Question on Twitter

Ok, I still have not found my "voice" on twitter, but I have noticed something. Since I've followed a couple of high profile twitters, I've gotten a lot of people following me now. Now I'm certain it's a case of them wanting to build followers themselves (for the most part). I have no illusions that is is because they are interested in what I have to say.

At first I followed anyone that followed me first. Recently I've stopped doing that and even unfollowed a few, because I'm just not that interested in what they have said and it causes me to miss others that I do want to follow. To little signal-to-noise.

So, should I be following those who simply follow me? It would be great if I could filter the tweets, and do so by default. Or hide those I don't want to see all the time.

What for Twitter?

I signed up for Twitter recently. Mostly it was to get the riksca account, although I don't believe it was at risk. Also, I occasionally run across some writer or such that posts on Twitter that I would like to follow.

Now that I'm there, what do I do? I don't really care to inform the world what I'm doing every hour of the day. If you want to know what I'm having for lunch, call me. Better yet, I'll meet you someplace and we can talk over lunch (has to have a gluten-free menu). It's not that I'm a closed person. Ask me how I'm doing and I'll probably tell you in details you aren't interested in. But I'm also not the type to go out and announce what's going on in my life, as if the world really cared.

I've talked already about being on Facebook. Facebook, for me, has become the "hi, how ya doing" forum. I can keep track of friends near and far, and throw out cool or otherwise pertinent things going on in my life. I had originally tied my Twitter posts to my Facebook posts so they would update each other. After being teased by someone for a rather technical post, I undid that. It will remain that way until I find what I want to write about on Twitter.

Which brings me to the reason for all these means of communication (Blogger, Facebook, Twitter), which is to get practice and time writing. My long term goal is to have a career as a writer (when I say long term, I really mean it. I'm talking 20 years). Yes, I know that time spent on these forums is time I'm not spending writing something I can sell, but it does give me practice writing something for someone else to read. Possibly (if anyone ever reads this), I can even get feedback on my writing.

So back to the point; what will I use Twitter for? Since it's more for me, and not to get a following in a way, I'll continue to post what I'm thinking about, especially if it's something that would benefit from feedback. Eventually, I'm sure I'll find my "voice".

Facebook black hole got me

I don't do computer games much partially because I'm usually in front of the computer for long hours each day programming or writing. Recently my sister got me to signup for Facebook so we can share pictures, etc., of our respective families. Since she still lives in the South and I've been in the Mid-West for a little more than 20 years, we have not kept up as much as I would really like.

I had resisted joining online social sites because of simliar reasons to why I don't do computer games. I'm on the computer a lot anyway, why do I want take more of my social relationships online.

After being on for a little while, I found that I could reconnect to people I went to high school with. People that were important to me more than 20 years ago. I could reconnect, find out how they are doing, what they are doing, and kinda track how things are going for them. It's been a good thing for that, but has really taken a lot of time away from other things I do on a computer. Since I can't give up time programming, as it pays the bills, it has cut drastically into time I should be writing. Hopefully I can recapture some of the time, while still keeping in contact with friends both old and new.

Back to Chrome, for now

Since I've found that Read It Later can be used via bookmarklets, and I've been having some proxy trouble with Firefox, I've tried using Chrome again at work.

I still like the fact that is feels much faster. Everything from launching to browsing to certain pages seems to be snapper than other browsers. However, I've found that a lot of things do not work well in Chrome. So I have to browsers open. I have Chrome typically running my gmail account. Firefox loaded to test my work and also to go to several intranet sites. The latter is especially good because I have IE Tab loaded, and several internal sites only work under IE. With IE Tab, I can load these sites under Firefox, with IE embedded.

What really surprises me is how many Google sites/apps don't work quite right under Chrome, although those seem to get fixed quickly.

Chrome is, for me, becoming a good appliance for several functions, including email and news reading. For a while at least, I will continue to run two browsers.

Sci-Fi => SyFy

As a blogger (somewhat) that is a Science Fiction Fan and wannabe writer, I guess I should comment on the news that the Sci-Fi Channel is changing it's name to SyFy.

In short and up front, I don't like it. Now you know my bias.

As much as I've been a fan of Science Fiction, both written, small screen, or big screen, I've not been a fan of the Sci-Fi Channel for sometime. I'm still irritated at them from years ago when I sat my 5 year old daughter down to watch Star Trek (the original) and a very explicit commercial for one of the Chucky movies came on. I had to dive across the couch for the remote to change the channel. For years after that, I did not watch Sci-Fi Channel without the remote in my hand.

