Life of a java disciple

Secure Facebook Browsing

2010-10-25T00:15:00.000-07:00

It is common that most websites use HTTPS for user authentication and use HTTP for everything else. This leaves users vulnerable to Cookie Hijacking. Tools like Firesheep brought this to forefront. It lets someone in your network perform Cookie Hijacking of Facebook as simple as installing Firefox Extension. The best way to avoid this hack is to completely use HTTPS when using Facebook but the

Firefox Extension: Block Facebook from your life

2010-10-22T22:50:00.000-07:00

Its impossible to be on web and not be a Facebook user these days. Even if you are not a Social Network user, Facebook is notified whenever you visit one of the more than one million sites on the web that use Facebook Connect and has a history of leaking personally identifiable information to third parties. Either way Facebook knows your web life.Here is a Firefox Extension that completely blocks

WGET - Authentication

2010-04-12T15:14:00.000-07:00

How to access a page using wget that requires authentication? wget is well equipped to handle multiple authentication scenario's.HTTP Basic Athentication: To download a page that requires HTTP basic authentication use the following mechanism:wget https://myUserName:myPassword@www.myserver.com/mypage.htmlwget http://myUserName:myPassword@www.myserver.com/mypage.htmlForm Post: To download a page

Hey Microsoft how about banning iTunes on windows?

2010-03-31T10:59:00.000-07:00

Wouldn't it be interesting if Microsoft follows "CPU Hog" strategy from Jobs and ban iTunes on windows for installing malware that is "Memory Hog"?

Making No as Default in EXTJS Confirm Dialog

2010-03-08T09:57:00.000-08:00

Currently there is no configuration that supports making "No" button as default for a Confirm dialog in ExtJS. So how to make no button as default?One way to do this is to get Dialog and mark second button as default. Here is the code snippet that makes no as default button:var dialog = Ext.MessageBox.confirm('Confirm', 'Do you really mean it?' ,feedbackFunction).getDialog();dialog.defaultButton

GZIP and Save the earth

2010-03-07T10:13:00.000-08:00

It is amazing how we think about least significant things and put in Maximum effort rather than take care of low hanging fruits first. GZIP RFC came out around 1996 and all modern browsers (HTTP/1.1 supported Browsers) support GZIP and still it is amazing how many website doesn't support such a basic trick to save 50% of their bandwidth costs. Just adding GZIP support reduces bandwidth by 50% (

Making Jersey work with Spring

2010-01-18T05:16:00.000-08:00

Making Jersey work with Spring simplifies JAX-RS (Restful webservices) and make Restful services development look lot easier. This is simple tutorial of how to make Jersey work with Spring3.0 (Same can be applied to Spring 2.5)Libraries needed:1) Spring 3.0 distribution.2) Jersey 1.x distribution.3) Jersey Spring 1.0.1-SNAPSHOTLets Inject a simple Spring Bean using Jersey @Inject annotation.Step

Android Everywhere

2010-01-08T17:17:00.000-08:00

Sun's dream of putting Java Everywhere is finally being realized but it has nothing to do with Sun and everything to do with Google.Now Android is on Laptops, Netbooks, Mobile Phones, Video Phones, Washing Machines, Microwaves, Printers. Android is fast becoming UI device for consumer electronics.

MySpace Shame: Fix API and then talk of Developer Contest

2010-01-04T22:19:00.000-08:00

Today MySpace announced Submissions Now Open for the MySpace Developer Challenge. Which is really great because MySpace is also trying to drive innovation from developer community on its platform. I got pretty excited to get an app going using Myspace API. After trying to integrate MySpace OAuth for an hour without much success constantly failing in 6.3.2 section of OAuth spec title Service

Disabling browser context menu in ExtJS

2009-12-24T07:30:00.000-08:00

Many a times when ExtJs context menu (Right Click Menu) is added to components, it creates a problem as browser right click menu comes up after ExtJs right click menu is displayed. This is one of common issues posted on ExtJs forums consistently. Here is a simple way to solve the problem:Add the following line: Ext.getBody().on("contextmenu", Ext.emptyFn, null, {preventDefault: true});as first

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

2009-10-09T00:09:00.000-07:00

First watched this dude on John Stewart. Most fascinating thing I heard in a while and proof world is filled with Hope:

