Dana Blakenhorn joins the anti-Oracle parrots club

Below is my response to Dana Blakenhorn' s article titled "What Oracle
is hiding"
http://www.thestreet.com/story/11534615/1/what-oracle-is-hiding.html

I' m not holding my breath waiting for him to publish it.... (it' s
"under moderation" as I write this).

////

Wow, you really really hate Oracle, don' t you?. Take a look at the
world around you Dana. The financial markets are plummeting. That' s
where Sun used to sell many of its hardware. Guess there aren' t many
Lehman Brothers to buy Sun hardware nowadays right?
http://sun.systemnews.com/articles/69/1/news/11449

Your rest of your article is pure drivel. Who cares about Apache's
Java implementation and its fight with Sun/Oracle, it' s history.

OpenJDK is where the action is at, and Apple contributed its OSX Java
code to OpenJDK. Twitter has joined OpenJDK along with IBM, too. So I
guess the writing is on the wall, right?. OpenJDK is a sucess, no
matter how Ziff-Gates and its anti-Java writers would like to spin it.
And Oracle has been a great steward of Java, investing in OpenJDK,
NetBeans (the Java IDE), Virtualbox, and Glassfish, among other former
Sun open source projects. Plus, Linux will be on equal footing with
Windows server'  ReFS thanks to the Oracle-developed Btrfs.

So next time you slam Oracle, keep in mind you' re hurting the firm
that is driving Java forward and one great contributor to Linux and
the open source ecosystem. Shame on you!

FC
////

How to run .jnlp Java Web Start JWS apps with OpenJDK Java on Linux and Firefox

In the Windows world, Java Web Start apps run "automagically". That is, if you install Java, that' s all there is to it.

 The Sun/Oracle Java Runtime install takes care of installing the Java runtime, the Java plug-in (for all browsers on the system), and also the required bits to run Java Web Start (javaws.exe). So when you click on a .jnlp link on a web page to launch a Java desktop application, the app just starts, you se the Java splash screen, and seconds later, the app pops up.

(If it is the first time you run an app from such vendor, a security dialog comes up asking if you know and want to trust that developer and its cryptographic signature from that dev going forward, or just authorize it this time, or cancel -not run it-).

In the Linux world, Java (as the GPL Open Source project it now is) is called "OpenJDK". But if you install OpenJDK alone, you don' t get the "Plug-in" (the component needed to run applets inside a web browser AND Java Web Start apps).

For that, -the Java Plug-in- you need "IcedTea" which is the name given to the Java Plug-in that goes along with OpenJDK.

Why they choose to confuse the user with two different package names is beyond me (actually, I know why, it has to do with the project's history, but that' s of no interest to end users). If you ask me, Icedtea should be renamed to "OpenJDK-plugin".

But that is besides the point.

Having said that, -please have patience- here' s the solution to run Java .jnlp on Firefox on Linux.

1. You need to install "Icedtea".
OK, so you installed Icedtea, clicked on a Java Wesbtart app launcher link (.jnlp) and got an odd dialog from the browser asking what do you want to do with the .jnlp file?.

Don' t despair. That happens because while you have:.

1. A functioning JRE installed (OpenJDK)
2. A functioning Java plug-in (IcedTea) installed,

... that the Icedtea installation has NOT configured Icedtea as a browser "helper app" to appropiately launch JNLP files.

So how do you fix it?!??!?! Simple: ;-)

1. Select "Open With" and instead of the default app (ie Fedora wants to open .jnlp links with gEdit), click on the app name to "choose another"
2. Then navigate to /bin and select "javaws'
3. Select "Do this automatically for files like this from now on"
4. Click "OK"

...the Java app will launch.

And from that point on, all Java Web Start apps will run when you click on the launcher link.

(again, the first time you run any given app you' ll have to authorize it, but not from that point onwards if the crypto signature is maintained).

 

Does this need to be so irritatingly complex? of course not.

