Open Source Software KVM (KM Actually)

I just bought a Black Friday Dell special.  I bought the Inspiron 530s with an Intel Pentium Conroe Dual Core Processor E2200(2.2GHz, 800FSB) with 1MB cache, 2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz, 320GB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive (7200RPM), FREE Shipping & Handling all for $299!

I was shopping around for an upgrade to my current 2 port KVM (which connects my MacMini and eMachine T5212 but was kind of stumped since the new Dell is a USB keyboard/mouse rig and I currently am old school with the keyboard/mouse KVM.  My problems vanished when I discovered this gem called Synergy.

Synergy is an open source software KM solution which allows you to share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without any special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).

Redirecting the mouse and keyboard is as simple as moving the mouse off the edge of your screen. Synergy also merges the clipboards of all the systems into one, allowing cut-and-paste between systems. Furthermore, it synchronizes screen savers so they all start and stop together and, if screen locking is enabled, only one screen requires a password to unlock them all.  I can't wait for my new Dell to arrive to set this thiing up.  I also plan to drop it onto my MythTV set-up which is connected to my 42" LCD.

YODM3D: Yet anOther Desktop Manager 3D

For the past several weeks I have been pining for a Beryl like desktop manager for Windows. I am happy to report that I have been successfully using (without a single issue) a program called Yod'm 3D which is short for Yet anOther Desktop Manager 3D.

Yod'm 3D is a virtual desktop manager available for Windows 2000, XP and Vista. It is notably the first program to offer a cube-style virtual desktop management feature on Windows operating systems.


Vista3D effects with Yodm3D & Madotate3D & MyExposé & Flip3D

It offers a "cube-effect" when switching between virtual desktops. It's the first desktop manager that makes this feature available on Microsoft Windows. Yod'm 3D makes use of and requires DirectX 9 in contrast to most other virtual desktop managers that use OpenGL. One of the best parts is it does not require installation to run so pick it u, drop and go.

Yodm3d 1.4 is the last free version and its hosted by KLT.

Groovy and iText

Since first installing Groovy on my eee PC many new eee PCs have been released by ASUS (900 & 1000 models with larger screens, ATOM processors, larger memory, and XP! -- I though ms discontinued selling XP). In the meantime I've been coding with Groovy and have been loving the productivity. Java is once again new and fun and easy to crank out scripts that help automate tasks.
I haven't dived into Grails fully yet but I've been keeping up by listening to the Groovy and Grails Podcast (up to episode 72 as of the writing of this blog entry).

I've also been using a great (Free) Java-PDF library called iText to help me to work with PDFs in Java. If you need to do anything with PDFs (create and generate, split, concatenate, manipulate, bookmark, you name it) I recommend you check this tiny library out. Start with the tutorial and have fun.

Groovy on my eee PC

I've been itching to play with a dynamic language for a while now and decided to hunker down with Groovy.

I fired up eclipse and decided to install the Groovy plug-in.

Here's are the steps I took:

• Selected Help -> Software Updates -> Find and Install -> Search For New Features
• Click on New Remote Site
• Enter a name (I used Groovy) in the Name field
• Typed the URL http://dist.codehaus.org/groovy/distributions/update/ into the URL field and press OK
• Check the new Groovy repository and press finish
• Under Select the Features to Install check the Groovy check box (be sure to get the latest version) and press Next
• Accept the agreement and press Next
• If the default location looks okay press Finish (this will download the plugin)
• If you get a warning that the plugin is unsigned click Install or Install All

Then I created a basic Hello World Groovy project in Eclipse by performing the following steps:

• Go to: File -> New -> Project
• Select Java Project and press Next
• In the Project Name field enter the name of your project (GroovyJava)
• Under Project Layout select Create separate source and output folders and press Finish
• In the Package Explorer find the newly created project, right click, and select Groovy -> Add Groovy Nature

The next steps may be needed to make the GroovyJava folder the default output folder, and to connect it to the src folder so that the debugger will know where to find the associated source and classes:

• In the Package Explorer, right click on the "GroovyJava" project, and select: Build Path -> Configure Build Path
• Select the Source tab and then check that the Default Output Folder is GroovyJava (use the Browse button to change it if you need to)
  
• Press OK.

Then I created a groovy file File -> New -> File and then entering groovyjava.groovy as the file name.

Once the file was created I entered the Groovy Hello, World of:

println "Hello, World!"

Then running the GroovyJava project yielded the desired "Hello, World!" greeting in the console.


Now I'm ready to start my voyage into the Groovy world of an agile, dynamic Java-based language on my eee PC. Groovy baby!

