Beware The Penguin

Today is "strike" day to protest SOPA

2012-01-18T09:50:00.002-05:00

Today is "strike against censorship" day to protest the SOPA and PIPA bills that are attempting to pass in the US Congress. Please educate yourself about the potential negative impacts of these laws and get involved.

http://sopastrike.com/strike

https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

http://americancensorship.org/

2012-01-06T15:55:00.001-05:00

I've censored the following, in protest of a bill that gives any corporation and the US government the power to censor the internet--a bill that could pass THIS WEEK. To see the uncensored text, and to stop internet censorship, visit: http://americancensorship.org/posts/33408/uncensor

Silly password requirements

2011-12-23T23:21:00.003-05:00

It's been a long while since I wrote an Eclipse-related post, but this just irks me enough to point it out:

What is this, 1995? Users should be allowed to use a passphrase instead of this archaic way of trying to make passwords stronger. This is silly.

My secret weapon for holding OmniPod pods in place

2011-01-22T15:44:00.005-05:00

This question periodically comes up on the Tu Diabetes OmniPod users forum, so I thought I'd write a quick summary of my solution.
Wearing the pods on your arm, to me, is the most comfortable site, but many people seem to be prone to knocking them off or loose. My solution is to wrap a so-called self-adherent wrap around the pod and my arm. They're self-adhesive, don't stick to the skin, and have just the right amount of "grip" to keep from sliding off the pod with activity. They also seem to "breath" a little to prevent sweating under the wrap. And you can cut them to exactly the length you want to get it as tight as is comfortable for you.
Coban is the name brand (made by 3M), but to save a few $$$ I just buy the generic version from CVS or Walgreens. For example, here is CVS's product. Just make sure to get a 4-inch wide variety; the 3-inch ones are not wide enough to cover the entire pod and tend to slip off too easily.
In addition to holding pods tightly to the arms, I've also used longer lengths when I used to wear pods on my inner thighs.

UPDATE: Someone recently told me about http://www.bands4life.net/ - I like the idea; think I'll order one to try it out as an alternative to the coban-style wrap.

Setting up .java files to automatically open with Eclipse on Mac OS X

2010-08-17T10:14:00.009-04:00

With the 3.6 (aka, Helios) release of Eclipse, there is now support for opening files from the operating system command line or file browser directly into Eclipse. This has been a long-standing feature request (one of the oldest requests to ever have been implemented, in fact) and many people are happy to have it. Here is a quick tutorial on utilizing this feature under Mac OS X to associate .java files so that they open in Eclipse upon double-click from Finder. Although this demonstrates using .java files, you can do the same for any other file type; as long as your installation of Eclipse has an editor to handle that file type, it should work just fine.

Just to re-iterate, you have to have Eclipse Helios (version 3.6 of the platform) in order to take advantage of this feature. If you don't already have it, go get it.
In Finder, locate a .java file that you'd like to open in Eclipse; right-click (or Control+click if that's the way you roll) and select Get Info
In the Info dialog, under the "Open with:" section, click the drop-down list and select Other...
Here comes the only tricky part about this process.
In the resulting Finder dialog to select an application, navigate to where Eclipse is installed. You'll see Eclipse.app listed but chances are, it's disabled; you can't select it. You just have to enable it using the Enable: drop-down list at the bottom of the window, as shown here:

Once you do that, you'll be able to select Eclipse.app.
Before clicking the Add button, decide if you want to select the "Always Open With" option (checkbox). Then click Add.
Back in the "Info" dialog, you can use the Change All... button to associate all .java files with Eclipse. Even if you don't do it now, you an always come back to this dialog and do it later.

That's it. Now when you double-click on .java files they will be opened in the Eclipse installation that you selected. If an instance of Eclipse is already running, that instance will open the file. Otherwise, a new instance will be started.

Tip of the hat to Oracle

2010-07-28T11:07:00.002-04:00

As most Eclipse community members probably already know, a recent change by Oracle in the JDK/JRE for Windows caused serious problems for Eclipse. But in a sign that Oracle really does understand the importance of Eclipse in the Java community, as well as a nice gesture of cooperation and consideration, they've rolled back the change that caused the problems and released new builds.
I admire Oracle's willingness to respond quickly to this issue, in spite of the fact that Eclipse code was admittedly relying on non-documented and non-API data. Ian Skerret also deserves credit for directly engaging people at Oracle to make this happen.

Hats off to cooperation!

Launching Multiple Instances of Eclipse on Mac OS X

2010-04-21T17:50:00.013-04:00

Doug Schaefer recently griped that Eclipse on Mac "gets no love." I don't really agree in general, but I don't have the time to debate that in detail. I do, however, have the time to provide a simple work-around to one of his gripes, the inability to launch multiple copies of Eclipse simultaneously. As Doug mentions, this is inherent behavior for OS X applications, not an Eclipse-specific problem. But, there's a simple way to launch additional instances if you're willing to perform a few mouse clicks.
The basics:

Right-click (Command+click) on the Eclipse Doc icon and choose Show in Finder.
Right-click on Eclipse.app and choose Show Packages Contents.
Navigate to Contents > MacOS directory.
Double-click the eclipse executable there to launch Eclipse. Make sure to select a different workspace than is already open.

Here's a short screencast demonstration (click the image to play):

The best $5 I Ever Spent on Technology

2009-12-22T09:58:00.007-05:00

I recently discovered xGestures and someone had better tell my wife because I'm in love!
I've been a long-time user of mouse gestures in Firefox (the plugin I currently use is FireGestures, but there are others). I recently changed to a combination of Camino and Safari, but there aren't any really good gestures plugins available for them.
My search led me to xGestures, and it truly is the best $5 I've ever spent on a piece of technology. Not only does it make my browser more productive (or rather, almost as productive as Firefox on Windoze), but as an added bonus it applies mouse gestures to every application. It's an amazing productivity boost.
For those who aren't familiar with mouse gestures, they are an alternative input mechanism whereby you combine a mouse click with dragging motions in order to trigger a command or action. Basic drag-and-drop is, essentially, a mouse gesture (one that every personal computer user is familiar with); the iPhone and iPod Touch use gestures quite extensively. I've heard them described as "controlling your applications by drawing little mini-pictures with your mouse." Wikipedia introduces them like this:

In computing, a mouse gesture is a way of combining computer mouse movements and clicks which the software recognizes as a specific command. Mouse gestures can provide quick access to common functions of a program. They can also be useful for people who have difficulties typing on a keyboard. For example, in a web browser, the user could navigate to the previously viewed page by pressing the right mouse button, moving the mouse briefly to the left, then releasing the button.

[full article]

For those like me who make heavy use of the mouse, the productivity boost gained by not having to find menu items or awkward keyboard combinations is outstanding. If you've never used mouse gestures before, it's probably kind of hard to understand the value unless you try them out.
As I've said, I'm in love with xGestures on my MacBook, but there are also similar programs for Windows. I haven't tried any of them out, but some that look promising are:

So, Planet Eclipse readers are probably asking why this is showing up there... Well, I haven't yet configured xGestures to do anything in Eclipse, but I'm thinking about it. Sometime today I'll set up some gestures for the things I do most frequently in Eclipse (like open the Find Type and Find Resource dialogs). But I'm curious if anyone else uses gestures in Eclipse and, if so, what gestures do you use frequently? I'm interested in exploring the power of combining the best IDE and this great "new" input method to make me even more productive. Eventually I'd like to explore the possibility of writing an Eclipse plugin that adds gesture support and contributing it for inclusion in the platform.

Also, if any Windows users have other gestures programs that you like, let us know.

Looking For an Easy Way To Contribute To Eclipse?

2009-12-09T09:05:00.005-05:00

Are you an Eclipse user who is looking for an opportunity to get more involved, to contribute something back? Maybe you've considered reporting bugs (or even done so, but not consistently). Or maybe you've even thought about trying to implement a feature or fix a bug with a code patch, but were intimidated by the huge code base and/or ignorant of how to get started with that.
Well, if you happen to also be a Windows 64-bit user there is an excellent specific opportunity for you to get involved. The next major Eclipse release, code named Helios and based on version 3.6 of the platform, is considering offering 64-bit Windows versions of all the EPP packages*. But they need commitment from people who can test and report bugs with the Win64 builds; the team is small and given all the combinations of packages (there are now 9, maybe more by the time Helios is released) and supported platforms (there are currently 6, Win64 would be number 7), it's a daunting task to verify that each one is working correctly. But here is where you can help; if you are on 64-bit Windows you can offer to test the milestone builds of such a package and report bugs if you find them.
This is a low-barrier-to-entry way to contribute real value to Eclipse, by doing something (using Eclipse) that you already do. Plus, you'll get early access to all of the new features, enhancements, and bug fixes that the 3.6 release is bringing!
So, go ahead and comment on Bug 293969 and add your pledge to help test - I'm sure the EPP team would be thrilled to have the help.

* For those who don't know, the Eclipse Packaging Project (EPP) is responsible for producing the various useful packages of Eclipse projects that are the result of the yearly coordinated release train.

What's happening with Eclipse recently?

2009-10-27T09:22:00.007-04:00

It seems that recent times have seen some disturbing (to me) trends in the Eclipse community, most notably the loss (or significant reduction of involvement) of several key individuals. I count myself in that group, since my 5+ month search for Eclipse-related development contracts came up dry and I ended up taking a local job that is totally unrelated to Eclipse. It seems that Eclipse has been bleeding valuable talent in the past year or so - or is it just me?

The most recent happening that concerns me is Bjorn's announcement yesterday that he has been locked out of involvement in producing EclipseCon 2010 . While I'm sure the conference planning is in good hands, this seems like a strange decision given the past success; the cynic in me can't help but wonder if it has anything to do with Bjorn's recent outspokenness and willingness to voice controversial thoughts. Let's hope not...
Mike M. commented on Bjorn's blog posting with a most-politically-correct "thank you for your service," but that is a far cry from an open explanation. I think, given his contributions to and love for the community, that Bjorn deserves more of an explanation. I am certain that the community deserves a bit of explanation.

Mac OS X and Eclipse Debugger's "Drop To Frame"

2009-08-19T14:43:00.008-04:00

After years of using it, I've become dependent on the debugger feature, Drop To Frame (described here, here, and here). Briefly, it allows you to select any level (frame) in the call stack during debugging and force the JVM to rollback to that point. It's a little difficult to explain briefly, but trust me when I say that once you've used it you quickly learn to depend on it.

So you can imagine my dismay when I recently started doing all of my Eclipse work on Mac OS X and discovered that Drop To Frame is disabled. It is a feature that not all JVMs support (specifically, those prior to Java 1.4), but I just can't believe that the modern Mac JVMs don't (I've tried running my apps in both Java 5 and Java 6 JVMs).
I asked about this on the Eclipse newsgroups/forums and on IRC, but no response so far. I'm hoping that the blogosphere might have some more insight...

Update: it seems that Drop to Frame is enabled sometimes, but only part-way down the stack, and sometimes not at all. The app I'm debugging has no native code in it, so that's not the culprit in this case. So I'm still looking for some insight into what enables/disables the feature.

My Experience with OmniPod

2009-08-14T09:43:00.023-04:00

For those that don't know, I am an insulin-dependent diabetic. About a year and a half ago I changed from taking 3-5 injections a day, to using an insulin pump. But no ordinary, tubes-hanging-out-of-you, beeper-looking-thing-attached-to-your-hip, insulin pump - no, I chose the OmniPod tubeless pump system. I've had some requests for my overall impression, and below is something I wrote in response to one of those requests.

I've been a Type I diabetic for over 20 years and I can honestly say that OmniPod has changed my life. For me, not only is the technology an improvement over injections, but it has re-invigorated me and my interest in controlling my disease. In other words, using OmniPod somehow got me more interested in managing diabetes again, instead of being complacent.

Of course like most 'Podders, the big attraction for me was the lack of tubes. I had been turned off by traditional pumps for years because of the tubing, but OmniPod was intriguing because of the freedom from tubes that it offers.

