WebSphere no charge

IBM offers WebSphere Application Server "no-charge" edition (registration required):

Version 6.1:
https://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/iwm/web/reg/download.do?source=swg-wsasfd&S_TACT=109BH2HW&S_CMP=web_dw_rt_swd&lang=en_US&S_PKG=v61&cp=UTF-8&&dlmethod=http

Version 7.0:
https://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/iwm/web/reg/download.do?source=swg-wsasfd&S_TACT=109BH2HW&S_CMP=web_dw_rt_swd&lang=en_US&S_PKG=v61&cp=UTF-8&&dlmethod=http


Note that this edition is not the "WAS Community Edition", which is basically the Apache Genorimo :-) .
Actually, this edition is the new "Developer" edition. The old Developer edition is the "AE" edition, which can be consider "heavier" than the Base ("Express") edition, but "lighter" than Network Deployment ("AES") edition.


Đang lúc chán mấy tay Tomcat/JBoss giờ nghịch ngợm với Jetty, có thêm WAS sẽ fun lắm đây . Khoái nhất là có phiên bản Linux , khỏi phải đụng tới Windoze :)

./.

GWTDesigner and WindowBuilder become free

Google rulz !

http://java.dzone.com/articles/instantiations-tools-free-all


Java is not very good at UI design, especially desktop applications. But now it may become the past, since the best tools for it became free !

Vietnamese typing on Linux

For the list of other platforms, please see my old post: Vietnamese typing.

This entry is mostly for Ubuntu Linux, yet it can be applied on other Debian-based distributions, and probably some RedHat-based distro too.

X-unikey : (Phạm Kim Long)
Download:
https://sites.google.com/site/quoc383011/x-unikey_1.0.4-5_i386.deb

References:
http://sites.google.com/site/wangjihoan/xvnkb-scim-unikey


Xvnkb : (Đào Hải Lâm)
Download:
https://sites.google.com/site/quoc383011/xvnkb-0.2.9a-utf_i386.deb
https://sites.google.com/site/quoc383011/xvnkb_0.3-4ubuntu810_i386.deb

References:
http://wangji.hoan.googlepages.com/xvnkb-revisited


SCIM
Download:

References:
http://code.google.com/p/scim-unikey/


IBus
Download:

References:
http://code.google.com/p/ibus-unikey/


That's all (^o^) ,

Recommended reading 4 developers

Besides the recommended books, there are also some interesting online articles I wish I had known them to talk to developers around me. Thus I would like to highlight some of those posts:


No Programmers

10 types of programmers

How to be a Programmer

Getting Things Done to be come invaluable

How to give and receive criticism


Fun to read, isn't it ?

Disable Vista services

ok, Windows Vista is a PITA (Pain In The Ass) ! Especially the "Ultimate" which has about 134 services running . Hey guys, this is serious, I'm not exaggerating at all. I don't care the stupidity or ambition of M$ guys, but the performance of Windows Vista is ridiculous, and they should fix it before the customers vote with feet.
(not kind of "fix" by requiring customer spends some hundred bucks to upgrade to Windows 8, though)

Ok, before somebody helps us, we should try our best first ;-) . One of the first things I do when touching a Windows PC is to disable the services, and that surely helps performance. Here are some services I recommend to change to "disabled" or "manual" :


LV1: STUPIDITY (should be disabled ASAP)
# Application Experience
# Diagnostic Policy Service
# Distributed Link Tracking Client
# Function Discovery Resource Publication
# IP Helper
# Messenger Sharing Folders USN Journal Reader Service
# Offline Files
# Program Compatibility Assistant
# Tablet PC Input Service
# Web Client
# Windows Defender
# Windows Error Reporting Service
# Windows Media Center Service Launcher
# Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service
# Windows Search
# WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service


LV2: AMBITION (should be changed to "manual" ASAP)
# IKE and AuthIP IPsec Keying Modules
# IPsec Policy Agent
# Network List Service
# Portable Device Enumerator Service
# Readyboost
# Remote Access Connection
# Shell Hardware Detection
# Windows Driver Foundation - User-mode Driver Framework
# Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)
# Windows Update


LV3: ARROGANCE (should be tweaked to "manual" or "disabled", YMMV)
# Background Intelligent Transfer Service
# Cryptographic Services
# Human Interface Device Access
# Network Location Awareness
# Print Spooler





Disclaimer: disable those services at your own risk !



./.

Ubuntu Lucid Lynx

My upgrade from Hardy Heron (8.04) to Lucid Lynx (10.04) went smoothly on desktop PC, but on laptop there were some small issues.