The problem is that the Icedtea developers think about things like developers, not end users. :-(

FC
PS:Oh, did I mention my favorite Java Web Start apps? There's a lot, but you should start by taking a look at http://ho.io/mu-commander and http://ho.io/JShot

Top Five Twitter Annoyances

Since I´ve got an addictive personality, I´ve become addicted to Twitter as of late. Before that I was addicted to Facebook, and before that, to e-mail mailing lists (an addiction that is hard to cure and continues to this day, I reckon ;).

As such, I´ve started to realize a number of annoyances with Twitter, and most important, how Twitter could fix it... of course "...for fun and profit". ;)

#1. DMs. Direct Messages. The user interface is a mess. The chat-like presentation might be good for short exchanges, but once the "conversation" and exchanges of DMs progresses, this becomes a wasteful choice, and a long string of short messages dilapidating screen real state.

#2. Twitter should embrace OPEN PROTOCOLS, more on this below.

#3. Twitter DMs could offer an e-mail gateway. It´s simple, by creating an email gateway to the Internet world, yourtwitteraccount@twitter.com becomes your e-mail address. Anything received at yourusername@twitter.com becomes a DM to you. Of course, to keep up with the twitter spirit, messages would have to be stripped of all attachments, and plaintext messages cut to the first 140 chars. Not doing so would create lots of problems to twitter (capacity problems, storage cost, viruses, phishing, etc)

#4. Likewise, it should be possible to access your DMs Inbox via an open protocol. For this, nothing better than IMAP. You should be able to point any e-mail client to, say, imap.twitter.com, and check your DMs "Inbox", your "Sent" folder, etc.

#5. There is no easy way to download all your old tweets directly from the TW interface. As Google offers the option to "back up all your data", with its "Data Liberation Front" initiative, it should be possible to log-in to your Twitter "my account" area and choose to download a .zip compressed file of all your tweets, everything you have said on twitter both since the account creation, or the last month, or the last week, the user´s choice. I know, you´re telling me that´d be "too expensive" both in CPU and resources, when, how about making this a PAID option, only for people who pay a small yearly fee. (I´m thinking $10/year would be the magic number. Do the math.)

#6 Like Google´s Blogger email posting feature, it should be possible to create tweets by email. IE email yourusername.somepersonalid#@twitter.com and whatever you put on the subject line becomes a tweet.

What´s this for? it´d be great for script writers, to automate the sending of tweets effortlessly without having to deal with oAuth, Twitter APIs and the like.

That´s, imho the top-five Twitter shortcomings. (I know I said five.. )

FC

Google Wallet, Hate and Gloating in Forbes

When I read the Forbes article whose URL I include below, I was instantly reminded of a funny line from
the Cohen Brothers film "Burn after Reading" when one of the characters says "you´re worse than a moron, you´re part of a League of Morons".

http://www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2011/09/26/google-launches-the-ultimate-jobs-killer/2/

Watch out for gloating about "killing unproductive jobs", and snide remarks on supermarket employees and, of course, government, who apparently can train people but "only so much" (ie "there´s little point in training idiots", seems to be his angle).

btw: his entire reasoning is flawed, he can´t just scan barcodes and walk away with his merchandise, because who will check he paid for everything he bought?, guess he will have to unload everything again.
;)

The solution to his "Problems" (if one can call it that) are two:

1. Web sites and home delivery. I don´t know about the US of A but down here all major supermarket chains have web sites where you can order stuff and have it delivered, in some instances the same day, in
others the next day, for really little cost. In two instances you pay on-line, in other the delivery cleak that arrives to your home carries a posnet card reader that works wirelessly (a card swiper connected
via GSM/3G)

2. RFID tags built into every packing container of stuff you buy at the supermarket. That would really help the supermarket tally everything you´re walking away without the tedious unloading-reloading
of stuff. But in this approach the cashier at the supermarket would keep his job (it has to, anyway, for people that would still pay cash).

In other words, payment is NOT the delay, accounting for stuff is, so Google Wallet or no-wallet doesn´t make any difference with regards to the "tedious process" of groceries shopping that this guy complains about.

