eclipse luna 4.4 - things I've done for Ubuntu 12.04 64bit

As I've reinstalled on 64bit, starting over with Eclipse, this time 4.4 Luna, here's a handler article with things I did so far, so I won't forget them:

1. .desktop file

gedit /usr/share/applications/eclipse-luna.desktop with the following content:

[Desktop Entry]

Encoding=UTF-8

Name=Eclipse

Type=Application

Comment=Eclipse Luna 4.4 64bit IDE

Exec=env UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0 SWT_GTK3=0 //eclipse -vm //java 

Icon=//icon.xpm

Categories=Application;Development;Java;IDE

Name[en]=Eclipse

Terminal=false

NoDisplay=false

2. eclipse.ini - supplementary than default provided

-Xms128m

-Xmx2048m

-Xss2m

-Xverify:none

-Duser.name=Radu Cadariu

3. ugly and non-readable tooltips

source: http://www.devsniper.com/black-tooltip-in-eclipse-on-ubuntu-12-04/

which is saying this:

sudo apt-get install gnome-color-chooser

Specific tab, you can setup background/foreground colors for tooltips. I am (also) using for foreground black(#000000), background blue(#C2DFFD)

4. ugly big tabs for Luna UI. 

source: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1465712

gedit ~/.gtkrc-2.0

style "gtkcompact" {

GtkButton::default_border={0,0,0,0}

GtkButton::default_outside_border={0,0,0,0}

GtkButtonBox::child_min_width=0

GtkButtonBox::child_min_heigth=0

GtkButtonBox::child_internal_pad_x=0

GtkButtonBox::child_internal_pad_y=0

GtkMenu::vertical-padding=1

GtkMenuBar::internal_padding=0

GtkMenuItem::horizontal_padding=4

GtkToolbar::internal-padding=0

GtkToolbar::space-size=0

GtkOptionMenu::indicator_size=0

GtkOptionMenu::indicator_spacing=0

GtkPaned::handle_size=4

GtkRange::trough_border=0

GtkRange::stepper_spacing=0

GtkScale::value_spacing=0

GtkScrolledWindow::scrollbar_spacing=0

GtkTreeView::vertical-separator=0

GtkTreeView::horizontal-separator=0

GtkTreeView::fixed-height-mode=TRUE

GtkWidget::focus_padding=0

}

class "GtkWidget" style "gtkcompact"

The 3 and 4 affects the GTK on the system, so I'll take them with a grain of salt related to changes in the overall Ubuntu UI.

Now that I have my handler, if I find more things to change, I'll get back to this entry.

quick note for my dual displays - xrandr command worth booking

so I have a laptop and another monitor, whose position was to the left, and then I positioned it to my laptop's right.

The problem was the mouse translation from laptop to the monitor, annoyance !

So I changed settings, and I got an error when trying to apply the new position.

Solution is given here:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/174195/gdbus-error-when-trying-to-enable-second-screen

Which led me to issue locally:

> xrandr --current

and then the proper command for my case:

> xrandr --output LVDS1 --auto --left-of HDMI1

and bingo, things are back to normal.

More info for fun: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Xorg_RandR_1.2

my knowledge centers - was, portal, connections, worklight

I thought these URLs looked cool, so I'm publishing here.

WAS KC:
http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSAW57/mapfiles/product_welcome_wasnd.html

Portal KC:
http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSHRKX/welcome

Connections KC:
http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSYGQH/welcome

Worklight KC:
http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSNJXP/welcome.html

Time to review some of my bookmarks ...

Start menu thought

Ever since Windows got rid of it's Start button, the world was starting to get confused. Or so I've read. 

But then, a friend of mine asked me to solve something on her Win 8 laptop, knowing that I'm a guru... ha.

And so, I couldn't but to realize that the world was right. It was confusing!

And now I'm reading that Microsoft is returning it's.... let's call it launcher?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/15/win8_start_menu_leaked_screenshot/

Linux desktop world has launchers with these minimum requirements:
- launch button.
- move it wherever on your side screen, horizontally or vertically.
- resize it, allow for larger icons etc.
- show the running apps, but also allow me to move them freely on the launcher.
- add the systray, clock time whatever else.

When looking at the mobile world (yes, for now Android), we also have launchers. Bit different than desktop, but I see two common points:
- Start somewhere on the screen!
- Allow user to change things, allow flexibility.

So, Linux Desktop moved on, mobile world moved on, maybe it's time for Windows to move on?