As for cost, even with good insurance it is likely that using the OmniPod will cost you more than injections. My insurance coverage is pretty good, but I still have a deductible each year and then pay 20% after that (used to be 10% until this year). If cost is a big concern for you then you should definitely find out exactly what your policy covers. I think any kind of insulin pump is going to have higher cost. You local sales rep at Insulet can tell you exactly how much it will cost before you have to pay anything.
If you want specific examples... My deductible is $300 per year, which even before OmniPod I would easily use up for lab/blood work. After that, the pod cost is somewhere around $250-$300 per month, 20% of which I must pay under my insurance plan. So it's not dirt-cheap, but for me easily worth it.

I find the system to be very easy to use (but I am a tech geek and love all kinds of gadgets). Even for the average person I think they've spent a lot of effort to make it simple. The process of changing a pod has about 4-5 steps, but they are easy and the PDM (controller "computer") guides you through each one. I think after only 2 or 3 times the average person will be very comfortable with the process; and the training is very thorough. Honestly, think about testing your blood or taking an injection; think of how natural that is for you and how you don't really have to think about it while doing it. Using the OmniPod is the same; you do it so much that it quickly becomes second-nature.

I've only had one or two very minor issues, and with the help of the customer service and the local trainer I've been able to solve them. I've read of some people who have certain problems (like someone who says the pods don't stick well to their skin and try to fall off before the 3 days is up), but I really think those are the minority because thousands of people use it successfully. I've never had any kind of trouble like that, even though I am very active and play several different sports with the pods on (including wrestling with my 3-year-old son).

My control is much improved since I started using OmniPod. I was always turned off by insulin pumps because of the tubing; it was a big turn-off for me to be attached to a pump all the time. Now that I've been using OmniPod for over a year I can't imagine going back to injections. It is very discreet when I want it to be, but I've found it to be a great "conversation piece" too; everyone is fascinated to hear about it if I talk about it.

I love how it lets me be more free to do things like a normal person, instead of having to worry about carrying insulin bottles/pens, needles, and alcohol wipes everywhere. I am so much more free I can't even tell you!
Here's an example: this summer we took our son to Disney World for his birthday. We were at the park from 10am until 11pm. We ate at odd times, food that I was not certain of the ingredients or carbohydrate content, and several little snacks. Plus, we were doing lots of walking which tends to lower my blood-sugar quite a bit. That day would have been a nightmare if I was still using injections. I used to take Lantus as a basal, once per day, and then Novolog (pen) at meal times. I would have had to adjust my Lantus the night before to account for the exercise (walking) and then would have worried about keeping my Novolog pen cool throughout the hot day, taking several injections to cover the small "meals" and the unknown carbs I was getting. I would have almost certainly been too high or two low most of the day because of all the uncertainty and irregular schedule. But with the OmniPod, I was able to easily decrease my basal rate once we started walking, based on what my blood-sugar measured. And I was easily able to take a meal dose each time we ate something or I tested my blood-sugar and found it a little high. I was able to do all of this while standing in line for a ride or sitting on a bench watching my son play. No having to sneak off to the bathroom or some other private place to do an injection. I actually enjoyed the day with my family instead of worrying about my diabetes; I didn't really "think about" diabetes at all that day. For me, that is the big advantage of using OmniPod.

I guess I've written way too much, but hopefully this will help you understand why I love the OmniPod. If you have any more specific questions, don't hesitate to ask. In fact, I'd even be willing to talk on the phone if you'd like.

I am very enthusiastic, but I realize this is a big personal decision to make, and of course the OmniPod (or any insulin pump) is not the right thing for everyone; there are always some people who will be better off with injections. But I'd definitely encourage you to give it a try if you've been curious or considering it.

Updated Eclipse Community Forums plug-in

2009-08-10T09:52:00.004-04:00

I've released a slightly updated version of the little Eclipse Community Forums plug-in I made last week. I added more of the standard web navigation buttons (back/forward/reload/stop/home) and eliminated the Login button/action (it was a real hack , didn't work 100% reliably, and I'm not sure anyone would really care about that feature anyway).
If you've already got 0.1 installed you should be able to update it from the About dialog, Installation Details, then select the Eclipse Community feature and click the Update button. If not, you can install it from scratch from the update site

http://www.rizzoweb.com/Eclipse/updatesite

Still looking for feedback - even if it is "This isn't very useful, you should drop it."

Access the new Eclipse Community Forums from inside Eclipse itself

2009-08-03T20:56:00.009-04:00

Thanks to Denis Roy, Eclipse now has a modern web user interface for its user/developer newsgroups. While I, personally, still prefer to use Thunderbird to access the newsgroups the "old fashioned" way, I'm sure many users will appreciate this big improvement over the old web interface.
The new forums site is still in a "beta" stage (please report any problems or suggestions to bug 284281), but I thought it would be nice to have easy access to it from right within Eclipse itself. So I've developed this little plug-in that adds an "Eclipse Community Forums" view to all perspectives. The View is basically an SWT Browser widget that is hard-coded to the forums site, along with some basic toolbar buttons for navigation.

A few notes on this "first draft" implementation:

I've only tested it on OS X (Cocoa) so far; please let me know how (or if) it works on Windows XP, Vista, and Linux.
The View is supposed to be automatically added as a Fast View to all perspectives (and it does correctly when I test it in a self-hosting environment), but when I installed it into an existing Eclipse instance I had to manually open the View via Window > Show View > Other...
If anyone has some ideas why it isn't automatically added after installation, please let me know.
The Login toolbar action currently only takes you to the Login page, but my plan is to have it (optionally) automatically submit your login credentials if you choose to store them. I need to get with Denis to help debug why my attempts at submitting a login via URL isn't working.
The Shortcuts list is an extension point that any plug-in can contribute to. For now I've included just some of the more popular ~~newsgroups~~ forums; if I get this accepted as an official plug-in, the vision is that different Eclipse projects would contribute to the extension point to have their forum included.
Notice the "Open in External Browser" button in the View toolbar (not the toolbar that is inside the view above the browser). I waffled back and forth on whether to put the Login and Shortcuts actions up there, too. If you have a UI design opinion about that, please let me know.
My goal is to get feedback and improve this over the next week or two and eventually submit it for inclusion as a first-class citizen of the SDK and package builds. So please let me know what you think and help me make it better.

You can install the plug-in from this update site: http://www.rizzoweb.com/Eclipse/updatesite

Thoughts on Google's operating system announcement

2009-07-08T12:27:00.002-04:00

The rumors have finally been confirmed, Google is working on an operating system.

My thoughts on this are simple and limited: I see a small niche market for such an OS, but I just don't see the majority of computer users willing to accept web-only applications across the board. Connectivity is just too inconsistent and unreliable at this point, and even trying to own "constant connectivity" access (3G-based mobile and/or wi-fi access point access) is still way too expensive. Do we really think the 3G carriers are going to spend billions to make 3G as reliable and fast as the broadband that we're all used to getting at home and work? I doubt it. Without that, the web-only user experience will suck, because it won't be consistent.
Not to mention that I, personally, consider most web-based apps that attempt to replace a desktop app to be inferior in key ways. There are exceptions, and things are improving, but not enough for me to see this being a broad appeal by next year.

Having said that, I'm not foolish enough to bet against Google, who have quite a track record of success when it comes to delivering on new ideas and technology.

Screencast: Creating an Eclipse download package "from scratch"

2009-07-01T15:20:00.018-04:00

UPDATE: As of Service Release 1 (SR1) of Eclipse Galileo (aka, 3.5.1) the process described in this screencast is no longer necessary for 64-bit Mac OS X builds. 64-bit Cocoa builds of all the download packages are now available directly from the Eclipse downloads page.

If the cave you've been living in does not have Internet service, then perhaps it will come as news to you that Galileo was successfully released last week. It's a truly impressive feat to release so reliably so many projects year after year - you'd think that corporate internal and consumer software projects would take note and figure out what it is that enables the yearly release train to succeed when so many projects deliver late, over budget, or not at all. But, I digress...

Being a recent immigrant to the Nation of Mac, I was among the glad to see the Cocoa port graduate from incubation. However, all is not 100% happy in Eclipse+Mac land. The Eclipse Packaging Project (EPP), the small group that produces those easily consumable downloads, the themed packages of plug-ins built on top of the core platform, has limited resources. And with limited people, they can not produce the packages for every hardware/OS platform on which Eclipse is known to run. Of particular interest to me is the conspicuous absence of EPP package builds for 64-bit OS X. After some discussion, it appears we the community can't make a 64-bit build happen until the first "service release" of Galileo, sometime in the Fall. I'm disappointed, but I (mostly) understand the position that EPP is in.

So, what do we do if we want to make full use of all the 64-bit goodness of our operating system and Java 6 JVM? Well, it turns out that re-constructing the EPP packages from the "base platform" SDK is not all that difficult. Ekke Gentz has already blogged some text+picture instructions; my screencast below brings the process to life.

Note: the URL of the EPP update site used in the screencast is

http://download.eclipse.org/technology/epp/packages/galileo/

UPDATE: The package downloads page has been updated so that the Mac 64-bit SDK download is available directly, rather than having to go through the "Other Downloads" page. This makes the process a bit simpler than what is demonstrated in the screencast. If you're following this process for 64-bit Cocoa on OS X, you can get the Platform SDK directly in the Eclipse Classic section, as shown here (click to enlarge):

Looking for Work

2009-05-27T17:38:00.005-04:00

About a month ago, the layoff wave finally caught up to me. Everyone at Skyway was gracious, saying repeatedly that they wish they had the money to keep me on board and that they'd really like to bring me back when the economy starts to turn around. But obviously I'm not holding my breath.

Here is my LinkedIn profile, including plenty of recommendations from colleagues and supervisors.

So if you know of or hear about any Eclipse-related positions, either contract or "perm" staff, please keep me in mind. For now I'd really like to try to stay in the Eclipse development world (designing/writing plug-ins and RCP-based applications, mentoring, training) but I'm open to just about anything to involves Java and Eclipse.

Eclipse: Talkin' To Users, Redux

2009-05-22T09:21:00.006-04:00

This is a follow-up to Wayne's post about the Eclipse newsgroups. As I commented there, I understand that the barrier to entry into the newsgroups is higher than it should be, I really do get that. But, personally, I find web-based forums like phpBB to mostly suck. There are some things about them that I do wish we had on the Eclipse newsgroups, like:

the ability to earn and give reputation points for good answers
the ability to easily find threads that a given user has contributed to
the ability to search across multiple groups easily.

It is true that, other than the points system, most of the other features of web-based forums can be done with newsgroups if you have a good client. But with so many people using web-based email these days, isn't it too much to ask them to install a separate piece of software just to participate in the newsgroups? I think so, much as I prefer newsgroups myself.
I've been trying to put my finger on why, exactly, I prefer newsgroups and I think it all boils down to flexibility. Because they are based on NNTP, an Internet standard, there are many clients that are capable of participating. That gives the user total control over his reading/posting experience. Contrast that with most phpBB-style forums, where the most control you usually have is the color scheme and whether or not you want a "flat" view or a threaded one.
The other big win, for me, that newsgroups have is the tight integration with my email; because I use Thunderbird all day to read multiple email accounts and RSS feeds, newsgroups fit right in like just another account. So, for me, it's flexibility and integration that win out.

In the comments to Wayne's post, someone mentioned FUDforum and it's newsgroups bridge. To me, this sounds like the best-of-both-worlds solution. It even has email list integration, so potentially we could offer total flexibility in how users participate: NNTP, web, or email, take your pick. To me that is an ideal solution.

So, are there any other options available? Either competitors to FUDforum that can bridge between web and NNTP, or some completely different technology? Remember, what I consider important is flexibility, giving choice and control of the client to the user, and integration with software I'm already using every day.

