Tom's Blog

Using padding in encryption

2011-08-09T20:06:00.000-07:00

Using padding in encryption: "The most common query we get about cryptography concerns padding with a block cipher.

If you have to encrypt some data to send to another user and everything else works OK except the last few bytes, your problem is probably one of padding. Read on.

This article describes the mechanics of padding with examples using common block encryption algorithms like DES, Triple DES, Blowfish and AES. It considers where you should use padding and where you don't need to."

Issue 13024 - android - SDK 8 : Manual Ant Compile failed with : lib_rules.xml:121: Reference android.libraries.src not found - Android - An Open Handset Alliance Project - Google Project Hosting

2011-05-30T21:01:00.000-07:00

Issue 13024 - android - SDK 8 : Manual Ant Compile failed with : lib_rules.xml:121: Reference android.libraries.src not found - Android - An Open Handset Alliance Project - Google Project Hosting: "Comment 8 by Andrew.P...@gmail.com, Dec 23, 2010
I've added two lines after :

It works for me."

How to build an evil automated zombie blog for advertising revenue

2011-04-23T22:38:00.000-07:00

How to build an evil automated zombie blog for advertising revenue: "What’s an Evil Automated Zombie Blog? Glad you asked! It’s when you leverage RSS feeds to automatically create blog posts from other blogs and news sources. These sites are good for generating traffic from Google, and can run without you every having to create a single real blog post. After a short period of time, your blog will amass a large number of posts around a given topic; the very thing Google bots like to gobble up.

WARNING: These types of mindless zombie websites are considered evil in the blogging community – lets do it anyway!

The technique we’re about to cover caused one hell of an uproar while writing my WordPress Top Plugins book; the editors and proofreaders expressed their hatred for the very plugin we’re going to be using to setup an auto blog – WP-O-Matic. They said things like “Auto blogs are evil, and this plugin should not be included in the book” or “This plugin will make it to easy for people to steal other peoples content”. Never the less, I fought and won. WP-O-Matic is a great plugin with a lot of practical applications; what we’re about to cover is NOT one of them.

Please understand that what we’re about to build will be looked down upon by purist, but hell that’s what makes it fun!"

android-rss - Android RSS Feed Reader - Google Project Hosting

2011-04-23T22:33:00.000-07:00

android-rss - Android RSS Feed Reader - Google Project Hosting: "Fully functional Android RSS reader created as a way to learn the new Android platform SDK. This project is an ongoing effort to better understand and embrace the Android design philosophy, welcoming comments and additional contributors.

Project Status
This project is just before release 0.1. It is a functional news reader, but does not contain all the features you might expect from a full-featured distributable application.

The target audience is primarily developers interested in further exploration of the Android SDK. Source code is available, and can be accessed through the Subversion repository hosted here."

Tuning JVM Garbage Collection for Production Deployments

2011-01-13T15:58:00.000-08:00

Tuning JVM Garbage Collection for Production Deployments

Performance Tuning Garbage Collection in Java

2011-01-11T15:05:00.000-08:00

Performance Tuning Garbage Collection in Java: "2.1 Performance Considerations
Ways to measure GC Performance
Throughput - % of time not spent in GC over a long period of time.
Pauses - app unresponsive because of GC
Footprint - overall memory a process takes to execute
Promptness - time between object death, and time when memory becomes available
There is no one right way to size generations, make the call based on your applications usage."

Super Rich - Yahoo! News

2011-01-05T11:45:00.000-08:00

Super Rich - Yahoo! News: "Read Russell Simmons's other articles on HuffingtonPost.com
To mark the release of my new book Super Rich: A Guide To Having It All, I went on Twitter and asked a simple question: What would you do if you were Super Rich?
The response was immediate, humbling and extremely encouraging.
@buyhousescheap wrote, 'If I were #SuperRich I would rebuild Haiti.'
@313Don214 said, 'If was super rich I would buy an apartment building to give the homeless a second chance.'"

Xbox 360 Red Ring Of Death Fix - How To Guide

2011-01-04T15:02:00.000-08:00

Xbox 360 Red Ring Of Death Fix - How To Guide: "Xbox 360 Red Ring Of Death is a serious problem and more than 500000 people are facing the same. The Worst thing about red ring of death is or other Xbox 360 errors, they will not go anywhere until you fix it. In this informative article I will show you how you can fix red ring of death error on your own. The method described in this article is extremely easy to follow. But I will warn you if you are not tech savvy then take help of videos mentioned here. These videos are made by professional xbox 360 repair experts. This article will show exact step by step action plan to get rid of red ring of death permanently. This will not only save your money but it will also save your time. So be with me... :)"

Ad Hoc Data Analysis From The Unix Command Line - Wikibooks, open books for an open world

2011-01-04T15:01:00.000-08:00

Ad Hoc Data Analysis From The Unix Command Line - Wikibooks, open books for an open world: "Once upon a time, I was working with a colleague who needed to do some quick data analysis to get a handle on the scope of a problem. He was considering importing the data into a database or writing a program to parse and summarize that data. Either of these options would have taken hours at least, and possibly days. I wrote this on his whiteboard:
Your friends: cat, find, grep, wc, cut, sort, uniq
These simple commands can be combined to quickly answer the kinds of questions for which most people would turn to a database, if only the data were already in a database. You can quickly (often in seconds) form and test hypotheses about virtually any record oriented data source."

Jeff Bezos Princeton Commencement

2010-12-28T05:37:00.000-08:00

Jeff Bezos Princeton Commencement: "omorrow, in a very real sense, your life -- the life you author from scratch on your own -- begins.
How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?
Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?
Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?
Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure?
Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?
Will you bluff it out when you're wrong, or will you apologize?
Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?
Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?
When it's tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless?
Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder?
Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?"

How to Get Free Kindle Ebooks: Online Electronic Books Free for the Download

2010-12-27T09:18:00.000-08:00

How to Get Free Kindle Ebooks: Online Electronic Books Free for the Download: "Times are tough, and in the recession era of today, the cheaper the better. Many people adore books, which is why libraries are seeing record numbers during the recession (they are free entertainment choices). Today many people already have an ebook readers such as a Sony Reader or Kindle, or they just like to download onto their laptop computers. I’ve seen many classic books being used in a Homeschool environment. Whichever the case, there are free ebooks up for download with any of the five sites below."

2010-09-20T00:09:00.001-07:00

http://www.qkv1.canxhealth.com

2010-05-03T00:01:00.000-07:00

Yucks --- see the nasty way of initializing the jdbc driver. all the examples on the web are wrong...
I had to get this from a forum post!

#!/Users/spicysquid/java/jruby/jruby-1.5.0.RC2/bin/jruby
require 'java'
require 'rubygems'
require 'jdbc/mysql'

#this isnt needed since we have jdbc/mysql already loaded
#require './mysql-connector-java-5.0.5.jar'
#import 'com.mysql.jdbc.Driver'

begin
#Nasty way of loading the jdbc driver
java.lang.Thread.currentThread.getContextClassLoader().loadClass("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver",true).newInstance

conn = java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:mysql://127.0.0.1:3306/database", "root", "");
stmt = conn.createStatement
rs = stmt.executeQuery("select * from member")
while (rs.next) do
puts rs.getString("username")
end
rs.close
stmt.close
conn.close()
end

2010-02-28T15:48:00.000-08:00

How to install tokyocabinet and tokyotyrant on a mac.

Berry easy!

LOLCAT@/opt/local/bin$sudo ./port install tokyocabinet tokyotyrant
---> Computing dependencies for tokyocabinet
---> Fetching zlib
---> Attempting to fetch zlib-1.2.3.tar.bz2 from http://distfiles.macports.org/zlib
---> Verifying checksum(s) for zlib
---> Extracting zlib
---> Applying patches to zlib
---> Configuring zlib
---> Building zlib
---> Staging zlib into destroot
---> Installing zlib @1.2.3_4
---> Activating zlib @1.2.3_4
---> Cleaning zlib
---> Fetching tokyocabinet
---> Attempting to fetch tokyocabinet-1.4.42.tar.gz from http://distfiles.macports.org/tokyocabinet
---> Verifying checksum(s) for tokyocabinet
---> Extracting tokyocabinet
---> Configuring tokyocabinet
---> Building tokyocabinet
---> Staging tokyocabinet into destroot
---> Installing tokyocabinet @1.4.42_0
---> Activating tokyocabinet @1.4.42_0
---> Cleaning tokyocabinet
---> Computing dependencies for tokyotyrant
---> Fetching tokyotyrant
---> Attempting to fetch tokyotyrant-1.1.40.tar.gz from http://distfiles.macports.org/tokyotyrant
---> Verifying checksum(s) for tokyotyrant
---> Extracting tokyotyrant
---> Configuring tokyotyrant
---> Building tokyotyrant
---> Staging tokyotyrant into destroot
---> Installing tokyotyrant @1.1.40_0
---> Activating tokyotyrant @1.1.40_0
---> Cleaning tokyotyrant

My droid eye verizon is blogged about :P

2009-11-27T19:46:00.001-08:00

Android Application Top 10 Countdown – Week Ending 11/14/2009 | AndroidGuys

4 – Droid Eye Verizon
Price: Free
Description: This is a silly application to display the Motorola red Droid. It does not do anything else.
Thoughts: For those of us stuck with ‘Mo we can download this. It’s a picture of the red Droid, nothing more, nothing less. At least its free.

