I can only hope...

Happy New year all!.. I can only hope.. let there be peace.

Things we take for granted

Late night, and I was finishing off my daily "surfing entertainment". I went on to check on of my favorite mp3 hosting blogs(Don't wanna share the name, sorry) based out of Singapore. The website just refuses to load. I hit refresh and it keeps loading forever. I "what ev"d it and went to sleep.
Today morning I happen to read this news. An earthquake has disrupted Internet connections in Asia. After all these days of my wifi, hi-speed Internet access, I kind of started to take Internet connectivity for granted. This event just reminded me of the bandwidth crunch that we have in public Internet in India. Basic Internet access such as checking yahoo emails used to be a "crawling experience" back in my hometown. Hm!
So, it is time that I took all the comforts that I enjoy a little seriously!?

Java 6 runtime on Ubuntu dapper

As Java SE 1.6 is officially out, I thought of getting JRE 1.6 to be the default in my Ubuntu.
Java 1.6 is super fast with a lot of UI related improvements. So, always good to have.
So, if you want to have it, do the following:
1. Download the *.bin file from sun's dowload location.
http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp
If you are not a "Java dude", just choose to download the "Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 6"

2. Run a terminal session, and goto the folder where jre-6-linux-i586.bin is downloaded.

3. make sure that it is "executable"
chmod +x jre-6-linux-i586.bin

4. Run the installer
sudo ./jre-6-linux-i586.bin

5. This will extract the JRE in to its own folder(called jre1.6.0. Now, put this into appropriate library location

sudo mv jre1.6.0 /usr/lib/jvm

6. Set new JRE as one of the "java alternatives" as (all in one line)
sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/java" "java" "/usr/lib/jvm/jre1.6.0/bin/java" 1

7. Set the new "alternative" as the real java to run (all in one line)
sudo update-alternatives --set java /usr/lib/jvm/jre1.6.0/bin/java

This should print a message - Using `/usr/lib/jvm/jre1.6.0/bin/java' to provide `java'.
We are all set!
Oh and, happy christmas! let there be peace and joy - forever!

Eye candy - second thoughts

After a visit to the apple store last Friday, I decided that I need XGL on my Ubuntu desktop. So I compiled and installed XGL and beryl on dapper. Everything works great, wobbly windows, "dream" effects, desktop cube etc.
On a second thought, I started asking myself "Do you need all these special effects on your computer?" - Well, with XGL/AIGLX Linux seems to stretching things a little too far. Too many "on your face" kind of effects (Which are unstable at times). Things like the "dream" effect on Menus and tool tips are distracting. Thank god, like anything else, beryl is highly configurable. I disabled a lot of settings and running only necessary effects I like:
Drop shadow - Gives a real feel of focus on top most window
Desktop cube - Rarely do I switch desktop, but while I do it, it is fun.
Expose' like effect - I have stopped using the old "alt+tab". Instead, I press F9 or move mouse to a hot-spot corner, and I get tile of all open windows, from which I can chose from.
Everything else, disabled! Here is a screenshot:

Cross platform nightmares

I had to volunteer to support a customized CRM software release the other day. Since it is CRM-call center related software, it had critical time lines for implementation and rollback if anything got messed up.
First of all, I want to vent my anger towards this software that costs a few millions.Its production deployment involves running 1000 different scripts and copying over 1000 different files - stone age kind of way to deal with an Internet age solution.
But the actual nightmare was related to cross platform voes. There was a bunch of SQL scripts that needed to run against a DB2 database. Unfortunately, this database happens to be in a Mainframe computer. For tests, we could always run these scripts from our development PC using any damn client. But due to "processes" this has to be run via a JCL on the mainframe itself. There starts the nightmare.
Mainframe does not like a file which has more than 80 characters in a line- or at least the damn JCL was set up to behave like that. Now, we sit down and format the whole bunch of scripts ( yes, we were too short on time to write a script now) and then "upload" it to in to the Mainframe. The JCL again "Abends". One person informs that the JCL expects 72(what the heck?) characters per line. Well, we go reformat again, and upload it to mainframe "datasets". Hm! oh as I am writing this, I just realized that it was not the Mainframe to be blamed.- I got to change the title of this post.

