Google Code SVN errors about MKACTIVITY
I learned today from an issue I posted myself that some of the most unexplainable error messages simply want to say “Your username is wrong” :-) See google code issue 4101 for details. As I found lots of results regarding this kind of error when people tried to commit via HTTP instead of HTTPS, and because some of the solutions didn’t help them, maybe this was the problem in some of their cases.
Mint 9 and VirtualBox
If you intend to run Mint 9 inside VirtualBox on Windows, and if you are also willing to use the Guest Additions, I recommend that you use the latest VirtualBox version. On VirtualBox 3.1.2, I tried this and after I had installed the Guest Additions and rebooted the virtual machine, X wouldn’t come up because it couldn’t find any working configuration. I upgraded to the latest VirtualBox, reinstalled the newest Guest Additions inside the virtualized Mint, and everything runs just fine. Nice work again, Mint team! :)
I’m slightly disappointed by the VirtualBox “upgrade” process though. The installer would simply hang at the point where it configures the network interfaces – I had to first uninstall the old VirtualBox, reboot, then install the new version. This is not really (and never has been) an “update” or “upgrade”, it’s a complete reinstall. Being the lucky guy that I am, I could at least use the existing VMs without any problems after the “upgrade”. This needs to be improved, no matter what the company behind the product is called. >:)
Red Dead Redemption
Today, I finished the story of Red Dead Redemption. Needless to say: it was an epic adventure up to the end. Last stats say that I’ve spent almost 7 full days (that’s 168 hours) playing so far. For those in doubt about 100% “achievability” (which was not possible in GTA4 after you had finished the story): you can play on after the story is done. I’m at 90.7% right now, willing to push this to at least 95% :) I’m not going to spoil anything here, I just want to say thanks to Rockstar for providing me with yet another very entertaining game.
Oh, by the way: I was sure that I had cancelled my pre-orders for both RDR and Mario Galaxy 2 – the latter arrived today. Seamless switch from the Wild West to another Mario adventure! Yay!
I’m a Friend of Eclipse
I’ve just become a Friend of Eclipse, thus I’m allowed to put the following logo on my blog:
Nice, isn’t it? :) I can also get early Helios releases directly from a special mirror. Nice.
JBoss 4.2.3, JDK 6, JAX-WS
Just a quick note on what not necessarily to do if you intend to deploy applications using webservices on JBoss 4.2.3. JBoss 4.2.3 comes in two flavours, selectable from the download page:
- JBoss 4.2.3
- JBoss 4.2.3 JDK6
The latter contains a couple additional JARs in lib/endorsed:
- jaxb-api.jar
- jboss-jaxrpc.jar
- jboss-jaxws.jar
- jboss-jaxws-ext.jar
- jboss-saaj.jar
The release notes contain some hidden hints that the JDK6 version of JBoss 4.2.3 is still experimental. Those JARs, especially the jaxws JARs, contain implementations that appear to be under active development. Looking at the source code reveals some pretty “hacky” portions of code here and there. The downside of those JARs is that if you have an application that contains libraries like CXF or Axis, you might run into severe trouble because the JBoss implementation of classes like javax.xml.ws.Service gets loaded first, instead of the version you have packaged with your application. You can of course tune the classloading options of your app, which MAY resolve the problem, but it does not necessarily help you a lot – you will either have to package a whole bunch of additional JARs with the application, or you will simply not make it around the classes from lib/endorsed.
My opinion at the moment is this: unless you have a very good reason OR an application that is completely based on the JBoss JAXWS et alii implementations anyway, simply use the “normal” JBoss 4.2.3, which is compiled against JDK 5 and does not bring along those libraries. On the web, you will most likely find hints like “delete the *jaxws*.jar from lib/endorsed” – actually, why delete them, if you can download the version that was compiled against JDK5. Comments?
SCJP rants
Hello world,
I’m currently preparing for CX-310-065, you name it, “Sun Certified Programmer for the Java Platform, Standard Edition 6″. It’s interesting to learn about the gory details of Java, although it does sometimes require a good bit of Buddha-like meditation to make it through the SCJP dungeon. Here’s why:
- Many of the exam questions seem to be pure tests for the trained eye. Most of the example code would blast into red x’es in Eclipse, or whatever icon your favourite IDE would put in place. Are there any serious Java programmers out there using vi?
- Getting the voucher is a WoW-like quest. If you live in Germany, you cannot order the voucher via Sun’s US website. (Which they tell you only as soon as you log in, and then your shopping cart is automatically emptied) If you order the voucher from the german website, you are under the impression that you are ordering a voucher for a german test. Bad if you are preparing using an english book.
