The Rabbit Hole

Despre instinct

2011-09-12T12:20:00.002+03:00

Citesc in Romania Libera:

<...Cu doar trei ani în urmă, Roosvelt îi dădea ambasadorului său la Moscova, care îl avertiza că "revărsarea de amoeba roşie" va inunda toată Europa, un răspuns şocant: "Instinctul îmi spune că Stalin nu poate fi un astfel de om...cred că i-am dat tot ce era cu putiinţă să-i dau şi nu i-am cerut nimic în schimb, nobless oblige, nu va încerca să anexeze nimic şi va lucra împreună cu mine pentru o lume a democraţiei şi păcii.">

Asta ca sa vezi cat de mult rau poate sa faca o decizie luata instinctiv, fara sa asculti de date reale (ambasadorul evident avea informatii "la cald" si atat cat permitea perspectiva momentului - nu avea de unde sa stie cati morti o sa faca stalinismul si apoi comunismul - exacte).

Tati da comunistii au murit ?

2011-02-19T18:27:00.004+02:00

Citesc "Jurnalul Fericirii" de Nicolae Steinhardt, e e o carte care te lasa mut. De obicei pe mine citirea unei carti ma stimuleaza, e sportul mintii, ma invioreaza, incep si fac proiectii - daca aia si aia - ce-as face si ce-as spune eu.

"Jurnalul Fericirii" e prima carte care ma lasa mut, prin perspectiva si continut. Tot ce fac e sa citesc pe nerasuflate. De exemplu evoca momentul in care tatal ii spune, dupa ce revine de la prima comisie de interogatoriu la Securitate, sa mearga inapoi la ei sa se lase arestat decat sa-si toarne prietenii, pentru ca, "in afaceri daca spui ca te mai gandesti ai acceptat deja". Exact, batranul il trimite sa faca inchisoare "vreo 8 ani" ca sa poata dormi linistit noptile. "Nu fi jidan fricos, sa nu te caci in pantaloni". Barbatia perfecta. Acu' puneti-va intrebarea cati le-ati face binele asta copiilor vostri ca sa intelegeti cat de mult rau a facut comunismul si inca mai face.

In fine, ma intreaba Sara, fiica-mea

- Tati, da "comunistii" astia au murit ?

- Nu - zic. Si multi inca ne conduc, aia e cel mai rau.

Se baga cu capul sub patura, se ghemuieste si se acopera de tot. - Reflex absolut normal, la un copil care sper sa reuseasca iasa de sub spectrul asta spurcat. A se compara cu reflexele noastre, de zi cu zi, legate de "ei".

Cat despre "Jurnalul Fericirii" - a se citi. Nu fiti romani fricosi, nu va cacati in pantaloni.

IPS Bartolomeu Anania

2011-02-01T10:00:00.001+02:00

http://www.contributors.ro/cultura/un-gand-la-despartirea-de-ips-bartolomeu-anania/

Dumnezeu sa-l odihneasca in pace !

Neputinta la romani

2010-11-21T03:10:00.001+02:00

La bazin cu Sara, normal ca o iau cu mine in vestiar la barbati, intram la dus inainte de a intra in apa si ma ia un mos, 50-60 afectat si foarte politicos, care de altfel era si sub dus deci nu avusese contact vizual cu Sara, dar ma auzise vorbind cu ea: "Sa nu mai veniti cu fetita la barbati ca pana la urma nici ei nu-i face bine " aici il intrerup si-l intreb "Da' ce sa fac cu ea, sa merg la femei?" El, tot afectat si foarte inocent "Eu nu stiu ce sa faceti, dar stiu ca nu e bine..." Il intrerup din nou, nepoliticos, abrupt si fara chef de filosofie la dus, si cu chef de inot: "Domnule eu trebuia sa iau o decizie si am luat-o deja. Dumneavoastra in schimb nu stiti..."

Deci una dintre marile noastre probleme este ca nu stim. Aia e problema fundamentala de fapt. Domnul respectiv aprecia ca "nu e bine" sa o iau pe copila in vestiar la barbati, dracu stie de unde a scos-o si pe asta dar el asa stia, in schimb faptul ca in general nu prea ai alternativa ca si tata de fetita "e bine" (merg la buda in Polus, unde sa o duc ? le femei ? sa ma castreze nebunele !?) Dupa ce terminam baia, la plecare, chiar in fata vestiarului un tip isi dezbraca fetita PE HOL, banuiesc ca din aceleasi motive. Copila se uita putin jenata in jur.

Dupa balaceala mergem in Carrefour sa iau niste parmezan si ii spun la tanti sa imi taie o felie de atata. Zice "Hmmm cam greu sa tai doar atat ca e bucata mare si iese felia subtire si o sa se rupa". Ii sugerez sa nu taie felie (era o bucata triunghiulara) ci sa taie varful triunghiului. Zice "Vai, dar nu pot" Eu "Pai de ce?" Ea "Nu se poate".

Deci una dintre marile noastre probleme este ca nu putem. Efectiv nu putem. Pana la urma, lucrul dracului, se taie parmezanul in felii chiar mai subtiri decat am estimat amandoi, happy end.

Acuma voi sa-mi spuneti, daca nu stim si nici nu putem atunci cum ar fi posibil, dupa cum parca ne indemna Dan Puric (sper ca nu-i pun vorbe in gura, oricum nu autorul e esential), sa indraznim ?

Adrian Paunescu - sinteza

2010-11-08T21:52:00.004+02:00

http://www.romanialibera.ro/opinii/editorial/trecutul-morala-cazului-paunescu-205087.html - genial, de Turturica

http://www.contributors.ro/cultura/menestrelul-comunismului-dinastic-sau-cine-a-fost-adrian-paunescu/ - Knock out

http://voxpublica.realitatea.net/politica-societate/astazi-5-noiembrie-2010-54884.html - Uman

http://www.evz.ro/detalii/stiri/senatul-evz-paunescu-romania-kitsch-si-triumful-ceausismului-911783.html - Original

Update:

http://www.romanialibera.ro/opinii/comentarii/natiunea-la-picioarele-menestrelului-ceausist-205954.html - Gallagher

Copil + televizor = brainwash

2010-08-30T15:18:00.003+03:00

http://medlive.hotnews.ro/televizorul-si-copiii-efectele-negative-asupra-evolutiei-cognitive-si-a-vietii-sociale.html

Sa nu ziceti ca n-ati stiut.

(Do you) Ask Google what you should be doing next !?

2010-08-17T08:30:00.002+03:00

Quote from Erick Schmidt:

"I actually think most people don't want Google to answer their questions. They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next."

Yay

Ia mergeti pe litoralul romanesc

2010-07-28T18:56:00.003+03:00

Avertizare pentru toti prietenii mei care merg la mare in Romania: Va bat eu cu mana mea decat sa va bata gunoaiele de la mare ! 'Nteles ? Oricum bat mai elegant :-D

http://smartwoman.hotnews.ro/serviciile-de-la-marea-neagra-cum-sa-ti-iei-bataie-la-terasa-si-sa-fii-tratat-ca-un-animal-pentru-o-salata-bulgareasca.html

Gluma la o parte, poate alegeti anul asta si anii viitori alt "Land of choice". Ca sunt destule.

Want Creativity ? Forget brainstorming !

2010-07-28T18:44:00.002+03:00

Eeep, what ? Ummm, well yeah:

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/12/forget-brainstorming.html

A short one from inside:

"According to University of Texas professor Elizabeth Vandewater, for every hour a kid regularly watches television, his overall time in creative activities—from fantasy play to arts projects—drops as much as 11 percent. With kids spending about three hours in front of televisions each day, that could be a one-third reduction in creative time—less time to develop a sense of creative self-efficacy through play."

Ouch - comisiile si expertii

2010-07-19T06:15:00.003+03:00

De fiecare data cand auzi de "comisii" constituite sa analizeze ceva, si de "specialisti" pe care-i consulta guvernantii stii ca totul e pierdut. In schimb solutia exista si este foarte simpla de fiecare data, numai ca in general comisiile si specialistii sau sunt tampitzi sau n-au nici un interes sa rezolve problema.

De ex la viitura care ar fi trebuit sa inunde Galatiul, "specialistii" luau in considerare brese controlate in diguri fara sa ia in calcul cea mai tare si mai mare bresa la care Ceausescu a lucrat in draci: Canalul Dunare - Marea Neagra! Cand Blaga spune ca "Au contribuit si cei 500mc/s pe care ii degajam pe Canalul ..." de fapt trebuie sa cititi: "Ne-a scos nenea ala big time. Fara el ne ducea Dunarea digul construit in 3 zile cu tot cu Galati, muncitori si echipament." Link

Fake recording ? Learn through ENF from the Electrical Network

2010-06-03T15:30:00.007+03:00

Did you know the electrical network has a "fingerprint" ? Yes it does, in the form of a low frequency spectrum signal. And that fingerprint is the same (with very small to none variations) in the entire Electrical Network. Yes, in Romania/Bucharest the fingerprint is the same as in Greece/Athens at the same point in time. Same goes for the entire Europe, I guess.

The applicability of this is forensics analysis it seems (but you could easily find other usecases). You can use ENF (electrical network frequency analysis) to determine if a recording is fake or not because this "fingerprint" gets recorded along with whatever you are taping. If the fingerprint of the fake recording is not the same as the fingerprint of a recording that you trust, (yes you need to have a trusted recording taken at the same time with the untrusted/analyzed one) busted !

