I thought I wasn't very specific in my last post and that left out a lot of really good fingerpointing. Apart from the fact that everything in software can pretty much be blamed on the last guy's mistakes, there're just some things that open source really gets wrong. Open source is literally the asbestos of the dot com boom. Seems like it was a good idea, but just hangs around and causes people damage, and is very expensive to get rid of once in place. Doesn't really do the job, either. Yes, the state of software gets more and more tragic and with people retreating into their own gated communes of drum banging freecoders clamoring that "everyone they know" agrees that Hunkertron on Struts with Rails is the best thing ever.

I'm currently working with Tapestry and Hibernate on BEA WebLogic 8.1 and they all just are totally horrible. Yes, yes, the architecture, design, Tapestry code and Hibernate mapping that whomever agreed to and then pretended to implement on WebLogic are horrible. WebLogic, itself, is fine. True. WebLogic, itself, does nothing except eat memory and produce logfiles. That's a hot business model, btw. The real frustration is that there's a lot of wading through egos, especially with Tapestry, to get to any real understanding. "Buy the book!" No, screw that, it's open sores, I should be able to learn all I want to learn from the internet, not to mention I already "get" Tapestry and had to subject myself to someone elses awful interpretation of how not to make Java suck all the while under the impression that learning a less sucky system will make getting any practical work done. No, it doesn't. Here, let me use the universal language of math to elucidate my point: Sucky Java + Less Sucky Tapestry = 1.5 Suck Units. That's literally 150% more suck than just Java. Get it? Ok, now add in Hibernate, which isn't so sucky a concept but it's use is ultimately unhelpful because it's just playing with shiny new toys. It's like renting an Elise when in Europe. I don't live in Europe and that's probably the only time I'd drive an Elise. Fun, enjoy the experience, but impractical. Sad, when Hibernate's supposed to make things more practical. Add a heaping helping of idiots asking stupid questions and self-important know it alls on the mailing list and you've got exactly what open source is: an excuse to surf the web at work and get paid for it. "I can't find the answer to this problem, it's totally not my fault! Did you see that hat Camilla was wearing! What a trollop."

"But [you're learning]/[you know] so much!" Sure, my brain is strong like bull and I know as much as ten men. Ten browner more Indian men than I, all making, oh, about a 1/10 of what I make. Next up: Implementing Stupid Peoples' Ideas.