Archive for December, 2005

Deco30

Christian Decker

1

Installing openSuSe

For some time now my SuSe Linux 9.2 Professional installation has become slower and slower, partly because I filled it up with programs and partly because I messed around with the X-Server and KDE. I was pretty new to Linux and so I had some problems learning how things are done the Linux Way :-)

Now I think I could manage a Linux System and keep it clean from birth to death (of the Notebook, not the OS :-D )

I got a bit pissed off with SuSe because of the problems I had, and was therefore looking for another distro, but then I found openSuSe which looks nice and I can keep some features I really like in SuSe:

  • SCPM: Profile Switching has never been as easy as with this tool.
  • Yast: Although I started to hate its slowness, it’s a really good tool, aggregating all the functionality in a single place.
Backing up my stuff

Before starting the installation I had to back my stuff up, especially the crucial data such as Thunderbird mail folder and Firefox settings. I just copied my entire homefolder to another machine, I’ll only have to remember not to overwrite some hidden folders (like the .kde folder…) when copying back.

Software list

Now it’s time to decide what to install. There are a few applications I absolutely need:

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Deco28

Christian Decker

1

Country Selection Box

One of the most boring stuff a programmer will ever have to write is a selection list for countries. It’s just a tedious, neverending work that takes a lot of time for no effect. So here comes a snippet, I would have been gratefull if I’d found it ready on the web emoticon

