Kunal

Groovy substring

2011-12-21T16:23:00.001+05:30

Can't imagine any terser way of doing this than


println "teststring"[4..6]

Ain't it groovy :)

Netbeans not allowing to create project on windows

2011-09-23T20:00:00.002+05:30

At times Netbeans does not allow you to create projects in some directories (on windows). I searched a lot but could not find any reasonable explanation for why windows turns some folders as read only. Anyways, run the following commands on those directories in which Netbeans is not letting you create the project.


Go to the command prompt and, issue

>attrib -r -s c:\some\directory

>attrib -r -s c:\other\directory

This removes the read only status.

Script to enable/disable proxy

2011-08-16T01:09:00.000+05:30

To Enable Proxy
EnablePorxy.vbs



set shell = Wscript.CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")

shell.RegWrite "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ProxyEnable", 0, "REG_DWORD"

To disable Proxy
DisablePorxy.vbs



set shell = Wscript.CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")

shell.RegWrite "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ProxyEnable", 1, "REG_DWORD"

Maven: multiple builds from cmd file

2011-08-10T23:01:00.002+05:30

This is just a followup on/refinement of my previous post. This cmd/bat Script focuses on clean-build-installing multiple projects from a single script. This script halts at the first build failure. If you happen to run from window explorer by doble clicking the script, In case of error the command window stays open (Press any key to continue). If ever build was successful, the window closes automatically. In the following example, I am skipping the test execution for third project you can add/remove -DskipTests=true to any mvn calls.



REM Uncomment following if you want to clean local repo on each run

REM rmdir /S /Q "%HOMEPATH%\.m2\repository\com\mygroup\id"



call mvn -f ProjectA\pom.xml clean install 

if not "%ERRORLEVEL%" == "0" goto error



call mvn -f ProjectB\pom.xml clean install

if not "%ERRORLEVEL%" == "0" goto error



call mvn -DskipTests=true -f ProjectC\pom.xml clean install

if not "%ERRORLEVEL%" == "0" goto error



exit



:error

@echo Build Failed

pause

Hope you find this helpful.

Reference:
This question at SO helped.

Calling multiple bat files from a bat file

2011-08-05T19:29:00.000+05:30

Earlier I had posted about closing command window that is left open after executing a bat file. This post is about calling multiple bat files from a bat file.

Today, while trying to execute multiple maven builds from a bat file, I observed that only first build one was called and once the first build was over, the execution stopped. Next builds were not called at all. I Did some search and found this. Yeah mvn command is a bat file, I knew that. What i missed was putting a call before the mvn commands:



cd ProjectA

call mvn install

cd ..



cd ProjectB

call mvn install

cd ..

The post linked above goes one level further by checking the %ERRORLEVEL% and exiting the script if any any build fails.

So lesson learnt today :
If you need to call multiple bat files from a bat file, start each bat command with a call

Google Code adds Git support

2011-08-03T02:26:00.004+05:30

Git finally makes it to the Google's code hosting platform. Git happens to be third Version Controlling System supported on
Google Code, following Subversion and Mercurial.

The announcement states:

Since our original announcement of Mercurial support, Git has grown significantly more popular and user-friendly, and on the technical side, it has added an efficient “smart” HTTP protocol that fits with Google’s HTTP-based infrastructure. (Note that this feature is only available in version 1.6.6 and later.)

This is very welcome addition as Git's popularity is increasing exponentially but I am not sure how many people will actually switch to Google code for Git hosting as more open source git projects are already using trendy and hep Github. Github is more social too. This is certainly going to help those who already have projects hosted on Google Code and want to switch to git.

I personally like mercurial slightly more than git for its simplicity. Git, for novice, is overwhelming. Whatever your choice may be, Distributed Version Controlling Systems have started taking over and are becoming mainstream. If you are still unsure about what it all means, don't worry, you are just git init / hg init away.

Groovy performance : iterating with closure vs loop

2011-07-22T09:16:00.001+05:30

Toady while listening to this video I discovered an interesting fact about usage of closure vs regular loop for iterating over list. So I wrote a quick test to confirm and yes loops outperform closures in terms of performance in case of iterating over a list.

