Escape from boredom

Currently testing the Maven JMeter Plugin developed by Ron Alleva. Did some testing, but quite soon got an error like the one mentioned in the comments of his post

2010/01/19 16:42:45 ERROR – jmeter.JMeter: java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.apache.jmeter.gui.tree.JMeterTreeModel.
addSubTree(JMeterTreeModel.java:91)

A bit of struggle to actually find it, since I’m new both to Maven and diving into Open Source-code, but after I had a quick look into the code of both the actual plugin and JMeter itself it came clear that the problem was ClassNotFoundException related to Apache Commons LogFactory. With great help from Kaja I just added the following code to the POM-file


<dependency>
<groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
<artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
<version>1.1.1</version>
</dependency>


Updated my repository and voila, test running…

Quite simple to install VmWare-player, just follow the guide available here http://ubuntuguide.net/how-to-install-vmware-player-in-ubuntu-9-10. But note, if the installer hangs like it did for me, kill the installer (I did a reboot), then follow this steps http://my.opera.com/titzesan/blog/ubuntu-9-10-installing-vmware-player-2-5-3 Voila, installed and running flawlessly.

I thought I had created a blog post about this issue already, but was not able to find any information when I desperately needed to find the port number used to access the admin console of my local WAS installation. Anyhow, the trick is the file serverindex.xml

You will find the file in the directory located at
<AppServerRoot>\profiles\AppSrv01\config\cells\<cellname>\nodes\<nodename>\

So I found my console at http://localhost:9060/ibm/console/

See the InfoCenter for more information

I found this guide on how to mount your cell phone using bluetooth, in my case a Nokia 6280. I got an error when I tried to run the command “sudo modprobe fuse”, but it turned out that I could just skip it. Neath…!

Have been struggling quite hard (at least on my level it was hard (Jackass på lavt nivå )) to enable my installation of Linux to read from my Polar 725x heart rate monitor but now I have raised the white flag. Since I’m not a c-programmer or a hardcore Unix/Linux administrator I must admit that I find really hard to struggle with low level IR-issues combined with the need to run make to install the software that should read the exercises. And when that is done, I must install another application to view the data.

I think my next option will be to try out Windows XP running on a VmWare-image, or worst of it all…dual boot…annoying because it would just be because of the Polar SW not running on Linux.

…a bit angry since I actually got to install s710, and by using irdadump I know that my laptop and the watch are communicating. But running the Polar Protrainer on Linux using Wine enables all features except the use of IR…doh! I’ve seen some postings of people who has managed that as well, but that is far beyond my level of knowledge. Sometimes Open Source is not as open as people say it is…ok, I know how to read the code, but my God it is a long way before I can do anything with it…

Struggled to figure out how I could get the IR-port to function. It turned out that the port was functioning but I needed to send some data. Unlike Win XP which had a pop-up whenever a IR device was present, my Ubuntu installation have no such. Some struggeling, but I found this tutorial http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1753177&postcount=4 The command “ircp -r” saved me and I could transfer a picture from my cell phone to the laptop via IR.

Based on the guideline found at http://www.spotify.com/en/help/faq/wine/ I tried to do the same with my Cd collector program which they for some reason have decided not to make a Linux version of.

With Wine installed I downloaded the installation file from http://www.collectorz.com/music/download.php

Then I just ran “wine musiccollectorsetup_13327937.exe”, plain and simple. Wine creates some errormessages, but it was no showstoppers.

Started it by clicking on the icon on the desktop. The first time I tried to scan a cd I got a small problem, since the CD-drive did not show up. But that was solved easily with closing the application, then open “Configure Wine”. Go to the “drives”-tab, then choose Autodetect and remember to click “Apply”. The next time I tried it worked flawless.

And if your CD drive won’t open, check out this posting http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=30509 Just right-click the icon and “eject”.

Yesterday I finally decided to take the time to install Linux on my Lenovo T60. Intentionally I planned to have two distros, one which just fires a browser and another one which offers a fullblown OS. But I got tired of trying to find a suitable small distro, also knowing that wireless can be troublesome with some of them, I decided to just go for Ubuntu 9.10. The whole process of downloading and installing was done in less than two hours. I threw out Windows XP completely, no dual boot, planning to use Wine instead to run the few Windows applications I need (or maybe if everything fails, just use a VmWare image).

First I installed using Norwegian locale, but realized that I really does not enjoy Norwegian language on my computer, so I followed this guideline and in just a few minutes and a reboot everything is in English now. Quite fancy I must say, Ubuntu even changed the names of my folders “Skrivebord” –> “Desktop”…fancy I must say!

Connecting to my wireless was the thing I feared the most, but that has also become very easy. The drivers for my T60 is now part of the kernel, and when I just figured out where to click to connect to wireless it was done in just a minute or so.

Want to do more today, but since I’m sick at home I most of all want to sleep 🙂

Developerworks have made an overview of the top 15 DW WebSphere articles of 2009, found this compilation from the Top 100 of 2009: developerWorks articles (and other favorite things) compilation. Lots of interesting stuff if you are in to stuff not only related just to IBM HW/SW, but also pure Java.

I just spent five minutes reading the article written by Tom Alcott The WebSphere Contrarian: Less might be more when tuning WebSphere Application Server

Aggressive tuning doesn’t always equate with improved application performance. This installment of The WebSphere® Contrarian discusses why this is the case and provides some high level performance tuning guidance.

Recommend reading that article, and then really dive into the details with selecting one of the top 15 articles: Case study: Tuning WebSphere Application Server V7 for performance

Currently my Lenovo T60 is reeeeaaaaly slow, my old Windows XP installation is slow due to way to many services running, a huge amount of software which I needed before, but no longer, installed and so on. To get the startup time down from about ten minutes to at least three I must do something drastically. And that includes running Linux and not XP anymore. But I have some challenges, I do have some software that I’m not sure how to run on Linux, this being:

• Polar software for my Polar 725X. Currently no easy option for this, check out http://forum.polar.fi/showthread.php?t=76
• Music Collector, only Windows available. And since the database is a proprietary format it is not easy to export and import the content in a similar software running on Linux. I guess I can use the option of exporting it all to XML and then try to import it, but some valuable information will get lost I’m sure. Anyway, Music Collector should not be that hard to run using Wine compared to Polar, since it does not need any IR.
• Canon software for my Canon FS11. Think this would be the easiest to get around, but still – I do not know how yet.

All other software I’m using on Windows will have competitive Linux-software, so apart from the above mentioned challenges I’m better off with Linux.

But, there is always a but. Tried Ubuntu before, but got into trouble with the wireless card on my T60. Hopefully this is not a problem anymore thanks to the Intel Wireless Wifi Link-project. The driver is supported in mainline kernel so this should be no problem anymore.

If you have any input to me on my issues, plz contact me 🙂