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.