FC

Enough with wireless, it´s gonna get us all fried in microwaves

A lawyer or lawyer wannabe from Harvard (sorry I haven´t had time to check his credentials) writes: "I’m also big on open spectrum and unlicensed wireless"

I used the opportunity to write a comment in his blog about why I think wireless sucks and why we should stop polluting the airwaves just to give business to the RF equipment peddlers and  just postpone  DOING THE UNAVOIDABLE, which is eventually digging ditches and laying out fiber to every home.

Here´s my comment to him:

You advocate "open spectrum and unlicensed wireless"... OH YEAH, the one with the most big-ass signal booster wins, and "overlaps" the less powerfull transmitters. That anarchic scenario was tried: it was Citizen´s Band. The one with the biggest bad-add booster won, overlapping all others around.

 OF COURSE, I know, there are differences between wi-fi and CB.... modern technologies aren´t analog and they do spread spectrum and frequency hopping, along with time division and other techniques. BUT STILL, the base principles are the same: there is only a finite amount of bandwidth by going wireless. And in densely populated areas, there is not enough for everyone downloading 10mbit+ at once.

My biggest concern is that going forrward, advocates of this "free for all" mayhem are going to get us all cooked in microwaves. I´ve already seen Wi-Fi "signal boosters" available "under the counter" that exceed the FCC limits, yet are sold for point-to-point links to be installed by amateurs. And since they don´t have the technical means to aim the antennas correctly, it´s highly likely someone at a high rise flat is going to get beamed "by accident" with those signals.

THANKS VERY MUCH, but I pass. Why insist with wireless when FTTH is just around the corner?. With fiber, you can just lay out as many parallel fibres on a duct as you need, until you reach the bandwidth you need. If there´s more need, you dig another ditch and lay more pipes and fill those with fiber.

Give me a break with wireless, already.

Yeah, I know... but wireless broadband is so convenient! what´s the worst that could happen?

FC

Boy, are CIA alumni hard to kill!

The world´s most famous CIA alumni and famous mass murderer is apparently dead.

Now, I´m awaiting for Obama´s "Mission accomplished" photo-op a la GWB, and surely a total retreat of troops from the Middle East (sarcasm).

In any case, good news about someone who should have never been engineered by the USA.

Osama Bin Laden: supported by the US and Pakistan (BBC)
http://pages.citebite.com/k5c9g8r9ukgq





Some critics have called his death "cold-blooded murder or a gangland execution dressed up as 'justice'" which is a good point, why the killing and not detention. But think about it.... one would think that the capture of him alive would have ended in a months-long trial and, ultimately, execution. Besides, I don´t think that if he was armed, that he would have allowed that to happen.

FC
PS: The celebrations of "common people" in the streets are understandable. When was the last time the people of the USA as a whole -not republicans or democrats- celebrated something? I say good for you all. Even if it´s only a momentary illusion of achievement and collective cheering that actually means nothing for the inmediate day-to-day lives of most the people cheering.

Manufacturing Dissent

Thanks to my colleague JohnO I get to read this FP article


http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/02/16/revolution_u?sms_ss=email&at_xt=4d5ef64e97c4ebf6%2C0


"The Serbian capital is home to the Center for Applied NonViolent Action and Strategies, or CANVAS, an organization run by young Serbs who had cut their teeth in the late 1990s student uprising against Slobodan Milosevic. After ousting him, they embarked on the ambitious project of figuring out how to translate their success to other countries. "

My take: Oh really?

U.S. Advice Guided Milosevic Opposition
Political Consultants Helped Yugoslav Opposition
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A18395-2000Dec3?language=printer

Who really brought down Milosevic?
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE6D81F3BF935A15752C1A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=4

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just how much money backed this objective is not clear. The United States Agency for International Development says that $25 million was appropriated just this year. Several hundred thousand dollars were given directly to Otpor for ''demonstration-support material, like T-shirts and stickers,'' says Donald L. Pressley, the assistant administrator. Otpor leaders intimate they also received a lot of covert aid -- a subject on which there is no comment in Washington. 

