Eric D. Schabell: August 2008

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Vim hints: last file location

Using vim and want to re-enter the file at the same location you left it? Add this to your .vimrc file:

" jump to last position before save.
au BufReadPost * if line("'\"") > 0 && line("'\"") <= line("$") | exe "normal g'\"" | endif

Vim version is 7.1.138.

Vim hints: java setup

The simple startup is to add these to your .vimrc file and run the ctags as described below to allow for indexing of your source code:

set sm
set ai

" run on command line for tags setup : 
" ctags -f ~/.tags -R workspace/.../src $JAVA_HOME/src
"
set tags=~/.tags
set complete=.,w,b,u,t,i

" Java stuff.
syntax on

let java_highlight_all=1
let java_highlight_functions="style"
let java_allow_cpp_keywords=1

Now you can navigate in your java source code file by placing the cursor on a classname and hitting CTRL-]. To jump back and forwards while browsing your code, use CTRL-O and CTRL-I.

You can also view your jump list by using the cmd interface, :jumps.

Vim version is 7.1.138

Monday, August 25, 2008

ABout Time Linux blog opened

The new blog for this category (ABout Time Linux project) is now at an apart location. All future posts will be made there regarding the AbT Linux project.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Open Source talk at the Linux World Expo in Jaarbeurs Utrecht 2008

I wanted to preview the talk I am going to be giving in the Jaarbeurs Utrecht for the Linux World Expo, 12-13 November 2008. The Expo is about Open Source and I have been invited to talk about Open Source in a business context as applied at the SNS Bank. Here is the abstract of the talk (abstract is in Dutch I am afraid).

2004 tot heden. Open Source in de praktijk bij SNS Bank
SNS Bank maakte in 2004 de overstap van een vooral closed source architectuur naar een architectuur met open source componenten. Open source architectuur biedt veel voordelen voor de website van SNS Bank, waarop in 2010 alle eenvoudige producten van SNS Bank in vijf clicks beschikbaar zijn en alle dagelijkse bankzaken volledig afgehandeld kunnen worden. Eric D. Schabell, Systeem Specialist bij SNS Bank, vertelt waarom SNS Bank heeft gekozen voor open source architectuur en hoe het werkt in de praktijk.


I do plan to make the slides in English and can give the talk in either Dutch or English based on the audience preferences. Hope to see you all there!

[Update] you can get the PDF of the presentation here.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Other uses for the PRIMA screen

Since the Prima Project completed we have started finding other uses for the big screen, like watching the opening of the 2008 Olympics Games live!

Blog hit rate in the basement

For those that are even reading this blog anymore (and you are but a few it seems), I am keeping track of how the loss of my domain name is affecting my site which has been online for over 8 years. As you can see from the graphic below, I have dropped off the face of the Internet planet:It is turning into a rather interesting experiment to see what the site content does as it migrates from a well known domain name to an obscure new one. I will report the details as Google eventually picks up the content again and the hits start to climb.

So far though, not much happening here at all and almost all my old hits are continuing to arrive in my stats tracking, but searchers are using the Google cache links. Once these are flushed I am wondering what will happen...

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Just for some fun, what my blog is (not) worth

Back before my domain name was hijacked last week, my blog was worth some good money. So said Technocrati anyway.

Today it is (not) worth:


I will keep an eye on this and see what happens as Google starts to properly index all site content. Should be interesting.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Macbook - Macports MySql server complete install HowTo

Some time ago I setup MySql on my macbook using macports and the comments I got about this post included some useful information to automate starting MySql on startup.

Here is the complete process to get mysql server working (mysql5 in my case):
# install server and the launch script
# needed to start it. (I like the -v option
# to see what is happening.)
#
$ sudo port -v install mysql5 +server

# initialize the setup as mysql user.
#
$ sudo -u mysql mysql_install_db5

# start mysql and set your root password.
#
$ sudo -u mysql /opt/local/lib/mysql5/bin/mysqld_safe &
$ sudo /opt/local/lib/mysql5/bin/mysqladmin -u root password '[new_passwd]'


Now it would be nice if this all started on bootup instead of the last command above. Here are the steps to include it in the automated launchd configuration:
# Create the launchd directory.
#
$ sudo mkdir -p /Library/StartupItems/LaunchDaemons

# Now create a launch plist file:
#
$ sudo vim /Library/StartupItems/LaunchDaemons/org.mysql.launchd.mysql.plist

# Here is the XML you need to put into the plist file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" 
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>org.mysql.launchd.mysql</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/usr/local/mysql-max-5.0.24-osx10.4-i686/bin/mysqld_safe</string>
</array>
<key>KeepAlive</key>
<true/>
<key>SuccessfulExit</key>
<true/>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
<UserName>
<string>_mysql</string>
<GroupName>
<string>_mysql</string>
</dict>
</plist>

# Finally, need to load this into launchd or you can just
# reboot to have it picked up automatically.
#
$ sudo launchctl

launchd% load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.mysql.launchd.mysql.plist
launchd% exit


I would also like to point to VelociPeek where Eric (another software man in the Eric club!) details more in this area.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Lost my domain name registration this week

Well, if you are seeing this post then the site DNS has finally propagated around to your corner of the world. It seems the DNS hosting I had setup decided to expire my DNS management module, so all of the settings just disappeared.

I took a closer look at the WHOIS information and it seems my auto-renewal system failed with some old credit card information. No warning from my registration company (Names Direct), just let it free.

The results were that my domain got hijacked by a pill selling spammer. A bit of research showed that the following person thought they were being rather sneaky:

PANINA, NATALIA olcrafty@gmail.com
67-87 Hlopina street
St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg 197729
RU
+7.8202506400

Feel free to spam or bash the site...

I have migrated my site over to http://www.schabell.org and when you can read this post it will have hit the DNS near you.

Let this be a lesson to those of you out there, auto-renewals are not worth the crappy service they implement at registration companies (I am holding back their name, even though I should dump this on the Internet). I am so disappointed to lose my original domain, registered in June 2001 - June 2008...