tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69793742024-03-13T16:12:56.518-04:00Seeking enlightenment...A collection of my daily musings on life, family, friends and career.Wayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-81661281710273977282007-11-08T10:49:00.000-05:002007-11-08T11:28:03.942-05:00Switching to my MacBook Pro for fulltime useFinally have time to setup my laptop (MacBook Pro) for development after upgrading to Leopard (OS X 10.5) this week.Fink or Macports?In setting up Postgresql, I found several helpful links on the web for installing it but I found some used fink and some used 'port' (macports). I'm pretty sure these two packaging systems provide the same functionality but is there a preference for one? Is one moreWayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-79538205083329151252007-08-29T17:47:00.000-04:002007-08-29T17:49:12.390-04:00Suggestions for BT Keyboard/trackpad?Finally got my MacBook Pro 15" last night (more about that later).I'm looking for a Bluetooth keyboard+track pad that will work with all of my PC, MBP and PS3. Does anyone have any suggestions?Wayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-86613955065329829082007-07-30T09:43:00.000-04:002007-07-30T10:03:10.773-04:00*This* close to buying my Macbook ProI've been waiting to buy my new laptop for a couple of months now as lately I've been wondering if I wanted the 17" or the 15".The decision was hard as I wanted the 17" for the high resolution (1920x1200) but the backlit LED display of the 15" was also very tempting. My wait was mostly due to waiting, "ok, I'll just wait for the 17" to get updated with LED display".So I found myself at the mall Wayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-86865111004100858652007-05-18T13:38:00.000-04:002007-05-18T13:47:42.311-04:00Exception handling and clutter log filesRan across this in a client's todaytry {...}catch (Exception ex) { LOGGER.error("updateDropShipPriceOnImport()", ex); throw ex;}Now, why would you log the error only to rethrow it? I'd assume that if you're rethrowing it, something else is/should catch this and handle/log it. So then isn't this just unnecessary logging?Wayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-31468124333890583612007-05-08T17:13:00.000-04:002007-05-08T17:29:51.489-04:00So you want to boycott the gas stations?I'm sure you've received the chain letters complaining about the high cost of gasoline, asking us to all band together and not buy gas on a certain day. This is supposed to put a dent in the gas companies pockets. Kind of a "show 'em we're pissed and aren't going to take this lying down" type of action.*LOL* It's not going to work.If I were the gas company, you know what I'd do? I'd jack the Wayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-32347124091213759712007-04-09T10:14:00.000-04:002007-04-09T10:19:11.130-04:00Amazing week of poker resultsPlayed a bit of poker this weekend and had some excellent results. What's funny is I basically took a week hiatus from the tournaments to work on something, so when I played these 2 tournaments it was basically a "what the hell I haven't played in such a long time, let's treat myself to a tournament with higher entry fee (fewer ppl and bigger prizes)"Full Tilt Poker $12.5k guarantee, placed Wayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-59662048505338495792007-03-24T16:48:00.000-04:002007-03-24T17:09:12.193-04:00Redhat's head getting too big for it's own hatLooks like Redhat is putting down it's foot and trying to impose trademark laws to stop people/companies from using it's licenced trademarks such as Hibernate, etc. in advertising their services.Read Ted Neward's post on it for more details hereMost interesting is this quote:Although you may offer object oriented relational database mapping training, you may not use the Hibernate name to promote Wayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-80144641343623259182007-03-13T10:12:00.000-04:002007-03-13T10:26:17.069-04:00Comments on "How to use Java at a Startup"Kurt Williams has done a very good writeup of things a startup company should considering when choosing development environments. You can read his blog hereI agree with most of what Kurt says but there is one thing that I would mention."Sure it's great for rapid Web development. But what about next year when you need to build a GUI?"I find that a lot of overly complex solutions are designed/builtWayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-56401741684342890602007-03-08T15:46:00.000-05:002007-03-08T15:51:17.430-05:00Custom content for Sony's PlayStation Home?Yesterday at the GDC, Sony announced