The credit for this research goes to a Romanian forensic expert, whee :-)

Some other links:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/01/enf_met_police/

http://www.romanialibera.ro/actualitate/eveniment/cine-este-romanul-care-ajuta-fbi-sa-afle-adevarul-188753.html

A presentation of the thesis

SWFTools and other Linux mumbo jumbo on MacOS

2010-05-18T09:00:00.003+03:00

You need the fancy SWF Tools cause you're working on a kickass project and need to convert stuff. You're shit out of luck cause you're also on Mac and SWF Tools has binaries only for Windows and you need to build it from the source for other platforms. On Linux I expect it works just fine but on Mac ...

You can get the source code and spend your entire day, week or life to get it working or you can get Mac Ports and have it handled for you:

sudo port install swftools

If port command is unknown then run it with the complete path

sudo /opt/local/bin/port install swftools

Done, I guess. It's still fetching / configuring packages while I am posting this, I don't see myself doing what it's doing automagically in the next decade.

Happy swftooling !

Oroare

2010-04-29T00:30:00.002+03:00

Fara cuvinte. Infiorator. Tot ce poti face este sa stii si sa nu uiti niciodata:

http://www.experimentulpitesti.org/public/video-clipuri/

iPad drawing

2010-04-28T23:32:00.002+03:00

So it seems my 6.5 years daughter enjoys the iPad more than I do. So what. Here's some work she's done on it :-)

Surround yourself with smart people

2010-04-04T12:24:00.002+03:00

Just watched this and something from the speech has specifically drawn my attention: 'If you want to learn surround yourself with smart people'.

As I work mostly from home, physically I cannot really do that. And I asked myself how am I going to do this ? Am I doomed not to learn anything since I have decided to work as a self employed geek ?

The answer is that, somehow, in a pretty altered form indeed (but not necessarily worse), I am already doing this for a long time now. Just look into my hardcore tech contact list on Twitter. They are the most brilliant technology guys I know. Of course there are others, but those are the ones I've 'surrounded' me with :-) And it so much pays off.

That's one of the many things Twitter enables, in a extremely subtle and surprisingly innovative way. And that's what I advise all my friends to do (at least in the first phase) with Twitter, because 'social' is such a fuzzy term for too many of us :-)

Invatamantul din Romania

2010-03-19T10:49:00.003+02:00

Ca tot discutam despre invatzamant zilele astea, citesc in Romania Libera online despre invatzamantul finlandez:

"Educatia scolara se bazeaza pe dezvoltarea gandirii si a expresiei, nu pe acumularea masiva de informatie. Pentru a favoriza gandirea creativa si independenta, multe din temele pentru acasa au forma de proiect; elevul nu rezolva numai probleme dupa o reteta, ci incearca sa descopere utilitatea solutiilor in diferite aspecte practice. Un exemplu de tema: sa masoare temperatura zilnic (a lui sau cea de afara), dimineata si seara, sa faca un grafic, sa faca un tabel cu variatiile zilnice, sa faca medii saptamanale si lunare si sa prezinte totul intr-un raport final cu cap si coada. Sau, alta tema: sa mearga in padure, sa fotografieze copacii sau plantele studiate in clasa, sa le identifice si sa faca un raport despre vegetatia din zona respectiva. Raportul final este prezentat in clasa, de multe ori la proiector. Se antreneaza in acest fel sa invete si pentru mai tarziu sa stie cum sa isi prezinte rezultatele personale."

si nu ma pot impiedica sa imi imaginez alternativa romaneasca:

Un exemplu de tema:

Pana maine sa "invatati" ce e temperatura, cum se masoara, care e temperatura corpului uman, care e la porumbei si care la veveritze, sa o stiti in grade celsius si sa transformati si in Fahrenheit, sa stiti cat e zero absolut si temperatura in toate capitalele europene.

Sau, tema cu copacii:

Pana maine sa stiti toti copacii care cresc in romania, la campie, la deal si la munte, unde se simt cel mai bine molizii, ce sunt foioasele, coniferele si floarea de coltz. La lectia urmatoare invatam toti copacii din Europa si la urmatoarea ii stim pe toti de la ecuator. Asta in trei lectii ca la a patra trecem la animale. In prima lectie le invatzam pe alea cu pene, la a doua le invatzam pe alea cu blana. Pe TOATE !

Dupa aia te miri ca distractia preferata de noi la padure este sa ne pisham pe copaci clatinandu-ne de la berea extrasa din sticlele pe care le-am aruncat printre ... stejari ? Cum mortzii lor erau aia ? Parca am invatzat ceva la scoala despre ei, 'secuoia' si molizi. Sau erau molii ? Nu, erau mesteceni. Baaaa vita, vezi ca ma stropeshti da-te si tu mai incolo ! Etc.

Dupa care prezentam totul in fatza Lumii, la proiector.

Cum sa (NU) faci un gest nobil

2010-03-11T10:40:00.003+02:00

Ce poate fi mai nobil decat sa donezi sange, mai ales pentru o vecina si prietena foarte buna ? Nu multe lucruri, d'acord ? OK.

Mergi la centrul de donare si te ia o tanti de la poarta sa completezi o foaie cu vrute si nevrute. Semnezi, pui data si stai la coada. Beton, suntem antrenati la asta, peste tot pe unde mergi si nu e coada stii ca nu stai bine.

Dupa ce stam bine la coada (noroc sa suntem in haita si mai povestim) ajung la alta tanti si prima intrebare pe care mi-o pune este daca am baut ieri. Zice, o bere, doza de 330ml ok treaca de la mine. A doua intrebare e daca iau ceva medicamente. Da, Paracetamol sinus. Puteti sa veniti sa donati dupa o saptamana dupa ce va opriti cu paracetamolul. O zice cu aerul cu care mi-ar face o favoare. Apoi scapa un zambet plictisit de genul 'frate esti al unmilionsidousutedemiilea care o suge asa'.

Muriti.

Ischgl - Austria 2010

2010-02-06T11:16:00.004+02:00

Nice one at Ischgl this year, kind of intermediate to advanced level snow tracks. Here's a preview from the picture set:

Click to see the entire image galery. Definitely too short of a vacation :-)

Why SUN cannot create a decent L&F for Java ?

2010-02-04T16:11:00.002+02:00

Just got a pointer to Nimbus, some relatively new L&F for Java.

All I can say is that it sucks just as any other L&F I have seen in Java since it appeared. The question is, in this case, why are they not able to produce a decent L&F for Java ? I mean they are not totally brain damaged and besides, decent L&Fs for Java, even great ones (see JGoodies) exist already ? Is there some conspiracy to make Java UIs look like hell ?

Living room art

2010-01-17T12:17:00.004+02:00

Remember this ? Well, there is more. Today she had the idea of laying her 'artwork' on the floor :-)

Ignore the cat...

It inspired me :-)

Ce mai faceti d-le CTP ?

2010-01-08T09:27:00.003+02:00

Am tot incercat sa postez pe Hotnews, la aia nu le mere. Daca incerc sa ma logez nu le mere. Ca si programator stiu ce se intampla da' nu vreti sa auziti, pen'ca e prea colorat. Oricum scopul actiunii era sa-i pun o intrebare domnului CTP, care discuta "live" cu cititorii Hotnews astazi de la 12 parca. Si cum nu pot sa o pun pe Hotnews si sunt incapatanat rau, vreau neaparat sa o pun, o postez aici (a raspunde el peste 5 ani cand goagal-eshte si o gaseshte):

Domnule Cristian Tudor Popescu (e o chestie ciudata cum ati reusit sa transformati un nume asa de lung intr-un brand, nu stiu daca exista cineva care sa va numeasca d-le Popescu si sa se simta confortabil =)) ), pentru mine sunteti un om "greu de fixat". Pesemne ca recunoasteti sintagma, dar departe de mine sa va elogiez, atata timp cat jumatate din timpul pe care-l aloc citirii articolelor dumneavoastra ma enervati cumplit. Cealalta jumatate doar ma enervati, suficient cat sa-mi dea de gandit :-)

Constient ca nu sunteti posesorul raspunsurilor pe care vreau sa le aud, as dori sa va pun o intrebare care are potentialul de a surprinde:

Domnule Cristian Tudor Popescu, Ce Mai Faceti ?

Online-ul romanesc, care este

2010-01-05T18:07:00.004+02:00

Dupa cum am spus aproape tuturor care au avut ghinionul sa ma intalneasca face-to-face, termenul 'Online-ul din Romania' imi repugna. E un termen cretin si chiar daca ar exista asa ceva tot nu as fi de acord cu el. Va explic tot face-to-face de ce daca va intereseaza vreodata.

Si totusi ... porcaria s-a produs. De pe un blog de voxpublica am ajuns pe un blog din online-ul romanesc 'neaosh' si acolo am gasit un interviu cu alt tip, tot din online, interviu pe care cred (cu tarie) ca l-am citit. Pe Tot. Va rog sa credeti si voi (cu tarie) ca de fiecare data cand scriu online, si mai ales romanesc, sufar. Literalmente.

Si gasesc acolo urmatorul paragraf:

Toata blogosfera asta si twittosfera a inceput cu bisericute cu lucruri marunte care pana acum ceva timp nu prea existau… Acuma o sa ajungem ca toti ceilalti romani si nu o sa mai avem nimic deosebit daca am ajuns sa ne injuram pe bloguri, sa trecem la amenintari si la lucruri mai grave. Noi, ca lideri de opinie publica ar trebui sa dam un exemplu bun… Nu sa ajungem “Dupa BLOGURILE gri… Suntem noi, majoritatea… ”

Am citit odata ceva ce spunea Petre Tutea si am inteles destul de greu esenta: Scrisul te definitiveaza. Te arata asa cum esti.

