http://www.dzone.com/links/users/links/252611.html DZone: fresh links for developers en-us Copyright (c) 2006 DZone, Inc. Fri, 22 Aug 2008 04:16:30 GMT The DZone community 2008-08-22T04:16:30Z en-us Copyright (c) 2006 DZone, Inc. http://www.dzone.com/links/feed/user/252611/rss.xml http://www.dzone.com/images/std/dzone.com_258x55.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/ http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/how_to_load_balance_tomcat_55_with_apache_on_wind.html It's rather amazing that I could not find a single how-to that could detail the steps for using the Apache web server to load balance multiple Tomcat 5.5 instances on Windows. I found tons of articles- but they were either for older versions of Tomcat or Apache or for Unix flavors and none were accurate enough. Apache itself has fragmented documentation on the subject, and after much trial and error and pulling of hair, I succeeded. java server Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:09:41 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/105806.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-21T23:09:41Z It's rather amazing that I could not find a single how-to that could detail the steps for using the Apache web server to load balance multiple Tomcat 5.5 instances on Windows. I found tons of articles- but they were either for older versions of Tomcat or Apache or for Unix flavors and none were accurate enough. Apache itself has fragmented documentation on the subject, and after much trial and error and pulling of hair, I succeeded.]]> 105806 2008-08-21T14:46:43Z 2008-08-21T23:09:41Z 8 0 107 0 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/105806.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/check_for_google_analytics_using_mootools_12.html When I launched my new design last week, I used PHP to comment out Google Analytics because I didn't want to skew the stats. Well, I did skew my stats that day because I forgot to uncomment the damn GA code. javascript php web design Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:34:26 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/105798.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-21T14:34:26Z When I launched my new design last week, I used PHP to comment out Google Analytics because I didn't want to skew the stats. Well, I did skew my stats that day because I forgot to uncomment the damn GA code.]]> 105798 2008-08-21T14:34:26Z 2 0 3 0 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/105798.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/swing_sexy_desktop_application.html When people want to have a good-looking user interface with Swing, most of the time they use a good look and feel or try to emulate the look of the OS. I'm going to explore a third way, which use the unique ability of Swing of being able to customize the look of almost everything. It will not be as "re-usable" as a look and feel, it's in fact more something in the way a web site is designed. What I want to have is an app looking like this, this or this. gui java Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:56:43 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/105794.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-21T17:56:43Z When people want to have a good-looking user interface with Swing, most of the time they use a good look and feel or try to emulate the look of the OS. I'm going to explore a third way, which use the unique ability of Swing of being able to customize the look of almost everything. It will not be as "re-usable" as a look and feel, it's in fact more something in the way a web site is designed. What I want to have is an app looking like this, this or this.]]> 105794 2008-08-21T14:28:15Z 2008-08-21T17:56:43Z 11 0 441 0 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/105794.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/check_in_early_check_in_often.html Developers who work for long periods -- and by long I mean more than a day -- without checking anything into source control are setting themselves up for some serious integration headaches down the line. methodology Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:22:20 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/105770.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-21T16:22:20Z Developers who work for long periods -- and by long I mean more than a day -- without checking anything into source control are setting themselves up for some serious integration headaches down the line.]]> 105770 2008-08-21T13:07:13Z 2008-08-21T16:22:20Z 15 0 179 0 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/105770.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/beust_coding_challenge_wrapup.html My first take away from this little exercise is that conciseness only goes so far. I have seen people post a one-liner solution on their blog in language X and conclude "X rocks". Except that their solution will take hours to complete. A credible language must make it possible for developers to solve problems with either conciseness or performance in mind, and ideally, allow a whole spectrum between these two extremes. So far, only Java, C/C++ and OCaml have shown to be up to the task. Can you add your own favorite language to the list? c-and-cpp java other languages Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:44:03 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/105648.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-21T13:44:03Z My first take away from this little exercise is that conciseness only goes so far. I have seen people post a one-liner solution on their blog in language X and conclude "X rocks". Except that their solution will take hours to complete. A credible language must make it possible for developers to solve problems with either conciseness or performance in mind, and ideally, allow a whole spectrum between these two extremes. So far, only Java, C/C++ and OCaml have shown to be up to the task. Can you add your own favorite language to the list?]]> 105648 2008-08-21T08:54:54Z 2008-08-21T13:44:03Z 11 0 202 1 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/105648.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/is_ruby_very_syntax_rich_do_you_like_it_i_dont.html I tried delving into Ruby couple of times in the past. Every time I had this weird feeling of what am I doing here when I am already very well conversant with a simpler language - Java, which gives me everything I need. java opinion ruby Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:22:39 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/105638.