Nation of Greg - Use your voice or fall forever!

Pulse makes Eclipse usable

2007-12-26T23:11:00.001-05:00

For a long time I have been a fan of Eclipse, I certainly liked what the organization did and how it was an open platform that allowed developers to extend it. But Eclipse was a usability nightmare when it came to actually getting all the bits and pieces together that you'd want to use. Digging around for compatible versions of plugins and such made it so that I just never found Eclipse worth switching to from IntelliJ. My time was simply more important than trying to dig through logs and figure out why a plugin didn't work or some other such nonsense.

Enter Pulse, an environment for making it (gasp) easier to get all the bits you'd want for Eclipse development in an easy to use and intelligible manner. No more going through plugin hell!

http://www.poweredbypulse.com/catalog.php

I absolutely appreciate the mechanism these guys are providing for getting up and running quickly. Simply bring up the catalog, click on the thing you want to install and all the dependencies and such are dealt with. If something needs GEF, I don;t have to find it. I don't have to hunt for some retarded obscure version of it. It just works and I can get to making other software. Like this a lot.

Prior pain screwing around with Eclipse had prevented me from doing a lot of work with Android lately, but with Pulse I just clicked that I wanted to install the Android packages for Eclipse and then just waited while Pulse brought down everything I needed for that. Then when I wanted to add subversion, click wait - done.

Much appreciation to whomever created this stuff and I home that all plugin developers go through this clear user-centric method for getting a user development environment up and running.

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Pulse makes Eclipse usable

2007-12-22T00:39:00.001-05:00

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Back in action...

2007-12-21T01:15:00.001-05:00

I've been wrapped up with all sorts of business lately after I left RedHat. Since then I've been spending a lot more time looking at building up development platforms for the web for projects that I have coming up in 2008. Anyone who knows me knows that I like platforms and want to merge good technologies together to come up with rapid results that are easily scalable. After spending a lot of time researching technologies I began looking at Grails and Flex as a viable one::two combination for getting projects done quickly. Grails, of course, takes much of the pain and suffering out of building controller based designs similar to the paradigms surrounding Rails.

The main benefit of Grails being that I can leverage all of the domain knowledge and experience I have with Java to build cool things that can be easily scaled using commodity application servers like Glassfish and JBoss. Flex has proven itself worthy for web-based user interface development. One can build great interfaces in no time. Many people choose to fight the trend to Flex, some even choose to look at Silverlight which has a much worse content development path as well. Adobe has clear user interface tools which allow artists and developers to work closely together to build their solutions.

Accordingly by using Grails with Flex one can building in mere hours fairly sophisticated applications that would take significantly longer if one were depending on writing it even the best Javascript APIs. The only possible downside, for me, is that these Flash based interfaces won't work on a mobile platform - but to be honest if you're building a mobile application you really should build a MOBILE application and not depend on your web site to be your application.

I can hear people saying "well you can get great stuff on the iPhone using web based technologies" and indeed you can, but if you want to build COMPELLING applications you end up having to write native code that talks to the underlying platform and at that point all the nice HTML/CSS/Javascript fun ends and you have to do some serious in-the-trenches development.

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I love Tokyo - I don't want to go back :"(

2007-07-08T07:49:00.000-05:00

I will post pictures from todays events later, but I have to say that in two days I have seen enough to make me realize that I should have followed my first thought when I finished with college and come here to Tokyo. The city is enormous, yet pleasantly beautiful. I don't know what its like to live here in an apartment/condo/whatever, but to be honest considering that I was ready to leave the US to go and live in Europe for a few years.... perhaps I really should consider just seeing what options there would be for me to relocate to APAC - Tokyo in particular. I love Japan. The Japanese can't build an ATM worth a damn - but the food, the city life, the experience to be here around all that is Japan has definitely moved me.

I will be back as soon as I can afford it.

Finally got out!