Eu nu stiu nici sa scriu, nici sa ma exprim 'live'. Dar nici nu pretind ca as sti. Tot ce pot sa sper este ca acest 'online romanesc' nu este lider de nici o opinie, cu atat mai mult cea publica. Pentru ca tipul pe care l-am citat mai sus seamana, din nefericire foarte mult, cu 'toti ceilalti romani' despre care vorbeste. Mai mult, eu personal cred ca i-a inghetzat mintea la 7.5 ani.

Pa pa ...

Ne mai citim peste 2 ani cand o sa mai am curajul (sau neshansa) sa citesc ceva din online-ul romanesc. Din respect pentru voi cei 5 care veti citi acest blog entry, nu pot sa termin cu injuratura preferata da' ... face-to-face daca vreti incercam :-)

Si daca tot e primul post din 2010 eu cred (cu tarie) ca va doresc La Multi Ani!

Alegerile prezidentiale din 6 Dec 2009

2009-12-09T15:33:00.002+02:00

Am simtit nevoia pe de-o parte sa trag niste concluzii, pe de-o parte sa justific alegerea pe care am facut-o in 6 Dec 2009.

Campania bunului simt

O noua revolutie, de data asta neconfiscata

In rest, despre politica este putin probabil sa mai scriu ceva in urmatorii cativa ani.

In afara alegerilor, clasa politica romaneasca este plictisitoare; captiva in propria neputiinta de a construi, care in esenta, dupa parerea mea, deriva din lipsa de profesionalism. Cu alte cuvinte sunt incapabili sa faca ceva, altceva decat sa se certe, sa se piarda in interminabile dueluri verbale sterile, sa minta direct sau prin omisiune, sa deceptioneze. Singurele lor actiuni soldate cu efecte clare, concrete sunt exploatarea in mod direct sau prin interpusi a resurselor statului in beneficiul propriu.

Lucrurile bune intamplate in Romania ultimilor ani au fost sau impuse de apartenenta la Uniunea Europeana, sau efecte secundare necalculate ale unor actiuni politice, sau efectele actiunilor individuale ale unor "proscrisi" cum ar fi d-na Monica Macovei si presedintele Traian Basescu.

Multiple Browser tabs and Flash

2009-11-13T13:02:00.004+02:00

I've noticed this a few times already: If I open up 20 tabs, even in Chrome, (don't mention Firefox cause 20 tabs in Firefox means 4TB RAM and growing) in some cases the processor will just run amok and force the cooler into behaving like a V8. I somehow blame that on Flash things that animate in all those tabs even when they are not enabled/active. Couldn't we have something like "put those on hold" when the tab is not active ? I mean I don't care about them even when they run in the active tab !!? Well, of course I'm talking about ads.

Eclipse Jetty (7)

2009-11-09T10:19:00.003+02:00

I am not sure of this but from what I found on the net it seems that due to some licensing issues JSP support doesn't work as it should on the Eclipse distribution of Jetty 7. Whatever the reasons, I wasn't able to make JSPs to work properly on Jetty 7.

If you need JSP support go to the codehaus repository and grab a Jetty 1.6 version. Works like a charm.

Terracotta is at it again

2009-11-06T09:25:00.003+02:00

Well, I tried to tweet this but somehow the generated bit.ly link is all messed up so here it is:

http://www.processor.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/P3127/13ap27/13ap27/13ap27.asp&guid

Wheee ! Works.

PS. For those who don't know what Terracotta is: http://www.terracotta.org/

Amazon's International Kindle

2009-10-31T20:57:00.006+02:00

This weekend it's been a very proficient one. I've got a MacBook Pro and an Amazon Kindle (round of applause). I've managed yet to set up the Mac and get it working with everything including Eclipse etc, but I have yet to understand why Kindle "cannot establish a connection" after I left Bucharest. Since I arrived in Cluj Napoca it doesn't go wireless, it doesn't see the 3G network, very frustrating experience overall (If anyone has an idea why please drop me a line, I'll remain grateful forever :-) ).

The feel of it is pretty nice, but from my point of view the usability, application menu design, and everything that runs it, is totally broken. It feels weird and the options that are available to you are never those that you would expect. That's weird. It's almost like it's been designed to get you in trouble.

The "international" promise is that it connects to wireless networks. Well would you imagine that you cannot chose one, and if it's protected by username/password you cannot specify them ? I mean, wtf ? Drop the thing altogether and boot a decent version of android on it. You have them all, End of story.

So far, my bet was inspired in the sense that I asked for the Kindle ONLY because it allows me to get the books from Amazon so much faster than anything else. Only if this would finally start working ... Otherwise is totally useless. I mean totally.

UPDATE:
With the new Kindle firmware update for the international version (2.3) two things happened:

1.) It now connects through wireless from my current location. Hurray !
2.) It sees PDFs

Means it does what I bought it for. I'm happy.

Tests

2009-10-28T17:28:00.002+02:00

How many times did I hear this : "There is not time for tests, really" ? Countless times. The counter point is: "Did you ever measure the time you spend debugging issues you have created?" Always compare that with the time you need to write a test to eliminate the issue you just debugged.

And then, if you are honest, ask your boss to draw the money for the time difference from your next salary. Because he'd be paying for the time you were writing the tests anyway.

Another Google Android kickass usecase - eReaders

2009-10-22T15:12:00.005+03:00

With the Barnes & Noble eReader, Nook, which btw looks very nice, we've got another evolution direction for the Android. I'll add it to the list I've put together in another blog post.

Those who say Android is not a market today, they prove nothing but lack of vision. Because Android is not about today's market but it is about what the future holds.

It doesn't even need to be the iPhone killer to succeed because it plays in so many other spaces. The main achievement of the Android so far is that it proved to be a viable platform for far more than a social smartphone. It redefines mobility.

SSD

2009-10-15T04:03:00.000+03:00

A nice one on the state of SSD drives:

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001304.html

Business people din Romania

2009-10-13T12:11:00.003+03:00

Au nevoie de mult bun simt. Foarte mult. Pe langa alte abilitati de care e nevoie.

Intrebarea zilei

2009-10-13T09:16:00.002+03:00

Noi nu vrem respect...

2009-10-08T18:22:00.011+03:00

Noi nu ne facem, de obicei, auziţi.

Noi nu ne putem face auziti din cauza zgomotului.

Noi nu ieşim în faţă.
Noi am fi in fata daca societatea s-ar raporta la o scara de valori reale.

Noi ducem, în tăcere, România în spate.
Noi nu ducem pe nimeni in spate. Ii toleram.

Noi mergem la spital cu teama că e ultimul drum.
Noi mergem la spital abia digerand un sistem cretin.

Noi suntem mereu pândiţi de moarte pe şoselele groazei.
Noi am vrea sa fim panditi de moarte pe niste autostrazi, nu pe drumuri cu hartoape.

Noi vedem cum şcoala românească se prăbuşeste.
Noi recunoastem ca scoala romaneasca nu a fost niciodata prea sus.

Noi trăim, după o viaţă de muncă, umilinţa bătrâneţii în sărăcie.
Noi acceptam sa fim umiliti, in saracie, la batranete.

Noi ne naştem cu şpagă şi murim cu ea.
Noi participam la perpetuarea shpagii ca metoda in sine, din lipsa unei alternative.

Noi vedem cum justiţia îi scapă mereu pe şmecheri.
Noi nu intelegem rolul justitiei, asa cum o percepem la ora actuala.

Noi suntem cei abandonaţi de politicienii care au grijă doar de ei.
Noi toleram la nesfarsit o clasa politica arhaica, debila.

Noi nu mai avem încredere în aceşti oameni care s-au obişnuit să ne mintă.
Noi stim sa recunoastem minciuna acolo unde o auzim sau o vedem.

Noi suntem speriaţi de lipsa lor de viziune, de voinţă şi de caracter.
Noi suntem constienti de lipsa de valoare (atat profesionala cat si umana) a clasei politice.

Noi ne simţim în pericol.
Noi nu ne simtim in pericol mai mult decat altadata (de ex acum 30 de ani). Poveste veche.

Noi trebuie să rupem tăcerea.
Noi rupem tacerea in discutiile personale, chat-uri si pe blog-uri. In Media e zgomot.

Noi trebuie să ducem România înainte.
Noi reprezentam un flux paralel cu Romania. Nebagati in seama, neauziti, mergem mult prea inainte.

Noi nu vrem funcţii şi nici putere.
Noi apreciem adevaratele valori, fie ele chiar legate de functii sau putere.

Noi nu cerem nimic.
Noi cerem, neauzit, ceea ce ni se cuvine. Totul.

Hint: a se citi in opozitie cu manifestul "acelei" campanii media. Mai multe lamuriri aici

Requesting buying and importing a SSL certificate

2009-10-07T11:15:00.005+03:00

So here it is, I am embarrassed after a 2 days long journey to buy / import a SSL certificate from Thawte. It was not their fault, it's only me and I thought it may help people if I share:

First I want to say that I have bought a SSL123 certificate. What I am saying here may not apply to other types of certificates but it still may give you a hint. I have used Java's keytool tool for all the command lines appearing below.

So here are the correct steps:

1.) Generate a RSA type keypair. important: as of the date of this post they only support RSA

keytool -keystore path_to_keystore -genkeypair -keyalg RSA -alias jetty

You cannot secure an IP address through a certificate, only a domain name e.g. yourdomain.com. The common name of your certificate (the keytool will prompt you for your first and last name) must be yourdomain.com

2.) Generate the certificate request, CSR:

keytool -keystore path_to_keystore -certreq -keyalg RSA -alias jetty

VITAL: make sure you keep the keystore file somewhere you can get it later and don't change, tamper, delete anything from it. Just keep it safe as it is!