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-21T20:22:39Z I tried delving into Ruby couple of times in the past. Every time I had this weird feeling of what am I doing here when I am already very well conversant with a simpler language - Java, which gives me everything I need.]]> 105638 2008-08-21T08:12:13Z 2008-08-21T20:22:39Z 13 0 298 5 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/105638.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/the_linkedin_blog_jdbc_connection_pooling_for_rai.html In Light Engineering (LED), we’re known to be multilingual – depending on the project, we’ve been known to speak Perl, Python, Java, C++, Javascript and PHP, to name a few. Our weapon of choice is still Ruby on Rails, the popular MVC framework. Out belief is that Rails makes certain types of tasks easy, and others laughably trivial. java ruby server web design Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:52:08 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/105296.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-20T20:52:08Z In Light Engineering (LED), we’re known to be multilingual – depending on the project, we’ve been known to speak Perl, Python, Java, C++, Javascript and PHP, to name a few. Our weapon of choice is still Ruby on Rails, the popular MVC framework. Out belief is that Rails makes certain types of tasks easy, and others laughably trivial.]]> 105296 2008-08-20T09:45:03Z 2008-08-20T20:52:08Z 7 0 98 0 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/105296.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/friendster_launches_opensocial_for_75_million_use.html Friendster just deployed OpenSocial, v0.7, as part of the Friendster Developer Program. OpenSocial applications can now be introduced to over 75 million Friendster users around the world, 55 million of those are in Asia - Friendster has the largest social networking user base in Asia. web 2.0 Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:17:04 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/105288.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-20T09:17:04Z Friendster just deployed OpenSocial, v0.7, as part of the Friendster Developer Program. OpenSocial applications can now be introduced to over 75 million Friendster users around the world, 55 million of those are in Asia - Friendster has the largest social networking user base in Asia.]]> 105288 2008-08-20T09:17:04Z 3 0 16 0 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/105288.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/web_20_design_patterns.html In his book, A Pattern Language, Christopher Alexander prescribes a format for the concise description of the solution to architectural problems. He writes: “Each pattern describes a problem that occurs over and over again in our environment, and then describes the core of the solution to that problem, in such a way that you can use this solution a million times over, without ever doing it the same way twice.” web 2.0 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:12:48 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/105285.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-21T03:12:48Z In his book, A Pattern Language, Christopher Alexander prescribes a format for the concise description of the solution to architectural problems. He writes: “Each pattern describes a problem that occurs over and over again in our environment, and then describes the core of the solution to that problem, in such a way that you can use this solution a million times over, without ever doing it the same way twice.”]]> 105285 2008-08-20T08:57:31Z 2008-08-21T03:12:48Z 6 0 473 0 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/105285.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/php_mootools_12_accordion_helper.html The MooTools Accordion plugin seems to be the plugin that people seem to have the most problems with. It's an awesome plugin, so I can see why so many people want to use it, but I think that may be part of the problem. ajax how-to php Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:16:29 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/105001.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-19T15:16:29Z The MooTools Accordion plugin seems to be the plugin that people seem to have the most problems with. It's an awesome plugin, so I can see why so many people want to use it, but I think that may be part of the problem.]]> 105001 2008-08-19T12:54:41Z 2008-08-19T15:16:29Z 11 0 202 0 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/105001.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/create_a_menu_bar_with_javafx.html Here's a JavaFX example that creates a nice menu bar. how-to java ria Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:36:04 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/104955.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-19T19:36:04Z Here's a JavaFX example that creates a nice menu bar.]]> 104955 2008-08-19T10:58:11Z 2008-08-19T19:36:04Z 7 0 231 0 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/104955.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/play_an_mp3_using_java_media_framework.html The following code shows you how to develop a simple Java application that can play MP3 files. This application is based on JMF (Java Media Framework). how-to java Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:42:31 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/104953.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-20T03:42:31Z The following code shows you how to develop a simple Java application that can play MP3 files. This application is based on JMF (Java Media Framework).]]> 104953 2008-08-19T10:57:15Z 2008-08-20T03:42:31Z 8 0 241 0 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/104953.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/creating_dsls_in_java_part_3_internal_and_externa.html You understand the basics of domain-specific languages and now you're ready to begin creating and refining them for your projects. In this third article in his series Venkat Subramaniam shows you how to create both internal and external DSLs using Java code. how-to java Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:08:34 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/104948.