  <label for="country">Country</label>
  <select name="country">
	<option value="  " selected>(please select a country)</option>
	<option value="--">none</option>
	<option value="AF">Afghanistan </option>
	<option value="AL">Albania </option>
	<option value="DZ">Algeria </option>
	<option value="AS">American Samoa</option>
	<option value="AD">Andorra </option>
	<option value="AO">Angola</option>
	<option value="AI">Anguilla</option>
	<option value="AQ">Antarctica</option>
	<option value="AG">Antigua and Barbuda</option> 
	<option value="AR">Argentina </option>
	<option value="AM">Armenia </option>
	<option value="AW">Aruba </option>
	<option value="AU">Australia </option>
	<option value="AT">Austria </option>
	<option value="AZ">Azerbaijan</option>
	<option value="BS">Bahamas </option>
	<option value="BH">Bahrain </option>
	<option value="BD">Bangladesh</option>
	<option value="BB">Barbados</option>
	<option value="BY">Belarus </option>
	<option value="BE">Belgium </option>
	<option value="BZ">Belize</option>
	<option value="BJ">Benin </option>
	<option value="BM">Bermuda </option>
	<option value="BT">Bhutan</option>
	<option value="BO">Bolivia </option>
	<option value="BA">Bosnia and Herzegowina</option>
	<option value="BW">Botswana</option>
	<option value="BV">Bouvet Island </option>
	<option value="BR">Brazil</option>
	<option value="IO">British Indian Ocean Territory</option>
	<option value="BN">Brunei Darussalam </option>
	<option value="BG">Bulgaria</option>
	<option value="BF">Burkina Faso</option>
	<option value="BI">Burundi </option>
	<option value="KH">Cambodia</option>
	<option value="CM">Cameroon</option>
	<option value="CA">Canada</option>
	<option value="CV">Cape Verde</option>
	<option value="KY">Cayman Islands</option>
	<option value="CF">Central African Republic</option>
	<option value="TD">Chad</option>
	<option value="CL">Chile </option>
	<option value="CN">China </option>
	<option value="CX">Christmas Island</option>
	<option value="CC">Cocos (Keeling) Islands </option>
	<option value="CO">Colombia</option>
	<option value="KM">Comoros </option>
	<option value="CG">Congo </option>
	<option value="CD">Congo, the Democratic Republic of the</option>
	<option value="CK">Cook Islands</option>
	<option value="CR">Costa Rica</option>
	<option value="CI">Cote d'Ivoire</option>
	<option value="HR">Croatia (Hrvatska)</option>
	<option value="CU">Cuba</option>
	<option value="CY">Cyprus</option>
	<option value="CZ">Czech Republic</option>
	<option value="DK">Denmark</option>
	<option value="DJ">Djibouti</option>
	<option value="DM">Dominica</option>
	<option value="DO">Dominican Republic</option>
	<option value="TP">East Timor</option>
	<option value="EC">Ecuador</option>
	<option value="EG">Egypt</option>
	<option value="SV">El Salvador</option>
	<option value="GQ">Equatorial Guinea</option>
	<option value="ER">Eritrea</option>
	<option value="EE">Estonia</option>
	<option value="ET">Ethiopia</option>
	<option value="FK">Falkland Islands (Malvinas) </option>
	<option value="FO">Faroe Islands </option>
	<option value="FJ">Fiji</option>
	<option value="FI">Finland </option>
	<option value="FR">France</option>
	<option value="FX">France, Metropolitan</option>
	<option value="GF">French Guiana </option>
	<option value="PF">French Polynesia</option>
	<option value="TF">French Southern Territories</option> 
	<option value="GA">Gabon </option>
	<option value="GM">Gambia</option>
	<option value="GE">Georgia </option>
	<option value="DE">Germany </option>
	<option value="GH">Ghana </option>
	<option value="GI">Gibraltar </option>
	<option value="GR">Greece</option>
	<option value="GL">Greenland </option>
	<option value="GD">Grenada </option>
	<option value="GP">Guadeloupe</option>
	<option value="GU">Guam</option>
	<option value="GT">Guatemala </option>
	<option value="GN">Guinea</option>
	<option value="GW">Guinea-Bissau </option>
	<option value="GY">Guyana</option>
	<option value="HT">Haiti </option>
	<option value="HM">Heard and Mc Donald Islands</option>
	<option value="VA">Holy See (Vatican City State)</option>
	<option value="HN">Honduras</option>
	<option value="HK">Hong Kong </option>
	<option value="HU">Hungary </option>
	<option value="IS">Iceland </option>
	<option value="IN">India </option>
	<option value="ID">Indonesia </option>
	<option value="IR">Iran (Islamic Republic of)</option>
	<option value="IQ">Iraq</option>
	<option value="IE">Ireland </option>
	<option value="IL">Israel</option>
	<option value="IT">Italy </option>
	<option value="JM">Jamaica </option>
	<option value="JP">Japan </option>
	<option value="JO">Jordan</option>
	<option value="KZ">Kazakhstan</option>
	<option value="KE">Kenya </option>
	<option value="KI">Kiribati</option>
	<option value="KP">Korea, Democratic People's Republic of</option>
	<option value="KR">Korea, Republic of</option>
	<option value="KW">Kuwait</option>
	<option value="KG">Kyrgyzstan</option>
	<option value="LA">Lao People's Democratic Republic</option>
	<option value="LV">Latvia</option>
	<option value="LB">Lebanon </option>
	<option value="LS">Lesotho </option>
	<option value="LR">Liberia </option>
	<option value="LY">Libyan Arab Jamahiriya</option>
	<option value="LI">Liechtenstein </option>
	<option value="LT">Lithuania </option>
	<option value="LU">Luxembourg</option>
	<option value="MO">Macau </option>
	<option value="MK">Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of</option>
	<option value="MG">Madagascar</option>
	<option value="MW">Malawi</option>
	<option value="MY">Malaysia</option>
	<option value="MV">Maldives</option>
	<option value="ML">Mali</option>
	<option value="MT">Malta </option>
	<option value="MH">Marshall Islands</option>
	<option value="MQ">Martinique</option>
	<option value="MR">Mauritania</option>
	<option value="MU">Mauritius </option>
	<option value="YT">Mayotte </option>
	<option value="MX">Mexico</option>
	<option value="FM">Micronesia, Federated States of</option>
	<option value="MD">Moldova, Republic of</option>
	<option value="MC">Monaco</option>
	<option value="MN">Mongolia</option>
	<option value="MS">Montserrat</option>
	<option value="MA">Morocco </option>
	<option value="MZ">Mozambique</option>
	<option value="MM">Myanmar </option>
	<option value="NA">Namibia </option>
	<option value="NR">Nauru </option>
	<option value="NP">Nepal </option>
	<option value="NL">Netherlands </option>
	<option value="AN">Netherlands Antilles</option>
	<option value="NC">New Caledonia </option>
	<option value="NZ">New Zealand </option>
	<option value="NI">Nicaragua </option>
	<option value="NE">Niger </option>
	<option value="NG">Nigeria </option>
	<option value="NU">Niue</option>
	<option value="NF">Norfolk Island</option>
	<option value="MP">Northern Mariana Islands</option>
	<option value="NO">Norway</option>
	<option value="OM">Oman</option>
	<option value="PK">Pakistan</option>
	<option value="PW">Palau </option>
	<option value="PA">Panama</option>
	<option value="PG">Papua New Guinea</option>
	<option value="PY">Paraguay</option>
	<option value="PE">Peru</option>
	<option value="PH">Philippines </option>
	<option value="PN">Pitcairn</option>
	<option value="PL">Poland</option>
	<option value="PT">Portugal</option>
	<option value="PR">Puerto Rico </option>
	<option value="QA">Qatar </option>
	<option value="RE">Reunion </option>
	<option value="RO">Romania </option>
	<option value="RU">Russian Federation</option>
	<option value="RW">Rwanda</option>
	<option value="KN">Saint Kitts and Nevis</option> 
	<option value="LC">Saint LUCIA </option>
	<option value="VC">Saint Vincent and the Grenadines</option>
	<option value="WS">Samoa </option>
	<option value="SM">San Marino</option>
	<option value="ST">Sao Tome and Principe</option> 
	<option value="SA">Saudi Arabia</option>
	<option value="SN">Senegal </option>
	<option value="SC">Seychelles</option>
	<option value="SL">Sierra Leone</option>
	<option value="SG">Singapore </option>
	<option value="SK">Slovakia (Slovak Republic)</option>
	<option value="SI">Slovenia</option>
	<option value="SB">Solomon Islands </option>
	<option value="SO">Somalia </option>
	<option value="ZA">South Africa</option>
	<option value="GS">South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands</option>
	<option value="ES">Spain </option>
	<option value="LK">Sri Lanka </option>
	<option value="SH">St. Helena</option>
	<option value="PM">St. Pierre and Miquelon</option> 
	<option value="SD">Sudan </option>
	<option value="SR">Suriname</option>
	<option value="SJ">Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands</option>
	<option value="SZ">Swaziland </option>
	<option value="SE">Sweden</option>
	<option value="CH">Switzerland </option>
	<option value="SY">Syrian Arab Republic</option>
	<option value="TW">Taiwan, Province of China </option>
	<option value="TJ">Tajikistan</option>
	<option value="TZ">Tanzania, United Republic of</option>
	<option value="TH">Thailand</option>
	<option value="TG">Togo</option>
	<option value="TK">Tokelau </option>
	<option value="TO">Tonga </option>
	<option value="TT">Trinidad and Tobago</option> 
	<option value="TN">Tunisia </option>
	<option value="TR">Turkey</option>
	<option value="TM">Turkmenistan</option>
	<option value="TC">Turks and Caicos Islands</option>
	<option value="TV">Tuvalu</option>
	<option value="UG">Uganda</option>
	<option value="UA">Ukraine </option>
	<option value="AE">United Arab Emirates</option>
	<option value="GB">United Kingdom</option>
	<option value="US">United States </option>
	<option value="UM">United States Minor Outlying Islands</option>
	<option value="UY">Uruguay </option>
	<option value="UZ">Uzbekistan</option>
	<option value="VU">Vanuatu </option>
	<option value="VE">Venezuela </option>
	<option value="VN">Viet Nam</option>
	<option value="VG">Virgin Islands (British)</option>
	<option value="VI">Virgin Islands (U.S.) </option>
	<option value="WF">Wallis and Futuna Islands </option>
	<option value="EH">Western Sahara</option>
	<option value="YE">Yemen </option>
	<option value="YU">Yugoslavia</option>
	<option value="ZM">Zambia</option>
	<option value="ZW">Zimbabwe</option>
  </select>

