Andrea's Mobile Porfolio

Motorola Droid is the first Android 2.0 powered phone top hit the market.

Android 2.0 has just been released a couple of days ago, this (to me) means that Motorola has worked side by side with the G-guys to this new OS release, providing test, feedback and integration suggestions.

Even the phone's name gives the impression of Motorola trying to create THE Android phone at its very best.

Here's a DROID video from the guys of Engadget.

One of the few things I didn't like of the Android phones is the Market application. The search engine is quite unefficient and there's no space for screenshots.

Now, the Android guys have improved the Market app that will be upgraded with the upcoming 1.6 version.
New Market will show two application screenshots, and app categories have been imporoved. New categories have been added:

Top Paid
Top Free
Just in

Overall UI look and feel has been improved and polished, the Games and Application macro categories are always visible as a top bar .

Here's a short video by Google with all the new feature of the new Market.

One of the projects I've recently worked on is a plugin for the Netbeans IDE which provides code completion for hAtom keywords, syntax highlight and a validation feature for the Hatom microformat.

I've developed it for the old version 6.1 and the latest one 6.5. As soon as possible, I'll test it on the upcoming Netbeans 6.7.

Since Hatom is an XHTML related microformat, the first release (it's just 0.1 at the moment) can only be used on well formed text/html decuments, and veocity templates (using a workaround). Hope I can add different content type handling (ie: JSPs) soon.

In the last period, I often wondered why - after 9 year spent programming in Java - I should try to get a SCJP certification.

I never thought a multple-choice exam, as difficult as it can be, could replace an extensive experience in many fields of Java programming. And, in fact, it doesn't. If you think to the Java certification, just as a "resume booster" you won't find it very useful, especially if you can prove your experience with a real-world successful experience.

But that's not the point.

The preparation for the exam is, probably, more important than the exam itself. There's always need of refreshing your knowldge, of an API review, of new look to "new" sides of the language you could have underestimated.

In my case, having learnt Java with version 1.2 something, I can see myself as an "old school" programmer; more than that, working for almost five years in the mobile field made me quite expert in string, text and other data manipulation using very limited tools. I truested my experince and I was not very attracted by the new ways of handling that kind of problems.

Taking the Java 6 programmer certification exam foced me to take a very close look to regex, Scanner, formatters and more actual Java APIs for formatting, tokenizing and so on.

The same for generics: there's really more behind them than just using type-safe collections! (a nd some pitfall too...)

And, well, there could be something that you presumed you knew so well, while you didn't :-)

Taking the exam was a great refresher for me: if you prepare it with this spirit you'll surely be satisfied with the results.

Well, as for the exam itself...I can suggest the "usual" book, the Kathy&Bert one, it is like a bible for the programmer's exam. If you score high in the included mock exams and quizzes, you will also score high at the exam, since I feel that the difficulty level was almost the same.
Then, if you have some bucks to spend and you want some more question to practice with, you can also buy the Whizlab tool for certification, who gives you a more faithful exam simulation tool (especially for drag and drop questions).

I will post every now and then some certification tip that may be useful. For now, let me enjoy my Oracle Sun's SCJP paper!