Here are 2 major issues then and how I solved them:

1/ Grub error: boot into text mode only, could not get GUI by startx or xstart command
==> SOLUTION STEPS: fix the old grub (not grub2) menu.lst (or edit boot menu directly)
* Change root partition from by-uuid ("root=UUID=asdf...") to by-path ("root=/dev/sda7")
* Change kernel version from old Hardy (2.6.14-19-generic) to new Lucid (2.6.32-22-generic)


2/ Sound error: could not hear sound, conflict sound system of YouTube/StarDict/VLC/MPlayer
==> SOLUTION STEPS: a little painful
* Run gnome-volume-control to uncheck "Mute" options, try changing sound theme (Ubuntu/NoSound/...)
* Install gnome-alsamixer or pavu, adjust the options and volume
* Resolve the libflashplayer.so location for Flash and libnpjp2.so location for Java RE.
* For StarDict, use aplay as command for playing sound files (usually in /usr/share/WyabdcRealPeopleTTS/ )


Some minor issues may be possible:
- (Gnome) combination (Alt+F2) does not work ==> SOLUTION: enable the "Gnome compatibility" plugin in CompizConfig S Manager (ccsm)
- Postgresql 8.3 startup failed due to memory segmentation ==> SOLUTION: open file postgresql.conf in /etc/postgresql/8.3/main/ and reduce value of the variable shared_buffers (for example 32M -> 16M)
- Some custom launchers' icons are changed ==> SOLUTION: find alternatives in /usr/share/pixmaps/


Hope this helps,

Y!M pager server

is down for Y!M 6.5 and prior versions:

( http://mediocre-ninja.blogspot.com/2009/06/pidgin-ym-connection.html )

Compatible clients such as Pidgin and Kopete suffers, too. But if you upgrade to the recent versions, it should be fine.

For pidgin (on Ubuntu), you need to upgrade pidgin-data to 2.5.7+ to work with new Y!M protocol.

Cyber Station experience

Some experience with Windows when consulting for a few Cyber Station sites.

A. PARTITION HDD


B. REPLACE IE ON XP

by FireFox or Chrome.

1/ Download Firefox/Chrome and some plugins (JRE, FlashPlayer, IETab)

2/ Install Flash Player

3/ Install JRE

4/ Install Firefox/Chrome

5/ Launch Firefox/Chrome, install IETab and configure it

6/ Restart Firefox/Chrome, customize it (homepage, download, more plugins)

7/ Hide IE icon from desktop

8/ Change IE icon in QuickLaunch bar to launch Firefox (but still use IE picture)

9/ (rename the icon title to "Browser" and) Copy that "fake" icon to Desktop

Done ! Bye bye IE 6 :-)


Recently tested:
* Firefox 2.0.20 + FlashPlayer 10.0.22 + JRE 1.6.0_07 ( + IETab 1.3)
* Firefox 3.5.2 + FlashPlayer 10.0.45 + JRE 1.6.0_15 ( + IETab 1.5)
* Chrome 4.x + FlashPlayer 10.0.45 + JRE 1.6.0_15 ( + IETab for Chrome)

Shorten URL sites

So với các trang từ xưa như tinyUrl.com hay easyUri.com thì các trang mới vừa ngắn hơn, vừa giao diện đơn giản và ít Ads hơn :


Thử nghiệm Mediocre-Ninja.blogSpot.com : (http://mediocre-ninja.blogspot.com)

http://3.ly/IMDw
http://tr.im/Q1od
http://nn.nf/912b
http://8byf.gu.ma
http://is.gd/9fJD3
http://ow.ly/1bFm8
http://sn.im/12t2u6
http://smal.ly/1K2
http://su.pr/31NNQU
http://url.ie/57y0
http://go2.vg/7OkuF
http://bit.ly/ckUrCp
http://cli.gs/1NZ9PH
http://pnt.me/x8qz0P
http://yep.it/ms7xje
http://fly2.ws/wi51iNe
http://smal.ly/1K2
http://sova.in/3mh
http://nsfw.in/aab13f
http://www.x.se/brty
http://twurl.nl/gnzgo2
http://adjix.com/xprh
http://snipurl.com/uj2i2
http://clockurl.com/Fi

==== DEPRECATED (acquired by bit.ly or pending the service for various reasons)

http://k.vu/dt
http://j.mp/aw3E6y
http://bt.gd/1zP
http://kl.am/7OS3
http://zi.ma/6f0425
http://zud.me/1y


Theo các bạn thì site nào là tốt nhất ?

Presenting in English

18 things make you a better presenter, especially when presenting in English :


1/ LEAVE NOTHING TO CHANCE


2/ KNOW EXACTLY HOW TO START


3/ GET STRAIGHT TO THE POINT


4/ TALK TO YOUR AUDIENCE


5/ KNOW WHAT WORKS


6/ BE CONCISE



(to be continued)