Great Urban Race Tampa 2009

2009-02-21T23:33:00.037-05:00

Jazmine and I competed in The Great Urban Race when it kicked off its 2009 season in Tampa this weekend. It turned out to be a bit longer than we expected, but was still a great time. We both had fun, got some exercise, and the best part is we are not itching to file for divorce after the ordeal / adventure!

We didn't finish very quickly, 4 hours and 15 minutes which put us in 113th place (out of approximately 150 teams). The winner supposedly did the entire thing in under 2 hours, which I seriously think is impossible without cheating. I mean, we covered over 10 miles of distance and I just don't see how it could be done in less than 8 miles. When you account for having to figure out amd locate clues, it just seems silly to finish in under 2 hours, even if you seriously ran the entire route.

Oh well, we weren't there to win, we were there to have fun which we most certainly did!
You can see a map of our route, including all the stops we made for clues. According to that, we walked/ran almost 5 miles - no wonder I'm sore and worn out!

I give the organizers credit for making it challenging, but I was a bit disappointed in the decision to take us all the way to Hyde Park without a decent public transit option for getting there (at least, none that we could find that was available on Saturdays).

We did a couple of strategic things that I think helped a lot:

Based on advice from a blog about last year's race, we stopped on our way to the race at the transit center and bought single-day HART passes. For less than $4 each we could ride any bus or the streetcar all day long. We used the passes 3 times, so it paid off.
Because we didn't arrange for a "support person" to be available on the phone to look up clue information, we took the notebook computer and scoped out some free wireless hotspots near the starting point. This proved invaluable as we spent about 15 minutes looking up the clues that we didn't have a clue about otherwise. Without that, we would have had to call someone and rely on them to find information and relay it over the phone. The only thing we could have done better was to use that internet access to get better bus route information; the maps we had did not provide enough detail to find the stops, nor the times.

Here are the clues along with the "answers" when appropriate.

Solve the following puzzle assuming the hyphenated word is "anti-gravity." Then do what it says. Be careful, some letter symbols have subtle differences. [strange symbols were given along with the letters they represent]

This was a pretty simple "decode" task, but a little tricky because the symbols were small and some very similar to each other. The message decoded to "Take a picture of both teammates with the anti-gravity rock." Google quickly helped us figure out that it was on the UT campus, next to Plant Hall. Of course, we walked all the way around the building to find it because we took a 50/50 chance on which way to go and Murphy's Law dictated that we chose the longer way.

Go to Lifestyle Family Fitness in Hyde Park and complete the boot camp in the group fitness room. Each teammate must complete the activities required by the trainers. After completing the challenge you must get a business card from the person near the entrance to prove you completed the task. This challenge is only available from 1:00pm - 4:00pm.

The Lifestyle location was easy to find, but by the point of the race when we arrived we were already pretty tired from 2+ miles of walking/running and lack of food. The "boot camp" consisted of a handful of machine and dumbell exercises that weren't too bad, finishing with lunge steps that were brutal. My quads were screaming by the end!

Find Judy's Cuties in the Saturday Ybor Market (open until 3pm). Take a picture of both teammates wearing the jewelry set aside for the race. After taking the picture, return the jewelry.

This was right around the corner from the race starting point and so was the first task we performed. By sheer luck, we walked right up to Judy's booth - in fact, we were the very first team at this clue. So despite our relatively poor finish at least we can take pride in being in first place for 5 minutes!

DETOUR (complete one of the following two):
Bring a box of Grape Mike and Ike's candy to teh finish line.
Or...
Bring a real copy of a publication named Boat Shopper to the finish line.

This ended up being a lot harder than it sounds, and this was the task that we skipped. It was not for lack of trying; we looked in at least 5 different stores for either of the items, but no luck.

Purchase a minimum of 3 non-perishable items per team and donate them to 2nd Harvest of Tampa Bay. 2nd Harvest has a donation truck waiting for you somewhere in the Publix parking lot on Bayshore Blvd. After donating your items, be sure to get this clue sheet stamped!

An easy task/clue, but a nice gesture from the race organizers to help out a local charity. The Publix is right across the street from the Columbus statue (see clue # 11 below), so we did them back-to-back. Jazmine actually scouted out bus routes to Hyde Park while I did the shopping.

Take a picture of both teammates with the following sculpture clearly visible in the picture. [the clue sheet include a small photo but no hints about location]

At first we recognized the sculpture but couldn't remember from where. It turned out to be at the St. Pete Times forum, where we've attended dozens of Lightning games over the past few years, so we're embarrased that we spent even 5 minutes Googleing for it. Credit goes to Jazmine for remembering first and convincing me she was right. Google Street View confirmed her memory.

Find Frankie's Tampa. There will be a tray of cheese cubes in the back room. Take a picture of one teammate dropping a cheese cube into the other teammate's mouth.

Frankie's is on Kennedy Blvd, just west of the UT campus. We did this one right after Clue #1, the anti-gravity rock.

DETOUR (complete one of the following):
Take a picture of four or more people total with at least one t-shirt from a convert visible in the picture.
Or...
Take a picture of six or more people total with at least two people wearing a necktie.

We got lucky on this one. The streetcar from Ybor to Channelside was packed with racers. Someone convinced a couple of friendly tourists to don their neckties and pose with some of the racers for the photo. I think at least 8 or 10 teams got the same picture thanks to the good nature of the tourists, one of whom even opened his suitcase (he was on his way to the cruise ship that was docked at Channelside) to get a tie to wear.

Take a picture of both teammates in front of the arcade game called Chip Away in Gameworks and win at least ten tickets (that means 20 'points') from any game in Gameworks.

This was the last clue we did, and I'm embarrased at how badly my

skeeball

skills have deteriorated over the years!
Originally I was thinking we'd use this one or the Improv one (clue # 12) as our skip clue, but because we could not find the candy or shopper magazine from clue #4, we ended up having to do both.

(Can you tell by our enthusiastic faces that we were nearing the end, of the race and our patience?)

Take a picture of both teammates in front of this red phone booth in Hyde Park. [the clue sheet included a small picture of the phone booth]

This was dead simple; anyone who's ever been to Hyde Park Village has seen that phone booth, and it's right on the main street as you walk or drive in. Even if you didn't know about it, it would be hard to go to Lifestyles for clue # 2 without seeing it.

The monument is mentioned in the song "Ybor Way" by T. W. Ramsay, 1959. Take a picture of both teammates in front of it.

Google really helped for this one, as no-one we asked had heard of the song. It refers to the statue of Columbus at the Platt St. end of Bayshore Boulevard Linear Park; we stopped there on our way to Publix for clue # 5.

Find Tampa Improv's secondary stage. Once there, you must tell a joke (of your choice) to the judges. If it makes the judges laugh, you'll get a stamp and this clue is complete. I your joke does nor make them laugh you must perform another joke. Your joke can b simple and does not need to involve both teammates. Our judges are looking more for effort than hilarity. You must receive a stamp on the clue sheet from one of the judges! This clue will only be available from 1:0004:00 so strategize accordingly.

We did this one next-to-last after we returned to Ybor from Hyde Park. It was kind of hard to get up there in front of two volunteer judges who had clearly heard more than they wanted of amateur comedians and bad jokes. Not to mention the other teams who were gathered around waiting their turn.
The first joke we tried bombed:

"Knock-knock.
Who's there?
Impatient cow.
Impatient c-
[rushed, interrupting] Moo! Moo! Moo..."

In desperation, I threw out my own made-up corn joke:
"What do you say to corn before you eat it? ... 'See ya tomorrow.'"
One of the judges actually snickered and I think the other one felt pity on us so agreed to give us the stamp.

Here's a map of the route we took (click "View Larger Map" underneath to see details and descriptions of the place-markers):

View Larger Map

R.I.P Dion Gillard

2009-01-02T14:10:00.002-05:00

I learned today that a long-time colleague of mine, Dion Gillard, passed away back in September. Although I knew him only electronically, we participated together on a close-knit mailing list for many years.
He had melanoma and wrote a bit about it here. I looked at photos he had posted over the years, some of them eerily peaceful when viewed in light of his passing.
Many people on the email list have expressed regret that we did not notice his departure until now, 3 months after his death. That is sad evidence indeed of the state of our too-busy, information-swamped society, but I feel something else...
For some reason, even more than the lose of Dion himself, I feel sadness for his children. I'm feeling the kind of deep sadness and sense of hopelessness as I did yesterday watching a performance by Eric Clapton; I was wondering how Clapton could ever experience happiness again after losing his young son years ago. Now I find myself wondering how Dion's children (and wife?) will ever feel happiness after losing their dad and husband.
As scary a thought as my own death is, I think I fear even more the thought of losing my wife or son. To me, the ones left behind continue to suffer more after the dying have rested, and that saddens me. It saddens me so much that I am near tears for a family I have never met and don't know the first thing about.
To the Gillard family, my prayers are with you; know that God hears them.

New photos for 2008

2008-11-14T10:39:00.003-05:00

Here are the latest pictures of Julian and friends & family from this past summer.
You can see more albums from this year in our gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/eric.rizzo/

Relative paths in Eclipse .link files

2008-10-21T09:35:00.005-04:00

When setting up an Eclipse installation (or a target platform if you're doing Eclipse plug-in or RCP development), it is often recommended to use .link files to keep things organized. While this is excellent advice, all of the examples I could find use absolute paths in the .link files (for example, D:/eclipse/eclipse-plugins/MyFavoritePlugin), which is, in my opinion, less than ideal.
It turns out that the .link paths can be relative, and that is especially helpful if you want to check in your target platform into source control (CVS) or otherwise share it with others who may not install into the same absolute path (or even on the same OS).
The trick is getting the format of the path correct so that Equinox can resolve correctly. For example, here is the outline of the target platform we use for developing Skyway Builder:

TargetPlatform/
   eclipse-3.3.2/
       plugins/
       features/
       links/
           EPF-RichText.link
           maven2eclipse.link
   ext/
       EPF-RichText/
           eclipse/
               plugins/
               features/
       Maven2Eclipse/
           eclipse/
               plugins/
               features/

In that structure, the ext/ directory contains a couple of "non-standard" features that we depend on, the RichText editor component from the EPF project, and the Maven integration plug-ins. Now here's the meat of this post, what do the .link files look like to use relative paths. The EPF-RichText.link and maven2eclipse.link files each contain one line:

path=ext/EPF-RichText

and

path=ext/Maven2Eclipse

(respectively).

Note that the paths are relative to the directory containing both the base Eclipse installation and the ext/ directory. Also note that when selecting the target platform in the Eclipse preferences, you must select /TargetPlatform/eclipse-3.3.2/ (not /TargetPlatform/).

With this structure and the .link files using these relative paths, anyone can easily check out our target platform from CVS (and store it anywhere on their local file system they want), point their development Eclipse at it, and be ready to build our source code.

If you have a target platform set up this way with relative link files, and it is a full-blown runnable Eclipse (a target platform does not need to be a full runnable Eclipse, but in my experience it usually is), you have to be careful to not ever run that target (don't launch the eclipse.exe or eclipsec.exe). Once you do, something happens that prevents it from working; for some reason the relative .link files stop working and thus it will not be a good target anymore. In our target that is checked in to CVS, we simple removed the .exe files so that nobody can accidentally run the target platform.

One final note: this should also work across platforms (the link files are not Windows or Linux or Mac specific), although I have not actually tested that. If you can try it on Linux or Mac, please let me know how it turns out.

Model-Driven Software Development

2008-08-09T10:35:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I blogged on my employer's site some thoughts on Model-Driven Software Development.

Customizing Builds for Your Eclipse Projects

2008-08-05T08:29:00.009-04:00

I was answering a question on the Eclipse newsgroups today, a question that I must have answered at least 20 times in the past couple of years. The question was, basically, "How can I add additional steps to a project's build?" In my continuing (seemingly futile) efforts to make more use of blogging, I decided to put my explanation here.