At the International Republican Institute, another nongovernmental Washington group financed partly by A.I.D., an official named Daniel Calingaert says he met Otpor leaders ''7 to 10 times'' in Hungary and Montenegro, beginning in October 1999. Some of the $1.8 million the institute spent in Serbia in the last year was ''provided direct to Otpor,'' he says. By this fall, Otpor was no ramshackle students' group; it was a well-oiled movement backed by several million dollars from the United States.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/nov/26/ukraine.usa

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
while the gains of the orange-bedecked "chestnut revolution" are Ukraine's, the campaign is an American creation, a sophisticated and brilliantly conceived exercise in western branding and mass marketing that, in four countries in four years, has been used to try to salvage rigged elections and topple unsavoury regimes.

Funded and organised by the US government, deploying US consultancies, pollsters, diplomats, the two big American parties and US non-government organisations, the campaign was first used in Europe in Belgrade in 2000 to beat Slobodan Milosevic at the ballot box.

Richard Miles, the US ambassador in Belgrade, played a key role. And by last year, as US ambassador in Tbilisi, he repeated the trick in Georgia, coaching Mikhail Saakashvili in how to bring down Eduard Shevardnadze.

Ten months after the success in Belgrade, the US ambassador in Minsk, Michael Kozak, a veteran of similar operations in central America, notably in Nicaragua, organised a near identical campaign to try to defeat the Belarus hardman, Alexander Lukashenko.

That one failed. "There will be no Kostunica in Belarus," the Belarus president declared, referring to the victory in Belgrade. But experience gained in Serbia, Georgia and Belarus has been invaluable in plotting to beat the regime of Leonid Kuchma in Kiev.

The operation - engineering democracy through the ballot box and civil disobedience - is now so slick that the methods have matured into a template for winning other people's elections. In the centre of Belgrade, there is a dingy office staffed by computer-literate youngsters who call themselves the Centre for Non-violent Resistance.

If you want to know how to beat a regime that controls the mass media, the judges, the courts, the security apparatus and the voting stations, the young Belgrade activists are for hire.

(...)The Democratic party's National Democratic Institute, the Republican party's International Republican Institute, the US state department and USAid are the main agencies involved in these grassroots campaigns as well as the Freedom House NGO and billionaire George Soros's open society institute.

US pollsters and professional consultants are hired to organise focus groups and use psephological data to plot strategy. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leaving aside the issue of the qualities -or lack thereof- of the respective governments overthrowed, I´d love to go to the US of A and start a "grassroots" spray-painting and civil disobedience campaign against the government of the US of A.... then see how far do I get before getting thrown into jail... ;)

FC

Otto Reich says Uncle Sam will use its whip at LatAm once again!

US: Election results augur new policy toward Latin America – Americas Forum
http://www.hacer.org/latam/?p=6000

-----
"The November 2nd midterm elections that swept Republicans into power in the House of Representatives will bring in a more firm policy towards Latin America’s budding autocrats, Ambassador Otto Reich, former Assistant Secretary of State, recently told Americas Forum."
-----

Oh yea, Otto Reich...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Reich

Otto Reich´s legacy of white propaganda
http://rt.com/Top_News/2010-11-04/otto-reich-white-propaganda.html

Covert Propaganda: the Otto Reich File
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB40/

FC

Nestor Kirchner died. Uno menos. Este no jode mas.

 ̶A̶n̶d̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶i̶d̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶,̶ ̶p̶l̶u̶s̶ ̶r̶e̶p̶a̶y̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶d̶e̶b̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶I̶M̶F̶.̶ ̶A̶r̶g̶e̶n̶t̶i̶n̶a̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶b̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶e̶n̶j̶o̶y̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶h̶i̶g̶h̶ ̶g̶r̶o̶w̶t̶h̶ ̶r̶a̶t̶e̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶l̶o̶w̶ ̶u̶n̶e̶m̶p̶l̶o̶y̶m̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶s̶i̶n̶c̶e̶.̶