their PS3 killer-app called "PlayStation Home".You can see the demo here Anyone have any developer details about this project? I have some ideas for content within the Home universe and would like to get details on how open this environment is to 3rd party content providers.Can someone point me to an appropriate place to look/ask?Wayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-1167775223731281242007-01-02T16:49:00.000-05:002007-01-02T17:39:13.050-05:00Can you externalize Sitemesh layouts?Let's say your organization has multiple web-apps running and they all currently share the same layout/style. Being the good little developer that you are, you are using CSS to separate the content from style and something like Sitemesh to aid in your layout.But what if you decide you want to change the layout of all the company's applications? This would entail modifying each application's Wayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-1166512606903637012006-12-19T02:14:00.000-05:002006-12-19T02:16:46.913-05:00I'll trade you a nukeToday North Korea proclaimed itself a nuclear power andmade demands that U.N. sanctions against it be lifted andalso that they be provided with a light water nuclear powerreactor.If you're the U.N. or Washington, how can you give in to thesedemands? You give them the reactor and they dismantletheir warheads. Next year, they'll restart the nuclear programagain and demand HBO and all the stray dogsWayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-1166144838995256762006-12-14T20:04:00.000-05:002006-12-14T20:07:19.006-05:00Drip...drip...dripAm I the only person who can't stand the fact that the cup/coversused by Tim Horton's are horribly designed and have this dripfeature built in for the sole purpose of driving me insane?Go buy a cup of Tim Horton's coffee. While carrying your cupof coffee, if you've moved ever so slightly, the coffee will startto drip somewhere beneath the lid. I wipe it off hoping it's justan aberration but a fewWayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-1163095723060349762006-11-09T12:49:00.000-05:002006-11-09T13:08:43.076-05:00Need Macbook adviceMy 1.25Ghz w/ 1Gb ram, G4 Powerbook is getting a bit long in the tooth.More infuriating is how often the spinning beachballhalts my work. Quie often, I have nothing other thanSafari open with like 7 tabs and I'll get the beachball.So I'm looking at upgrading to either a Macbook or Macbook Pro.I have a few questions that maybe some of you developers canhelp with.1. What's the battery life Wayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-1162970993967989922006-11-08T02:21:00.000-05:002006-11-08T07:50:08.466-05:00Java code snippetsSo I started a new contract recently and as I spent the first week reading documentation and going over the existing application's code, I saw something that wasn't wrong but it did catch my attention.Do you see the difference between these two conditions?String country = form.getCountry();if (country.equals(Constants.USA)) {...}and...String country = form.getCountry();if (Constants.USA.equals(Wayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-1162970203787401472006-11-08T01:52:00.000-05:002006-11-08T02:16:43.800-05:00Is the Software Piracy situation really that bad?We read about it all the time in the media. We read about software piracy rings getting busted and then the claims from the BSA or software companies of how many hundreds of millions of dollars were lost.I'm not going to get into the whole "well they would never have purchased it anyway" argument.I simply want to ask a question that begs to be asked. We hear the companies scream and cry murder Wayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-1146170928189033712006-04-27T16:41:00.000-04:002006-05-14T01:06:43.280-04:00Thank god for Beverly Hills:90210Ever come across a website that think's the United States of America is the only country in the world? You know the ones where they present a form with a zipcode field. I don't mind it the label "Zip Code", but it's the validation that bugs me. Some sites are kind enough to not validate the field and allow me to input my Canadian postal code, but then there those dweebs who write validation logicWayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-1143616831129446712006-03-29T02:18:00.000-05:002006-03-30T08:04:22.973-05:00Java based open source CMS portalsSpent a bit of time tonight looking at Java based CMS portals for an upcoming project. The ones I looked at briefly were JetnukeAtleapOpenCMSWe're basically looking for a CMS that we can customize and enhance through development. Our initial evaluations don't include any PHP based