The Java Project build really only does two things: it compiles source .java files into .class files into your project's Build Output location, and it copies any non-.java files it finds in your Source Locations to the corresponding place in your Build Output location (Source Locations and Build Output Locations are configured in the Java Build Path section of the project properties). If you want or need to do more during the builds, you can augment it with your own Ant script.
Open the Properties dialog for your project and select the Builders section. There you can add your own builder to run after the Java Builder.

You can specify your builder as Ant or any arbitrary program. For many typical tasks (such as copying/moving files, creating a JAR, signing it, etc.) I usually recommend Ant because it makes such tasks very easy to implement. There are more details available in the Ant Tutorial section of the Eclipse Help.

Be aware that all custom Builders will be executed for every build, which by default happens every time you save a source file (or something that the project depends on gets built). So having a Builder that takes more than a few seconds to start up and execute can be a real drag your the coding flow. If you find that you don't really want it to run on every build, I recommend opening the Ant View (I like to make it a Fast View to tuck it out of the way but still easily accessible) and adding your Ant script there. That way it is only a couple of clicks away at all times, easy to manually invoke at the times when you need it.

Imminent Cosmic Collision: You and Eclipse Ganymede

2008-06-24T13:25:00.005-04:00

The arrival of Eclipse's latest release (named, like other Eclipse multi-project simultaneous releases, after a moon of Jupiter: Ganymede) is upon us. It represents version 3.4 of the platform what I'd call the "core" set of tools on top of it, and I applaud Eclipse for not succumbing to the version numbering frenzy that most vendors seem to follow, where new releases with only minor or cosmetic changes are given entirely new major version numbers. I've been using the milestone and release candidate builds for a couple of months now, and here are some of the items that I've noticed (the good with the bad).

p2, the replacement for the much-maligned Update Manager (among other things), is a big step in the right direction. Up until the RC builds it had some pretty serious UI and error-handling problems, but it is now a pretty good front-end to the complex problem of managing an open-ended platform of plugins and update sites. I think there is still a lot of room for improvement and enhancement in the UI, but what will ship with 3.4 is certainly good enough and a LOT better than the old update mechanism (in terms of both underlying architecture and user experience). I still think it is too complicated and subtle for inclusion in the average RCP, but for developers (the primary audience of Eclipse applications, including the Java IDE), it will be welcomed with open arms.
Plug-in Spy is a very handy tool for those of us who develop Eclipse-based applications (or for anyone who is trying to learn how Eclipse is put together and/or how to mimic what you see in the "standard" plugins). Just hit Alt+Shift+F1 and a convenient view will appear giving lots of details about current state of active Part (View or editor), such as the class that implements it, he plugin that contributes it, and lots of other details.
Mark Occurrences has been enhanced to use different colors for write occurences and read occurences. This is a small thing that makes a big difference.
The Error Log view has been vastly improved. Not only is it now packaged as a separate plugin/feature that is more easily included in RCP apps, but it now has the ability to group messages by various criteria, provides a "quick search" box for filtering the logs, and allows you to easily view the logs of workspaces that have been used when launching an Eclipse app to test/debug plugins and RCPs. Very nice!
"Rich" hovers/tooltips. This is a broad improvement to many of the hover/tooltip lightweight windows that Eclipse pops up to give you information about elements under the cursor.
- The Javadoc hover is really nice now - links work seamlessly, it is easily resizable, and it has a great little toolbar with actions like navigation (back and forward), transferring to the Javadoc View, and opening the source code for the thing whose doc is being viewed.
- The debug hover is also much improved, letting you explore the contents of rich objects without using a separate View.
- My favorite hover enhancement has to be the hover for errors and warnings. It now presents hyperlinks to Quick Fix options, right there in the hover window. Before, you had to manually invoke Quick Fix, but now my hands don't have to find the awkward keyboard combo of Ctrl+F1; I just hover over a problem marker and click the link for the fix I want. Very nice!
Performance. The UI is as snappy as ever, I don't notice and decrease or improvement there. There is reportedly a lot of internal improvement made to the JDT compiler to take advantage of multi-core and multi-CPU hardware, especially when running on a Java 6 JVM. I did seem to notice some improvment in Java build times. Startup time seems to be slightly better than 3.3, but that is hard to really judge because of all the variables that OSGi, p2, and the list of 3rd-party plugins that might be installed, can introduce.
Collapse-all button for the Projects view. OK, so this one is only on my list because I contributed the idea and code for it :-) Still, it is something that I have longed for for quite a while: in the Projects view (usually used in the Java Browsing perspective), there is a new button to collapse the entire tree (Collapse-All), similar to what you find in other tree-bsaed views like Navigator, Package Explorer, etc. Here's the bug report for the curious.

Overall, I am very pleased with this release and applaud the various project teams for their accomplishments over the past year. I even can brag that a piece of my own code has finally found its way into an official Eclipse release, so that makes it especially cool. :-)
The next challenge will be getting Skyway Visual Perspectives working with 3.4 and, eventually, taking advantage of the new features and API that are available.

Podcast with Wayne Beaton

2008-03-31T12:05:00.004-04:00

When we were at EclipseCon, I did a podcast with Eclipse's official Evangelist, Wayne Beaton (yes, that's his actual job title - pretty cool job title if you ask me!). The topic was finding and giving help on the Eclipse newsgroups. Wayne just published it here.

EclipseCon 2008

2008-03-22T23:45:00.011-04:00

I just returned from EclipseCon and, although I thoroughly enjoyed the conference/vacation, I have to admit that its nice to be home. I guess I should just get it out of the way and point out that I was only able to attend EclipseCon because I was the winner of one of the annual Eclipse Community Awards (specifically, "Most Prolific Newcomer Evangelist") and the foundation was very generous in their help. Specifically, I have to thank Wayne Beaton, Ian Skerrett, and Lynn Gayowski for their encouragement and help - thankyouthankyouthankyou!
As for the award, not only did I get a spiffy personalized acrylic trophy thingy, but a totally tricked out "cell phone," an E90 donated by Nokia - its really more of a mini-computer than a phone, very similar in function to an iPhone. Now I just have to read the 90-page User Guide and figure out what US carrier it works with. In any case, I was totally surprised and blown away by the quality of the prize.

As for the conference itself, I have to say that the highlight was just meeting, face-to-face, so many people with whom I've corresponded, cooperated, and collaborated over the past 5 years. It is great to finally put faces to names like Wayne, Ian, Ed Merks, Tom Schindl, Walter Harely, Denis Roy (thank goodness he introduced himself 'cause I would certainly planted my foot well into my mouth if I had called him "Dennis") and so many more that I can't recall. For me the people aspect was definitely the most interesting part of the whole week.
As for technical content, I was impressed by the long talk on Mylyn, a project that I had been aware of and moderately curious about before; but after seeing it live and presented by its charismatic and passionate creator Mik Kersten, I'm determined to give it some dedicated time and share it with my teammates at Skyway Software.
Speaking of Skyway, I spent considerable time hanging out at the booth and I think our product launch was well-received. Most people seemed impressed with the modeling GUI (I heard words like "slick," "easy-to-use," and "wow") which, admittedly, I am glad to hear because that has been the focus of my work there. But I think we also heard some good feedback about potential directions to take the runtime portion; hopefully the community thing will take off and we'll soon see some contributions in those areas.
The p2 effort is making good progress and looks well on its way to solving the problems with the old Update Manager (and much more).
I was also educated about the profiling tools that are part of the TPTP project. The presenters were clearly not 100% comfortable speaking English in front of a large audience, but the tools look quite robust and complete, certainly capable of competing with their commercial competitors. I will be profiling the Afriterra catalog (and probably Skyway Perspectives, too) in the near future.
Replay Solutions's product also looks very interesting, but as of now it is only for JEE applications so my current (paying) work can't really find much use for it.

I'll close with something that won't surprise those who have spent any amount of time talking to me or reading this blog, a critical statement about the future direction that The Powers That Be apparently have set for one of my chosen technologies. I attended the Eclipse 4 (e4) talk and am confused and somewhat dismayed by the overwhelming focus on bringing the Eclipse platform (specifically, its UI) to the web. Because the details are vague (intentionally, because as with everything else at Eclipse, the real story will be determined by "the community"), I'm having a hard time verbalizing my thoughts; suffice it to say, just in the area of SWT and Platform UI, I'd rather see the growing mound of bugs and feature requests be more addressed instead of spending scarce resources on a completely new "platform." I understand and appreciate the need for architecture cleanup and evolution, but I can't help but wonder how much say "the community" will really have in this, seeing as nearly 100% of the committers are employed by the big member companies. Jesper asks some good questions and raises some good points in this blog post. I'm keeping my mind open, but with a healthy does of skepticism - after all, the last thing that Eclipse needs is a bunch of yes-men all nodding along with the ideas of a very small number of vocal, powerful committers and member companies.

All in all, the week was very enjoyable. Jazmine and Little-j traveled with me and we had some wonderful family tourist days before and after the conference. I'll post photos later this week when my body recovers from the time-zone-difference whiplash...

Ugress direct-to-consumer store goes live

2008-01-29T22:52:00.000-05:00

Score another victory for the direct-to-consumer music distribution revolution!
One of my favorite musical artists of the past few years, Ugress, has just released his latest album and made it available via direct sales from the independent label web site. The prices are very reasonable (£0.49 per song or about £5.39 for the entire album). The best part is, he has also made available all of his past albums, B-sides, and EPs, too. Not that I need to buy much of it - Ugress has been offering much of the music for free download for years.

I can't tell you how glad I am to see an rise in artists offering a direct channel to their customers; and the fact that this is one of my favorites is just icing on the cake.

Ugress is a bit difficult to categorize and describe. Superficially, the music can be described as electronica, but that doesn't really do it justice. I've seen him dubbed "mad scientist musical mastermind" but probably a more useful description is this:

"Ugress dives into a groovy, spooky and cinematic landscape of weird samples, loops and sounds. Strong rythms carries soundscapes and melodies forth. The sources of sampling include easy listening records of the 60ies, unknown and well known classic funktracks of the 70ies, computer games, television commercials and the oldest aswell as latest sci-fi b-movie. The compelling groove of a breakbeat (or two, or three) is, of course, always present."

The Borg that is YouTube

2007-06-06T22:47:00.000-04:00

I finally have some video content of my own creation, so I'm assimilating myself.

We're starting to take a lot of video of Julian, so I'm succumbing to the Borg that is YouTube. Why not, it is a free way to distribute these huge video files to family and friends.

Here is the first one I've uploaded as an experiment (it is very low quality and over 6 months old):

Adblock

Micro$oft pulls a SCO move

2007-05-14T22:44:00.000-04:00

Out of ideas, the Redmond Giant has resorted to stealing ideas from maligned SCO.

Let's listen in on a high-level strategy meeting on location in Redmond, WA, USA....

SteveB: "OK, we are getting creamed by all this damned high-quality open-source free software."

BillG: "Why don't we give another try a making at better product, Steve?"

SteveB: "Huh? What does that mean? Bill, you're so out of touch with my company...
So anyway, we're turning to you, our attorneys, to solve the problem for us. What have you got?"

AttorneyA: "Well, sir, we could try to bomb their offices with smelt-flavored pudding. That would slow them down from making and marketing the good software."

SteveB: "No, that won't work you idiot - they don't have offices."

AttorneyB: "How about sending them all free copies of Windows Vista and asking real nice to stop making us look bad?"

Tech VP: "That won't work either - nobody can afford the hardware to actually run Vista with any useful features enabled. Except our development team, that is."

SteveB: "C'mon numbskulls! If you don't come up with a strategy, you're all fired!"

AttorneyC: "Um, Mr. B, sir? I have an idea. What about we 'pull a SCO' on the world and launch a FUD campaign. We could use the empty threat of litigation for 'stealing' our technology. And the best part is, SCO showed that we don't even have to come up with real details - just the innuendo about infringement is enough to make the world doubt those evil good-software makers."

SteveB: "Hmm, that just might work. Yes,... I like it! Let's see now, how many 'violations' can we get away with?"

AttorneyA: "I don't think it really matters, sir. Make it in the hundreds."

