October 2011
6 posts
April 2011
3 posts
March 2011
2 posts
2 tags
Skype
The latest 5.0.0 update of Skype is atrocious.
The app’s main interface is no longer a slim bar of contacts (that’s what iChat and Yahoo have always done), instead it occupies the same amount of screen real estate as iTunes, looks like iTunes and simply sucks.
I’ve never been a big fan of Skype’s user interface and have found the buttons, pop-ups and user-software...
February 2011
16 posts
2 tags
"Cidade de Deus"
Another foreign movie with subtitles that I’ve seen recently. Although the two movies don’t have much in common, this one made me think of “Slumdog Millionaire”.
Recommend.
2 tags
"Oldboy"
I doubt that I’ve recently seen another movie as weird and disturbing as the “Oldboy”.
This South Korean film came with no voice dubbing, just the subtitles. Awkward at first this made for a much more intense viewing, since the actors’ performance is outstanding and a lot is conveyed in the intonation and speech.
The movie constantly keeps you guessing, wondering...
3 tags
Installing Maven on a Mac
Current Mac OS X Snow Leopard comes with Maven 2.2.1 installed. Let’s go ahead and update it to the latest version 3.0.2.
First, download it from Apache Maven site.
Unzip the downloaded file into the desired folder. You can put it in /usr/local. However in my case I prefer /app folder.
Create a simple alias:
air:app dmitry$ ln -s apache-maven-3.0.2/ maven
air:app dmitry$...
7 tags
Java resource loading
Anytime one needs to load Java resources (XML, jpeg, PDF, etc) from the classpath, using Class.getResourceAsStream or ClassLoader.getResourceAsStream is the way to go. However, there seems to be some confusion on how each one of these methods deals with the path in URL. I hope that this detailed experiment will serve as a helpful reminder of what the requirements are for both methods.
To make...
6 tags
"Pragmatic Project Automation"
“Pragmatic Project Automation” does a good job of introducing us to the world of continuous software integration. It covers all aspects of the software lifecycle, mainly focusing on the build, deployment and monitoring. You will learn how to organize your software release process so as to utilize a number of automatic tools, services and techniques.
The end result should be a...
3 tags
Apple Mail to Gmail
In the past two months I’ve been getting this message quite frequently when using Apple Mail with Gmail. “The server returned the error: Account exceeded bandwidth limits. (Failure)”.
Having googled online I’ve found quite a few occurrences of this error out in the wild. Some say that this may be triggered by sending an extra large file as an attachment. Now I have not...
2 tags
"The King's Speech"
What a spectacular movie. Simple, precise and focused. A great story delivered by an impressive array of prominent actors.
Highly recommend this movie. Watch it if you can.
5 tags
Java @Override annotation usage
Since the start of using annotations I was not a big fan of using @Override annotation. It seemed to have happened overnight, where after a new version of Eclipse was installed I was presented with 400+ warnings telling me to put in the dreaded overrides.
I do think that this seems unnecessary since it clutters the code a lot. But having lots of unresolved warnings in your IDE is even worse. Yes,...
6 tags
"Failed to load JavaHL Library"
One may get the following error message when running Subclipse plugin in Eclipse on a Mac OS X.
Failed to load JavaHL Library.
These are the errors that were encountered:
no libsvnjavahl-1 in java.library.path
no svnjavahl-1 in java.library.path
no svnjavahl in java.library.path
java.library.path = .:/Library/Java/Extensions:/System/Library/Java/Extensions:/usr/lib/java
SVN will still work by...
1 tag
"The Last Airbender"
With all my respect for Mr. Knight Shyamalan I can’t fathom the fact of him coming out with such an atrocious movie. “The Last Airbender” is simply unwatchable and I can’t easily think of any other movies for which the same argument applies.
How does one manage to screw up a story peppered with so many great visuals. The acting is horrible, I’ve tried watching this...
