Chris Johnston

Transparent custom corners and borders by 456 Berea Street is an interesting looking tutorial on how to create nice little boxes with custom corners using css and no extra divs. I have not had a chance to read the article yet, but it looks really promising and the results are beautiful.

Sean Corfield has an interesting article discussing his views on this whole Java-OpenOffice.org thing. In the article he basically says that the FSF has gone too far in their definition of open source.

Under their definition, there can be no Open Source .NET applications, no Open Source Java applications (and no Open Source ColdFusion applications). No, you can’t be True Open Source(tm) if your code relies on non-free, non-Open Source software to run!

I definitly agree with him on this one. I program in Java and I would like to believe that I can develop and release open source software like everyone else. According to the FSF, I can not because that software would relie on a closed source language and runtime environment. Does this really make any sense?

ZDNet has a similar article detailing some of the claims made by the FSF against the Yankee group for some of the benchmark studies they have done. Basically the FSF have said that the studies were paid for by Microsoft and that is why they are critical of Linux. The real point of the article is the outright aggresiveness of some of the members against anyone who says anything negative about linux.

It is getting rought out there folks, you say anything negative about linux and you are going to get slammed for it by FSF zealots. I have seen it happen at JavaLobby.org and now we are seeing it happen with OpenOffice.org and with other websites.

I thought open software and linux was about choice? Apparently the only choice now is the choice to choose linux or be evil. Some choice.

Borrowed from the Java.net webpage:

Java Tech: Language Lessons by Jeff Friesen — Java Tech columnist Jeff Friesen has been coding in Java for nearly ten years, and in that time, he’s found some surprises in the language, like how += doesn’t necessarily do what you expect, or the hazards of invoking a potentially overridden method in a constructor. In this article, he provides some important lessons based on this experience.

Actually, this is an excellent set of tips that will definitely expand your understanding of how the Java language works. What I liked best about these little lessons is the fact that not only does Jeff tell you not to do certain things, he also does a very good job of explaining why you shouldn’t be doing these things.

I have been trying to setup CruiseControl at work and so far I really like it. The only problem that I have found so far is that it does not integrate with AccuRev—the SCM product that we use (actually, almost nothing integrates with AccuRev, it is that obscure).

CruiseControl is incredibly easy to set up and get running. All you really need is a Java project that is built using an Ant script. Everything else, as they say, is just gravy. This includes things like the email notification, also easy to do, web page notification, and lava lamp notification (not sure if work will go with that one though).

One thing that we are trying to implement at work is automated builds. These would happen each night and would compile the code, run checkstyle against the code, and run all the unit tests. In order to help us set all of this up, I ordered the book Pragmatic Project Automation by Mike Clark. In it he outlines the various things that must be done in order to automate each and every part of the build, deploy, and release process. So far I am 5 chapters—out of a total of 6—into the book and am really enjoying it. If you are trying to do the samething then I highly recommend this book as a starting point.
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NetBeans 4.1 has finally been released. Borrowed from the NetBeans website, here are the highlights:

• Easily browse and navigate around your classes using the new Navigator component.
• Browse and configure project classpath using the Libraries node in the Projects View.
• Use automatically generated Debug and Compile Single File actions for projects with existing build scripts.
• Import projects with multiple source roots as standard projects.
• Create a J2EE application, automatically add EJB modules and Web modules, and deploy the application.
• Create an EJB module and deploy it as a stand-alone module or packaged in a J2EE application.
• Create Session Beans, Entity Beans and Message-Driven Beans.
• Create Entity Beans using an existing database schema.
• Create a Web module, generate calls to EJBs, and deploy the Web module either as a stand-alone Web application or packaged in a J2EE application.
• Create, register, and test Web services.
• Try out the sample applications to learn and understand the J2EE technology.
• Import your existing J2EE projects.
• Validate your applications using the J2EE Verifier.
• Visually configure your EJBs, Web Services and Web Components.
• Add multiple source folders to EJB module or Web module, create Unit tests as a part of the project.
• Visually lay out your MIDlet’s workflow, and design and code the GUI using drag and drop elements (available in NetBeans Mobility Pack).
• End-to-end support for enterprise applications. Wizard support for creating J2ME-J2EE applications. Enables you to quickly create J2ME client/server applications (available in NetBeans Mobility Pack).

If you have not tried out the new and greatly improved NetBeans, go and download 4.1, you will be pleasantly surprised.

WiFiFoFum is an 802.11b wifi scanner for the Pocket PC similar to netstumbler or ministumbler. The difference is that it works on my PDA and ministumbler does not. This definitely adds a line to the Pros list.