Bye Bye Spammers

2009-02-19T22:27:00.000-08:00

It appears after the latest attempt to drop the connection from spammers at IP level, traffic has come to normal level. To read about the issue and resolution follow these links:Day 1Day 2Graph showing traffic returning to normal:

Someone remind google what year it is

2009-02-19T00:09:00.000-08:00

Chrome 1.0.154.48. was released on Feb 3 2009.Chrome home page seems to have the same issue:

More fun with Proxy

2009-02-17T19:46:00.000-08:00

After disabling proxy on my server, I still see traffic on my server being high (My monthly quota might not exceed at this rate but takes up 50% of Bandwidth). Looking at access log it appears that requests hasn't stopped though they are getting 403 error. So requests coming to server and 403 response by itself is making up few GB worth a data every day. So decided to block these requests at IP

Proxy turn it off

2009-02-16T11:22:00.000-08:00

Noticed something funny on my personal webserver. I was testing some proxy settings and left proxy setting on when done. Today morning when I tried to access my server, its unreachable. Checking on the log's there seem to be too many requests proxying through my web server. All the IP's seem to originate from China and destination seems to be Ad server:60.173.11.121 - - [16/Feb/2009:12:07:27 -

JSF and Nested Diagnostic Context

2009-01-11T20:48:00.000-08:00

One of the important design criteria for any large concurrent system is to be able to audit and debug production logs. Any real-world web applications need to deal with multiple clients simultaneously. In a typical java web application implementation of such a system, different threads will handle different clients. A possible but discouraged approach to differentiate the logging output of one

Microsoft and Silly bugs

2009-01-10T11:01:00.000-08:00

Less than a fortnight back Zune30 leap year bug caused mass suicide of all Zune30 devices. Later on it was found to be simple looping bug in Zune's Clock Driver as shown here in the code to determine year part of the date:year = ORIGINYEAR; /* = 1980 */while (days > 365){ if (IsLeapYear(year)) { if (days > 366) { days -= 366; year += 1; } }

If Matrix ran on Windows

2008-12-24T17:46:00.000-08:00

Throwing this java.lang.Error can get you fired

2008-11-03T18:26:00.000-08:00

Imagine your boss going through your server log file and he see's the Error being thrown as CoderMalfunctionError. The discussion might not start in a pleasant way but you both might end up laughing since it really has nothing to do with Coder Malfunctioning. java.nio.charset.CoderMalfunctionError is thrown when either encoder or decoder is malfunctioning. Sun decided to call combination of

Debugging JWS with Eclipse

2008-10-17T21:56:00.000-07:00

After nearly 10 years, I spent considerable amount of time working on java desktop application recently. Looking at Java Web Start forums and FAQ it appears still users have issues with setting up Eclipse Remote Debugging with Java Web Start. This can be easily achieved by following three simple steps:1. Debug Java Web Start applications locally before deploying them on your web server. i.e use

Android Price

2008-09-23T15:07:00.000-07:00

I saw the live webcast and tried to preorder Andriod which was supposed to be 179$ with 2 year contract. But here is what I see when I go to TMobile web site and try to buy G1:

Best PC vs Mac Parody

2008-09-19T11:59:00.001-07:00

With all the hype around Microsoft and Apple Ads, I think this the best parody:

JPA: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Removing a detached

2008-09-15T22:16:00.000-07:00

One of the common issues that I end up debugging is the following exception:java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Removing a detached instanceWhen does this occur?: While removing a record.Why does this occur?: You are trying to delete a record which is retrieved in another transaction (probably even trying to delete a record that is stored in user HTTP session).How to fix it?: Make sure you

Low cost Multi-Touch project

2008-08-31T23:02:00.000-07:00

Since there is too much hype of Multi-Touch products from different companies, its worth checking out Johnny Lee's cheaper version of Multi-Touch screen. I bought a LED flashlight for 18$ and ever since having fun with my WII.Here is a introduction video from Johnny Lee:Johnny Lee’s page has more info and is worth checking out.Also Wiimote Whiteboard has a good Java API that worked fairly well

Yahoo: Nicely Done

2008-08-28T14:21:00.000-07:00

Google and Yahoo both offer Ability to add RSS feeds to users personalized home page. While checking my personal server's access log, I noticed a nice little information that Yahoo sends with each request. It sends you data on how many users added your feed and how many times a feed has been loaded on users homepages. Here is a snippet from from yahoo and google requests from Apache access logs:

Making Div Clickable

2008-08-26T12:36:00.000-07:00

Here is a simple trick to make entire div clickable which is needed when you want to make a banner clickable for a site:The best part is inside the Div you can have other links redirecting user to a different page.

