Mar 2006
IDL in a PDF? WTF!
March 23, 2006 @ 14:43Filed in: Software
Development
<rant>
OK. This is something that has been bugging me for a while, and I just havn't written about it; so here goes. Who in their RIGHT MIND would publish IDL in PDF format? This is amazing to me. It actually takes extra effort to do this. And how, may I ask, should someone extract IDL from a PDF cleanly? I'll tell you: you can't. It's a painstaking process of converting to text, removing page numbers, headers, footers, adjusting the IDL manually so that it is actually parseable and then saving it.
It is absolutely amazing to me that this is done, but it is. I've gotten IDL for implementation of CORBA interfaces in PDF format, not just once, but many times! For instance, Verizon East. Their preorder interface. All IDL in a PDF. And when asked specifically for a plain jane text file, the response is: sorry we don't have the IDL in that format. Are you kidding me??? How did you get it into a PDF in the first place??
</rant>
OK. This is something that has been bugging me for a while, and I just havn't written about it; so here goes. Who in their RIGHT MIND would publish IDL in PDF format? This is amazing to me. It actually takes extra effort to do this. And how, may I ask, should someone extract IDL from a PDF cleanly? I'll tell you: you can't. It's a painstaking process of converting to text, removing page numbers, headers, footers, adjusting the IDL manually so that it is actually parseable and then saving it.
It is absolutely amazing to me that this is done, but it is. I've gotten IDL for implementation of CORBA interfaces in PDF format, not just once, but many times! For instance, Verizon East. Their preorder interface. All IDL in a PDF. And when asked specifically for a plain jane text file, the response is: sorry we don't have the IDL in that format. Are you kidding me??? How did you get it into a PDF in the first place??
</rant>
|
Java IDE's and my new MacBook Pro
March 21, 2006 @ 14:57Filed in: Software
Development
I
got it! My MacBook Pro arrived, and it is awesome! A
project that I used to compile on my old trusty
PowerBook would take upwards of 3 minutes now
compiles in 25 seconds! That is a massive improvement
in javac compile times (and it's only using one of
the cores, oh yeah!). I have the 2.16 and a buddy of
mine has the 2.0 ghz MacBook, his compiles the
project in 30 seconds.... so the .16 IS noticible!
Ha! My wait was worth it 
I've attempted to use several IDE's since I got the unit. My first attempt to use NetBeans since about one and a half years ago was not the success I had hoped for. After a long night (loooong night) of hacking out a replacement for Quartz (that's another story, man is it a poor implementation of a good idea), I came to the conclusion that 'losing' my cursor within the IDE is NOT amenable to writing and debugging code quickly. NetBeans would CONSTANTLY loose my cursor (it just disappears) and would require me to quit the IDE and relaunch it in order to get it back! I must have launched NetBeans close to 20-30 times that night. Other than that (huge issue) the IDE ran very nice, and I can see how someone could get hooked on it.
My next IDE is Eclipse, which I am very comfortable with, as I have been using it for the past two years or so. Eclipse has a Universal Binary version (required due to SWT) released in their 3.2 stream, so it's not a 'production ready' build and I've seen a few glitches here and there, but it doesn't seem to be anything 'MacBook' related. I plan on continuing to try to use it.
And of course, the old standby, JDeveloper. Oracle has really worked hard on this IDE and it works beautifully on my MacBook Pro. I have no complaints, well, almost no complaints. It's kind of nitpicky really. JDeveloper is ugly. The IDE is very unappealing. With that being said, it IS functional and does most of what any developer would need.
I don't use many bells and whistles in the IDEs that I use. I mostly just use them for the editing features, so I can't really comment on J2EE server integration, Notation implementations, etc, etc. I am strictly a descripter, build.xml (ant) type developer. This is mainly due to my current environment where the builds of my projects are actually done by our data center during a deployment - so it is necessary that they be able to build the applications without having some spiffy IDE to do it for them. Don't ask me why we don't deliver binaries - that would just start me on a different rant.
I'll comment more on the different IDE's in the coming weeks. That's all for now.
I've attempted to use several IDE's since I got the unit. My first attempt to use NetBeans since about one and a half years ago was not the success I had hoped for. After a long night (loooong night) of hacking out a replacement for Quartz (that's another story, man is it a poor implementation of a good idea), I came to the conclusion that 'losing' my cursor within the IDE is NOT amenable to writing and debugging code quickly. NetBeans would CONSTANTLY loose my cursor (it just disappears) and would require me to quit the IDE and relaunch it in order to get it back! I must have launched NetBeans close to 20-30 times that night. Other than that (huge issue) the IDE ran very nice, and I can see how someone could get hooked on it.
My next IDE is Eclipse, which I am very comfortable with, as I have been using it for the past two years or so. Eclipse has a Universal Binary version (required due to SWT) released in their 3.2 stream, so it's not a 'production ready' build and I've seen a few glitches here and there, but it doesn't seem to be anything 'MacBook' related. I plan on continuing to try to use it.
And of course, the old standby, JDeveloper. Oracle has really worked hard on this IDE and it works beautifully on my MacBook Pro. I have no complaints, well, almost no complaints. It's kind of nitpicky really. JDeveloper is ugly. The IDE is very unappealing. With that being said, it IS functional and does most of what any developer would need.
