After outlawing Adobe’s Flash on its widgets – now including not putting it on its brand new MacBook Airs – you want it, you load it – Apple has now “deprecated” Java on its Macs and its just-released Mac OS X 10.6 Update 3. A release note on the Mac OS X Reference Library tersely reads: “As of the release of Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 3, the Java runtime ported by Apple and that ships with Mac OS X is deprecated. Developers should not rely on the Apple-supplied Java runtime being present in future versions of Mac OS X. The Java runtime shipping in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, will continue to be supported and maintained through the standard support cycles of those products.”
Verizon started peddling the iPad this week beginning at around $630 with a Mi-Fi gismo to connect it to the Internet. But starting Armistice Day, November 11, it’s also gonna be selling Samsung’s seven-inch Flash-supporting Android 2.2 Froyo-based Galaxy Tab tablet – which is supposed to be the first real competitor to iPad. It’ll charge $600 without a contract. It’s got an optional 1GB $20-a-month data plan, or, if you like, $35 for 3GB, $50 for 5GB and $80 for 10GB. Galaxy can connect directly to Verizon’s network.
Told ya so. Told ya so. Told ya when Larry Ellison said, “You’re going to see us buying chip companies” a few weeks ago he didn’t mean AMD and that something like Mellanox Technologies was more up his alley if for no other reason than Mellanox is big in InfiniBand and Larry is big on InfiniBand. According to him, “InfiniBand is by far the fastest and most efficient switch fabric for running enterprise data centers.” Well, rather than buy the joint, Oracle Wednesday said it bought 10.2% of the profitable-but-not-hysterically profitable publicly traded company’s ordinary shares. It didn’t say how much this “strategic investment” cost but Mellanox has a market cap of around $740 million.
Although it won’t be official until the Top 500 list comes out in November, but it looks like the fastest computer in the world at the moment by Linpack benchmarks is a 2.5 petaflops (theoretically 4.7 petaflops) beast called Tianhe-1A built by the Chinese out of 7,168 Nvidia Tesla M2050 GPUs and 14,336 Intel processors. The U.S. currently holds the number one spot with a 1.75 petaflops machine called Jaguar and has only lost the title once and then briefly a few years ago to Japan.
The piano wants to write the next few pages of the “Cloud Concerto.” CIOs of 70 awfully big user establishments – complaining that they “can’t continue managing the cloud environment in the current way; we have to do something radically different” – have banded together as the Open Data Center Alliance to define the long-term requirements of the next-generation data center and the cloud infrastructure. They mean to speak with a unified voice and impact the industry if for no other reason than they collectively represent a $50 billion-a-year IT spend. And they are looking for new recruits. The companies say they want open solutions based on industry standards that can be sourced from multiple vendors and interoperate across data centers. They’re concerned about increasing complexity, the speed of change, cost and vendor lock-in.
It is common for cloud computing articles to talk at length about the abundant hardware resources the cloud can offer the modern researcher or analyst, but little is typically said about the back-end data store available with cloud computing. Before any research in the cloud can take place, data must be staged in a manner that is accessible to your cloud-based compute resources. It becomes non-trivial to perform the staging portion of your cloud use if your data sets are large. The Amazon EC2 cloud provides large quantities of hardware suitable for high-speed, high-throughput scientific computing. Coupled with the AWS storage and Amazon S3 system, it makes a formidable platform for anyone looking to do large-scale, scientific computing on quantities of file-based data. In this article, we’ll explore data ingress to EC2 because download speeds out of EC2 are typically much higher, both from consumer grade and enterprise-level Internet connections. Thus, we typically see more upload than download in the practical use of AWS services. For example, large data sets get transferred into EC2, working data stays on cloud-local storage, and compact, summarized results are brought back from the cloud.
The first YouTrack version was released one year ago. Today we celebrate YouTrack’s birthday with a new Early Access Program and invite you to download and evaluate Energy EAP builds. Report bugs and feature requests to our bug tracker. Rate individual EAP builds right on the YouTrack EAP Builds page. Communicate with us via the YouTrack community forum.
