Raible Designs

Updated Tomcat+Apache and Apache+SSL HOWTO

I spent the last couple of days struggling with setting up Apache 2.0.42 and Tomcat 4.0.5 on both Windows and Linux. I've updated an article I found on this matter and published it (with permission from the original author) at:

http://www.raibledesigns.com/tomcat/index.html

I also setup SSL on Apache with the above configuration and learned a lot in that process too. Once again, I found an article, updated it and have published it (with permission from the original author) at:

http://www.raibledesigns.com/tomcat/ssl-howto.html

I hope by updating these articles I've made it easier for anyone else to do the same. My Configuration? Windows XP (SP1) / Red Hat Linux 7.3 with J2SE 1.4.1, Apache 2.0.42 and Tomcat 4.0.5.

I attempted to set these up on Mac OS X, but found no binary version of mod_jk.so on Jakarta's site. I also tried to build it from source, but no dice there either. Enjoy!

Red Hat 8.0 Coming Monday

From LinuxPlanet:

Red Hat 8.0 is scheduled to be formally released on Sept. 30 and many in the Linux user community are watching the development of the new "Bluecurve" desktop design very closely.

In the retail edition of Red Hat that's coming out this Monday, the Linux vendor is replacing the traditional GNOME interface with Bluecurve, a Red Hat-created GUI theme combining elements of both GNOME and KDE, the major rival to GNOME. [ Full Article, Screenshot 1 and Screenshot 2 ].

Look cool - and since I love to upgrade, I'll probably be installing this next week. That is, if I can download the binaries. I have a 1MB wireless connection, but that doesn't do any good if the servers are clogged. I just hope I can upgrade from 7.3 rather than install from scratch. I'll keep you posted

Jabber Love. I've been installing and playing with Jabber since yesterday afternoon. If you don't know what Jabber is - it's an open, XML-based protocol for instant messaging and presence. So it's basically an open-source instant messaging server. It takes about 10 minutes to setup and get running, and I've installed it successfully on both Red Hat 7.3 and Windows XP. Easy as pie - that's how open source should be!

Eclipse Flash Demos

I stumbled upon a bunch of Eclipse Viewlets via ::Manageability::. They're basically Flash demo's of how Eclipse is better than Visual Studio .NET. If I only had the time to actually watch them.

Our National Parks.

Last week, after the shindig in Vegas, my parents met me and we drove from Vegas back to Denver - through Zion National Park, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and Mesa Verde National Park. The photo below is what we dropped our jaws to on Saturday morning. Click on it to view President Roosevelt's speech at the Grand Canyon on May 6, 1903.

"the one great sight every American...should see" -- President Theodore Roosevelt

I hate the web.

Just when I was falling in love with the web all over again. I spent the last hour writing a review of all the sessions I attended today at Web Builder 2002, and Mozilla #$%@! crashes before I can hit "Post to Weblog." Roller needs a new Mac-based blogger client - cause I am pissed at the one I currently use.

Photo of the Day.

Today's photo of the day comes from a site I found for getting some sweet backgrounds: digitalblasphemy.com. I chose this "sunrise" photo in honor of being up so early.

Is your website obsolete?

In case you need more motivation to convert your site to XHTML and CSS, Zeldman rants that "99.9% of Websites are Obsolete."

Peel the skin of any major site, from Amazon to Microsoft.com, from Sony to ZDNet. Examine their tortuous non-standard markup, their proprietary ActiveX and JavaScript (often including broken detection scripts), and ill-conceived use of Cascading Style Sheets - when they use CSS at all. It's a wonder such sites work in any browser.

Photo of the Day.

I got this idea from The FuzzyBlog. I did a search on Google for Colorado Photos, and found www.coloradophotos.com. Very cool - I might have to showcase a new photo each day - it does wonders for making this site look better.

Eclipse plug-in for Cactus?

It's on it's way! Vincent Massol sent a message to the cactus-user mailing list today asking for ideas and help. If you're an Eclipse plug-in developer, or use Cactus and want to "get involved" - see Vincent's initial thoughts. Personally, I love Cactus, StrutsTestCase, and JUnit. They've all made my development life a lot easier (when they work). I'm constantly on the bleeding edge of Struts development, and StrutsTestCase seems to always break when I download a nightly build. Now if I could only convince myself to write more HttpUnit tests (or maybe use Solex), so I don't spend so much time trying to get my UI to load and look right. Anyone know of a CSS and Layout Testing framework that tells you that your colors need tweeking or your layout won't work in IE5/Mac? I could use that framework!