Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Java again...

I had to code some applets those days. Applets as little apps... not web applets. Really small fat clients. So I had to make them look pretty. This was the hard part. I am not a very talented graphics designer so I had to figure out how to deal with:

1. Ergonomy: I suck. I tried to copy some Mac applications... But yes, I really suck

2. Icons and graphics: I was never able to use Gimp/Photoshop/Corel/Illustrator... I have stolen some graphics from:
http://www.javootoo.com/

http://art.gnome.org/

http://www.gnome-look.org/

http://www.kde-look.org/

I have also used some componets from https://swingx.dev.java.net/

3. Code && Build: Eclipse with VE rules...

Nice links I have wandered on:
1. http://baghira.sourceforge.net/OS_Clone-en.php#step8
2. http://home.cogeco.ca/~raduking/ - I believe that this is made by a guy from my hometown! Excellent work RaduKing!
3. http://retroweaver.sourceforge.net/ - I used this for swingx...

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Karaoke again...


Check this out...
http://www.behringer.com/UB502/index.cfm?lang=ENG

New building - New offices - New problems

We have moved into a new building. New offices. Quite nice ones...
New problems:

1. The windows in the new offices cannot be opened... No fresh air...
2. The clima in the new building is working. It's heating all the time. If you add this to problem 1 -> Hot and filthy air.
3. The network works intermitently...

More to come.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

XMLRPC for system management

Those days I had tremendous headaches with some system management applications that have to supervise some systems and continously report to a serve.
It is something alike:


+-----------------+
/-|Management daemon|
| +-----------------+
| ...
+---+ +-----+ | +-----------------+
|GUI|----|Proxy|---|Management daemon|
+---+ +-----+ +-----------------+



Instead of having the modules communicating one with the other via sockets, as the application used to run, I thought of how I could improve the communication.

The ideas were:
1. SNMP
Very elegant solution indeed. But my knowledge of SNMP are quite limited and I hadn't had the time to study it more indeep.

2. XML-RPC
Clean and lightweight solution. In less than 3 hours I coud write in Python a proxy and a simple management daemon that were comunicating together via XML-RPC. Now the last step is to integrate the Java GUI I have via XML-RPC and I will feel much safer.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Feteasca Regala - Murfatlar 3 Hectare

Good wine! Check Murfatlar's page on it.

I went today with MOD, SRD, DIU, PRS, CTU, CNA, SCA, TPA, ABA, IGN to have dinner at the Rustica Pizza in Timisoara.

Friday, January 13, 2006

Karaoke


Today there was a party for our department held in a trendy club in Timisoara. the club name is CCCP.

It was a lot of fun & beer.
I participated in the karaoke contest and won the 1st prize. I am good... although aphone.



Here I am with PRS and LBA after lots of beers.

Creating a good IT infrastructure

1. You have to know what do you want to do!
2. Look on the internet for alternatives. AD can be as well implemented by MS Windows and Linux/Samba or OSX... And OSX is pretty.
3. Get a good supplier for equipment. It is mandatory to have a serious supplier that offers enough guaranties and makes the deliveries in time. Use the best possible equipment
4. Make a list with all the activities you want in the network and plan the network accordingly. Create separate and autonomuos subnets for each activity. Use VLANS. Keep in mind that more services as VoIP or IM will be added. Use FAST backbones.
5. Standardize the solutions together with the end users and do it in the begenning. For example choose the mailer, webserver, bugtracker, groupware as soon as you can do it. Argument your case well if you have some ideeas in mind.
6. Document the net. Use a wiki.
7. Delegate some tasks to trustable people. It is priceless when you have a large campus... Or you can buy a bike :)
8. Use caching proxies!
9. Use good backup tools.
10. Keep users isolated. Especially foreiners and visitors. Use DHCP.