Long time...

Well, I had been busy..
with what?
Kahlua
vodka martini
Budlight
Merlot
Jack daniels
Jim Beam

Hic!... ;)

Netbeans 5.5 litmus test..

Netbeans 5.5 is fast,responsive and makes best use of desktop real estate.

Netbeans (against Eclipse) .. warning: a bit of rant follows.

I created a new class, added a method and typed something like this

public void litmusTest() throws CustomException {

Red underline appears for "CustomException" - Error, yes accepted.
But where is the option to create "CustomException" on the fly?

In eclipse a bulb appears on the left gray marin, clicking which presents you options to create a "CustomException" class that extends Exception - some additional intelligence going on - and really very useful to a rapid dev. environment. WHERE IS THIS FEATURE IN NETBEANS? I had been looking for something similar across last 2-3 releases.

Another random problem.The File header documentation appears below the import statements by default.

something like ..

import java.io.File;
/*
* NetBeansLitmus.java
*
* Created on November 18, 2006, 2:07 PM
....


I am open to any IDE but I guess nothing wrong in being inclined to one that is more intutive..

Eclipse - better usability than ever

While I was stuck with an old version of WSAD at work, a lot of action had been happening on IDE world.

Netbeans is going to come with version 6.0, on which ton of editor improvements are promised.

Meanwhile, I had been doing my fun stuff on eclipse. I have version 3.2.1, and there are very noticable improvements in simple things as:

the intelligent auto completion/import feature when used for commonly used class as "List" inserts Java instead of alphabetically preferred java.awt.List. Who is using java.awt.List anyway? - way to go.

Somehow, I always liked slickness of swt over swing in case of IDEs. But still, I am waiting to see what netbeans 6.0 has got. The matisse GUI builder in Netbeans was an unprecedented improvement in Java IDE history and it for sure has whet my appetite.

iTunes Copy protection "Cracked"

The breaking news was "iTunes Copy Protection "cracked""
The person who cracked it is none other than DVD Jon
Now, I am wondering what is Apple going to do about this. I haven't read any news about Apples reaction on this yet. But I strongly feel that noone can stop music piracy. If a person can play song on a device, he can create a copy of it by 100 different ways. At the least, he can put the output jack in to a hi-fi stereo recorder and create an excellent copy. Or one can develop programs that will grab data from sound outpt device on your computer and create audio files.
Now if he is free to do that or not is a different question.

Highway of death

Watched the movie Jarhead to night. It is about US marines at first gulf war. Typical Hollywood war movie. But the main theme is disturbing - a soldier (human being) at war just wants to kill something - he and his group is sad and dejected that they didn't get their "kill" - the air force and other military groups stole it from them.Excellent US marine!
The movie has a scene that reminded me of the "Highway of death" - a shameful atrocity that Bush sr. had succeeded in hiding from rest of the world. I remember hearing about that in my college days. Attacking withdrawing troops!! If I say that is animosity, even animals would feel ashamed. Hang your head down in shame you rats! You are not doing any good in Gulf war 2 either.

My Experiment with the "Extreme Swing app"

"The Extreme Swing App is" Aerith

This application for sure showcases the power and features in Java2D in JSDK 1.6.
Setting up this project on Netbeans is very simple, given that you satisfy the dependencies properly. I will write the steps in next blog - assuming someone would read some day.
I tried setting this up in my Ubuntu Dapper with lastest Java and a little old swingx library.

Aerith ran, fetched pictures from my flickr account, but apparently due to bugs in ATI Linux drivers, the "eye candy" did really not work. Hm!

Google code search

Hey! you all lazy programmers....google is here to save your day.
If you search around internet for code, google code search would be a your best tool.
Apparantly, when indexing webpages, google indexes things that looks like source code and makes them available under code search. Good idea and very useful for programmers.

Meh!

Tiger - Java SE 5
Mustang - Java SE 6
Dolphin - Java SE 7

Sun has decided not to use cool animal names anymore !
Whatever! meh!

