That is, until this week.

This week, Netflix announced agreements with CBS and the Disney Channel to stream current shows. For most people, that probably doesn’t mean a lot, but for our family, it’s a pretty big deal. We’re not into Disney as much anymore, but CBS is one of our mainstays because of a number of shows: N3mb3rs, NCIS, CSI, CSI:Miami and CSI:NY. As of today, the majority of the previous seasons are already available for streaming across our Roku. That means as long as I have my Netflix account active and the agreements stay in place, I never need to purchase the DVDs. Now if they could just cut a deal with holders of ST:TNG (good), ST:DS9 (so-so) and ST:Voyager (very good).

Also today at the Streaming Media West confernece in San Jose, the Roku CEO told an audience that they are working to get the box working with ANY content provider in the next few months. Yes, I’ll watch some Hulu on my TV, thank you very much.

The biggest item that caught my eye in the Wired article is that Roku is “We’re going to release the software developer kit, so anyone can publish any channel, and users can access web content on their TVs.” If you aren’t a programmer, you probably could care less. But as a programmer that has been spending a LOT of time recently with the iPhone and Android SDKs, I can tell you that this SDK has me more pumped than any other device right now.

Why?

It’s one thing to get onto someone’s phone. It’s something completely different to get onto their TV. What’s it really going to mean? Check back later after the SDK has been released and I’ll let you know.

For now, if you haven’t purchased a Netflix Player from Roku yet, run, don’t walk. Also, if you have a HDTV, I would recommend purchasing the cable kit for $19.99. It’s a great price for some very good quality cables. Plus, it means I didn’t have to get in the car and drive down to Best Buy or Radio Shack and pay exorbitant prices for cables.

Another note: if you don’t have a NetFlix account yet, wait for the Roku box to arrive before signing up for the NetFlix account. That way you get the full trial period to play with the Roku.

Here’s the links to a number of sites that I mentioned throughout the night:

• SpringFramework.org Documentation
  
• Spring By Example
• Terracotta Platform Support
• Development Environment Setup as prescribed by Matt Raible
• Inversion of Control Containers and the Dependency Injection pattern
• Spring MVC and Security Slides
• Articles from Wheeler Software
• XML Syntax Sugar in Spring 2.0
• Annotated Web MVC Controllers in Spring 2.5
• Unit-testing Spring MVC: It gets even awesomer
• Spring Configuration Refcardz

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me

Here’s hoping something else shows up Friday, but I’m not holding my breath.

Will it have cut and paste? I sure hope so…

For more information on the meeting, visit the Charlote Java User Group site.

Darin Pope

He was covered in tattoos.

He knew Jesus personally.

He knew who he was in God.

He’s one of the best friends that I never got to hang out enough with.

Jeff is part of Deliverance Bible Church in Hurst. If you are looking for a church that will accept you as you are, they are there for you.

ok, probably not. But it is an important day.

Krystal has opened in Fort Worth!

For those of you unfamiliar with the wonderful food known as Krystal, then think of White Castle. If you don’t know what White Castle is, then you need to learn a piece of Americana.

Krystal are wonderful hamburgers that are served on a small dinner roll. You remember, the ones Mom used to make. Add cheese and it’s a small slice of heaven.

Of course, you can’t eat just one. You can buy them by the sackful!

Now, truth be told, Krystal has been in the Metroplex for a while. I’ve frequented the location near High Point Church in Arlington a couple of times. And I’ll probably continue going there after a long day of shopping at Fry’s. But having a location about 15 minutes from the house is going to be nice.

And just think about it: when you are headed downtown to have a nice dinner at Reata or Texas De Brazil, but you know you can’t wait that long to eat, catch a drive through at Krystal and down a couple. Life doesn’t get much better.

• CentOS 4.3
• Subversion
• Trac

No matter what language I’m programming in, that basic setup has saved me time and time again. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting a little more detail on how this setup has helped manage risk and be able to deliver better quality without having to spend the big bucks.

How does the swimming pool figure in? I’m still working on that analogy, but I get to spend more time by the pool now than before. I guess that’s a start.