Arun Gupta, Miles to go ...

Goodbye 2006, Welcome 2007

Last day of 2006 and a lot got accomplished, either directly or indirectly, during the year:

• Web Services Interoperability Technology (WSIT) is making interoperability between Java- and .NET 3.0-based Web services a reality. A stable version of WSIT is available via GlassFish and a nightly version can be downloaded here. Two milestones were released with an astounding success at different plug-fests.
• Java API for XML Web Services 2.1 (JSR 224) was approved by the JCP. The WS-Addressing, initially supported through JSR 261, was then subsumed within JSR 224.
• jMaki beta 2, an Ajax framework that provides a light weight framework for creating JavaScript centric Ajax-enabled web applications using Java, PHP and Phobos, was released recently.
• NetBeans went through a year of multiple releases and awards (NetBeans 5.0, 5.5 Beta, 6.0 Milestone 5, JDJ Editors Choice Award and many other achievements).
• Java SE 6 was released earlier this month. Easy to use Web services APIs and Scripting support in Java applications are my two most favorite features. Check Danny's blog for top 10 new features in JavaSE 6 to upgrade.
• GlassFish v2 Milestone 3 was released earlier this month and well on it's way to become the most feature rich, easy to use and highly performant open source App server, ever.

On a personal front ...

• I made my first JavaOne keynote appearance showing WSIT and Windows Communication Foundation interoperability. 
• I ran almost 850 miles in the year, completed my first marathon and looking forward to next one.
• I bought a new Nikon D80 and plan to improve my photographic skills.
• And last but not the least, "I" won the Time person of the year award - 2006. Wikipedia, MySpace, YouTube and many others belongs to a breed of "social experiment" technologies that is changing the way people are interacting with each other. Here is a small table that shows the number of blog entries I posted during the past two years on my two blogs:
  

  	2005	2006
  blogs.sun.com/arungupta	24	95 (including this)
  weblogs.java.net/blog/arungupta	46	61 (including this)
  Total	70	156

  The number of entries I posted doubled over the past year, the strength of GlassFish, WSIT, JAX-WS and NetBeans community increased tremendously, helped one another for nothing, and building open source software is that's what this "social experiment" is all about. This is what is "founding and framing the digital democracy".

This is by no means an exhaustive list of accomplishments either by Sun Microsystems or any other group within Sun. This is only an attempt to capture how and where I spent my time last year. There are still miles to go and a lot to be done. Today is the last day of 2006 and I'm ready for 2007.

Welcome 2007 and a very happy new year!!!

_{Technorati: HappyNewYear 2006 2007 WSIT GlassFish Marathon Ajax JAX-WS NetBeans}

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Scary advertisement

One scary advertisement of Microsoft Live Meeting

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More christmas light displays

As mentioned earlier, I've uploaded some new (all from Santa Clara homes) holiday lighting photographs here.

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Christmas lighting in bay area

This is the holiday season in the United States and Christmas lighting can be enjoyed through out the San Francisco Bay Area. San Jose Mercury News has an interactive map that shows the venue of holiday lights (original article here). Check out some pictures (mostly at Fulton Street in Palo Alto) I took on the Christmas night. A greater bay area holiday light map is also available at www.lightsofthevalley.com/communities.htm.

I'm enjoying my recently bought Nikon D80, these photos specifically were not at all possible without the tripod. I'll post more as I visit more during the remainder of the week.

_{Technorati: christmaslights sanfranciscobayarea holidays nikond80 photography}

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Nikon D80 resources

I've started playing with my camera in the past few days and here is a collection of resources that I've found helpful:

1. Nikon D80 Landing page
2. Nikon USA English-language manual
3. Nikon Corp D80 Digitutor, interactive tutorial and excellent for all levels.
4. D80 Users Group at nikonians.org: Great resource on a wide variety of topics ranging from product reviews, personal experiences, how-tos, glossary, and much more. The facility to post your question to multiple Nikon users (all levels) is extremely useful. It helped me to gain confidence in my purchase. 

