I managed to change a few of the referring external links to my new domain.

For the rest I created a 301 redirection to the new domain, so the transition should be quite smooth.

Somehow funny.

This is a strong candidate for a favorites list!

Let’s begin with my objectives:

It has always been the FSF’s position that dynamically linking applications to libraries creates a single work derived from both the library code and the application code. The GPL requires that all derivative works be licensed under the GPL, an effect which can be described as “hereditary.” So, if [...]]]> Just came across this one:

It has always been the FSF’s position that dynamically linking applications to libraries creates a single work derived from both the library code and the application code. The GPL requires that all derivative works be licensed under the GPL, an effect which can be described as “hereditary.” So, if an application links to a library licensed under the GPL, the application too must be licensed under the GPL. By contrast, libraries licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) may be linked to proprietary applications.

To use a GPLed library in a product, you need the Classpath Exception:

Linking this library statically or dynamically with other modules is making a combined work based on this library. Thus, the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License cover the whole combination.

As a special exception, the copyright holders of this library give you permission to link this library with independent modules to produce an executable, regardless of the license terms of these independent modules, and to copy and distribute the resulting executable under terms of your choice, provided that you also meet, for each linked independent module, the terms and conditions of the license of that module. An independent module is a module which is not derived from or based on this library. If you modify this library, you may extend this exception to your version of the library, but you are not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so, delete this exception statement from your version.

If you don’t directly link to GPLed code (e.g. using JMS, SOAP or similar communication approaches) it seems to be enough to provide installation instructions, so the user can deploy the GPL libraries himself. You have to provide bridge code licensed under compatible licenses to make this possible. If your code only compiles if a given GPL library is available in the classpath (import statements, use of derived classes, etc), then you must license your code under the GPL as well…

I was surprised to see GXT getting GPLed. Or better, dual licensed. There is the open source license (GPL), and [...]]]> Maybe some of you already visited the project homepage of MyGWT in the last days. Yes, MyGWT is gone. The project got finally “moved” to the extjs project, something that was announced long ago.

I was surprised to see GXT getting GPLed. Or better, dual licensed. There is the open source license (GPL), and there is the commercial license. The commercial license calculated per developer anyhow touching GXT classes, what in our agile days of development practically means every single developer of the team.

Browsing the dual license page of GXT I came across this statement:

Contribute to the Open Source community by placing your application under an Open Source license (e.g. GPL v3). This option secures all users the rights to obtain the application’s full source code, modify it, and redistribute it.

IMHO, this statement wishful thinking and not implied by the GPL license. In my understanding (and I impressed to see in how many ways GPL is getting interpreted) that GPL is meant to protect the customer, not the code owner (author). In other words: I get all the code, so my future is secured. I can do whatever I want, as long as my changes and my code is GPLed as well. This means that MY CUSTOMER will get all my code and my changes:

One of the fundamental requirements of the GPL is that when you distribute object code to users, you must also provide them with a way to get the source.

I understand users here the ones getting my product. In the special case of a web-app that is not going public, the user is my customer that is deploying the web-app, and people using the services provided by the application do not get touched my the GPL.

From the GPL FAQ section:

If I know someone has a copy of a GPL-covered program, can I demand he give me a copy?

No. The GPL gives him permission to make and redistribute copies of the program if he chooses to do so. He also has the right not to redistribute the program, if that is what he chooses.

Another very interesting misunderstanding that comes woth GPL, again quoted from the GPL FAQ:

Does the GPL allow me to sell copies of the program for money?

Yes, the GPL allows everyone to do this. The right to sell copies is part of the definition of free software. Except in one special situation, there is no limit on what price you can charge. (The one exception is the required written offer to provide source code that must accompany binary-only release.)

As far as i understand GPL, I must not make my code public. I can. Expecting users to do this (”This option secures all users the rights to obtain the application’s full source code, modify it, and redistribute it.” – quoted from above) is not true, and I believe it is a violation of GPL.

Only my two cents.

The Future of Enterprise Java – Q&A with Rod Johnson In this Q&A Session you can ask Rod Johnson himself about the future of Enterprise Java. Rod is one of [...]]]> I am very happy to moderate a q&a session with Rod Johnson at the upcoming Jax conference. Our q&a comes right after his keynote:

The Future of Enterprise Java – Q&A with Rod Johnson
In this Q&A Session you can ask Rod Johnson himself about the future of Enterprise Java. Rod is one of the world’s leading authorities on Java and Java EE development and he’s co-founder of the Spring Framework. The session is moderated by Papick Taboada.