2007-07-07T10:48:00.001-05:00

So I took a chance today - which is no surprise to people who know me. I made an assumption that if I could make it to Roppongi, the foreigner night spot - I would surely find an ATM machine that would take a US card and sure enough *ching* *ching*, I'm in business baby! I was pretty much putting it out there and took a cab to the area via Amex - I knew at least THEY wouldn't let me down.

Roppongi itself isn't too much to shout about. Its like a one street French Quarter from New Orleans - just with more signs and people. Yes I know there are many side streets and such, but Roppongi is a lot smaller than I expected. But then again, I come from a party town. With money in hand I decided to go to a coffee shop and grab a snack. I noticed some local young girls sneaking a picture of me - I'm touched.

After lightly exploring Roppongi proper I headed down to Roppongi Hills. If I have anything to say about the Japanese - they don't do anything small in Tokyo! Roppongi Hills is a MASSIVE shopping and entertainment complex at the base of Mori Tower. Mori Tower is one damned impressive structure. While there are probably taller buildings in the world, I'm not sure any of them have as much meat on them as Mori Tower. At Mori, there is an Art Museum and Tokyo City view. Since I was there I decided to have some pictures taken for family back home. Next time, I won't be coming to Tokyo alone.

The Mori Art museum had an exhibit for Le Corbusier, so I decided to stroll through that. Couldn't take pictures though. That was a bummer, but the exhibit is pretty good. Tried to find some stuff for my brother-in-law, but there wasn't anything there of particular interest that I would have wanted him to have. He in going into art so maybe I will just get him a pass to the art galleries in Mobile or something.

At the Mori Tower is also Asahi TV. I went in there to see what they had coming out and lo and behold I see a store selling Crayon ShinChan merchandise - not much of it mind you, but enough that I ended up leaving some money behind :) Have no idea what the stuff says. Also ran into something that is either Japanese humor or the strangest display of 'circumstance' ever. Then again, this is the country that originated Pedobear so I guess anything is possible.

After leaving Mori, I felt that I had to make up for yesterdays Wachovia fubar, so I walked down to Aoyama Cemetery, something that caught my eye when I was up on the 52nd floor of Mori at the Tokyo City View. Its a very interesting place. I mean its a cemetery so it isn't much different from others all around the world, but there is certainly a different ebb and flow to the place. I haven't deciphered the meaning of the sticks/posts that I see at a lot of the graves. I am assuming that they are prayers or some sort.

On the way back I decided to press my luck and took the Japan rail system. I'm not sure why people think this system is so difficult, its actually pretty straightforward once you spend some time trying to figure out how its designed to be used. I didn't have any problems getting back to Shimbashi station from Roppongi.

Celebrate good times, COME ON!

2007-07-07T10:32:00.001-05:00

FINALLY! Now we're in business baby!!!!

Whomever said prostitution was underground in tokyo lied

2007-07-06T21:41:00.000-05:00

While walking around the city last night I was approached not once, not twice, but SEVEN times by women asking me if I wanted a "special massage" for prices ranging from 5000-10000 yen (50-100US roughly). I could understand if I was in the Red Light district, but I am in central downtown tokyo! I have heard Roppongi is famous for this, but I'm nowhere near it!

Normal foreigner tours it is

2007-07-06T21:40:00.001-05:00

Without access to cash I am effectively immobilized. There are some signs in the Metro station that show the use of American Express but I can't figure out where they go. At this point my only course of action available to salvage this trip is to take a sightseeing tour. Since the concierge desk doesn't speak very good English. I'll head down there and try to point out the tour I want.