The Departed

Watched the latest Scorsese flick 'The departed' this weekend.
Man! this movie is a 100% entertainer. A gangster suspense story, with almost everybody in their best form. The movie keeps you drawn till the last scene. I dont want to say too much detail and spoil the suspense. Enjoy it yourself!

Welcome to eye-candy age!

One big trend in user interface world - eye candies! yes, we are no longer interested in green and black screens or flat/chiseled windows. We need action on our application, a little 3D and animation everywhere! because life isn't flat and linear after all! Here are some observations

• From Linux world
• XGL + Compiz
• Gnome 2.16
• Apple OS X and iTunes
• Leopard and bundled cool apps
  
• Latest iTunes
  
• Windows Vista
• Don't know when it will come out, but offers a lot of graphical UI improvements
  
• Java 6
• Better support for open GL, 3D and Font rendering
  
• New age web applications
• Check out web reloaded
  

Apple rules my world!

Though I am a linux fan, nothing compares with Apple when it comes to user experience. Look at the new iPod shuffle and iTunes 7 they have just released!
A perfect example of simple and pleasing design - both in Hardware and software. I just downloaded iTunes 7 and it forces me to go back to windows. Man! what a nifty UI!!! The album art(Cover art) show case view is just out of this world(only OS X matches this). By the way, Romain Guy had a very similar java(swing! yes) application, which did a neat animation with cover arts. Check it out!

JDK 6.0 Fonts and Quaqua Look and Feel

I recently came across this excellent look and feel library. This is called "quaqua" and it is designed for swing applications on OS X. Well, since this is java, you could use the look and feel on M$ Windows or any other java platform as well - but ofcourse, you can't complain if it breaks on your OS because, it was originally designed for OS X. Also, there are legal reasons why you should not use it on your platform(this is what I heard from its author).
However, I patched up the jEdit look and feel plugin to draw my jEdit using Qaqua look and feel. Actually, I did that for quite a few java swing apps that I use frequently. Yes! you heard it right, I use swing applications on my desktop. Here are the screenshots how it looks on my win XP workstation.
Oh! coming to JDK 6.0 (otherwise called the 'mustang'), it has some major face lifts for swing. One thing that will catch your eyes is Sub pixel smoothing or anti-aliasing that it supports. Way to go!

Viewing Malayalam web pages in Ubuntu (or any Linux)

After a long time, I thought of checking out some local news in a newspaper website in my native language - that is Malayalam. I thought Ubuntu - Firefox would show the fonts without any additional effort. But I was wrong. A couple of minutes after googling, I got malayalam pages working for me. So here's what you need to do.

Make sure you have installed "ttf-malayalam-fonts" in your PC.
If not, for ubuntu, do the following

sudo apt-get install ttf-malayalam-fonts

Got Firefox's Tools->Extensions and click on "Get More Extensions" - in the extensions page, search and find "padma" extension.
Or use this link if it works for you :)

Install this extension and re-start firefox. You should be able to see Malayalam pages as shown below:

My First Post in Blogger, a copy from my MSN space

New Google online apps and APIs

Did you notice the new applications available for you through on your google page?

Well, if you haven't, they are giving you google calendar and google spreadsheet along with your gmail. I checked these applications out, and they are pretty cool and powerful. You can even configure alerts on your google calender, that will send messages to your mail or mobile(only verizon). The spreadsheet app is yet another powerful application from google, but I guess some experience with a spreadsheet app is required before really using it.

Now, coming to tech related stuff.

First is gwt - that is google web toolkit. This toolkit is a Java API to write AJAX applications. That means, you do not have to worry about writing bunch of javascript to get cool web widgets to working - such as tables, list boxes, navigation trees etc. Go checkout

Second is the the project hosting space - called google code. This is something in the lines of sourceforge. If you want to host an open source project, say with in 15 minutes, this is the choice. You get a project homepage, issue tracker(bugzilla) and sub version based version control. I guess they are targetting small individual projects unlike huge projects hosted in sourceforge. Go create your project and check in some impressive code, who knows, may be google would hire you.

Good luck!