Page O’ Nerds

 I was browsing the net, looking into what Lucene.NET is all about.  Interesting enough, I was awe-struck when I came across the official “Page O’Nerds”!  In fact though it was the most interesting page in the entire apache site because it actually “drew my attention” and had some real content in it other than plain text.

This link brought forth to you from an anti-Java, Oracle, ColdFusion (believe it or not, some places still use it as sad as it is), PHP, Unix, and Apache dude…yes very shallow but true and I’m not afraid to admit it.

You ever wonder why Java, UNIX, and Apache pages are so damn boring and why you get lost so much in them with useless information?  It’s because programmers who stick with this idea that “old school is cool” think that text is amazingly hip.  I think that’s just ridiculous and I get tired of sites that look like they were built in the early 1990s regardless if it’s “just a site about development”.  I just love the old school blue links…well, not really and I think it’s quite annoying to my eyes.  Blue needs to be phased out of nerd pages period…there’s just way too much of it.  Try some new colors besides red, aqua, grey, blue, and yellow people.

I think I almost when blind with the red box on this page.

Look at StackOverflow.com for example.  Yea there may be nerds programming that site, however you’re not going to see any nerdy old school blue there, no way and I respect that.  If I had to code in Java and use Apache, I’d fall asleep looking at their sites.  I don’t care what you say, when you’re looking up stuff on the net for development (whether is documentation, forum, anything) it is nice to have a site that gets you a little more excited than a textbook looking 80s site these days especially when you’re on the net for hours looking stuff up.  How about we go back to black and white TV while we’re at it?

Thumbs up too for sites like jQuery, Codeplex, etc. that actually get you excited about code because their site doesn’t make you drown in black and white text. 

Yes, I am automatically a nerd…simply because I develop…I won’t argue that.  I suppose now you want me to post my picture to prove I’m “cool”; not a fat chance.  However between you and I (cool developers): blue links are just lame no matter what site you’re talking about.  Style those f’ers.  

And to the true “nerd Developers” (yes, architects..who might even be you right now) please get out of your tight blue jeans, puke colored pants, yellow stained shirts, shirts that look like they came from goodwill, unmatched shoes, and thick glasses and live in the today and that includes understanding that black and white terminals, blue links, and a site with just text is no longer acceptable or “cool”.  Have some respect for yourself other than just "I live in a cave”.  Fortunately I dress half way decent and present myself with a pair of shoes, shirt, and pants that “match” on a typical basis.

I’ve said my peace about a few things in general about development here…one being that I think being “nerdy” is not “cool”.  Second being that I don’t understand why we as developers think it’s hip or cool to have a site today with all text and blue links. In other words, it’s getting old people.  And this is the only post you’re gonna see on my site categorized as Java so there’s my contribution.

Is this post lame?  probably.  And you’re definitely entitled to your opinion as well.