Raible Designs

Mozilla issue with JavaScript, screen.availHeight and <iframe>

I ran into an interesting issue this morning - maybe one of you will have a solution. I can get the height of a browser window using screen.availHeight in Mozilla/IE, just fine, but when there's an <iframe> on the page, Mozilla pukes. For more information, please see this complete explanation and demo.

Update: Boy am I an idiot - my <iframe> was named "screen" causing conflicts when referring to screen.availHeight. Oh well, I love easy solutions!

[ANNOUNCE] Display Tag Library 0.8.5 Released!

I spent some time yesterday assembling the release notes, enhancing the build process, and updating the documentation for the display tag library. The result is a new release!

This release is primarily a bug-fixing release and also represents the first release from the project at SourceForge. If you would like to have a say in the future direction of this project, please join one of the mailing lists. [Release Notes] [Download]

Enjoy! I updated two projects with this new release today and it helped eliminate a lot of "workaround" code I had. The next thing I'd like to see - the ability to specify ResourceBundle keys for column titles.

Update: Ed Hill has updated this project's homepage with the latest examples and documentation.

Red Hat 9 to be released soon

After receiving the e-mail below, I'm guessing that Red Hat 9 will be released on April 7th. Is it worth paying $60 to get it early - I think not. Hopefully, I'll have the same easy download and install experience I did with 8.0 in October.

Dear Matt:

You may know that Red Hat Network is the best way to keep your 
systems running the latest errata and always up to date. What you 
might not know is that Red Hat Network passed the one million users 
mark earlier this year. We've listened to valuable feedback and have
added two items of interest to keep those users happy - early release 
of Red Hat Linux 9 ISOs and improved technical support.

Beginning March 31, 2003, paid subscribers to Red Hat Network will 
have access to Red Hat Linux 9 ISOs - a full week before retail store 
and Red Hat FTP availability. Also, Red Hat Network subscribers will
receive dedicated Red Hat Network Technical Support. 

Learn more about the benefits of being a Red Hat Network Subscriber:
http://redhat.chtah.com/a/tA$f1ahAJPSNNAMoxTCAFzqKeVO/rhat1

To purchase a Red Hat Network subscription:
http://redhat.chtah.com/a/tA$f1ahAJPSNNAMoxTCAFzqKeVO/rhat2

Thanks again for using Red Hat Linux. We appreciate all feedback 
from our users and hope you enjoy Red Hat Linux 9.

Sincerely,

Red Hat

Where's Erik?

My best source of news (Erik Thauvin) is MIA. I hope everything's OK. Erik is at the top of my Blogrolling list, mainly because he's always on top of the latest tech news and he posts often. He hasn't posted since Friday and my blog reading just isn't the same without him.

Update: Go figure - whithin mere minutes of my posting this, Erik posts. Good to have you back Erik!

[ANNOUNCE] New Hibernate Versions (1.2.4 and 2.0 beta 4)

I discovered (via Hibernate's site) that new versions were released on Friday. I always seem to miss these announcements. Looks like I get to do a bit of upgrading this week. Tomcat, Hibernate and the Display Tag Library. Upgrade or feel the pain in few months - that's how I look at it.

Job Hunt in Florida

My Job Hunt in South Florida is at a standstill. My countless e-mails to job postings from Monster and DICE are not receiving any replies. Not that I expected any, but receiving an e-mail reply saying "we hired someone else" would be nice. I've done the Monster and DICE thing for many years now and never gotten a job from them, so I don't know why I'm expecting one now. Most of my jobs/contracts have come from connections. That is, folks that I know (or have worked with in the past) that are looking for someone with my skills. The problem is, I don't have any connections in Florida. I really would like to move in June, but at the rate I'm going, it looks like we might be stuck in Denver for awhile. So it's time to come up with a new strategy.

Step #1: Lookup companies in the South Florida Business Journal and send e-mails to HR Directors - or at least searching for jobs on their websites.

Step #2: If I'm not successful by mid/late-April in getting at least one interview, it's time to fly. I'll schedule a trip down there and start soliciting my resume door-to-door and attending networking events (i.e. JUG Meetings).

Or I could revert back to my tried and true philosophy. The best things come to those who wait. It's much easier and requires a lot less work. Besides, I like it in Denver and currently have a great day job. Suggestions are welcome.

TagUnit for the Display Tag

Simon Brown was nice enough to whip up an application for testing the display tag library. Amazingly enough, it passes all the tests! At first glance, Simon's TagUnit seems to just test getters and setters and if classes are loadable. I think these are great tests, but for truly robust tests for the display tag, I think we need tests that test specific behavior (i.e. you click on a column heading and it sorts that column). IMO, WebTest is probably the best candidate. The problem is, it might take awhile to write these tests, and no one seems to have much time to work on the display tag project. Any volunteers? ;-)

Tomcat Upgrade (to 4.1.24) Successful!

I spent the last 5 minutes upgrading this site to Tomcat 4.1.24. It was pretty simple; here's what I did:

• Copied conf/tomcat-users.xml and conf/server.xml from old version to new version.
• Copied JDBC Drivers from common/lib.
• Moved relevant apps from webapps/ to new version.

The manager application looks like it has been improved to allow for easier deployment. It now offers you more, clearer choices and you don't have to remember the cryptic syntax for deploying a .war file. Now it's just browse and submit. Let me know if you see any issues.

Update: I still can't get the "admin" application to work, but I never use it, so not a big deal. It hasn't work on past versions of Tomcat either. Currently, it gives me the following error:

HTTP Status 503 - Servlet action is currently unavailable

What a great day of skiing!

Beautiful Arapahoe Basin.