̶

̶O̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶e̶i̶g̶n̶ ̶p̶o̶l̶i̶c̶y̶ ̶l̶e̶v̶e̶l̶,̶ ̶K̶i̶r̶c̶h̶n̶e̶r̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶e̶s̶s̶e̶n̶t̶i̶a̶l̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶e̶g̶i̶o̶n̶a̶l̶ ̶i̶n̶t̶e̶g̶r̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶p̶o̶l̶i̶c̶i̶e̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶r̶e̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶U̶N̶A̶S̶U̶R̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶u̶n̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶S̶o̶u̶t̶h̶ ̶A̶m̶e̶r̶i̶c̶a̶n̶ ̶c̶o̶u̶n̶t̶r̶i̶e̶s̶.̶ ̶

̶

̶S̶o̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶n̶k̶s̶ ̶N̶e̶s̶t̶o̶r̶ ̶K̶i̶r̶c̶h̶n̶e̶r̶.̶

̶

̶T̶h̶a̶n̶k̶s̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶c̶r̶e̶a̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶"̶E̶n̶c̶u̶e̶n̶t̶r̶o̶"̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶u̶b̶l̶i̶c̶ ̶e̶d̶u̶c̶a̶t̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶T̶V̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶n̶n̶e̶l̶.̶

̶

̶T̶h̶a̶n̶k̶s̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶b̶i̶g̶g̶e̶s̶t̶ ̶p̶u̶b̶l̶i̶c̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶k̶s̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶g̶r̶a̶m̶m̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶r̶e̶c̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶a̶r̶g̶e̶n̶t̶i̶n̶e̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶t̶o̶r̶y̶.̶

̶

̶T̶h̶a̶n̶k̶s̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶b̶o̶o̶s̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶e̶d̶u̶c̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶,̶ ̶s̶c̶i̶e̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶e̶c̶h̶n̶o̶l̶o̶g̶y̶ ̶b̶u̶d̶g̶e̶t̶s̶.̶

̶

̶T̶h̶a̶n̶k̶s̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶S̶A̶N̶E̶ ̶f̶i̶s̶c̶a̶l̶ ̶p̶o̶l̶i̶c̶i̶e̶s̶,̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶D̶U̶A̶L̶ ̶S̶U̶R̶P̶L̶U̶S̶E̶S̶ ̶(̶f̶i̶s̶c̶a̶l̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶r̶a̶d̶e̶ ̶s̶u̶r̶p̶l̶u̶s̶e̶s̶)̶.̶

̶

̶T̶h̶a̶n̶k̶s̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶r̶e̶s̶t̶o̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶f̶a̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶p̶o̶l̶i̶t̶i̶c̶s̶,̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶s̶a̶n̶e̶ ̶p̶u̶b̶l̶i̶c̶ ̶p̶o̶l̶i̶c̶i̶e̶s̶.̶

Fué el líder de una de las bandas más creativas a la hora de asolar el erario público. Este no jode más. 

FC

Forget VNC, TurboVNC, TightVNC, UltraVNC, RealVNC... the good one is Tiger, TigerVNC

It seems like it was only yesterday that a team of very creative people at a joint research facility in Cambridge, UK -operated at the time by Italian firm Olivetti and US database giant Oracle (talk about strange bedfellows)- created "Virtual Network Computing" or VNC for short.

Then, over the years, the concept of a free software implementation of a "remote desktop" began to catch on (once upon a time people would buy propietary products to do this sort of thing, like "PC Anywhere" or IBM Desktop on Call, Win2You, etc, just to name a few).

Well, the problem with VNC was that while the underlying RFB protocol was very strong, some bean counter *ssholes at AT&T who first bought the reserach labs later decided they´d rather use the money more wisely and proceeded to shut down the ORL research labs in Cambridge. The Guardian lamented it here.

Over the years, people started making VNC stronger, faster, and forks of the original VNC started to appear: TightVNC, TurboVNC, UltraVNC, and finally... RealVNC.

