One Small Thought

Configuring spring application from a database

2009-10-01T15:02:00.001-04:00

I need to move a spring based application configuration from a property file to a database. It is a headless, server application.

The reason I would like make the move is

· It is much easier to build a web application to manage the configuration.

· Add support for dynamic configuration. Today the application needs to restart when a configuration change is made.

Using databaseconfiguration as described in the this example seems to be the way to go.

This solves the static configuration management. How does one handle changes to the configuration without having to restart the application? I have some ideas, but it would be interesting to see if anyone has solved it.

I would have to

· let the beans register to listen for configuration changes,

· Frequently poll the database for changes to the configuration,

· Notify bean listeners of the change and

· Let the beans handle the change

Posted via email from dineshbhat's posterous

Oracle 11gR2 Instance Caging and Licensing on VMware

2009-10-01T10:48:00.001-04:00

As per Oracle® 11gR2 Database New Features Guide

“Instance Caging allows the DBA to limit the CPU usage of an Oracle instance by setting the CPU_COUNT initialization parameter and enabling CPU resource management. With Instance Caging, users can partition CPU resources among multiple instances running on a server to ensure predictable performance.”

For those of us who do not have unlimited Oracle Licensing, this would be a nice way for Oracle to consider CPU licensing of the database on VMware. The CPU license could apply to only those used by Oracle as opposed to those on the ESX host.

I am not holding my breath, as Oracle is more keen to promote its VM solution.

Posted via email from dineshbhat's posterous

Joel Spolsky: The Duct Tape Programmer

2009-09-24T11:43:00.001-04:00

Here is another thought provoking article by Joel Spolsky.

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2009/09/23.html

A Duct Tape Programmer is a great asset to an organization. He is probably also a Pragmatic Programmer.

This type of a programmer is domain focused.

· He uses technology to solve a domain requirement as opposed to finding a problem for a cool new technology.

· He probably uses the YAGNI principle. A team of Duct Tape Programmers, especially in a startup are a great asset.

· He ensure quick feature implementation and release cycles, which are very essential for survival in a startup

Joel has covered a lot of other areas very well. The only point that made me cringe was related to “unit tests”. Knowing Joel’s views on unit tests, it is not surprising. Well there is no such thing as being perfect. J

Having said that, there is always a place for programmers who tend to always look at new technologies and methodologies and then go searching for a problem to solve.

· They are never satisfied with what they did in the previous release.

· They always looking to do something new.

· Sometimes they may leave a trail of unused languages, technologies, frameworks and libraries in your product but

· other times they will come up with something that works magic and opens up avenues and channels to take your software to new levels and new directions.

I know this is very vague, but if you have the resources, a few programmers like these can help develop creative concepts that could revolutionize your software development or product portfolio .

A Duct Tape Programmer will ensure that your product is good, an “unsatisfied” ( I am not in the same league as Joel in most cases and obviously in naming) programmer can make a product great.

Of course having the very best personnel in either case will make it easier to succeed.

Posted via email from dineshbhat's posterous

Google Wave

2009-09-22T13:35:00.002-04:00

Google wave is the next wave in the collaboration space. Gmail always provided a context to a conversation by grouping threads. This takes it to the next level by providing the context in line. Email is almost becoming irrelevant in the consumer space the same way snail mail was sometime ago. Social networking tools will do to email what email did to mail. Email will be relegated to official docs and junk. Google wave is going to make the process faster.
Enterprise adoption will send wiki's to oblivion. Enterprises will need a better security and auditing model, if it is not already being built. Real time nature of this protocol open's a whole new communication channel that will be used in exciting new ways. I have a feeling that the wave client is just the appetizer. The real killer app is yet to come.
I am looking forward to seeing how google voice will be integrated.
This looks like a much better platform for unified messaging than a lot of the earlier pretenders.

