Blogging Roller

I've been itching to try Ubuntu so I decided to install it on my old Dell box, which as running Debian. I downloaded Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft, burned it to CD, backed up my data and booted off the new CD.

While I expected my Mac upgrade to go smoothly, I was expecting this upgrade to require a long morning of opening the computer, growling and cursing under my breath. That didn't happen. The Linux installers I've used in the past didn't give me the option to resize partitions and I've been using one big partition, so I was pleasantly surprised that the installer has the built-in ability to resize my partition without losing data. I was also happy to see that my video card was configured properly, which is a first for me -- previously, I've always had to edit X config files to get things right. So far, it's thumbs up to Ubuntu.

I was tempted to switch away from Apple, but in the end I decided to take the easy route and buy another Mac laptop. When Apple updated the MacBook Pros a couple of weeks ago, I ordered one.

And I'm not kidding about the easy route. Transitioning from my old Powerbook to my new MacBook was amazingly easy, especially when you consider the fact that I moved from a PowerPC processor to an Intel. It was this easy: start up new Mac and when prompted hook old Mac to new Mac via Firewire cable, wait 2 hours and boom... all applications, settings, mail... everything... is perfectly duplicated and ready to on my new laptop. And yes, it's fast. As long as my battery doesn't explode and I don't get hit by random shutdown syndrome -- fingers crossed, knock on wood and all that -- I think I'll be a happy with my new Mac for very long time.

• David Van Couvering: Zimbra uses Derby for offline storage!
  "inspired by the demonstration Francois did of offline Derby at ApacheCon"
• David Van Couvering: Why Use Java DB For Web Client Storage?
  Why use Derby vs. Firefox WHATWG or dojo.storage
• How to deploy a JRuby on Rails app to Glassfish
  Small code-change, couple config tweaks and bam... ROR on JEE
• Pete Lacey: The S stands for Simple
  "Dev: (Reads WSDL spec). I trust that the guys who wrote this have been shot"
• Sam Ruby: The H stands for Hyper
  "Everybody seems to be linking to Pete Lacey‚ The S stands for Simple"
• Clarification: Java ME and GPL and no linking exception
  "Sun chose GPLv2 without classpath exception for Java ME because..."
• Phobos Meets Atom, REST
  Atom protocol impl. in Phobos via server-side JavaScript REST library
• Overview of Project Phobos
  "a lightweight, scripting-friendly, web application environment running on the Java platform"
• Phobos Tutorial
  "short tutorial uses a simple calculator example"