How to add ringtones to your DROID

2009-11-18T17:42:00.001-08:00

Motorola Owners' Forum: DROID : How do I transfer ringtones,...

My old LG-8300 was fine. I had some neat ringtones in there that I garnered from far and wide and wanted to put them in my Droid. Since no manual came with my droid other the thiny fold-out sheet and the built in help in the droid just shows you how to use the keyboard, I was wondeing how to xfer the rintones to my droid. In my LG I had them all on the micro-SD card. Droid has one too- but where is it? The fold-out sheet doesb't tell you! Well, I believe you have to take the battery out to get to it. OK, I can "mount" the droid to my confuser so I copied the contents of my LG microSD card to the confuser. Did some tedious search on-line and found this:

"If you already have music files you'd like to use for ringtones, alarms, notifications, etc. Connect your device to your PC, on the device, got to USB, then mount the SD card. Now on the root of SD card create the following folders by type, they are as follows:

Notifications: media/audio/notifications
Ringtones: media/audio/ringtones
Alarms: media/audio/alarms"

In better terms, on the Droid SD card create a directory called "media". Then in the media dir create a subdir called "audio". Then in the audio dir create subdirectories called "notifications", "ringtones", and "alarms".

The directories in my old LG sd card that had data in them were:

my_flix (videos)

my_pix (pictures)

ringers (ringtones)

Sooooo, I copied the ringtones to the new ringtones dir on the Droid SD card. I also created a new dir called Pix and one called Flix and copied my pix and flix to them. I'll sort that out later when I have time. Unmounted the Droid. Checked it out and all my ringtones are available without me doing anything further. I set up some contacts with the new ringtones and they are working fine.

Just thought I would pass this on. Hope it is useful to someone. (Thanks to Jared elsewhere on this thread for the initial info!)

1024x480 display! nuts!

2009-11-10T13:02:00.001-08:00

Engadget

And from Softbank:

* Sharp AQUOS Mobile FULLTOUCH 941SH: All we need to say about this one is "4-inch 1024 x 480 display," which, as you might be able to imagine, is a world's first.
* Sharp AQUOS Mobile 943SH: Dual one-seg tuners let you watch one program and record another, and a mention of transferring Blu-ray content has us thinking that Managed Copy is along for the ride.
* Toshiba dynapocket X02T: Remember how NTT DoCoMo had previously gotten the TG01 as the T01A? Yeah, well, now it's Softbank's turn -- and this time, it's called the X02A. Not much more to it than that.
* Samsung X01SC: This looks to be a localized version of AT&T's Samsung Jack, of all phones, meaning that it's a Windows Mobile 6.5 Standard phone (no touchscreen) with a QVGA display and portrait QWERTY keyboard.
* Sharp 942SH KT: No lineup would be complete without the obligatory Hello Kitty marketing tie-in, and the 942SH KT does the honors this time around with a black shell featuring stylized pink text and graphics.
* Samsung OMNIA VISION 940SC: Samsung's now-famous OMNIA brand comes to Softbank on the wings of a 3.5-inch AMOLED display, one-seg tuner, and kickstand for desktop viewing.
* Sharp Jelly Beans 840SH: We don't think you'd want to try eating it, but the 840SH comes in seven colors -- hence the name, we think.
* Android: The simply-named Android runs -- you guessed it -- Android with a 3.7 inch AMOLED display and 1GHz Snapdragon processor; unfortunately, it won't be available until next Spring and the manufacturer isn't being revealed right now.

How to synch yahoo mail on the droid

2009-11-07T08:47:00.001-08:00

Motorola DROID / DROID Eris now available in stores, online « Boy Genius Report

1.select the email icon
2.select the physical menu button
3.select accounts
4.select the physical menu button
5.select add account
6.enter in email address and password
7.select manual setup in the lower left hand corner
8.select imap account
9.enter the following into the imap server field -
imap.mail.yahoo.com
10.select next
11.enter the following into the smpt server field -
smpt.mail.yahoo.com
12.select next
13.choose your email frequency and if you would like the email to be your default account
14.select next
15.name the account
16.select done

Great post on how to modify the sms inbox

2009-11-04T22:21:00.001-08:00

Android Tips

Monday, September 7, 2009
SMS Blocking in Android
Recently, I tried to develop an app that would block sms from certain numbers that you can choose. It seems that you cannot completely block the incoming sms.

These were the problems that I faced while working with this app.

1. There are no APIs supplied, that handles the SMS inbox (I mean, no content providersm which can be directly queried to fetch records from the sms table). However, you have a workaround of finding the tables where the sms is stored, and then querying and updating that table. Well, there is actually a content provider, that exposes this table to other applications, but it is not documented anywhere. So, I have to hardcode the column values. This is potentially dangerous, if in the next Donut release, Google changes the column names, my application would fall apart.

2. On receiving of an SMS, I have 2 things to do. Remove the SMS from the sms table, and disable the notification. Deleting the sms from the table was pretty easy, but I couldn't find a way to remove the Notification. Perhaps, there is no way that we can disable this notification. One workaround might be, to temporarily change the Notification settings, the moment you sense an incoming message from a blocked number. And, after you delete the message from the sms table, you just turn on the notification. I haven't worked on this, but this might just work.

3. If the Messaging application is already open, and an sms arrives, weird things start to happen. I can see the blocked sms being deleted, and the list of sms gets updated. But the next message in the list is marked as "Unread". Probably, this is done my the Notification, I don't know.

4. SMS broadcast, is definitely, an un-ordered one. So, the easiest way, that could have worked, would have been just to abort the broadcast. But in this case, you don't have this option. so, once you recieve this broadcast, you have to manually go and delete the message, by matching the incoming number, timestamp etc. Timestamp method isn't foolproof. Because, the timestamp you receive, is the timestamp of the broadcast, and not the time when the sms is written into the DB. So they wont match. You should pick up the incoming number, and check for the timestamp within a range of about 1 seconds. This should give you the sms that you need to delete.

5. There's another problem. When you recieve the broadcast, the system wont write the sms into the table, before it is sure that all the broadcast receivers have done their work. So, it waits for some time, and then writes the sms into the table. Before this, if you try to delete the sms, obviously, you would not find it in the table. So, make your code sleep for about a second, and then go and delete the SMS. That should do it.

But, the most important problem still persists. THE NOTIFICATION. I guess, it can't be removed.

Mio Miuddy GPS unit for Windows CE moves to Android

2009-11-02T10:20:00.001-08:00

Mio MiBuddy GPS units to trade Windows CE for Android

Mio MiBuddy GPS units to trade Windows CE for Android

by Joshua Topolsky posted Nov 2nd 2009 at 9:22AM
If you're keeping tabs on Mio Technology's GPS happenings, you'll be interested to dip into some facts that PC World has uncovered about the company's upcoming offerings. According to the mag, the next version of the electronics-maker's MiBuddy satnav unit will dash the underlying Windows CE architecture for Google's newer and far more suave Android platform. The new device will be pushing into MID territory, boasting a 4.7-inch touchscreen along with a hardware slider keyboard, the ability to browse the internet, and WiFi and Bluetooth onboard. Call us crazy, but it seems possible that devices like dedicated PNDs running Android could easily adapt Google's new turn-by-turn system as their primary mode of operation. Alternately, you could switch between Mio's proprietary version and Google's variation... or they could axe the big G's altogether, though that awkward situation makes far less sense to us. No word on timing or price just yet, but we'll keep you posted.