- There are different conditions regarding the exam. If you take the english version, you are given a lower number of questions. The amount of correct answers for both versions is roughly equivalent if you express it in percent.
- You have to schedule and take the exam via Prometric – they have an ultra-slow website. Waiting for 2 to 3 minutes between pages is not uncommon. Additionally, I remember the site going down all the time while I was taking my JBoss test in 2007.
- If you have made it through the Prometric website and you did NOT get the voucher beforehand, you have to go back all the way, feeling a slight bit of pain because you didn’t realize that you CAN NOT buy a voucher directly from Prometric – they do have pricing information on their site though.
In the end, putting aside all the technical trouble and the mix of information you find on the various SUN websites, I’m a little concerned with the title I’m going to earn – “Certified Programmer” sounds pretty nice, but as soon as you pass the exam, you won’t have written a single line of Java code, unless you have tried some of the examples from the various books. Good for me that I’ve been collecting development experience for about two and a half years by now, this makes the certificate a sensible … certificate :-) And of course it’s a prerequisite for the higher levels of certification, like the SCWCD, Sun Certified Web Component Developer, which I’m going to tackle in the near future. Wish me luck for the exam. Thanks :-)
Inbox Zero, Outlook, Thunderbird, GMail
I’ve become a big fan of Inbox Zero recently, yet I was unable to really do it because I was an Outlook user. Yes, laugh at me if it makes you happy :) Outlook sucks bigtime if you want to keep your inbox clean, and what Inbox Zero doesn’t promote is OUTBOX Zero! – which is what I do as well. In Outlook, for each mail I had to search for all mails having the same topic in order to find the sent mails as well, then delete all of them. Now, I’m a Thunderbird user, and I can view mails as threads, how cool is that? A feature I’ve always missed in Outlook, although it’s not entirely impossible to do this with Outlook, it sucks really bad. So with Thunderbird, I can delete entire threads by just one click and *bing* the inbox looks better. This requires to make reduced use of a “sent” folder of course. Now here comes Google and its GMail philosophy: “do not delete, just remove the label. The ‘all messages’ folder will serve as an archive for your messages” (this is not a real quote, it’s only meant to represent the idea). What the heck? This is absolutely contrary to the Inbox Zero principle. Thus, I’ve decided to ignore Google’s recommendation and make Thunderbird move deleted mails to the trash folder, from where I can exterminate them. Kind of disobedient, but who cares :-)
Sports log
Thanks to my employer, I can go to McFit for free. I started my “real” training on Monday, and I’ve been there another two times since. The first training resulted in major pain for the rest of the week, the second and third time I came out really relaxed. It’s a great means of getting your head back on the ground, and it’s good for the overall health too ;) Nick, you’re a little behind, let’s keep going ;)
Episodes From Liberty City
Once again, I used the source (Amazon UK) and ordered “Episodes From Liberty City”, the DVD edition of the two GTA IV addons “The Lost And Damned” and “Ballads Of Gay Tony”. Both episodes are playable without the original GTA IV which was not the case when TLAD was released as DLC on XBOX Live. I have to say that first impressions of BOGT are really great, especially because one of my most intimate dreams has become true: mission replay. Each mission has a couple of targets like time limit, max allowed damage to the character and other constraints, and you are presented with a rating at the end of the mission. You can later choose individual missions to play again. I’ll keep reporting as I make my way through the second episode :)
Upcoming games
I recently spent a lot of time playing video games, partially due to one week of being infected by a trojan horse carrying the flu (luckily, no H1N1) – the last game I played with a perverse intensity was Fallout 3, a nasty time killer, yet very entertaining. The next couple of weeks will bring quite a lot of new games to my collection, I’m almost in a state of fear already :)
- The Ballad of Gay Tony – the second addon for GTA IV
- Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)
- New Super Mario Brothers (Wii)
- Forza Motorsport 3 is definitely an option
- Assassin’s Creed II
- Some time next year, Red Dead Redemption will be published
- Maybe I’ll look at Brütal Legend
Red Dead Redemption and the two Mario games are already ordered. Currently, I’m playing Assassin’s Creed on the XBOX 360 which is a really nice game with lots of historic background, so I’ll probably be heavily eager to play the sequel; Forza 3 appears to be a must-have but I’m unsure if I’d like to play it with a gamepad; Red Dead Redemption is a must-have just because it’s a Rockstar game; Brütal Legend looks funny but of course I can’t play 24/7 so I think I’ll stick with AC and Mario for the next couple of weeks :) Obviously, this is kind of a luxury problem, just like the question “New XBOX or PS3 slim?”. In this case, I think I’ll keep the running hardware and spend the money for christmas presents instead.