Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
Friday, August 22nd, 2008
Eclipse 3.4 (Ganymede) was released a few months ago.
I have been working on the studio project on my laptop, using Eclipse (3.3 Europa) along with the Aptana plugin, RadRails plugin and Subclipse plugin.
The version of Eclipse that is in Hardy Heron’s repository is 3.2.2 or so, which is a few versions behind. So I decided, instead of installing from the repository, I should really install the latest available version.
Eclipse Ganymede comes in many different packages, and each package has downloads for different operating systems (namely Windows, Mac OS X, Linux 32bit, Linux 64bit). Since I am installing on my desktop (Ubuntu), I chose Eclipse Classic 3.4 (151 MB) (Linux 32bit).
After the download completed, I extracted it to /home/hantu/development/:
mv eclipse-SDK-3.4-linux-gtk.tar.gz ~/development
tar xvf eclipse-SDK-3.4-linux-gtk.tar.gz
Note: Initially, I wanted to install it under /opt/, but there is an issue regarding the file permission which I am not able to figure out. Something along the lines of .filetablelock Permission Denied. I’ll figure this out eventually, someday..
Surprisingly, Eclipse just works!
Next, without repeating what others have already documented, install Aptana Studio as a plugin of Eclipse. Don’t forget to install the Ruby on Rails support from Aptana’s Start Page (Help -> Aptana Studio Start Page…).
Subclipse is a plugin to work with SVN, instead of the default CVS support of Eclipse. Subclipse might not work with Eclipse 3.4, but I followed the instructions offered by a good man, so far, things are working perfectly.
More notes: I said ‘on Linux’ because I assume it is the same, for different distros, since downloading from Eclipse’s website does not require you to compile from source. Correct me if I am wrong.
Posted in Monash, Ruby on Rails, Technology, Ubuntu | No Comments »
Friday, July 11th, 2008
When I was reading Rafif’s tweets earlier today, I found out that iTunes 7.7 is available through Software Update. Expecting AppStore to be available through this iTunes update, I downloaded and installed the new iTunes.
I have only browsed through the AppStore to look at applications that I might be interested in, and of course, I downloaded a few free ones.
Currently I am waiting for the iPod Software Update 2.0 to be available through iTunes. According to MacRumors [1], iPhone 2.0 Firmware is already available through a specific link. Please note that it is not for iPod Touch!
So without anything better to do at the moment, I am doing some “window shopping” on iTunes:
Facebook (Cost: Free)
Not overly excited with this one, since their mobile interface is pretty decent. I wanted to see what they are offering that beats the mobile interface.
Remote (Cost: Free)
I think Remote extended the ability of Apple Remote (which I have never really used). You can control iTunes or Apple TV, see the album artwork on Remote, and amazingly - it can be done over the Wi-Fi network!
Twitterrific (Cost: Free/$12.99)
The good people at Iconfactory offers two different versions of Twitterrific on AppStore. If you don’t know what’s Twitterrific, you don’t know what’s Twitter. Twitter is a micro-blogging social network. The free version of Twitterrific is free, that comes with advertisements; while the Premium version that has no advertisement costs $12.99.
Things (Cost: $12.99)
A task manager for your iPhone, or iPod Touch. I need this, I keep forgetting things.
Super Monkey Ball (Cost: $12.99)
If you followed Jobs’ keynote during WWDC, you might have seen this demo, and wet your pants (I did! I even got the game on Wii). Control the little monkeys using the accelerometer (if you don’t know what’s this, you don’t know iPhone/iPod Touch at all) through 5 worlds and 110 stages! Powerful use of the accelerometer!
Enigmo (Cost: $12.99)
This game was one of the demo during Jobs’ WWDC keynote. Your task is to direct the water droplets to where they are supposed to be.
Bomberman Touch “The Legend of Mystic Bomb” (Cost: $9.99)
The last time I played Bomberman was, many many years ago. This version of Bomberman on iPhone/iPod Touch makes me want to quickly find out how they implement the gameplay, with the features of the handheld devices.
