Author: rolfje

Steve Jobs gets it!

Posted on By rolfje 3 Comments on Steve Jobs gets it!

Remember my rant on copy protection in the post about opening iTunes to other players? All the things record and movie companies tried the last few years has only encouraged people to rip, copy and distribute illegal media instead. It turns out that Steve Jobs also thinks that DRM is not the answer, according to bloomberg. Steve Jobs has sent a letter to the four largest music companies, in which he Asks Music Labels To End Copyright Protection.

Sure it might sound bad when you have serious record company stock options, but the idea is not so dumb as it sounds. For years, Apple software has been reasonably priced, and of good quality. You can buy it online without too much hassle. Result: There is not much illegal Mac software out there. This will surprise the Windows user, who is acustomed to running all kinds of illegal software, up until the point they are practically forced to continue to do so, because they have all their content stored in propriatary formats.

I like Apple’s way of doing things much more: Deliver good quality products, ask reasonable prices, and trust your users (up until a point ofcourse ;-). In return, Mac users are often more like “fans” than customers, because they don’t feel like they’ve been “had”.

I think loosing the copy right protection and then lowering the prices on music is a good thing. The iTunes music store is an easy store to search music or other content in, and does not force millions of tracks onto you (like your friend with the 200GB music library on an USB disk does). Who cares if I have to pay a few cents for a track if I feel like iTunes has helped me find that track? The feeling shifts more to like “paying for the service” than “paying for the track” which is probably what we all look for. As an added value, we have the old “it’s my product, I bought it” feeling back, where we can do with the content as we like because we payed for it. We are no longer restricted to stupid things as “you can listen this track only twice on your Zune before it will selfdestruct”.

Update: More information and the response from Norway is online at MacNN. Norway showing it does not understand iTunes at all, because you can configure iTunes to store the files at a location of your destination, which can ultimately be any (large enough) USB disk, which in turn can be a media player device 🙂 .

Apple

Use iTunes with *ANY* mp3 player

Posted on By rolfje No Comments on Use iTunes with *ANY* mp3 player

Many years ago, I bought an iBead Jens of Sweden MP-100. At the time I was a Windows/Linux user and everything was fine. Now that I’m a Mac user, syncing tracks to my trusty USB mp3 player is a bit harder. I had to copy tracks by hand, and when two tracks had the same title the copy would fail. THis was all very irritating. I am saving for an iPod nano, but until I get one I’m stuck with the USB copy tricks.

But not anymore, 5 minutes ago I discovered SyncTunes, a free Mac OSX application which can sync iTunes playlists to any drive as long as it’s available on your desktop. This means that any drive that mounts as a removable drive (USB memory sticks, PDA’s, Sony PSP’s…) can be used to sync the playlist to. The only catch is that you have to make the playlist fit onto the drive (in size). This can be easily done by creating a smart playlist in iTunes which is limited in size.

I tested syncing some of my playlists (through a size-limiting playlist) and it works like a charm. Size limiting playlists are also the thing to use if you do have an iPod, and want some control on how many space is used by pop music, and how many space is used by rock. I’m a happy camper now, and in no hurry to buy an iPod (but that 8GB red nano sure looks tempting).

Apple, Software

Java 5 BigDecimal.toString() and Oracle 10g jdbc

Posted on By rolfje 2 Comments on Java 5 BigDecimal.toString() and Oracle 10g jdbc

Yesterday a collegue of mine discovered a very ugly problem when storing BigDecimals from a Java 1.5 program into an Oracle 10g database. Not by experience, but by reading the article at http://www.javalobby.org/java/forums/t88158.html. We had not encountered the problem ourselves, but when passing the dredded 12500000 value to the BigDecimal constructor and passing it to the database, we discovered that we too were affected by this bug. So off I went to search a solution.

