A .Net wrapper for the Ehcache server REST interface June 19, 2010
Posted by James Webster in : software, development, dotnet , 1 comment so farI have been working on a .Net wrapper around the REST interface exposed by Ehcache.
From the FEATURES section of the project README:
- An implementation of the non-generic System.Collections.IDictionary interface in AgileWallaby.Ehcache.EhcacheServerDictionary.
- An extension of the new System.Runtime.Caching.ObjectCache class, AgileWallaby.Ehcache.EhcacheServerCache that has been introduced in the .Net 4.0 platform. However I was hoping that this API would be the same as that implemented by the new AppFabric caching service (formerly known as ‘Velocity’) a la the Java platform’s JCache API however it appears they are different.
Code (no binaries at present) is currently available in this GitHub repository although it is a work-in-progress, hoping to sort out serialization of generic type parameters to/from XML & JSON and Silverlight support soon.
Australian equity markets get a whiff of competition at last? April 5, 2010
Posted by James Webster in : finance , add a commentI’ve not blogged much at all lately, and much less so about the issue of competition in Australian equity markets. However with the news that Financial Services Minister Chris Bowen has given ‘in principle’ support to Chi-X’s application for an Australian Markets License we might see some movement sooner rather than later. More from The Australian and Finextra. The AFR has a good article about this too… alas its behind a paywall.
This all first kicked off in 2007… then the GFC/credit crunch came along and adding a competition angle to markets that were in freefall was clearly off the agenda!
Now that it is ‘game on’ again, it will largely be how quickly ASIC can take on the market supervision role formerly played by the ASX that determines how soon Chi-X goes live. At least their technology is getting in place; they are adopting SMARTS‘ platform for market surveillance, a number of former colleagues of mine work there so that bit at least is in good hands!
There is also the issue of Chi-X and ASX coming to an agreement on the fee to be paid for access to ASX’s clearing & settlement network… possibly a separation of ASX Austraclear from the market side of ASX might be on the agenda in the future. Or possibly not; successive Australian governments (of both flavours) have failed to address the issue of Telstra’s conflicting roles as both wholesaler and retailer with serious break-up talk so addressing these sort of monopolistic issues is not a hot issue.
Scott Riley of the Clearing and Settlement blog also has some links on the matter.
Interestingly AXE ECN, the first proposed alternative to ASX, appears to have gone quiet.
Amazon Kindle DX January 7, 2010
Posted by James Webster in : gadgets , 5 commentsNow that the Amazon Kindle DX (the 9″ version of the Kindle originally targeted at students, newspaper readers) is now available in an international edition, I have had cause to think again about purchasing an e-reader.
I blogged a little about e-readers in the past but I have yet to jump into the market myself.
With the Kindle DX shortly being shipped to Australia however, I may put my money where my mouth is.
Whilst I like the smaller e-readers that now appear to be abundantly available the sort of e-reading I want to do lends itself to a larger screen. I have a number of books downloaded via O’Reilly Safari monthly download tokens; these are generally technical/programming books and are available in PDF format (although I have recently noticed Safari now lets you download certain whole books in PDF, epub or Kindle’s Mobipocket format; but O’Reilly published titles only at the moment). Kaplan Professional, with whom I am studying a Masters of Applied Finance, has also started making their study notes available in PDF (which saves me from scanning and OCR’ing them myself via my ScanSnap).
PDF documents don’t reflow so attempting to view any of this content on a smaller screen (including the regular Kindle which recently gained PDF format support) would be an exercise in futility. Hence my desire for a larger screen e-reader.
The number of large format e-readers available is still very small. This list on Wikipedia shows only the Amazon Kindle DX and a couple of models from iRex. I’ve followed the evolution of the iRex products and they have had some quality-control issues from my time lurking on the iRex forum.
The elephant in the room is the mythical Apple tablet. Rumour is hot that by the end of this month Apple will have revealed its 10″ tablet, the ‘iSlate’, which will revolutionize the consumption of media. Or something like that. Despite being an Apple fan I will remain skeptical that this device will be suitable as an e-reader unless it incorporates some sort of dual e-ink/LCD display technology… my eyes don’t want to read lengthy text on a bright backlit LCD screen.
Various other consortiums of publishers have been proposing to build their own e-readers which may or may not be open, large format or otherwise functional. So the Amazon Kindle DX just might be where I jump into the e-reader world.
However, I have my reservations, some of which are echoed in Sean Carmody’s excellent post about the Kindle in Australia on his Stubborn Mule blog:
- I believe that Amazon has not yet established in Australia a servicing capability for Kindles that breakdown. Any required repairs either in or out of warranty will require it to be shipped back to the US.
Australia’s antiquated publishing laws surrounding parallel imports mean that the content available in to the Australian region is significantly smaller than that available overseas. However I still have a bank card with a UK billing address and it appears that this is sufficient to purchase books available in the UK region… although this maybe more faffing about than I can put up with. - What is AT&T Global Wireless coverage like in Australia? Which local mobile network operator do they piggyback on? (hang on, it looks like there is a coverage map)
- The e-book format war: Although the Kindle DX has excellent PDF rendering, it does not support the epub standard, preferring its own Mobipocket format. It would seem unlikely that Amazon would ever add epub support to the Kindle range.
- Are local news outlets going to be publishing via the Kindle store, or in Kindle format? (eg. Crikey, the AFR, etc). According Stubborn Mule, they may have been turned off by the high percentage of sales revenue that Amazon demands from publisher’s pushing content to the Kindle platform. At the very least I can use a desktop application to scrape these sites for content, convert and sync; perhaps Calibre?
- Kindle purchases are made in USD. Although the AUD is quite strong at the moment, most Australian credit card companies tend to charge fees plus an FX spread you could drive a truck through on foreign currency transactions. It would be great if Amazon opens online Kindle stores ‘around the world’ that bill in local currency especially since they are restricting the available titles to what they have rights to sell in digital format in any region.
Given CES is about to kick-off and Apple’s rumoured event to launch the tablet is at the end of the month I think I will cool my heels for the moment, and hopefully I will have a bit more clarity at the beginning of February about my e-reader purchase decision!