Posted via email from dineshbhat's posterous

Trying out disqus

2009-01-08T18:06:00.000-05:00

I am trying out this commenting system from disqus. Seems to be promising.

Why raise gasoline tax?

2009-01-03T06:37:00.000-05:00

A panel has recommended a increase in federal fuel tax to combat the decrease in consumption by motorists. This mechanism seems to be consistently used by the government. My county is planning to raise property taxes to compensate for the heavy reduction in property prices.
Here are a few points that can be considered before raising the fuel tax.

Can the government not do the same as its citizens? Eliminate pork and focus on the essentials? I know this will not happen as the emphasis has been on more government spending.
Maybe a portion of the $700 billion bailout could be used to repair the roads. Roads are part of the infrastructure and it is likely the money will be spent inside the country.
The recommendation were probably made when the prices were high. Now that the gas prices have plummeted over 60% ($1.55/gallon), I do not feel the pinch as much and am open to driving more. This may increase consumption and demand and hence raise prices and make more money to build roads and bridges. We may just need to wait a little.
and the most important point; More taxes may drive down consumption. Partially caused by increase in cost as demonstrated earlier this year and partially due to the common man's frustration. Politically it would be difficult to explain the increase in taxes against the background of the bailout of the banks and auto makers.

BlackBerry Storm

2008-11-23T00:02:00.000-05:00

I liked the clicky touchscreen. It is much more usable, for me, than the Iphone. I enjoyed typing. For a second I regretted getting the Bold instead. A choice of unlocked versions of both the Storm and the Bold were available at the BlackBerry DevCon. Only for a second though.
Typing is much faster on my Bold and without wi-fi and gps, Storm is a non-starter to me.
It would not have been as easy to write this blog on the Storm.

Next Generation Navigation System

2008-08-29T17:14:00.000-04:00

This is thinking out of the box. blaupunkt overlays directions on a real time video feed as you are driving. The idea feels awesome at first, but as I thought through it, it seemed more gimmicky than useful. It captures speed limits from the street signs and possibly could be used to capture a lot of other information. Unless the aim is to allow a blind person to drive a car, I do not see the utility in capturing information that the driver can and must see and use. Capturing speed information is useless as the driver can easily see the signs and choose to follow or ignore them.
The technology probably can be useful in other applications. Time will tell.

Happy Days for my BlackBerry 8820

2008-08-29T11:09:00.000-04:00

The latest Gmail client (2.0.5) is much faster, responsive and seems to consume less resources. It also seems have added led notification for new email. I am not sure I like that as much, because I only want to be alerted on work email. Gmail notification is just additional noise.
Yahoo Go! has been updated. Now I can use menus to navigate the applicaton.

BlackBerry Media Sync and iPod for the rest of us

2008-07-30T16:00:00.000-04:00

I use my 8820 to listen to music and podcast, and the new utility from RIM BlackBerry Media Sync eliminates the drudgery of manually syncing my audio files.

Here are few pages you may want to browse through before you want to use it.

It seems that the utility replaces all the files every time it syncs, so the most efficient way to use it is to separate your static content from your dynamic content. I have manually copied all my music to a separate folder outside the Media Sync folder. I only use the utility to sync podcasts.

What the ......?

2008-06-24T13:34:00.000-04:00

I dragged a folder from one machine to the other and out popped this dialog. My mind has been frozen for that last 30 minutes. If I click yes,will it move the files or just copy them? If I choose no, will it cancel the operation, hopefully!! If this is a prank it is a scary. It can tie knots in one's brain. I am too scared to touch the mouse anymore.
I clearly dragged the folder from one explorer window to the other and as I was performing this operation across different workstations, I expected a move. How can one explain this prompt? What were they thinking?
Let me go to apple.com, look at a Mac and get my sanity back.

