Getting Sun Java and Groovy Working on CentOS 5.3

I had a devil of a time getting Sun Java, Groovy, and the GraphicsRenderer class working on CentOS 5.3. Furthermore, Google searches for tips on the Internet failed to turn up any directly relevant results.

Therefore, by research, trial and error, I came up with this simple method which WORKS:

1. Download the Sun Java JDK RPM and install it.
2. Download the unofficial Groovy binary RPM from Codehaus.org and install it.
3. Download the GraphicsBuilder module from Codehaus, too.
4. Unzip GraphicsBuilder in /tmp.
5. export GROOVY_HOME=/usr/share/groovy
6. Drop all the GraphicsBuilder jar files into $GROOVY_HOME/lib.
7. Copy or move the GraphicsBuilder bin directory to $GROOVY_HOME.
8. Add the following lines to your .bashrc:

# Java setup for CentOS

export GROOVY_HOME=/usr/share/groovy
export JAVA="sun"
export JPATH="/usr/java/default"
export JAVA_HOME="$JPATH"
export CLASSPATH="$JPATH/lib:/usr/share/groovy/lib"

*THEN* make sure you add /usr/java/default/bin BEFORE /usr/bin in the shell PATH!

NOW you can use groovy from a bash command prompt (at last!)

What's Going on with CentOS?

Realizing that it's been a while since there's been a CentOS release beyond 5.3, I popped over to the centos.org website and was surprised to read that there have been some project management changes in the wind.

You might want to check it out, too.

Firefox 3.5 vs. IE 8

For me, Firefox v3.5.2 wins hands down vs. Internet Explorer 8.

Here's why:

• FF is more reliable than IE. I've had IE crash and lock up on various occasions, never seen it happen with Firefox.
• The vast number of useful FF plug-ins vs. those for IE is like comparing the selection of iPhone apps vs. the inventory for the Palm Pre. MS has a lot of work to do to catch up.

For now, Firefox is my preferred browser!

The Printed Media Revolution

Something's going on in the world of publishing and reading the written word. Maybe not nearly as big as the printing press at the beginning, but a revolution's brewing never less.

For example, check out the discussion about the Amazon Kindle on C|Net's site, and you'll come away with the feeling of a pending "change in the wind".

I believe the shift to digital publication and reading has the potential to turn the whole concept of printed media on its ear. But the jury's still out on how it will unfold, and the price tag is too high to make paper "yesterday".

What strikes me about the overall discussion are the novel ideas voiced by the end users. Being able to scan a UPC or ISBN from your own library for access on a digital reader, or checking out books from a library website for immediate download, or searching your entire on-board library, etc. Now those are really interesting ideas *:-)

Website evaluation scorecard

Sometimes the best tools are the simplest :-)

I had to review some websites recently for usability, correct implementation, and security. Naturally, I thought there might be some open source tools or perhaps a scorecard to assist the process. Surprisingly, I didn't find much in either category. So, I decided to create a simple spreadsheet template that can be used to evaluate and compare websites in a consistent fashion.

The Website Evaluation Scorecard is available for download at sourceforge.net

JMeter - A very handy tool

I suppose some techies will laff when they read this, but I'm getting a first-time intro to JMeter and it's COOL! It's an open source tool, from Apache, which allows the test engineer to codify HTTP and other protocol requests, issue them to a test server, save the responses, and validate them vs. one or more assertions. Since it's written in Java, it runs on Windows or Linux nicely, too.

The UI is a little clunky and you have to make sure to Save your configuration changes before starting a run (it doesn't prompt you to do so), but it provides a lot of testing capability and flexibility.

Amazing robots

Check out the specialized robots from Olin College. The robofish variants are amazing!

Cisco's Networking Forecast

Cisco has published an interesting forecast on network growth and traffic evolution for the next decade (2009 - 2013).

The Semantic Web evolution

Some interesting sites that highlight developments towards the semantic web:

• BetterDot
  
  
• Microformats


• W3C Description


• Radar Networks / Twine


• Nova Spivak's Blog

Keeping product love alive

I saw this interesting lead-off quote, from Jeff James' SharePoint Everywhere article in the June Windows IT Pro print issue:

Microsoft's approach to the SharePoint market has hit pay dirt by focusing less on next-generation feature sets and more on providing solutions that customers truly need.

I think it's important for tech companies to realize this. What led customers to falling in love in the first place is important to keep in mind, too. It's easy to focus on flashy new features and lose sight of the day-to-day functionality that brought customers to the product in the first place. That stuff often remains "pay dirt" and keeping it alive and well is an important consideration, too.