It looks like the notion of an app store is turning into an app mall full of boutiques including Mozilla, which has got a prototype of what it calls an Open Web App Store for apps “that are truly of the web,” built with HTML, CSS and JavaScript to work on computers and mobile phones and recompense the developer complements of an authentication model using existing identity systems like OpenID. It’s released the technical documentation and a developer preview ahead of Google launched its Chrome App Store. The widgetry supports Mozilla’s own Firefox 3.6 and later, Firefox for mobile, IE8, Chrome 6, Safari 5, Opera 10 and WebKit mobile.
The goal of this book is to teach you how to develop Java Enterprise applications with OpenXava and other Java-related technologies, tools and frameworks. In this book you'll learn, not only OpenXava, but JPA, Eclipse, PostgreSQL, JUnit, HtmlUnit, Hibernate Validator framework, Liferay, etc. And more important, you're going to learn techniques to solve common and advanced cases you'll face developing business applications.
The following documents a somewhat small issue we're having with JDeveloper 11.1.1.2.0. At this time I'm unable to lodge an SR with Oracle Support as we don't understand the circumstances under which it occurs, thus we can't build the usual simple "Hello World" test case that Support so thrives on. However as we've identified the symptoms of the problem and the associated workaround I'll publish them here for others to benefit (including my team) so we don't hit the issue again.
Note this issue is only verified under JDev 11.1.1.2.0. I have no knowledge if the issue can be replicated in other JDev versions as this stage.
Issue Symptoms
From time to time after checking out an application from SVN inside JDeveloper:
....we'd discover JDev has incidentally modified one of the project files. In the following example the ViewController project is italicized meaning it has been modified:
Pressing "Save all" and then comparing the modified file against the previous revision reveals that the ViewController project has reverted back to the default settings, losing all the changes from the previous ViewController revision:
With the ViewController modified, the project can no longer compile (because among other things it's lost the attached libraries), and the change is effectively destructive. Whatever you do, don't check the ViewController project file back into SVN as it's just plain wrong.
Workaround #1
If you've arrived at this point where a project has been automatically modified by JDeveloper when checked out of SVN, the workaround in this situation is to Revert the project file back to the previous revision.
A Known Unknown Bug
In the example above I've identified the issue with a ViewController project in an ADF application. However note this problem isn't specific to any project type (e.g. Model, ViewController, whatever). We've experienced this issue across different projects in different applications from time to time. The converse of this issue is there's been a whole lot of projects this issue doesn't occur for too (i.e. in the above example, the Model project wasn't incidentally modified too), so the problem has something to do with the specific project configuration where the error occurs. Unfortunately we're unsure what that specific configuration is. However once the problem is detected it is consistently replicable on the problematic project at hand.
Bug Preconditions
While we haven't been able to work out what configuration in the project files causes the bug, we are aware of a set of steps that do lead up to the bug.
From a day by day basis our programmers will have an application open in JDeveloper, synced with an SVN repository:
From time to time the programmer makes a decision that rather than syncing each individual file change coming from the SVN repository into the application, it's just easier to delete the local working copy of the application and check out a whole brand new copy. To do this the developer:
a) Closes JDeveloper
b) Identifies the working copy application directory on the filesystem
c) Deletes it
d) Opens JDeveloper
e) Checks out the same application from the SVN Repository into the *same* directory that the previous working copy was checked out
It's at this point we see the issue described, but as mentioned, not for all application projects, just some projects, sometimes. However once this problem occurs, repeating steps "a" to "e" from above the issue is consistently reproducible.
From what we can see for step "e" is if we check out to any other directory, the problem isn't replicated.
What we found odd about this issue is if another developer on another machine checks out the same application, the said problematic project file wouldn't be automatically modified by JDeveloper. Yet this gave us the spark of an idea of what's going wrong and how to avoid it in the first place.
Workaround #2
You'll note in the "a" to "e" description above, the developer closes JDev, then deletes the application from the file system, then re-opens JDev. What we're not giving the JDev IDE here is a chance to recognize that one of the applications it had opened has been removed completely from the file system.
The IDE seems to be partially smart in that the application is removed from the application poplist at the top of the Application Navigator when we reopen JDeveloper. Yet if we then proceed to check out the same application as described in "a" to "e" we hit the described problem.