I've never been a fan of horror. There are some exceptions. But, for instance, I liked Aliens much better than Alien. Don't like any of the slasher movies at all. Sci-Fi channel has said in the past that they are not just Science Fiction, but also include Horror, Speculative Fiction, etc.

The Sci-Fi Channel has done some things that I've really liked. Eureka is still one of my favorite shows; what ever happened to it? I liked the Dresden Files, even though it's nothing like the books, and was irritated when they canceled that at the last minute. Loved it when they picked up the Stargate series (and was irritated with how they treated that in the end). There seems to be a trend there.

For full disclosure, and this would probably get me in trouble if anyone actually read my blog, I've never been able to get into the new Battlestar Galactica. It's a bit too dark for me and is much more of a drama than a Science Fiction story. Every time I've tried to watch it, I get the feeling the theme is, how far can humanity fall under stress, as opposed to how high can we reach if pushed. You can get that type of story from daytime soaps, or watching politics.

Sci-Fi Channel used to be one of the first places I looked if I was looking for something to watch, I was often disappointed, but sometimes there would be gold. SyFy will be just another channel on the dial like WGN or USA Network. If I happened to find something good to watch, great. I will not be going out of my way to find it though.

Another thing I like about Virtual Box

In a previous job, I had to be able to VPN into work to support the applications I worked on. Occasionally I would even work from home by connecting my work desktop from my Mac at home via the VPN. I would be irritated that I could not access anything outside the Mac, except through the VPN, and they blocked some Internet access.

In my newest job, I also have VPN access, but so far can only do it from Windows. I don't run Windows on any of the computers I have in my house, except through Virtual Box. As I was setting things up on my OpenSolaris laptop, I noticed that I could continue to get my email, stream audio from Z95 on the Gulf Coast, and use my web browser normally in OpenSolaris, even though the Windows virtual machine was VPN'd into work.

The separation also protects the work network. There is no network traffic to the virtual machine that the VPN does not control, so it's effectively like two different machines on my home network.

I love it when I can multitask in a productive way.

OpenSolaris Bible

I took some time to look for the OpenSolaris Bible (OSB) in my local bookstore. I was wondering if it really contained anything that I could not already get online somewhere. I mostly looked over the chapter on Zones. Although I'm sure this information is online, the OSB is written in a manner I understand a great deal better.

Most of the information I've found online so far is apparently written for SysAdmins. Although I've been a SA in the past, I am a programmer through and through, and we think differently.

Since I really need to understand Zones to setup the environment I want on my laptop, I will be picking up the OSB soon (probably about 3 weeks when I get paid). (OSB on Amazon if you're interested)

Note: what I'm attempting to accomplish on my laptop is a separate Zone that I can run GlassFish, Apache, and MySQL on so I can run "Intranet" type apps separate from my development environment. Yes, I've found instructions for running GlassFish v2 in a seperate Zone, but I want GlassFish v3 (Prelude), which fails to install with those instructions.

Moving toward anti-heroes?

I'm a huge fan of science fiction and fantasy and used to be a huge fan of comic books. I've noticed a trend I'm not happy with. There seems to be some type of trend over the last several years of the Anti-Hero?

The first Anti-Hero story I ever tried to read was the Thomas Covenant series. I never made it through the first book. I've never even tried to read any of the Venom (Marvel Comics) books.

I do like the bad-boy heroes (Logan has always been a favorite and I used to read a lot of the Mac Bolan and Remo Williams books). Some of my favorite heroes are the ones who become heroes in spite of themselves (Luke Skywalker and Peter Parker).

But, many of my favorite heroes are truly heroes from the word go (Steve Rogers, Ben Kenobi, Michael Carpenter, and Clark Kent).

Steve Rogers has been replaced by Bucky, who is much darker. Not quite the Anti-Hero, but still, why go darker.

Would a story about a heroic figure sell in today's market? Do Superman (the blue boyscout version), Lensmen, or Doc Savage type stories have an audience?

Please note, I'm not talking about real heroes like our brave men and women in the military, or those protecting us at home, or bravely landing planes in the Hudson, or any real life heroes. This is about story telling; entertainment.