Tech VP: "We can write software to generate a random number to use for the campaign. I'll get our offshore team working on that right away, sir!"

SteveB: "How long will it take, Mr. TechVP?"

TechVP: "Initial estimate is... 265 man-months for development, sir. As usual, testing will be allocated 0.25 monkey-days."

SteveB: "OK, well we'd better get some funding for that effort. I'll talk to SalesVP about forcing another enterprise-wide upgrade on Mega-Customer. No, better yet, I'll just have him use the auto-disabling feature of Vista to force all the grandmothers to buy the new Office version. Yeah, we don't want to piss-off Mega-Customer any more this year, and how gives a rat's behind about the consumers anyway...
OK, men - we have a plan - let's execute!"

AttorneyB: "Sir, didn't SCO fail miserably with this strategy and end up taking the throne from us as the most hated company in the tech world? "

SteveB: "Who's SCO? And besides, Nobody hates us..."

And thus the FUD campagin begins and the ever-so-predictable reactions...

Java Closures

2007-04-27T22:38:00.000-04:00

Here we go again with language syntax changes...but this time is it different?

Brian Goetz recently posted an article on IBM DeveloperWorks about closures in Java. It is a well-written description of both the theory behind closures and the two proposals that are currently being considered for including them in Java.

I applaud the article, but as for the issue, I don't really like either proposal very much. BGGA is just more of the increasing complexity of syntax that, IMNSHO, is going to kill Java. On the other hand CICE does not appear to go far enough in simplifying the syntax. It seems that what is keeping the syntax so ugly is the damn static typing, having to declare the types of all your variables; if we could get away from that we'd have lots simpler syntax options (and we'd not be in Java anymore :-)

I guess I'll root for CICE, since it is fairly obvious that one of thee two is going to be The One. However, I was delighted to see this at the end of the article, since it is precisely what I have been harping on for so long in relation to the Parameterized Types decision:

"The issue being debated is not whether closures are a good idea -- because they clearly are -- but whether the benefits of retrofitting the Java language with closures are worth the costs."

That quote notwithstanding, does anyone really believe this proposal won't be railroaded through now that the camel's nose is under the tent?

Get off iTunes' back!

2007-02-07T22:35:00.000-05:00

Steve Jobs responded to critics of iTunes/iPod DRM, and he's right.

Steve Jobs has written an open letter to the critics who bemoan the DRM system of iTunes, and I have to say he is spot on with his reasoning and presentation. It is non-confrontational and follows a clear line of thought, detailing the history ("How did we get here?") as well as what possible future courses he sees. I've seen lots of people with apparently nothing better to do than criticize Apple for the DRM, completely ignoring these facts:

Without agreeing to strong DRM Apple would never have gotten the record lables (the real bad guys in this situation) to license their music to be sold online. In other words, the alternative was to have no commercial, legal solution to meet the market demand.
Under iTunes' system the consumer is given a lot more freedom to do things with the music than the labels originally demanded. In other words, Apple did a pretty good job of negotiating to slant the power more towards consumers than the labels would like. For example,it is trivial to burn DRMed music to a CD and then rip it back again, if you really want un-protected files from your music, and only the most audiophile of listeners can hear the quality difference.
The only alternatives are either illegal and, even by my own liberal view of rights ownership, immoral, or just as proprietary as iTunes. Sony and Micro$oft, the only significant competitors, have the same restrictions as iTunes.

The critics, for the most part, conveniently avoid these facts, none of which are disputable. They just want something to complain about.

I am by no means a "Mac person" (don't own one and have barely ever used one), but I applaud Jobs' response for its level-headedness, honesty, and direct approach. I am really tired of hearing those who just want to gripe and want the world without paying for it criticizing the company and system that has revolutionized the music industry. The digital distribution revolution is even more important than the CD "revolution" was, because it is not just a better quality package of the same old model - this is completely new and empowers consumers in ways that were only possible via illegal and immoral behavior before. We have Apple to thank for sparking that and for remaining aggressive and the market leader. As Jobs' letter says, people and governments should spend their energies trying to change the archaic, stone-age attitudes of the record labels who insist on treating their customers as criminals while not slowing down the real criminals at all.

Funny Quote

2006-12-16T22:32:00.000-05:00

Micro$oft is the blunt of many a joke these days, but this one made me chuckle out loud:

"The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is probably the day they start making vacuum cleaners." -Ernst Jan Plugge

[found here - a useful page in its own right]

Why not Casual Monday?

2006-12-15T22:29:00.000-05:00

American workforce culture is already too focused on getting to the weekend - Casual Friday makes it worse.

So I'm in the second week of working at yet another new job. It is a pretty good sized company (though nothing like the behemoth that was HSBC), and as is the norm they observe a "business casual" dress policy, including "casual Fridays " where jeans are acceptable. It got me thinking this morning as I donned my most comfortable denim: why is it always Friday that companies (the ones that are still enslaved by the idea that dressing in khaki's and golf shirts 4 days out of the week somehow makes people better workers) designate for "casual" attire? Why not Mondays?

I mean, it is already the sad state of the typical American worker mentality that so many see Friday as a kind of Elysian Field , a reward for surviving the rigors of the work-week. I find that "work for the weekend" attitude very revealing and pretty pathetic; it says a lot about the typical worker's attitude towards his job, satisfaction with his work, and the typical company's treatment of employees, that so many people are so focused on the nearing reprieve (Friday) instead of on what they can accomplish during the week. So when I see Friday accentuated as a partial release of our workplace burdens (in the form of a relaxed dress policy), I can't help but think it is just reinforcing the "work for the weekend" attitude: "I can't wait until the weekend so much that getting to wear casual clothes on Friday is a big deal."

Thus, I wonder why companies don't use the carrot of Designated Casual Dress to entice workers to look forward to Monday or even Wednesday. Who among us does not regularly loathe Mondays, dreading the return to the drudgery of the work week? Alternatively, how far would Casual Wednesday go towards wiping out the thought of Wednesday as Hump Day ? If employers offered Casual Monday (or Wednesday), would that not make those otherwise barely tolerable days that much more palatable?

Imagine waking up on Monday morning and being able to slip into those old comfy jeans and tee-shirt. Doesn't that make Monday at least a little better? Wouldn't that help fend off those draining attacks of Mondayitis ? I think it would.

Reaction to Sun's open source release of Java

2006-11-18T22:22:00.001-05:00

It's been inevitable for quite a while now, and this week Sun finally officially announced the open-source plan for Java. Let me take this opportunity to log my personal reaction to this "long time coming" news:
Yaaaaaaaawwwwwn

As far as I saw, the only people who complained about Java not being "open" were the frothing-at-the-mouth FOSS zealots (OK, I'm going to get some flames for that word choice - but I have a soft spot for the overly-dramatic, so it will stay).
Let's be honest: the critical parts of Java, the libraries and reference implementations and compatibility test kits, have been source-available from the beginning. I just don't see a lot of people caring that the JVM and compiler are open now.
Actually, now that I think about it, I take back the yawn. I am very interested, because I'm now concerned that Sun does not have enough influence any more to keep Java from fracturing. We have to hope that the community can restrain itself to keep that from happening - but I would not bet on that. Maybe some other big players like IBM will be able to police the renegades who want this or that little thing and, when they can't convince the rest of the community, go off and create MyJava.
The last thing Java needs right now is to become the next Linux, where binaries aren't compatible and users of one distro can barely find standard file locations on other distros.

Julian at 4 months old

2006-10-08T22:21:00.000-04:00

Julian is 4 and 1/2 months now, and September was quite a busy month for him.

There were road trips:

to Miami to see his Abuela and Abuelo and meet the Miami chapter of the Official Julian Fan Club
to Sanibel to celebrate his great-grandpa's 80th birthday. It was Grandpa's birthday, but Julian kind of stole the show - so many great-aunts and great-uncles and second-cousins, so little time!

He also had his first adventures into the swimming pool. He was skeptical at first but seemed to enjoy it after a while.

Last night he spent his first night away from Mom and Dad - Poppy and Nonni (Jerry and Marilynn) had babysitting duties for the night. We were lonely and wondered how he'd handle himself, but the report came back great.

There's lots of new pictures from September at http://www.rizzoweb.com/photos/Julian (including the road trips to Miami and Sanibel).
We have also uploaded all his photos to Walgreens web site so you can order prints and pick them up at any Walgreens store: click here to see them . You will have to create a free account at the Walgreens website in order to see them and order prints. Email us if you have any trouble.

Enjoy,
Eric and Jazmine

Update on Julian at 3+ months old

2006-09-05T22:20:00.000-04:00

We've put up new pictures of Julian from July and August.
http://www.rizzoweb.com/photos/Julian
He is growing so fast you won't recognize him. Last week he was 15.5 pounds and over 25 inches long - 90th percentile on the growth charts for his age!
Julian will be 15 weeks old this week. He has started rolling over on his own, and really interacts with people around him - smiling, cooing, laughing. Last week he started sleeping almost completely through the night (a big relief for his parents :-)
This week we started him at a babysitter during the days - it is hard for us to leave him but this is a big step for him. Pray for us!

The Truth About Infants

2006-07-02T22:18:00.000-04:00

Everyone gives all kinds of advice when you are expecting a child. Our least favorite (mostly because it is so dully predictable) is "Your life will change forever" (For a while Jazmine and I were counting how many people said that to us, trying not to roll our eyes each time). Well, Duh! Of course it is going to change - that is one of the reasons people choose to have children, isn't it?
Anyway, lots of people tell expecting parents how much babys like to eat, sleep, and poop. That's pretty much all they do.
But the thing that nobody actually pointed out was this important truth: In addition to eating lots of breast milk and formula, infants gobble up huge chunks of time, taking it up in surprisingly large gulps, until your entire day has been devoured by this little 11-pound time-eating machine.

This seldom-expressed truth is probably the most surprising thing about having Julian for us thus far - I'm sure there will be others, but right now it seems like every day it is 3:30pm by the time we blink, and then it is 10:30 at night before we take a breath. God help us... :-)

I Have Arrived!

2006-05-26T22:16:00.000-04:00

Hi, I'm Julian Isaac Rizzo, the newest member of the Rizzo clan.

Click here to see more pictures of my exquisite handsomeness

I came aboard Thursday May 25 at 8:25am, carrying 8 pounds 9 ounces and 20 inches of adorable little ears, chins, arms bottom and toes.
I'm a little busy learning to forage for food and figuring out this whole night and day thing, so this is all I can write for now. I'll dictate some more notes later for Daddy to type.

Adios,
Julian

Signs of things to come

2006-05-20T22:06:00.000-04:00

I guess this is the kind of little scene we are going to have to get used to around the house - we woke up yesterday morning and discovered our laundry rack had been infested with these miniature clothes.

There's a lot of laundry, and this baby isn't even here yet!

The Spectrum of "Web Services"

2006-03-31T22:02:00.001-05:00

In response to a recent question about a company wanting to jump into the web services pool, I wanted to give some publicity to John Udell's musings on the nature of web services, particularly his notion of WS-Heavy and WS-Lite.

Victor Grazi wrote:

"Our company is interested in exposing some of our server java api as web services. 2 years ago that would have probably meant introducing an ejb framework and wrapping those as web services. I would be interested in hearing other approaches. Any ideas?"

The first question to ask is whether you're interested in going down the WS-* path or the "Web 2.0" path. In other words, are you interested in being WS-Heavy or WS-Lite? (see http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2005/09/21.html and the links from that page).
Mica's Hotels.com architecture sounds like it lives towards the WS-Lite/Web 2.0 end of that spectrum, while SOAP, UDDI, WS-I, etc. would put you more towards the WS-Heavy end.

Once you understand that distinction and determine which end you need/want to live near, then you can decide on the technologies to implement those choices.

So THIS is what the world looks like before 7:00am

2006-02-18T22:00:00.000-05:00

Out of character, I was out of bed before 7:00am last week. It just so happened to be the coldest morning we've had this winter, and I captured the icy beauty on film. Well, not really on film, since in this age of digital photography my Fujifilm S5000 doesn't use that old-school medium.

