Announcing IBM WebSphere Application Server Community Edition
This is an important announcement (along along with others) as it furthers the committment of big companies to open source products with support. Linux is mainstream with support from Novell, Red Hat, IBM, etc., but in an enterprise with a small IT staff, it's difficult to build your business on software that's free of commercial support. Having the source code is a big plus, but most of the guys holding the IT organization together don't have time to dig through source to explain to the business side why a retail store or warehouse system is down.
The real question now is why does IBM provide so many application server options? It's confusing.
Technologies to Watch: A Look at Four That May Challenge Java's Development Dominance
Good insight, and definately the "party line" with the development press. My thoughts...
The future according to Steve Gillmor in Manhattan Metadrama...I like it.
On JetBlue...and watched the White Sox clinch the pennant. Note to airlines: I scheduled the flight to match the game and West Wing.
I love this kind of worl-domination-master-plan-subversive speculation.
The Clicker: Apple's real plan for iPod video?
(and a very good point about torrents and H.264)
public class AiLDAPCredentialsProvider extends LDAPCredentialsProvider {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
String userSuffix;
String myProviderName;
public boolean init(java.util.Properties properties) {
boolean ret = super.init(properties);
userSuffix = properties
.getProperty("userSuffix").toString();
myProviderName = properties
.getProperty("java.naming.provider.url").toString();
System.out.println("init is " + ret);
return ret;
}
public boolean authenticate(java.lang.String username,
java.lang.String password) {
if ((password == null) || "".equals(password)) {
return false;
}
Hashtable localEnv = new Hashtable();
//should be "com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtxFactory"
//url + "/" + dcSuffix
String url = myProviderName + "/" + searchBase;
localEnv.put(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY,
"com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtxFactory");
localEnv.put(Context.PROVIDER_URL, url);
localEnv.put(Context.SECURITY_PRINCIPAL, username +
userSuffix);
localEnv.put(Context.SECURITY_CREDENTIALS, password);
System.out.println("url = " + url);
System.out.println(username + userSuffix);
try {
DirContext ctx = new InitialDirContext(localEnv);
ctx.close();
return true;
} catch (CommunicationException e) {
System.out.println(e);
return false;
} catch (NamingException e) {
System.out.println(e);
return false;
}
}
}
Stephen O'Grady has some good insight on the Google-Sun partnership, Google/Sun: Overhyped or Undervalued?. He says two things that I really like. First,
So if one assumes that the participation in the JCP and the rumored hiring activity is done with a clear goal in mind, the question is what goal is that? From the Java side, I think the benefit to Google would be clear: just about every client side application they've developed to date has been Microsoft specific. The Google Toolbar was originally IE only, and both the Google Desktop and Google Talk are Windows only. This is in stark contrast to their thin-client offerings, which in general could care less what operating system you run on. Might Java be a bridge for those applications to other platforms? Could be.
Second,
The other interesting aspect of the deal that no one's talked about yet that I can see is one that's a bit outside my coverage: the hardware. After today, I'm really curious as to whether or not Google - the datacenter to end all datacenters - is looking into Sun for power reasons.
The Million Dollar Homepage - Own a piece of internet history!