Tokyo is definitely not a trip for the newbie foreign traveller. The metro system here is incredibly complicated - and none of it is in English :) With cabs costing an incredible amount of money the only option for the novice Japanese speaker is to do sightseeing tours. Others may disagree, but if you've been reading my blog - know that you were warned.

technorati tags:tokyo, foreigner

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Okay... it is a hard life in Tokyo for foreigners

2007-07-06T11:03:00.001-05:00

Unfortunately, most people really don't speak a lot of english and its pretty hard to discern those that do from those that don't. It also hurts that everything around is in a character set that I can't translate without considerable time. I went to the ATM machine with my new-found knowledge from American Express only to find two things:

1) In Japan, most ATM machines are NOT 24 hours a day

2) Many of the ATM machines are entirely in Hirigana, there is no "English" button.

Because of these things I have retreated to the hotel for the rest of the evening (1AM here). I ordered some food from room service (Japanese Thick Noodles in Broth). I wanted to find out what was in the broth, but the gentleman in room service couldn't understand my question.

If I'm having this level of trouble here in Tokyo - I definitely won't be heading into some of these other areas where they definitely don't even see American's often, let alone know enough Engligh to hold conversation with them.

technorati tags:tokyo, atm, food, english

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Thank God for American Express!

2007-07-06T09:48:00.001-05:00

This is like something out of an actual American Express commercial! I fly into Tokyo, go to withdraw some money from my ATM machine and the card doesn't work. Go to another, it doesn't take any of the US networks (like Plus), and go to another - and it doesn't work again. So I call Wachovia, the bank that issues my ATM card and they are completely ineffective in telling me what's wrong. They can see the transactions are being attempted but can't figure out why they aren't going through. They think its the magnetic stripe, but then suggest that I go get a cash advance from a bank. Sigh.

Just then I realize that American Express has gotten me out of jams before so I give them a ring and they connect me to the group that handles their "fee-free" ATM group! Didn't even know they had it. Was wondering why I saw the Amex logo on some of those ATM machines. Within 5 minutes they set me up with a temporary one-time-use PIN number and I can withdraw some emergency cash. Since I will be paying for most things with the credit cards I should be okay. The biggest problem is that getting around via Taxi in Tokyo is incredibly expensive and I can't charge the rail line.

At the end of the day Wachovia screwed up and cost me many precious hours screwing around with their ATM machine fiasco, but American Express came to the rescue and solved my problem in less time than I was on hold with Wachovia before they started to triage the problem (14 minutes). Between the retards at bank of America who locked my business card, the "bang up programming job" by Wachovia and their support people who can't debug their own transaction system (I can see the transaction, but it must be the magnetic stripe... the ATM machine can't read the card...), the geniuses in card services who assumed that all phones have letters on them (uh - how does one dial 800-WACHOVIA with no letters on the phone) and then didn't provide an international collect number like AMEX I'm starting to wonder how international companies even use Visa.

technorati tags:tokyo, american, express, visa, amex, atm, plus

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I have arrived in Tokyo!

2007-07-06T06:27:00.003-05:00

I'm on the tail end of my journey now, I'm on my way back to the United States on Monday with a short stop over in Tokyo to avoid the higher air fares that were apparently associated with stuff going on in Hong Kong or something. In any event, I am here in the technical mecca of the free world.

That said, folks in Japan need to do a tad better helping foreigners be able to function in the country. My gripe this time is ATM machines. There are lots of ATM machines and some of them even have the right symbols on them for banking networks that I use in the states. Nevertheless, the system rejects my card when I try to use it. Annoying.

The hotel I'm staying in is the Dai-Ichi Hotel Tokyo and it is an excellent hotel and I was able to get it at relative bargain pricing compared to other hotels in Central Tokyo, and at the same time - it is better than most hotels I've gone to in the US that charged 2-3 times more (in US dollars).