Anyway, I was rewarded for my efforts at this un-Godly hour - the air was so cold (about 26 or 27 degrees, which is pretty darn cold here on Florida's west coast) that steam floated gently up from the pond behind our house. It was as if the fish and turtles and gators were mimicking children who exhale in just the right way to see their breaths on a cold day.
With the sun rising on the eastern horizon behind the pond and the icy grass crunching beneath my feet, I had one of those moments where I marvel at God's awesome artistic hand.

EJBFactory

2005-09-09T21:56:00.000-04:00

A handy utility/helper class for obtaining instances of EJBs (and InitialContext instances and Home interface instances)

In a recent mailing list discussion I mentioned a utility class called EJBFactory that I've used in the past. It encapsulates most of the ugly boilerplate and error-handling code that an EJB client usually must include in order to obtain references to EJBs. I offered to publish a version of the code, so here it is:
http://www.rizzoweb.com/java/EJBFactory.java

It is not complete; for one thing, as the class comment says, it does not do narrow() ing of the remote references it gets. But that should be easy enough to add, and the more robust, complete version of this idea is in code owned by a previous employer of mine.
Hopefully someone will find this interesting and useful as a starting point for implementing whatever their EJB client code needs. I welcome any feedback about improving it.

Private Abuse

2005-09-06T21:52:00.000-04:00

The use of private scope qualifier for methods is one of the biggest barriers to reuse in Java.

I was recently searching for a way to dynamically get an instance of a java.lang.Class that represents a primitive type (basically, I needed a dynamic form of what you get when you reference something like java.lang.Boolean.TYPE). I never did find an acceptable way to do it (please email me if you know of one), but someone brought to my attention that there is a method, java.lang.Class.getPrimitiveClass(String) that appears to do exactly what I need. Great! No - the method is private, so I have no chance of ever using it.
This gets to one of my biggest peeves about the state of the Java programming art - the abuse of private, which I see as one of the biggest hurdles to reuse and extension.

A typical response to this position is that "private has a definite use and can often times be preferred as once you make something public then so it must remain for ever," but I take issue with those points.

First of all, they're forgetting about protected scope, which is much more friendly than private and provides the same level of "protection" (the notion of protection in coding is a tricky concept , as I'll get to later) in most cases.
Beyond that, I don't buy the argument about once something is public you can't change it. Very few of us are writing the kinds of code that is set in stone - refactoring is usually an option. Deprecation is your friend, too.
Actually, if you are writing some kind of code that must be set in stone, all the more reason to use protected instead of private. Because in that kind of situation (rare as it may be) you should be striving for more flexibility, not less. Private scope can only add flexibility for code in the same class; on the other hand, for increased flexibility of all other code (the clients/callers and extenders), protected and public provide much more flexibility. When you use private, you are essentially assuming that you know exactly every way in which the code might be used or extended, which is, IMO, rather short-sighted and brash.

The kind of attitude that thinks that way (must make things private because I might want to change them one day or because I know this would never be needed outside of this class) is what Martin Fowler refers to as a Directing attitude (as opposed to Enabling) and I find Directing attitude to usually be counter-productive an frustrating to work with.

Finally, I'll say this: making methods private is often justified by saying "this is implementation specific and could 'break' the code if used externally." But again I find that a bogus argument - if I subclass a class and call or override its protected methods and it does not behave how I thought (so long as it adheres to the documentation or other contract), it is not necessarily the original class author's fault. I would certainly expect testing to happen, which would uncover any false assumptions or mis-use of inherited code. Again, Directing vs. Enabling - I prefer that I'm given as many tools as possible rather than being stuck with the limited set that
some original programmer thought I would need.

OK, one more "finally": Smalltalk, probably the most pure of widespread OO languages, gets by just fine without private methods at all. I've never heard of anyone coming upon a situation where they just NEEDED them and where marking them as "intended to be" private
didn't suffice. Here is an excellent article on the subject
If you read nothing else I've written in this diatribe, read at least that and the Martin Fowler article. They are written by far more effective writers than I, and it shows.

Sorry for ranting - it's late and I was bored. Seriously, I've spent 10+ years thinking about this topic on and off, and my position is very firmly set after all that time.

Code Structure: Multiple Exit Points & Code Standards

2005-07-25T21:43:00.000-04:00

On the StriaghtTalking-Java list today, the following question came up:

"What is the consensus with regards to single entry, single exit methods. I was never taught to code to this convention but recently heard that some companies require it. I wondered how people felt about this?"

There were many responses, some agreeing but mostly disagreeing that it was a good "standard" to enforce. Some of the arguments in favor of single-exit-point-ness were:

Multiple exit points can lead to more bugs
There's too much license in "sometimes it's ok to do x". That's the same as saying "It's always OK if I feel like it on any given day."
It is easier to "see" the method structure with one exit point.

My two cents is that code readability wins out over dogma or "standards adherence." Sometimes a single exit point is the most clear structure and makes the code clean. However, I've read and written many, many, many methods that were far more readable with multiple exit points that they were with only one. I also agree that small-grained methods make this even less of an issue, and that exceptions usually throw single-exit off anyway.

To address the "more potential for bugs" argument, I respond with unit testing. A method that is complex or intricate enough to have multiple paths of logic should usually have a set of tests for each of those paths.

In summary: sometimes a single exit point (return) is more elegant, but sometimes multiple returns lead to more elegant code. We might all disagree (and almost certainly do) about how big those two "sometimes" are in relation to each other, but the bottom line is, "Readability/elegance/simplicity trump all coding rules or standards" - it's going to be pretty hard to argue with that.

In general I feel that code standards usually go too far, are too dogmatic. A coding standards doc should, IMO, always be called a "guidelines" doc and the first section/chapter should state something like "code readability and elegance" trump other rules. Yes, it requires careful attention and discipline to avoid the "I don't feel like it today" trap - but if programmers don't have discipline good attention to detail, well then "where they put their curly-braces" or "how many exit points they have in methods" are going to be the least of the problems...

Java Generics: I'm not alone

2005-07-06T21:39:00.000-04:00

My thoughts on the addition of parameterized types (aka, "generics") to Java have been documented well here, on the StraightTalking-Java mailing list, and the Eclipse newsgroups. Bruce Eckel has always been on the same side as I, but until now there was little high-profile support for that position. Now, however, it appears to be gaining momentum. Ken Arnold has posted a blog entry "Generics Considered Harmful" and I'm glad to see it got Bruce Eckel's attention as well as Lambda the Ultimate.
Mr. Arnold and Mr Eckel are more eloquent than I have been about expressing the position that we all seem to share - I particularly like Ken's coining of the term "complexity budget." That is the succinct, easy-to-understand phrase that I have been searching for in my ramblings on the topic.
Bottom line: I'm glad to see some others coming out to express the idea that this "upgrade" may have pushed Java out of the realm of "simple" languages for good. I'm not alone any longer in my distaste for the increasing complexity the language designers are introducing.
Not that the company makes the discomfort any easier to live with...

Early Thoughts on Portals/Portlets

2005-06-07T19:53:00.000-04:00

I am in the process of evaluating/learning portal and portlet technology for my company. We are a HUGE organization, so there have been several efforts of exploration in various groups within the company. In fact, the "official" company-wide web-app and services framework team has actually implemented portlet functionality into the proprietary framework. I don't like the level to which they have abstracted away everything, though, so I'm making it part of my effort to evaluate their implementation. We use WebSphere Portal Server (we are a huge IBM shop, so it was the only realistic choice).

Thus far, my impressions of Java portal/portlet technology is that it is over-hyped. How many applications really have Yahoo-like requirements? Also, the portlet spec is over 18 months old at this point, but there is no public information about any activity on it. IOW, it appears to be stalled at the 1.0 level, and that 1.0 spec is quite immature. There are several key ideas that the vendors have all solved in proprietary ways that need to be part of the standard API and spec. The authors of the spec are remarkably silent on the progress of a 1.1 or 2.0 version - my educated speculation is that there is little or no progress happening at all.

The user activity I keep seeing (a Yahoo Group, articles, blog entries, etc) seems to be inordinately focused in the offshore population. I wonder if the offshore/outsourcing companies are hearing the hype from management types and trying to find ways to inject portal/portlet into every project they contract now...

Performance also appears to be a major issue. The extra processing required for every single user request is multiple times that for servlet apps, and, especially within our company, that results in apps that can handle significantly fewer concurrent users per unit of hardware than equivalent servlet/JSP apps. IBM claims that latest versions of WPS are significantly better than previous versions, but also seems to acknowledge that it is not equivalent to plain-old servlets and may never beÂ - the stated hardware requirements for running Portal Server are pretty high-end.

Something else: I haven't seen much talk about portal in terms of transactional applications. I can see that having a "main" app as a portlet surrounded by little helper stuff like calculators, mail checkers, stock quotes, etc. would be "nice to have" candy, I haven't seen any examples of highly transactional portlets all coexisting and sharing window space.
Another potential problem is that of screen real estate - you UI designers have a significantly harder job when you're dealing with multiple portlets on every page; it means none of the portlets have as much real estate to work with as they would if they were individual pages or traditional web apps.

I think the portal idea can be very useful for certain applications that have specific requirements about incorporating multiple data views onto one page. I just don't think many applications actually have such needs. When they do, implementing it in plain servlets and JSP can be done, but would require building something like the portlet API and container anyway. It's just that I prefer to build something like that as-needed and specific to what you really need, rather than relying on a huge, bloated, wants-to-do-everything implementation like is provided by IBM, BEA, etc.

As I said, I am still learning and evaluating and planning some PoC mini-projects to explore these topics. Thus, my opinions are young and likely to change at least a little over the next few months

The price We've Paid

2005-04-06T23:59:00.000-04:00

A few days ago I came across yet another example of why the implementation of parameterized types (sometimtes called "generics") in Java 5 (JDK 1.5) is going to hurt more than it helps. I dread the intricacy, complexity, and sinuosity that quickly results once you've started down this path...
Let me be clear, lest I get a flurry of emails from people who don't get my point: I am not arguing that parameterized types are without merit or use - of course every feature has a place where it will prove valuable. However, it is important to evaluate the cost of a feature when considering it. In the case of parameterized types in Java, the cost is an inordinate increase in syntax and complexitiy and mental overhead. The cost, IMNSHO, is very high - way too high to justify the feature.

Do we really want to have to write (or worse, read/maintain) this kind of code on a daily basis?
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: (De)serialization and Type Safety?
Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 07:05:48 +0100
From: Philippe Marschall <xxxxxxx>
Organization: EclipseCorner
Newsgroups: eclipse.platform

What to do? Are these all ignorable warnings, given that I know I'm > putting a Map<String, List<String>> in at the other end? Even if so, I'd > still like to be able to write warning-free code Well it depends what you want, if you want type safety and get rid of the warning, something like this might work.

public Map<String, List<String>> readFromSteam(InputStream is)
        throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException {
    ObjectInputStream ois = new ObjectInputStream(is);
    Map<?, ?> currentLists = (Map<?, ?>) ois.readObject();
    return this.copyToNewMap(currentLists);
}

private Map<String, List<String>> copyToNewMap(Map<?, ?> oldLists) {
    Map<String, List<String>> newLists = new HashMap<String,
    List<String>>();
    for (Entry<?, ?> each : oldLists.entrySet()) {
        String key = (String) each.getKey();
        List<?> oldList = (List<?>) each.getValue();
        List<String> value = this.copyToNewList(oldList);
        newLists.put(key, value);
    }
    return newLists;
}

private List<String> copyToNewList(List<?> oldList) {
    List<String> newList = new LinkedList<String>();
    for (Object each : oldList) {
        newList.add((String) each);
    }
    return newList;
}

Struts: At what point does it pay off?