The CSR looks something like this:

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----
AAAAERERRRTERTDASDASYDASDMAN312312312DASDASd etc etc
blablalonger stuff here
-----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----

3.) Go to their site, choose the certificate you want to buy and make sure you get right at least the following options:

When you paste your CSR you may be pressing the button "test your CSR" just to make sure all the info contained in it is valid.

Choose Tomcat as the server software if you will deploy on Tomcat or Jetty. Otherwise choose the server you are using, if it's not there then ASK the support what to put in there. On the bottom of the support page you'll see a live chat button, use it, as they are very responsive. If you use Tomcat/Jetty and don't choose Tomcat as the server software they will not issue a PKCS7 but a generic certificate and you won't be able to import it later!

Tax number is the VAT number in case you're buying for a company registered in the European Union.

4.) They'll pass you through the verification process and send you back the certificate which looks just as the CSR string but with PKCS7 header and footer:

-----BEGIN PKCS7-----
blablatons of things here
-----END PKCS7-----

5.) Save that string into a certificate.txt file, and save it with Notepad (on windows), not Wordpad or anything that would mess with formatting, insert spaces or anything like that.

6.) Run this:

keytool -import -trustcacerts -file certificate.txt -keystore path_to_keystore -alias jetty

VITAL: it needs to be the same keystore from where you generated the CSR, untampered, unchanged, at least not the alias you have used to generate the CSR. So the alias you have generated the CSR from, must be there !

If you will see something like 'Certificate reply was installed in keystore' you're done.

If you get something like

"keytool error: java.lang.Exception: Input not an X.509 certificate"

then it may be that you didn't save the certificate correctly, or that you tampered with the keystore. However this error can appear for 1000 reasons other than the type of your certificate.

Take this information more as a guide then as "religion", use it w/o any guarantees, and whatever you do not understand or are not sure of, contact their support otherwise you may find yourself in the situation of buying something totally different than what you actually need or want.

Innovation gagged ?

2009-09-30T09:52:00.006+03:00

Here you can read the entire article which I consider to be a brilliant piece. Thanks to Alexandru Popescu for twitting it (I've made a habit thanking him for sharing so I'd better set up a daily cron job to do that for me :-D ). What hit me very hard and almost made me feel bad (heaving a 6 years old daughter) was the following bit which I find to be astonishing:

If you look at 4 year olds, they are constantly asking questions and wondering how things work. But by the time they are 6 ½ years old they stop asking questions because they quickly learn that teachers value the right answers more than provocative questions. High school students rarely show inquisitiveness. And by the time they're grown up and are in corporate settings, they have already had the curiosity drummed out of them. 80% of executives spend less than 20% of their time on discovering new ideas.

I always though that lack of innovation is deeply linked to the social factors as poverty in under-developed countries where 80% of the time you must actually think of how to survive. Instead I learn it's very deep in our "organization" as a species. SCARY !

What do you value ? The right answers or the atypical / provocative questions ?

Most people ...

2009-09-29T08:31:00.000+03:00

... never learn.

Android

2009-09-17T18:31:00.015+03:00

I asked a very talented friend of mine to do a drawing for me, called suggestively "Android". Here it is. You've got to love this guy, really:

Here are few other works he's done, enjoy :-)

Interesting Android / iPhone stats and charts

2009-09-16T23:16:00.001+03:00

Here it is

Android in "exotic" usage scenarios

2009-09-15T18:00:00.006+03:00

I've seen some very cool usages for the Android so far, let aside the mobile phone platform:

1.) Business Desk Phone/Organizer looks really good !
2.) Video / Gaming platform , needs a lot more work but hey ! At least it's something
3.) Not that exotic but still kickass :-D - Archos internet tablet, eat that Apple :-D
4.) Barnes & Noble eReader - Nook
5.) M Tube MID anyone ? MID shares media with TV set via gestures.

Anyone knows of any other usages ?

Android vs iPhone success - phone producers are not getting it

2009-09-14T18:07:00.003+03:00

When designing a smartphone you should look at the most simple, stunningly obvious fact: that it lets you build something soooo far from a PHONE. Fuck the phone! It's an aged, expired concept. It's dead !

The iPhone's success is due to the fact that it is NOT a phone. Let aside the design of it, which is brilliant just as most of Apple's designs, I won't write a 500 pages paper about why the hell it's so nice. It just is ! And still Motorola Cliq is nowhere near it. And so is the LG GW620 (Btw could LG have found a name that is harder to remember ?! Hardly !). Hell, even HTC models, aside Hero, are not getting it entirely. However, from all the Androids out there, HTC Hero "gets it" the most.

So all Smartphone designers out there please stop embarrassing yourselves and stop designing Phones ! Yes. Drop the Phone concept altogether because the most successful Smartphone(TM) out there, the iPhone, is not a phone. Just as iPods are not mp3 players ! Ah, another example at least by the looks, Zune is stunningly beautiful.

Just go out there, find some punks in the streets, catch them graffiti-ing the walls and ask them what would they like at a device that would, amongst others, allow them to socialize online, listen music, twitter, face-book, or look fancy. And they will not point to any Cliq or LG GW 620 ppx trgg 55.

Android is a platform that you can build upon. It's been proven. Use it but for fuck's sake STOP DESIGNING PHONES ! The iPhone showed you all that people want much more than a phone. Give it to them. And something beautiful will arise finally. The days of the phone are over. Let there begin the days of the smartphone, call it the Phone 8.0 (Laugh, Mr. O'Reilly is gonna come after me =)) ) or whatever you want.

Aside design, iPhone is about the way you interact with it. It allows grown-ups to be children again, be able to play again. You touch it, slide it, zoom it, talk to it. Nevertheless they may do useful stuff but it lets you play, relax, feel good when using the device. The virtual keyboard is something that should be embraced, stop designing phones with touch screen AND QUERTY or whatever fucking sliding keyboard ! You are defeating the purpose of the touch screen. Why do you have it if you don't use it ?

In the iPhone / Android era, which started a while ago and is happening right now, the phones are all free. Cause nobody will buy them anymore. You'll get a bag of phones with a $4 subscription (massive laugh here). If you want just a phone, the chip and the battery fits into the volume control of your headphones.

Read my lips: The phone (as we know it) is dead. Sooner you realize, better for your sales.

The (short) quest of Speech Recognition on Android

2009-09-14T11:03:00.005+03:00

Well yeah, speech recognition is possible BUT apparently it is handled by default by the Google Voice Search package (I am not 100% sure but it's all I have learned till now, read this for example) which is available only for the brave :-D. And I am weak.

So I am currently investigating other ways of implementing it. There would be two main directions to investigate:

1.) Perform the speech recognition on the device - I'm not sure how practical this is, would certainly eat up a lot of CPU/battery, if possible at all. However I didn't find any resource on this, at least not yet and not for Android.

1.1) As an intermediary step maybe it would be easier to implement recognition for a limited vocabulary for which you would store sound/text values, record voice and try to match the recorded sound against the existing entries. This may work, the issue here would be analyzing/matching the two sound samples.

2.) Capture a sound file/stream, upload it to a server, convert it to text and get the text back. I found Sphinx as a possible server side package to do the speech recognition and get the text back, but there are some drawbacks to this approach: you need a server, you need bandwidth (3G, Wifi I'd say) and you need to convert from the capture format on Android (3GPP, mpeg whatever) to the formats supported by Sphinx which is dependent on JavaSound (cringe!), these being aiif, au and wav.

However for the 2.) point there is a slight advantage in being able to choose the server platform/package which would not need to be Java (I specifically looked for Java, Sphinx 4 is Java) and I assume that speech recognition efforts have been made in other languages too.

Has anyone else tried/thought of doing something similar ?

The danger of becoming "social"

2009-09-09T09:03:00.002+03:00

I've been working on getting up to date with the "social web" lately, you know, twitter etc. And I realized this morning that I checked twitter and another dozen of social or news sites before starting work (well I always do that, nothing new here) but something was missing ... umm what ? And then I suddenly realized. I forgot to check email :-D . That must mean something.

Amongst others, it means Google Wave launch is long over due as it will, hopefully, allow to see them all in one place, and not only see them but also collaborate, share, whatever, not sure of all this 2.0 thing :-D. And if it doesn't, well, we'll see how we can help it :-D

Vacanta in Romania

2009-08-20T23:13:00.002+03:00

La Felix cu nevasta si copilitza:

1.) Romanii au descoperit un nou mod de a sta in apa: Multi si in picioare. Multi multi, desi si in picioare. Mai si umbla. Da' nu inoata. Defel. Ne-a salvat nenea de la pensiunea unde eram cazati ca avea piscina. Am facut acolo cateva ture bune.