Google: Are you kidding me?

2008-08-25T22:47:00.000-07:00

That's the related search that World No 1 Search engine could come up for Java?Yahoo seems to be better in this case:I guess there is still need for multiple search engines.

Firefox Mobile Concept Video

2008-06-11T21:38:00.000-07:00

Forefox Mobile concept video by Aza Raskin: Firefox Mobile Concept Video from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

A Clever Hack

2008-05-28T22:59:00.000-07:00

Once in a while you see things and think "Seems so simple, Why didn't I think of that?". This Hack by Aza Raskin belongs to that Category. He created a simple and smart way to read user browser history. In the example here, Aza is maintaining an array all the social networking sites he is aware of and checking which of those site the user has visited. How can he do that? By checking the color of

Why we need to care for Net neutrality

2008-05-13T21:27:00.000-07:00

iPhone like Android Demo

2008-03-02T00:12:00.001-08:00

Darren Waters of BBC interviewed Andy Rubin Google's director of mobile platforms who provided a demo of Android Phone. The phone is based on touch screen and shows features similar to Apple iPhone running on 300MHz (Compared to iPhone which is a 600MHz phone) and also running on 3G Network (3G iPhone is still in the works). Looks like iPhone killer phones may be based on Android.I have been

Go Daddy: Configure Apache HTTPd as a reverse proxy for Tomcat

2008-03-01T10:18:00.000-08:00

Configuring Apache HTTPd as reverse proxy is one way to re-route requests to Tomcat from Apache. This post addresses how to do that for Dedicated Virtual Hosting at GoDaddy.com. Doing this requires simple configuration changes as described below:1. Find httpd.conf file (usually located at /etc/httpd/conf).2. Make sure the following lines are not commented in the file (by default they are not

Java is everywhere

2008-01-17T16:23:00.000-08:00

Not sure how this is missed but SUN seem to have started posting to YouTube on how Java is Everywhere. Good PR to the minimum:

RIP Netscape Navigator

2008-01-06T00:01:00.000-08:00

AOL has announced that its discontinuing support for Netscape Web Browser. Though it was just matter of when, somehow I still have nostalgic feelings and fond memories of Netscape. Without Netscape, Internet would not have been what it is today. Some of the contributions from Netscape are good and some are bad but when Internet history is being written Netscape would have a chapter of its own.

Amazon Kindle has JVM

2008-01-05T01:51:00.000-08:00

Amazon Kindle seems to be heavy on Java. All the applications running seems to be developed in Java. From the look of the files existing on Kindle, it appears Kindle is using CDC and CVM. If Amazon opens up Kindle, it would become a great programming device for Java Developers soon and most widely available CDC device. According to Tritschler opening up kindle API's is a future direction.Looking

Amazon SimpleDB

2007-12-14T22:39:00.000-08:00

Amazon added the final missing key ingredient to their online computing services Simple DB. Currently simple DB is in Limited Beta.Thoughts based on initial read:• Provides Web Service interface to Simple DB. Not traditional SQL.• Provides Domains (Similar to Tables), Items (Similar to Rows) and Attributes (Similar to Columns).• Provides Ability to create Domains, Get/Put/Delete items in Domains

Serving Global Markets

2007-11-01T00:04:00.000-07:00

Why Orkut is hugely popular in India compared to MySpace and Facebook which are popular in US? money.cnn.com has an interesting comment on the same that came from Nayak an young entrepreneur:I asked him why he thinks Orkut is so much more popular in India than in the U.S. His answer suggested it might have something to do with Google's renowned technical capabilities. He points out that many of

Art of designing WSDL

2007-08-16T00:38:00.001-07:00

Most common misconception is that Architect role ends at deciding what web services needs to be used. Designing web service by itself is an Art and doing it right provides:Maximize reuse of servicesEnforce better version controlBetter code generationGreater interoperabilityIncreased testabilityHere are some good resources on how to design good WSDL's:Using XML Schemas Effectively in WSDL

Binding JBoss to specific IP

2007-08-14T21:13:00.000-07:00

One of the common questions from JBoss newbies I had to answer in last couple of months is "How do I bind JBoss Specific to my IP on windows?".Here is the simple one liner:run.bat -Djboss.bind.address=IP

Start Firefox with your previous session

2007-07-14T22:32:00.000-07:00

One of the best features of Firefox is ability to restore session when your OS or Browser crashes. This helps by not loosing the page you are currently viewing. Reading browser startup page KB it appears we can set browser to start the with previous session by default. This can be done with about:config by changing value of browser.startup.page to 3.

