JExcelAPI and Apache POI Compared

Nov 2^nd,2007

Apache POI and JExcelAPI are the best known Java libraries for processing Excel files. Both can read and write the Excel 95 file format, which is supported many versions of Excel and OpenOffice.

After spending some time on various forums the Web's opinion seemed to be that without a doubt JExcel API was the way to go, main arguments in its favor being a cleaner API and a smaller JAR footprint.

So I tried JExcelAPI first but after a promising start I've got stocked when I tried to use more advanced cell formatting fatures. Apache POI proved to be equally easy to use and the cell formatting features I needed worked immediately and without any hassle. Read more

Tagish JAAS Login Modules Collection - V2 M1

Aug 27^th,2007

I have just released the first milestone of the v2.0 Tagish JAAS Login Modules Collection. I'm glad I finally managed to release this after taking over tagish almost 6 months ago. Unfortunately I have to work for a living and my day job is keeping me quite busy so this is not going as fast as I would love to.

This new release contains an improved password file login module. The main new features are the ability to read the password file via FTP or HTTP. On the administration side, there is now an easy to use password file administration application and the source code package has an ant based build system.

The next release - V2.0 M2 - will concentrate on the database login module. The main issue we ran into when we tried to use taggish at work was that every client have their own custom database schema for storing users and credentials, while the current database login module can only handle the situation where the user and the password are stored in the same table. I will try to implement a more flexible database mapping schema in order to make it easier to adapt to existing production environments.

Sp if you're a JAVA programmer and need a quality password file JAAS login module, go download Tagish JAAS Login Modules Collection version 2.0. M1!

The IPod Shuffle

July 16^th,2007

From all portable mp3 players available, I admit I would have never chosen an IPod Shuffle myself. I didn't see any point in using a device that wouldn't let me choose a particular mp3 track or album at any given moment. Because this is how Apple's IPod Shuffle works: once loaded with mp3 music it plays the tracks either in direct or in random order. You can skip to the next or previous mp3 track, but that's all. The IPod Shuffle doesn't have any display at all so you can neither browse your music or visualize mp3 information while playing. I just wasn't interested at all in using a mp3 player which offered such limited selection capabilities. I was reasonably happy with listening to mp3 music on my Palm TX. But since it was offered one, I decided to give the small IPod Shuffle a try. And after a month, I realized I was so wrong. Read more.

Orange LiveBox Review

May 21^st,2007

The Orange LiveBox has a wide set of features including an ADSL modem, wired and wireless routing, VOIP telephony and television over DSL. The marketing speech makes the Orange LiveBox look very attractive, especially when they start telling you about unlimited free national phone calls using VOIP and television over DSL. After much resistance, we finally gave up to the Orange telemarketing assault and accepted a LiveBox. This is our experience with using the device.

First of all the LiveBox is a WiFi and wired broadband router. I connected the device to my ADSL line and my good old iMac G5 using one of the wired ethernet ports. I configured Mac OS X to pick up its network configuration from the LiveBox via DHCP (that's geek language for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) and it worked very well. Then I had to fire up my web brower - I use Firefox but any other browser should do it - and connected to the configuration web server hosted on the LiveBox. The first time you log in you have to use the user name and password from the user guide. I quickly found the page that lets you enter your ADSL connection details, filled in the form and the LiveBox connected to the Internet without a glitch. It took me less then 10 minutes from the moment when I powered on the device to the moment I was able to surf the web. I give the LiveBox 10 points out of 10 as is accomplishes its primary function very well: even a non-technical person can get his / her ADSL internet connection up and running in no time. Read more.

Open Office for Mac OS X

May 10^th,2007

After years of frustration, Open Office and Apple users finally get a piece of good news. How so? Well, Sun has finally decided to commit resources to create a native Aqua port of Open Office for Mac OS X. Other efforts to bring Open Office to the MAC already exist, such as NeoOffice. While Neo Office is a very important project and is basically the only decent way to get Open Office functionality on the Mac, its user interface is written in Java and it is therefore a little slow. A native Aqua port of the user interface is expected to much faster and use less operating system resources. Another way of running Open Office on Mac OS X is to execute the XWindows version, but the level of Mac Desktop integration is very low and the look and feel of the application is not consistent with the rest of the Mac Desktop.

In related news we find out that Microsoft will drop VBA support in the next version of Microsoft Office for Mac. Following this move Open Office becomes the only cross platform office suite with portable scripting capabilities and it could capture a fair share of the corporate office suite market, especially in the financial and insurance industries, if Sun will be willing and able properly market this feature. From a technical point of view Open Office has very appealing scripting capabilities because it supports more then one scripting language. Indeed, in addition to OOBasic, which has a syntax similar to VBA, Open office also supports python and javascript and has the ability to interact with enterprise computing systems by loading and invoking java classes. Microsoft Office, however, has a very strong hold on the corporate office market and Sun will have a hard time braking that, if they ever decide to take up the challenge.

Switching From Slackware Linux to Kubuntu

April 29^th,2007

I was a Slackware linux user since 1994 or so. The first time I installed Slackware it came on 40 floppy disks and it took about four to five hours to install on my Intel 486SX powered PC, equipped with a Cyrus Logic graphic card, 8 mega bytes of ram and 40 mega bytes of disk. This was ages ago. There was no Gnome or KDE back then. Everybody was using FVWM and using Linux as a desktop machine was a dream that was very far away. There was no such thing as Open Office, CUPS or Evolution. But there was Netscape and there was asWedit and eventually The Gimp came along, so linux made a pretty good web site development environment. Anyways, all this to say that Slackware kept me a happy Linux user for more then 12 years. And it's definitely the most stable and well looked after distribution out there. I used Slackware at work and at home and it has never crossed my mind to switch to another distro.

Then, at the end of last year, my friend Fabien started to bug me about this new distro called Ubuntu. I dismissed Ubuntu immediately because it was Gnome based, and I am on the KDE side of the Linux Desktop. "C'est pas grave!", said Fabien ", they also have a KDE based distro. They call it Kubuntu, have a look". I thought, hey, let's see what this is all about... It can't be as good as good old Slack anyways... So I got home, downloaded Kubuntu, burned that DVD, placed it in my work laptop's tray, rebooted and... read more