Dear Santa,

I’ve been a good boy all year and I listened to my mom most of the time. I sometimes listened to my boss as well. I did my homework and wrote unit tests for all important classes in my application. I was going to write tests for them all, but the neighbor’s boy only did some for the business layer and the girl next door preferred to do the presentation tier only.

I read some nice articles on continuous integration and unit testing including:

Furthermore, as I promised last year, I finally automated my build and went the extra mile and implemented Continuous Integration with CruiseControl. Well, I got a lil help from “Choosing a Continuous Integration Server”, but that’s really not cheating especially since it helped me better understand what it is what it isn’t. While I was fixing my build, I also decided it was time to replace my old Ant scripts with some shiny, brand-new Maven2 scripts. Everything is working OK now, but I sometimes miss the good old Ant and sometimes Maven2’s plugins do not seem to listen to me.

 

Now, since I’ve been so good and I did everything as promised last year, I want some new and cool toys. First off, I want new plugins for Maven2 for all toys that support Ant, including Macker. Danny was testing it the other day and he said it only plays with Maven 1. I want it in Maven 2 too.

In addition, I want this cool new gadget that will go right into my car’s dashboard and do several good things for me. I do not know that name of this gadget or if it even exists, but you are supposed to know all this, right? So…here is what my toy should do:

  • Help me scout around – something like Magellan or Garmin, whatever…just need to show me directions so I do not get lost every time I go to see my movie in DC…Oh, and by the way most Navigation devices today come loaded with maps, meaning they are not dynamically updated. My navigation device should use a web service to get the latest and coolest restaurants as well as the places that closed just yesterday.
  • Read eBooks – driving around in DC can be very time consuming so why not save time by listening to some very cool stories while on the road? I’ve heard some navigation toys are already doing it, so it should be easy…
  • Play MP3s and support plugging-in other toys such as my iPod, so that I can listen to my beloved Mermaid and the Sheep and Pink Floyd while waiting in traffic…
  • Connect to the internet and check my emails – many Blackberries, Blueberries, Redberries and other berries are already doing this, but why buy and carry another berry? Can it not be integrated into my advanced nav-toy?
  • Read my emails while I am driving. I thought this technology was available ten years ago, how come you never brought anything like it to me, ever? Reading emails while driving to work can save so much time. Oh, and also can it send emails be recognizing my voice and sorting out my accent? This would really rock!
  • While I am connected to the internet, it’d be nice if I can check my CI server to see if everything is still OK. Well…it should be OK, but then again, who knows? I would like to know if some neighbor’s boy broke my build and then also if I can push a button and send a voice mail to that boy or tell his mom that he broke my build?
  • Check my car for any problems – can it check the oil and book my next oil change? This should be doable…oh, and when that “Check Engine” light comes, can my toy send the factory the code and let them fix it?
  • Do airline and hotel reservations
  • Check the weather and do some predictions. Can it combine that with navigation data and show me the least flooded route? Or the least crowded?

Anyway, I do not know how easy will be for you to build this toy, but it’d be really cool if I get it soon. Do not forget the other kids and thank you very much for reading and I am waiting for my presents.

 

Your very truly yours,
Levent Gurses