So, fast forward to 2010... What of all flavours of VNC to use?.

My answer: none of the above.

My choice is TigerVNC.

TigerVNC is a fork of RealVNC, incorporating many of the improvements from TightVNC and better security (which on RealVNC are features in the paid/commercial version only).

See:
http://tigervnc.org

Windows and linux builds are available at:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/tigervnc/files/

From the site: “TigerVNC is an advanced VNC implementation. It is based on the fourth generation of VNC. TigerVNC also includes features from the TightVNC and TurboVNC projects.

This includes accelerated JPEG compression. TigerVNC supports the latest X.Org X server.”

Hope this helps...
FC

Calacanis pants on fire

"Liar, liar, pants on fire!"
http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/11/facebook-calacanis-is-lying/

It seems "serial entrepreneur" or "Netscape.com portal destroyer" as I´d call him, is in trouble again.

FC

ICANN´s Tina Dam was a big deal

ICANN´s Tina Dam, whom I had never seen before, was on CNN last Friday discussing the news story of native language domain names for Middle East languages.... and surprisingly, she said it´s "really hard to explain" why the new availability of URLs in Arabic is "such a big deal" (CNN anchor´s question) for Middle East people...

D´oh!.

Couldn´t she make the point that the current system of typing in western characters for URLs would be akin to us westerners having to type URLs and domain names in Kanji or some other foreign character set?.

Double D´oh!.

Like the saying goes... sometimes common sense is the least common of all.

FC
PS: Tina Dam is a hottie.

Still, maybe she wasn´t well prepared for such hard-hitting questions. ;)

Stephen Hawking says there are aliens, but we shouldn't talk to them...

Reading the Aussie news wires comes this story about Stephen Hawking saying he surely believes there are Aliens, but that we shuldn't talk to them, as they're likely armed and dangerous. Well, not exactly his words...

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/sci-tech/aliens-exist-but-they-may-be-dangerous-hawking-20100426-tm53.html

/////////////////////////////////

"Aliens may exist but mankind should avoid contact with them as the consequences could be devastating, British scientist Stephen Hawking warned on Sunday."

"If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," the astrophysicist said in a new television series, according to British media reports."

/////////////////////////////////



What can I say...





FC

Bad news, Iceland, and Bjork

Local right wing paper LA NACION has this headline

"Iceland: from Miracle to cursed"

"Three years ago the country was the world´s most developed; now it´s engulfed by economic crisis and natural disasters"

http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=1254753&origen=NLExt



My condolences to the people of Iceland who had embraced the "limited governmet" dogma.

Now, imagine with all these news the mood of Bjork nowadays...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYyyqIZTvYY



FC

Gavin Clarke is an utter moron, once again

[I wrote the following to The Rogister's Gavin Clarke, the anti-Sun, anti-Java pundit always too happy to write something to smear Sun, or now, trying to muddy the Java landscape a bit more]

"In many ways, IBM succeeded. Eclipse became a more widespread and grass-rootsy movement than the top-down, closed-shop style of the JCP that alienated technology creatives. In pure market share, Eclipse become the preferred open-source IDE for Java developers."

You´re an utter moron, I´m convinced now. WTF does JCP, an enhancement-request process, has to do with Eclipse, which is an IDE?.

Sun has its own ide, Netbeans, and in any case, it´s as succesful -if not more- than Eclipse, why? Because it´s cross platform, it's written in Java itself, and it includes everything developers need, unlike Eclipse which needs commercial "plug-ins" for many things.

FC

It was about time Hollywood recognized JJ Campanella´s work

This is the JJ Campanella the World+Dog now knows...

It was about time that Hollywood recognized Juan José Campanella´s outstanding work which won many awards both locally and internationally over the years.

Down here we knew him well, but not wearing a tuxedo, but more resembling something like this:

Yes, El Secreto de sus Ojos won the Best Foreign Film award at the Oscars tonight.

My hat´s off to Campanella, and the beautiful Sole Villamil.