La Costinesti, tot cu familia:

1.) Poate Silviu Prigoana sa trimita o flota de masini sa stranga peturile.
2.) Oamenii, nu inoata, stau in picioare, ciotca. De data asta in apa alburie (de la jeg banuiesc) si plina de alge.
3.) Salvamarii salveaza fetele de aglomeratia de pe plaja si le duc in larg fluierand stavrizii umblatori
4.) Ala de la Aqua Park de la tobogan zice: Cat are fetita ? Eu: 6 ani. Ala: Ia pune-o langa perete. Eu: De ce ? Ala: Sa vedem cat e de inalta. O pun langa un marcaj de 1.20 m, e mai mica cu un cap, ce sa-i fac daca maica-sa care e mare deja si are doar 1.50. Zice geniul ala: Nu are domne' 6 ani, vad dupa expresia fetzei. Ma gandesc (ma al draku, or fi angajand astia numa paranormali sau cu studii superioare sa sufle in fluierele alea, ma prinse asta furand 6 luni din varsta lui fiica-mea) . Degeaba. Nu ne lasa. Sotia are o tentativa de a fi un pic mai dura da dupa atatia ani de Cluj Napoca s-a inmuiat samanta de cearta, nu le mai are. Coboram jos la alea pentru fraieri ca aia sub 1.20 platesc degeaba. Bine ca acu' un an in Antalya au lasat-o turcii pe toboganele de adulti pe gratis. N-avea nici un metru. Da aci e lumea civilizata ma. Nu e Turcia. Da banu' si du-te stai in ploaie daca vrei baie.
5.) Stam la pensiunea Golden Pearl. E in Costinesti in zona primariei. O recomand. E cel mai bun lucru de anul asta pe litoral. Totul e pe fatza, totul e cinstit, ce platesti aia primesti, camere curate, dencente, mancare BUNA, da BUNA, nu ca zic eu asha. Gatita calumea, e prima data cand nu imi merge burta la draku de cand merg eu la mare in Romania.

Vine si continuarea ...

HTML 5 and client - server apps

2009-08-12T08:57:00.004+03:00

Was listening to this: http://www.infoq.com/interviews/HTML-5-Ric-Smith interesting stuff as always, thanks InfoQ, I really needed to hear what's the fuss about HTML5. I say it's Pandora's box. Meet me at a beer and I'll explain cause it's going to take all night :-D

However there is this question asked by the interview-er which I just couldn't stand responding :-)

One of the trends that I have seen that seemed to have occurred several times: when you start of you have the main server, you have the dumb terminal and logics gets pushed down to the clients, and then the same thing happens with personal computers, pushing desktop applications down to the clients, not being run on the server anymore. Those started to shift back and then you have web applications which are hosted on the web and instead of Flash plug-ins. Now it seems there is a shift back down, to adding more intelligence to the client, and doing more work on the client. While at the same time there is a push to move stuff from the client to the server. Is this a pattern that you see is happening as well and what do you think it's going to happen in the future? Will we continue to do this back and forth or not?

I think, at least in the Java community, all evil started with Struts. Yes. Most server side frameworks used this paradigm of receiving a request, rendering a HTML page and send it back in response. And yes, there may have been some valid reasons to do that, but not all. And it wasn't the only alternative. AJAX is with us since many many years but it got lots of publicity and traction with the clients like GMail appearing. As a long time GWT runner now (and not only GWT but I'll stick to that mainly) I can see, hands on now, how the HTML rendering on the server side was a huge mistake.

So let me put it this way:
Spending CPU cycles on the server side for rendering HTML is simply wrong. All the flow and UI rendering and event interception SHOULD happen in the browser. You go back to the server if you want to access persistent data or want to coordinate with other thin clients (simplest example is a chat app) and send or receive data from them but that's it. UI rendering and application flow in most of the cases belongs to the client. There are few cases where you need to go back to the server for application flow but that proportion is minimal.

And as I also said here: http://lightweightyes.blogspot.com/2009/04/is-browser-new-virtual-machine.html UI rendering and application flow in the browser allows for a whole new level of scalability (rendering HTML on the server side was eating a humongous percent like 50 - 80% of the total application CPU cycles in some apps that I saw and even developed, fingers crossed !). Also in the above mentioned post I was envisioning running a Terracota setup in the browser (maybe too much beer at that time). Of course that with the current state of HTML it's not possible. But there is this thing called Web Sockets which comes in the HTML5 and this would really enable that scenario and many more. Don't ask me how practical is that, but I am sure there are Usecases where that would be appropriate, we just need a smart guy to point them out :-)

As I said: Pandora's box :-D

Apple vs. Google

2009-08-11T23:50:00.002+03:00

Rumors spread more and more about a war going on between Google and Apple. And it's not about the Google OS, I think. iPhone business has generated more revenue in 2 years than the MAC. That is, Apple has discovered how to monetize peoples appetite for mobility.

Sun actually discovered that appetite a long time ago and tried to put Java on every phone in the world, it succeeded also to a big degree but never had success due to the stupid J2ME designed by lab people who had nothing in relation to reality, just as those who designed EJB ! fingers crossed!. But poor Sun didn't know how to pack it and sell it, neither nice as Apple does with the iPhone, nor smart as Google does with their Android platform. With the HTC Hero suddenly the world realizes that iPhone can happen on other platforms too, and can be infinitely smarter than a touch screen. Yeah, exactly that is Android. So freaking smarter !

And so, we have Google with their "Open" nonsense threatening to rival the huge milk cow that is the iPhone. If you come to me and say Apple doesn't try to build there a monopoly just freak off and make a Google Voice app for the iPhone.

So we have a potential Microsoft in it's inception in the mobile world which is Apple. And there is Google who, with intention or not, is directly competing with that through a platform, Android, which if would have been built by Sun instead of the dusty J2ME years ago would have revolutionized the mobile world back then.

We'll see who's gonna win. My stakes (all) are on openness. Yeah, Google exactly.

P.S. I just hope I won't get into the position of buying an Apple iPhone because there's nothing better, like it seems I need on the desktop. Windows is killing me (or the need to reinstall it). For Linux I am still looking for drivers (remember windows 98 installed each weekend ?). So there remains the MAC. It's a need though, I am not part of Apple's i*Poo* culture, it's simply gay. Yeah I said it. That's what it is. And I don't want to be part of a platform where apps meant for me get rejected by some schmuck's dictatorship. I come from a country where I had tons of that shit all my childhood. I won't take it as a grown up if I can choose.

Ubuntu, your HDD, hearing sounds, hdparm, usability and secretaries

2009-07-27T08:22:00.003+03:00

I've installed kubuntu on my laptop, planning to replace XP with it, no more windows poo, if kubuntu or any linux for that matter, ain't working I'm Steve's Jobs guys for good (*cringe*).

However, due to the way ubuntu is configuring (or not configuring) your HDD power management settings, I am hearing every few seconds a strange sound coming from the HDD, something like a de-click. It's like it would stop every 5 seconds or stop every 5 seconds and then start again.

After some googling and foruming (back again to the OS hacker's life, when you were installing and reinstalling windows 98 (faint !) drivers every night in your lousy student life) I found that the issue could be the aggressive power management saving policy. For the hard disk here's how you tell it to save the least, thus not stopping it at all or something, the explanations are a bit fuzzy:

hdparm -B 254 /dev/hda

And then the sound stopped. I guess this means it will smack the battery but I don't care I'm using it as a mostly desktop system anyway.

In other words I am not saying that Ubuntu is far from windows usability but still, imagine your secretary running something called hdparm in the console. Well not that they'd be able to detect strange hard disk sounds either, until it's smoked !

Otherwise I'm quite happy with kubuntu, Java, Eclipse, Tomcat they all running like a breeze. Surprisingly kubuntu's UI is quite nice, with one annoying inconsistency, I've set the general system font to size 7 but still in Eclipse's editor it's a lot bigger, I wonder how am I going to fix that.

And I still need to get the sound working, I have no clue on how to install/get/replace the driver for it but somehow I feel that these days I am going to meet a smart-ass who's going to tell me how to do it and then laugh at me.

Manipulating petabytes of data

2009-07-22T07:45:00.003+03:00

Have you ever asked yourself what would you do if you'd need to do it ?

Here are some useful links:

HadoopDB - http://db.cs.yale.edu/hadoopdb/hadoopdb.html (free/OS)
Hadoop + Hive http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=89508453919 (free/OS)
Cloudera (UPDATE) - Hadoop based
Greenplum - http://www.greenplum.com/ (paid)
Teradata - http://www.teradata.com/t/ (paid)
Asterdata nCluster - http://www.asterdata.com/product/index.php (paid)
DATAllegro - http://www.datallegro.com/v3/index.asp (it's M$)
Vertica - http://www.vertica.com/enterprise-data-warehouse (paid)
Netezza - http://www.netezza.com/data-warehouse-appliance-products/index.aspx (paid)

Feel free to add to the list if you feel like it. It crossed my mind that JBOSS hasn't announced such a product. It's about time isn't it ? :-D

The Google Android vs iPhone bet

2009-07-06T08:18:00.002+03:00

Here's my bet with Radu of the Eloquentix fame, on Google Android vs "iPhone 3,4,5 G, XPDU kaboom big badaboom":

In 2 years not only that iPhone will become obsolete, it will own the same market share that MAC has. And not only that, but it's "quality" will become a true legend. As Apple switched from the big mighty rocket science processor to Intel ones, I am waiting for the day they will run their iPhones on Google Android :-D, forced by this shit some people call "market".

And so, The iPhone will be nothing more than an excellent design powered by decent quality, while Android enabled phones will benefit from the unstoppable inovation comming from Google AND the herd that belives in these two words: "open *whatever*". I am only waiting for the terminal (HTC Hero may be the one, I only wish it was cheaper) that will be able to create the momentum needed for the vendors to say: This Android thing really has potential. We loose if we don't exploit that market. And that is the "bye bye iPhone moment". (Hear me Sony? Wake up you Playstation XYZ pimps. You want your playstation on mobile? The answer is Google Android). I've bet before but this is the first public bet I make. Let's see how it turns out.

Here Radu, just post a comment here and we have a bet. The stakes is the latest iPhone 3GPdBHboom badaboom (I buy you) available in 2 years from now on (6 July 2011) vs the latest equivalent price Android enabled phone (you buy me) and I get to choose which one as there will be plenty :-D. Who looses the bet, buys.

GWT - Application is not up to date erred message

2009-06-18T11:34:00.002+03:00

GWT has a very weird way of dealing with serializable types. If a type is not serializable (read in the docs what that means) and you try to use it with the remoting support you'll get all sorts of weird exceptions. I have explained one situation in a previous post.