The root of the problem lies not only in the fact that the BigDecimal.toString() method behaviour has changed in Java 1.5, but also the way BigDecimals are constructed. The Oracle driver relies on a specific formatting of the BigDecimal.toString() method, and can not handle the output of the “new and improved” BigDecimal in Java 1.5. All discussions about not using toString() for passing values and flaming Oracle and/or Sun aside, we have no option but to fix the problem right now. Oracle promised to fix this problem not sooner than in release 11g, so waiting is not an option.

Option 1: Overriding BigDecimal.toString()
In our project, we use Ibatis. This gives us a nice handle to implement our own BigDecimalTypeHandler, where we can choose to do anything to the BigDecimal before storing it into the database, and revert that when retrieving it from the databse. One of the options we thought of was to override the BigDecimal’s toString in an anonymous subclass inside our IbatisTypeHandler, like so:


public void setParameter(PreparedStatement ps, int i,
                        Object parameter, String jdbcType)
                        throws SQLException {
  BigDecimal colVal = new BigDecimal(
              ((BigDecimal)parameter).toPlainString()){
    public String toString(){
      return toPlainString();
    }
  };
  ps.setBigDecimal(i, colVal);
}

The anonymous subclass lets you add or change behaviour to an existing class without cluttering your codebase with a classfile which looks rather strange when places out of context. We tried various ways of locally changing the behaviour of BigDecimal to make it go into and out of the database in a way that our unittest would not know the difference, but at some point gave up. There is not really a good way to do this without compromising in scale or resolution in the conversion.

When using the setParameter described above, you will not get a situation where originalBigDecimal.equals(storedBigDecimal) returns true. In most cases this will not be a very big problem, since originalBigDecimal.subtract(storedBigDecimal) will always return 0.

If somebody thinks of a way to store BigDecimals into the database and retrieving them in a way it is totally transparent to the caller (compared to JDK 1.4 behaviour) please feel free to post it here.

Option 2: Loosing your BigDecimals

Perhaps this option had to be considered when thinking of using BigDecimals in the first place. BigDecimals are very awkward to calculate with, are relatively heavy both performance and memory wise. Very often they get converted to doubles before doing any calculations with them, which eliminates most of the reasons for using BigDecimals anyway.

The easy way to loose only those BigDecimals which get stored in the Database, rewrite the typeHandler you just created into the following:


public void setParameter(PreparedStatement ps, int i,
                        Object parameter, String jdbcType)
                        throws SQLException {
  throw new UnsupportedOperationException(
    "Oracle can not handle Java 5 BigDecimals properly");
}

Now, run all Unittest (you have unittests covering at least 80% of your software, don’t you?) and replace BigDecimals with other appropriate datatypes where you see the UnsupportedOperation popup.

Software

Reboot…

Posted on By rolfje No Comments on Reboot…

Today the Mac OS Software update popped up, and warned that these updates would require a reboot (about 80% of the updates do not require a reboot). I have gotten so used to not having reboot and hangup troubles that I almost was surprised to see that I needed to reboot. I use my Mac mini for editting foto’s, video, recording TV programs, streaming music, programming, mail, and the usual webbrowsing. It is so quiet and uses so little power that I only power off the screen, and leave the Mac on. I noticed that I have not turned it off for the past 20 days:

rolf$ uptime
20:17  up 20 days, 23:37, 3 users, load averages: 0.20 0.26 0.20

Not bad for a workstation eh? Glad I bought a Mac, it was worth every penny. The other Mac mini I bought to replace my fileserver is also still worth every penny.Just thought I’d share some of my newly acquired Zen with you…

Apple, Software

Lost Oracle SYS and SYSTEM password?

Posted on By rolfje 56 Comments on Lost Oracle SYS and SYSTEM password?

