JamesBranam's Blog

NB Community Docs: Stepping Down

Hi all,

I have a big announcement to make in this blog entry, and I'll try to keep it as short as possible.

After two and a half years of managing the NetBeans Community Docs program, I've decided to step down. As a technical writer, I've been assigned duties other than NetBeans (Cloud Computing training courses), and it only makes sense to let another writer who is still writing for NetBeans take over.

There. I've said it. It's been a wonderful ride as NetBeans Community Docs Manager. I've met lots of great people, and I've made some friends for life, but it is time to pass the torch.

328 contributions from the community. You should all be very proud of what you've done, and how you've made the program such a success.

As of tomorrow, the new NetBeans Community Docs Manager will be Jeff Rubinoff. Also a blogger, I wish Jeff all the best in his tenure as manager. I wish him all the great cooperation I experienced during my time as manager.

Please join me in welcoming Jeff to the position.

So, I say goodbye to you one last time as manager of the program. Working with you has been one of the best experiences I've ever had.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 06:00PM Aug 31, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  | 

NB Community Docs: Big Change Coming

Hi all,

I wrote about a month ago about a big announcement that was coming for the NetBeans Community Docs program. Well, for a couple of reasons, the change didn't come as I had expected, but it is is coming. I'll be making the announcement in tomorrow's blog entry. So tune in.

No need to worry: The program will continue to provide high quality documentation for the NetBeans Community.

See you tomorrow.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 05:40PM Aug 30, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  | 

Vacation Time

Hi all,

Today I'm blogging from Eastern Bohemia. My Vacation starts on Monday, and I drove here to today to get a head start. Originally I had planned to do some hiking and biking with my wife, but due to a recent knee injury I won't be doing much of either. The knee should be fine in a couple of weeks. It's starting to feel a little better but can still be a little bothersome at times.

See you tomorrow.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 08:15PM Aug 29, 2009 by branajam in Personal  | 

Connection Pool Problems for MySQL/GlassFish/OpenSolaris

Hi all,

Last night I spent some time setting up a connection pool in GlassFish's admin console. Here's the backstory: I'm working on a training course for cloud computing, and as part of my module on assembling a virtual data center I ran into a few problems. I have two virtual servers running. One is running OpenSolaris and has GlassFish application server installed on it. The other is running Fedora Linux and has my MySQL database on it. The problems occurred when I tried to ping the database server from GlassFish. I got some strange messages. When a colleague of mine googled the problem, he found out that the problem was OpenSolaris specific. After downloading several .jar files the error message said weren't there, I stumbled upon the solution:

1. The solution was to copy my regular MySQL driver .jar file from my local machine to the glassfish-install/domains/domain1/lib/ext/ directory on my virtual server.
2. I typed this: scp -i mykeypair.pem ~/location/of/my.jar root@my-aws-public-dns:/glasssfish/domains/domain1/lib/ext/.
3. I then restarted GlassFish and the connection pool worked: I was able to ping my database server.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 08:20PM Aug 28, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  | 

Accessing a Remote MySQL Database from NetBeans

Hi all,

The past few months, I've been developing a course on the concepts of cloud computing and virtualization. It's coming along very well, and this week I've been working on a demo for an application in the cloud that uses a database located elsewhere in the cloud (i.e. on another virtual server). I'd thought I share the steps with you. I used MySQL, but the steps should be similar for other databases.

1. Install MySQL on the server.
2. Create a new user for MySQL: create user USERNAME identified by 'PASSWORD';
3. Grant the user access to the database: grant all privileges on DATABASE.* to USERNAME identified by 'PASSWORD';
4. Then I started up the IDE and went to the Services window, where I connected to my local MySQL database.
5. After connecting, I right-clicked the MySQL driver node and chose Connect Using.
   The New Database Connection dialog box opens.
   

   

6. Fill in the requested information and click OK.
   

   
   The database connection will appear in the Services window.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 06:36PM Aug 27, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  | 

Sun Blog Entry Number 500

Hi all,

Today I've reached an important blogging milestone: This is the 500th entry for JamesBranam's Blog. I first started this blog back in December of 2005, after talking to my colleague Geertjan. Today I have to say that it was great advice from the blogging master.

I blog about lots of things, mostly IT-related, sometimes personal. I've enjoyed blogging, and have even expanded to more blogs.

Thanks to everyone for reading this blog, and thanks for the fantastic interaction. You have made it well worth the while.

Cheers!

-James

Posted at 09:00AM Aug 16, 2009 by branajam in Sun  | 

Friends from Oregon

1 blog entry until number 500

Hi all,

Some friends from Corvallis, Oregon arrived in town last night. I met them at about 10 pm and we headed for the Old Town via Charles Bridge. It was their first time in Prague, and they were stunned by its beauty.

They even brought me an Oregon State Beavers baseball cap with the new OS logo.