In the same ideea, if you have a remote exception (that implements IsSerializable cause you want to send it over the wire right ?) BUT you are unfortunate enough to forget that ALL google serializable types MUST have an empty constructor (as per their docs) you will get a

IncompatibleRemoteServiceException

with the message "Your application is not up to date, hit refresh in your browser bla bla bla". And you will hit refresh a lot of times with no result.

If you read the IncompatibleRemoteserviceException javadoc you'll see it is thrown in the case of sending over the wire a "not so" serializable type. So an exception implementing IsSerializable it is not yet serializable if you DON'T ADD A NO ARGS CONSTRUCTOR to it.

I'd wish GWT would check at compile time for all serializable types used (or at least declared) and at least give a warning if not fail the compilation altogether.

Remember: a GWT serializable type MUST have a no args constructor (unless you don't specify any of them) and that's for all your serializable type hierarchy.

JBoss Drools and GWT 1.6.4 classpath conflict

2009-05-21T13:47:00.005+03:00

If you're doing a project with GWT 1.6.4 and you also use JBOSS Drools you will have to exclude the Drools libs from the classpath when compiling java to Javascript with GWT, as it throws a proud representative of the jar hell:

[java] [ERROR] Unexpected
[java] java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: org.eclipse.jdt.internal.compiler.looku
p.ProblemReferenceBinding.closestReferenceMatch()Lorg/eclipse/jdt/internal/compi
ler/lookup/ReferenceBinding;
[java] at com.google.gwt.dev.javac.JsniChecker$CheckingVisitor.findClas
s(JsniChecker.java:231)
[java] at com.google.gwt.dev.javac.JsniChecker$CheckingVisitor.checkRef
s(JsniChecker.java:142)
[java] at com.google.gwt.dev.javac.JsniChecker$CheckingVisitor.endVisit
(JsniChecker.java:65)
[java] at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.compiler.ast.MethodDeclaration.trave
rse(MethodDeclaration.java:227)
[java] at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.compiler.ast.TypeDeclaration.travers
e(TypeDeclaration.java:1149)
[java] at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.compiler.ast.CompilationUnitDeclarat
ion.traverse(CompilationUnitDeclaration.java:487)
[java] at com.google.gwt.dev.javac.JsniChecker.check(JsniChecker.java:3
50)
[java] at com.google.gwt.dev.javac.JsniChecker.check(JsniChecker.java:3
40)
[java] at com.google.gwt.dev.javac.CompilationUnitInvalidator.validateC
ompilationUnits(CompilationUnitInvalidator.java:159)
[java] at com.google.gwt.dev.javac.CompilationState.compile(Compilation
State.java:198)
[java] at com.google.gwt.dev.javac.CompilationState.refresh(Compilation
State.java:178)
[java] at com.google.gwt.dev.javac.CompilationState.(CompilationS
tate.java:93)
[java] at com.google.gwt.dev.cfg.ModuleDef.getCompilationState(ModuleDe
f.java:264)
[java] at com.google.gwt.dev.Precompile.precompile(Precompile.java:283)

[java] at com.google.gwt.dev.Compiler.run(Compiler.java:170)
[java] at com.google.gwt.dev.Compiler$1.run(Compiler.java:124)
[java] at com.google.gwt.dev.CompileTaskRunner.doRun(CompileTaskRunner.
java:84)
[java] at com.google.gwt.dev.CompileTaskRunner.runWithAppropriateLogger
(CompileTaskRunner.java:78)
[java] at com.google.gwt.dev.Compiler.main(Compiler.java:131)

Is the browser the new virtual machine ?

2009-04-02T10:29:00.002+03:00

It just crossed my mind, as I am developing with GWT (Ext - JS - *Cringe* ) these days, that there is at least one similarity between the Java JVM and the Browser (you name it) as it is perceived these days. So the first and the foremost JVM promise is "write once run everywhere".

I think that with a good JS/CSS framework you can accomplish that in the Browser also. However I am not sure that ALL the browsers are prepared to host efficiently tons of objects (remember how we program in Java =)) ). Some steps have been taken by Chrome to that respect, I hear. However are they prepared for efficient garbage collection, are they secured, stable enough ? How about thinking of a lot of JVM goodies paralleled onto the browser ? (Like are we ever going to have a browser level Terracotta product ? *Cringe* again)

What's the most scalable web tier ever ?

2009-03-30T19:57:00.004+03:00

The browser ?

IIS6 + Tomcat configuration, old classic

2009-01-09T10:54:00.002+02:00

So you're not a IIS guru, nor a Windows guru and somebody forcefully give you the job to configure IIS6 with tomcat. You're unfortunate enough to go to all web wide tutorials which point you on how to place the ISAPI redirector dll, where to put it, to configure it through registry or properties file. I certainly prefer properties file as you don't want to hear my oppinion on windows registry (or maybe you want: it's a pile of shit !). After all workers.properties and uriworkermap.properties correctly configured it still doesn't work. You start searching frantically on the internet.

There are two things you will certainly miss cause they are missing from most of the tutorials I have read:

create a virtual directory (right click on your IIS web site you're configuring) named jakarta and give it execute run and read priviledges (most of the time read and execute should be enough) pointing to the folder containing the ISAPI redirector DLL, named as in the extension_uri ISAPI redirector configuration property aka: extension_uri=/jakarta/isapi_redirector.dll
create a web service extension (right click on web service extensions, add, name it tomcat point it to the redirector DLL and make sure you check the magical 'Allowed' status)

So after all the isapi_redirector.properties, workers.properties, uriworkermap.properties and correctly defining the DLL in the ISAPI Filters tab of your web site and seeing the magical green arrow victoriously pointed UP nothing works ? Well shit happens. REMEMBER to perform also the above points with the virtual directory and web service extension and you'll save yourself 2 days of frustrating windows restarting, IIS stopping and starting instead of playing a nice game.

Happy IIS-ing and if you're doing this on a regular basis ... find another job !

Do not go to Soelden - Haus Albin ...

2009-01-05T11:44:00.003+02:00

Unless you want to be introduced to the 'open appartment' concept: 2 separate rooms, the toilet outside the rooms and across the hallway (used by all living at that floor, I mean the hallway, but nothing stops anyone at that floor to stumble upon that toilet anyway), the kitchen and the living room 2 floors downstairs. I am wondering when will we be introduced to the appartment that is splitered accross 2 separate buildings.

As for the temperature it was hitting 15 degrees celsius (YES on the inside, with us sleeping there !), I woke up 3 nights at 4 AM literally frozen (outside it was -15 to -5 degrees celsius all the time) and thinking to buy an electrical heater the next day so that we don't get back home sick as hell. When we got back home we were wearing t-shirts at 19 degrees celsius and we were thinking "what the hell, it's too warm in here. oh wait, no, it's 19 degrees, it's 3 degrees under the european standard, it's just that we don't need to wear tons of clothes, it's normal temperature".

And after all these, the "land lord" (literally fucking laugh here) accused us of being "cheap" when we didn't agree, immediately and without comment, to pay the kids station fee (70 eurs/kid. We paid it of course, we are decent people). We were wrong not to announce the kids in advance, I admit it, but you guys were extremely unpolite to put it so straight after 2000 euros you have charged for that freezing, so called 'open appartment'. To put it blunt as well, you were fuckheads with no excuse. You almost ruined our holiday and yes, you suck !

GWT - the hard way

2008-09-24T14:33:00.003+03:00

I'm using GWT 1.5.2 in a new project since few days and I've learned the following lessons the hard way:

If you have the following remote service call
List {genericType B} serviceCall(int i) { ... } where B extends A implements IsSerializable and do not have a default empty constructor in A, GWT will show a meaningful stack trace so you will be able to see ASAP that you need that empty constructor, BUT if you forgot to put the empty constructor into the class B ... then you'll get it the hard way: no trace. No meaningfull info. Only the com.google.gwt.user.client.rpc.StatusCodeException: The call failed on the server; see server log for details exception. where the server log is nowhere.
Do not EVER copy/paste GWT sample code into your project (e.g. incubator code) while having also the sample code libs in your project classpath. Do not ask me why but your CSS will be sooo messed up and you will NOT know why. Take a pill, grab the next cup of coffee and RENAME the things you are pasting into your project. (Do not forget to rename in all the places, such as the module descriptor, HTML wrapper, etc. be good guy and include the styleshees etc etc).

Stay tuned for more, I have the shitty feeling that it's not over yet, and I still have to walk the hard path ...

Austria holiday - Zillertal

2008-04-01T12:02:00.002+03:00

Dream land. Keep dreaming ...

http://picasaweb.google.com/dorel.vaida/Austria2008Zillertal

Google Adwords - gosh

2007-04-25T18:06:00.000+03:00

I've just set up a Google Adwords standard account. I'm stunned. Now I kind of begin to understand where all those money Google makes come from. Gosh.

The joy of being a father

2007-04-21T11:48:00.000+03:00

Flawless :-)

Online Automatic Update - how ?

2007-03-26T21:54:00.000+03:00

Have you ever thought to use a versionig system (SVN for example) to build an automatic online update mechanism ? NO ? Think again. It will work. I don't know the alternatives, I haven't look at any, but it works for me as follows:

You must pay a little little extra attention not to get conflicts (or if you get them, to overwrite them, here you must make sure you NEVER commit user settings related files) and split the update into two parts:

a "phisical" update mechanism (as oposed to logical) - phisical updates are where the versioning system will do all the job for you, updating files that changed and were commited by you to the update server and
a "logical" update mechanism (e.g. database updates at software startup, after phisical updates took place)

If you have a pretty complex folder structure and want to update only what changed, SVN (or another versioning system for that matter) will do a damn good job. Some will say it's a huge hammer for a small nail but hey ? Do you want to do it right or you want to innovate a little and go into production with something that really works ?