Soyea MID Android Device

2009-11-02T10:19:00.001-08:00

Soyea's MID Z5 features an Atom CPU, 3G, and a significant price tag

Soyea's MID Z5 features an Atom CPU, 3G, and a significant price tag

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Nov 2nd 2009 at 1:01PM
Sure, there are some of us who like to play around -- and a first-generation Android MID might be lots of fun to those folks -- but how about the peeps out there that need a portable Internet device with serious muscle? Soyea's Z5 features a 5-inch (800 x 480) resistive touchscreen, 1.2GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB RAM, WiFi, 3G (from China Telecom) and Bluetooth 2.0. A dual boot device, this bad boy eschews the cell phone OS du jour for both Windows XP and Linux -- and since you're liable to fall in love with this thing (and quickly max out the storage) the included microSD slot should take the sting out of the mere 8GB SSD. But that ain't all! It also rocks stereo speakers, a webcam, a VGA port, and mini USB. Of course, a device this serious has a serious price to match -- expect to pay 5,999 Chinese yuan (roughly $879) from Amazon China. Available in black and white, we have one more pic for you after the break.

Motorola CLIQ review

2009-10-14T23:40:00.001-07:00

Review: Motorola CLIQ

The Short Version

Motorola has released the phone it should have released a few years ago to compete with phones like the Helio Ocean and feature phones from LG and Samsung. Android brings this phone into the 21st century and the QWERTY keyboard and BLUR UI tweaks will please those looking for a keyboard Android phone with social networking features.

Savage moon walkthrough

2009-10-12T18:06:00.001-07:00

Savage Moon Walkthrough - PS3 Forums

I think it best that you at least try a few times to complete the missions before going to these walkthroughs as this is a great game and it'd be a shame to miss out on it.

The game is separated into 3 different Moons. Xipe, Ymir and Zeus

XIPE (1st Moon)

Xipe is essentially a tutorial, with the last mission on xipe (Overgar) being the first challenging mission, unfortunately there are no walkthroughs for any of Xipes missions yet, once some go up, I'll make sure to update the OP with them.

lovely website on java interview questions

2009-10-07T12:54:00.001-07:00

Java Interview Questions » Java Interview Questions

What if the main method is declared as private?

The program compiles properly but at runtime it will give “Main method not public.” message.

What is meant by pass by reference and pass by value in Java?

Pass by reference means, passing the address itself rather than passing the value. Pass by value means passing a copy of the value.

If you’re overriding the method equals() of an object, which other method you might also consider?

hashCode()

What is Byte Code?

Or

What gives java it’s “write once and run anywhere” nature?

All Java programs are compiled into class files that contain bytecodes. These byte codes can be run in any platform and hence java is said to be platform independent.

Expain the reason for each keyword of public static void main(String args[])?

public- main(..) is the first method called by java environment when a program is executed so it has to accessible from java environment. Hence the access specifier has to be public.

static: Java environment should be able to call this method without creating an instance of the class , so this method must be declared as static.

void: main does not return anything so the return type must be void

The argument String indicates the argument type which is given at the command line and arg is an array for string given during command line.

What are the differences between == and .equals() ?

Or

what is difference between == and equals

Or

Difference between == and equals method

Or

What would you use to compare two String variables - the operator == or the method equals()?

Or

How is it possible for two String objects with identical values not to be equal under the == operator?

The == operator compares two objects to determine if they are the same object in memory i.e. present in the same memory location. It is possible for two String objects to have the same value, but located in different areas of memory.

== compares references while .equals compares contents. The method public boolean equals(Object obj) is provided by the Object class and can be overridden. The default implementation returns true only if the object is compared with itself, which is equivalent to the equality operator == being used to compare aliases to the object. String, BitSet, Date, and File override the equals() method. For two String objects, value equality means that they contain the same character sequence. For the Wrapper classes, value equality means that the primitive values are equal.

public class EqualsTest {

public static void main(String[] args) {

String s1 = “abc”;
String s2 = s1;
String s5 = “abc”;
String s3 = new String(”abc”);
String s4 = new String(”abc”);
System.out.println(”== comparison : ” + (s1 == s5));
System.out.println(”== comparison : ” + (s1 == s2));
System.out.println(”Using equals method : ” + s1.equals(s2));
System.out.println(”== comparison : ” + s3 == s4);
System.out.println(”Using equals method : ” + s3.equals(s4));
}
}

Output
== comparison : true
== comparison : true
Using equals method : true
false
Using equals method : true

What if the static modifier is removed from the signature of the main method?

Or

What if I do not provide the String array as the argument to the method?

Program compiles. But at runtime throws an error “NoSuchMethodError”.

Why oracle Type 4 driver is named as oracle thin driver?

Oracle provides a Type 4 JDBC driver, referred to as the Oracle “thin” driver. This driver includes its own implementation of a TCP/IP version of Oracle’s Net8 written entirely in Java, so it is platform independent, can be downloaded to a browser at runtime, and does not require any Oracle software on the client side. This driver requires a TCP/IP listener on the server side, and the client connection string uses the TCP/IP port address, not the TNSNAMES entry for the database name.

What is the difference between final, finally and finalize? What do you understand by the java final keyword?

Or

What is final, finalize() and finally?

Or

What is finalize() method?

Or

What is the difference between final, finally and finalize?

Or

What does it mean that a class or member is final?

o final - declare constant
o finally - handles exception
o finalize - helps in garbage collection

Variables defined in an interface are implicitly final. A final class can’t be extended i.e., final class may not be subclassed. This is done for security reasons with basic classes like String and Integer. It also allows the compiler to make some optimizations, and makes thread safety a little easier to achieve. A final method can’t be overridden when its class is inherited. You can’t change value of a final variable (is a constant). finalize() method is used just before an object is destroyed and garbage collected. finally, a key word used in exception handling and will be executed whether or not an exception is thrown. For example, closing of open connections is done in the finally method.

What is the Java API?

The Java API is a large collection of ready-made software components that provide many useful capabilities, such as graphical user interface (GUI) widgets.

What is the GregorianCalendar class?

The GregorianCalendar provides support for traditional Western calendars.

What is the ResourceBundle class?

The ResourceBundle class is used to store locale-specific resources that can be loaded by a program to tailor the program’s appearance to the particular locale in which it is being run.

Why there are no global variables in Java?

Global variables are globally accessible. Java does not support globally accessible variables due to following reasons:

* The global variables breaks the referential transparency
* Global variables creates collisions in namespace.

How to convert String to Number in java program?

The valueOf() function of Integer class is is used to convert string to Number. Here is the code example:
String numString = “1000″;
int id=Integer.valueOf(numString).intValue();

What is the SimpleTimeZone class?

The SimpleTimeZone class provides support for a Gregorian calendar.

What is the difference between a while statement and a do statement?

A while statement (pre test) checks at the beginning of a loop to see whether the next loop iteration should occur. A do while statement (post test) checks at the end of a loop to see whether the next iteration of a loop should occur. The do statement will always execute the loop body at least once.

What is the Locale class?

The Locale class is used to tailor a program output to the conventions of a particular geographic, political, or cultural region.

Describe the principles of OOPS.

There are three main principals of oops which are called Polymorphism, Inheritance and Encapsulation.

Explain the Inheritance principle.

Inheritance is the process by which one object acquires the properties of another object. Inheritance allows well-tested procedures to be reused and enables changes to make once and have effect in all relevant places

What is implicit casting?

Implicit casting is the process of simply assigning one entity to another without any transformation guidance to the compiler. This type of casting is not permitted in all kinds of transformations and may not work for all scenarios.

Example

int i = 1000;

long j = i; //Implicit casting

Is sizeof a keyword in java?

The sizeof operator is not a keyword.

What is a native method?

A native method is a method that is implemented in a language other than Java.

In System.out.println(), what is System, out and println?

System is a predefined final class, out is a PrintStream object and println is a built-in overloaded method in the out object.

What are Encapsulation, Inheritance and Polymorphism

Or

Explain the Polymorphism principle. Explain the different forms of Polymorphism.

Polymorphism in simple terms means one name many forms. Polymorphism enables one entity to be used as a general category for different types of actions. The specific action is determined by the exact nature of the situation.

Polymorphism exists in three distinct forms in Java:
• Method overloading
• Method overriding through inheritance
• Method overriding through the Java interface

What is explicit casting?

Explicit casting in the process in which the complier are specifically informed to about transforming the object.

Example

long i = 700.20;

int j = (int) i; //Explicit casting

What is the Java Virtual Machine (JVM)?

The Java Virtual Machine is software that can be ported onto various hardware-based platforms

What do you understand by downcasting?

The process of Downcasting refers to the casting from a general to a more specific type, i.e. casting down the hierarchy

What are Java Access Specifiers?

Or

What is the difference between public, private, protected and default Access Specifiers?

Or

What are different types of access modifiers?

