Chris Johnston

You may remember that a little while ago I wrote about a very cool tool that I had found called Synergy. I have been using this tool for the last several weeks and have noticed a few odd things about it. To begin with, when I am using it, KDE seems to slow down. If I try to launch Konquerer (the KDE file manager) it can take quite a while for it to appear. If I try to click on a directory, it can take some time for the window to update to the new directory. In addition, when I try to launch Eclipse 3.01, it will show me the “Workspace” dialogue box, but then it seems to freeze and will not open. All of these things go away as soon as I shut down Synergy.

This is using Synergy with the server on my Windows XP computer and the client existing on my Mandrake 10.1 machine. In addition, I have been running the 1.0.14 version. This is the newest stable release.

Overall I like the program. However, I need it to be responsive and I need to be able to do programming on my Linux server. I guess my only options now are to use two mice/keyboards or to use VNC. I am not sure what I am going to use my second monitor for if I go with VNC though.

I am trying to find a CMS to use for a non-profit organization that my father has started. So far what I have found has not fit the bill. Here is what I am looking for:

• The ability to add and edit pages - By this I mean I want to be able to add individual pages to the website and edit the content on those pages, i.e., if a new staff member joins the organization, I want the ability to add a bio page for them. These pages are not to be article/story/category driven, they are simply to be pages.
• The ability to add sections and then added pages to a section - going back to the staff idea, I want the ability to add a staff section, with a intro staff page, and then be able to added individual pages to that section.
• Automatic menu addition - as a page or section is created, that page or section is automatically, or very easily, added to site navigation.
• Multiple blogs - I want the ability to create blogs for various users and give only them the ability to add/modify their blogs.
• Fine grained user control - I need the ability to set up different kinds of users: author, editor, blogger, admin, moderator, etc.
• Moderated content - Any new content must be approved before it is published
• User Forums - Something similar to phpBB
• Easy to manage - the entire CMS must be easy to manage for a non web developer
• Articles and Categories - In addition to the ability to add sections and pages, the CMS must also be able to handle the creation of article and article categories.
• Version Control - Full version control of everything, both pages and articles, published to the site would also be a nice feature

That is my wish list. I have checked out Drupal and Mambo and neither really fits the bill. I am starting to think that I will never really find exactly what I am looking for. Maybe it is time to roll out the old php editor and start rolling my own. Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions, please post them in the comments area.

I was just visiting the Netbeans website and noticed that they have released Netbean 4.0. From the Netbeans website:

The NetBeans open source project is proud to announce that the production version of NetBeans IDE 4.0 is now available as an individual download and will shortly be bundled with Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition Development Kit 5.0_01 (J2SE 5.0 a.k.a. “Tiger”). The NetBeans IDE provides a pure Java technology integrated development environment for Windows, Linux, the Solaris Operating System and Mac OS X.

Key Features:

• Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition 5.0 (J2SE) language feature support
• Ant-based projects
• Java refactoring
• Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME) MIDP development support
• Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) development support for the NetBeans IDE - Early Access 1 now, Early Access 2 early CY2005, production first half CY2005
• Performance Profiler - Beta in December

I have yet to play with it very much, but the little that I have used has shown that Netbeans 4.0 is a huge improvement over 3.6. Look for a more indepth review here in the near future.

I just have to say that after struggling with JBoss for the last three weeks, I really, really dislike it. I have been trying to get a JMS application to play nice with/in JBoss and after three weeks, I still don’t think I have fully succeeded. As soon as I fix one bug another one pops up worse than the first. As soon as a suitable solution appears to have been found, testing proves it to be faulty. I really dislike JBoss.

Now granted, I am not totally sure that all the blame falls squarely on JBoss, there is still a lot about developing J2EE applications that I don’t understand and I am sure that this is partially to blame. In addition, the code that I am working with has not been the best. It was developed months ago by people with no understanding of J2EE and has not been reviewed or debugged since. So as you can see, there are actually lots of other suspects to blame other than just JBoss.

However, it just seems easier to blame JBoss instead of something internal to the project. Plus, JBoss has been what I have been working with most directly over the last three weeks, therefore, it is the root of most of my frustration. Whether it is something inherent to my understanding (or lack thereof) or it is a problem with JBoss, I don’t know, but I do know that I really, really dislike JBoss.

For everyone looking for an email client other than Outlook or Outlook Express, look no further, Thunderbird has landed. (Wow, I should become an ad exec).

Copied from the Thunderbird website:

Thunderbird makes emailing safer, faster, and easier than ever before with the industry’s best implementations of features such as intelligent spam filters, built-in RSS reader, quick search, and much more.

Thunderbird - Reclaim Your Inbox

ONJava has an article about integrating Flex with Java.

“Integrating Macromedia Flex with Java by Mark Eagle — Web applications don’t have to be about HTML. Rich client-side environments offer a better end-user experience but demand some rethinking of the web app client-server relationship. Mark Eagle shows how you can use Macromedia Flex to bring rich applications to Flash-equipped browsers.”

Gentleware has released version 3 of their UML modeling tool. The Community Edition version of this tool now allows for printing, source importing, full save capabilities, and they have removed the watermark when you save an image. Check it out and look for a full review in the next little while.

Poseidon for UML 3.0