Blogging Roller

To make it easier for folks to try Roller, I have created a standalone Roller demo by bundling Roller with JSPWiki, Tomcat, and the tiny pure-Java HSQLDB database. Everything is preconfigured and ready to run. All you need to do to try Roller is the following:

1. Download roller-demo-0.9.9.2.zip from SourceForge (an 18MB download)

2. Unzip the file into a directory on your hard-drive (directory name should have no spaces)

3. Ensure that the JAVA_HOME environment variable is set to point to your JDK

4. Ensure that CATALINA_HOME is NOT set in your environment

5. To start Roller, either:
     - on Windows: open the Roller bin directory and double-click on startup.bat 
     - on UNIX: cd to the Roller bin directory, chmod +x on all files, run ./startup.sh

6. Point your browser at http://localhost:8080 

7. Login as testuser1/testuser1, admin/admin, or register as a new user

8. Get rollin'

I've been reading the Harry Potter books to my older boys since Christmas time and, now, we're speeding through the Prisoner of Azkaban, hoping to finish in time to catch the movie at the IMAX theater. The other day, the boys were drooling over the Harry Potter goodies in the Lego catalog and reading the blurbs next to each of the Potter Lego sets. Each set is based on some event in the book and the blurbs reveal all sorts of spoilers, plot-points like... uh... well, I guess I shouldn't say. Alas, my boys have been spoilered.

One of the things that makes kids movies fun is the two-level appeal. The movie makers try to throw in some adult humor that passes right over the kids heads or they make some pop-culture reference that, generally speaking, only adults will catch. The problem here is that kids can become "pre-referenced." That is, they get exposed to a pop culture reference before they experience the actual pop culture being referered to. For example, in Toy Story 2, Buzz Lightyear learns that the evil Zurg is his father, which, of course, is a reference to Star Wars. Now, when my boys see Empire Strikes Back, they are going to think "what a lame rip off of Toy Story 2."

Yep, that's what Dads worry about. Thanks for reading. I think that fulfils my quota for random nonsense this week.

Thanks to Mark Pilgrim for help with this list:

• Perl
• C#
• Visual Basic
• JavaScript
• Objective C
• Perl, PHP, and Bash
• Java (under development)
• Java

Here are notes I took with VoodooPad during Goslings keynote.

• Mentions Rendezvous Java API and Apple's WWDC

• Brings up Tor Norbye for a Java Creator Studio demo
  • shows how to add a field validator using a regex
  • shows dynamic navigation, click button three times to proceed to next page

• Brings up Matt and Todd to demo Java Studio Enterprise demo (to be released next month)
  • Shows UML 2.o modeling capabilities, reverse and forward engineering
  • Uses UML class diagram to navigate the source code base
  • Shows reverse engineered sequence diagram
  • Demos two-way sync of model and code using code editor and class diagram
  • Shows that instant messaging is built into IDE, pastes Java code into chat window
  • Shows that syntax highlighting and code completion works in chat window
  • Shows shared code window, editable by both parties in chat

• Now lets talk about devices
  • Brings up Greg to talk about real-time Java RTSJ (JSR-1)
  • Two commercial implementations now exist
  • DARPA nearing completion of open source implementation of RTSJ
  • Lots of interested in RTSJ in the embedded space
  • Mentions RTSJ use in destroyers, power plants via "heavy iron" - Solaris and SPARC
  • Demos Macinaw and shows how it can swing up and then balance an inverted pendulum
  • As you know in RTSJ "threads you can write that are not effected by GC"
  • Shows that other threads can be working out, doing GC, but still the pendulum balances
  • Shows distributed fail over, pulls the plug on one machine and pendulum stays up

• Gets Cameron Row of Psinaptic on stage to talk about Bluetooth and Jini
  • Rewrote Jini lookup in C and ported it to a very tiny CSR bluetooth chip, 1MB flash
  • Jini lookup service in 4K of compiled C code, HTTP server is 8K
  • Talks about how this enables personal preferences for automobiles and other things
  • PDA or cellphone can transmit your biometrics, your personal preferences, and financial info
  • Starts up a Jini browser on a iPAQ, it finds a thermostat and an LED controller
  • UI code is automatically downloaded to iPAQ and he uses it to turn on and off the LED
  • Psinaptic is working with Ford and an Australian home automation company

• Now let's go to the truly weird with Simon Ritter
  • Simon is covered in electronic equipment for augmented reality, a "wearable" computer
  • Webcam strapped to his head, laptop on his waist, and keyboard strapped to his arm
  • Turns camera on James, who holds up Chinese sign, asks system for translation
  • Rubber-band boxes James head and asks system to identify, it says "James Gosling"
  • Shows heads up display map of supermarket, gets system to locate the Snickers bars
  • Uses Java Desktop OS, Swing/AWT UI, Sphinx voice recognition software
  • James was involved in Sphinx project 25 years ago

• Thats it for the demos, time to resume the T-Shirt shooter contest

I also took some notes on the Java open source panel, but they need some work.

Do not pass up the chance to hear Gilad Bracha, Sun's Computational Theologist. A co-worker and I attended his 10:30PM BOF talk on Generics last night and enjoyed every minute. He is sarcastic, cynical, brilliant, and funny as hell. He was responding to audience questions with answers like "you really should be careful with those drugs and I wish you a speedy and complete recovery" and "this is all a tissue of lies, I promise you." You had to be there to get the full impact, of course, so next time he speaks, make sure you are.