2005-02-04T23:54:00.000-05:00

The topic of Struts recently came up on the ST-Java mailing list and my thoughts about it got rather lengthy, so I thought they'd be better served here than just in a Yahoo message.
The following question was posed:

I admit I don't know much about Struts, but I am wondering whether it's a bit "heavy weight" (for lack of a better word) for a small system (i.e., in terms of how rapidly you can do development in it) and/or whether there's a big learning curve involved in coming up to speed with it. Got any thoughts or experience you can relate that might alleviate those concerns?

It's hard for me to be completely unbiased in answering that, because I am already intimate with Struts. But, I'll try...

There is definitely a "tipping point" below which you may not want to invest the time into Struts. Like so many other things in our chosen art, where exactly that point lies depends in large part on the person/people doing the work and the nature of the relationship you/they have with the Goal Donors and Gold Owners^(tm).

I would say that the point where learning and using Struts becomes worth it is likely lower than some people think/say it is. It is not as heavy as I've seen/heard some people say. And for apps with simple needs, it is simpler to use than for apps that have complex needs. IOW, in some ways simpler apps don't need as much design, maintainability, cleanliness, etc (ie, the things Struts brings you to); however, in other ways simpler apps mean less need for the more advanced Struts stuff that makes learning/using it more burdensome. Does that make sense, because it's Friday and I've had one of those weeks...?

Bottom line, if you need a small app that is low-volume, only a few pages, and pretty much will never need sophisticated logic (besides, for example providing CRUD for a simple data model), well then Struts can be too much. But I see it like buying some big-ticket power tool for your garage or shed: yes it is difficult to justify the cost and storage required to get one just to cut a few 2x4s for that small project. But once you've made the investment to have one, you can use it again and again for both small projects and large ones that come up. And the small ones become trivial and the large ones become a lot easier.

When I said "I will never do a web app with plain old servlets+JSP," I should have made it clear where my "tipping point" is - perhaps 5 pages with simple DB calls and no "business logic." Because, yes, even I wouldn't use it to, for example, make a utility app that does soemthing small like store my contacts list in a DB and give web access to them. I least I don't think I would...you know, now that I think about it, I probably would, because with Struts and its rich set of taglibs I can crank out a couple of JSPs and Action classes that do that kind of thing just as easily as if I tried to use straight servlets and/or JSP and scriptlet - And since scriptlet makes me want to throw up, I'd choose the Struts/taglibs approach if for no other reason than to hold my lunch :-)

I recently introduced Struts to the team I work on for use on a new project (re-write of an existing atrocious web app). The 3-4 people I'm working with on the project, none of them had any experience at all with Struts, although they each had worked on J2EE-based web apps. With my past experience to guide us, we have been able to get up and running in a pretty good amount of time, and that includes adopting Tiles (which I had not used before) and the latest Struts version (1.2.x - I had only used 1.0 before). Everyone, including the page design/HTML "guy" were able to pick it up pretty readily, with me providing abbreviated insight that is proably more efficient than having to scour all the documentation and mailing lists. It has gone very well so far, and now we can cank out new functionality with realitve ease.
The moral of that story is that having someone along for the ride who has done Struts before is probably a big advantage. I am not claiming to be anything special as a mentor or guide or teacher - it's just that having past experience, on the team, close at hand, made a noticable difference. My teammates have said that repeatedly over the past 4-6 weeks.

Of course, I am a "framework" guy - I enjoy using well-desinged ones, I enjoy trying to extract them from my own work - so I'm probably naturally inclined towards things like Struts that are nicely abstract and pluggable. But I'll tell you, in the past year I've also had to work on a plain servlets+JSP (with lots of scriptlet - YUCK!) application, and I was neither as happy nor as productive as I am on this new one where Struts is the Path of the Beam.

Eric

Designing with Exceptions

2004-12-17T23:50:00.000-05:00

Rob Diana recently wrote about Exceptions and APIs, some thoughts stemming from a thread on Test Driven Development he read. On the StraightTalking-Java mailing list this spawned a lengthy discussion about the usage of exceptions, when they should be internally handled vs. thrown (possibly wrapped). My thoughts on the subject are a bit more general, but still worth mentioning (especialy since I'm trying to utilize this blog on a more consistent basis, and this seemed like a good way to start - again...)

Any object or set of cohesive objects (in some cases, an API) should only throw exceptions that are at the same level of abstraction as the interface to the object(s)/API.
IOW, the abstraction level of the object's interface must be consistent - that is not negotiable - and the thrown exceptions are part of the interface. Thus, the exceptions must match the abstraction of the rest of the interface (parameter types, return types, etc.)

If we follow this rule (it is more than a guideline, IMO) the decision about what kinds of exceptions to throw becomes easy in 99% cases. An app's persistence layer does not throw JDBC errors or hibernate errors, because those are implementation details of that layer - it is written at a "higher" level of abstraction. However, it can reasonably trap those kinds of errors and perform whatever reasonable action the developer chooses (which might include, for example, retrying the operation an extra time), most of the time wrapping the underlying error and throwing some exception that matches it's interface.
Same for a "business logic" layer - it talks in terms like CustomerAccount, Product, BillingCycle - so it can also use notions like CustomerNotFoundException, ProductDiscontinuedException, and BillingCyclePassedException (if the designer so chooses). It would not, however, use notions like SQLException, IOException, EJBException, etc. Those are implementation details - you would not want to change your whole interface just because the implementation changed from using straight JDBC to something else, for example.

I'm surprised there would be any debate about this. APIs (or any objects/set of cohesive objects) are certainly capable of handling some kinds of errors internally, but many times the context of the call is best able to know what to do.

Greece Trip Photos

2004-10-27T23:48:00.000-04:00

OK, most everyone knows, but for those of you who don't:
We've finally got all the pictures from our trip (all 230+ of them!) organized and posted on our web site. The page is http://www.rizzoweb.com/photos/Greece2004/
Enjoy, and let us know if you'd like copies of any of them.

Eric & Jazmine

Ia - Another slice of heaven

2004-09-14T23:44:00.000-04:00

When we were on our way to Santorini island we were unsure of which town we wanted to stay in, and for how long (we have been considering visiting another island for a couple of days). Well, Ia and the Filotera hotel have made the decision easy! Ia is a charming old-world style town built right into the cliffs, where all those famous pictures of little cubical white and blue houses and blue-domed churches come from.
Today we spent in an easy stroll through the town, Jazmine visiting every little craft shop and souvenir stand (Jazmine: "Not every one; every other one maybe...") and Eric taking about 1000 pictures.
We met so many friendly people - shop keepers, artists, other tourists - that we can't even remember them all. But most enjoyable of all were the quite, traditional atmosphere and the picturesque scenes that we discovered all day long.
Here and here are some of the dozens of such scenes that we captured.

Our afternoon ended at the cliff-side northernmost point where hoards of people gather for the sunset.

Teavel Day

2004-09-13T23:42:00.000-04:00

Off to Santorini!

Caught another early morning bus to Iraklion where we got on a ferry boat to Santorini island (Eric: "Man, these ferrets are huge!") Once again, crystal blue waters. I wish we could upload some of our pictures, because words simply don't tell you what the sea looks like.

We arrived in Santorini port; two buses and 2 hours later we got to Ia, the town on Santorini's northern tip. We stepped off the bus just in time to catch a glimpse of the famous Santorini sunset (more of that later), and for the first time in this trip we had a little bit of trouble finding a room. Not too much - our first couple of choices (thanks to Fodor's) were full, but we ended up with a charming, relatively large studio room off the main strip. Most importantly, Jazmine is very pleased, since this might be the cleanest room in all of Greece. It literally sparkles from the steps to the ceiling! The place (Filotera Rooms) is run by a very friendly couple named Maria and Nikos who speak pretty good English (we've found many Greeks to be pretty good with our language - sure makes things like finding sugar-free drinks and a bathroom with a toilet seat easier!)
Here's a few pictures of the hotel and views from our private balcony.

Eric has mandated that tomorrow we avoid all buses and sleep in...

Samaria Gorge

2004-09-12T23:40:00.000-04:00

Up early this morning to catch an 8:30 bus to the top of the Samaria Gorge (supposedly the largest such gorge in all of Europe). With each bus trip we take to a remote place, we have increased respect for these bus drivers who can manipulate a full size greyhound-type tour bus around hairpin turns, up and down mountain roads, and through the tiny streets that populate most Greece cities. There is often little more than one lane for both directions of travel, but these drivers navigate them with ease, usually while eating a gyro, fidgeting with the radio, and yelling at someone in Greek on their cell phones!

Brrr! The beginning of the gorge trail was about 17 degrees Celsius (you do the math to Fahrenheit - we're too lazy to do it now) and was the beginning of a problem theme for the day: bathrooms without seats.
If you read about the gorge, don't be fooled by the "it's all downhill" propaganda - it was a very tough hike! all 13 kilometers of it (for the math challenged, that's about 6-7 miles, approximately, give or take a mile or two, sort of...). The trail meandered following the sheer rock face. There was a charming half-restored "settlement" at the halfway point (which included more bathrooms with no seats). By the end of the 5 hour hike, our feet were bleeding, our muscles jelly, and our knees crumbling like feta cheese! (OK, not quite, but we are definitely going to spend several days paying the price for this adventure).

The trail ends at a seaside village where we caught a ~~"ferret"~~ ferry boat to the next town where we waited with 100 of our closest friends to get on a 2-hour bus ride back to Hania. This was only the second time we've been really close to the Aegean sea - water so deep blue that you wouldn't believe us even if we could describe it in words. Jazmine is convinced that God has a special angel whose job it is to add blue dye to the water in this part of the world every day to keep it looking so pure ;-)

Back in our room in Hania we enjoyed the best showers we've had in years! Later we had one of those wonderful experiences that make a vacation extra special: we were shopping for touristy stuff and bought a ceramic bowl from a nice little old man. We asked him to recommend his favorite restaurant in town. Rather than tell us, he decided to walk us right to the place and personally introduced us to the manager/owner. It was a very Greek-typical action; the people are (for the most part) so very friendly and helpful that we sometimes feel guilty asking more questions. But this little fellow seemed to enjoy sharing his hometown with us, and we were grateful. We enjoyed live bouzouki music while Eric had a pork dish in spicy tomato sauce and Jazmine consumed an entire grilled fish, head and all ("Stop staring at me!" -Eric).

The next morning, the long hiking was taking its toll as Eric got out of bed but his legs from the knees down decided not to follow him...

Eric likes Greece...

2004-09-11T23:38:00.000-04:00

Eric likes Greece...they put cheese on or in everything! There is even cheese (yes, just cheese) as an appetizer on almost every menu. Needless to say, the cheese pies (a croissant-like pastry with various kinds of cheeses baked inside) and other such goodies are calling to Eric, as if by name.

Anyway, today we visited the site of the ancient (we mean really ancient - they date to 1500-2000 BC) ruins of the Minoan civilization. If you could look past the abundance of tourist and the fact that the ruins have been controversially reconstructed in the last century, it was pretty amazing to be walking around in a place where some of the first organized politics, religion, and society existed.

For example, there are existing, original terracotta pipes that demonstrate the advancement the Minoans had - they built a sophisticated plumbing system to bring fresh water and remove dirty water to/from the palace. Our guide explained a number of such examples of techniques and ingenuity that are still utilized today. They used building materials such as alabaster, quartz, and marble to build the palace, and painted with brilliant colors. To put it shortly, it was impressive.

After a quick "Greek fast food lunch" - ham & egg crepe for Jazmine, gyro pita for Eric (Jazmine prohibited Eric from any more cheese pies for a couple of days), we hopped a bus to the second largest city on Crete, Hania (pronounced an-ya'). Anyone who knows Eric can guess how he spent a good portion of the 3-hour bus ride - napping!