HTML Expert

2007-06-24T11:41:00.000-07:00

Check this HTML Expert:

Using Fiddler with Firefox

2007-02-16T10:35:00.000-08:00

The only reason I ever used IE is for Fiddler tool in last 2 years. Now looking at Fiddler docs there seems to be way to use Fiddler with Firefox.Here the steps:1. Look for BrowserPAC.js in fiddler directory under "My Documents". (for me its C:\My Documents\Fiddler\Scripts\BrowserPAC.js)2. Use "Automatic proxy configuration URL:" for Firefox and set the value to BrowserPAC.js full path (Tools -->

JDBC 4.0 Resources

2006-08-07T21:33:00.000-07:00

Here are good resources for getting started on JDBC4.0:JSR's:JSR 221: JDBC 4.0 API SpecificationJSR 270: Java SE 6 ("Mustang") Release ContentsArticles:Upcoming Features in JDBC 4JDBC 4.0 Enhancements in Java SE 6Sun Blogs:Lance Andersen's(JDBC 4.0 specification lead) BlogAmit's Blog

Why your Mom should Firefox2 Today

2006-07-12T13:52:00.000-07:00

A Picture is worth 1000 words. Here is an examples on why you need and your Mom need to get Firefox2 today:1) Anti-phishing: Checkout the email I received supposedly from Paypal.On opening it in Firefox2 you get the warning right away:2) Spell check integration: Firefox2 has an awesome spell check integration for all the forms filled:So get yourself and your Mom Firefox2 today.

Got TiVo

2005-02-11T10:27:00.000-08:00

Got TiVo yesterday. Java API being made available made me buy TiVo. I am already impressed by what I can do with my TiVo.One problem is that the software on latest TiVo is still 5.3.x and 7.1 is required to use java api. So signed up to priority list and waiting for the upgrade to occur. (Was told this might take several weeks).

JSSE: How to ignore CertificateException: Couldn't find trusted certificate"?

2004-12-19T22:32:00.000-08:00

While testing SecureSocket code, sometimes you would need code to ingore certificate validation. JSSE provides a simple way to do this by writing your own TrustManager. The below sample code lets you write simple clients ignore certificate validation: 01 02 03 import java.io.InputStream;04 import java.io.OutputStream;05 06 import javax.net.ssl.SSLContext;

Mustang: 2 new methods in String class.

2004-12-19T21:30:00.000-08:00

Two new helper methods are added to String class. The changes are described in bug#6189137.1. boolean isEmpty() { return length() == 0; }2. boolean contains(String s) { return indexOf(s) >= 0; }

BEA: Diablo (weblogic9 Beta) available for download

2004-12-16T09:59:00.000-08:00

BEA made Diablo (Weblogic9 Beta) available for download as promised today. Download it here. Documentation is here. What's new in 9.0 is here. The changes to me looked like this release should have been 8.2 instead of 9. There are lot of little goodies but nothing that really make me want to move to 9 from 8.1. The most exciting change is support for JDK5.0

Google: Is this really possible?

2004-12-14T17:30:00.000-08:00

Google did amazing JavaScript again with google suggest. I always hated Javascript and have to agree what google is doing is really amazing because its really cool and flaw less work with JavaScript and XMLHTTP. Here is a link to the compresses javascript used by google (Don't you wonder why so few sites really compress js?).

Why is Bill Gates so concerned about spam

2004-11-18T09:18:00.000-08:00

Microsoft has been talking about Spam for a while. So why is Bill Gates so concerned about Spam? Apparently thats because he world's most spammed man.