These four links should provide enough material to explore (and exploit) the camera. Few more links for digital SLR beginners (like me) :

1. Although Enjoy! Digital SLR Cameras is by Canon but Part 1 & 2 cover the basics very well. Part 3 & 4 uses Canon cameras for showing some of the options but explain the concepts in simple language using pictures for different settings.
2. A basic knowledge about how Shutter speed (time for which the shutter is held open to allow the light to reach the sensor), Aperture (hole or light through which light is admitted), Film speed (a.k.a. ISO speed), Depth of field (distance in front of and beyond the subject that appears to be in focus), Exposure (total amount of light allowed to fall on sensor), Image sensor (device that converts visual image to an electrical signal, an array of CCDs in digital cameras), and White balance (a.k.a. Color temperature) work with each other can make all the difference in capturing great photographs. Three gateways of light explains the relationship between shutter speed, aperture and ISO speed.
3. Knowing the difference between Optical vs Digital zoom is only relevant for compact digital cameras. For digital (or any) SLR, digital zoom can be performed during post processing using any image editing software. 

This page shows a picture taken with different apertures. A lower aperture is indicated by a higher f/ number (or broader depth-of-field) and vice versa. This page shows the effect of shutter speed on a picture.

_{Technorati: nikon d80 nikon digital photography dslr tips}

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Aquarium Photography Tips

Took our son to Monterey Bay Aquarium earlier today so here are some tips that I read before going. I'll post a blog later with photos and usefulness of these tips in terms of my experience. 

General tips for aquarium photography

1. NEVER use built-in flash. If possible, use external light from the top and/or the sides, but not from front of the tank. Otherwise use only tank lighting.
2. Slow shutter speed or larger aperture (smaller depth-of-field), higher ISO, and manual focus.
   1. Consider using smaller aperture (higher depth-of-field) so that fish movements can be captured.
   2. Use burst shooting when the fish is in the sweet spot.
3. Use a tripod, especially for close up or macro photos (use the "Digital Vari-Program Macro", tulip on the left side command dial, mode).
4. Place the camera perpendicular to the glass and subject.
5. If taking picture of a fish, focus on a spot and wait for it swim into view.
6. Take more than one picture so that you can select the best.
7. Live plants, rocks, driftwood and gravel are the best backgrounds. Make sure you conceal any electric cords or air tubing away from sight.

If possible, follow the guidelines below 

1. Clean the aquarium glass from both inside and outside.
2. Completely darken the room to help avoid reflections.
3. It is always best to take pictures in the highest setting/best quality possible, if you have enough spare cards.

Here are some of the articles I read:

1. Basics on Aquarium Photography
2. Photo tips by Janet Brassard
3. Techniques for Aquarium Photograph
4. The Art of Aquarium Photography
5. Rules of Aquarium photography

_{Technorati: nikon d80 digital photography aquariumphotography dslr tips}

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WSIT at TheServerSide

Read about WSIT at The Server Side Interoperability Blog.

Technorati: WSIT GlassFish Web Services Interoperability WCF Indigo

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Youtube - Indian version

Check out MeraVideo and ApnaTube - Indian versions of youtube. Read/listen interview of MeraVideo.com founder. I found regular pauses in ApnaTube streaming but no such issues in MeraVideo though. Most of the videos, on both the sites, were not original though.

_{Technorati: youtube india meravideo apnatube}

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Why I bought Nikon D80 ?

I've been looking around for a new digital camera for past few days as my original camera died. Initially I was looking for a compact digital camera (with second thoughts on digital SLR) and narrowed down my search to Nikon Coolpix S10 (impressive 10x optical zoom) and Canon SD 800. They both are great cameras but I did not like Coolpix S10 mainly because of the swivel design of lens (it has advantages but I'd rather have one less mechanical moving part) and non-uniform thickness of the camera. Canon SD 800 is a one of the finest in compact segment but has very limited manual controls, specially manual focus. 

So I prepared a list of features that I need:

1. Faster operation: Instant startup (less than a second), focuses and takes photo quickly
2. Capture fast moving action + continuous shooting (aka rapid fire shooting or burst shooting)
3. Fully automatic + complete manual control in case I need to exploit
4. Good resolution: at least 6-8 MP, more is ok
5. Reuse the zoom lens (Sigma 100-300mm F4.5-6.7 UC) and filters bought for Nikon N70

#1 - #3 features are must, #4 is very common these days and #5 restricted my choice to Nikon. And after all Nikon is a well established name in cameras and offers wide variety in digital cameras so I consider it a safe bet (another personal reason listed below). After preparing the feature list, it was evident that features #1, #2 and #3 are not supported by digital compact cameras. Prosumer digital compact cameras (PROfessional features + conSUMER body) offer burst shooting but it's tend to give blurry pictures because of the slow focusing ability. So I decided to purchase a digital SLR which can serve the required functionality.

