linuxin' ain't easy

Why do companies hate me for using Linux? I have been happily downloading MP3s off Amazon for years. At first I used their downloader and then through pymazon. I just bought an album earlier today and was met with this nonsense:

Install the Amazon MP3 Downloader We apologize — Linux is not supported. Unless you already have the Amazon MP3 Downloader installed, you will have to download songs individually from Amazon Cloud Player. JavaScript must also be enabled.

I sent them an angry email which surely has Beszos shaking in his 100,000 dollar alligator nutsack boots.

Why do you hate me? Did it cripple Amazon when I was able to *gasp* download a WHOLE ALBUM of songs at one time? I hope you realize that if I have to go log into windows somewhere there is now no reason for me not to use iTunes for my music purchases. Boo on you. Roger

I apologize that this is the first thing I've posted in so, so long, but it ticks me off!

clean sweep!

Check out my stats:

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java.util.MissingResourceException

This represents about 3 days of my life I'm never getting back.

So I use RAD 7.5 for my java development. I write code for web-based internal applications. The general rule is big on business logic and big on the ugly. User interface isn't a priority as the users have a very specific idea of what they want. Sometimes we steer them in the right direction, sometimes they win and other times they were right all along.

That's all well and good.

I was setting up my RAD to have 3 environments, matching the 3 we had on servers. DEV, QA, Production. Simple stuff. I used to think you created a new server per set of environment variables. But, I eventually realized that, at least in the sole websphere development configuration, you have to create a profile for each set of distinct environment variables.

We load some properties via resource bundle. I change this folder depending on the environment. This is working in two of my environments, but attempts to create and run the third fail. I keep getting MissingResourceException on the bundle - for about 3 days.

Eventually, I figured out how to make it work (but not how to solve the root problem). Server was trying to read "E:" drive. That’s fine, 2 other profiles were doing it for other servers within RAD workspaces. I moved the bundles to the C: drive and viola! success. For some inexplicable reason, WAS was unable to see "E:" for one profile only. Even when the last profile didn't work, starting up a server pointed at another profile happily found and loaded bundles on E.

Thoughts/"ideas":

1. E:\ was created from subst command. Subst e: c:\resource\props or some such. Point of that was to keep websphere variables consistent between local dev and actual deployed server paths.


2. I think at some point during this process I got previously revoked admin rights reinstated for use with another product.


3. Old profiles were created probably without admin rights.


4. They also introduced a continuous encryption process. And, I later found out I had 2 different encryption certs. Some of my files were encrypted with cert A and some with cert B.

After I solved this problem, I was all gung-ho to post about it because it took so long to remedy it. But now I realize it was probably only specific to my set of unique and unusual circumstances. If not, I hope I've led you down the right path.

how did you spend your 6 months of reflection?

Last post was in January. I was giving you plenty of time to think things over.

Yes, I have been negligent. I should post here more often as I'm continually finding things to write about, but then I think of something else to do.

Anyway, computer-wise, I've been thinking of some projects:

• Storage box. A computer with only storage to use for all my machines.


• Slackware? Gentoo? I love running Linux on my computers. And I would really like to get down-and-dirty with a bare-bones distribution and build a personalized OS . . . BUT do I really want to spend weeks getting my wireless to work? Not really. Say what you will about Ubuntu, but it detects all my hardware. I think this is one of those things that I'll continue to THINK is a good idea for a long time to come, but then never do it.


• Learn Emacs? I'm not sure about this one. I am beginning to love (g)vim and I've put my time in-in regards to becoming proficient. But, emacs looms. Should I learn it? There are supporters on both sides and they are vocal and passionate. Maybe I need to learn both to know my true place.


• Python. I got a book about Python/Qt development. I thought it would be a good excuse for learning Python. Maybe I'll make some widgets to ease my wife's computing experiences. We'll see.

Ok, time for bed and I promise to at least double my post output.

rsync: writefd_unbuffered failed to write 4 bytes

I love rsync. Rsync is the type of command that makes you heart a Unix/Linux-based system. It helps you back-up/sync files; it's easy to use; it's powerful, but not overbearing. It's like chess or caps: a minute to learn; a lifetime to master.

At any rate, I was getting the error in the title of the post. Turns out it wasn't rsync, but that I had filled up my partition - accidentally. Long story short, I created a folder intending to mount is as my external harddrive, but forgot to do the mounting. So, if you encounter this error, it might be because the device is full.

mainframe, I hardly knew ye

Here is a little bit about the IBM mainframe.

The mainframe is considered "dead" or dying or whatever. That's all well and good, but to paraphrase Twain, "news of its death has been greatly exaggerated." I program on the mainframe (via ISPF/TSO) most of the time. I do some java work as well, but we have batch systems that do a lot of stuff on the "big iron" as the old-timers like to call it.

To me, it's all the same. I don't mind programming in either world because really, it's the problem solving that I enjoy about coding, not the technologies per se. On the "green screen" I don't enjoy only being able to see 24 lines of code at a time, that is tiresome. On the newer stuff, I'm annoyed that perfectly good systems have to be re-written because their codebase is going out of support. There is shit running on the mainframe that's been there forever. And that's comforting.

At any rate, I've been doing this for 10 years and you know how it is . . . you're somewhat constrained by the code which precedes you. "Oh, I have an example of that job in my workpds." So you copy it and that's the thing you use when you're doing task A. I was/am no different.

Flash forward about 8 years. I'm working on a QMF (Query Management Facility - ISPF application which interfaces with IBM's DB2 database product) report and discover that QMF can call REXX scripts. What's REXX? It's a scripting language. And it works on any computer that IBM makes - including the mainframe. And, quite frankly, it's freaking awesome. Not the language, per se, but the fact that I *FINALLY* figured out how to use it. I'm not going to go into all the details now (this post is already too long), but how about an analogy for now? It's like having a hammer your whole life and then someone suddenly gives you a screwdriver. Sure, you got lights-out awesome with that hammer and hell, you'd even use it to screw shit, but wow does that screwdriver make things simpler.

Posts to follow detailing what I've discovered. It was kind of like finding the nose on my face, but better late than never, right?

larry don't read this twice

Well, I've been all panty-twisted tonight trying to find my super-secret, ultra-fun fantasy football draft spreadsheet. This spreadsheet is directly responsible for in-excess of 1% of any winnings I've ever had playing fantasy football, meaning it's netted me about 5 dollars.

But, the spreadsheet, she is comforting. She also took a really long time to develop and will fill out a person's team as it goes, on a separate "teams" sheet. If you do any work with excel, you can appreciate that it did not take five minutes. In fact, it took a lot of man hours, no doubt. And no doubt, my company would be very upset if I were to lose all that work, because, truth be told, I did a lot of the "development" at the office one year. I figured, hey, it's like work, right. It actually was and I learned a lot about excel. Unfortunately, I have yet to apply any of that new-found knowledge. Oh well.

At any rate, my yahoo email account saved the day. I had a version of it in the way-back sent folder. And much gnashing of teeth subsided. The moral of the story is, save everything. Times 10. I have an external disk, a couple of redundant disk/partitions (ok, I haven't raided them yet), but it's best to keep things in multiple places. Next step is remote storage.

Storage is cheaper by the day and losing stuff is annoying and costly to recreate. Knowing this, I've also been on a kick of trying to only create simple text files. I figure, these will be forever durable, or at least much easier to recover when all our applications have fallen into the dustbin of history.