J2SE 6.0 Snapshot Releases

2004-11-17T11:30:00.000-08:00

Sun released a snapshot release of Mustang. You can download binaries and Source bundle too. Detailed list of changes is available (Thanks to Graham Hamilton for quickly providing a change list). java -version output: java version "1.6.0-ea" Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.6.0-ea-b12) Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.6.0-ea-b12, mixed mode, sharing) This snapshot

JDocs: Sun is right

2004-10-07T22:18:00.000-07:00

First of all, I think JDocs is a great a Idea. Especially if you need to refer to several open source java docs. But using JDocs for a while I can see why Sun didn't want to provide JavaDocs at JDocs.com. JDocs.com doesn't have same uptime as java.sun.com: With little or no money that JDocs makes, Rick has little resources to maintain uptime required. Last two hours I am not able to access

Firefox and Google Browser

2004-10-07T20:23:00.000-07:00

Firefox seems to be already the most popular browser that java developers are using. Looking at sitemeter reports for my Blog showed that IE has less than 30% share (ofcourse among people who visit this blog). A surprising entry is Google4.x browser. I am assuming its some fowl play :-) Here is the report anyway:

Adding sound to a boring build

2004-10-05T23:22:00.000-07:00

Well, the builds that I do at my day job take a couple of minutes and I hate wating for build to complete. So i decided to add a simple voice notification mechanism at the end of the build so that I can go back to poor dos prompt. I was left with three options: 1. Using optional ant task Sound. Using sound task is little boring since you need the audio files for what your build process want to

What bubble got Right

2004-10-05T14:29:00.000-07:00

Paul Graham has a great write up on What The Bubble Got Right. Its a great read since everthing that became fashionable during the Bubble is now unfashionable.

Longest Stack Trace Ever?

2004-10-03T14:57:00.000-07:00

Jason Hunter posted a stack trace that appears to be longest ever. Ofcourse credit goes IBM :-) Here it goes: Nested Exception is java.lang.IllegalStateException at com.ibm.wps.pe.pc.legacy.impl.PortletRequestImpl.getInputStream(PortletRequestImpl.java:221) at com.oreilly.servlet.multipart.MultipartParser.(MultipartParser.java:183) at com.oreilly.servlet.MultipartRequest.(MultipartRequest.java

Java Quiz - Win a GMail Invitation

2004-09-28T01:20:00.000-07:00

Why does the following program compile: public class Kumar { public static void main(String args[]) { // Hoping this code will not compile ?#$%&**\u000d{ for (int i=0; i<10; i++) { System.out.println("Hello"); } } //Additional close braces } } The first one to answer gets a free GMail invitation. Answer to be posted tomorrow if no one get posts the correct answer.

Preventing Google from caching your site

2004-09-15T11:13:00.000-07:00

When your site goes down or someone want to refer a old version of web pages google cache comes to rescue. But at times you don't want some pages to be cached by google. You can inform google not to cache a web page by adding a metatag as follows

ShortHorn and Long XP

2004-08-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

I am trying to make some meaning out of all the misguiding press relases and Interviews from the dark side about Longhorn changes. Longhorn now to be called ShortHorn:* WinFS is not part of the Longhorn2006 release. WinxowsXP now to be called LongXP:* Avalon and Indigo will be available on XP and Windows 2003. What does this mean?* Avalon being available for WindowsXP is a big push to Avalon

Visual Studio learns from Java IDE's

2004-08-29T00:41:00.000-07:00

Gone are the days when every java developers hoped to find an IDE which is as capable as Visual Studio. Now Studio 2005 seem to be following Java IDE's. Here are the latest features in Visual Studio 2005 : The Visual Studio IDE also includes new features. Refactoring intelligently updates your source code, and Expansions speed up code entry with predefined templates.

Yahoo using Google adsense?

2004-06-07T11:54:00.000-07:00

A friend sent an Email that Yahoo web hosting ad appears on my blog as part of Google Ads. Here is the Yahoo web hosting ad:

Film deal for 'Baghdad blogger'

2004-06-07T11:20:00.000-07:00

Film deal for Baghdad blogger. Salam Pax, whose real name has never been revealed, spent months writing an often bleakly humorous weblog which detailed the fears and hardships of Iraqi citizens. The diary began as a way for the 29-year-old architectural student to keep in touch with his friend Raed in Jordan. "It was just simple things about what was happening in Baghdad so he could stay in touch

Debugging thread related hangs in the JVM

2004-06-02T11:19:00.000-07:00

Moazam Raja blogged on Debugging thread related hangs in the JVM. This is nice a read. Also make sure to check out code names for all J2SE versions here.