OfficeLive: Microsoft Attacks

I have taken a look at Microsoft's latest revamping of its online services (Hotmail, MSN, etc) into what it now calls OfficeLive. It's billed as everything you need to promote and manage your business online—Web site, e-mail, online collaboration, sales and marketing tools, and more..

I reactivated my long dead hotmail account into a live.com email address (now with 5GB) and then created a linked OfficeLive account.


I was given a boilerplate website (with what Microsoft calls a "spicy" template -- brown really) with 500MB of space and a weird yourpick.industry.officelive.com url -- with the option to get your own domain -- first year free ($14.95 thereafter).

You can add up to 100 email addresses like some.dude@offiveliveusers.com (weird domain).

You even get a blog (they call it spaces) to enter your thoughts and tell your story. They have one for mobile hotmail users if you want to see what one looks like.

Definitely, you will not mistake the result of this whole mashup as being done by any other organization besides Microsoft. Do they sit around and vote on these sort of things like brown Zunes. It just is so bad in places -- but you can not ignore the fact that it is very advanced and Microsoft has definitely gotten more of its pieces in place. They are getting their act together and there is no denying they are on the attack (with Google in their sites) and this can only be good for us in terms of the services we get.

Watch this development and let's see what emerges from this.

gcc and the eclipse CDT on the eee

Eclipse is not just for Java-centric development. The C/C++ Development Tools (CDT) provides solid support for developing applications written in C or C++ as well. I set about to test this on my eee PC where I already had eclipse set-up for Java development with GWT.

First, I needed to install gcc on the eee.

I did this in the following three steps:
1. I edited /etc/apt/sources.list and added the following line:
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free

2. As super-user (sudo su) I ran apt-get update from the command line. This will update the packages lists.

3. Then I did an apt-get install build-essential
Press Y when asked if its okay to install.

Once I tested an a.out "Hello, World!" app generated from a test.c file from gcc from the command line I grabbed CDT 3.1.2 (2/15/07) instead of the newer CDT 4.0.2 (11/30/07) from the Eclipse CDT Download page.

Unpacking org.eclipse.cdt-3.1.2-linux.x86.tar.gz yielded a 13MB folder with an easy to run install.sh which installed the plug-in.

I fired up eclipse and set about to write a Managed Make C Project "Hello, World" app:


And then I tried a "Managed Make C++ Project" CPP "Hello, World C++" app:


I had Adobe Acrobat, a terminal window, the File Manager, Firefox, and eclipse all up and running while surfing the web via Wi-Fi (several open tabs) and compiling a small array manipulation C++ program.

The performance and versatility of the eee continues to surprise me.

Three Great Google Tools: GWT, Maps API, Gears

Today I spent some time reviewing three amazing Google tools:
1. GWT, 2. Maps API, and 3. Gears.

First, I took a look at the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) which is an open source Java software development framework that makes writing AJAX applications easy for Java developers (meaning you don't need to speak or code in Javascript).

I played around with Build 1.4.61 (11/29/07, 24MB Linux) on my eee PC.

I built a "Hello, World" GWT app in minutes and tested in hosted mode using the following three provided shell scripts:
1. projectCreator -eclipse MyProjectName
2. applicationCreator -eclipse MyProjectName com.abc.client.MyApp

By running the next shell script two windows appeared: The GWT development shell (this is kind of like a console window) and a web browser window.
3. MyApp-shell

Once you click on the 'Click me' button then a "Hello World!" string appears next to the button.

From here you can fire up eclipse and File > Import... the project and go to town with it.


There are tons of resources that Google has put up like presentations, videos, tools/libraries, articles/tutorials, ebooks, you name it.


I found "Google Web Toolkit: Taking the pain out of Ajax" by Ed Burnette to be a very helpful guide providing guidance on the GWT installation process and the creation of your first GWT app. This book covers UI elements, Remote Procedure Calls, History/Bookmarks, JNI, Internationalization (I18N), and Java Emulation.

Second, I took a look at The Google Maps API which is a great way to introduce you to the world of web mapping. When Google Maps first came out in 2005 it popularized Ajax and the Web 2.0 way of looking at web apps. With the Maps API you don’t have to worry about finding and managing your own data, installing and configuring your own server, or even creating your own cross-browser AJAX mapping framework from scratch. It’s a programmer’s delight! With a little bit of JavaScript and a few latitude/longitude points, you'll be ready to embed Google Maps in your own web pages. Amazing!

Finally, I took a look at an open source Google tool in Beta called Google Gears that aims to fix the airplane issue: a browser extension that lets developers create web applications that can run offline. Again, even though in Beta, tons of resources for developers are provided by Google including videos, developer guides, and API guides.

Where to start!