Access specifiers are keywords that determine the type of access to the member of a class. These keywords are for allowing
privileges to parts of a program such as functions and variables. These are:
• Public : accessible to all classes
• Protected : accessible to the classes within the same package and any subclasses.
• Private : accessible only to the class to which they belong
• Default : accessible to the class to which they belong and to subclasses within the same package

Which class is the superclass of every class?

Object.

Name primitive Java types.

The 8 primitive types are byte, char, short, int, long, float, double, and boolean.

What is the difference between static and non-static variables?

Or

What are class variables?

Or

What is static in java?

Or

What is a static method?

A static variable is associated with the class as a whole rather than with specific instances of a class. Each object will share a common copy of the static variables i.e. there is only one copy per class, no matter how many objects are created from it. Class variables or static variables are declared with the static keyword in a class. These are declared outside a class and stored in static memory. Class variables are mostly used for constants. Static variables are always called by the class name. This variable is created when the program starts and gets destroyed when the programs stops. The scope of the class variable is same an instance variable. Its initial value is same as instance variable and gets a default value when its not initialized corresponding to the data type. Similarly, a static method is a method that belongs to the class rather than any object of the class and doesn’t apply to an object or even require that any objects of the class have been instantiated.
Static methods are implicitly final, because overriding is done based on the type of the object, and static methods are attached to a class, not an object. A static method in a superclass can be shadowed by another static method in a subclass, as long as the original method was not declared final. However, you can’t override a static method with a non-static method. In other words, you can’t change a static method into an instance method in a subclass.

Non-static variables take on unique values with each object instance.

What is the difference between the boolean & operator and the && operator?

If an expression involving the boolean & operator is evaluated, both operands are evaluated, whereas the && operator is a short cut operator. When an expression involving the && operator is evaluated, the first operand is evaluated. If the first operand returns a value of true then the second operand is evaluated. If the first operand evaluates to false, the evaluation of the second operand is skipped.

How does Java handle integer overflows and underflows?

It uses those low order bytes of the result that can fit into the size of the type allowed by the operation.

What if I write static public void instead of public static void?

Program compiles and runs properly.

What is the difference between declaring a variable and defining a variable?

In declaration we only mention the type of the variable and its name without initializing it. Defining means declaration + initialization. E.g. String s; is just a declaration while String s = new String (”bob”); Or String s = “bob”; are both definitions.

What type of parameter passing does Java support?

In Java the arguments (primitives and objects) are always passed by value. With objects, the object reference itself is passed by value and so both the original reference and parameter copy both refer to the same object.

Explain the Encapsulation principle.

Encapsulation is a process of binding or wrapping the data and the codes that operates on the data into a single entity. This keeps the data safe from outside interface and misuse. Objects allow procedures to be encapsulated with their data to reduce potential interference. One way to think about encapsulation is as a protective wrapper that prevents code and data from being arbitrarily accessed by other code defined outside the wrapper.

What do you understand by a variable?

Variable is a named memory location that can be easily referred in the program. The variable is used to hold the data and it can be changed during the course of the execution of the program.

What do you understand by numeric promotion?

The Numeric promotion is the conversion of a smaller numeric type to a larger numeric type, so that integral and floating-point operations may take place. In the numerical promotion process the byte, char, and short values are converted to int values. The int values are also converted to long values, if necessary. The long and float values are converted to double values, as required.

What do you understand by casting in java language? What are the types of casting?

The process of converting one data type to another is called Casting. There are two types of casting in Java; these are implicit casting and explicit casting.

What is the first argument of the String array in main method?

The String array is empty. It does not have any element. This is unlike C/C++ where the first element by default is the program name. If we do not provide any arguments on the command line, then the String array of main method will be empty but not null.

How can one prove that the array is not null but empty?

Print array.length. It will print 0. That means it is empty. But if it would have been null then it would have thrown a NullPointerException on attempting to print array.length.

Can an application have multiple classes having main method?

Yes. While starting the application we mention the class name to be run. The JVM will look for the main method only in the class whose name you have mentioned. Hence there is not conflict amongst the multiple classes having main method.

When is static variable loaded? Is it at compile time or runtime? When exactly a static block is loaded in Java?

Static variable are loaded when classloader brings the class to the JVM. It is not necessary that an object has to be created. Static variables will be allocated memory space when they have been loaded. The code in a static block is loaded/executed only once i.e. when the class is first initialized. A class can have any number of static blocks. Static block is not member of a class, they do not have a return statement and they cannot be called directly. Cannot contain this or super. They are primarily used to initialize static fields.

Can I have multiple main methods in the same class?

We can have multiple overloaded main methods but there can be only one main method with the following signature :

public static void main(String[] args) {}

No the program fails to compile. The compiler says that the main method is already defined in the class.

Explain working of Java Virtual Machine (JVM)?

JVM is an abstract computing machine like any other real computing machine which first converts .java file into .class file by using Compiler (.class is nothing but byte code file.) and Interpreter reads byte codes.

How can I swap two variables without using a third variable?

Add two variables and assign the value into First variable. Subtract the Second value with the result Value. and assign to Second variable. Subtract the Result of First Variable With Result of Second Variable and Assign to First Variable. Example:

int a=5,b=10;a=a+b; b=a-b; a=a-b;

An other approach to the same question

You use an XOR swap.

for example:

int a = 5; int b = 10;
a = a ^ b;
b = a ^ b;
a = a ^ b;

What is data encapsulation?

Encapsulation may be used by creating ‘get’ and ’set’ methods in a class (JAVABEAN) which are used to access the fields of the object. Typically the fields are made private while the get and set methods are public. Encapsulation can be used to validate the data that is to be stored, to do calculations on data that is stored in a field or fields, or for use in introspection (often the case when using javabeans in Struts, for instance). Wrapping of data and function into a single unit is called as data encapsulation. Encapsulation is nothing but wrapping up the data and associated methods into a single unit in such a way that data can be accessed with the help of associated methods. Encapsulation provides data security. It is nothing but data hiding.

What is reflection API? How are they implemented?

Reflection is the process of introspecting the features and state of a class at runtime and dynamically manipulate at run time. This is supported using Reflection API with built-in classes like Class, Method, Fields, Constructors etc. Example: Using Java Reflection API we can get the class name, by using the getName method.

Does JVM maintain a cache by itself? Does the JVM allocate objects in heap? Is this the OS heap or the heap maintained by the JVM? Why

Yes, the JVM maintains a cache by itself. It creates the Objects on the HEAP, but references to those objects are on the STACK.

What is phantom memory?

Phantom memory is false memory. Memory that does not exist in reality.

Can a method be static and synchronized?

A static method can be synchronized. If you do so, the JVM will obtain a lock on the java.lang.
Class instance associated with the object. It is similar to saying:

synchronized(XYZ.class) {

}

What is difference between String and StringTokenizer?

A StringTokenizer is utility class used to break up string.

Example:

StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer(”Hello World”);

while (st.hasMoreTokens()) {

System.out.println(st.nextToken());

}

Output:

Hello

World

If you think that an important java interview question is missing or some answers are wrong in the site please contribute it to sriniappl@gmail.com

cassandra connect to thrift port 9170 instead of 7000 or 7001

2009-09-29T22:03:00.001-07:00

cassandra> connect 127.0.0.1/9160
Connected to 127.0.0.1/9160
cassandra> show keyspaces

for cassandra make sure you set the internal address

2009-09-29T21:28:00.001-07:00

<ListenAddress>domU-12-31-38-11-11-A2</ListenAddress>

<StoragePort>7000</StoragePort>

<ControlPort>7001</ControlPort>

If the listenaddress is set to localhost, the server won't able to discover itself.

cassandra 0.4.0 is out

2009-09-29T10:01:00.001-07:00

Mailing list archives

adies and gentlemen, I give you Cassandra 0.4.0. It's hard to imagine that it has only been 2 months since our very first release[1]; an impressive amount of progress has been made. For example: * Nodes can now scale to billions of keys instead of millions. * There is support for multiple keyspaces (formerly known as tables). * You can now create snapshots * A new bootstrap feature for adding nodes to a running cluster * A new multiget API * Numerous improvements to the Thrift API And many, many, more. In fact, don't take my word for it, check out the changelog[2], or the 176 closed Jira issues (176!)[3]. Many thanks to all those that contributed patches, reviewed, tested, documented, or counseled.

Pretty cool.