1 tag
5 tags
New shoe model numbering for New Balance
New Balance has quite a few running shoes out. And although they are great at making them, their model numbering does seem a bit confusing.
In the past the model numbers would increase from year to year, so a 2008 model of a 1063 shoe would become 1064 in 2009.
Now it seems that there’s a new model numbering scheme in place, the new numbers are here to stay.
The higher the number, the...
January 2011
2 posts
Get well, Steve!
Upgrading Ruby to 1.9.2
Get the latest Ruby
curl ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org:21//pub/ruby/1.9/ruby-1.9.2-p136.tar.gz -o ruby-1.9.2-p136.tar.gz
tar -xvf ruby-1.9.2-p136.tar.gz
This will create a directory
cd ruby-1.9.2-p136
autoconf
./configure --program-suffix=19 --enable-shared --with-readline-dir=/usr/local
make
sudo make install
And we are done
June 2010
3 posts
4 tags
Auto-generated code by Xcode puts the opening brace on the same line by default.
To change that you would have to overwrite the default template. Run this in the Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.Xcode XCCodeSenseFormattingOptions '{ "BlockSeparator" = "\n" ; }'
April 2010
1 post
Programmer's competency matrix →
Somebody went through all the trouble of categorizing the heck out of various programmer’s qualities.
A good way to determine as to where exactly one’s strong and weak skills lie.
March 2010
14 posts
1 tag
Snow Leopard, Apache and PHP
Mac OS X Snow Leopard comes with Apache web server preinstalled. It can be engaged by enabling “Web Sharing” under “Sharing” preferences.
To get PHP going on Snow Leopard’s Apache web server one would need to download the latest version of Xcode and install it. This will install PHP onto the system.
Now to tie the two together, visit the /etc/apache2/httpd.conf file...
1 tag
"Crazy heart"
Jeff Bridges is playing not-so-well-aged Dude in “Crazy heart”. I kept waiting for John Goodman to join in any time as Walter Sobchak.
Overall - not a very good movie. I’ve expected more, but the plot was very static, the romance between Bad and the girl was not very believable. Colin Farell and most importantly Robert Duvall seem to be just performing cameos.
“Time is the singular measure of life. It’s one of the few things you can not get...”
– The cult of busy
2 tags
Get human on the phone →
Now that is just awesome. Great idea, great execution.
3 tags
iPad and iPhone To Do applications
I’m yet to find an explanation for the absence of a proper To Do functionality on an Apple platform.
Whatever is available out there seems more like an after-thought.
We have a To Do functionality built within the iCal app, it works great, syncs between multiple computers via Mobile Me, but there’s no iPhone app front end of any kind. Third party applications are also restricted from...
Canon has announced .canon top level domain name →
Wonder what’s taking Nikon so long or whether they will jump on this initiative at all.
3 tags
Java Timezones
A handy reference for all the timezones defined in Java.
Australian Central Daylight +10:30 CSuT, ACDT, CDT Australian Central Standard +9:30 ACST, CAST, CST Australian Eastern Daylight +11 AEDT, ESuT Australian Eastern Standard +10 AES, AEST, EAST, EST Australian South Daylight +10:30 SADT Australian South Standard +9:30 SAST Australian Western Daylight +9 AWDT, WADT, WDT Australian...
Commonly used GIT commands
Although SVN commands come in naturally, I’m finding that having a list of GIT commands nearby is always handy.
git status
See where you are, what’s outstanding.
git add .
Register current changes to the repository.
git commit
Commit outstanding changes to the repository.
git push
Push changes to the repository.
git pull
Pull changes from the repository.
6 tags
Parallels DNS and VPN
Once in a while I run into an issue where I need to access a website local to the VPN I connect to.
When Parallels is running, I can access the internet, but the DNS for a named host local to the VPN can not be resolved.
Windows under Parallels is configured to use automatic DHCP.
The solution is to use two DNS servers: one that is obtained automatically and second coming from the VPN.
To...