I hope it’s usefull for you as it was for me. And here is how it looks like:

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Deco25

Christian Decker

0

Chritmas, the (not so) special day

Christmas, that was a magic word for most of us, when we were children.

We started dreaming about snow white hills and gifts from our parents. But what remains now we got older? Christmas has become a feast without any special meaning, just a good reason to have a break, during our every day labour, not really something too look forward anymore, something that coems and goes by, too fast.

As you may have guessed my Christmas wasn’t really enjoyable, and I don’t want to go into detailemoticon 

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Deco14

Christian Decker

0

Maven 2

Maven 2 is a pretty neat tool that enables developers to automate the annoying tasks that one has to bother about when programming. With it’s many plugins it can do virtually anything, from compilation, to automated packaging and fully automated unit tests and code covering reports.

I personally stumbled upon Maven (version 1.0.2 at the time) while working at the FGCZ at the University of Zurich and wa amazed about how much potential this tool has. It was pretty obvious that we’d adopt it in WW2 too, but while trying to get the others to use Maven I soon realised that some of them had actually downloaded Maven 2, because the official site now covers only the new version, so why not use the release 2?

Right now I’m trying to find a way to automate the creation of RMI Stubs and the fact that the Maven 2 Plugin development has not even started yet is not really comfortable…

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Deco14

Christian Decker

0

BitTorrent

Some of you may know, most of you won’t, but I’m a really passionated BitTorrent user. I’m fascinated by how good it works and it’s potential in replacing the current Server-Client paradigm with a much more powerfull architecture that does not have the flaws and backdraws the classical architecture has. Some time back I saw an interesting article on what Web 2.0 is and along with AJAX and Flickr, they also counted BitTorrent as part of the revolution, away from centralised, static content towards, user controlled content that evolves during time, and most important of all, involves the users too.

So why am I telling you this? Because I too want to contribute a little piece to this world, and what other could it be than bridging the gap that exists between BitTorrent and the Web? Yes right, I’m currently working on a small Web application that allows users to create custom feeds with their favorite Torrents and monitor them.

I had the idea while seeding one of my favorite TV Shows when I stumbled upon some major and many minor difficulties (I’ll be writing a post some time soon about what I’ve learned during this adventure) and one of the hardest was certainly to keep the seeders interested in seeding. Well the first step towards coordinating the seeding effort is off course give the seeders the tools to identify what is asked for, the easiest way being to give them the ability to monitor their torrents and when a torrent needs a seeder, they could turn their client on just as long as it is needed. Well and there comes my application: the users upload their torrents, which are parsed and saved into a database, then the trackers are checked on a regular basis and the users can create custom feeds that gather the information of one or more torrents in an easy an usable way. Using pure XML I also make it possible to easily write applications that interact according to these feeds. An example of these feeds can be seen here.

Right now it is still under development and is used purely for my own seeding coordination, but it may eventually go public emoticon 

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