The other thing that takes some getting used to is the Yen->Dollar conversion. Not sure why they don't just divide everything by 100 or something to make the denominations smaller.

technorati tags:tokyo

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I will miss the Redhat APAC team

2007-07-06T06:27:00.001-05:00

After training the team for 2 weeks it is time for me to go. I will truly miss the APAC team. They are a very diverse set of individuals who are very skilled and took in an incredible amount of information in the course of 2 short weeks of intensive lecture, exercises, etc. I'm proud of them and I expect they will go off and do great things in their geographies.

technorati tags:singapore, redhat

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Went to the Night Safari

2007-07-06T06:25:00.001-05:00

Despite the fears of potentially contracting Yellow Fever (the real one, not the one that male tourists to Singapore seem to contract during the summer as girls in short skirts seem to emerge from the shadows), we took a trip to the night safari.

Unfortunately since the animals would go blind if we used flash all the time, pretty much everyone's cameras were rendered useless. There may be a reason why this is one of the only night safaris out there. I think perhaps these guys need to invest in night vision equipment if they are going to do everything in the dark.

The good news is that there wasn't even a hint of mosquitos. Lots of frogs on the paths though.

technorati tags:singapore, nigh, safari

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Yes, I am still alive and safe!

2007-07-03T21:07:00.001-05:00

Sorry for not posting in the past few days. My sleep schedule had finally adjusted to Singapore timezone so I am usually sleep when everyone is awake, and due to the class I haven't had time to post of late. There will be a massive update of pictures from my camera and a few others over the next few days.

Onward to Santosa

2007-07-01T00:48:00.001-05:00

Today I'm heading out to Santosa which is supposed to be this nice island beach resort across from Singapore. Not even sure really where it is, but I will be going with some of the other guys and should have some pictures soon. If only the Internet wasn't so painfully slow.

I don't think Hooters is the right franchise for Singapore... or most of Asia

2007-06-30T20:18:00.002-05:00

No offense to most asian women, but as physically they are 'thin' compared to what is normally seen in a Hooters restaurant. I passed one last night on the way home and it was a sad and disturbing sight :)

Okay, I'm not the only black person in Singapore....

2007-06-30T20:18:00.001-05:00

Its almost disappointing. I was going around all week and not once did I see a black person anywhere. Figures that on the weekend people would start appearing in the tourist areas and going to the clubs and such. Since all the clubs are pretty much right next to the hotel, I had a chance to see two other black folk through a window into one of the clubs. While it was somewhat good to not be entirely unique, afterwards I was a little disappointed :)

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Increasing our security level....

2007-06-30T17:40:00.001-05:00

There are a number of events going on in London that has me concerned. What started as a single event is turning into a series of incidents and I know this is causing some concern for my family back at home. While I haven't been able to reach everyone, I want you to know that yes we are aware of what's going on and we are increasing our awareness significantly. The Singapore military and police have a significant presence within the city so I do not feel that we are at risk in any way, but we are more specifically on a heightened state of alert.

Don't worry - we're being more cautious.

I dunno, I may approve of this

2007-06-30T11:43:00.000-05:00

One law that many westerners may not approve of is one that Singapore has with respect to firearms. Singapore is a very safe city. I feel safer here than I do in many parts of New Orleans or Atlanta. Part of the reason I feel so secure is that Singapore doesn't allow people to own possess guns in a security area (most places where I would want to go). Further if you use a gun (not even in a crime) or attempt to use a gun, you can be put to death... and they are.

Arms Offences Act[6]

The Arms Offences Act regulates the offences with regards to firearms. Any person who uses or attempts to use arms (Section 4) can face execution, as well as any person who uses or attempts to use arms to commit some scheduled offences (Section 4A). These scheduled offences are being a member of an unlawful assembly; rioting; certain offences against the person; abduction or kidnapping; extortion; burglary; robbery; preventing or resisting arrest; vandalism; mischief. Any person who is an accomplice (Section 5) to a person convicted of arms use during a scheduled offence can likewise be executed.

Trafficking in arms (Section 6) is a capital offence in Singapore. Under the Arms Offences Act, trafficking is defined as being in unlawful possession of more than 2 arms.

