Raible Designs

JSPs compiled by Jikes

I configured Tomcat to compile JSPs using Jikes, and everything seems to work just fine. So good in fact, that I don't know that the change has taken effect. Anyone know how to verify that jikes is truly compiling my JSPs?

I'm willing to bet...

... that this site crashes more than any other website I know of. It sucks. It was down most of the day due to a max of 20 database connections per MySQL user. When the automated process of restarting Tomcat for OutOfMemory errors took place, the database connections where not released for some reason. Damn. It was down a lot on Sunday and Monday because there was MySQL connection problems. NOTE: All of these issues are NOT related to Roller. Keith is going to try to setup a new box for me tonight to test on, and possibly move this site to. If that doesn't resolve these issues, I'm outta here and onto a new provider.

Comments Fix

I committed a small enhancement to Roller's CVS tonight. Twisty Comments should now be FIFO instead of LIFO. Most commenting features are designed this way, including Roller's other two options (popup and single-page). Thanks to Keith for testing out twisty comments and inspiring me to fix this bug.

So much for zoom

My laptop is out of town, so I figured this would be a good time to send my phone (T68i) off and get the firmware updated. The reason I wanted the update was to get a zoom feature on my Communicam. I documented the painful process a while back, and have been putting it off ever since.

I called up tech support to make the request - and was disappointed to find out that they don't do requests, only repairs. This means no zoom for me, unless something actually breaks on the phone and I really need something to be fixed. The internet and information flow being the way it is though, I'm willing to bet that the firmware upgrade is out there (and downloadable), now I just need to find it!

Pssssstttt - have a hard time reading this site? Here's some homegrown zoom for ya.

Running a process from a servlet

Note to self: This may help you in running moblogger from a servlet:

Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("/bin/chmod 700 /path/to/myfile");

I found this nugget on the tomcat-user mailing list - and I'm assuming it can be used to run any command-line process.

Hibernate's Query by Criteria (What I'd like to see)

After trying to work with Hibernate's new Query by Criteria feature in version 2.0, I've come up with a page detailing what I'd like to see. Basically, this page results from the API not working for my needs - and since it's still in its infancy, hopefully this document will help shape it future. I'll add a comments link on the document (to this post) for any feedback or comments.

iPod Goodies

Erik hooked me up this morning with a link to Haiko's blog this morning - where I found the lovely ephPod software as an alternative to MusicMatch (the Windows software that comes with the iPod). I actually don't mind the MusicMatch software, though I did use ephPod to make and synchronize a playlist this morning. ephPod definitely looks better, but I like the organized-by-artist feature of MusicMatch.

I also found Outpod for quick-and-easy synchronization of Outlook contacts. This software worked very well - though I have no clue why I need my contacts on my iPod. They're already on my phone thanks to iSync and Bluetooth. What would be really cool is if my phone (T68i) had the iPod's capabilities and I could just listen to MP3's on my phone.

All in all, it was a great ride in this morning with a fresh batch of hand-picked songs - not to mention that the iPod is very light. I couldn't even feel it in my pocket - where as my old Sony Walkman would flop all over the place.

Snookered at the Apple Store

They got me tonight... those bastards. I walked in and handed over MiniMe. They're sending him off and will call me in a few days to tell me if the damage is covered by my AppleCare Warranty. It damn well better be ;-) If any of you have ever been to the Apple stores, and had them do anything, you'll know it takes forever for them to complete the paperwork. The last time, I went in to get a new powercord, and it took them 20 minutes to type everything in. I have a sneaky suspicion that they're doing this all on a webapp that is slow like molasses.

So while waiting for them to complete the paperwork, I went to buy an iPod. I wanted the cheapest one - $299 for 10 Gigs. 2500 songs is plenty when I only have around 700. But the salesman sneakingly let me know that the $399 model came with over $150 in accessories (Wired remote, Carrying case w/ belt clip, New iPod Dock). I knew the dock was good from reading James's new iPod experience. So I asked, "How much is the dock?" The swindler told me, "60 or 70 bucks, something like that." I fell for it, and now I'm the proud (and poor with a pissed off wife) owner of the 15 GB (3700 song) iPod. I'll be stuffing this sucker in my pocket and riding to work as long as I'm in Colorado this summer - shouldn't take me long to scratch it up real nice.

First impression: it sucks - I was stuck trying to do stuff in German for the first couple of minutes. :-) I had to reset it to get back to English. All my downloaded songs have many different names for the same artist, so I have 3 different "Eminem" and 4 different "Greatful Dead" artists. Only 1 Garth Brooks though. From these artists, you can see I like it all - music is one of my favorite things in this world.

I'm guessing I'll get used to my iPod (reminder to self: name it) after a few days/weeks of using it. As most things Apple makes - it takes me a while to fall in love with their toys.

DHCP and Dynamic DNS on Red Hat

I found a great howto today for setting up DHCP and Dynamic DNS server on Red Hat 8.0. It literally took me about 5 minutes to get it installed and running. 5 minutes later, I had all my machines (WinXP, Win2K, OS X, Linksys Print Server) connected and working. Very slick!

Even better is I did it with Red Hat 9, which I downloaded last weekend and installed lazily over a few days. The upgrade from 8.0 was like butter. I like Void Main's Red Hat Tips so much, I'm tempted to mirror them in hopes this URL won't go away. But for now, I'll have faith and hope it's a true permalink. Hope you don't mind that I've stuffed this under my Java category - just doesn't seem fit for General.

[Request] Moblogger on Sourceforge

Hey Russ, what do you think about putting Moblogger on SourceForge? If you have something against SourceForge, that's fine, how about putting it on a publicly accessible CVS server so folks can contribute?

I have a few reasons for wanting this:

• I want to see title support - maybe signified by a space in the subject after the password.
• I'd like to see the ability to specify multiple blogs/e-mail boxes in the config file (agentsettings.xml).
• A sample web interface would be awesome. For instance, the ability to edit the config file via a JSP and start/stop the agent through this same interface. Maybe even use Betwixt for writing/reading the config file.
• Use Velocity or XSL for templates - rather than hardcoding it in the Java code.
• This seems like a great project to integrate Jabber-blogging into.

If you give the OK, I can request the project be setup - but I thought you'd like to be the admin on it.