Nikon D200 is a great camera targeted at professionals but is slightly on the expensive side (approx $2000). D40 is released last month, cheap but can only Auto Focus with lenses that have built-in focus motors (my existing lenses are not motorized). Nikon D70s is now replaced with D80. The Nikon 18-135 mm lens offers outstanding performance and, according to a local camera store, often far better than the cheaper lenses shipped in other kits. D70s is a discontinued model and D80 is a great upgrade for D50. My brother (who is an advanced photographer) also has a D80 (this is the personal reason) and very happy with the results. So the combined effect is that I narrowed down my choice to D80. The internet prices range from $1180 - $1300 but I finally bought it yesterday from CircuitCity.com for $1214 (not a huge price difference from internet and the store is 5 minutes drive from my home). Christmas arrived a few days early for me this year

dpreview.com has an in-depth review of the camera (make sure to select different options from the list box). Here is another excellent review from a user and provides comparison with D50/D70 and D200. A non-technical review by a user, although concise, is helpful. D80 Users Group (spanning 140 countries with approx 40,000 photographers visiting daily) has interesting discussions related to the camera. The digital cameras can be compared side-by-side if you are interested in matching the feature sets.

This camera has everything I need:

1. 0.18 sec start-up, 80ms shutter speed and sophisticated AF system better suited for fast action photos
2. 3 frames per second and up to 100 consecutive JPEG images
3. Fully automatic, including different modes, and complete manual control (more than what I need and so is extensible) 
4. 10.1 MP
5. Supports Nikon F Mount for my existing lens

Watch and learn Digitutor (look for the button on the page) is an excellent interactive tutorial to learn about D80 features. I'll play with the camera over next few days and, in the process, also revise my photography skills.

_{Technorati: nikon d80 digital photography dslr nikon shopping}

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Firefox 1.5.0->2.0 update error

I was updating Firefox on my home machine from 1.5.0.8 to 2.0 and got the following window:

Notice the "(null)"  highlighted in red. The installation went fine but it seems like somehow Firefox got confused between the version numbers. Actually my browser is configured for auto updates so 1.5.0.9 was downloaded and expected the browser to be restarted. But I downloaded 2.0 and installed that instead. So seems like Firefox lost track of version numbers in that process.

I can use the browser fine on my machine without any problem though.

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Syndication, Aggregation & Protocols

In my previous Web 2.0-related blogs, I talked about What is Web 2.0 ?, What is AJAX ? and AJAX: jMaki Framework. Switching gears, this blog will talk about another technology that enable the principles of Web 2.0, i.e. RSS/Atom.

Lets begin with English meaning of the terms "syndication" and "aggregator" first. 

Syndication means:  "The act of syndicating a news feature by publishing it in multiple newspapers etc simultaneously"

Aggregator means: "An online feed reader, generally used for RSS or Atom feeds to keep track of updates to blogs, news sources, and other websites"

Any content over the web, that changes frequently or at irregular intervals, needs a mechanism to inform it's audience about the updates. RSS and Atom are XML formats designed to generate "syndicated feeds" to publish such frequently updated content. Each feed contain details about the title, a short summary, link to the detailed entry and metadata. This content could be either the entire website or, more interestingly, just a specific section of the website targeted towards an audience. The audience of the content uses "feed aggregator" to fetch the feeds, organize the results, and read the contents. is the standard way to identify syndicated content. The XML format defined by RSS and Atom is really simple leading to it's exponential growth (also 1, 2, 3)  in the recent years.

