http://greybeardedgeek.net Random Thoughts Of A Middle-Aged Software Engineer Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:02:10 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/09/blog-statistics-oses-and-browsers/ http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/09/blog-statistics-oses-and-browsers/#comments Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:02:10 +0000 richfreedman http://greybeardedgeek.net/?p=461 Here at greybeardedgeek.net, I use the excellent StatPress WordPress plug-in to gather site statistics. I just took a look at the stats for Operating Systems and Browsers. What I found was a little surprising, and, as a software developer, frankly, I found it a bit depressing. Here’s the raw stats: O.S. Visits Windows XP 42245 [...]]]> http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/09/blog-statistics-oses-and-browsers/feed/ 0 http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/08/beginning-astrophotography/ http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/08/beginning-astrophotography/#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 02:34:33 +0000 richfreedman http://greybeardedgeek.net/?p=443 It’s been quite some time since I posted anything about photography, but lately I’ve gotten the bug for astrophotography. I spent quite a bit of time searching the web for information about astrophotography, what kind of equipment is required, how much it costs, etc. Decent telescopes can be had for a few hundred dollars, and [...]]]> http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/08/beginning-astrophotography/feed/ 0 http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/07/an-open-letter-to-jquery-plugin-authors/ http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/07/an-open-letter-to-jquery-plugin-authors/#comments Sat, 17 Jul 2010 20:45:54 +0000 richfreedman http://greybeardedgeek.net/?p=427 The following applies to the authoring of all software libraries, not just jQuery plug-ins, but I’ve been looking at lots of jQuery UI widgets lately, so…. As the author of a shiny new jQuery plug-in, I’m sure that after all of your hard work, you would be very pleased to have other programmers / web [...]]]> http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/07/an-open-letter-to-jquery-plugin-authors/feed/ 0 http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/04/walnut-chocolate-chip-cookies/ http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/04/walnut-chocolate-chip-cookies/#comments Sat, 24 Apr 2010 17:09:21 +0000 richfreedman http://greybeardedgeek.net/?p=416 This blog is mostly about computer programming, but I’m a fairly serious foodie, so I occasionally post a favorite recipe. I see that it’s been almost a year and a half since my last recipe, so I guess it’s about time! I make these chocolate-chip cookies more often than I probably should, but everyone always [...]]]> http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/04/walnut-chocolate-chip-cookies/feed/ 0 http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/04/running-roo-applications-in-tomcat-5-5/ http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/04/running-roo-applications-in-tomcat-5-5/#comments Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:39:28 +0000 richfreedman http://greybeardedgeek.net/?p=406
I used Spring Roo for a small, public web application recently, and all went well until I attempted to deploy it on a hosted VPS. The application didn’t deploy, and I got the dreaded error message: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/el/ValueExpression A little poking around led me to this Roo bug report that details the problem. Roo generates [...]]]> http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/04/running-roo-applications-in-tomcat-5-5/feed/ 0 http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/03/remote-control-your-linux-or-other-computer-with-your-iphone/ http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/03/remote-control-your-linux-or-other-computer-with-your-iphone/#comments Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:58:05 +0000 richfreedman http://greybeardedgeek.net/?p=398 Mac users have long had a plethora of apps and devices for remotely controlling their computers. A frequent use for this is controlling presentations when presenting to a group, with a laptop connected to a projector. I wanted this functionality for my Linux (Ubuntu) laptop, while using OpenOffice.org’s Impress application, but thought that I was [...]]]> http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/03/remote-control-your-linux-or-other-computer-with-your-iphone/feed/ 1 http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/03/integration-testing-applications-with-system-time-dependencies/ http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/03/integration-testing-applications-with-system-time-dependencies/#comments Tue, 23 Mar 2010 19:41:22 +0000 richfreedman http://greybeardedgeek.net/?p=389
I’m about to start working on an existing web application that has business rules concerning the timelines of processes. Things like “when X happens, if it’s been more than 14 days since Y happened, do Z”. Believe it or not, in the past, this has been integration-tested by doing Y, waiting 14 or more days [...]]]> http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/03/integration-testing-applications-with-system-time-dependencies/feed/ 0 http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/02/keeping-it-dry-automation-of-repetitive-tasks/ http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/02/keeping-it-dry-automation-of-repetitive-tasks/#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:28:50 +0000 richfreedman http://greybeardedgeek.net/?p=380
I’m woking on a “legacy” Java app that’s written in Struts and uses EJBs. No Jetty or Tomcat for me – gotta use a “real” J2EE container – in this case, JBoss. Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out a good way to run JBoss against my sources, as I would if using something like the jetty [...]]]> http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/02/keeping-it-dry-automation-of-repetitive-tasks/feed/ 1 http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/01/relative-cost-of-printing-on-different-printers/ http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/01/relative-cost-of-printing-on-different-printers/#comments Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:01:54 +0000 richfreedman http://greybeardedgeek.net/?p=373 I have an ancient, yet trustworthy HP6L black-and-white laser printer that I bought back in 19?? About a year ago, I replaced the last of a long line of crappy ink-jet color printers with an HP-CP1815ni color laser printer. I assumed that for printing in black-and-white, the 6L, being black-and-white only, would be cheaper. I [...]]]> http://greybeardedgeek.net/2010/01/relative-cost-of-printing-on-different-printers/feed/ 0 http://greybeardedgeek.net/2009/11/virtualbox-vs-vmware-on-ubuntu-9-10-karmic-koala/ http://greybeardedgeek.net/2009/11/virtualbox-vs-vmware-on-ubuntu-9-10-karmic-koala/#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:27:29 +0000 richfreedman http://greybeardedgeek.net/?p=369 I updated my server to the 9.10 “Karmic Koala” release of Ubuntu. Unlike my recent laptop upgrade, I upgraded instead of doing a fresh install – I have too much software installed there to go through re-installation if I don’t have to. As I have mentioned here before, one of the things that I run [...]]]> http://greybeardedgeek.net/2009/11/virtualbox-vs-vmware-on-ubuntu-9-10-karmic-koala/feed/ 6