Monthly Archives: December 2012

Links for December 27th through December 30th

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Vinny

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• Top 10 Unix Command Line Utilities 2012 | conflating – As last year I’m going to list 10 unix commands out of a larger collection of little examples I jotted down. The list has no particular order, just the way they came in handy for me.
• The Mobile Web Developer’s Tool Belt – Pete LePage lists a number of mobile development tools, frameworks and libraries, and introduces a testing and iteration process meant to ensure an application works on as many devices as possible.
• RubyFlux: a Ruby to Java compiler – RubyFlux is a compiler that turns a Ruby codebase into a closed set of .java source files suitable for running on any JVM with no additional runtime requirement.
• Explanation for how to use Guava caches, Google Core Libraries for Java – Explanation for how to use Guava caches. – Guava: Google Core Libraries for Java 1.6+ – Google Project Hosting
• NoSQL LinkedIn Skills Index shows MongoDB growth – MongoDB’s growth means that it has cemented its place as the most popular NoSQL database, according to LinkedIn profile mentions. As the chart below illustrates, it now accounts for 45% of all mentions of NoSQL technologies in LinkedIn profiles
• Exitwp – Migrate from WordPress to Jekyll. – Exitwp is tool primarily aimed for making migration from one or more wordpress blogs to the jekyll blog engine as easy as possible.
• How to build a router based on Linux – Turn your trusty Linux box into the world's most flexible router
• Developing Backbone.js Applications eBook – Developers commonly use libraries like Backbone.js to create single-page applications or SPAs. To put it simply, these apps enable the browser to react to changes in data on the client-side without the need to completely load up all your markup from the server, meaning no complete page-refreshes are necessary.
• Peer relationships: How to stop being competitive with your peers and be a better leader — kate{mats} – One project doesn’t matter; being seen as a visionary, an influencer, and a strong collaborator does. When you do your job, think about yourself in terms of your role, not yourself. How would a good manager handle this? What response is most helpful for my team, not me? How can I create an environment in which those around me thrive?
• The five programming books that meant most to me by David of 37signals – Reading these five to seven books will give your programming chops more vitamins and nutritional value than a couple of year’s worth of blog posts and tutorial
• MongoSpy let’s you keep an eye on MongoDB activity from your browser’s console. – MongoSpy let's you keep an eye on MongoDB activity from your browser's console. It runs as a lightweight node.js socket.io-powered application which monitors the system.profile collection of your database. When developing, simply start up the server, include a javascript file in your layout, and watch it go
• MongoDB Fossils – This is a directory of old posts, organized by topic. It is manually curated, so it may not always be complete or up-to-date.

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Links for December 16th through December 19th