Do we really want our heroes to be dark? I know Dark characters are different than Anti-Heroes. I'm defining Anti-Heroes as the character who has no desire or ability to be the hero, but is forced into that role anyway (Thomas Convenient, The Joker). Dark characters (Bruce Wayne, Logan) are interesting, but I think it's now overdone(all the urban vampire stories, with the exception of the Dresden files, which are the best books especially for dialog). Also, the struggling hero (Peter Parker, Luke Skywalker) is a great story line, but at some point get over yourself and accept the mantle you are given and man up (as these characters do).

I'm ready for another knight in shining armor story.

(The opinions in this story are made with a very wide brush. Caveats, arguments, huge holes, discrepancies can be found all over. Hopefully you get my overall point.)

Committed to change

Are you teachable?

Are you open to the views of the other side of the argument? Whether your Conservative or Liberal, Christian or not, Java or .Net, or an Architect or Programmer, do you really listen to the other point of view with the idea of learning from it.

I'm not talking about just rolling over and accepting the other person's point of view. They have to make a point and prove it. But when they do, will you even notice it.

Do you ever have an "Ah ha moment"? That moment in Zen philosophy called Satori. I live for those. You have to commit yourself to change and live with the mind of a student. Where have we heard about being like a child?

I've had several times in my life when I have changed my position on something because of a point made by someone else. Discussion is a wonderful tool for learning and for firming up our own positions. I expect someone who is willing to have a discussion, especially an passionate one, to come to me with more than how they want the world to be. Come at me with facts and well thought out positions. Also, have an open mind. I have to come to the discussion with facts and well thought out position. Nothing makes me crazier than to have those facts and positions discarded because they are not what the other person wants to believe.

I've been able to do as much to build a firm foundation for my beliefs as learn from some of the discussions I've had. You have to be sure of your position if you are going to intelligently discussion something for more than a few minutes before it breaks down. It is not a myth that one of the greatest ways to learn is to teach.

But that brings me back to my question. Are you teachable? As a people, we don't seem to have discussions anymore, just lectures. I hear this when I hear someone make a great point and the other person ignores it because it doesn't fit his or her position. This is a shame, because this is what is truly polarizing us.

Write, just write

Dustin says I should be blogging (article). Does this count :-)

Chrome or Firefox

Yes, I'm a terrible blogger. One of many who have to come out and say, "I haven't blogged for a while, but...."

Updating my trail of Google's Chrome:

I've switched back to using Firefox for two reasons. First and foremost by a lot is plugins. I really use the Read Later plugin at work and at home to flag articles I do want to read, but my not have the time or the interest when I find them. I use several others, but at work (where I run Windows and can run Chrome), the primary one is Read Later. As an aside, Google Notebooks plugin is also a big one for me, but as Google has stopped production on Notebook, I'm looking for a replacement. I need a good research tool to take notes and save articles I find on the web in a long term and searchable way.

At home, I also would miss Coffee Break and Web Developer quite a bit, but since I run OpenSolaris at home, I don't have the ability to run Chrome.

The second reason I'm not using Chrome much is the proxy environment. Running Chrome I seem to see the login dialog for the proxy a lot. It comes up a lot in Firefox too, but not as much as in Chrome. The proxy they use at work is a pain and only really works well in IE, but firefox seems to get around it better than Chrome does.

Once Chrome supports plugins and if Read Later is ported over to it (and/or other plugins come out for Chrome that would make me more productive), I may try Chrome again as my main browser. (I still and will continue to use it for somethings, like quick access to things like gmail).

Grails comes through

Update, moved to Just Thinking: Code

I am responsible for tracking the members of my local SCA group that fight (see here and here for explanations).  The previous marshal (the person responsible) had tracked the information in a Excel spreadsheet.  That's not a bad way of doing it, but come one, I'm a Java programmer.  Tracking information in a spreadsheet just isn't my way of doing things.

I had moved all the information into a MySql database.  I had been using Groovy scripts to generate the reports I needed to turn in quarterly.  The scripts would generate an html page with the report, and then I would use Mac OS X's ability to create PDF's to create something I could email in.

Recently I used Grails to create a quick front-end for editing the information.  Took all of an afternoon because I didn't like the generated pages.  (I could have had an entire CRUD application in minutes if I did like the generated pages).  I had modified the Groovy scripts to run under Grails to give me my report.  This basically involved creating a gsp page instead of a html builder.

Then I found the Jasper Plugin.  That was not completely clean to setup and the concepts of designing the pages gave me enough headaches, I almost gave up.  But I persisted and now have the ability to create the reports I need directly in PDF and Excel (and other formats if I need), although I'm still trying to create an Excel report that spans only one page, but have the PDF span multiple pages.