If your administration is as good as anybodies, you are bound to loose the not-so-frequently used password for the SYS and SYSTEM users of oracle. Here are a few ways I found to re-set those passwords:

Method 1: SQLPLUS (Tested on AIX Oracle 9.2.0.1.0)

Log into the database server as a user belonging to ‘dba’ [unix ] or ‘ora_dba’ [windows ] group , typically ‘oracle’, or an administrator on your windos machine. You are able to log into Oracle as SYS user, and change the SYSTEM password by doing the following:

$ sqlplus "/ as sysdba"
SQL*Plus: Release 9.2.0.1.0 - Production on Mon Apr 5 15:32:09 2004

Copyright (c) 1982, 2002, Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.

Connected to:
Oracle9i Enterprise Edition Release 9.2.0.1.0 - Production
With the OLAP and Oracle Data Mining options
JServer Release 9.2.0.1.0 - Production

SQL> show user

USER is "SYS"

SQL> passw system
Changing password for system
New password:
Retype new password:
Password changed
SQL> quit

Next, we need to change the password of SYS:

$ sqlplus "/ as system"
SQL*Plus: Release 9.2.0.1.0 - Production on Mon Apr 5 15:36:45 2004

Copyright (c) 1982, 2002, Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.

SP2-0306: Invalid option.
Usage: CONN[ECT] [logon] [AS {SYSDBA|SYSOPER}]
where <logon>  ::= <username>[/<password>][@<connect_string>] | /
Enter user-name: system
Enter password:

Connected to:
Oracle9i Enterprise Edition Release 9.2.0.1.0 - Production
With the OLAP and Oracle Data Mining options
JServer Release 9.2.0.1.0 - Production

SQL> passw sys
Changing password for sys
New password:
Retype new password:
Password changed
SQL> quit

You should now be able to log on the SYS and SYSTEM users, with the passwords you just typed in.

Method 2: Creating pwd file (Tested on Windows Oracle 8.1.7)

  1. Stop the Oracle service of the instance you want to change the passwords of.
  2. Find the PWD###.ora file for this instance, this is usuallly located atC:\oracle\ora81\database\, where ### is the SID of your database.
  3. rename the PWD###.ora file to PWD###.ora.bak for obvious safety reasons.
  4. Create a new pwd file by issuing the command:
    orapwd     file=C:\oracle\ora81\database\PWD###.ora password=XXXXX
    where ### is the SID and XXXXX is the password you would like to use for the SYS and INTERNAL accounts.
  5. Start the Oracle service for the instance you just fixed. You should be able to get in with the SYS user and change other passwords from there.
Software

Monokai

Posted on By rolfje No Comments on Monokai

I just checked out the new Dutch CC CD/DVD released under the Creative Commons license. While I was there I found a great piece of music done by Monokai. It’s kind of old C64 game like music, you like it or hate it. I went to check out Monokai’s website and I’ve spent a good 30 minutes playing with it.

The website is filled with music, photo’s and electronic games, and is fun to play with. Go check it out! Nice quality!

Fun, Games

Apple reinvents phone, ipod and userinterface… in 1 go

Posted on By rolfje 1 Comment on Apple reinvents phone, ipod and userinterface… in 1 go

iPhoneI have been watching the Macworld 2007 keynote address for the last 2 hours and all I can say is:…

Jup, nothing. I am absolutely amazed by the way Apple has not only reinvented the phone (look ma, no keys!) but also the ipod (look ma, coverflow!), and maybe the most overlooked, but they reinvented the mouse!!!

A couple of months ago, I was amazed at this new userinterface Jeff Han presented . It was touchscreen based, and very intuitive. He amazed the crowds with it. At the time me and my collegues guessed that he must have had several computers working in parallel to be able to facilitate this. Now, Apple actually integrated it into the phone!