But in a slightly similar case of File.eachLine{} vs loading file in a list and then iterating with for, the closure still works out faster on the whole. I have not tested this for different file sizes, but damn, whatever it may be new File(file).eachLine{} just rocks :)

Here is the github gist, to get the latest version of code.



def file = "input.txt"

// just to heat up the jvm :)

new File(file).eachLine{

    it.toUpperCase()

}



// with closure

start = System.nanoTime()

new File(file).eachLine{

    it.toUpperCase()

}

println System.nanoTime() - start



// with loop

start = System.nanoTime()

lines = new File(file).readLines()

for (line in lines){

    line.toUpperCase()

}

println System.nanoTime() - start



// read lines into a list

lines = new File(file).readLines()



// with list.each {}

start = System.nanoTime()

lines.each { line->

    line.toUpperCase()

}

println System.nanoTime() - start



// with loop over list

start = System.nanoTime()

for (line in lines){

    line.toUpperCase()

}

println System.nanoTime() - start

Results (with groovy-1.8.0 and jdk-1.6)

 Run # 1   Run # 2   Run # 3   Run # 4
 4792229   4773791   4840280   5428064
11169576  10254934  10791595  12546008
 2638604   2424610   2477969   2466514
  465702    315403    315403    412063

Display System Properties in Groovy

2011-07-10T01:00:00.004+05:30

It can't get any simpler than this.



System.properties.each { k,v->

    println "$k = $v"

}

Groovy rocks!!

Back in the Saddle ... Back in Black

2011-07-07T21:07:00.007+05:30

I am back to blogging after a brief ;-) hiatus of 2 years. Don't get mislead by the title of the post. This post has got nothing to do with the two tracks, Aerosmith or ACDC.

It's like a rebirth. Giving a fresh life to a thing I care about. Yesterday I finished reading the fantastic book named "Clutter Busting". It has inspired me lot to clean up the junk, that i dint consider junk so far, from my life. I have started removing many of my precious belonging from my computer attic.

I cant believe its almost been a decade of getting hooked to computers. The Digital Clutter had been gathering for long time that kept me distracted and less focused. You can expect few things coming straight out of my attic making their way to this blog.

Leaking the secret of not posting for so long: I had decided that I will move to a hosted blogging platform (am a control freak, I guess) and own a domain name and only then I'll publish my next post. The sad news is neither of that happened so far and the good news is I have decided to change the way I have programmed myself to think.

By the way today happens to be the day when I started my professional career six years back.

Hello world!

BlogCampPune2

2009-06-24T01:02:00.004+05:30

BlogCampPune2 is a blogger unconference. Its happening for the 2nd time in Pune. It is completely free and sounds like serious fun. Instead of looking for more details here, I think it's better if you check out their cool wiki page.

I have registered and I'll be attending this the first time (I'll try my best to attend, unless I get some official issue to solve(slog) on weekend like every other weekend). And I hope those of you who are in Pune would be interested in it too.

Ubuntu 9.04 overheats my notebook

2009-06-14T22:48:00.003+05:30

For last few days I observed my notebook (Sony vaio FZ140E) was heating up too much. Also battery could last for only 15 mins to half hour max. I thought it's EOL(End Of Life) phase of my laptop. But then, for some reason, when I booted it in Vista, the problem was not there. A little googling suggested that there is some bug in the ubuntu that is causing this issue. I am not at all aware with all the cpu cycle/frequency related terminologies quoted, but it has got something to do with percentage of processor usage. A lot of people seem to have same complaint. So the culprit is not my notebook :)

I hope Ubuntu folks will come with the fix soon.

Ubuntu upgrade

2009-04-29T08:37:00.003+05:30

Today when I turned on my notebook, I realized that its April and the fresh new release of ubuntu should be out. I checked out the site and yeah, it was.

So I upgraded my notebook from 8.10 to 9.04. And it was a breeze. For those who wonder what the version numbers are, its really a very simple logic. The major version number is the year and the minor is month. 9.04 means released in month of April'09. 8.10 meant the version released in Oct'08. Ubuntu usually releases new version in these two months only. Can you see how simplified is the logic behind the version numbers. Doesn't it tell you about how simple this OS is?

If you have not yet checked it out, please do. Its free :)

Disable unused windows services

2009-02-28T16:10:00.003+05:30

There are lot of windows services that unnecessarily load on start-up and consume resources. You can find more info about such services here. Disabling these or turning them to manual mode instead of automatic may greatly improve performance and boot speed. I am doing it right now. Thought of sharing with all.

Go Green

2009-02-01T09:28:00.006+05:30

Maybe you and I can afford to waste, but our country and planet cannot afford to do so. Please Don't waste Food and Energy.