On my macbook pro, I got about 2400 inserts / s with cassandra 0.4.0. I was not able to get a multinode setup on my ec2 enviroment.

recommended use for hbase htable and cached hbase configuration

2009-09-18T11:16:00.001-07:00

RE: HBase Client Concerns

Many thanks again. I think I'll go initially with cached HBaseConfiguration and one new HTable instance per request thread and accept the resulting slowness overhead per request. When the HTablePool pause/retry param issue is resolved, I can switch to that. To workaround the problem of restarting the client app when the HBase servers are restarted, I can then maybe wrap HTablePool into a class which essentially clears the pool cache [forcing instantiating a new HTable] when any of the HTablePool.getTable() client calls time out, so the client app need not be restarted... Cheers,

Check out javadocs for using hbase with hadoop!

2009-09-17T23:08:00.001-07:00

org.apache.hadoop.hbase.mapreduce (HBase 0.20.0 API)

Package org.apache.hadoop.hbase.mapreduce Description

Provides HBase MapReduce Input/OutputFormats, a table indexing MapReduce job, and utility

struts 2 veloctiy and javarebel rock!

2009-09-13T21:22:00.001-07:00

Man java rebel rocks!

By using Javarebel with struts 2 and velocity I can eliminate the whole compile deploy wait cycle!

Use these maven opts at startup.

MAVEN_OPTS="-Xmx712m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m -noverify -Drebel.spring_plugin=false -Drebel.velocity_plugin=true -Drebel.struts2-plugin=true -Drebel.aspectj_plugin=true -javaagent:javarebel203/javareb
el.jar -Drebel.dirs=target/classes,../target/classes

To refresh my struts file.

cp src/main/resources/*struts*.xml target/work/webapp/WEB-INF/classes

To reload any classes

mvn compile

To refresh any velocity files

cp src/main/webapp/*.vm target/work/webapp/

mysql benchmark on mac

2009-09-10T10:10:00.001-07:00

Ran a quick benchmark on my macbook pro :P

1,000,000 rows inserted serially.
596023 ms taken.
1677 rows inserted /s.

MySQL is faster on my localhost than memcacheDB.

2009-09-07T20:46:00.000-07:00

MemcacheDB benchmark

On ubuntu amazon ec2 large instance - using java and spy memcache client.
Ran memcachedb with command

memcachedb -m 2064 -p 11211 -u memcachedb -l 127.0.0.1 -b 22000

Results - 10,000 puts of 140 characters in 22143 ms.
Roughly..
451 puts / s.

inserted 140 characters with a 5 character key.

key value store	time taken to insert 10,000 records	MB taken for storage	inserts /s
memcachedb	22143 ms	1300 MB	451 puts / s

Note - I had to add an artificial 1 ms delay after every insert. The memcache client would throw a queue size exception.
If time took 12143 ms, we would get roughly.

900 puts / s

2009-09-06T13:57:00.001-07:00

How to setup a Single node - hadoop cluster with hBASE

This guy has good instructions - http://blog.ibd.com/Part 1 setup Hadoop1. Get download and untar
wget http://apache.mirrors.hoobly.com/hadoop/core/hadoop-0.20.0/hadoop-0.20.0.tar.gz

tar xvf hadoop-0.20.0.tar.gz

2. Modify configuration files

cd hadoop-0.20.0/conf$edit core-site.xml
Add
<configuration>
<property>
<name>fs.default.name</name>
<value>hdfs://localhost:9000</value>
</property>
</configuration>

3. Edit site configuration for replication.

hadoop-0.20.0/conf$edit hdfs-site.xml
<configuration>
<property>
<name>dfs.replication</name>
<value>1</value>
</property>
</configuration>

4. Set Map reduce node - note even if we are not using it.

hadoop-0.20.0/conf$edit mapred-site.xml

<configuration>
<property>
<name>mapred.job.tracker</name>
<value>localhost:9001</value>
</property>
</configuration>

5. Check local ssh access

hadoop-0.20.0/conf$ssh localhost
Last login: Sat Sep 5 11:56:25 2009
LOLCAT@~$exit
logout
Connection to localhost closed.

6. Format / initialize hadoop file system

hadoop-0.20.0$bin/hadoop namenode -format
09/09/05 12:01:28 INFO namenode.NameNode: STARTUP_MSG:
/************************************************************
STARTUP_MSG: Starting NameNode
STARTUP_MSG: host = LOLCAT.local/10.0.1.193
STARTUP_MSG: args = [-format]
STARTUP_MSG: version = 0.20.0
STARTUP_MSG: build = https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/hadoop/core/branches/branch-0.20 -r 763504; compiled by 'ndaley' on Thu Apr 9 05:18:40 UTC 2009
************************************************************/
09/09/05 12:01:28 INFO namenode.FSNamesystem: fsOwner=spicysquid,staff,com.apple.sharepoint.group.2,admin,com.apple.sharepoint.group.1
09/09/05 12:01:28 INFO namenode.FSNamesystem: supergroup=supergroup
09/09/05 12:01:28 INFO namenode.FSNamesystem: isPermissionEnabled=true
09/09/05 12:01:28 INFO common.Storage: Image file of size 100 saved in 0 seconds.
09/09/05 12:01:28 INFO common.Storage: Storage directory /tmp/hadoop-spicysquid/dfs/name has been successfully formatted.
09/09/05 12:01:28 INFO namenode.NameNode: SHUTDOWN_MSG:
/************************************************************
SHUTDOWN_MSG: Shutting down NameNode at LOLCAT.local/10.0.1.193
************************************************************/

8. Start everything up!
./start-all.sh
starting namenode, logging to /Users/spicysquid/hbase/hadoop20/hadoop-0.20.0/bin/../logs/hadoop-spicysquid-namenode-LOLCAT.local.out
localhost: starting datanode, logging to /Users/spicysquid/hbase/hadoop20/hadoop-0.20.0/bin/../logs/hadoop-spicysquid-datanode-LOLCAT.local.out
localhost: starting secondarynamenode, logging to /Users/spicysquid/hbase/hadoop20/hadoop-0.20.0/bin/../logs/hadoop-spicysquid-secondarynamenode-LOLCAT.local.out
starting jobtracker, logging to /Users/spicysquid/hbase/hadoop20/hadoop-0.20.0/bin/../logs/hadoop-spicysquid-jobtracker-LOLCAT.local.out
localhost: starting tasktracker, logging to /Users/spicysquid/hbase/hadoop20/hadoop-0.20.0/bin/../logs/hadoop-spicysquid-tasktracker-LOLCAT.local.out

9. Check urls to see if they are up:

The Job Tracker can be found at http://localhost:50030
The Task Tracker can be found at http://localhost:50060

The NameNode / Filesystem / log browser can be found at http://localhost:50070

Part 2 - Setup HBASE

1. download hbase 20 and untar

wget http://people.apache.org/~stack/hbase-0.20.0-candidate-3/hbase-0.20.0.tar.gz

tar xvf hbase-0.20.0.tar.gz

2. Modify conf/hbase-site.xml for hdfs server

<property>
<name>hbase.rootdir</name>
<value>hdfs://localhost:9000/hbase</value>
<description>The directory shared by region servers.
</description>
</property>

3. start hbase
*** optional --- i had to start zookeeper first...
hbase-0.20.0/bin$./hbase-daemon.sh start zookeeper
./start-hbase.sh

4. create a table.
hbase-0.20.0/bin/hbase shell
1 row(s) in 0.0170 seconds

hbase(main):003:0> disable 'test'
09/09/05 13:22:13 INFO client.HBaseAdmin: Disabled test
0 row(s) in 4.0660 seconds
hbase(main):004:0> drop 'test'
09/09/05 13:22:17 INFO client.HBaseAdmin: Deleted test
0 row(s) in 0.0120 seconds
0 row(s) in 0.0040 seconds
0 row(s) in 0.0440 seconds
hbase(main):005:0> create 'test','data'
0 row(s) in 0.0500 seconds
hbase(main):006:0> list

5. Check
Check hdfs web url to see how the files are created
The NameNode / Filesystem / log browser can be found at http://localhost:50070

6. stop hbase
stop hadoop

hadoop-0.20.0/bin$./stop-all.sh
stopping jobtracker
localhost: stopping tasktracker
stopping namenode
localhost: stopping datanode
localhost: stopping secondarynamenode

hbase-20.0/bin/./stop-hbase.sh

2009-08-11T23:02:00.001-07:00

hbase benchmarks

on macbook pro.

hbase 19.3
hadoop 19.2

insert one millions rows with one column family with one column.
333 rows / s

read one million rows
52465 ms

how to unlock your vx9800

2009-08-10T21:11:00.001-07:00

How can I get past the lock code on my LG Chocolate? - IhAv.NET

This MAY work on your VX series LG phones for verizon. it has been tested on my vx9800 and my girlfriends vx8100. all you need to know is your phone number.