Microsoft granted patent for double click

2004-06-02T10:35:00.000-07:00

United States Patent: 6,727,830 abstract: A method and system are provided for extending the functionality of application buttons on a limited resource computing device. Alternative application functions are launched based on the length of time an application button is pressed. A default function for an application is launched if the button is pressed for a short, i.e., normal, period of time.

General: AOP and AOM

2004-03-02T08:10:00.000-08:00

Aspect Oriented Programming might be doom but according to Dilbert Aspect Oriented Management works Great :-)

J2SE1.5: javax.pack is awesome but ..

2004-02-06T22:26:00.000-08:00

javax.pack.Pack200 which transforms JAR file to or from a packed stream in Pack200 format is really awsome. When Pack200 is used over rt.jar with the default example code below, its size is reduced from 35,804,926 bytes to 10,114,786 bytes. There is one gotcha though. P200 in J2SE1.5beta writes to System.out. Here are the messages written to System.out when rt.jar is compressed: *** Error at

J2SE1.5: First of its kind

2004-02-05T11:05:00.000-08:00

atleast in one aspect. i.e un deprecating. This is probably the first release where a method is undeprecated. The method public static String getenv(String name) in the class java.lang.System which has been deprecated since JDK1.1.x days is undeprecated with J2SE1.5. The docs of the undeprecated method can be found here. Also rightly a new Generics based getenv method is being added.

SPAM: We need your Debit Card PIN number

2004-02-05T07:16:00.000-08:00

This mail is being circulated today. I recieved this mail to my yahoo account. _Dear citibank_ _Client_, This_ leter was seent by_the CITI_bank server to veerify your _email_ adderss_. You mmust clpemote this pcresos by clicking on_the_link beelow and enttering in the smmall window your Citi-Bank _Debit card number and PIN that you use_ in the Atm_Machine. This is done - for_your pocrettion -

Oracle: 10G - Wait is over

2004-02-02T17:27:00.000-08:00

Oracle made 10G downloads available for both Solaris 64 bit and HP-UX. You can find the downloads here. The Register reports Price cut is on the way.

General: Look who is making money

2004-01-28T20:08:00.000-08:00

From Register's IT giants criticised for running third world 'sweatshops' In Thailand, a worker making hard drives for Dell is paid the equivalent of £2.50 per day. Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell, earned £134,000 per day last year. Michael Dell is making (more than) 50 thousand times an ordinary employee in the company. May be he deserves it for building a company which provided employment for

J2SE: J2SE 1.5 Early Access on Dec15th?

2003-12-11T17:58:00.000-08:00

Rick Ross mentioned J2SE 1.5 Early Access may be available by Dec 15th (Atmost by 22nd) on JavaLobby news posts here. Here is the snippet of the news post: On a completely separate note, we have been receiving a good deal of email lately asking for details on the upcoming early access release of the preliminary J2SE 1.5 binaries. I spoke today with the product line manager at Sun directly

Java Desktop System is here

2003-12-10T19:48:00.000-08:00

Java Desktop System is available for purchase at SUN's site. for $50. Check out the cool Looking Glass Demo by Jonathan Schwartz. Also SUN made Solaris x86 Free. Download it here.

2003-12-05T00:54:00.000-08:00

Location Services Based Blog. First post with my Motorola i88s. Current Location is: [344-467] NOVA ALBION WAY,SAN RAFAEL,CA - 94903. This is blog entry is powered by Autodesk Location Services.

2003-12-04T07:21:00.000-08:00

This is my first post using Blogger API. Currently there are several serious limitations to use the API. 1. Auto Publish not working though publish is set to true. 2. No mechanism to set title for a Post. Later tonight plannning on writing my own version of J2ME API for Blogger.

SUN: No to Eclipse

2003-12-04T07:05:00.000-08:00

This week sun dropped out of Eclipse negotiation and decided not to merge NetBeans community with Eclipse. I think this is a smart decision. Everyone who criticize SUN got to remember that its IBM that started the 'second' community instead of joining NetBeans. The very name of Eclipse suggests the purpose of its existance. Though I am a everyday user of Eclipse, extended roadmap for NetBeans4.0

SUN: PC+ Monitor + Color Printer Under $300

2003-11-19T08:37:00.000-08:00

After huge China deal, SUN seems to be on roll. AOL started started selling PC (With Monitor, Color Printer, Star Office rebranded as AOL Office) for $299. This could be huge. The only gotcha is that you have to commit to use AOL for a year($23.90 per Month). If this offer becomes successful you find more and more home users using Star Office. I am sure J2SE1.4 is preinstalled on these machines (

