James Turner

James Turner, contributing editor for oreilly.com, is a freelance journalist who has written for publications as diverse as the Christian Science Monitor, Processor, Linuxworld Magazine, Developer.com and WIRED Magazine. In addition to his shorter writing, he has also written two books on Java Web Development ("MySQL & JSP Web Applications" and "Struts: Kick Start"). He is the former Senior Editor of LinuxWorld Magazine and Senior Contributing Editor for Linux Today. He has also spent more than 25 years as a software engineer and system administrator, and currently works as a Senior Software Engineer for a company in the Boston area. His past employers have included the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Xerox AI Systems, Solbourne Computer, Interleaf, the Christian Science Monitor and contracting positions at BBN and Fidelity Investments. He is a committer on the Apache Jakarta Struts project and served as the Struts 1.1B3 release manager. He lives in a 200 year old Colonial farmhouse in Derry, NH along with his wife and son. He is an open water diver and instrument-rated private pilot, as well as an avid science fiction fan.

Developing Enterprise iOS Applications Developing Enterprise iOS Applications
by James Turner
December 2011
Print: $24.99
Ebook: $14.99

Great Java Web Programming Great Java Web Programming
by James Turner
December 2009
Video: $59.99

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Upward Mobility: Android for iOS Developers, Part 2

June 18 2013

When we last left our application, it was running on the emulator, but didn’t do much.  This week, we’ll add some more controls to our activity and wire up some functionality. As a reminder, activities are roughly equivalent to view … read more

Upward Mobility: Android for iOS Developers, Part 1

June 10 2013

Like many hardcore iOS developers, I’ve eschewed learning “the other platform” because I was happy in Apple-land. In addition, the few forays I’ve made into Android development seem to show that it was a more complex and difficult platform to … read more

Upward Mobility: Give Your iOS Table Cells Some Class

June 03 2013

UITableView is the meat and potatoes of many iOS UIs, but if you restrict yourself to the off-the-shelf table cell styles, you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities for customization. By using a combination of variable cell heights and a … read more

A Commencement Speech for Graduating 2013 CS Majors

May 28 2013

Graduates, parents, guests, members of the faculty of <%= college.collegeName %>. I am honored today to have the opportunity to speak with you, as you move out of the cloistered environment of higher education, and into “the real world.” Except … read more

Upward Mobility: Special Effects Wizardry

May 20 2013

Most developers aren’t great UI designers (although, as with everything, there are exceptions). But there are a few quick tricks that can dress up an app, even if you don’t eat and breathe Photoshop. Let’s look at a simple iPad … read more

Genomics and Privacy at the Crossroads

May 13 2013

Two weeks ago, I had the privilege to attend the 2013 Genomes, Environments and Traits conference in Boston, as a participant of Harvard Medical School’s Personal Genome Project. Several hundreds of us attended the conference, eager to learn what new breakthroughs might … read more

Upward Mobility: Dump Those iOS Delegates

May 13 2013

Because so much of iOS programming involves the delegate pattern (the UITableViewDelegate being a prime example), it’s natural that when programmers are developing their own classes that need to be able to asynchronously call back to a client class, they … read more

Genomics and Privacy at the Crossroads

May 09 2013

Two weeks ago, I had the privilege to attend the 2013 Genomes, Environments and Traits conference in Boston, as a participant of Harvard Medical School’s Personal Genome Project. Several hundreds of us attended the conference, eager to learn what new breakthroughs might … read more

Upward Mobility: Unit Testing Core Data

May 06 2013

One of the more common issues that arises in creating OCUnit tests in iOS is how to test code that uses Core Data. There are several challenges, but with a little foresight, you can be sailing right along. The first … read more

Upward Mobility: Should there be only one?

April 29 2013

As long as most people can remember, the smartphone space has been a contested one. Before the iPhone became temporarily ubiquitous, RIM and Palm were fighting it out to own the market, and today you have a plethora of platforms … read more

A Day at the 2013 Genomes, Environments and Traits Conference

April 26 2013

The GET (Genomes, Environments and Traits) conference is a confluence of parties interested in the advances being made in human genomes, the measurement of how the environment impacts individuals, and how the two come together to produce traits.  Sponsored by … read more

Agile in Name Only

April 22 2013

In politics, the term RINO is used to refer to a candidate who is “Republican in Name Only,” i.e., claiming the mantle of the party, but not conforming to the platform or belief system. In software development, there’s a similar … read more