In his keynote, Rod Johnson will speak about the future of Java EE. Among many topics, he will talk about the changes the Java EE 6.0 (Rod is member of the Java EE 6 expert group).

Here is the abstract to his keynote:

The Future of Enterprise Java
The future of enterprise Java is becoming harder to predict, as the traditional J2EE “one size fits all” model becomes less relevant and the rise of SOA and Web 2.0 changes demands on infrastructure. Rod Johnson will explain why this period of change is likely to be a Good Thing for the industry. Rod will discuss the many sources of innovation in enterprise Java today; the influence of open source; the changing role of the JCP; the importance of OSGi to the future of Java middleware; the important open questions in the web tier; the impact of external challengers such as Ruby on Rails; and the significant changes in Java EE 6.0 and how they may benefit the platform.

There are some interesting threads and blog postings to read:

http://blog.springsource.com/main/2007/07/03/java-ee-6-gets-it-right/

http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=46065

I’ll be adding some more resources/ references as comments to this post.

Any suggestion and feedback is welcome!

Part 1 of 3 in an overview series on the Android platform. In this segment, Mike gives an overview [...]]]> I searched a little for Android blogs, articles, videos and I found this nice trilogy from Mike. If you are interesting in learning more than just buzzwords arround Android have a look at theese:

Part 1 of 3 in an overview series on the Android platform. In this segment, Mike gives an overview of the system architecture.

Part 2 of 3 in an overview series on the Android platform. In this segment, Mike explains the application and process lifecycle as a user navigates through different applications.

Part 3 of 3 in an overview series on the Android platform. In this segment, Mike gives an overview of a few of the APIs available on the platform.

The Spring Framework Professional Certification (SFC) is for software professionals (architects, developers and consultants) who desire to acquire certification of their Spring Framework knowledge. Achieving this certification provides clear evidence that a software professional understands the basic [...]]]> A few weeks ago I first read about the Spring Framework Certification (SFC)  program offered by SpringSource:

The Spring Framework Professional Certification (SFC) is for software professionals (architects, developers and consultants) who desire to acquire certification of their Spring Framework knowledge. Achieving this certification provides clear evidence that a software professional understands the basic syntax and structure of the Spring Framework and can develop applications using Spring. (source)

As I did not attend to the “Core Spring Course” I was not directly eligible for registration.  But I qualified as a “grandfathered candidate“.  So I went to the SpringSource booth at the OOP and asked for a voucher.

Today I had my exam.

The exam consists of 50 multiple choice questions. You do answer the quesions on a special software, it lets you review your marked questions at the end. You need 75% to pass the exam, you have 88 (!?!) minutes to complete the test. I cannot write about the questions: first screen you get shown before the exam begins is the non disclosure agreement…

Well, it was a nice experience. I am now SpringSource certified.

James Gosling

http://blogs.sun.com/jag/entry/closures

Tim Bray:

http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2007/12/16/On-Closures

After reading some blogs I do prefer the light version too.

First, GWT defines a new way of developing Webapps. By redefining our procedure of development, providing the GWT-Compiler and the development shell and the GWT-Browser in the hosted modus, GWT allowes us to develop in Java, in our favorite [...]]]> I recently worked on an article about GWT where I showed two sides of GWT.

First, GWT defines a new way of developing Webapps. By redefining our procedure of development, providing the GWT-Compiler and the development shell and the GWT-Browser in the hosted modus, GWT allowes us to develop in Java, in our favorite IDE and use all the techniques we got used to in the last years: code completion, refactoring, debugging, code analysis, check styling, etc.

Second, GWT provides the ground framework to help us develop better web applications. There is the component model, the i18n, the browser history manipulation and many more. This is where it gets a little confusing. While other technologies get runtime dependencies exactly here to the product, GWT does not. It is a compile time dependency. We can’t switch a jar or a script file in the app and get new features at runtime. The application created with GWT is a kind of a binary, it must be recompiled. And this is good.

This was clearly pointed out in the Voices That Matter GWT conference.

There is a video called “Conference Wrap Up” on YouTube. Have a look at 25:00 timeframe.

find . -type d -exec chmod 740 “{}” \;

find . -type f -exec chmod 640 “{}” \;

Obviously I do not need it often enough (or I would rembember it [...]]]> This is one snippet that I sometimes need, but always forget how it looks like:

• to change directory rights:

find . -type d -exec chmod 740 “{}” \;

• to change file rights:

find . -type f -exec chmod 640 “{}” \;

Obviously I do not need it often enough (or I would rembember it and this posting would not have happened), or I am a linux noob – I am not sure yet.

