having learned a lot about PHP and CakePHP lately, I was wondering what the job market looks like for CakePHP developers these days, so I've been poking around various websites lately to see what's going on.

Careerbuilder.com shows a few jobs for CakePHP developers, with salaries in the wide range of $50K to $100K per year. Digging into the descriptions, some of those jobs are actually for Rails developers, PHP developers, and LAMP developers.

During the past year I've worked with all sorts of programming languages, technologies, and frameworks, including Ruby and Rails; Java, Spring, Struts, and JSF; and PHP, CakePHP, and Drupal.

Drupal user login FAQ: How can I test to see if a Drupal user is logged in (authenticated)?

If you’re creating a theme in Drupal, working with an existing Drupal theme, or developing a Drupal module, you may need to know whether a visitor to your Drupal website is currently logged in (an authenticated user), or whether they are not logged in (an anonymous user). Here's how to test to see if a Drupal user is logged in.

Recently I wrote a Perl subroutine tutorial, and a few people (correctly) gave me grief over using the ampersand operator ("&") when calling my Perl subroutines. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, but I think it's important for people to know when they have to use the ampersand operator when calling their subroutines.

It's embarrassing to say how long I've been using GIMP without knowing how to draw a straight line, but ... skipping that story ... here's a quick tutorial on how to draw a straight line with GIMP.

GIMP straight line: Step 1

Step 1 in the process is to have an image you want to draw a straight line on. I'll assume you have a practical image you're working with, but for my purposes, I'll be drawing a straight line in black, on a white canvas. Here's my white canvas:

I just downloaded and installed the Google Chrome beta for Mac OS X, and so far, so sweet. It's quick, and after almost 60 minutes of visiting as many sites as I could, loading up a bunch of tabs, and applying some Google themes, I haven't found any bugs yet.

For anyone interested in web browser statistics -- specifically the people that visit the devdaily.com website -- here's a chart that shows the web browser usage data for the devdaily.com website over the last 30 days (late November through early December, 2009):

I've been digging around in the computer programming job market lately, looking for programming job openings for all sorts of job skills. I started with PHP, LAMP, and CakePHP jobs, then dug into Java developer jobs. Today I took on a more difficult task: Trying to find "Scrum jobs", i.e., jobs related to the Scrum Methodology.

I was a little too busy yesterday to note this, but party-party, the Google Chrome browser is now available in a beta release for Mac OS X.

You can download the beta release of Google Chrome for Mac OS X here.

Chrome for OS X Review

Update: I just finished taking Chrome OS X for a long test drive, and here's my Google Chrome for Mac OS X review.

Perl hash delete FAQ: How do I delete an element (a key/value pair) from a Perl hash? Also, how do I delete multiple Perl hash elements at one time?

A Perl hash delete example - Delete an element by hash key

To delete a Perl hash element, use the Perl "delete" function. The general syntax of the Perl delete function looks like this:

Perl subroutines FAQ - As a developer, when you start working with subroutines in Perl, you'll probably have the same questions I did:

• How do I define a Perl subroutine?
• How do I call a Perl subroutine?
• How do I pass arguments to a Perl subroutine?
• How do I access arguments in a Perl subroutine?
• How do I return a value from a Perl subroutine?

Log4J formatting FAQ: Can you share a Log4J output/logging format example?

Sure. I'll share a Java Log4J format example that I'm pretty happy with.

I've used the following Log4J logging format quite a bit lately, as I've been working on a headless Java app that can be deployed on thousands of computers, and I was looking for a good Log4J format that was easily readable by humans, and also easy to parse by computers. Here's what my Log4J output format look like these days:

MacBook keyboard skins FAQ: Can you recommend some MacBook keyboard skins (MacBook protective keyboard skins)?

I have an old MacBook Pro whose metal finish is wearing off, and I also just bought a new MacBook, so I've been looking into various MacBook accessories lately, specifically MacBook skins, and MacBook cases, covers, shells, and sleeves.

Is it just me, or have the "Apple tablet rumors" been with us for more than a year now? More than two years?

SNL has been making fun of the UPS commercials lately, but I feel like there are many more Apple tablet rumors than there are commercials of the UPS guy with the lady wig.

Maybe it's just me, but I think the Apple tablet rumors are old enough to be in kindergarten by now.

I've worked with Java, JSF, Struts, and the Spring Framework over the last year, so out of curiosity I decided to look for Java programming jobs in these specific markets lately. Here are the results of my "Java developer" job market research, specifically looking at Java programming jobs related to JSF, Struts, and Spring.

MacBook protective cases and shells FAQ: I don't want my new MacBook to get damaged; can you recommend some websites where I can buy MacBook cases, shells, covers, or sleeves?

Still fascinated by MacBook accessories (like MacBook skins and MacBook keyboard protective skins and covers), I just dug around trying to find MacBook protective accessories, including MacBook covers, shells, cases, sleeves, and skins. Here are the early results on my "MacBook protective accessories" research.

I was wondering about the #1 reliability ranking Asus received earlier this year for their netbooks. I've never used one, so I wondered if they were really great, or if the data was skewed because their netbooks were so new.

According to a PC World report, their quality rating took a big nose-dive, and Rescuecom's CEO says it's because their products have been out there for a while now. In March, Asus was #1 on the Rescuecom reliability list, but now their score has taken a swan dive from a high of 972 to the current value of 166.