I don't use many bells and whistles in the IDEs that I use. I mostly just use them for the editing features, so I can't really comment on J2EE server integration, Notation implementations, etc, etc. I am strictly a descripter, build.xml (ant) type developer. This is mainly due to my current environment where the builds of my projects are actually done by our data center during a deployment - so it is necessary that they be able to build the applications without having some spiffy IDE to do it for them. Don't ask me why we don't deliver binaries - that would just start me on a different rant.
I'll comment more on the different IDE's in the coming weeks. That's all for now.
MacBook Pro 2.16 Shipped!
March 16, 2006 @ 14:58Filed in: Operating
Systems
Samsung A920 and switching back to Sprint PCS.
March 14, 2006 @ 15:01Filed in: My Toys
I've
had NO luck with my Samsung i730 on Verizon Wireless.
It's been nothing but a nightmare. The Verizon Sync
application is a pain and never works correctly. It
requires a client side application, which (for me)
constantly hangs. The phone itself would just
constantly and randomly lock up. When it wasn't
locked, it just wouldn't receive phone calls; so by
the end of the day I have 10 messages waiting for me
to review on my drive home. It was a cool toy
(WiFi/Bluetooth/EVDO/etc/etc), but not worth the
trouble. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention: Verizon gimped
the phone by disabling several features that it
supported before they got their hands on it (like
having WiFi and the Phone actually both on at the
same time). There where some clever individuals that
hacked the phone and distributed said hack to get it
to work, but WHY should I need this? WHY don't they
just support the phone without breaking
functionality??
So, as the title says, I've switched. I am BACK to Sprint PCS (was with them previously with my Treo 600), and have chosen to go for a straight phone. Not a SUPER device. The Samsung A920. It may look like a simple phone, but it's truly cool. I have the unlimited unteathered data plan through them, and my Powerbook can now be connected to the phone via Bluetooth and surfing the internet at EVDO speeds! This is the coolest feature ever, nevermind that the phone has real-time TV on it! I've only had it for the weekend, but so far I am COMPLETELY impressed.
Will post more later on the subject if it warrants it
So, as the title says, I've switched. I am BACK to Sprint PCS (was with them previously with my Treo 600), and have chosen to go for a straight phone. Not a SUPER device. The Samsung A920. It may look like a simple phone, but it's truly cool. I have the unlimited unteathered data plan through them, and my Powerbook can now be connected to the phone via Bluetooth and surfing the internet at EVDO speeds! This is the coolest feature ever, nevermind that the phone has real-time TV on it! I've only had it for the weekend, but so far I am COMPLETELY impressed.
Will post more later on the subject if it warrants it
MacBook Pro is still not here, PEAP wireless issues.
March 11, 2006 @ 15:01Filed in: Operating
Systems
I
have no good news on my MacBook Pro shipping
unfortunately, it's still scheduled to be shipped on
March 21st! And I hope it DOES ship by then as I'm
visiting family the last week of March and I would
hate for it to get delivered while I'm away (how
crushing would that be??!!).
That being said, my buddy's 2.0 MacBook Pro arrived about two weeks ago, so I've been able to live vicariously through him for the time being. We've found an issue with the wireless drivers however. We use PEAP at work and the MacBook Pro simply will NOT acquire an IP address through DHCP. My PowerBook works fine, it authenticates, validates against our company certificate (in my keystore) and then gets an IP address from DHCP. The MacBook Pro gets as far as authenticated, but never gets an IP address. There is a thread on discussions.apple.com about the issue as well and it seems that folks are having many different issues with the drivers for wireless. I sure hope a patch is put out quickly for this as it's pretty impacting at work.
I just got an email from Apple asking to help them out with some diagnostics type information, so that is promising.
Email from Apple:
Greetings Jay,
Mark C. from Apple Discussions here. I am an Apple Discussions host.
Our AirPort engineers are interested in a discussion thread in which you posted that you were having problems with PEAP. discussions thread.
We are wondering if you would perform a few Terminal commands, and run a Data Capture application. The information obtained would be used solely for analyzing the issues you are having with PEAP. If you are willing to provide us the information the engineers would like to analyze, please reply to this email and I will send you the Terminal commands and the application.
Thank you for any consideration.
Mark C.
Apple Discussions
That being said, my buddy's 2.0 MacBook Pro arrived about two weeks ago, so I've been able to live vicariously through him for the time being. We've found an issue with the wireless drivers however. We use PEAP at work and the MacBook Pro simply will NOT acquire an IP address through DHCP. My PowerBook works fine, it authenticates, validates against our company certificate (in my keystore) and then gets an IP address from DHCP. The MacBook Pro gets as far as authenticated, but never gets an IP address. There is a thread on discussions.apple.com about the issue as well and it seems that folks are having many different issues with the drivers for wireless. I sure hope a patch is put out quickly for this as it's pretty impacting at work.
I just got an email from Apple asking to help them out with some diagnostics type information, so that is promising.
Email from Apple:
Greetings Jay,
Mark C. from Apple Discussions here. I am an Apple Discussions host.
Our AirPort engineers are interested in a discussion thread in which you posted that you were having problems with PEAP. discussions thread.
We are wondering if you would perform a few Terminal commands, and run a Data Capture application. The information obtained would be used solely for analyzing the issues you are having with PEAP. If you are willing to provide us the information the engineers would like to analyze, please reply to this email and I will send you the Terminal commands and the application.
Thank you for any consideration.
Mark C.
Apple Discussions