Upward Mobility: Automating iOS builds with Jenkins

April 15 2013

One of the pleasant surprises I learned last year at WWDC is that Apple uses Jenkins to automated their iOS app builds. Since we were already using Jenkins to do the same thing at the Day Job, it was a … read more

William Gibson got some of it right

June 25 2012

"Neuromancer," written 28 years ago, predicted a technological wonderland we're still waiting for. But its corporate dystopia is already here. read more

Developer Week in Review: The overhead of insecure infrastructure

June 01 2012

The news is constantly full of companies and organizations falling victim to exploits. Software developers spend a great deal of our time defending against them. But why should they have to bother at all? read more

Developer Week in Review: Oracle's big bet fails to pay off

May 25 2012

Oracle fails to convince a jury that Google owes them big bucks, the annual refresh of Perl has arrived, and FreeBSD says goodbye to an increasingly restrictive GCC license. read more

Developer Week in Review: Java on trial

May 11 2012

Google and Oracle continue to duke it out in court, with more than just Android at risk. One developer uses cat feeders as a way to look at good software, and the PHP developers take a second try at fixing a critical bug. read more

Developer Week in Review: Are APIs intellectual property?

May 04 2012

We look at the legal status of APIs and how the Oracle versus Google suit may be affecting it, along with the relative popularity of languages and the world's worst C programs. read more

Developer Week in Review: Everyone can program?

April 13 2012

Apple is the latest in a long line of entities that want to bring software development to the masses. Here's why that idea, in general, is doomed to fail. read more

Developer Week in Review: When giant corporations collide

April 06 2012

If Microsoft and Linux can kiss and make up, why is Oracle having such a hard time getting along with Google? Elsewhere, a look inside elaborate game cheats. read more

Developer Week in Review: Google I/O's ticket window open and shuts in record time

March 29 2012

Google I/O registration was there and gone so fast you might have missed it if you blinked, Microsoft is sharing more of its code Apache-style, and the leading compiler package in the world celebrates a milestone. read more

Developer Week in Review: The mysterious Google I/O machine

March 22 2012

While we wait to sign up for two of the major conferences of the year, Google has released a brainteaser, Java suffers another security breach, and a new language prepares for takeoff. read more

Developer Week in Review: When game development met Kickstarter

March 15 2012

Crowdsourcing is changing how software development gets funded. It's also driving one of the great reference guides of the 20th century out of print. read more

Developer Week in Review: The new iPad and the big meh

March 08 2012

Apple unveils pretty much what it was expected to unveil, and decides to treat Android as a cash cow rather than an enemy. Meanwhile, the Raspberry Pi is finally out, so let the hacking begin. read more

Developer Week in Review: Flash marginalization continues

February 23 2012

If you use Linux, either start using Chrome as your browser or get ready to give up Flash. A developer faces execution in Iran because of how someone used software he wrote, and the world gets to see what it's like to build iPads and iPhones. read more

Developer Week in Review: NASA says goodbye to big iron

February 16 2012

This week, NASA marked the end of an era, as the last of its big iron is retired. Microsoft continues to signal that its forays into open source are legitimate. And a new open source gaming project has a little extra horse-power, thanks to the fans behind it. read more

Developer Week in Review: A pause to consider patents

February 10 2012

We take a look at two major events that rocked the technology intellectual property wars, centered on a courtroom in Texas and a standards body a continent away. read more

Developer Week in Review: Brother, can you spare $100 billion?

February 02 2012

If you haven't heard that Facebook is going public, I hope you live under a comfortable rock. While you wait for the IPO, brush up your Lua if you run a wiki, just don't leave any empty files lying around. read more

Developer Week in Review: Sometimes, form does need to follow function

January 27 2012

The latest rumors have Apple eyeing the remote control market, but does minimalistic design work for remotes? Australia wants to impose requirements on ISPs, but at what infrastructure cost? And would you let closed-source software keep you alive? read more

Developer Week in Review: Early thoughts on iBooks Author

January 20 2012

It looks like Apple plans to totally disrupt yet another industry, but is that a good thing? Richard Stallman puts free above usability, and Microsoft adds incentives to Visual Studio — but some of them encourage the wrong behaviors. read more

Developer Week in Review: A big moment for Kinect?