A detailed history of how RSS evolved over multiple versions, in the past 7 years, is available here. A concise history, with a tabular difference of different RSS versions, is available here. RSS 2.0 is the most feature rich version and stands for "Really Simple Syndication". It defines an XML format to publish frequently updated content of your website. An non technical introduction to RSS explains how RSS feed is generated. For example, an RSS feed to my blog is given below. This feed cannot be directly viewed in the browser (both Firefox 1.5.x+ or IE6) as they both have a default stylesheet that displays it nicely formatted in HTML. The XML data (as shown below) behind the feed can be viewed using "View Source" option on the page. 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="http://blogs.sun.com/roller-ui/styles/rss.xsl" media="screen"?>
<rss version="2.0" 
 xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
 xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" >
<channel>
 <title>Miles to go ...</title>
 <link>http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/</link>
 <atom:link rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" href="$url.feed.entries.rss($model.categoryPath, $model.excerpts)" />
 <description>Arun Gupta&apos;s Weblog</description>
 <language>en-us</language>
 <copyright>Copyright 2006</copyright>
 <lastBuildDate>Tue, 19 Dec 2006 11:10:03 -0800</lastBuildDate>
 <generator>Apache Roller (incubating) 3.2-dev(20061208101134:ag92114)</generator>
 <item>
   <guid isPermaLink="true">http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/running_san_francisco_marathon_2007</guid>
   <title>Running San Francisco Marathon 2007</title>
   <dc:creator>Arun Gupta</dc:creator>
   <link>http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/running_san_francisco_marathon_2007</link>
   <pubDate>Tue, 19 Dec 2006 10:34:09 -0800</pubDate>
   <category>Running</category>
   <category>marathon</category>
   <category>running</category>
     <description>As if one marathon was not

During the history of RSS, there were multiple versions (0.90, 0.91, 0.92, 0.93, 1.0, and 2.0) all of which had shortcomings and multiple incompatibilties. To overcome the political (different camps own these versions and claiming to be correct) and technical difficulties, Atom syndication format was published as an IETF "proposed standard" (IETF terminlogy defined by RFC 2026) in RFC 2487.  Like RSS, Atom also defines an XML format to public frequently updated content of your website. For example, an Atom feed to my blog (viewed using "View Source" option) looks like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding='utf-8'?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="http://blogs.sun.com/roller-ui/styles/atom.xsl" media="screen"?><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
   <title type="html">Miles to go ...</title>
   <subtitle type="html">Arun Gupta&apos;s Weblog</subtitle>
   <id>http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/feed/entries/atom</id>
   <link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="$url.feed.entries.atom($model.categoryPath, $model.excerpts)" />
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/" />
   <updated>2006-12-19T11:10:03-08:00</updated>
   <generator uri="http://rollerweblogger.org" version="3.2-dev(20061208101134:ag92114)">Apache Roller (incubating)</generator>
    <entry>
       <id>http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/running_san_francisco_marathon_2007</id>
       <title type="html">Running San Francisco Marathon 2007</title>
       <author><name>Arun Gupta</name></author>
       <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/running_san_francisco_marathon_2007"/>
       <published>2006-12-19T10:34:09-08:00</published>
       <updated>2006-12-19T10:34:09-08:00</updated>
       <category term="/Running" label="Running" />
       <category term="marathon" scheme="http://rollerweblogger.org/ns/tags/" />
       <category term="running" scheme="http://rollerweblogger.org/ns/tags/" />
       <content type="html">As if one marathon was not

A comprehensive comparison of Atom 1.0 and RSS 2.0 highlights the differences between two formats. The key difference between the two formats is given below:

• The biggest complaint about RSS is that the format is "lossy" and does not preserve the type of data. Atom maintains the type and therefore allows wider variety of payloads.
• RSS 2.0 specification is copyrighted and frozen. Atom 1.0 is published as a "proposed standard" in IETF and is extensible.
• RSS 2.0 feeds cannot be auto-discovered. Atom feeds can be auto-discovered using IANA-registered MIME type application/atom+xml.
• RSS 2.0 supports no schema. Atom 1.0 includes RelaxNG schema that allows checking for validity of data.

As evident, Atom has some significant advantages over RSS 2.0 and is now more commonly used. For example weblogs.java.net (based on Moveable Type) and blogs.sun.com (based on Roller) both offer Atom 1.0 feeds. Bloglines, the most popular web-based aggregator, supports all the RSS and Atom formats. A known list of Atom 1.0 consumers and  Atom 1.0 Feeds shows the growing adoption of Atom 1.0.

Blogging, news content syndication, podcasting are the most common usage of syndication/aggregation. 

In my next blog, I'll talk about Rome and how it makes it easy to work in Java with most syndication formats.

_{Technorati: Blogging Syndication Aggregation Feeds RSS Atom Web 2.0 Technology}

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Running San Francisco Marathon 2007

As if one marathon was not enough, I registered for San Francisco Marathon scheduled for Jul 29, 2007. I was thinking of delaying the the registration a few days but Tier 1 is already sold out and I don't want to miss out the option of running on Golden Gate Bridge, yet again. After all, San Francisco is #1 running city.