If you think a phone without keys sucks, and you think your blackberry is a great device, please take a look at the keynote presentation, I think you will want one of these. If you are too busy to sit for 2 hours watching this amazing device, or even too busy to watch the shortened version (on the same page, as the keynote, above), I’ll list some of the highlights:

  • Large (and I mean LARGE) touch sensitive display all over the front of the phone
  • ipod functionality, syncing not only your music, but also your photos, movies and contacts automagically between your Mac and your phone
  • Runs Mac OSX, Apples operating system shipped with all macs. (Yes REALLY runs it)
  • Full, 100% normal internet browsing using a new version of Safari (told you it runs OSX, didn’t I?)
  • Full Google maps integration (not a crippled mobile phone version), enabeling you to view maps and satelite images on your phone, and integrates with your phonebook and other applications. Lookup where an address is, or search for the nearest Starbucks and directly phone a store from within the Google map (demo in keynote).
  • Full rich text IMAP and POP3 email client with very easy to use onscreen keyboard with error correction
  • Tilt sensor to enable to view anything in landscape mode by just holding your phone horizontally, providing widescreen movie viewing!
  • Gesture based user interface, allowing you to navigate through the phone and zoom in and out on practically anything
  • Quad band phone using GSM + EDGE standard. Currently only shipping with Cingular and AT&T and a free Yahoo! imap account. Technically possible to use in Europe using any GSM network provider, but I don’t know how the Cingular contract looks for Europe.
  • Built in WIFI and bluetooth technology to connect to the internet or any network, and a bluetooth headset, and it does that seemlesly
  • Random access voicemail (tap on the voicemail you want to hear)
  • Priced at $499 for a 4GB model, and $599 for an 8 GB model, available in June in US, end of 2007 in Europe, and 2008 in Japan.

iPhone unlockedMy list could go on and on, but these are probably the highlights you were looking for. I’ve seen Steve using the iPhone, and the userinterface is a dream. If you own a Microsoft mouse with the “heavy scrollwheel” you will know what I mean when the iPhone scrolls through the lists by giving it a swing. Amazing to look at. The Core animation of OSX is in the phone, so everything tilts, swoops and zooms like on your desktop and it is really, really nice too look at.

My guess is that by doing this and patenting it, the next step Apple will take is reinvent the desktop userinterface. Have your screen built into your desk, throw your keyboard away and touch the screen! It has been done before, but after you’ve seen the keynote you will agree with me that Apple can do it right this time.

It has been quite some time since I have been amazed by a product like this, although it will be a while before I own one because I’m afraid it will get stolen because of it’s good looks. I’m afraid it will even push the iPod out of the market a little, and Zune will be dead and gone when the iPhone hits the market…

Go and see the Macworld 2007 keynote address, and see his Steveness improvise when his “Clicker’s not working” just before he announces “Apple Computer Inc” is now going to be called just “Apple Inc”. Maybe Apple should ship this keynote on DVD. Seriously. Even if the only reason is seeing John Mayer perform “Gravity” live and unplugged at the end.

I’ll hold on to my Google and Apple shares for a while I guess…

Apple

Waar was Miriam?

Posted on By rolfje No Comments on Waar was Miriam?

In het laatste verslag van de Dakar rally op RTL7 was in de uitslag van de motoren Miriam Pol (warning audio ahead) van de lijst gevallen. Er werd ook geen woord aan gewijd in het verslag. Voor de mensen die bang zijn dat ze uit de race is: Nee dat is ze niet, Miriam staat 97e op dit moment en heeft zo te zien ook een sponsor gevonden in JB Trading als ik de laatste beelden van haar shirt en de banners op de site mag geloven. Geen vraagtekens meer op de motor (en bankrekening).

Uitslagen voor de motorfietsen (de enige echte Dakar helden in mijn ogen) kun je vinden op www.dakar.com/2007/DAK/LIVE/us/200/classement/CGM.html.

Een ander intressant team om te volgen is Tim Coronel en vriendin Gaby Uljee. De ultieme relatietest, je vriendin kaart laten lezen in een woestijn, tijdens een race naar Dakar. Als je InternetExplorer gebruikt, kun je ze volgen op www.coroneldakar.com. Helaas hebben de sitebouwers van dakarsport geen Firefox op hun PC, want ik kan de site hier niet lezen.

Racing