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Vinny

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• Properly testing Spring MVC controllers – Spring Test MVC is indispensable if you want to test your Spring MVC controllers. Simply testing the controller methods without including the Spring MVC framework itself, is useless. Spring Test MVC will be included in the Spring 3.2 release (so I'm told) but for now it can be found on Github:
• Manage Your Database Schema in IntelliJ IDEA 12 – A while ago we shared this video with a quick overview of how to set up a connection to a database, use smart completion (even for SQL queries within Java), on-the-fly code analysis, navigation (between queries and database), search (for tables and fields), and more cool features.
  Now, please enjoy a new video with even more exciting features available in IntelliJ IDEA 12 for working with databases:
• Sublime Text 2 screencast that explores the basics and expanded features of ST2 – Sublime Text is taking the programming community by storm, and rapidly unseating incumbents like TextMate and Vim for many programmers. This screencast series teaches you Sublime Text’s layout, navigation, and flow. You will also learn how to use more advanced features, such as tweaking the program’s interface or installing custom plugins. You’ll even incorporate the vast library of TextMate themes and plugins into the Sublime Text environment. This screencast teaches both the basics and expanded features of ST2, and accelerates you along the learning curve needed to become rapidly productive with this powerful editor.
• JUnit Strikes Back | Tomek’s blog – There are also some new project emerging around JUnit, like the new initiative of providing Data Driven Testing to JUnit ( see EasyTest) or another attempt at parameterized tests (see Zohhak).
• A programmer’s guide to big data: 12 tools to know — Data | GigaOM – But whatever the case, if your job revolves around writing code rather than data flows, you might need a little help. Here are 12 tools (listed alphabetically) that aim to help
• Billions Of Reasons To Get Ready For Big Data – Forbes – Whether you know it or not, you've probably already experienced one of the next big things in IT.
• New Features and Enhancements in Spring Framework 3.2 – This section covers what's new in Spring Framework 3.2.
• Spring Framework 3.2 goes GA – Exactly one year after the Spring Framework 3.1 release, SpringSource is pleased to announce that Spring Framework 3.2 is generally available now!
• Rod Johnson Talks Scala in TechCast #75 – The Typesafe Blog – Typesafe is very proud to have Rod Johnson on our board of directors but what really gets us excited is when he talks about his use of Scala. In this podcast he talks about why he likes Scala and when Java developers should consider using Scala.
• The Making of Fastbook: An HTML5 Love Story | Blog | Sencha – When a team has problems with HTML5, it usually stems from the fact that they take a “website” development approach to building an app, and often don't use the right tools and architectures for application development. This is what we suspected about the Facebook HTML5 app. The way that app performed — slow loading, choppy user experience in the News Feed, low framerate — exhibited the usual symptoms.
• Forecast 2013: The Appification Of Everything Will Turn The Web Into An App-o-verse – Forbes – hat we are seeing are the early stages of what I call, “The Appification of Everything.” This is not about adding more icons to your home screen, though, but about a fundamental shift in how we metabolize information and entertainment. The web as the universal storage medium is being superseded by the internet as universal flow medium. Instead of thinking about the web as a hierarchical tree of documents—a Wikipedia of Wikipedias—we need to start thinking about all of that content as an underlying service layer for application-based interfaces.
• Does it pay to know your type? – The Washington Post – In the graphic below, we walk through the 16 types to give a sense of how these bigger-than-life personalities fit in the Myers-Briggs philosophy. The official test is based on Carl Jung’s work in psychological typology. Ryan Smith and Eva Gregersen, creators of celebritytypes.com, helped us take the extra step of historical-figure associations.
• Mountain Lion Server tutorials – When setting up a server, getting it right early can save a lot of headache later. We've put together these tutorials to get you started in setting up a server.