Adaptiv software - web traffic analysis and SEO

2007-03-20T11:21:00.000+02:00

Q1. How many of you have online websites (be it corporate/presentation site or online business, e-commerce) ? Alright, I see you.

Q2. Now, how many of you do know the number of visits you've had yesterday (or last month, for that matter), what search engine they came from, even more, from what site referring your site they came from, how many of them were new and how many of them were coming back, and what country/city did they come from ? OK, I see you too.

The current post is dedicated to the guys who raised the hands in response to the second question. Anyway, if you're not in that category, please don't go away, it means you have some experience is web traffic analysis, eventually SEO (if you've done one is highly probable you've done the other one, eventually with an expert) and you can complete the post with useful info (only if interested, of course :-) )

So, as I said, as we've launched our web site, http://www.adaptiv.ro we instantly became interested in the following 2 topics:

- Web traffic analysis and assessment - With a simple script or snippet of JavaScript or JavaScript + HTML you embed in each of your pages you'll get to know, for free, a LOT of useful information about your site. You'll know how many visitors you had, where did they come from (other site or search engine), what geographical zone are they, what keywords did they use to get to you etc. This is terribly useful information to have if you really want to know where do you stand in the virtual world.

So, here is what the StatCounter.com guys have to give you for free (for a limited traffic but if you get bigger traffic than what they give for free I am sure you can afford to pay) and you have the option do that TRANSPARENTLY, you don't put your logo on your site if you don't want. I'm using them and here's several samples of what you get for free, and in real time (immediately after the hit on your site, you'll have it reported into your StatCounter account):

- A Summary, will show you how many hits(page loads), unique visitors and returning visitors you had per day, in a selectable interval
- Popular pages, which pages of your site are most visited
- Came from, your visitors, where did they come from ?
- Visitor paths
- Keyword analysis, what keywords did they searched and got to you
- Country/State/City/ISP - Geographical / ISP information
- AND many others, go check them out !

Also, there is Google Analytics which also contains traffic analysis, but it also has a lot of tools and reports that allow you to assess also your online business performance, including integration with Google's AddWords and other useful stuff that I'm struggling to understand at the time of this post :-)) . From what I see right now, Google Analytics is a excellent looking and performing tool. It's not real time though, but that's not exactly a problem. You can assess tomorrow, today's traffic :-D.

Adaptiv Software web site is tracked with both StatCounter and Google Analytics for purposes of testing and getting familiar with these notions. What we have left to do is to figure out how to bring more traffic to our site. Isn't it ? :-)

- SEO meaning Search Engine Optimization - how do you build your website and what content do you put into it so that it is search engine friendly ? Oh yes, the term exists and it is a VERY powerful notion, as it can decide if you get 100.000 visitors coming from Google searches or you get 1000 visitors from there.

Now I'm sure you'll get TONS of SEO articles and techniques, TONS of software programs and consultancies who'll do that for you. But if you're interested, and being given that Google is the most used search engine out there, you'll want to go and see what they have to say.

I know there are lots of SEO resources and tools out there, I'm just giving a start point.

Also visit Google Webmaster Central and Google Webmaster Tools for a wider range of information in this area.

Now, take a look at Statcounter (excellent for basic + medium needs) and to Google Analysis (more advanced notions) and see what happens :-)

Facturi si Avize de Insotire a Marfii Gratis - de ce

2007-03-16T21:07:00.000+02:00

Facturi Gratis este primul produs propriu lansat de Adaptiv Software, asa ca m-am gandit sa scriu putin despre el.

Facturi Gratis este o incercare (prima si in mod sigur nu ultima, indiferent de rezultatul demersului) a echipei Adaptiv Software de a iesi din tiparul "banu' jos ochii la usa" (vorba vine de a iesi, ca nu am fost niciodata inscrisi intr-un asemenea tipar, mai degraba de a demonstra ca se poate si altfel). In cazul Facturi Gratis, Adaptiv Software incearca sa foloseasca un alt tip de gandire si anume: Noi oferim un produs pe care dumneavoastra il folositi gratis, pe perioada nelimitata, indiferent pe cate calculatoare il instalati sau cati utilizatori al acestuia vor fi. Tot pe perioada nelimitata, clientul beneficiaza de actualizari si bug fixing, si aici intervine o aparenta "problema" si anume clientul se poate intreba pe buna dreptate:

"Cine imi garanteaza ca daca produsul crapa astia mi-l repara in timp util ?" Raspunsul formal este nemeni (revin imediat ca nu-i asa de simplu :-D ). Sau "Ma va despagubi Adaptiv Software daca eu sau firma la care lucrez sau pe care o administrez sufera orice fel de prejudicii in urma utilizarii produsului ?" Raspunsul este dat de licenta de utilizare a produsului : "Nu". Si urmatorul lucru care ii trece prin cap cititorului sau clientului : "Astia sunt sau fraieri, sau ne cred pe noi fraieri si incearca sa ne faca !"

O sa incerc sa explic ulterior care este in mare strategia noastra:

1.) Oferim un produs de calitate pentru a nu rani reputatia firmei. Calitatile acestuia vor deveni evidente pentru utilizatori pe parcursul utilizarii. Prin urmare nu avem absolut nici un interes in a oferi un produs de calitate proasta, deoarece, in cazul acesta pe langa ca ne-am pierdut timpul dezvoltandu-l, ne mai stricam imaginea ca si ofertant de produse si servicii software.

2.) Ceea ce noi urmarim prin acest demers este obtinerea de vizibilitate si credibilitate. Ceea ce spunem noi este: "Noi dezvoltam acest produs, il facem cat de bine putem, il actualizam cat mai des cu putiinta, este gratis deci puteti sa-l descarcati si sa-l folositi imediat, este usor de instalat si utilizat deci o sa va dati seama de ceea ce poate in foarte scurt timp. Daca sunteti satisfacut de produs si stiti cine l-a dezvoltat, atunci veti sti unde sa va indreptati in viitor pentru un produs de cel putin aceeasi calitate."

3.) Licenta de utilizare este atat de "zgarcita" cu garantiile pe care le ofera Adaptiv Software in legatura cu Facturi Gratis in principal pentru a feri firma Adaptiv Software de orice tentative de prejudiciere cu care s-ar putea confrunta in urma demersului de a oferi gratis acest produs. Riscul pe care vi-l asumati este minim: In cazul in care nu agreeati produsul, pur si simplu nu il utilizati. De asemenea in urma cresterii numarului de utilizatori a produsului, suntem constienti de faptul ca probabil ne vom afla in imposibilitatea de a satisface cerintele tuturor utilizatorilor programului, gratis. Ceea ce face momentan Facturi Gratis este sa satisfaca un set de cerinte de baza a unei majoritati a clientilor. Cu ajutorul dvs, al clientilor, noi speram sa crestem aceasta majoritate si in acelasi timp sa crestem si dimensiunea setului de cerinte satisfacut de Facturi Gratis.

4.) In cazul in care doriti un alt nivel de suport pentru produs, training sau un alt set de facilitati, eventual modificari la Facturi Gratis, care nu sunt incluse in planurile de dezvoltare pe viitor ale produsului, va rugam sa ne contactati pentru a ne da detalii.

5.) Dorim sa cream in jurul Facturi Gratis o comunitate de utilizatori si aceasta comunitate sa participe activ la imbunatatirea / extinderea produsului prin sugestii, evidentierea eventualelor probleme, cereri de facilitati noi.

Cam lung, in urmatoarele blog entry-uri o sa incerc sa detaliez o serie de facilitati si avantaje ale Facturi Gratis.

Lansare in sfarsit ! - http://www.adaptiv.ro

2007-03-09T20:27:00.000+02:00

In sfarsit, am lansat site-ul firmei Adaptiv Software (firma proprie).

http://www.adaptiv.ro

Cu multa, multa muuulta intarziere (am muncit mult sa aducem in stadiu beta primul soft oficial lansat de Adaptiv Software si anume 'Facturi Gratis' ) dar important este ca suntem up & running.

Cat despre Facturi Gratis, in cateva cuvinte, este un program pentru emiterea / tiparirea facturilor si avizelor de insotire a marfii, personalizabile la limita inferioara acum (se poate specifica doar sigla care vreti sa apara pe factura), dar printr-un mecanism destept de templating si autodetectie a template-urilor, impreuna cu facilitatea de automatic update speram sa facem disponibile curand cateva modele noi de facturi, pe langa cel 'Classic' care este disponibil acum. De asemenea, pe langa facilitatea de tiparire facturi, Facturi Gratis mai ofera si posibilitatea de administrare (minimala) a listei de produse si servicii, clienti, angajati, definire serii facturi noi etc.

Sfatul nostru : Descarca si Incearca. Pagina 'Intro' contine cateva filmulete flash care tin loc de cateva pagini bune de help. Si sectiunea de help va fi extinsa in functie de cerintele utilizatorilor.

SI nu uitati : Facturi Gratis este ... GRATIS.

Multumiri cat casa echipei TEA COMMUNICATIONS pentru tot ajutorul si munca depusa in realizarea site-ului. Ei sunt in totalitate "responsabili" de identitatea vizuala a firmei Adaptiv Software. Ei sunt partenerii strategici ai Adaptiv Software pe tot ce inseamna "vizual".

De asemenea multumiri pentru ajutor echipei Mediatic pentru munca depusa, si inca mai mult pentru ideile destepte cu care au venit de fiecare data.