Arrival in Hania was much more pleasant than Iraklion, once we found our way to the "old" part of town. The harbor area and it surrounding labyrinth of tiny little streets and brightly painted buildings that crowd them reminds us of Venice (no, not Venice, Florida). About an hour of hunting and bargaining for a room to stay, and we were off to dinner. And oh my, what a fantastic meal we enjoyed. Live bouziki and violin music, pleasant breeze at our street-side table, and probably the best food we've had so far on this trip (if not some of the best we've had anywhere). Let's see, did we like best the cheese-stuffed green peppers, the bowtie and chicken pasta with pine nuts, oregano, and feta, the tender swordfish fillet with olive oil and fresh lemon, or perhaps the dessert of homemade yogurt with local honey? I don't know, it was all soooo good... (and yes, we are trying to make you all jealous).

Tonight we prepared for a long day hiking the Samaria Gorge tomorrow. A bit of re-packing was in order since the backpack had become cluttered with the usual collection of tonteria (miscellaneous junk) that seems to multiply like rabbits when we're on vacation.

Goodbye Meteora, Hello Crete

2004-09-10T23:37:00.000-04:00

Short entry today, since it was just a traveling day. It was very difficult to leave the little slice of heaven that we'd found in Kastraki, but we had to get on the road back to Athens to catch our plane to Iraklion on the island of Crete. As we said goodbye to our gracious hosts Thanassis and Tula Nakis at the Doupiani House (and Jazmine said goodbye to the kittens) we were eager to get to Crete.

The sunset was nice from the plane, but Iraklion is not the most scenic place to land. A large city that is thoroughly "modern" in that it has as much traffic, noise, and pollution as if it were a suburb of Athens. We had dinner at a little Italian restaurant in an old restored building (all restaurants in Greece seem to be occupying buildings that are at least 300 years old!), and we were struck by the sizable youth population and accompanying trendy cafe and bar scene that permeated the "old town" part of the city. It was very hip and trendy and very European...

Tomorrow we visit the oldest ruins in Greece (maybe the oldest surviving in the world), Minoa.

Meteora Monasteries

2004-09-09T23:33:00.000-04:00

Meteora is a region of inexplicable sheer rock formations that rise straight up more than 1000 feet. As if it weren't enough to see such magnificent natural phenomenon, some 12th century monks decided to build a series of monasteries on the tops of these rocks, which visitors can tour - and we did. The buildings look as if they are growing straight out of the rock - as if God himself placed them there, like he thought the cliffs needed a little icing on top or something.

The monasteries range from little more than small, simple temples with even smaller living quarters, to a giant compound that we spent 2 hours walking through (accompanied by about 2000 of our closest tourist friends). All of the little Byzantine-style one-room churches are spectacularly painted with frescoes depicting various scenes from the bible (some of which would be rated R for graphic violence if they were movies - those monks apparently didn't want to forget what some Christian martyrs were put through).

Luckily for our exhausted legs, there is a road that leads right to the front steps of most of the monasteries, but at times we thought one of us might have to get out and push our tiny rental car to coax it up the hill - we had to feed the hamster inside the a little extra to get it up those steep roads.

Eric enjoyed a nice siesta back at the hotel in the afternoon, while Jazmine gallivanted with the resident kittens ("Awwww...they're so cute!"). Our host recommended his favorite restaurant for dinner in the larger town (Kalambaka) down the road, where we enjoyed dinner and met up with a British couple we had seen several times on the cliff-side monasteries. We stayed at the taverna chatting with them until midnight, laughing at each others' accents and sharing travel stories.

Delphi to Meteora

2004-09-08T23:32:00.000-04:00

Short and sweet entry today..

We saw the Delphi ruins this morning - I think there are more stone/marble column pieces laying around seemingly neglected than there are actual columns standing. Jazmine called it the column cemetery. We stood in a theater that is about 3000 years old; we sat on stones that ancient kings and dignitaries sat on; it was quite an experience. [Pictures will be sent in a couple of days - the carrier pigeon internet is can't handle them today :-)]

Spent 4-5 hours in the car driving to the Meteora area, site of famous cliff-dwelling monks. Found a gorgeous little bed-and-breakfast style hotel with amazing views of the cliffs and monasteries. Off to find some dinner now - and rest our poor legs for more stair climbing tomorrow...

Tired Legs

2004-09-07T23:30:00.000-04:00

This morning we decided to climb the nearly 1000 stairs to the top of a fortress overlooking Nafplio (it stands about 700 feet above the harbor). The worst part was that we also had to climb down again. The view was breathtaking and well worth it, but I'm not sure our calf and thigh muscles think so.

After lunch we headed to ancient Mycenae, only about 1/2 hour away, to do some more exploring. Ends up that we had to do even more climbing of the ancient site (our legs were screaming in protest: NOOO, not again!). It's amazing to imagine the kingdom of such grandeur existed at this location. There is still ongoing excavations at the site, which is pretty cool when you realize you are walking around in a living, breathing archaeological location. Additionally, we explored an underground cistern (for well water) with a French couple we met right there. We were unaware that a flashlight was needed to go through the tunnel (and MORE stairs, I might add) but they had read the guide book and had one for the four of us to use. We communicated with the limited French Jazmine spoke and were able to exchange their email address in order to send a picture we took (in the dark). Mycenea is one of the must-see ancient sites in Greece, and we were glad to have experienced it.

Hopping back into the rental car, on our way to Delphi. We started on the main highway (with its one-and-a-half lanes in each direction - we kid you not, there are actually only one and a half lanes! It's like the Greeks got tired of making lanes and decided that was enough). It followed the coast and we crossed what some Greeks claim is the largest bridge in the world. I don't know about that, but it was impressive - especially as we drove by it on the highway again and again as we searched in vain for the exit ramp to get to the bridge ("Hey look kids, it's Big Ben!")

After the main highway, it was a nice change to take a twisting little road along the other coast on our way into the mountains that house the ancient Delphi site. We stopped to stretch legs and felt the first spray of the Mediterranean sea on our faces -nice! On up the spaghetti road, hairpin turns and crazy motorcyclists and truck drivers, and into the little tourist town where we stayed. Tomorrow morning we visit the ancient ruins of Delphi.

Eric Turns into a Greek...

2004-09-06T23:23:00.000-04:00

...driver, that is. Today we picked up the rental car in Athens that will take us on our land tour of the Greek mainland which includes the city of Nafplion, Ancient Mycenae, Delphi, monasteries at Meteora, and then back to Athens.
Getting back to the original statement, Eric's driving matches that of the Greeks, going in and out of lanes, passing cars with about enough room in between to squeeze a playing card or two...a few times Jazmine had to close her eyes during those passing times.
We have survived so far though; I (Jazmine) don't think I could have driven any better. I am glad he is driving and not I.

We drove from Athens to Nafplio today.
Nafplio, an old town on the southern end of the peninsula, is a wonderful little town, quaint and historical. It reminded us of Cartagena, Colombia, Saint Augustine, or Venice Italy - with narrow streets and many buildings being restored to the original style.
We climbed a couple of Venetian forts and spent some time strolling the cobblestone streets. Our hotel, The Byron Hotel (pictures later), was absolutely beautiful and a bargain to boot.

We decided to plan some of our island visit for next week - Jazmine found a small travel agent in Nafplio and we kept him up and chain-smoking well into the night as we explored about 100 different options for getting to and around the islands. The agent was amazingly friendly, knowledgeable, and English-fluent. His name was Konstantinos at Kasteli Tours (we just want to give him props because he is one of the friendliest people we've met so far and his travel service was a HUGE help since we really didn't know what we were going to do about the islands).

[sorry no pictures today - this computer is on a very slow internet connection (I think it is using carrier pigeon). We'll try to upload some new pictures in a couple of days (we've already taken over 200 so there are plenty to see!)

The Acropolis and Cape Sounion

2004-09-05T23:17:00.000-04:00

Believe it or not, we actually woke up early on a weekend morning. The consummate Athens site, the Acropolis, is best viewed in the early hours when the sun is not yet high enough to bake bread on the rocks. So we were up and out by 8:00am, and the Acropolis was ready for us.
Pictures and words can simply not do justice to the magnificence and grandeur of the Parthenon. But here's a try anyway: Photos
The first word to describe the Parthenon perched atop the Acropolis (a giant rock in the middle of this sprawling city) is: windy. The second word is blustery. The third word is...OK you get the idea. We were literally nearly blown over at times. But it was worth it - the site is beautiful, and the views of Athens from this high point are equally striking. We will be posting all our pictures when we get home, what is above is just a sample.

After a small lunch we hopped a bus and headed for another ruined temple site - Cape Sounion, the southernmost point of mainland Greece and home to the ancient Temple of Poseidon. More wind, more tourists, but equally as beautiful as the Parthenon. Perhaps more so, because we stuck around for what many people regard as one of the most beautiful sunset views in all of Europe. Here are some pictures that give just a vague hint of what it was like.

All in all, a busy day and we are both pooped as we sit in an all-night Internet "cafe" typing this log. Our prayers are with our friends and family back home in Florida after seeing some news and pictures online about what hurricane Frances is doing to our home state. We will try to make a couple of short phone calls tomorrow to find out if everything and everyone is OK.

Prayers and love, enjoying the spotless weather half way around the world,

Eric & Jazmine

Rough Beginnings

2004-09-04T23:13:00.000-04:00

Our trip was almost in jeopardy before it even began.
First, Eric left behind his all-important insulin in the car after we were dropped off at the airport. For 20 minutes, we were in a state of complete panic (think the Bill Paxon character in the movie Aliens - "We're dogfood, Man! Game over! We're dead meat man!") while we tried to track down Albert and family in whose car the life-giving medication was left. Luckily, our nephew Nicholas saved the day - he found the insulin, alerted his parents, and they quickly returned to the airport with it (side note: Albert and Jannette REALLY need to get a cell phone).

So we finally get to check-in and the airline agent tells us there is a problem - the name on Jazmine's passport is her maiden name (Latorre_, but the ticket is in her married name (Jazmine L. Rizzo). "This will not do." - yeah lady, thanks a lot. Now what do we have to do to get on that plane which leaves in less than an hour?
After about 20 minutes, most of which I believe was a thinly veiled attempt to get us to break down and admit some kind of international conspiracy to confuse beaurocratic workers, she comes back and tells us it is taken care of. OK, then she asks Jazmine again what her full name is, with a strange look. Jazmine tries to explain, again, how the passport was issued before she was married, but the agent just interrupts and says, "Listen, this is what I'm telling you - this [pointing to the passport with Latorre on it] is your name. Yes?" We finally get the hint - we nod and she changes the ticket to be in the name of Jazmine Latorre. So for the next 2 weeks, Eric is traveling with some woman who is not named Jazmine Rizzo.

So, our trip was in danger of cancellation or at least serious postponement - but we were rescued by a 9-year-old who is strangely fascinated with Eric's insulin injections, and a complete stranger who has decided that womens' lib lives on and married women should keep their maiden names. Thanks to both of them!

So now we're here in Athens, and things have been great since those early problems. We explored the Ancient Greek Agora, explored some ruins, and had a lovely souvlaki dinner at an outdoor cafe. Hotel Attalos is very pleasant and I (Eric) have so far managed to keep Jazmine from spending hoards of money at the copius knick-knack shops that proliferate most of central Athens! Woohoo for me - one day down, 14 to go...

Look out Greeks, the Rizzos are coming!

2004-08-30T23:04:00.000-04:00

Jaz and I are busy getting ready for our trip to Greece on Sept 3 - planning, packing, preparing, practicing photographing, postulating the possibilities,... [OK, I'll stop with the alliteration]
We've decided to head out with only minimal reservations and a rough sketch of an itinerary - only booked a hotel for our first few and last nights in Athens. For the rest of the 12 or so days & nights we'll be there, well we're just going to wing it as we go. What an adventure - could turn out to be disastrous (I doubt it), but it also could turn out to be great.
So stay tuned to this space [we hope to update it about every other day as we make our way through the ancient land]. If we get lost, side-tracked, or arrested, it'll be fine as long as they have diet soda and Internet access wherever it is that we end up :-)
El Penguino will keep you company while you're here, but please, don't feed him table scraps.

Eric and Jazmine