J2ME: MIDP2.0 phone from Motorola

2003-11-12T19:08:00.000-08:00

Motorola i730 is available in us markets. Key features: J2ME Support : MIDP 2.0 (JSR 118),Mobile Media(JSR 135), WMA (JSR 120) OEM Support: Motorola LWT, Look And Feel, Polyphonic MIDI, WAV, AU, Vibrator, Lighting, Motion JPEG, Still image capture, Location API, Phonebook, Datebook, External display, Call Receive and Initiation, Recent calls, File I/O, Serial port, Crypto, Digital Camer, Java

M$: Another entry to hall of shame

2003-10-29T21:16:00.000-08:00

Image is self explanatory:

J2SE: 10 References for 1.4.X GC

2003-10-13T19:44:00.000-07:00

Sun has several docs for 1.4.x GC settings. Here are 10 of them: 1. Performance FAQ. 2. Java HotSpot VM Options. 3. Tuning Garbage Collection with 1.4.2. 4. Threading. 5. Big Heaps and Intimate Shared Memory. 6. Performance White Paper(1.4.2). 7. HotSpot FAQ(1.4.2). 8. Improving Java Application Performance and Scalability by Reducing Garbage Collection Times and Sizing Memory Using JDK

Directories are Java source file package names

2003-10-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

After reading this blog by Gregg Wonderly and some of the comments posted at the blog I decided to write this blog entry. For a long time I used to think directories are not Java source file package names because Chapter 7 of Java language specification said so. Also many a times(For any product that you work on for long time) maintaining directories as Java source file package names is a pain.

Office: OpenOffice.org 1.1 released

2003-10-01T19:25:00.000-07:00

OpenOffice.org announced first major update to OpenOffice. 1.1 is now final and English version is available for download on Windows, Solaris and Linux. I have been using 1.0.x versions and 1.1 RC's for a while. With every update OpenOffice is getting better and better and better compatability with M$ Office. OpenOffice is now the only office suite on my home machine. The two new major

J2ME: Get Weather Forecasts Free

2003-09-30T00:09:00.000-07:00

Weather on Demand is one of the most common applications of SMS. Few of weather service examples are: 1. Weather alerts from Verizon . 2. Weather Network and TELUS Mobility's On Demand Weather service and 3. Weather.com's Radar on Mobile Phones. With a simple MIDlet you can get Weather forcasts free on your phone. US government provides free weather forecasts here. Note that the weather forecasts

M$: MSBuild - M$ version of ANT

2003-09-29T18:20:00.000-07:00

Microsoft is coming up with a build tool(MSBuild). MSBuild is the next generation build engine and platform for Visual Studio .NET. Microsoft has a session about the new build system during Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2003. From introduction it looks like it will ship with the .NET redistributable and not Visual Studio. Also it appears that MSBuild will be an XML based Ant like

J2SE: Taking screen snapshots in JAVA

2003-09-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

As programmers many a times we need take snap shots of our screens. If we can take snap shot in java why use OS specific way to take a snap shot? Here is a simple code example of taking snapshot in java (Either PNG format or JPEG format):01 import java.awt.AWTException; 02 import java.awt.Dimension; 03 import java.awt.Rectangle; 04 import java.awt.Robot; 05 import

General: China to help Europe develop GPS rival

2003-09-19T21:17:00.000-07:00

New Scientist reports China has joined a European effort to develop a new global satellite navigation system that would offer a more accurate civilian alternative to the Global Positioning System. The Galileo system will be precise to within a meter, while the civilian GPS service is accurate to around 10 meters. This development adds to the consternation of the U.S. military, which controls the

Microsoft links with Motorola to launch mobile phone

2003-09-14T21:45:00.000-07:00

Telegraph | Money | Microsoft links with Motorola to launch mobile phone: "Microsoft's bid to dominate the market for mobile phone operating systems will receive a boost today when the US software giant launches its first phone with a major handset maker." Untold story:In a related product launch Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer Microsoft Corp announced general availability of the Blue

J2SE: A nice tool to learn API differences

2003-09-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

JDiff is a Javadoc doclet which generates an HTML report of all the packages, classes, constructors, methods, and fields which have been removed, added or changed in any way, including their documentation, when two APIs are compared. This is very useful for describing exactly what has changed between two releases of a product. Only the API (Application Programming Interface) of each version is

J2ME: Turning your phone into web Server.