4 years on Ubuntu ... thoughts crossing my mind

I was checking stats on my blog when I spotted that on 6/8/10 I wrote my first impressions after I've switched to Ubuntu

4 years later, here are some thoughts:

~ I've performed one upgrade, from 10.04 to 12.04 LTS (I don't remember the details ... ha)

~ as much as all my apps (including some internal ones) are working fine on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, the same is not true for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. At this moment, I'm NOT ready to move upwards.

~ I've NEVER looked back not only to Win XP, but not even to Win 7. In fact, one friend of mine asked me to help with a Win 8 notebook, I was looking strange for 3 minutes, then I gave up. Win 7 is still manageable, Win 8 is alien. To Excel credit, there is still a need for it, which is where virtualization comes to rescue. For everything else, there's OpenOffice.

~ I'm also looking strange to Ubuntu future: Desktop / Tablets / Mobile. meh ...

~ Both Microsoft and Ubuntu should reconsider: there's no such thing as one size fits all. Give us the base OS, come up with visualization / features / usability on top, for each device. I know it's tough, but that should be the strategy. So far, on my account, both failed. But again, I might be biased, haven't bought a Win 8 mobile device, they look alien :) As for Ubuntu mobile, Mark, would you please give us back the desktop ?

Above list leads me to the current status quo: I'm stuck :) I cannot move upwards for Ubuntu 14.04, I cannot switch to Fedora (another meh ...), I won't go back to Windows. 7, of course :)

Adding another item to make things worse: the wonderful Cinnamon desktop (which I currently use under Ubuntu 12.04) lost it's apt repo, which means no more updates for me.

I'll probably reconsider Ubuntu 14.04 when I'll get my hand on another TP, so that I will not break everything .... careful with that axe Eugene ...

Edit: time to celebrate my 200th post to the blog ! let's get a beer ...

interesting healthcare.gov story

This is an article which I first spotted on Twitter, via Stephan  who retweeted this article: http://newrelic.com/healthcare-team

I'm refraining from making too much comments, I'm drafting several points coupled with my own experiences working in governmental engagements.

• when stakeholders say everything is ok, it usually is not.
• when stakeholders saw things crumbling down, they wanted to get things back on track within one week (sigh....). It took 5 months. With the team working 24/7 or something, having synergies in place and pumping adrenaline within the team. 
• having a cache added to drop response time from 8 to 2 seconds looks familiar. This point alone really shows lack of architectural decisions in the first place.

I'm missing some other technical details for adding more comments, but nevertheless that was a nice read. The only conclusion you can take is that in any project, it's not the technology that matters, but people making it work. 

Oh and yes, the industry should add another role in projects: troubleshooter. 

added twitter timeline to this blog

I added a Twitter widget to this blog, from my timeline. I find myself ranting on Twitter faster.

Also, interesting enough for me, this is the first post on the blog written from the mobile app Blogger (by Google), which I discovered a while back. So possibly my blog entries will get shorter.  Or not...

so long InfoCenters, welcome KnowledgeCenter

I was stoked 5 minutes ago when I spotted in an article that the well known IBM Infocenters will probably fade away. How come such big news for IBM techies did NOT get noticed ? Almost everyone I know in IBM's world complained about the Infocenter, not necessary it's looks, but mostly it's content (and I might add Chrome browser compatibility)

No matter what IBM's product you were faced to learn/master, you'd have to know what Infocenter means. It's almost a brand, they should keep it :)

The good news is that the new Knowledge Center seems faster: http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter

About the content quality and breadth ... we'll have to see, I maintain my confidence in the power of community contributing to DevWorks and Portal wikis

Worklight 6.1 Studio - linux drill

With my recent downfall into Worklight and understanding the mobile landscape, I installed Worklight 6.1 Studio on my Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 32bit.

After the install ( Eclipse Juno and WL 6.1 plugins ) I started to look around and here's the picture I've got:

a) Eclipse Juno, WL 6.1, WAS LP 8.5.x, IBM's JDK 1.6 forms the local environment which allows one developer to do the work.

Then the developer discovers Google's ADT, ADB and wonders how the heck can he build the Android .apk for the Worklight application

b) Enter ADT plugin for Eclipse, which brings in Adroid SDKs and Android Virtual Devices, with it's tooling. But these require (Sun) Oracle JDK.

So the dilemma here is: how can one developer keep Eclipse Juno with IBM's JDK, while building the Android app with Oracle JDK.

One solution might be creating two Eclipse Juno environments, one with WL 6.1 Studio, another with ADT plugin, both loading the same project. I am yet to test this.

The frustrating thing for Linux Eclipse Juno users (where I discovered the solution in a forum) is that eclipse.ini has to specify Oracle's JDK this form, and this form only [notice the lack of java binary]

-vm
/usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.7.0_51/bin