How automotic proxy discovery works...

Always found it intriguing how browsers have this new feature called Auto-detect proxy settings for this network. Now I just found how easy it actually is to implement.




The only thing you have to do is:

• add an A record called wpad and let it point to a webserver running on port 80


• On the root of that webserver you locate a file that contains actually the same thing as the well-known proxy.pac file.

That's it. Your network is configured!!

Continuous Integration in motion

If you want to see what continuous integration is all about check this out

See computers think

In this very nice Chess game

Person Looks

Just found a site where you can simulate how you will look like if you were a old person.
Nice to see how babies and young children will turn out.


Just tried it with my nephew to see what it gives below the
output. In my opinion besides the fact that he looks like he's been
playing in the mud the whole day, it could very well be like this.
It's actually quite easy just upload a picture mention where the eyes and mounth are and there you go.


If you want to try for yourself

Why George Bush isn't always as dumb as it seems

Here's why

Some nice tools

Over the last days I've found a couple of nice things :

• Picasa2: a nice image viewer/editor (from Google) that allows you to quickly fix organise your photos. One minor thing is that they require you to export your photos when you actually want to save them. Positive points are that its freeware and doesn't contain any spyware.
  


• Javascript session timeout preventer : (Can always come in handy)
  

  
  <script>
  
  function expireSession()
  
  {
  
  window.location = "index.jsp";
  
  }
  
  setTimeout('expireSession()', <%= request.getSession().getMaxInactiveInterval() * 1000 %>);
  
  </script>
  

  
  



• Google ignoring spam put onto a weblog. Since lots of spammers now use blogs to get their website higher in the ranking of Google (number of links you know), Google now announce a good initiative to ignore these kinds of links. Provided that the blog engines add an attribute (rel="nofollow") that actually informs the search engine to ignore that link altogether. Now eat this spammer!!
  

Google Images over the years

Just found a linkregarding the images Google uses over the years when (inter)national events occur.

Here it is

Nice Quote

“I love my friends and family. I hate their computers.”

[found on 7seconden.be]

JSF vs. Tapestry

While doing the assignment for the architect exam (SCEA) I'm taking, I was challenged to try out the new JSF web framework.
While doing the first screen everything went amazing, editboxes mapping to a string in a 'managed bean' worked like a charm.


But then the fun only had to start, checkboxes...


One of the more commenly used controls on a webpage is without a doubt a checkbox/radiobutton. When you have to map a collection onto a some checkboxes to make a selection, you have to have make a subclass of your original class of your businessmodel in order to let the facesServlet set the item as being selected. Needless to say is that this kind of plumbing annoys developers to the full extend, since it requires having n more classes (n being the number of business model classes).

If you compare this to tapestry, you enter a complete new ballgame. Tapestry allows developers to iterate over a collection and set the instance of the current iteration in the backing bean. The isSelected property of the backing bean can use this item and remove it from the collection of move it to a collection of selected items. This is a huge advantage if you ask me. The number of lines needed to implement it is really limited to the max. Furthermore, once you get used to this twist of mind, you get to use it for other items too.


Second serious malpractice of JSF is the use of Lists!!!, yes java.util.List instead of generic java.util.Collection. Meaning if you use a Set in your domain model, you have to convert it into List in order to be useful into JSF. Here goes the plumber again.....BTW, you can use arrays, but unless you have a good reason, I wouldn't use them in a serious model.

Comparing it to the great product Tapesty is, quite simply it allows arrays/collections AND iterators...what can I say more.




Voila, so far my humble experience with both products. Most probably I won't have to tell you which product I'll choose If given the opportunity to choose one out of 2. If both problems could be solved JSF could be nice, certainly if you take the renderkits into account, since this could be the killer item for JSF. Renderkits would allow you to create an application for the web and use the same application on a linux console via a telnet renderkit;..
Mmmmm, wouldn't that be nice..

Happy NewYear!!

Been sick like a dog yesterday (seems to be some kind of bug that goes around every year). Of course you couldn't wish for a better day, well hopefully the new year is better.
Happy New Year and a good health to all of you.