This works on:
vx8100
vx9800

DO:
1. *22899
2. Let it reprogram your phone
3. Now your unlock code should be the last 4 digits of your phone number.

How to delete old time machine backups

2009-04-05T20:33:00.001-07:00

How to Delete Individual Backups from Apple Time Machine « Psychohistory

One of those menu items is “Delete Backup”.

So, to delete a full backup, you just do the following:

1. Navigate to the date you want to delete. In my case, I wanted to delete my oldest backup, from 1/30/2008.
2. Navigate in the Finder window to your overall machine. In my case, it’s called “Powersmash G5″, where I have 2 internal drives that are backed up.
3. Select the “Gear” menu, and select “Delete Backup”
4. Enter the admin password for the Finder, if it asks.

My guess is that Apple wasn’t trying to make this hard - they are just suffering from a non-standard interface, and then an overloading of that “gears” menu, which I’m sure is theoretically supposed to be a “contextual menu”. For me, a menu that showed on on right-click of either the finder window itself or the Time Machine backup marker on the right would have been more obvious to me.

Hope this tip is useful to someone. It sure helped me today.

pretty cool stuff spring and ruby integration!

2009-01-29T22:09:00.001-08:00

Squaremasher: Spring IOC in JRuby - life outside the container

Spring IOC in JRuby - life outside the container
If you're a JRuby aficionado you probably read about the Spring IOC Plugin for rails, but what if you want to get spring IOC running outside a servlet container? Here's how.

how to sms for free

2008-11-28T11:07:00.001-08:00

How To Send Email To Any Cell Phone (for Free) | MakeUseOf.com

Free Email To SMS Gateways (Major US Carriers)

Carrier Email to SMS Gateway
Alltel [10-digit phone number]@message.alltel.com
Example: 1234567890@message.alltel.com
AT&T (formerly Cingular) [10-digit phone number]@txt.att.net
[10-digit phone number]@mms.att.net (MMS)
[10-digit phone number]@cingularme.com
Example: 1234567890@txt.att.net
Boost Mobile [10-digit phone number]@myboostmobile.com
Example: 1234567890@myboostmobile.com
Nextel (now Sprint Nextel) [10-digit telephone number]@messaging.nextel.com
Example: 1234567890@messaging.nextel.com
Sprint PCS (now Sprint Nextel) [10-digit phone number]@messaging.sprintpcs.com
[10-digit phone number]@pm.sprint.com (MMS)
Example: 1234567890@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile [10-digit phone number]@tmomail.net
Example: 1234567890@tmomail.net
US Cellular [10-digit phone number]email.uscc.net (SMS)
[10-digit phone number]@mms.uscc.net (MMS)
Example: 1234567890@email.uscc.net
Verizon [10-digit phone number]@vtext.com
[10-digit phone number]@vzwpix.com (MMS)
Example: 1234567890@vtext.com
Virgin Mobile USA [10-digit phone number]@vmobl.com
Example: 1234567890@vmobl.com
Free Email To SMS Gateways (International + Smaller US)

These are all I could find from Wikipedia and other sources. If you’re aware of any other ones please share them in comments and I’ll add them to the list.

Carrier Email to SMS Gateway
7-11 Speakout (USA GSM) number@cingularme.com
Airtel (Karnataka, India) number@airtelkk.com
Airtel Wireless (Montana, USA) number@sms.airtelmontana.com
Alaska Communications Systems number@msg.acsalaska.com
Aql number@text.aql.com
AT&T Enterprise Paging number@page.att.net
BigRedGiant Mobile Solutions number@tachyonsms.co.uk
Bell Mobility & Solo Mobile (Canada) number@txt.bell.ca
BPL Mobile (Mumbai, India) number@bplmobile.com
Cellular One (Dobson) number@mobile.celloneusa.com
Cingular (Postpaid) number@cingularme.com
Centennial Wireless number@cwemail.com
Cingular (GoPhone prepaid) number@cingularme.com (SMS)
Claro (Brasil) number@clarotorpedo.com.br
Claro (Nicaragua) number@ideasclaro-ca.com
Comcel number@comcel.com.co
Cricket number@sms.mycricket.com (SMS)
CTI number@sms.ctimovil.com.ar
Emtel (Mauritius) number@emtelworld.net
Fido (Canada) number@fido.ca
General Communications Inc. number@msg.gci.net
Globalstar (satellite) number@msg.globalstarusa.com
Helio number@myhelio.com
Illinois Valley Cellular number@ivctext.com
Iridium (satellite) number@msg.iridium.com
i wireless number.iws@iwspcs.net
Koodo Mobile (Canada) number@msg.koodomobile.com
Meteor (Ireland) number@sms.mymeteor.ie
Mero Mobile (Nepal) 977number@sms.spicenepal.com
MetroPCS number@mymetropcs.com
Movicom number@movimensaje.com.ar
Mobitel (Sri Lanka) number@sms.mobitel.lk
Movistar (Colombia) number@movistar.com.co
MTN (South Africa) number@sms.co.za
MTS (Canada) number@text.mtsmobility.com
Nextel (United States) number@messaging.nextel.com
Nextel (Argentina) TwoWay.11number@nextel.net.ar
Orange Polska (Poland) 9digit@orange.pl
Personal (Argentina) number@alertas.personal.com.ar
Plus GSM (Poland) +48number@text.plusgsm.pl
President’s Choice (Canada) number@txt.bell.ca
Qwest number@qwestmp.com
Rogers (Canada) number@pcs.rogers.com
SL Interactive (Australia) number@slinteractive.com.au
Sasktel (Canada) number@sms.sasktel.com
Setar Mobile email (Aruba) 297+number@mas.aw
Suncom number@tms.suncom.com
T-Mobile (Austria) number@sms.t-mobile.at
T-Mobile (UK) number@t-mobile.uk.net
Telus Mobility (Canada) number@msg.telus.com
Thumb Cellular number@sms.thumbcellular.com
Tigo (Formerly Ola) number@sms.tigo.com.co
Tracfone (prepaid) number@mmst5.tracfone.com
Unicel number@utext.com
Virgin Mobile (Canada) number@vmobile.ca
Vodacom (South Africa) number@voda.co.za
YCC number@sms.ycc.ru
MobiPCS (Hawaii only) number@mobipcs.net

If you are aware of any other free sms to email gateways please add it in comments. Also let us know whether you tried any of the above and your experience with it.

how to create a patch file! useful stiff

2008-11-04T21:45:00.001-08:00

» How to create and apply a patch with Subversion Ariejan.net

t’s been a while since I posted something new on the use of Subversion. I’ve been working with the tool a lot, and I’ve found that patches are a great way to communicate code changes.

For those of you who are still learning, let me first explain what a patch is. A patch is a text file that contains the alteration that were made to a specific file. It includes the lines that have been removed and the lines that have been added. In short, if you have a ruby script and edited it, you could create a patch file, containing the changes you’ve made.

Why is this useful? You could check in your changes to your repository directly. True, but there are cases that you don’t have write access to the repository. For example, if you wanted to contribute code changes to Acts As Exportable, you should create a new ticket and attach a patch file. I will then review your changes before I apply them to the code and commit them to the repository.

So, how do you go about creating a patch file and how do you later apply it to your source?
Creating a patch file

Creating a patch file is really easy. First, check out the most recent version of the code from Subversion using the ‘checkout’ command.

Make your changes.

Then, in the root the project run the following command. It will store the patch file in your home directory. Make sure to give it meaningful filename.

svn diff > ~/fix_ugly_bug.diff

The file has the .diff extention, which stands for differences. This extension is recognized by many text editors and enables ’syntax highlighting’ automatically. (Give it a try with TextMate and you’ll know what I mean.)

You can send the diff-file to the author of the project by email, or you can create a ticket in Trac and add it as an attachment. The author will review the changes you made and possibly apply them to the source.
Applying a patch

You should never apply patches from any person other than your development team without first reading through the changes, apply them locally and test your application and then commit them. Patches can not only include bug fixes, but also alterations to create back doors or add other exploits to your code.

Always read through a patch before applying it!

When you are sure the patch will bring no harm to you, your application or your customers, go ahead an apply it to your working copy. Here, I assume that you downloaded the patch file we previously generated, and placed it in your home directory. In the root of your application now run:

patch -p0 -i ~/fix_ugly_bug.diff

This will apply all the changes in the patch to your source. The -p0 option makes sure that all files can be found correctly (this has to do with something called ‘zero directories’, I won’t get into that right now). The -i option tells ‘patch’ what to use as input, in this case the ‘fix_ugly_bug.diff’ file in your home directory.