Subversion: Generating a sortable list of changes made to a branch

2008-06-13T16:03:00.001-04:00

I needed to generate a sortable list of all the changes made to a branch in subversion. svn log dumps a list, but is very difficult to sort, based on users, time, etc. I wrote a script based on a ruby script to dump the data in a comma separated format, that can then me loaded in Excel to analyze. Here is the script


# This script allows the svn log to be dumped as a comma separated list so that the data can be analyzed in excel
#!/usr/bin/ruby
require 'rubygems'
require 'hpricot'

username = ARGV[1]
svnUrl = ARGV[0]

#puts "Requesting SVN log, this may take a bit."

doc = IO.popen("svn log --xml -v --stop-on-copy " + svnUrl) do |f|
 Hpricot.XML(f)
end

entries = doc.search("logentry").find_all do |entry|
 if(username != nil)
   (entry/"author").innerHTML == username
 else
   true
 end
end

puts "Revision,Author,Date,Action,Path,Message"
entries.each do |entry|
 revision = entry.attributes["revision"]
 author = (entry/"author").innerHTML
 date = (entry/"date").innerHTML
 msg = (entry/"msg").innerHTML
 paths = (entry/"paths").search("/path")
 paths.each do |path|
   action = path.attributes["action"]
   puts "#{revision},#{author},#{date}, #{action}, #{ path.innerHTML}, #{msg.gsub("\n", " ")}"
 end

end

Creating a shortcut to a schema using synonyms

2008-06-13T11:41:00.000-04:00

I needed to access data from a live database, add some views and procedures, but I did not want to touch the schema. I wrote a script to create synonyms for all the remote schema object using a database link. There could be other uses for such shortcuts, for e.g providing more restrictive access, among others. Here is the script.


-- parameter 1: db link name
-- parameter 2: remote username
-- parameter 3: remote user password
-- parameter 4: remote hostname/sid
-- usage: mydblink user password remote_host/database_sid
-- NOTE: Tested on 10g
--  grant CREATE DATABASE LINK privilege to the user
-- DISCLAIMER: Use at your own risk

set serveroutput on
drop database link &1;
--create database link
create database link &1 connect to &2 identified by &3 using '&4';

--link all the database objects
DECLARE
l_count NUMBER;
BEGIN
  
   FOR rec IN
   (SELECT object_name  FROM user_objects@&1 WHERE object_type in
       ('SEQUENCE', 'TABLE', 'VIEW', 'PACKAGE', 'PACKAGE BODY', 'FUNCTION',
           'SYNONYM', 'PROCEDURE', 'TYPE') 
)
   LOOP
       dbms_output.put_line('Creating '  || rec.object_name);
     
       SELECT COUNT(*) into l_count FROM user_synonyms where synonym_name = rec.object_name;  
       IF l_count > 0 THEN
           EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP SYNONYM ' || rec.object_name;
       END IF;
       EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'CREATE SYNONYM ' ||  rec.object_name
           || ' FOR ' || rec.object_name || '@&1';
   END LOOP;
end;
/

Gas is $4 and IPhone is almost FREE!

2008-06-12T07:10:00.000-04:00

IPhone 3G is priced at $199, which means it probably will be available for free with certain plans. What chance do other devices have? BlackBerrry Bold will also have to be priced appropriately. One can look forward to a huge price drop for other phones.
This summer it would be cheaper to download and play games on the IPhone than travel to the beach.

