Leopard - No Java 6

So, I went, stood in line, got T-Shirt and checked out the latest and greatest OS X - Leopard at the Providence Apple store.

Ran a terminal and typed java -version.

Sad, but true, it returned version 1.5.

The java in OS X is officially still at 5, and no idea when apple will release Java 6. Btw, leopard looks way cool and pretty fast just like Tiger.

More to Awesomeness!!!!!!!

Came across http://www.goowy.com accidentally during a Google search and I was totally taken in!! This is an "on-line desktop", your own personal computer over the internet. They call it a "Web Top".
The user interface is so cool that it can compete with any modern desktop environments. The beauty is that you have all your apps - mail, calendar, chat, widgets of interest available on an online deskop no matter where or from what you are accessing it. Here is a screenshot from Firefox.

This can not be considered as a blog. But however, I wanted to record this somewhere so that it gets picked up by search engines and provides a useful clue to a developer struggling with setting up IBM DB2 CLI (TYPE 2) JDBC XA Connection pool.
Scenario:
Setting up an XA Connection pool with "COM.ibm.db2.jdbc.DB2XADataSource"
Database server on remote host. You have IBM DB2 client installed.

Exception:
DB2 DSRA8100E: Unable to get a XAConnection from the DataSource
Root Exception:
[IBM][CLI Driver] SQL1032N No start database manager command was issued. SQLSTATE=57019

If you got this error, got to your command prompt and issue "DB2START" command.
This is a hidden action associated with CLI drivers to work. Hm!

Apple to Ship Mac OS X Leopard on October 26

A follow up on my previous post. Story here:
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/10/16leopard.html

Where is leopard?

Where is Apple's new version of OS X? Its been a while since I heard anything about it and I eagerly check my regular Mac web resources for any updates. Looks like Apple is getting it ready - as per the last announcement, its release has to happen somewhere this month. 

No signs, whatever!

Anyway, I am not going to install Leopard unless it is absolutely necessary for latest Java 6. OS X tiger is the ultimate operating system on Desktop that one can imagine.

Work in progress - my very rich swing application - part 3

Writing UI has always been a very interesting task for me. Plus the very extensible java swing and java2d, it is instant gratification. Here is a screenshot of my application. Latest addition, iTunes like table, table header, light gray separator lines - yes that all matters in a UI. Have a look:

My x12 syntax highlighter for vim/gvim

I have always been a big fan of "vi", "vim" and "gvim" - or any other tool like "vimdiff" that vim.org provides. If you are a little fast with the "qwerty" keyboard, vim is the editor for you. It is the least distracting and most extensible text editor available on all platforms.
So, it was time to contribute something for this great editor. I created my X12 syntax highlighter, a very basic syntax highlighting for ASC X12 files. Currently, I have covered most of the common segments used in health-care industry. Please feel free to use it if you use vim and deal with X12 files.