A workaround to the problem is before closing the JDev IDE, via the Application menu selecting Close, to close the selected application. If this option is done first the end problem is not seen. The conclusion is this gives JDev a chance to tidy up it's internal state about which applications and projects are open, and somehow this avoids the bug we're experiencing.
Arguably the IDE should be able to handle this situation regardless. The fact that the bug is destructive to the project configuration is a major concern, especially if a junior programmer doesn't understand what's happening and checks in the changed project file regardless, but in the end following the workaround steps here avoid the issue in the first place.
In the next couple of weeks VMware and Google, who’s now being sued by Oracle over Java and so really likes VMware’s Spring widgetry as an alternative to Enterprise JavaBeans for enterprise Java application development, will put out “the first in a series of technology collaborations” starting with a set of universally usable tools for building, deploying and managing cloud-based applications.
I thought I would take a few minutes and think of what new features and directions the next iPhone and its supporting iOS could take. Now this is a little harder after what the iPhone 4 and iOS 4 has brought to the table and that we are only just using them both, but I will take a shot. With the new Apple Data Center I think that Cloud Computing will be more apparent for a iPhone 5 device. I believe that we will see as near as to a zero configuration device as we could hope for, based around MobileMe accounts. Though I am also certain that these types of devices will become more powerful in themselves.
VMware on Thursday announced with Google the general availability of the first in a series of technology collaborations to make enterprise software developers more efficient at building, deploying and managing applications within any cloud environment on any device. The collaborative projects that will be available in the next two weeks include Spring Roo and Google Web Toolkit, Spring Insight and Google Speed Tracer, SpringSource Tool Suite and Google Plugin for Eclipse. "Together, Google and VMware enable enterprises to develop and deploy rich Spring Java applications across multiple clouds and devices." said Rod Johnson, SVP, application platform division at VMware. "Today we have reached an important milestone where these modern applications can run smoothly within the firewalls of a company's production datacenter or in a trusted provider's cloud environment."
For a bunch of open source geeks, the MySQL mob sure is a proprietary lot. They weren’t kidding when they called the thing “My” SQL because that’s the way the original team feels about it. For them only people with the right pedigree – who were there at the beginning – are fit to touch it. Geez, you’d think it was the Ark of the Covenant. Hey, wait a minute, maybe there’s something to that. Sun touched MySQL with its un-priestly hands and look what happened to Sun, a fate straight out of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Anyway, some of the old MySQL originals, inspired by MySQL co-founder David Axmark, have banded together to make sure Larry Ellison doesn’t get his grubby mitts around all of MySQL.
Azul Systems this week began what may turn out to be an orderly retreat from its high-priced high-maintenance hardware – appliances based on ever so chi-chi many-core proprietary chips and 10 rounds of VC funding that tops $200 million. By fielding software that runs on 64-bit garden-variety x86 commodity servers and does essentially the same thing as its six-year-old Vega boxes, which is to tickle the performance of ye ole stodgy, garbage collection-constricted Java applications, the company could wind up in the arms of some sugar daddy with a fat pocketbook. The software is the Zing stuff Azul said it was developing over the summer and now it’s here, an elastic runtime platform for all kinds of configurations of Java apps, especially those high-volume ones like web portals, trading platforms and e-commerce web sites, where response times just might be important.
Netbiscuits, the world’s leading cloud software service for cross-platform development, operation and management of mobile sites and apps, today announced the realization of a mobile learning portal to help users prepare for the trading examination of Eurex, one of the leading international derivatives exchanges. By visiting the mobile optimized website http://m.eurexchange.com users can view the entire question catalogue and test their knowledge with an exam simulation. Netbiscuits developed the mLearning web application for Capital Markets Academy, the central advanced training institution of Deutsche Börse Group.
A flashback to IntelliJ IDEA open-sourcing one year ago, plus addition of Android development support to the free IntelliJ IDEA 10 Community Edition. In short: * There’s been no drop in sales of IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate * A 25% increase in new customers over the same period last year * IntelliJ IDEA 10 is planned for release later this fall, with more functionality available in the free Community edition * Android development plugin available in free IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition * IntelliJ IDEA Community Wiki at wiki.jetbrains.net opens and welcomes your contributions
Wall Street, which has turned Apple into a giant bubble lately, figured it must have sold at least 4.7 million, maybe even five million, iPads in the September quarter. Well, the punters were disappointed Monday when Apple, suggesting the dingus was supply-constrained its first full quarter out, said it only sold 4.19 million of the thing.