Review of Free GPS Software on my Blackberry 8820

2008-06-05T14:29:00.000-04:00

With travel season in full swing, I got down to evaluating free GPS software for my 8820. I have recently installed 4.5, so was left with no choice but to install telenav. That was the only backdoor I had to unlocking the GPS on my device. AT&T Maps Trial version got installed instead.
AT&T Maps
It seemed promising. I got down to plotting my course and clicked on Drive To and entered my destination. I then got to select the origin. Could not find an option to select My Current Location anywhere. This was strange. Searched through all the menus, but could not figure out how to specify my current GPS location. Went outside, just in case GPS was not available, but no luck. The only location specific information provided was the weather. I can look outside the window and figure that out. I needed to upgrade to Telenav GPS Navigator.
I gave up in A&T Maps.
There is of course Google Maps and Yahoo Maps. Both are pretty good, but lack speech based directions. Yahoo Maps on 4.5 is missing menus, hence navigating through the software using keys is a hit or a miss. Yahoo Maps can recalculate a route, while Google Maps cannot.
I then installed the Co-Pilot 6 month free trial software. It is a decent application, though the UI needs a little finishing. It has voice turn-by-turn directions (without street names). It recalculates routes in a decent time. Sometimes it takes a long time for it to determine GPS coordinates and occasionally get the "No Response from server" error.
I then tried Nav4All. I was not sure about this free software, but on download, I really amazed at the amount of functionality packed in. The user interface at first glance does not look appealing, but is amazingly functional.
The address input could be more efficient, without having to provide the country every time, but it has so many features not even available in most standalone GPS Navigation systems.
Routing is pretty good and is based on the 9 driving styles (shortest rout, no highways,etc). It recalculates in good time and has voice turn-by-turn directions (without street names). The directions also include the lane assists and speed alerts.
One can flag (tag) locations and there is an option to mark your parking spot, a handy tool in big unfamiliar parking spaces and especially if the car you drive is also driven by million others.
The UI has a day and night mode for better readability which it automatically determines . It defaults to the safety view, with big arrows and text to be easily viewable while driving. Its plan route is awesome, where it allows one to plan ahead, by viewing all alternatives and demoing through the route.
It's speed limit alerts would also be very useful, especially on unfamiliar roads. There are few other options that make this a really great application.
One issue I had, (it may be any issue with the processing power of my blackberry) was that when I was also listening to podcast, there was a delay in catching up on my current location and recalculating the routes, which resulted in me sightseeing places that I had never been to.
All these apps have poor POI's, but having Google and Google Maps on the blackberry makes up for it.
I have also noticed that Yahoo Maps are more current than others, but unfortunately is difficult to use.

iPhone in Enterprise

2008-03-06T20:38:00.000-05:00

Now that Apple has announced iPhone support for the enterprise, RIM has no choice but bring BlackBerry Connect to iPhone as soon as possible. Small enterprises have a viable choice even with Windows Mobile and executives are going to drive their IT staff to make iPhones work for them. Professional consumers have a lot of choices with iPhone and Windows Mobile Devices and would like to use the same device inside the enterprise.
RIM cannot afford influential users in enterprises connecting directly to their Exchange. There will come a tipping point when the enterprises will decide to switch over. RIM will have to tackle it both by bringing better devices, which I believe is happening and enhancing the BlackBerry Connect experience to prevent users from switching over.
Until now, the server side technology controlled device adoption. The tables have turned. Once the enterprise starts trusting Exchange Active Sync, it will be the device that matters. RIM did a good job with Pearl as a consumer device, but with so much competition, RIM will have to raise its game several notches.
Exchange Server Active Sync is old news and most of the enterprises are aware of its features, but it did not seem a major threat to RIM based on Microsoft's release history. It typically takes some time for Microsoft to get it right. So why is should RIM worry about today's news? The answer is that by adopting it, Apple has given the Active Sync solution voice and credibility. Large Enterprises may not bat an eyelid, but small enterprises will take notice.