Links for December 12th through December 15th

Posted on December 15, 2012 by Vinny

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• Deploy Web Apps to CloudBees from IntelliJ IDEA 12 | JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA Blog – In case you didn’t know, the new release of IntelliJ IDEA comes with deployment tools for CloudBees, a rapidly growing cloud platform for Java applications. At the moment IntelliJ IDEA allows you to connect to your CloudBees account and view/manage deployed applications.
• Tuts+ Premium Course: Perfect Workflow in Sublime Text 2 – I’m a confessed code editor addict, and have tried them all! I was an early adopter of Coda, a TextMate advocate, even a Vim convert. But all of that changed when I discovered Sublime Text 2, the best code editor available today. Don’t believe me? Let me convince you in this course.
• Working as a Software Developer – I recently gave a presentation on what it is like to work as a software developer to first-year engineering students at KTH taking an introductory programming course. I wanted to give my view on the main differences between professional software development and programming for a university course.
• HTML, Javascript and the app-ification of the Web – The post described in a nutshell what might be one of the most powerful trends in Web app design — the move from multipage Web applications to single page applications driven by javascript and access to a powerful API.
• Seven Habits of Highly Effective Programmers – The first step in becoming an effective programmer is to ensure that you are spending your time wisely. And there is no greater waste of time than in working on something that is not useful or never shipped.
• Scaling GitHub – I’ll dig into our development workflow and how we address concepts like scaling, deployment, code review, and testing. It also presents some interesting business challenges, too. How you grow your company from three employees, how you work in teams, and how you split your app up into services all help ensure that you’ll be able to react to your product’s growth.
• Innovating for Growth | Innovation 2.0: a spiral approach to business model innovation – The Economist and Ernst and Young collaborate on a discussion forum to talk about innovation.
• Goldman Sachs: Microsoft has gone from 97 percent share of compute market to 20 percent | Microsoft Pri0 | The Seattle Times – According to the report, Microsoft's operating systems have gone from 97 percent of all computing devices in 2000 — back when desktop and laptop PCs were dominant — to 20 percent expected in 2012 — when PCs, tablets and smartphones are all part of the computing-device picture.
• Creating Native Applications with Sencha Desktop Packager – Sencha Desktop Packager is a new product, included with the Sencha Complete: Team bundle, which enables you to take your existing Ext JS web application and package it as a native desktop application. From here, you may deliver your application to your customers who are running Windows and Mac OS X.
• EMC follows VMware, rest of world into OpenStack – With the storage leader now formally aboard the OpenStack Foundation, it’s almost easier to count the IT vendors who have not climbed aboard this open-source cloud bandwagon
• Query Mongo: MySQL to Mongo Query Translator – Query Translator – Convert MySQL Queries to MongoDB Syntax
• WebLogic Examples: Wiki: Home – The purpose of this project is to share Java EE examples for WebLogic with the Java EE and WebLogic user communities. This project was started by Oracle Product management, but we encourage you to submit your own examples.

Links for December 5th through December 12th

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Vinny

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• Testing Java Code With Confidence – Doug Hiebert discusses the principles and objectives behind automated testing, TDD, Unit and Integration Testing, using asserting and mocking to write tests, and static analysis.
• Open source Java projects: Storm – Parallel realtime computation for unbounded data streams – Storm is a big data framework that is similar to Hadoop but fine-tuned to handle unbounded data streams. In this installment of Open source Java projects, learn how Storm builds on the lessons and success of Hadoop to deliver massive amounts of data in realtime, then dive into Storm's API with a small demonstration app.
• Google Apps revenue: $1 billion over the last year | BGR – Google (GOOG) isn’t just be a consumer tech company anymore. Unnamed sources have told the Wall Street Journal that Google ”generated around $1 billion from the sale of Google Apps and separate mapping software to businesses and governments” over the past year, signifying that Google has made significant progress in its push into the business technology market.
• Android’s Google Now services headed for Chrome, too | Internet & Media – CNET News – The all-purpose alert system isn't just for Android. Google is building Google Now into Chrome as well, taking advantage of its notifications system.
• Gmail for iOS Hybrid implementation – Most of the talk around the web about the new app mentions the new “native” implementation, but as you can clearly see It’s not a fully native app, but a hybrid app with carefully crafted web elements.
• Integration Testing of Spring MVC Applications: REST API, Part Two – This is the fifth part of my spring-test-mvc tutorial and it describes the integration testing of a REST API that is implemented by using Spring MVC. During this tutorial we will continue writing integration tests for a simple REST API that provides CRUD functions for todo entries
• Christmas gift for someone you hate: Windows 8 – Microsoft has had since October 2008 to study Android. It has had since June 2007 to study iPhone. It seems as though they did not figure out what is good about the standard tablet operating systems.
• NBCNews.com video: Apple CEO on challenge of keeping company cutting edge – Steve Jobs’ hand-picked successor, current Apple CEO Tim Cook, talks exclusively to Rock Center Anchor and Managing Editor Brian Williams about Apple’s battle with Samsung, glitches with their maps app, the prospect of Apple TV and the challenge of keeping Apple cutting edge.
• New Release of Micro Cloud Foundry | CloudFoundry.com Blog – Micro Cloud Foundry is a complete version of the Cloud Foundry open PaaS, but it runs in a single virtual machine on a developer’s computer. Micro Cloud Foundry exemplifies how a multi-cloud approach to PaaS can help developers easily develop and test their applications locally and deploy to any Cloud Foundry-based clouds with no code or configuration changes.
• Kindle FreeTime Unlimited includes access to 1000’s of books, games, apps, movies and TV shows, just for kids – Kindle FreeTime Unlimited is the first-ever all-in-one subscription that brings together all the types of content that kids and parents love – books, games, educational apps, movies and TV shows. With unlimited access to thousands of hand-picked titles for kids ages 3-8, parents don't have to spend time (and money) guessing what their kids will enjoy, and kids can explore a world of age-appropriate content on their own – no ads, no in-app purchases.
• IntelliJ IDEA 12 is Available for Download | JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA Blog – IntelliJ IDEA 12 embraces the cutting edge version of the language and provides code assistance for the new syntax, such as lambda expressions, method references and default methods. Now you can try the new features of JDK 8 in your projects.