I had a chance to chat with a lady who is native to Singapore today and she was very confused about how we allow people to have guns and use guns - how we have these debates about feedom to carry guns when there are so many obvious examples of the misuse of guns. She brought up specifically the university killings by the South Korean student (sidenote: I think many people outside the US know more about the US than people who actually live there. We had a nice conversation about Nip Tuck and Micheal Jackson). The law in Singapore is clear - even if you have a gun, you better never use it.

Man, it really is too hot here

2007-06-30T09:00:00.000-05:00

Today in Singapore was a painful 94 degrees with 87% humidity! Had I known then while walking around, I would have surely stopped and gone back to the hotel :)

Today I had some Turkish Ice Cream. Not sure what's different about it, but it tasted good - just like regular ice cream. I also took a tour of the river on one of the tour boats. Towards one endpoint of the tour I spotted a ceremony going on and I decided I would walk to it. After a very long sweaty walk, I arrived at what appeared to be a military graduation I guess. The military service is different here - everyone has to serve for some period of time and then be reserve so many days out of the year. Its an interesting system that works for the people - though it does disrupt their lives from time to time. Hopefully the Singapore military will never actually be needed as some of the friends I've made here would certainly be involved in defending the island.

As I was nearing the ceremony, I began to hear the sounds of a national anthem and the distinctive sound of multiple helicopters. Then lo and behold several gunships come over the skyline along with what appeared to be a CH-47 Chinook (US Marine build) along with several Apaches. The Stallion was holding the national flag. They passed over slowly as the people watched, and in the background I could hear the roar of jets, and British Tornado bombers streaked overhead.... followed in succession by an acrobatic wing of F-16s.

As I departed they were test firing artillery and showing the elite commandos dropping from helicopters into the water. All very interesting. One would never suspect that such a small country would warrant such sophisticated miltary forces, but I'm told that there are countries in the region which cause them some concern and are jealous of Singapore because of its wealth and prosperity - indeed it appears to be becoming the APAC headquarters of every company on the planet.

Unexpected behavioral changes

2007-06-30T08:48:00.001-05:00

Its always been said that when you immerse yourself in a people you'll start to act and talk like them. Back when I was younger, my cousins used to joke that we would be talking 'country' after staying with my grandmother in Bay St Louis for the summer. Strangely enough, it seems that we did :) The same can be said for being in Singapore. While most Singaporians speak English, most of them speak a broken dialect which the natives call Singlish. While teaching my class and trying to assist the non-native English speakers, I have found myself speaking in a more broken syntax. Shorter sentences with basic concepts as opposed to complete sentences. It was something that I could have never expected - but it has definitely happened. Wonder how long that will be with me.

technorati tags:singapore, singlish

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Maids in Singapore

2007-06-29T17:27:00.001-05:00

Apparently pretty much everyone that has a house in Singapore (and housing is ludicrously expensive here), has a maid. This weekend I am told that the number of women on the streets will increase substantially as most maids have one day a week off. When I asked about the price of a maid, I was told that the common price is $300-$400 per MONTH in Singapore dollars for a live-in maid. If we look at the exchange rate, thats $196US-$261US. At those prices, hell maybe I might need to bring home more than just some gifts.

Seriously!

technorati tags:singapore, maid

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Transportation in Singapore

2007-06-29T17:21:00.001-05:00

Most travel in Singapore is done via public transportation. The public transit system in S'pore would put most American cities to shame. It is fast, reliable, and stretches into large portions of the city. The government makes sure that people have access to it and don't need cars. But just in case people think that they might want a car, they have to overcome two other issues: 1) There is a $10,000 registration fee

(yes that's ten-thousand) for a car. 2) You have to pay a 200% tax as well.

Even with all those restrictions, I am amazed to see large numbers of cars around. Or more specifically, large numbers of luxury cars from Lexus and Mercedez. Just think of how much it would cost to purchase a brand new Lexus LS400 and then pay 200% tax on it. Incredible.