In a surprise-to-many move, IBM, which always seemed to have more skin in the Java game than Sun, the technology’s nominal creator, has abandoned Harmony, the independent, breakaway, duplicative and competitive Apache Software Foundation open source Java project, to back Oracle, Java’s new owner, and OpenJDK, a peace-in-our-time move that looks like it leaves Google in the lurch. Oracle is after all – to the consternation of many – suing Google for using Harmony or a subset of it in Android – including the infamous Dalvik Java Virtual Machine – rather than Java Mobile Edition (ME) and IBM has been the mainstay of Harmony development. Now IBM is pulling out of a potentially litigious situation for it, throwing in its lot with Oracle and probably killing Harmony absent Google jumping in. My. My. My.
Seeking an explanation for Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s recent colorful outbursts dissing the HP board BusinessWeek went to industry analyst Rob Enderle who believes Larry had once hoped HP would sell him some of the pieces he’s missing to give IBM a run for its money. “HP is the only property out there that would allow him to take on IBM in what remains of his working lifetime,” Enderle told the book. “The only thing that makes sense is that he is now trying to drive the value of HP down or force HP’s board into a more collaborative position.”
Apple’s Mac now commands an unprecedented 10.6% of the America PC market, pushing it into the number three slot behind HP and Dell, which together own almost half the market, and pushing it ahead of Acer, which is still number two worldwide, and U.S. number five Toshiba, according to IDC’s Q3 numbers. IDC doesn’t count iPads but allows that the evidently going-like-hotcakes device is having a halo effect on Mac sales while at the same cannibalizing some netbook sales, which continue to slow. The tabulator’s other findings mirror what Intel said when it reported its quarter: June and July were rocky, September the market rallied. IDC figures the global PC market grew 11% to 89.3 million machines in Q3, nearly 3% below obviously overblown expectations and like Intel it blames constrained consumer spending hitting back-to-school sales, particularly in the U.S., though the commercial refresh is still happening. The U.S., where 18.9 million PCs shipped, only grew 3.8% year-over-year against predictions of 11% and Q2’s actual 11.7%.
Wal-Mart has started selling the iPad out of hundreds of its shops and expects to be shuffling the things out at 2,300 stores as well as its web site by the shank of the Christmas rush. They will sell for list price and online orders will have to be picked up at the store. Wal-Mart follows Best Buy and Target in satisfying iPad lust. Electronista.com remarks that, judging by the iPhone, it’s early in iPad’s lifecycle to sign up the discount chain, suggesting it’s a squeeze-‘em-out competitive impulse.
At a guess one might think that Apple’s thinking saturation, especially ahead of the coming competition because Verizon Wireless, which doesn’t sell iPhones – though everybody seems to wish it did because its network is supposed to be better than AT&T’s – is going to start selling a version of the iPad at 2,000 locations come October 28. The move may or may not lend some substance to the rumors that Verizon will finally get an Android-fighting CDMA iPhone compatible with its network next year. Anyway, it’s going to be selling the less popular (more inventory-prone?) Wi-Fi iPad with its own personal MiFi 2200 mobile hot spot device. That means that users should be able to connect to the Internet if they’re anywhere near a 3G service.
Hey, loonier things have happened. Remember Symantec buying Veritas? Anyway, the desperately-seeking-M&A punters bid up EMC (which owns the lion’s share of VMware) 4.5% Thursday on the back of noise evidently emanating out of the UK press (warning flare) coupled with Citigroup speculation that Oracle might want to buy EMC, forcing even the Wall Street Journal to report it. EMC would cost about $50 billion–$55 billion. NetApp was offered as an alternative
Apple stock managed to open and close slightly above $300 for the first time in its life Wednesday juiced by the iPad’s potential, giving it a market cap of around $274 billion and making it the second-most valuable stock in America next to Exxon. Exxon’s market cap is a far distant $330 billion. The company reports its quarter on Monday October 19. Meanwhile, CNBC says Apple is gonna show off the next version of the Mac operating system on Wednesday October 21.