15,000 runners are expected . The first half is always the fun part and there are cheer stations and music stations planned almost each mile during the second half. I plan to start practice next month and I'll definitely need to practice lots of hill runs. From my previous half marathon experience, miles 10-12 were really steep. The course description gives you an idea of all the beautiful landmarks (Fishermans's Wharf, San Francisco Bay, Marina, Presidio, Golden Gate Park and many others) crossed during the run, well it's 26.2 miles so gotta cover good part of the city

And I found a buddy at work who has done multiple Boston Marathon and a PR of 2:28. This is going to be fun!

Check out the holiday survival guide to watch those extra pounds and squeezing your runs to survive this merry season.

Posted by Arun Gupta in Running  |  Comments[4]

Meaning of del.icio.us

I've always been wondering the meaning of dots in del.icio.us. The wikipedia entry explains it well:

The del.icio.us domain name is a popular example of a domain hack, an unconventional combination of letters to form a common word or phrase. del.icio.us, though not the first domain of this nature, is the best-known and most frequently accessed domain hack, and the Yahoo! acquisition is the highest-profile acquisition of a domain in this category. However, delicious.com also redirects to the del.icio.us website.

_{Technorati: del.icio.us wikipedia}

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Web services native support in Java6

A new thread started on TheServerSide prompted by Dims post on "Why bundling JAX-WS in Java6 was a bad idea!". Let me explain why I don't agree.

 I still remember JavaOne 2005 technical keynote getting applauds from everybody when bundling Web services in Java6 was announced. An approximate 5000 developer audience thrilled that Web services will be available natively in Java6.

JAX-WS 2.0 is a JCP standard (JSR 224) that enables Web services support in a standard way. Here are some of the salient features:

• Supports SOAP-based and REST-based services
• Supports both Java-first and WSDL-first programming model equally
• Enables POJO-based Web services
• Descriptor free programming
• Uses industry proven JAXB RI for data binding
• Integrated with NetBeans 5.5 hiding all the tools/config details
• Tested extensively for interoperability

Mainly because of timing constraints, JAX-WS 2.0 (and not 2.1) was included in Java6. However the currently bundled JAX-WS implementation is very powerful and allows you to develop/invoke SOAP-based and REST-based services. If you want to enable different WS-* specifications (such as WS-Security, WS-Reliable Messaging and WS-Secure Conversation) then you can download WSIT builds and configure them on Java6 (another blog on that later) and there by WSIT-ifying your Java6.

Web services and Scripting are the two most talked about features in Java6 as is evident by a short list of links below (there are many more):

• See What's New in Java SE 6 (FTPOnline)
• Java SE 6 Tries Smaller Footprint, JavaScript Support (BetaNews)
• Sun Goes Multilingual with Java SE 6 (PCWorld)
• Is the new Java SE 6 more SOA-friendly than Java EE 5? (SearchWebServices)
• Sun Releases Java 6 (Baseline)
• Sun releases Java SE 6 (Computer Business Online)
• Sun Unveils Java SE 6 (Internet News)
• Sun Releases Java Platform Standard Edition 6 (Application Development Trends)
• Sun Releases Upgrade Of Java Platform Standard Edition (Information Week)

In all, I strongly believe, more as a technology user, that adding basic Web services support to Java6 is the first step. There is always a balance between providing an out-of-the-box experience or asking them to download additional stuff and go through configuration. I believe in simplicity and that's what we have tried to achieve by adding Web services support in Java6. You'll see more sophisticated additions in the versions to come.

_{Technorati: Java6 JDK JAX-WS Web Services}

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Roller, Sun and Web 2.0 tags

blogs.sun.com (the blogosphere of all Sun employees) allows each blog entry to be directly posted to a social bookmarking website, for example submit them to del.icio.us, dig them on Digg, discuss on Slashdot and other Web 2.0 sites. And it enables that by providing additional macros that can be specified in the page template. Once the macros are saved to the page template and the blog page is refreshed, all entries are updated with an icon and a link for the website. For example, going forward all my blog entries here will have an icon and link to del.icio.us (social bookmarking), furl (personal web archive), simpy (social bookmarking), slashdot (news for nerds), technorati (blog search engine), and digg (community-based popularity website). If you are a Sun employee, send me an email and I'll send you the instructions to include these icons in your blog. 

Yet another way Sun has embraced Web 2.0.

_{Technorati: Web 2.0 Roller Social bookmarking}

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