I'm meeting them again this evening before they embark on another fun-filled night in Prague. And I'll be heading back home to work some more on my Cloud Concepts training course.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 03:17PM Aug 13, 2009 by branajam in Personal  | 

Setting Location of Java DB Database in NetBeans 6.7

2 blog entries until number 500

Hi all,

I have several versions of the NetBeans IDE installed on my Mac. Occasionally, I'll update to a newer version of the GlassFish application server as well. Because both NetBeans and GlassFish are constantly undergoing improvements, sometimes directories get renamed, and pesky little warning messages pop up. A couple of days ago, I got such a message, politely letting me know that the location of my Java DB database server was set incorrectly: This is what I did to correct this:

1. I went to the Services window and expanded the Databases node.
2. I right-clicked the Java DB node and chose Properties, as seen in the following image.
   
   The Java DB Properties dialog box opens.
In the dialog box, I browsed for the location of Java DB. I found it in my SUNWappserver directory.

3. I clicked OK, and then I was able to start the database server by right-clicking the Java DB node again and choosing Start Server.
   

--James

Posted at 10:56AM Aug 11, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  | 

My Blogging Assistant

3 blog entries until number 500

Hi all,

I have a new blogging assistant: my five-month-old son. He likes hanging out with me in front of the computer.

It makes blogging even more fun.

Have a nice Sunday.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 10:03AM Aug 09, 2009 by branajam in Personal  | 

AWS Experience Part 13: Deploying to GlassFish in the Cloud

4 blog entries until number 500

Hi all,

I just got a simple web application running on GlassFish on my OpenSolaris AMI. You can check it out at http://174.129.6.161:8080/HelloWeb/

Here's what I did to get there:

1. I took an existing AMI and installed Apache, JDK, Ant, and GlassFish
2. I altered the var/apache2/2.2/htdocs/index.html file by editing the text and adding a photograph. You can see it at http://174.129.6.161.
3. I opened GlassFish's Admin Console and deployed the web application. (The web app was created using NetBeans IDE 6.7.)

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 09:38AM Aug 08, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  | 

Getting Old

5 entries till my 500th blog entry.

Hi all,

These past few years, I've spent so much time in front of my computers it was bound to happen. I've been having problems reading small print. Not only on my monitor, but also in other places (books, magazines). So today I went out and bought me some reading glasses.

I've been told by a lot of people that this is completely normal, and it just proves that I'm getting older.

Yuck!

Oh well, I needed to do something, and I did. I see better, that's the main thing.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 11:15AM Aug 06, 2009 by branajam in Personal  |  Comments[3]

More About NB 6.8 M1

Hi all,

Since I blogged yesterday about NetBeans 6.8 Milestone 1 being available, the official press release has surfaced. Here it is:

The NetBeans team is pleased to announce that NetBeans IDE 6.8 Milestone 1 is now available for download.

Download NetBeans IDE 6.8 Milestone 1

Highlights of this stabilized development build include:

• Embedded Browser
• Java EE v6 support
• PHP
  • PHP 5.3.0 support
• Maven
  • Improved support for Groovy and Scala
• C/C++
  • Remote development
  • Code Assistance
• Ruby
  • JRuby bundle upgraded to 1.3.1
  • RSpec 1.2.7 support
• Jira support in Issue Tracking

Visit the NetBeans 6.8 New and Noteworthy page to learn more about all the new features and enhancements available in this milestone release. The final release of NetBeans IDE 6.8 is planned for Fall 2009.

As always, tell us what you think about the NetBeans IDE! Share your thoughts on NetBeans' mailing lists and forums. If you blog about NetBeans add your blog to Planet NetBeans. Follow NetBeans on Twitter for updates from the NetBeans team.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 09:00AM Aug 05, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[1]

NetBeans 6.8 Milestone 1 Is Available

Hi all,

NetBeans 6.8 Milestone 1 is now available.

You can get it here.

Cheers!

Posted at 09:16AM Aug 04, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[1]

AWS Experience Part 12: Frustration

Hi all,

As you already know, I've been messing around with virtual machine images on Amazon Web Services. It's been a lo of fun, but sometimes it has been very, very frustrating.

• The whole region thing is perplexing at best. When I launch an AMI in the US-East region, I usually can't access it.
• It's easy to access Fedora images, but OpenSolaris is a differen story. I can't get an OpenSolaris image to show up in my browser. Hmmmmm.
• After putting in hours of work, the image suddenly cannot be accessed. Ouch!

Cheers!

Posted at 08:22PM Aug 03, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  | 

Countdown to 500

Hi all,

I've been employed at Sun Microsystems since November 1, 2005. I've been blogging since December of the same year. Geertjan (of Geertjan's Blog) got me started, and he also kept me going until it became automatic. A lot of my colleagues have started blogs, and very few of them blog actively. It's easy to start, but it's hard to maintain if your heart isn't in it. I've grown to love blogging so much that I started three other blogs. And all of the blog entries can be seen at James' BlogCentral.

The reason for today's entry is to mark an important blogging milestone: ten more blog entries to the magical number of 500 (before this one). I'll be marking each entry with the number of entries remaining to 500 (and a small explanation).

Thanks to everyone who has been reading this blog. You've managed to make my blog one of the 50 most read Sun blogs.

Cheers!

Posted at 06:57PM Aug 02, 2009 by branajam in Personal  |