It only took me a few man-hours to create the whole thing.  If the objective was to allow others to use the app, I would need a few more man-hours to clean it up, but it would fine for me as is.  I will have to ask the next marshal if he wants to use this before I spend any time cleaning it up.

Once Griffon includes GORM, I intend on porting the entire application from Grails to Griffon, because I think this would be a better standalone application than a webapp.  I would like to get it to run on a USB drive, using hsqldb as the database instead of MySQL.  Then the entire application and database can be passed to the next marshal as a self-contained USB drive.

Updating FreeBSD to 7.1

This last weekend I updated my home server to FreeBSD 7.1.  Over the last year I've used freebsd-update to update it to BETA1, RC1, and RC2.  Going from BETA1 to anything else was kind of a pain because freebsd-update looks online for files from the current system during the upgrade, and they pulled the BETA files offline when they put out the RC files.  So I had to use a command to convince freebsd-update that I was using a different version to get it to run.

The last update from RC2 to RELEASE was a breeze.  Basically 3 commands and a reboot before the last command.  Kudos to the developer of freebsd-update.  I've liked FreeBSD for some time, and this just makes it that much better.

Some background on my environment.  I use FreeBSD as a headless server on an old Dell machine (almost 10 years old and it's still running with only a hard drive change during that time).  I use OpenSolaris on a Gateway laptop and have a old iMac for the family computer.

I wanted OpenSolaris on my development machine (the laptop) because I do a lot of Java programming at home and hoped that would be a good environment for that.  For Java development it has been fantastic.  For an operating system for this laptop, not so much.  I can't use the wireless network, audio is kinda flaky, and the machine overheats a lot (I think that is more the laptop's issue, not OpenSolaris', but OpenSolaris never throttles the processor, so I have to have a fan on it the whole time, a big house fan).  However, after using VirtualBox, zfs, and the Java environment on OpenSolaris, I like it for a development machine.

One issue I find somewhat funny is I cannot get the latest version of Gnucash to run on OpenSolaris, so I run Gnucash on the FreeBSD box and export the display to the laptop.  Works well, but it is a little slow (remember the 'BSD box is almost 10 years old).  A side benefit of this setup is I can run it from the iMac as well.

Martial Arts Secrets

I was looking around Amazon for books on Karate and had just finished reading the first few pages of Master Funakoshi's Karate-Do Nyumon, which he states among other things that there are no secrets in Karate-do, just hard work (paraphrasing a great deal there).

The next book I saw in the search was The Secrets of Shotokan Karate. Now, I don't mean to put down this book, as I have never read it and it may be a fantastic book on Shotokan techniques. I may even get it someday for that reason.  But I've been seeing a few "Secrets" books on Karate lately. It just made me wonder at the idea of "secrets" in Martial Arts.  If they are secrets, how did these authors learn them, and why are they publishing them in books. 

I've been reading through Shotokan's Secret: The Hidden Truth Behind Karate's Fighting Origins It appears to be a really good book on the history of Okinawan Karate, especially as it effects Shotokan.  The author appears to make some great analysis of the history, but although I read a lot I didn't know, I didn't read anything I would call a secret.

I remember reading Adams and Dr Hatsumi's books on Ninjitsu back in the 70's.  I actually researched the subject quite a bit back then, before it became popular and I lost interest.  I even did a report on it in High School and a book report on Eric Van Lustbader's The Ninja.  

Now I personally have no idea if Dr Hatsumi is or is not a last descendant of a Ninja family or if Stephen Hayes or Robert Bussey studied with him.  Full disclosure, I studied at a Robert Bussey school for 2 or 3 months in the 80's.   Suddenly Martial Artist all over the world fell in love with this "secret" martial art.  I've often wondered if it's because it's supposed to be a secret that it became so popular. 

That brings me back to what could be a trend in "Secret" books for Karate.  If these are secrets that are being brought into the public, I think that is great from a historical point of few.  If, instead, these are advanced techniques that are taught in most schools, I would rather see them publish as such.  I would be much more likely to buy "Advanced Shotokan Techniques" than "Secret Shotokan Moves Your Sensei Doesn't Know".

May be the public at large is more interested in Secrets than Advanced Techniques.  So I've decided to begin work on "The Secrets of the Gallowglass; The Irish Ninja".  Think it will sell?