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-20T08:08:34Z You understand the basics of domain-specific languages and now you're ready to begin creating and refining them for your projects. In this third article in his series Venkat Subramaniam shows you how to create both internal and external DSLs using Java code.]]> 104948 2008-08-19T10:43:23Z 2008-08-20T08:08:34Z 6 0 268 0 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/104948.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/google_ends_an_era_of_adfree_rss.html Mountain View (CA) – A new service offered by Google enables publishers to inject contextual text or image ads into individual feeds distributed by FeedBurner, the world's largest RSS distribution service that was acquired by Google more than two years ago. Content creators will certainly welcome this new revenue source, but RSS subscribers have to realize that the era of ad-free feeds is coming to an end. news web 2.0 web services Tue, 19 Aug 2008 08:49:02 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/104917.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-19T08:49:02Z Mountain View (CA) – A new service offered by Google enables publishers to inject contextual text or image ads into individual feeds distributed by FeedBurner, the world's largest RSS distribution service that was acquired by Google more than two years ago. Content creators will certainly welcome this new revenue source, but RSS subscribers have to realize that the era of ad-free feeds is coming to an end.]]> 104917 2008-08-19T08:49:02Z 2 0 21 0 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/104917.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/3_worthwhile_alternatives_to_the_pie_chart.html Since the above pie chart is making some of you cringe in agony (although I can't imagine why), let's take a look a few alternatives for the pie chart using the same poll results. usability Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:35:59 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/104910.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-19T11:35:59Z Since the above pie chart is making some of you cringe in agony (although I can't imagine why), let's take a look a few alternatives for the pie chart using the same poll results.]]> 104910 2008-08-19T08:06:30Z 2008-08-19T11:35:59Z 10 0 493 0 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/104910.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/ejb_3_dead_or_alive_very_alive_see_quickvote_resu.html What surprised me: the small percentage of EJB 2.X. In Germany there is still huge amount of EJB 2.0 projects. Most of them will be ported to Java EE 5 next time. The second surprise was the EJB 3 adoption. I'm using EJB 3 in several projects but the amount of 58% (in this context) is huge. I actually thought, the aggregated amount of the alternatives will be greater, than EJB 3 and 2 together, but the opposite is true. frameworks java news server Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:13:40 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/104908.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-19T12:13:40Z What surprised me: the small percentage of EJB 2.X. In Germany there is still huge amount of EJB 2.0 projects. Most of them will be ported to Java EE 5 next time. The second surprise was the EJB 3 adoption. I'm using EJB 3 in several projects but the amount of 58% (in this context) is huge. I actually thought, the aggregated amount of the alternatives will be greater, than EJB 3 and 2 together, but the opposite is true.]]> 104908 2008-08-19T08:01:00Z 2008-08-19T12:13:40Z 11 0 362 0 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/104908.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/debian_gnulinux_15_years_old_and_at_the_crossroads.html The story of how Ian Murdock developed Debian while a student at Purdue and named the distribution for his girlfriend and himself has been told countless times. Many people, too, know that Debian is not only one of the largest distributions, but also the basis for countless other GNU/Linux distributions -- including five of the top ten listed on Distrowatch -- as well as a model for community based free and open source software (FOSS) projects. news open source unix-linux Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:41:15 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/104650.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-18T14:41:15Z The story of how Ian Murdock developed Debian while a student at Purdue and named the distribution for his girlfriend and himself has been told countless times. Many people, too, know that Debian is not only one of the largest distributions, but also the basis for countless other GNU/Linux distributions -- including five of the top ten listed on Distrowatch -- as well as a model for community based free and open source software (FOSS) projects.]]> 104650 2008-08-18T14:41:15Z 3 0 15 0 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/104650.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/the_answer_is_42_aka_the_importance_of_testing.html This programmer discovered the importance of testing the hard way humor Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:33:41 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/104647.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-19T09:33:41Z This programmer discovered the importance of testing the hard way]]> 104647 2008-08-18T14:34:50Z 2008-08-19T09:33:41Z 6 0 301 0 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/104647.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/backup_your_mysql_database_using_php.html One of the most important tasks any developer needs to do often is back up their MySQL database. In many cases, the database is what drives most of the site. While most web hosts do a daily backup of a customer's database, relying on them to make backups and provide them at no cost is risky to say the least. That's why I've created a database backup function that I can call whenever I want — including nightly CRONs. database how-to php Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:23:15 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/104627.