Although IBM do not support Ubuntu 9.04 as a platform, I did mange to get it working eventually through the following steps:

1. Install Ubuntu 9.0.4 as per normal; and let it update itself to include the most recent patches and updates.
2. Add the Multiverse Repository through Add/Remove Programs.
3. Install Sun’s latest JDK by following these steps (credit to Brian)

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk sun-java6-plugin
update-java-alternatives -s java-6-sun

4. Add the following to the top of the list in /etc/jvm (again, credit to Brian)

/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun

5. Because Ubuntu uses dash as its default shell instead of bash, this breaks WAS’ installation routine when it comes to setting up the domain profile. (It hangs for ages at 31% when executing the importConfigArchive script, and the fails silently, which is nice.) To fix this you need to relink back to bash (according to Graham, this actually fixes a number of third-party software installation issues):

sudo -i
cd /bin
unlink sh
ln -s /bin/bash sh

6. Install the Linux build of IBM WebSphere Application Server 7.0 as normal via sudo ./launchpad.sh to the default /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer directory.
7. Because doing everything as root is not secure or cool – even for a development environment – sudo chown -hR the /opt/IBM directory to a dedicated appserver user.
8. Make sure everything works by logging into the admin console via the First Steps , and finally do a sudo update-rc.d -f gdm remove to stop the automatic GUI when you reboot the machine/vmware image.

Job’s a good’un.

At a national conference of the Australian Hotels Association, the general managers of Cascade Brewery
(Tasmania), Tooheys (New South Wales), XXXX (Queensland), CUB (Victoria) and Coopers (South Australia) found themselves sitting at the same table for lunch.

When the waitress asked what they wanted to drink, the GM of Tooheys said without hesitation, “I’ll have a Tooheys New..”

To which the boss of Coopers rejoined, “I’ll have a Coopers, the King of Beers.”

And the bloke from Cascade asked for “a Cascade, the cleanest draught on the planet.”

The General Manager of Carlton & United paused a moment and then placed his order: “VB.”

The head of XXXX smiled and said “I’ll have a Diet Coke.”

The others looked at him has if he had sprouted a new head.

“Well,” he said with a shrug, “if you poofters aren’t drinking beer, then neither will I.”

A man in a hot air balloon, realizing he was lost, reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended further and shouted to the lady “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”

The woman below replied, “You’re in a hot air balloon, hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.”

“You must be in IT,” said the balloonist.

“Actually I am,” replied the woman, “How did you know?”

“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you have told me is technically correct but I’ve no idea what to make of your information and the fact is I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip.”

The woman below responded, “You must be in Management.”

“I am,” replied the balloonist, “but how did you know?”

“Well,” said the woman, “you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air . You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my f***ing fault…”

Dave and Jim were a couple of drinking buddies who worked as aircraft mechanics in Sydney. One day, the airport was fogged in and they were stuck in the hangar with nothing to do.

Dave said, “man, I wish we had something to drink!”
Jim says, “me too. Y’know, I’ve heard you can drink jet fuel and get a buzz. You wanna try it?”

So they pour themselves a couple of glasses of high octane booze and get completely smashed. The next morning, Dave wakes up and is surprised at how good he feels. In fact he feels GREAT! NO hangover! NO bad side effects. Nothing!

Then the phone rings. It’s Jim. Jim says, “hey, how do you feel this morning?”
Dave says, “I feel great, how about you?”
Jim says, “I feel great, too. You don’t have a hangover?”
Dave says, “No, that jet fuel is great stuff – no hangover, nothing. We ought to do this more often.”

“Yeah, well there’s just one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Have you farted yet?”
“No.”
“Well, DON’T! ‘Cause I’m in fucking London!”

The Government, in its new initiative to become the world’s leading Nanny State, has decided that it is their right and duty to tell us what we can and cannot think, say and see on the Internet and other media. And remember kids, these people mostly live in Canberra, the most boring city in the world. Need I say more?

What has happened recently? (Historically? See here). Well ..

• Bulletproof Networks hosts the very popular Internet forum, whirlpool.net.au. ACMA don’t like Whirlpool, particularly as a lot of discussion about Australian ISPs performance and their views on Internet Censorship, happens on there. A user posted a link to an anti-abortion website which apparently is on ACMAs blacklist. Bulletproof was immediately issued with a takedown notice and a threat of being fined $11,000 per day. Out of the blue of course, because ACMA’s blacklist is kept secret. More information reported in The Australian newspaper

• Somewhere on the Internet, somebody has posted Denmark’s blacklist. Someone else submitted a link to ACMA aiming to highlight the futility of maintaining a secret blacklist. ACMA responded by blocking access to that website, and their press release about it. US Tech Blog Wired takes up the story.

• Someone claims to have located a copy of the ACMA Blacklist. It has been reported by the Sydney Morning Herald that the blacklist has been posted on the Internet. It is found to contain perfectly legal websites, such as a that of a dentist, a tour operator, a YouTube profile and a MySpace page.  Senator Conroy quickly issued a press release denying its the blacklist and threatens:

“ACMA is investigating this matter and is considering a range of possible actions it may take including referral to the Australian Federal Police. Any Australian involved in making this content publicly available would be at serious risk of criminal prosecution.”

• Coincedentally, whistleblower website, WikiLeaks, has been inaccessible from a number of Australian locations today. Not one to draw conclusions, but they are quoted in The Australian:

While Wikileaks is used to exposing secret government censorship in developing countries, we now find Australia acting like a democratic backwater. History shows that secret censorship systems, whatever their original intent, are invariably corrupted into anti-democratic behavior

• Finally, respected organisation for press freedom Reporters sans frontières, has put South Korea and Australia on its “Under Surveillence” list in its 2009 Internet Enemies report, due to their recent measures that endanger online free expression. Australia now joins states like Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and Yemen in holding that dubious honour.

Chief Censor Sentator Conroy has aleady admitted his fitering scheme will be used to block legal material as well as illegal material (you know, the kind of stuff you can buy on the top shelves of newsagents – except if you live near a mining site, then its right by the cash register instead). The initial law was strictly to block illegal material such as Child Pr0n* and material that incites terrorism and other evil stuff like that. However now the somebody-please-think-of-the-children thought police have got their way and this has been expanded to “inappropriate” sites … legal gambing sites for example, like BetFair.com, are apparently on the blacklist. Of course, it would not suprise me if the Aussie equivelent of the RIAA, the ARIA, and the MPAA are fevereshly lobbying their cause, persuading Conroy to block peer-to-peer technologies in this filter, fresh on their success in New Zealand.

Unfortunately, the fact that the Nanny State forgets is that as soon as you make something illegal, all that happens is its driven underground. Techologies already exist that will bypass such censorship. Look at drug smuggling which is rife thoughout the world and mostly illegal. Even worse, they also make it more difficult for the authorites to locate and capture the bastards involved in activities such as terrorism and child pr0nography.

My previous position, that this funding should be diverted to the AFP and international legal authorities to track down, capture and castrate (no anasthetic)  people involved in these dispicable acts and then lock them up for life, still stands.

Restricting debate and enforcing your views through legal means on others in a Nanny State solution only drives the problem further underground. More debate here, and here, and here … while we still can.