ones because PHP isn't our forte (yes you don't have to tell me that the CMS/Portal market is dominated by PHP Wayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-1142439488621195952006-03-15T11:06:00.000-05:002006-03-15T13:22:57.780-05:00Tips for new Jetty usersRedeploying my application on Tomcat 5.5.15 on my 1.25Ghz G4 Powerbook 1GB ram was getting painstakingly slow so I decided to take a look at Jetty to see if it would help the cause.Here are two things I came across in getting started and which I couldn't find much help on Mortbay's site/wiki/docs1. If you use Log4J in your application and get this error:Caused by: Wayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-1142021030287919932006-03-10T14:41:00.000-05:002006-03-10T15:03:50.340-05:00Do good with your idle computerWhile I've always known about SETI, it simply never really caught my interest.But this blog entry by Onno brought to my attention some other projects that might interest you.By downloading and installing a small program on our computers, we can make use of our computer's idle processing power. Those of us who leave our computers turned on day and night are wasting alot of computer power that Wayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-1140538598142745442006-02-21T10:08:00.000-05:002006-02-23T23:00:47.823-05:00Equinox to the rescueI've been trying to restart work on an application that I've shelved for a year. Doing so inevitably meant updating the stack to the latest/greatest versions of each framework; in this case it was Tapestry/Hibernate/Spring. Lucky me as all 3 have come out with major version releases since :(It never ceases to amaze me that framework developers simply refuse to ease the learning curve of their Wayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-1126642933410877772005-09-13T16:04:00.000-04:002006-02-21T22:21:58.783-05:00New house equals new job?Coincidental but the last time we moved, my contract wasn't renewed and I had to look for a new job. Well, we're moving again (more on that later) and again my employer informs me that they're not renewing my contract after 2yrs. So here we go again, I'm looking for a job again.Daphne and I are moving into a house. The townhouse was nice but with the kid, we decided it was time to get back into aWayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-1118242421064670662005-06-08T10:51:00.000-04:002005-06-08T10:53:41.083-04:00Who's more important, the analysts or your clients?Another entry in my journal of "Things to remember if I ever run a company"This article talks about Bea Systems broadening their business plan in reaction to Wall street skeptics who feel their core business of application server is suffering from slow-growth.As I read this article it I couldn't help but think that Bea is doing this in reaction to analysts expectations for them to grow as a Wayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-1115924553670247222005-05-12T14:16:00.000-04:002006-02-13T14:10:45.966-05:00Poor working conditionsPoor Greg is feeling the effect that overtime has on an employee over the long run.This is the perfect example of why I chose to make my living as a contractor as opposed to being a fulltime employee.Nowadays, it's too common to see management abuse their slaves^H^H^H^H^H^Hemployees by expecting absurd overtime in order to meet unrealistic deadlines or to make up for obvious resource shortages. Wayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-1113337161123993612005-04-12T15:55:00.000-04:002005-04-12T16:19:21.126-04:00Inspector GadgetIt's about time I faced this problem and admit that I have an addiction. I'm afraid to say it but I have an addiction to electronic toys/gadgets/devices. My wife hasn't figured this out yet so let's pray for my sake that she doesn't read this.Just last week I upgraded my cell phone to PalmOne's Treo 650. My ambition is to get WIFI working on this so I can install some VOIP soft-client and see if Wayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6979374.post-1109198069211498892005-02-23T17:22:00.000-05:002005-02-23T17:34:29.213-05:00Stateful vs Stateless SessionBeans in Clustered EnvWe had a heated debate about some implementation decisions for this new project here at work. The final application will be clustered, so with that you essentially have no choice but to go stateless in all your session beans, or else you're locked into one node in the cluster (and that's not good).**NEWS FLASH** it's been decided that we'll be using Tangosol's Coherence as a distributed caching Wayland Chanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02746374187586611338noreply@blogger.com3