Here is the getting started guide:

Please turn off the computer monitor whenever not in use
Switch Off work PC when leaving for the day
Opt out of paper statement options for banking and other billing statements
Take prints only when absolutely necessary
Check the emission of your vehicle
Control the temptation to use the plastic bags, try to reuse the same ones

None of these points are very difficult to implement. It just needs to get into your habits.

PS: I know there's nothing new in this post. Just consider it as a reminder and tally yourself how many points you actually follow.

New hotmail on chrome

2009-01-24T10:40:00.003+05:30

All new hotmail is even more annoying on chrome. Earlier (Sep/2008) I blogged about hotmail having some trouble when opened on chrome. Then about some issues with new hotmail in general (Oct/2008). Hotmail has been improving (or simply changing) since then. But looks like these improvements (???) have made it complete disaster on chrome. Links are not working. I can't even reply or delete. And I guess it's not only me.

Closing cmd window after executing bat file

2009-01-22T16:39:00.008+05:30

Just a small post you may find useful if you are as annoyed as I was of a command window left open after execution of a bat file.

I had to call an exe with some options. So I wrote a bat for it. But after executing the bat file, it always kept a command window open until I explicitly close it or the executed program finishes. Actually the command window remains open till the control is returned from the exe to bat again. Point to be noted is EXIT doesn't help in this case as it's call is also deferred until control is returned back.

eg.


start-netbeans.bat
netbeans --jdkhome d:\dev\jdk

putty-to-server.bat
d:\programs\putty -pw password username@ip-addrs

Use start before the command so your bat calls the exe and continues its execution i.e. doesn't wait for the exe to complete the execution


start netbeans --jdkhome d:\dev\jdk

start d:\programs\putty -pw password username@ip-addrs

You can use pause command for "Press any key to continue . . ."

The Pen

2009-01-11T13:10:00.009+05:30

My friend calls me on my cell and wants me to note down a number. Du-uh I manage to get a piece of paper but where the hell is the pen. I search here and there and finally I end up saving that number on my cell while I put my friend on speaker. To hit the last nail, I press the end button when call is over, and Whoa.. the number is erased from the screen. The point here is not how I lost that number, the point is where do all the pens go? This phenomenon of losing pen when its required most is not limited to my home but happens every now and then at my workplace too.

No matter how safely i keep it (the pen) at some place, it is either lost or stolen. There is a big black-hole that swallows every pen that comes it's way. Strangely this AI-enabled black-hole leaves those pen that can no longer work, largely because of exhausted refill ink. In fact, sometimes the same stolen pen is also found after some days. I think the black-hole spits it out when my need is over.

At my desk, sometimes I find a pen that I neither bought nor borrowed from some one. Anyways, I use it and then one fine day that is also gone. If my black-hole theory is not correct then there is certainly a mafia involvement behind the lost and found of pens.

Recently I bought a pen and could hardly use it before it was gone (from home) and atleast 3 pens were missing from my desk when i came back from vaccation (at my workplace). So thought of sharing my grief with you guys

happy new year

2009-01-05T01:13:00.003+05:30

wish you all a very colorful and prosperous new year 2009.

Installed ubuntu

2008-11-13T01:14:00.004+05:30

Finally I am up with the Ubuntu on my vaio notebook. I was totally fed up of vista, which was sucking up the memory with its beast like processes. It was so sluggish that it was getting harder and harder to bear with. I am still keeping the copy of vista on my notebook as its the licensed version and Sony didn't ship any CD for it, just the recovery partition. Although i have made the recovery DVDs, but these DVDs will just copy the OS to machine (something different than installing) and will wipe off any partitions (and hence the data) that is written on other partitions. OEM sucks!!!

Anyways, the installation has not been particularly smooth. I had to install linux twice because once the system was booted from the recovery partition. damn, it removed the linux partition. Then i went on to modify the GRUB's menu.lst to hide the vista's recovery partition from the boot menu. WARNING: if you are installing linux and have vista's recovery partition, the boot loader may show two Vista/Longhorn OS under 'Other Operating Systems'. In such case, first boot in linux, edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst and comment out entry for the OS thats is poiting to recovery partition. (You will probably have to google a bit about GRUB)

Thank God, I had already copied all my data to another laptop (through network). Will have to copy that back. Well that was expected, and windows had warned me about it. But my point is they should keep a provision for keeping other drives intact. Now its all done, and am bit relaxed.