Hands Free Cellular on my 1995 Corolla!! (Almost)

2008-02-19T23:57:00.000-05:00

I have been using my Blackberry 8820 as an MP3 player, but it is not convenient while driving as the ear bud keeps falling off and answering a phone call involves a lot of fumbling (by me) and cursing (by the other drivers). With an hour's drive to work one way I was desperate for a solution when I came across this audio adapter from Seido, after I had unsuccessfully tried all kinds of adapters from Radio Shack. I ordered it online and made a major mistake.
I had no problems with the online retailer, but I set it up to be delivered on Feb 14th to my house. My wife received the package got excited, saw the contents and flung the package into the trash can. My wife reported this a couple of days later, after I accumulated a few credits.
I did not want to digress, but even if one person reads this and avoids this tragedy, it will be worth it.
I tried the audio adapter with my home theater system and it sounded good (let me warn you that I am not an audiophile), a much better experience than the generic adapters I bought from radio shack.
The real test was when I plugged the audio adapter into my old and trusted my car cassette adapter. I was able to hear pod casts clearly. 30 minutes into my drive, when my wife, as usual called in to describe my 18 month old angel's current playful (in my view only) activities, I was able to press the mic button and hear her loud and clear on my car stereo and talk to her hands and wire free. She seemed to hear an intermittent echo, but overall it worked OK.
I need to test it further to see this usage is practical.

Update:
I switched to using a FM transmitter included with my car charger as the cassette adapter started crackling when exposed to sub-zero conditions. Regarding taking a call, Not everyone (my wife included) likes the echo. It works without a problem with the headset.

Next-Action is to wipe and re-install

2008-02-17T22:42:00.001-05:00

I tried to install Next-Action demo application on my 8820 (4.3) and it caused the dreaded App Error 200. I deleted the applicaton, using the desktop manager but I am assuming that it has done something irreparable, as I am still getting that error. I am unable to restore from my backup. It seems that a complete wipe and reinstall is the only course of action. So much for Getting Things Done now.
I followed instructions on BlackBerryFAQ.com and with the help of this awsome utility JL_Cmder I was able to revive my handeld. I will have to find something else for Getting Things Done.

Yahoo Go! Gone

2007-12-24T14:11:00.000-05:00

I tried to upgrade Yahoo! Go on to my Blackberry 8820 (4.3) and I got App Error 200 after it installed. I searched around and the only option I found was to wipe the handheld and reactivate. I had no backup. With a prayer on my lips and a promise that I would take a backup before trying anything adventurous, I tried connecting it to the Desktop Manager and miraculously it did connect. I located Yahoo! Go and removed it. This seemed to solve the issue, my 8820 was back in business and I promptly took a backup. Whew!!
I like Yahoo! Go, its interface and especially its navigation features better than the new Google Maps so I tried installing it again, with the confidence of a backup ( that I never tried to restore) and Desktop Manager support. I got the same error, but this time I was able to get the 8820 online with a simple reboot.
So until the issue is fixed, Yahoo! Go is gone from my blackberry.

Update:
it seems that on subsequent install, I still got the app error, but after the reboot Yahoo! Go was successfully installed and usable.

Day 2 of performance tuning

2007-12-14T01:14:00.000-05:00

Another long night, but there is hope thanks to sophisticated tools like cmd prompt, sqlplus, explain plan and Google (it is just a means to get to AskTom).

It seems that my updates on views could not push predicates because of the use of rownums. As usual found an Ask Tom article that explained it. As usual it took a couple of reads to make its mark. (All my fault!). Changed the statement and everything was back on track.

Why am I updating views? Well it so happens that the views were tables in their previous incarnation and now they are reborn to take part in a grand home-grown auto partitioning scheme.
As most experts would probably put it, those 4 words should never be uttered in the same sentence. Well it is a long story and the database has quieted down so I will have to save it for another day.

How do I start writing a blog?

2007-12-13T01:16:00.000-05:00

How do I start? What if it sounds lame? Have these views been already expressed in boring detail by every other blogger? Am I too controversial? Too arrogant? or so boring as to have no views? Am I using the corrrect phrases? Am I grammatically correct? I am not an expert on anything so am I providing value?

I should be reading How to write a Better Blog
or begin with How to Write a Blog

How did I get into this? I am performance tuning my Oracle database and bored to death waiting for the queries to return. The results tell me that, I have long nights ahead. Look forward to more of this @#$$%$.