It´s rarely mentioned in the foreign press that Campanella also stars one of the best educational programmes on the public TV (government-run) Educational TV channel Encuentro, created in 2007.

The TV program where Campanella shines as one of the hosts is dubbed "Invisible Environments (of Science and Technology)" (Entornos Invisibles de la Ciencia y la Tecnología) and explains how physics and basic technology works (from the electric grid , to Newton´s laws to.. you-name-it) with a large dose of humour thrown in the mix.

http://www.encuentro.gov.ar/Event.aspx?Id=263

It airs on Encuentro as mentioned, which is available on all cable systems for free, and soon free over the air too, thanks to TDT...

Sorry, you´ll have to learn Spanish first. :)
FC

Google continues ignoring SeaMonkey and firefox derivatives...

Google has recently started informing users of Firefox 2.x that their browser will soon stop being supported for its web sites and web apps.

And they recommend other browsers that people can upgrade to:

IE 7.0, Safari, Firefox 3.6, and Opera...

Well, ¿Where is SeaMonkey?. SeaMonkey is based on the same Firefox 3.5+ engine, so why not mention it?. In fact, Firefox IS the son of the Mozilla.org browser suite, formerly known as just "Mozilla" and then renamed to SeaMonkey.

In fact, Google should stop sniffing for Firefox versions and instead check out GECKO RENDERING ENGINE versions. Plus, they should mention and point towards SeaMonkey, too.

All Mozilla-based browsers use the same rendering engine, and it's good programming practice not to check for browser version but actually checking Gecko in the user-agent string sent by the browser to the web server, as suggested by Mozilla.org itself.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Browser_Detection_and_Cross_Browser_Support

IDEA: Hey Google, why don't you guys suggest people using an unsupported or soon-unsupported gecko engine to upgrade to "a newer Mozilla.org based browser" and point towards http://www.mozilla.org/projects/#applications , which includes not only Firefox but also SeaMonkey?.

FC

Every software program should include a reinstall script

It is my belief that every software program should include a "Re-install" script. Something that we can run from the command line and have all configuration values set up as new, without actually downloading and running the installer package again.

This allows moving apps from one system to another effortlessly, and recovering from a backup much easier than having to run a dozen installers and click a dozen times for each. Yes, I'm a command-line junkie.

IBM, back when it was a software firm with a clue, had the very bright idea to include a "rebuild.cmd" command line util with its IBM Works productivity suite included with OS/2 Warp 3.0 onwards.

Hence, the "reinstall.cmd Software Movement" is born, today, to replicate that kind of functionality as widely as possible for popular applications. Target systems are Windows mostly, but could also include OS/2 and Linux for closed source apps that might benefit from it.

I´ve created a redirector at [http://bit.ly/reinstall] that leads to this post, which will be updated to include new reinstall script developments.

My first target? Sun's Virtualbox. Find my re-install script here
https://sourceforge.net/projects/vbox-users/files/

I will release every one I code under a GPL license (they're just command line scripts anyway).

FC

GUI Design: will Egyptian Hyerogliphics replace CUA text menus?

I am excited to join Mike Magee´s latest tech site, "Tech Eye" (www.techeye.net) as a regular writer, in addition to my ocassional INQUIRER piece.

Here´s my first article ... inspired by Google Chrome´s "Monkey Wrench" icon and the total disappearance of CUA menus.



Is this the future of GUI design, and are CUA menu standards going down the tubes, fast?. Should we despair?


And what´s with Google ignoring CUA on one app, but implementing CUA menus in Google Docs?. Guess that people ARE used to CUA style menus after all, huh?.


Feel free to read the article, and have your say in the comments section...
http://www.techeye.net/software/software-gui-design-going-to-hell-in-a-basket

FC

Finally Darth Vader will print more money so the US of A can continue its wars...

I knew the Wall Street speculators have been always on the Dark Side. But knowing that Darth Vader himself took control of the trading floor is reassuring.



Maybe he can now print all the money the US of A needs before it sinks the World+Dog into another financial crisis.

Or maybe that IS the plan after all....

;-)

FC