Yakov's Gas Station

Joel Spolsky Will Buy You a Beer!

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 19:00:00 EDT

My favorite blogger Joel Spolsky by mistake referred the United Kingdom as England. Apparently he felt bad about it and not only publicly apologized, but also offered to buy you a pint of beer. Joel is buying on May 19 in Edinburgh (is this in England?). As a 100% geek, Joel set up a Wiki page so beer drinkers could sign up and discuss this event. His offer did not specifically require you to be an Englishman, so you should use this loophole to your advantage.

Creating a Flashy Monitoring Application

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 11:30:00 EST

Do you know what's the main goal of any gas station owner? To get lots of trucking accounts. Business from small car drivers is worth pennies, and it gets on my nerves to hear them ask again and again, 'Five dollars of regular, please.' Trucks are different. They usually pump in a couple of hundreds of gallons at a time. For instance, here comes a flashy 18-wheeler with a sign 'Software Delivered.' These guys ship reusable open source components around the globe. As a former programmer, I was trying to play it smart by asking why they don't just let people download these components from the Internet? But the smiley truckers (many of whom used to be software developers too) just shrug and tell me that nothing beats personal delivery, plus the tips.

Look Mom, No Application Servers, Look...MOM!

Thu, 13 Apr 2006 09:45:00 EDT

In the unlikely event that you're not familiar with my gas station, you can find my previous essays at http://jdj.sys-con.com/read/category/1142.htm. Recently, I've conducted a small survey among my truck drivers. I asked them just one question: 'What do you think of application servers?' The most popular answer was, 'I don't need no stinkin' application server.' And truck drivers usually know what they're talking about!

Hangover Thoughts About the Web and AJAX

Sun, 25 Dec 2005 09:45:00 EST

Yesterday, we celebrated the birthday of my employee Alex in a fancy Russian restaurant. If you haven't tried it, go there - once. The party started late, and I've never seen such a variety of food on the table at the same time (they call this setup 'bratskaya mogila,' which means 'mass grave'). After five shots of straight vodka, we enjoyed a Broadway-type show, and then more drinks and food. Anyway, this morning the last thing I wanted to do was drive to my gas station.

Web Frameworks and IDE in Java/J2EE

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 13:30:00 EDT

In the first two articles of this series (see http://java.sys-con.com/read/108260.htm and http://java.sys-con.com/read/124664.htm), I started thinking aloud about automating my gas station using various Java-related technologies. This time, I'm trying to figure out what IDE and Web framework to use.

Dealing with Open Source Software

Sat, 01 Oct 2005 18:00:00 EDT

In the first article of this series (see http://java.sys-con.com/read/108260.htm), I 'bought' a gas station with a convenience store and a repair shop and started to think about automating this small business using various Java technologies. This time, I'm getting a crash course on open source software.

Small Business Solutions

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 08:45:00 EDT

Several years ago I was thinking about buying a small gas station in my local town. I went to my friend Gregory Z., a successful businessman in this field, and asked him, 'How do I start a gasoline business?' He gave me simple but wise advice: 'You know nothing about gas, but know a lot about computers. Keep doing what you're doing. Just be a little better than others'.