Links for December 1st through December 4th

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Vinny

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• VMware Spins Out SpringSource, Cloud Foundry and GemFire – Following months of speculation, VMware has officially announced plans to transfer many of its tier 2 technologies, including the Spring framework, distributed in-memory data cache GemFire, the Cloud Foundry PaaS, and Hadoop analytics tool Cetas, to parent company EMC as part of a newly formed initiative called Pivotal.
• Netflix Log4J Optimizations Yield Logging at Massive Scale – Blitz4k, Netflix’ internally optimized version of log4j, has been released to Github. Blitz4j efficiently generates logs within a massively concurrent and heavy traffic environment while consuming fewer resources than other, more traditional logging technologies. It achieves this by overriding sections of log4j’s code where synchronization and deadlocks may occur.
• Evernote For Business: End Of Butt-Ugly Software? – Evernote Business lets an organization deploy and manage the Evernote application on behalf of employees, extending information discoverability and sharing company-wide.
• Top 35 Startups In Tech that TechCrunch missed out on | StartupPlays – There’s no feeling that’s quite as electrifying as launching a product and watching people genuinely enjoy using it and wanting it to get better. Here are the Top 35 Startups In Tech that TechCrunch missed out on – November 201
• How People Change – NYTimes.com – It’s a lousy leadership model. Don’t try to bludgeon bad behavior. Change the underlying context. Change the behavior triggers. Displace bad behavior with different good behavior. Be oblique. Redirect.
• Hadapt – The greatest thing to happen to Hadoop since Hadoop – Hadapt’s flagship product is the Adaptive Analytical Platform, which brings a native implementation of SQL to the Apache Hadoop open-source project.
• How Amazon Followed Google Into the World of Secret Servers – “It will be interesting to see, over the next 10 years or so, how successful the traditional server vendors will be competing against that kind of server capacity,” Pinkham says. “Once developers realize they can use this much cheaper, homogenous infrastructure, the power may shift toward the folks who build the cheapest, simplest hardware.”
• Apple, Google, Microsoft Avoid Taxes By Keeping Billions In Profits Offshore: Senate Report – Companies such as Microsoft and Apple quietly dodge billions of dollars in taxes each year with potentially illegal schemes to move their profits offshore, according to a Senate subcommittee report released on Thursday
• Stand-Up Desks Gaining Favor in the Workplace – NYTimes.com – The results have been workstations that allow modern information workers to stand, even walk, while toiling at a keyboard.
• Paul Maritz To Lead New Group At EMC That Merges Greenplum With VMware’s Cloud Foundry, SpringSource, And Gemstome | TechCrunch – EMC Chief Strategist Paul Maritz will lead a new platform group that will combine VMware’s Cloud Foundry, SpringSource, and Gemstone with EMC’s big data platform – Greenplum
• Technology giants at war: Another game of thrones | The Economist – Another game of thrones – Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon are at each other's throats in all sorts of ways
• Supporting Mobile Devices in a Web Application – The purpose of this paper was to prepare the reader for possible issues when preparing a web application for mobile deployment. The paper is an exercise to help the reader gain some experience prior to having to do the same.