2003-09-09T23:47:00.000-07:00

I wrote a simple midlet which turns my Phone into simple web server. To keep the code simple, I removed the additional GPS capabilities. Currently the web server listens to port 8000 and repsonds "Hello, I am Kumar Mettu's Phone. Thanks for Visiting" for all requests that are sent to this tiny web server. Note that this code is tested only on Motorola i88s with Nextel Total Connect Service. Here

J2ME: My new J2ME-GPS phone

2003-09-09T23:31:00.000-07:00

Since my old phone is more than 2 years old, I bought a new Motorola i88s phone which has J2ME and GPS support. I added some cool J2ME applications which will probably be blogging about in coming days.

Molecular Expressions: Science, Optics and You - Powers Of 10: Interactive Java Tutorial

2003-09-08T08:21:00.000-07:00

Molecular Expressions: Science, Optics and You - Powers Of 10: Interactive Java Tutorial: "View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the

StarOffice makes strong inroads in India

2003-09-04T06:12:00.000-07:00

StarOffice makes strong inroads in India: "'In a scenario where enterprises are looking to bring down costs and increase productivity, StarOffice has emerged to be a viable option. In the last few months, StarOffice has gained substantial penetration into the Indian markets across segments like corporations, home users and government,' says K P Unnikrishnan, country head, marketing, Sun

Send your prayer to GOD using SMS

2003-09-03T18:12:00.000-07:00

Indians can send an SMS PUJA (prayer) to BPL and have the prayers recited for them at a popular Bombay temple, during the annual Ganesh Chaturthi festival. For just 51 rupees or $1.10, subscribers can avoid the hassle and aggravation of temple queues and text Ganesh instead.

Yahoo! News - Sun Mulls Joining Java Eclipse Effort

2003-09-02T19:01:00.000-07:00

Yahoo! News - Sun Mulls Joining Java Eclipse Effort: "'Sun believes that Eclipse will hit a wall in terms of performance and compatibility because of distinctions between its NetBeans ... approach and Eclipse's ... approach, but at the moment, Eclipse is the clear leader,' said Stephen O'Grady, an analyst with RedMonk LLC, a market research company based in Bath, Maine."

Dear Mr Fleury stop spamming us

2003-09-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately JBossGroup thinks none of the rules that applies to every enterpise applies to them. Its a minimum courtesy to have a link to "remove me" in news letters and marketing junk. Here is the latest mail sent by Marc F to what ever list he maintains: Hello, Just a quick one to cover August. August was a great month for JBG, our best so far with record sales and booming business. We

Mumbai blasts - Western Illinois University Link

2003-08-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) a banned oraganization in India is responsible for Mumbai bomb blasts killing 52 people. The founder of SIMI works at Western Illinois University . Hamas is the most admired oraganization by SIMI.

Hubble's Close Encounter with Mars

2003-08-27T07:01:00.000-07:00

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took this close-up of the red planet Mars when it was just 34,648,840 miles (55,760,220 km) away. This color image was assembled from a series of exposures taken between 6:20 p.m. and 7:12 p.m. EDT Aug. 26 with Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The picture was taken just 11 hours before the planet made its closest approach to Earth in 60,000 years.

Overture Ad @ Google Ads?

2003-08-23T23:13:00.000-07:00

While reading Google Weblog, I noticed that Overture Ad is listed as part of Google Ads. Probably since M$ started Using Linux To Protect Its Own Web Site the world has changed.

Sun to blast off Gemini in 2004

2003-08-19T07:02:00.000-07:00

The Register has an interesting article about Gemini. Sun says Gemini will perform about 3 times better than current 1.0GHz UltraSPARC IIIi chips. The successor to Gemini - Niagara - will arrive in 2005 with a 15X performance boost over current chips.

Re: Where are my free JavaBeans?!

2003-08-11T15:36:00.000-07:00

http://www.servlets.com/jservlet2/examples/ch06/GraphicalCounter.java

Mark your Calendars for Aug 27th

2003-08-05T08:11:00.000-07:00

Mars Closest To Earth in 50,000 Years Never again in our lifetimes will the Red Planet be so spectacular. This month and next Earth is catching up with Mars, an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can