Griffon vs JavaFX

Update, moved to Just Thinking: Code

I'm looking at the difference bectween using Griffon and JavaFX to create a desktop application to keep track of information on the fighters in our Barony.  I currently have a Grails application in front of a MySQL database that I would like to migrate to a desktop app.

One of the things I really like about Grails is GORM, the builtin database interface.  Griffon does not have that yet (it's due in a future version).  I was a little surprised that there is not an equilvant technology in JavaFX.  A good object relational manager like GORM talking to HSQLDB or JavaDB would speed up Desktop programming considerably.

Like Chrome, needs more

In keeping with the title of this blog, just something I'm thinking about.

I've been using Google's Chrome for a few months, about since it came out in beta.  It's fast and good looking, but I've found that there are a few sites that I can't access correctly.  It's not a total replacement for Firefox, for me as of yet.

What I was pondering though is why does Chrome not tie in better with Google's other offerings.  Most notably Bookmarks and Notebook.  

Why does Chrome even have it's own bookmarks?  The two at the very least should be synced.

If I'm doing research on a subject and I want to save anything I find to my Google Noteback, an excellent tool for that job, I typically switch back to Firefox, which has a plugin for that function.  That should be something built right into Chrome.

Neither of these are a game ender for me.  I still have Chrome up and running for accessing Gmail and general web surfing, at least at work where I have to use Windows.  No OpenSolaris version yet, or probably in the near future for use at home, or a Mac version for the family computer.

Guitar love

Oh, my.  Something new to dream about.  Dark Fire

Here's a MacWorld article about it.

About every 15 years I attempt to learn to play the guitar.  It is my favorite musical instrument to listen to, but I've never gotten the knack at playing it.  I played the trumpet in high school and sang in a choir for many years.  Playing chords or multiple notes at the same time on the guitar is what makes it hard for me.

The idea of combining a guitar and a computer is a huge temptation.  Of course I would need a new Mac (I don't do Windows at home and probably wouldn't attempt this on Solaris or BSD) and the guitar itself, which is expensive.  It will remain a dream, for me at least.

Running a Glassfish environment in an OpenSolaris Zone

There's a post on running Glassfish in an OpenSolaris zone http://number9.hellooperator.net/articles/2007/03/29/glassfish-in-a-zone

I've used that as a starting point to accomplish the same thing, but not being an Unix administrator, I did not understand some things I think he took for granted, which if I were smarter in these things I probably would have understood. I attempted to follow his instructions and got to the point of installing Glassfish. He using v2 and I would rather use v3-prelude. Since v3 uses a graphically installer and I can't seem to run any xclients out of a zone (even with ssh -X), I was forced to use the zip file from the downloads page. Now, however, I cannot access any updates or install any plugins.

Also, I'd like to have MySql installed in this same zone, but that does not seem to be available, even though it is in the Global zone. Now I have to decide if I want to reinstall it in the Global zone or install it to the new zone or point a jndi or jdbc connect back to the real machine.

What I'm trying to to: I need an application to track fighters for my local SCA group. Yes I can do that in a spreadsheet as the previous person that was in charge of this did. However, I'm a Java programmer and can use this to get some experience in Glassfish and Grails programing. I also want to be able to write and install other java/grails apps for home use.

Since I'll be using the same machine for development, I'd like to get the "production" version on another machine, at least virtually. A Zone will allow me to put it on a different IP. With the App Server and the Database in the "production" zone, I can test on port 8080 and the apache server on port 80 without clashes.

Did God guide the stone?

I'm currently reading Soul Sword by Vernon Kitabu Turner (highly suggest it).  It's given me a lot to think about when it comes to Martial Arts, including my SCA fighting, but also Theology.

One thing I've been thinking about for the last few days is how God prepares us and guides us in life. To use a Biblical example, let's take the story of David and Goliath. I struggle sometimes, as a Christian, with (in my own life, but using this example) did God guide the stone to strike Goliath, or did God prepare David for the task and trust that David would accomplish it.

If you read David's story up to this point, you can see that he has already used the sling to protect the sheep he was in charge of. You can see that the story is telling us that David was an expert with that weapon. The part of the story we don't talk about so much is that David was prepared for this fight. He was not just a kid that picked up a stone and saved the day. Yes, he trusted in God and put aside his fear to step up and do something everyone else was afraid of.

So, what am I trying to say. Trust yourself. God has prepared you for the things he wants you to do, trust that He is capable of getting you there. He does.