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-19T07:23:15Z One of the most important tasks any developer needs to do often is back up their MySQL database. In many cases, the database is what drives most of the site. While most web hosts do a daily backup of a customer's database, relying on them to make backups and provide them at no cost is risky to say the least. That's why I've created a database backup function that I can call whenever I want — including nightly CRONs.]]> 104627 2008-08-18T13:57:00Z 2008-08-19T07:23:15Z 10 0 321 5 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/104627.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/creating_a_slick_autoplaying_featured_content_sli.html I love the Coda Slider plugin for jQuery. I’ve used it recently to build a couple of tabbed “widgets”. One here on CSS-Tricks in the sidebar to show Script & Style links, Featured Posts, and Popular Posts. Just kind of a fun way to show lots of content in a small area. I also used it on an article for NETTUTS for a similar purpose. css-html how-to web design Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:24:03 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/104594.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-18T21:24:03Z I love the Coda Slider plugin for jQuery. I’ve used it recently to build a couple of tabbed “widgets”. One here on CSS-Tricks in the sidebar to show Script & Style links, Featured Posts, and Popular Posts. Just kind of a fun way to show lots of content in a small area. I also used it on an article for NETTUTS for a similar purpose.]]> 104594 2008-08-18T13:13:38Z 2008-08-18T21:24:03Z 8 0 117 0 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/104594.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/the_perils_of_fui_fake_user_interface.html As a software developer, tell me if you've ever done this: 1. Taken a screenshot of something on the desktop 2. Opened it in a graphics program 3. Gone off to work on something else 4. Upon returning to your computer, attempted to click on the screenshot as if it was an actual program. gui opinion usability Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:42:13 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/104592.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-18T15:42:13Z As a software developer, tell me if you've ever done this: 1. Taken a screenshot of something on the desktop 2. Opened it in a graphics program 3. Gone off to work on something else 4. Upon returning to your computer, attempted to click on the screenshot as if it was an actual program.]]> 104592 2008-08-18T13:11:06Z 2008-08-18T15:42:13Z 9 0 349 0 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/104592.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/wuala_p2p_online_storage_cloud_high_scalability.html This challenge is an old dream of computer science. In fact as Andrew Tanenbaum wrote in 1995: "The design of a world-wide, fully transparent distributed filesystem fot simultaneous use by millions of mobile and frequently disconnected users is left as an exercise for the reader" server web design Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:50:52 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/104576.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-18T11:50:52Z This challenge is an old dream of computer science. In fact as Andrew Tanenbaum wrote in 1995: "The design of a world-wide, fully transparent distributed filesystem fot simultaneous use by millions of mobile and frequently disconnected users is left as an exercise for the reader"]]> 104576 2008-08-18T11:50:52Z 2 0 14 0 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/104576.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/google_ad_planner_competitive_intelligence_analys.html Google’s Ad Planner is less a competitive intelligence tool and more a tool that gives fantastic insights into understanding behavior of visitors to your website in context of the broader ecosystem. news web 2.0 Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:58:39 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/104544.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-18T09:58:39Z Google’s Ad Planner is less a competitive intelligence tool and more a tool that gives fantastic insights into understanding behavior of visitors to your website in context of the broader ecosystem.]]> 104544 2008-08-18T09:58:39Z 2 0 9 0 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/104544.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/ruby_on_rails_22_to_be_thread_safe.html The actual thread safety won’t really matter much to most people, but it’ll surely look nice on your enterprisey check list of Features Your Framework Must Have To Get Play Around Here. news open source ruby web design Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:14:51 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/104542.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-19T00:14:51Z The actual thread safety won’t really matter much to most people, but it’ll surely look nice on your enterprisey check list of Features Your Framework Must Have To Get Play Around Here.]]> 104542 2008-08-18T09:39:05Z 2008-08-19T00:14:51Z 9 0 343 0 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/104542.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/massive_35_debuts_at_siggraph_2008.html Massive Software has released Massive 3.5, a new upgrade to Massive, the artificial intelligence (AI)-driven animation system. Massive 3.5 follows on Massive 3.0 with new features, including Agent Fields, improved integration, and hair and fur dynamics. Massive enables artists to create and direct anything from CG humanoids to birds, animals, cars, and more to deliver realistic and emotive virtual performances. announcement games news Mon, 18 Aug 2008 08:07:03 GMT http://www.dzone.com/links/104531.html Thierry.Lefort 2008-08-18T08:07:03Z Massive Software has released Massive 3.5, a new upgrade to Massive, the artificial intelligence (AI)-driven animation system. Massive 3.5 follows on Massive 3.0 with new features, including Agent Fields, improved integration, and hair and fur dynamics. Massive enables artists to create and direct anything from CG humanoids to birds, animals, cars, and more to deliver realistic and emotive virtual performances.]]> 104531 2008-08-18T08:07:03Z 2 0 9 0 http://www.dzone.com/links/images/thumbs/120x90/104531.jpg Thierry.Lefort http://www.dzone.com/links/images/avatars/252611.gif