I am a complete linux newbie, and i hardly know anything about this OS. Am gearing up myself to use it now on for my development works. Ubuntu looks very user-friendly and is quick. But there are many things for which i may have to turn back to vista for a while.

I am happy :) as am posting this blog using ubuntu. Will post more about the same very soon.

Wishes

2008-10-28T21:22:00.002+05:30

Firstly, a very happy diwali to all. And a very happy birthday to me :)
Yes, coincidently this year my b'day and diwali are on the same day.

New Hotmail

2008-10-19T02:26:00.001+05:30

Hotmail is undergoing some changes. They claim that they are making it faster, cleaner, simpler. These lines are so cliche. Does anyone ever make any service slower, messier and complex?

When I happened to check my Hotmail inbox after long time today, I was surprised by a message that said it didn't recognize my browser and I should use either IE, ffx or opera.Now the funny part is, I was already using ffx. You have an option to continue anyways. I chose that. The display was simply horrible. I mean Fonts and overall look and feel. I tried in IE8 as well. No improvement. May be its not rendering properly on my VAIO with vista. I tried on desktop PC. There viewed it on IE 6. Fonts were better. But heck, old look was much better, cleaner and faster.

I think the transition is not over as of now. But what they are serving you now is a total crap. The old interface was much cleaner than what it looks today. The interface is even slower. My whole point is they should not have released such an unbaked version.

Microsoft has always been slow in implementing features. Be it anything. For example, when everyone else has already implemented IM feature (inside the mail) long back, they are still to incorporate it.

Anyways lets hope for Hotmail to get better. You can share your experiences with me regarding the same.

One year

2008-10-18T01:50:00.003+05:30

In all this, I just forgot that my blog has completed an year on 13-14th of Oct. (Belated) happy b'day to it :)

Blogging

2008-10-18T00:59:00.006+05:30

Thanks a lot to blogger for such a great service. To all, those who are not blogging yet, do it. Its fun. There are numerous famous blogging services out there available for free. Choose anyone. Blogging is incredibly easy.

Blogs are great place to share your thought on just anything. It doesn't matter how good you write as long as someone is there who is reading it. Even if no-one is reading it, it gives you satisfaction that you are writing something. I have just limited the scope of blogging by saying the above lines. There is definitely a lot more to it.

The first difficulty in creating a blog is setting up your mind (and not the blog). The second is choosing the service. Then comes choosing a URL. Mind it, choose a URL such that it doesn't change with time. Don't give it name based on your present state of mind. Or something that will not hold true after some time. For example, thirdyearstudent.xyzblogsite.com etc. Now think yourself, are you always gonna be in third year? This name may be pertinent if it actually will always have posts related to third year students only. That is, your are always gonna write about it. That said, choose some sensible name that actually reflects the purpose of blog. Every caution you take while choosing a (non anonymous) email-id should be taken while choosing the blog url/name. I simply use my name for all the stuffs. I don't want to conceal my identity behind some cryptic names (And even my brain can't think of any creative names). But you may want to do so. Do so, but sensibly.

Why am i saying URL should not change? Because someone in the other corner of world may be bookmarking your page or hyperlinking to your blog which would point nowhere once you change the URL itself.

Now what should one write? I don't know. I dont have any goals for myslef. But a blog dedicated to specific subjects receive more attention by limited audience. Blogs written on more general topics receive lesser attention by greater audience.

Do blog. I would love to hear from anyone who is reading this. (well if I am talking about blogs, I should've said read ;)

Relations

2008-10-17T01:31:00.003+05:30

Every relationship has its limits. Don't cross them.

Wierd Widespread Web

2008-10-17T01:26:00.007+05:30

Web is growing, taking new shapes, crossing boundaries, reaching billions of humans (and to remotely-any-humans too). Some alien words have become part of our lives, some made it to dictionaries as well. (pop quiz: what URL stands for?). The web has evolved from static to dynamic pages to web based services to semantic web.

Emails, IMs, Search Engines, Social Networks, Blogs, Wikis, Audio/Video Streaming etc. are just the tip of iceberg. There is whole lot more, huge and massive. Rich Internet Applications are delivering desktop-apps like functionalities in the browser windows. Server Side Technologies are powering billions of hits a day. There is so much going on and beyod that, that it doesnt make any sense to belabor its importance.

What I would like to cover in some of my posts in future is some really cool and useful web based services that I found useful and am using or have used them for some time or would like to use them or would like YOU to use them. And also would love to discuss some common problems that we are facing on the web.

PS: I will tag these posts with 'web'.