Concluzia: vizitati-ne si hotarati daca va putem fi de folos in vre-un fel sau nu :-)

Web site development

2006-12-03T13:02:00.000+02:00

We're currently in the process of developing the web site for my company, Adaptiv Software (no typo, 'Adaptiv' is a romanian word, translated in english it means adaptive), and I was investigating the web resources one can use to get started. Of course you'll want to develop a (X)HTML + CSS based design for your site.

The first and the foremost, excellent resource for that is 'A LIST apart'. Boomer. Information about site structure, information you want/need to put there, CSS development tricks, tips and more. Read all that info (agree, it will take some time) and you'll be projected literally years ahead of what you know now about web design/development, especially if you are a beginner (as me ... hummm, when it comes about creative design, even site structure, shame on me I'm ,among others, a Java web developer, I should know better).

After that, you'll want to meets some gurus and their web friends isn't it ? Ok now meet Dave Shea the creator of the amazingly simple and powerful CSSZenGarden and his Mezzoblue.

Also go see Google's new Visual Design Lead, Douglas Bowman , and his Stopdesign.

Please look at these guys references and what they're visiting (their sites are organized as blogs, it won't be hard to find them) , all are worthy resources.

For a quick start in CSS layouting please go here. For TONS of CSS resources go to CSSVault. Want some Stylish CSS ? : Stylegala. Maniac already ? : CSSMania. Everything Web Development and even more ? : Web Developer's Handbook. I will stop now.

If there are more (and I am sure they are), and you think they're worth looking at, please post them as comments so people reading this can get all the help they need

So, to resume:

And you'll be a FAR more knowlegeable web developer.

p.s. If you'll post others as comments, I pormiss to evaluate adding them to the list, but I reserve the right to list them :-)

update: thanks to all who contributed to the list of resources.

Why the Java Ecosystem is so much fun after all

2006-10-12T09:00:00.000+03:00

I was reading these two threads on InfoQ and I was thinking that Java has had such a big success because starting from James Gosling back the old days and "ending" nowadays with Jonathan Scwartz (SIC!) the Java platform has benefited from several (lots) of the brightest minds of all times. Of course I use Jonathan more to indicate a point in time than a brilliant mind (I'm just joking, it's MY blog after all !).

No what made my day is this:

On one side we have John Crupi (of SUN) evangelizing SOA, and the whole WS* thing, telling us how they basically define, design and publish enterprise services having XML Schema as a fist class citizen: "...whether it's one mega-schema that has all your use-cases and you have to pull out the parts that have been populated or the use-cases are finer grained associated with the schemas at a lower level" etc. Here's the link.

On the other hand, up one slot (on InfoQ) we have Tim Bray (of SUN) who obviously doesn't like what vendors currently do, or trying to do with all that SOA hype, and parts of all this WS* initiative: "...and they are based on XML schema and WSDL, which are two of the ugliest, most broken and irritating specifications in the history of the universe."

So what I did is I had a really good laugh, but after all, these guys are both for real. Obviously they are deeply involved professionals, you cannot laugh at one and disconsider the other. After watching both the interviews, it's sooo easy to make your choice and choose the path you want to go.

So this "being able to choose which way to go", which at a lower level in Java manifests itself by being able to choose between technology and implementations, is available at the concept level also as proven by the difference of vision between these two guys. That's one thing where the Java ecosystem got it right. Being able to choose. But there are lots of other reasons for the success of Java of course. Mhhhm. Mmm.

Which way do you go ? :-D

As a side note, it seems that InfoQ is starting to deliver isn't it ? :-) . Well, that's happening since some time now, what Iwant to say is that now it's becoming more and more obvious. Congrats Floyd and team, and keep up the good work.

Gregory Benford sau Isaac Asimov ? Amandoi ?

2006-10-11T00:26:00.000+03:00

Am terminat de citit "Teama Fundatiei", scrisa de Gregory Benford si autorizata de patrimoniul Isaac Asimov. Volumul face parte din "A doua trilogie a Fundatiei", prima (trilogie) fiind scrisa de de Asimov.

Asimov mi s-a parut mai digerabil, mai usor de citit. Benford este mai greu de citit, dar cu atat mai mare este satisfactia cand actiunea incepe sa se lege, si explorezi, pe masura posibilitatilor intelectuale, un univers creat de o gandire mult mai ampla, mai complexa, neingradita de bariere conventionale.

De fiecare data cand termin un volum SF ma intreb cum a fost posibil ca un om sa creeze un univers, sa il descrie in detaliu, sa descrie mecanismele functionarii lui si interactiunile intre indivizi in asa fel incat sa rezulte o capodopera a genului (unde e cazul bine-nteles). Ce fel de pregatire, ce gandire si ce cumul de informatii si imaginatie trebuie sa posede un om ca sa te incante cu o lectura de genul "Fundatia" (Isaac Asimov) sau "Dune" (Frank Herbert) ? In acelasi timp nu ma pot opri sa nu observ esecul calculatorului (puneti aici orice joc in mod text sau grafic piratat sau cumparat cu care v-ati pierdut vreodata timpul :-D ) in crearea unei lumi virtuale de complexitatea celor care sunt posibile prin lectura unui SF (probabil si alte genuri) de calitate. Sa fie oare o problema senzoriala ? (text+lume interioara VS surogat de lume virtuala externa, perceputa in cea mai mare parte vizual ?).

O(pen) S(ource) JTA Transaction Managers

2006-10-10T10:33:00.000+03:00

Maybe not lots of you needed things like XA transactions, two phase comit, and won't need it soon but anyway if you need transactions that span more than one data source (2 databases for example) or transactions that span a database and a JMS destination (pretty common usecase), you may want to look at the following:

Atomikos TransactionsEssentials™
JBOSS Transactions, which since 3-April-2006 includes technology aquired in 2005 from Arjuna.
JOTM, the transaction manager developed by ObjectWeb.
The Tyrex Transaction Manager.
Simple-jta - A standalone JTA compliant Transaction Manager
Bitronix Transaction Manager - a simple but complete implementation of the JTA API.
See also here for some details on Glassfish's transaction manager.

If anyone knows some more, post them as replies, thanks.

All of these are usable/configurable outside a full blown J2EE container (I'm not sure about JBOSS Transactions though, anyway it's highly probable that it can be done).

All of these are supported and can be easily integrated with the Spring framework, if you don't want to use a J2EE container.

For more on Spring, Jencks and Geronimo Transaction Manager see here.
For more on Spring and JOTM see here.
For more on Spring and Atomikos see here.
For more on Spring and JBOSS see here.

For more on Spring Transaction Abstraction see here. It's not related to JTA entirely but it will give you some usefull info about transactions in general.

Update:
Thanks to Guy for replying and pointing me where I was wrong about Jencks.

Sybase SQL Anywhere joys

2006-09-27T09:24:00.000+03:00

To connect to the f**king stupid Sybase SQL Anywhere (vers 5.5 and down) from a Java app on Windows NT/XP, you'll need, aside from the stupid SQL Anywhere server, another stupid piece of garbage named Open Server Gateway which enables remote client connections to a SQL Anywhere instance.

So what you have to do is:

1.) When installing SQL Anywhere Server make sure you find and check the checkbox that says
'Install the Open Gateway Components' or such shit

2.) Start a SQL Anywhere db engine like this:

dbsrv50.exe c:/sqlany50/sademo.db -n demo

This basically says start the DB from that file, and name it demo

3.) Go to C:\sybase\bin folder or wherever the installation put that stupid folder and start sqledit.exe

In there you'll need to define an Open Gateway instance as follows:

3.1) Into 'Input Server Name' put the name of the OGS instance like 'remote'
3.2) Choose Service Type = 'master'
3.3) Choose Platform = NT
3.4) Choose Net Library driver NLWNSCK
3.5) Connection information/network address - put here the IP the Open gateway will run on and the port, comma separated, like this:
192.168.4.5,5555 - intuitive huh ? Stupid schmucks !
3.6) Click on add service
3.7) Go to File - > Save and exit the DAMN ANTIC tool !

4.) Start the dbos50.exe with a command line like this:

dbos50.exe -e demo remote

Which means: start a damn Open Server Gateway instance named 'remote', use as the SQL Server Engine (-e demo) the one you find with the name 'demo'

Basically what you need to get right is to pass in the OGS name you've configured with sqlqedit (in this case 'remote')

After this, you'll be able to use JConnect from java to access this database as with any DB using JDBC follows:

private static final String USR = "dba";

private static final String PASS = "sql";

private static final String HOST = "192.168.4.55";

private static final String URL = "jdbc:sybase:Tds:" + HOST + ":5555";

.........

5.) If you agree with me that this is all completely BULLSHIT, pursue everybody to DUMP this shit and use PostgreSQL or the free version from Oracle or whatever else instead of this abysmal piece of shit and garbage named SQL Anywhere Server or Open Gateway Server or whatever else.

I've spent 2 days of my developer life to search the net for this information, including those useless Sybase resources, when for any other DB all you need to do is hit the fucking install.exe, grab a JDBC driver and connect to the freacking default DB that is there no doubt.

Some people never learn.

E destul de rau sa nu ai despre ce scrie

2006-09-21T10:12:00.000+03:00

Mi-am facut Blog si deocamdata nu imi vine sa injur pe nimeni. Cam asta este intentia mea de fapt. Exista MULTE lucruri care ma deranjeaza in viata publica romaneasca, lucruri care ma fac sa injur. Acum am si unde.

Stay tuned.

PS. As vrea sa aiba si topics sa nu amestec Java cu politica romaneasca...