So, about time to spend more money, don’t forget the 2.0 Firmware update for iPod Touch will cost you!
ref:
- iPhone 2.0 Firmware (5A347) Available Early
Posted in General, Technology | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
I stayed up all night yesterday, just to follow the Apple WWDC Keynote by Steve Jobs.
Summarising some important points from the Keynote:
The Keynote can be found on Apple’s website, or iTunes. There is also a new iPhone 3G ads.
Posted in Mac OS X, Technology | No Comments »
Friday, May 9th, 2008
My Honours supervisor, Dr Sita Ramakrishnan, received an invitation a while back from IBM, to attend their WebSphere for Service-oriented Architecture technical briefing [1]. Having chosen a topic related to service-oriented architecture, she asked me to call up IBM, and ask whether I can attend in her place. I did, registered myself, and I went 
I enjoyed the briefing altogether, below are some brief notes I made during the seminar/talk/workshop:
(Off topic: IBM fed us pretty well, light breakfast, tea breaks, lunch, lots of coffee, thank you!)
Few things I noticed:
- Commercials between topics, they are pretty funny.
- Comparisons to other competitors (eg: Oracle, BEA, Microsoft) - and IBM always win, perfectly.
- Lots of blue color scheme in their slides.
- Their presentations are very marketing-oriented, if that makes sense.
- They like VMware so much, they had 22 images for the demonstrations.
Introduction
Enterprise faces different challenges.
What do they need in this situation? Service-oriented Architecture.
Why? Because of the ease of integration, the agility and fast time to solution.
Gary Andrews introduced us to a fictitious company called Service Oriented Finance.
A service: repeatable business task.
Service orientation: business as linked services.
Service-oriented architecture: an architectural style
Application Infrastructure to Get Started with SOA
WebSphere Application Server.
Free community edition, uses open source technology [2].
Examples: Wimbledon website (1 million hits / minute), Ebay etc.
WebSphere XD = able to update cluster without having to shutdown the server.
Demonstration of WebSphere XD is amazing, they also showed us graphically how things are being processed in a cluster if they are upgrading one of the server in the collection.
WebSphere for SOA
Need more efficiency in your business? Model the processes.
Model processes - WebSphere Business Modeler
Implement processes - WebSphere Integration Developer
Run processes - WebSphere Process Server
+ Human workflow support is what differs IBM from other competitor, WebSphere Integration Developer can generate human support code.
Monitor processes - WebSphere Business Monitor
+ Provide role-based dashboard
+ Detect business situations and take actions
+ Monitor performance of active + historical processes
Integrate People with Process to Enhance Business Value - Portal
WebSphere Portal = Front-end of SOA
Portlets = user facing business services
Used to improve customer satisfactions
Available in B2C, B2E, B2B
REST = Representational State Transfer
Components of Web 2.0 = REST, AJAX, XML data feeds
Portal is quite Web 2.0-ish, from the demonstrations.
IBM supports Dojo toolkit [3], used in Portal.
Web 2.0 Portal vision = An Open Architecture
Note: These notes are not complete, you might be able to see the slides on IBM website [4].
ref:
- The IBM WebSphere for SOA Event
- IBM - WebSphere Application Server Community Edition
- IBM Contributes Ajax Software Development Technology to Open Source Community
- WebSphere for SOA
Posted in Honours, Technology, Web | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
The IBM WebSphere for Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) is a one-day technical briefing with products demonstrations and practical examples. It helps to get you started on the concept of SOA, and also introduce you to more advanced concepts of it.
I am attending the Melbourne session, hopefully it will be very useful for my Honours thesis that is closely related to the SOA / Web Services area. I am particularly interested in what WebSphere can offer us, and the demonstrations of real world scenarios.
Register yourself to attend to any of the sessions:
Tuesday, 6 May
Hilton Hotel
488 George Street,
Sydney, NSW 2000
Australia
Thursday, 8 May
State Library Conference Centre
325 Swanston Street
Melbourne VIC
(entry is via 3 Latrobe street, Melbourne)
Tuesday, 13 May
Hilton Hotel
190 Elizabeth Street,
Brisbane QLD 4000
Posted in Honours, Technology | No Comments »