At least, now I know where to copy and paste from next time.

So i thought “this must be interesting!” – well, at least it is now on my “candidate hype of the year” radar. I’ll have a deeper look at it [...]]]> I spent some time watching conference videos and small talking to some people and the word “Scala” popped up quite often in the last week.

So i thought “this must be interesting!” – well, at least it is now on my “candidate hype of the year” radar. I’ll have a deeper look at it – hmm – maybe soon. Hope it lasts long enough…

Anyway, I was looking for some brain exercises – some sort of Java puzzlers. The samples provided in the Scala documentation looks very promising! There are some nice samples for shorter is not always better to read examples there. And without having read the specs yet, well, they don’t look anything simpler to me right now…

def qsort(l: List[Int]): List[Int] = {
    l match {
        case List() => l
        case _ =>  qsort(for(x <- l.tail if x < l.head) yield x) ::: List(l.head) ::: qsort(for(x <- l.tail if x >= l.head) yield x)
    }
}

See what I mean? It’s quicksort.

If you did not hear anything about Scala yet, here some links:

• The Scala project homepage
• The Scala Wikipedia article
• The “scala will do” funny blog. Attention, the title is meant ironically…

If you wath Josh Blochs session “The Closures Controversy” you will find it mentioned somewhere in one of the slides. That made me finally search and have a look at it.

Oh, and the stuff generated by Scala runs in a Java Virtual Machine – thought it would be worth mentioning it…

Yes, you read it right. There is already a name or it – the “android effect“.

So what is the “android effect” and why should we, Java developers be afraid of it? Well, today we know for sure that Java [...]]]> The point is: is Android creating a precedence that could endanger the Java ecosystem?

Yes, you read it right. There is already a name or it – the “android effect“.

So what is the “android effect” and why should we, Java developers be afraid of it? Well, today we know for sure that Java is a very successful technology. But – tell me – what is Java? There is the Trademark, there is the API, the Virtual Machine, there are open source projects. It obviously is not the language syntax, since there are other interesting ways (Groovy, JRuby, JPython) to create Java byte code. So is it the virtual machine? Or is it the “write once, run everywhere” approach? Well, IMHO, it is much of the latter one.

This explains also why I do not like the Java ME edition – it’s a different Java. I need other VMs, other APIs, other Tools – everything feels different. So why should I stick to Java when it comes to the mobile devices. I didn’t. I had a look at other technologies. I skipped the the whole ME, the whole mobile device world, that pains. But it was not Java.

Well, Android might feel more like Java then Java ME ever did – the Tooling, the API, the coolness. But it is not Java – either. It is using the Java Syntax, and creating something non-Java out of it. This is, and I agree with Richard, Java fragmentation. And I do not like this precedence either. Where is this road taking us? To lots of Java that run almost nowhere, only in a special target Platform.

On the other hand, ME is awful. Dozens of JCRs do not make it right. If Android is the pill we have to swallow, so I hope, it is the least evil of them.

“Android also sets a precedent that is seriously detrimental to the Java Community Process. It asserts that creating non-compatible implementations, forks if you will, is a viable business model. If other vendors pursue this same strategy, the JCP’s ability to enforce compatibility and standards will diminish. Over time the JCP could be rendered completely irrelevant.”

Richard Monson-Haefel

In the blog postings from Richard Monson-Haefel and the answers from Ed Burnette you can read it in more detail:

• Why Microsoft Loves Google Android, Take 2
• Richard Monson-Haefel responds, still gets it wrong

After lots of testing I found out that the scripts changed, and that the $7 variable was not available anymore. So FaxDispatch did not [...]]]> After upgrading my local server to SuSE 10.2 I had serious problems setting up Hylafax. Sending and receiving fax worked fine, but forwarding incoming faxes to emails did not succeed.

After lots of testing I found out that the scripts changed, and that the $7 variable was not available anymore. So FaxDispatch did not get the callerid, and did not forward the fax by email.

Now my FaxDispatch looks like this here:

# Dispatch fax to email depending on own MSN or extention (ISDN lines)
# sourced from faxrcvd
#
FILETYPE=pdf;
if [ "$CALLID3" != "" ]; then
PHONEMATCH=$CALLID3\$
USERENTRY=`grep -v “^#” /etc/fax.users | grep “$PHONEMATCH”`
if [ "$USERENTRY" != "" ]; then
USERNAME=`echo $USERENTRY | awk ‘{print $1}’`
SENDTO=”$USERNAME”
fi
fi

I have moved my fax.users file to the /etc directory, I think it is better there then in /var/spool/fax/whatsoever directory.