January 13 2012

Microsoft thinks the Kinect has a bright future with the PC. Elsewhere, we have a new contender for worst software patent ever, and the mayor of New York City wants to get his geek on. read more

Developer Week in Review: 2012 preview edition

January 05 2012

It's a brand new year, time to look ahead to the stories that will have developers talking in 2012. Mobile will remain a hot topic, the cloud is absorbing everything, and jobs appear to be heading back to the U.S. read more

Developer Year in Review: 2011 Edition

December 22 2011

It's time for our annual look back at the year that was, when mobile ruled the world, HTML5 PWNED Flash, Drupal and Hadoop were the hot buzzwords for your resume, and a new batch of languages tried to become stars. read more

Developer Week in Review: Siri is the talk of the town

November 30 2011

Everyone either wants to be just like Siri or thinks it's (she's?) a waste of time. Stanford expands its free CS curriculum, and JavaScript gains encryption and a JVM implementation. read more

Developer Week in Review: Adobe sends Flex to Apache

November 18 2011

Adobe just gave away Flex, a new single-board computer might dethrone Arduino as the tool of choice for makers, and researchers bring us a step closer to our robotic overlords. read more

Developer Week in Review: Adobe raises the white flag on mobile Flash

November 10 2011

Flash isn't dead, but Adobe is checking into hospice options. Eclipse adds another language to the list of ones almost but not exactly like Java. And how do you find good programmers? Probably not with brainteasers. read more

Developer Week in Review: Adobe raises the white flag on mobile Flash

November 10 2011

Flash isn't dead, but Adobe is checking into hospice options. Eclipse adds another language to the list of ones almost but not exactly like Java. And how do you find good programmers? Probably not with brainteasers. read more

Developer Week in Review: The hijacking of an insulin pump

November 03 2011

If you own an insulin pump, someone out there might have a hack with your name on it. Google decides to make high-volume Maps API users pony up some cash, and the creator of Linux goes after C++. read more

Developer Week in Review: These things always happen in threes

October 26 2011

One of the earliest language pioneers, John McCarthy, passed last week. Elsewhere, one developer admits he's using the GPL to force companies to pay him, and the creator of the "West Wing" is on the short list to write the film version of Steve Jobs' life. read more

Developer Week in Review: Talking to your phone

October 21 2011

This week, we ask if Apple's Siri has more than novelty value, and decide it does. Open Office needs you (or at least your money) to stay afloat, and Google bends to developer pressure and finally adds SQL support to its cloud computing platform. read more

Developer Week in Review: Talking to your phone

October 21 2011

This week, we ask if Apple's Siri has more than novelty value, and decide it does. Open Office needs you (or at least your money) to stay afloat, and Google bends to developer pressure and finally adds SQL support to its cloud computing platform. read more

Developer Week in Review: Two giants fall

October 13 2011

Better late than never, a few thoughts on Steve Jobs. Also, a Unix pioneer leaves us, and Google's dirty laundry is accidentally hung out to dry. read more

Developer Week in Review: Android proves fruitful for Microsoft

September 29 2011

Samsung agrees to pay Microsoft royalties for Android use. Elsewhere, Oracle keeps the SPARC line alive, and the hackability of voting machines is exposed. read more

High voltage music: Behind the scenes with ArcAttack

September 27 2011

ArcAttack creates a maniacal combination of music and mad science that uses half-million-volt Tesla coils to play songs. We caught up with Steve Ward, a recent addition to the ArcAttack crew, at MakerFaire NY and asked him about the technology behind the show. read more

Developer Week in Review: webSOS

September 23 2011

WebOS is going to the great operating system repository in the sky, Oracle finds yet another way to peeve developers, and the UK tries to create a new generation of programmers. read more

Developer Week in Review: HP fires up the TouchPad production line one more time

September 01 2011

The TouchPad's $99 price point proves enticing for consumers and — oddly — HP itself, James Gosling leaves Google, and a possible iPhone 5 leak bears a distinct resemblance to the iPhone 4 leak. read more

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Webcast: Developing Effective OCUnit and UI Automation Testing for iOS
January 11, 2011
The iPhone is a powerful development platform, but can be a difficult one to develop effective testing methodologies for. The OCUnit framework and the UIAutomation framework can allow developers to create unit tests with code coverage, and user ...

Webcast: Open Source Language Roundtable
July 22, 2009
We all have our favorite languages in our tool-belt, but is there a best overall language? If anyone can hash that out, it will be the members of this roundtable discussion, some of the stars of the open source language space. This wide-ranging session...

Webcast: Preparing Enterprise Applications for the iTunes Store
October 05, 2011
For individual developers, getting an application into the iTunes App Store is pretty straightforward, once you know the tricks. For developers working in large companies, there's a number of legal and administrative complexities that can make your...

James Turner