With the code changes in place, run your tests and make sure everything works as expected. If it does, commit your changes and celebrate with a cup of coffee.

Please share the love of this post by bookmarking it, and sharing it with others. Thanks!

gundam 00 s2 ep 5

2008-11-02T17:55:00.001-08:00

Watch Gundam 00 S2 5 sub in Anime | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

How to setup Streaming for media - xbox 360, xbox, ps3, wii - movies, videos, music, pictures

2008-10-27T11:44:00.001-07:00

How to set up a streaming media network | News | TechRadar UK

Software streaming

What if you only want to stream to a laptop or another PC? All you need is some software.

A dedicated media streamer is all well and good, but most of them cost in the the region of £100 to £200, which certainly doesn't make them the cheapest solution. If you want to view pictures or listen to audio on your laptop, or another PC in the house, then all you need to do is set up a shared folder, then browse to it on the network and open the files in the same way that you would do on the local machine.

As long as your network has the range, taking your laptop into the garden and plugging in some external speakers, is possibly the simplest way of getting music to your garden party. However, Windows networking is notoriously fickle, especially if you are mixing operating systems, so a dedicated software solution may be better.

Windows Media Player 11 is built into Windows Vista and can be downloaded for XP and once set up for sharing, WMP11 turns your PC with the media library into a media server. A Vista laptop will usually automatically detect a shared library and ask whether you want to connect to it. You can also share your iTunes library, and then access it from another PC or laptop running iTunes.

However, one of our favourite solutions for sharing media is Orb, which enables you to share music, video, pictures and documents, not just across your local network, but across the internet as well. It's a great way to listen to your music collection when you're at work, a friend's house or anywhere else that you can get a respectible internet connection.

Not only is Orb free, but you can use it to stream your files to the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii and even some handhelds, like the iPod touch and mobile phones. An alternative is TVersity, which will also work with any internet connected device that has a web browser that supports Flash.

Xbox 360

Got an Xbox 360? Then there's no need to buy yourself a separate media streamer. It's not just a games console you know.

While the Xbox 360 might have enjoyed phenomenal success as a games console, it has some other rather nifty tricks up its sleeve. Although the Xbox 360 has no built-in wireless, it does have an Ethernet connection, and there's a wireless adaptor available, although it does only use the 802.11g standard.

The Xbox 360 is designed to connect to a PC running Windows Media Center, and if you have a PC running that (either Vista, or Windows XP MCE) then the system works very well. The Xbox's interface is pretty much the same as Media Centre and it is slick and easy to use. If you don't have a PC running any form of media centre, then you can use Windows Media Player 11 instead.

Once sharing has been setup, the Xbox is able to connect and browse the folders in much the same way as any other media streamer. It's not nearly as good as the Media Centre Interface, and it has a nasty habit of failing to connect to our shared library, but when it works, it's pretty good. Since Microsoft updated the firmware, the Xbox is able to play Xvid and DivX content, but cannot play some other file formats. In this case, you can use a program called Tversity which can transcode incompatible file formats on the fly, into ones the Xbox can play.

Using Tversity, the Xbox can even stream live video feeds, which is a pretty unique feature. An alternative is to use Orb, which enables you to view almost any content you wish to share, by using folder sharing. You may not think that the Xbox is a natural contender for streaming audio and video to your TV and stereo, but after testing a large number of media streamers, we have to say the Xbox is actually one of the best devices we've ever used, especially when you decide to use it with Media Centre.

Playstation 3

Playstation 3 owners rejoice! You too can stream all your media with ease. Don't let the Microsoft fanboys have all the fun.

The last few months has seen a number of significant updates released for the PS3, all of which have increased the console's functionality. Like the Xbox 360, you can use Windows Media Player 11 to share your media and view it using the PS3. However, just as with the Xbox, Windows Media is a temperamental beast and can cause irrational anger and the urge to chuck the controller at the TV when it stops working properly.

In our expericene, you are much better off using Tversity, which also works with the Xbox. However, you will need to configure your router to make it work correctly, but it's a two minute job and is pretty simple. First of all download Tversity and leave all the settings at the defaults.

You may want to download FFDShow and any other additional codecs you use regularly. You'll need to change your Windows or third-party firewall settings to allow mediaserver.exe, which is found in the Tversity folder, access to the internet. Configure your router, by typing its IP address into your web browser's address bar, it's usually 192.168.0.1, but if it isn't, run ipconfig from a command prompt to determine your PC's IP address and use the first IP in that range for your router.

Within your router's control panel you find that you'll need to edit the section for virtual servers or port forwarding, and allow access to port 41952. In addition, just as with the Xbox, you can use Orb with the PS3, although instead of using the folder sharing, you use the built-in browser and navigate to mycast.orb.com.

how to escape lucenes search characters

2008-10-08T11:40:00.001-07:00

Lucene: Escaping Special Characters | RealJenius.com

Thankfully, the necessary code to fix this isn't all that difficult. There are two scenarios at this point: 1.) You are using Lucene 1.9 or newer., or 2.) You are using Lucene 1.4 or prior

If you are using Lucene 1.9, the task of escaping user input for the query parser is very straightforward:

Lucene 1.9 Escaping

String userQuery = // ...
String escaped = QueryParser.escape(userQuery);
Query query = QueryParser.parse(escaped);
// ...

best subversion merge guide

2008-10-02T11:49:00.001-07:00

Domain of the Bored » Blog Archive » How to use svn merge

How to use svn merge

2006-10-29 23:49:10 UTC

A number of my fellow Adium developers have observed that svn merge is hard to use. I think the main problem is that the command is quite general (it can be put to several different uses) and the documentation not particularly clear. In order to promote better understanding of the svn merge command, here's what I know about it.

The command in a nutshell: svn merge is essentially svn diff $ARGS | patch -p0; the only real difference is that svn merge will handle addition, movement, and deletion of files, whereas patch won't.

This now having been stated up front, let's get into details.
Summary of tasks and how to do them

1. svn merge sourceURL1[@N] sourceURL2[@M] [WCPATH]
2. svn merge sourceWCPATH1@N sourceWCPATH2@M [WCPATH]
3. svn merge [-c M | -r N:M] SOURCE[@REV] [WCPATH]

*

To apply changes from another directory (branch, tag, trunk): Use format #1 (or #2 if you have a checkout of it), supplying at least the first revision (N), and the second (M) if it is not HEAD. With format #1, you should not need to be using the same repository URL as the CWD for either one or both; you should be able to merge between two URLs, or between a single URL into your checkout of a different URL.
*

To travel back in time to a previous revision: Use format #3, with -rHEAD:THEN. For example, -rHEAD:42000.
*

To cherry-pick a changeset (apply only that changeset, not any others): Use format #3, with -cTHEN.
*

To undo a particular changeset without disturbing things that happened after it (hopefully): Use format #3, with -c -THEN. Note the minus sign. For example, to revert r42000, use “svn merge -c -42000 .”. You can also use the -r flag: “svn merge -r 42000:41999 .”. This may be advisable, for clarity reasons, if you have a script that must always revert a particular revision.

In both examples, note the “.” and the space before it. “.” means the current directory, and is used here as the SOURCE argument to format #3. It's a separate argument from the revision, so you need the space.
*

All formats apply their changes to the CWD by default. I don't know what happens if the CWD is not a WC. You can specify a different destination for the changes by specifying a different WCPATH (the last argument in all the formats above).
*

In format #3, the first path that it accepts is a URL or local WC path to the object you want to diff. (Remember my initial statement about svn merge being essentially svn diff | patch -p0.) The second path is a local WC path to the destination for the changes that are observed.

Updated 2007-07-12: Fixed error in traveling back in time (I had the revs backward); added cherry-picking technique.
svn help merge, in RTF

The “svn help merge” text is an invaluable summary of the command's operation, but it's plain-text, and therefore somewhat hard to read on a screen. To that end, I created an RTF version and printed it out, and decided to put it up here in case anyone else wants to do the same.

dont eat the white rabbit candy

2008-09-21T23:01:00.001-07:00

Nearly 53,000 Chinese children sick from milk - Yahoo! News

Over the weekend, the Chinese territory of Hong Kong reported the first known illness outside mainland China — a 3-year-old girl who developed kidney stones after drinking Chinese dairy products. She was discharged from the hospital, the Hong Kong government said.