Parking is also ludicrously expensive. Indeed the local government has gone out of their way to make it preferable to take public transportation. And to be honest, I think the US could learn a lot from this. Clearly this is forcing people to walk a lot more.

If you don't want to use the MRT, you are left with taking cabs. Cabs for the distances I have to travel from the hotel are usually pretty inexpensive since I only have to go 2KM from the office to the hotel. Its short enough a distance that I would walk it - if it weren't so punishingly hot/humid here. The cabs are small regional Toyota designs, though every not and then you get one that's a Mercedez.

Catching a cab at the hotel is straightforward. Catching one in the evenings after work is a test of patience and endurance.

There are well defined Taxi stops where you go and wait with other people for taxis. But as you stand there you may find that the taxis (empty ones) just drive on by. In addition sometimes a taxi will pull up that you can't use. Taxi rules in Singapore are motivated entirely by driver greed. During rush hour, the drivers want you to call them because they get an additional $4 surcharge on top of your fare. At peak times they get $2 on top of that. So unless you are really in a hurry, you generally wait around until a taxi who hasn't been called and is impatient and wants to make some money pulls up. If a taxi pulls up with an on-call sign, it is reserved and waiting for someone else and won't take you.

One day I walked with Taka-san and Yakov-san as we were running late for dinner and didn't want to sit with the long queue of people waiting for a taxi. As we walked around and tried to wave people down unsuccessfully, we ended up just going to another taxi-stand and waiting. And consequently ended up late for dinner.

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The nastiest, smelliest, most awful fruit ever!

2007-06-29T16:55:00.001-05:00

After finishing with the meal, we took a short walk further into Geylang. As we travelled into the area there was this distinctive smell. I thought it was sewage, but it wasn't.... it was the infamous Durian. The fruit does pretty much everything it can to tell you that you should eat it. Its covered in spikes, and it stinks - the kind of stink that stays around even after you're away from the fruit.

Just looking at it you can somewhat guess what it should taste like. Rational thought should prevent you from eating it. But at this point I had eaten frog and found it to be quite tasty so I figured I would give it a chance. That was a horrible mistake. One of the members of the party almost threw-up from the taste. I ate a fairly small piece myself and was immediately turned off by it. It has a milky texture like old nacho cheese - some of it solid, and parts milky feeling.

Supposedly this fruit is supposed to have medicinal properties and that may be true. I'm sure any disease exposed to this taste/smell would prefer to leave the body than stay.

The natives, however, love it! In what must be a miracle to science - they take this nastiness and make icecream out of it. The ice cream maintains the same stench! So powerful is the stench that the day after I ate this thing, I could still smell it.... still taste it. I bathed several times to get the aroma off me. I will forever respect that durians are aweful and not intended for anyone other than Singapor-ians.

technorati tags:durian

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A night with the natives...

2007-06-29T16:41:00.001-05:00

I went out on the town with some folks at the office who are natively from Singapore. We went near what is referred to as the "Red Light" district because they want to shock all of us foreigners after we finished eating. During the night we had some things that were truly native to Singapore such as chilli Sri Lankan crab, coconut juice (not the milk I don't believe), fish, some soup with chicken feet in it, and ..... frog. One thing that I can definitely say about Singapore is that people here LOVE to eat. Its amazing that they aren't all fat. Its got to be the heat and the relative lack of cars (more on that later).

Yes, I have eaten frog. I had eaten it fried before in the states, but this was a boiled marinated dish. And to be honest - it wasn't bad. It wasn't bad at all. It comes with porridge and you eat it with chopsticks (Americans who don't use chopsticks will have a touger time). The Chili crab was exceptional. We don't get crabs this large in the states - at least no where that I have eaten. When my wife sees these pictures, she probably won't answer my calls anymore. I would try to bring some back home, but export laws prohibit it.

After we finished with this meal we crossed the street to the place where all of this food is keps live.

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