Singapore said Sunday that it had found traces of melamine in another Chinese-made dairy product, milk-based White Rabbit brand candy.

great free blackberry software

2008-09-21T20:07:00.001-07:00

Blackberry Freeware - Free Software

The people from Gwhizmobile just released a really great task management or todo list software. It so rich with features I'm having a hard time believing that its free. Got-2 enables you to create list and even sub-list of the things you have to do. You can cross of the list you have completed with the 3 different views you can use. I usually use the agenda view which I think makes things even more simple. But the list view and even the geographical view is great.

What makes Got-2 even more unique is its GPS integration or location base alerts. Imagine being alerted to get the dry cleaning since your near the area. Its a feature a lot of people need if you want to save time and maybe save you from making a second trip with your car.

- One easy to read screen with collapsible lists, subtasks, and agenda items.
- Choose your preferred view: simple list or week agenda.
- Get alerts based on time or location
- Share tasks and lists via email
- Prioritize-as-you-go by moving items up/down
- Keep track of progress by marking off tasks, appointments, agenda items, and subtasks.
- Stores data in BlackBerry Tasks and Calendar - sync with Outlook and Google calendar.
- Location integration with Google or BlackBerry maps.

download: Got-2 Task Management

postfix and gmail

2008-09-20T16:34:00.001-07:00

Newsvine - Configuring[Ubuntu] Postfix and Gmail in 10+1 Easy Steps

Step 6:

Now we can go back to our postfix configuration and make some changes to the main.cf file and create some other needed files. From this point out, all the things we are checking are meant to make sure Postfix itself is operational and has nothing to do with the certificates we created above.

Check your computer's hostname by looking in the /etc/hostname file. If you are using another Linux system this may be different (/etc/sysconfig/network or the like). To check the hostname file you can simple type $cat /etc/hostname and it will display the information in the terminal. Using this information, we want to make sure everything knows what the hostname is so run the command $sudo hostname bob.com replacing "bob.com" with what ever your hostname file says. This simply makes sure we are in a known state off wellness for the rest of the configuration.

Next move to the /etc/postfix directory, back up main.cf $sudo mv main.cf main.cf.old and open up the main.cf file in your favorite text editor (I think HowTo writers are suppose to say vi to sound cool but you can use gedit or nano if you like):

$sudo gedit main.cf

Copy the following lines to the bottom of your main.cf. Being at the bottom, it will override any settings made at the top that have the same name.

## Add these lines to the bottom on main.cf
##
##

## TLS Settings
#
# For no logs set = 0
smtp_tls_loglevel = 1
#
# smtp_enforce_tls = yes
# Above is commented because doing it site by site below
smtp_tls_per_site = hash:/etc/postfix/tls_per_site
#
smtp_tls_CAfile = /etc/postfix/cacert.pem
smtp_tls_cert_file = /etc/postfix/FOO-cert.pem
smtp_tls_key_file = /etc/postfix/FOO-key.pem
smtp_tls_session_cache_database = btree:/var/run/smtp_tls_session_cache
smtp_use_tls = yes
smtpd_tls_CAfile = /etc/postfix/cacert.pem
smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/postfix/FOO-cert.pem
smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/postfix/FOO-key.pem
smtpd_tls_received_header = yes
smtpd_tls_session_cache_database = btree:/var/run/smtpd_tls_session_cache
smtpd_use_tls = yes
tls_random_source = dev:/dev/urandom

## SASL Settings
# This is going in to THIS server
smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = no
# We need this
smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
smtpd_sasl_local_domain = $myhostname
smtp_sasl_security_options = noanonymous
#smtp_sasl_security_options =
smtp_sasl_tls_security_options = noanonymous
smtpd_sasl_application_name = smtpd

## Gmail Relay
relayhost = [smtp.gmail.com]:587

## Good for Testing
# sender_bcc_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/bcc_table

# Disable DNS Lookups
disable_dns_lookups = yes
#
# Great New feature Address Mapping
# for example may mchirico@localhost to mchirico@gmail.com
smtp_generic_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/generic
#
#
transport_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/transport

One of the key entries in this stuff is the GMAIL RELAY section. This is the setting that turns our postfix system into a smarthost configuration. This is what we need to use use gmail's SMTP servers. More importantly. we are using port 587 which is not the SMTP port. This is why using gmail to send our outgoing mail is beneficial... ISPs do not block this port. Also notice that we have what appears to be repeated lines for our certificates. If you look closely however, one is smtp the other is smtpd. One is the configuration for the service, the other is the configuration for the client. Finally you can see a number of 'hash:' lines. The top of your config file will have some hash lines as well. Do not worry about those since the initial setup took care of those. The hashes we refer to need to be created still. Lets go do that now.

Step 7:

Setting up the sasl_passwd file and hash is necessary to log into gmail. Remaining in the /etc/postfix directory issue the command:

$sudo gedit sasl_passwd

This creates a new file in /etc/postfix called sasl_passwd.

Place into that file the following:

[smtp.gmail.com]:587 bms@gmail.com:password

The smtp info needs to remain, but you must change the email address and the password to match your own.

Next we need to make a hash file out of this. Enter $sudo postmap sasl_passwd

That is all we have to do to make the sasl_passwd. Equally exciting is that the other hash files are just as easy to make.

Step 8:

Next create the generic file and hash using the same methods in the last section with this inside:

bms@squeezel.bob.com bms@gmail.com

replace bms@bob.com with your username on your linux box before the '@' sign and your hostname after the '@'. Similarly, replace 'bms@gmail.com' with your gmail address.

Step 9:

Now we need to make the transport file and hash. This is the file that tells postfix how to rout emails it gets.

Open a new text file called transport and enter into it:

# This sends mail to Gmail
gmail.com smtp:[smtp.gmail.com]:587
#
# Except mail going to the tape and closet server
comp1.bob.com relay:[comp1.bob.com]
comp2.bob.com relay:[comp2.bob.com]

What this tells postfix is to send all mail to gmail except for two cases. On my network I have two other computers. One called comp1 the other called comp2. I am telling postfix to send email meant for those two computers directly to them.

Remember to make the hash for the transport file.

Step 10:

We now need to create the tls_per_site file and hash. This is possibly the most important file to create after the main.cf. This file will protect us from "man-in-the-middle" attacks by forcing a secure connection to the remote machine BEFORE we send any passwords.

Create the file tls_per_site and enter:

smtp.gmail.com MUST
comp1.bob.com MUST
comp2.bob.com MUST
p>

Replacing my domains with your domains and making the hash with postmap.. yada yada. The 'MUST' keyword tells postfix to establish a secure connection with those domains before doing any password hanky panky. If you do not want to worry about your local network because it is small like mine and does not rely on wireless networking, then you can use the keyword MAY. Gmail is a MUST however.

Step 10 + 1:

Open master.cf using $sudo gedit master.cf and find the line that reads relay unix - - n - - smtp. It will be a little ways down. Beneath that line, you will probably see a few settings that start with '-o', we will be adding one more. Enter -o smtp_generic_maps= right below the relay line. This entry tells postfix to send out your emails with your gmail address as the originating address rather than your Ubuntu account and domain. When ever you edit the master.cf file you need to reload postfix. To do this simply issue the command
$sudo postfix reload.

That is all there is to it. Make sure your postfix server is started by typing $sudo postfix start. You should now have a working postfix server that sends messages out through gmail's smtp servers. Test it out and make sure it works.

Note: If you check the mail.log file you might notice that your certificate is not validating with gmail. I have not found a reason for this yet but it doe snot seem to impede the function

To fix the errors in you mail.log file follow These Instructions. However, replace Thawte_Premium_Server_CA.pem with Equifax_Secure_CA.pem

no more shorting!

2008-09-19T08:28:00.001-07:00

Stocks soar as officials confirm gov't rescue plan - Yahoo! News

To help limit the freefall in financial stocks, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced it is temporarily banning the short-selling of nearly 800 financial stocks. Short-selling is the common practice of betting against company stocks by borrowing its shares, selling them, and pocketing the difference when they fall.

"The federal government has been petitioned by Wall Street to take evasive action in the money markets, the stock and bond markets, to avoid a complete meltdown of the credit system," said Joe Battipaglia, market strategist at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. "Once the credit system melts down, the economy falls. We can hand-wring about if this is the proper thing for the government to do, or if Wall Street pulled the panic button too soon, but that's something for the historians to sort out."

Gogii CDN

2008-09-18T18:13:00.001-07:00

These be updates, folks. | The Dojo Toolkit

Speaking of the CDN

Google has started their own Ajax library delivery system, offering Dojo >= 1.1.1 as a cross-domain build: Give it a try just like you would the AOL CDN: