I have been meaning to post this for a few weeks. One on my friends and coworkers, Dwayne Wolff, did not make the transition from Sun Microsystems to Oracle. He is the best Flash/Audio/Video/Illustrator/Artist/Media guy I have every worked with. He can take anybody's stick figure drawing and turn them into something cool. He is currently available and would be a great pick up for anyone needing a great artist/media guy.
For more information, check out these links.
http://www.dwaynewolff.com/staging - Media samples galore here.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/dwaynewolff - Resume and such
Better move quick, cause I don't think he will be on the market for long.
Mar 29, 2010
Bring forth the Pay Walls
SiliconValley.com has this post announcing a pay wall for the Time and Sunday Times of London. Starting June 1, the paper will cost about $150 a year and will provide "enhanced" features.
A pay wall is not a bad idea, especially if you provide really good "enhanced" content. ESPN has been doing this for years. However, I think they are charging too much. I discontinued my Wall Street Journal account because $150 is just too much for what you get. I just wanted to the news, I am not a day trader. They really need to identify their audiences and charge appropriately.
If Fox just cuts their prices to say $25 - $60 a year, I think they will be much more successful. My guess is they will have limited success at this price.
A pay wall is not a bad idea, especially if you provide really good "enhanced" content. ESPN has been doing this for years. However, I think they are charging too much. I discontinued my Wall Street Journal account because $150 is just too much for what you get. I just wanted to the news, I am not a day trader. They really need to identify their audiences and charge appropriately.
If Fox just cuts their prices to say $25 - $60 a year, I think they will be much more successful. My guess is they will have limited success at this price.
Mar 23, 2010
Upgrade Firefox to 3.6.2
Firefox 3.6 has a serious security flaw that needs updating. From the menu, choose Help, then Check for Updates. That should get you the latest and greatest version of the browser.
Mar 22, 2010
Seamonkey 2.0 Becoming a Favorite
As you may know, I like trying out different browsers. I have been using the new SeaMonkey 2.0.3 browser and am really beginning to enjoy this old school browser.Like Firefox, SeaMonkey supports the FlashBlock add-on which goes a long way to avoiding those poorly written, CPU hogging, Flash ads. It has a new default theme that is clean and easy on the eyes. SeaMonkey also has the ability to show favicons for bookmarks on the toolbar. Plus since it uses the same rendering engine as Firefox, its fast and compatible with most websites. The only feature it currently is missing is the ability to double click and open a tab on the tab bar.
I use it a lot for the multiple profile feature which allows me to run as different users in the same browser. Firefox has can do this, but the feature is more up front and easier to use in SeaMonkey.
Check it out if you want to try an old school browser. And don't forget the integrated e-mail, IRC chat client, and page editor (Composer) that are integrated into this browser.
NullPointerException when Deploying EJB Client
While testing the labs for one of our course a week or two back, I ran into the following error. A null pointer exception when an EJB 3 client is deployed. There are no errors in the source code.
Warning: Could not find file /export/home/student/sges-v3/glassfish/domains/domain1/generated/xml/EJB31/EJB31Client.jar to copy.
Copying 1 file to /export/home/student/solutions/mod02_sessions/EJB31/dist
Copying 4 files to /export/home/student/solutions/mod02_sessions/EJB31/dist/EJB31Client
Copying 1 file to /export/home/student/solutions/mod02_sessions/EJB31/dist/EJB31Client
java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.glassfish.appclient.client.acc.ACCLogger$1.run(ACCLogger.java:149)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at org.glassfish.appclient.client.acc.ACCLogger.reviseLogger(ACCLogger.java:146)
at org.glassfish.appclient.client.acc.ACCLogger.init(ACCLogger.java:93)
at org.glassfish.appclient.client.acc.ACCLogger.init(ACCLogger.java:80)
at org.glassfish.appclient.client.AppClientFacade.createBuilder(AppClientFacade.java:360)
at org.glassfish.appclient.client.AppClientFacade.prepareACC(AppClientFacade.java:247)
at org.glassfish.appclient.client.acc.agent.AppClientContainerAgent.premain(AppClientContainerAgent.java:75)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at sun.instrument.InstrumentationImpl.loadClassAndStartAgent(InstrumentationImpl.java:323)
at sun.instrument.InstrumentationImpl.loadClassAndCallPremain(InstrumentationImpl.java:338)
Java Result: 1
When you look on the app server, EJB31Client.jar is, in fact, in the wrong place. It turns out that this is a bug with GlassFish V3 and Java 6 update 18. To solve the problem, drop back to Java 6 update 17 or upgrade to GlassFish 3.0.1 when it becomes available.
For more information see the following links.
Mar 18, 2010
Colorado Law Wipes out Amazon Associates
I purposefully avoid writing about politics on this blog. But given the events of last week, I feel I have no choice but to speak up. So I promise only a few informational posts and then back to tech.
What Happened?
The state of Colorado passed a law (House Bill 10-1193) in attempt to collect sales tax from Amazon. To protect their business, Amazon.com fired all their associates in the state of Colorado. The result according to the AP was the loss of 4200 small businesses and 5000 jobs in the state of Colorado.
What was the Goal of the Legislation?
Out of state Internet and mail order businesses, like Amazon.com, are not required to collect state sales tax in states where they have no physical presence. This principle has been confirmed in several supreme court cases. Most recently, two cases address the issue directly.
The Democrat lead legislature in Colorado decided that Amazon would be an easy target for some additional sales tax revenue. The Colorado law (House Bill 10-1193) essentially states that anyone involved in an Associate program constitutes the "physical presence" required for a retailer to collect state sales tax. Amazon warned the state that if the law passed, they would have to shutdown their Associate program in the state. Their warning was ignored and here we are.
The Real Story on Tax Revenue and Fees
The goal of law was to raise an addition $4.7 million dollars in tax revenues. What Colorado legislators fail to realize is that Amazon Associates were ALREADY PAYING INCOMES TAXES on any money they received. Some bloggers and web site owners, with enough traffic, manage to make a living through advertising and Associate programs. Although I was hardly making enough money to "retire" I was making several hundred dollars a year from my relationship with Amazon.
With one stroke of the pen, the legislature and Governor Ritter wiped out any revenue Associates were getting. Not only will Colorado not receive $4.7 million dollars from sales tax, they won't receive a dime in income taxes from the 5000 people they put of of business. In addition, the loss of Internet business income tax revenue could be catastrophic. Anyone doing business has a choice of where to incorporate or form an LLC. States known for being business friendly like Nevada, Delaware, and Wyoming, make it easy to setup a business in their state.
Will ANY Internet businesses incorporate in the state of Colorado now? Will Colorado receive fees from these new companies? Will Colorado lawyers be paid to setup these companies? The answers are no, no, and no. Anyone with any sort of substantial Internet business will set up a corporation out of state in the next few weeks and/or months. Permanently exiling any state income tax revenue to another state.
What can you Do About It?
Call your state representatives and ask them to repeal the law.
If you can't wait, look into setting up an out of state corporation or LLC. I am looking into that myself and will report back with more information as I find it out.
For More Information
There is a lot more information out there from other Colorado bloggers that is much more detailed than this post. I just wanted to write up a summary and give myself a chance to vent. :)
Ari Armstrong: Stop the Amazon Tax
Repeal the Amazon Tax - Some bloggers trying to get together to get the tax repealed.
Diane Hsieh: Colorado Screws Amazon Associates
What Happened?
The state of Colorado passed a law (House Bill 10-1193) in attempt to collect sales tax from Amazon. To protect their business, Amazon.com fired all their associates in the state of Colorado. The result according to the AP was the loss of 4200 small businesses and 5000 jobs in the state of Colorado.
What was the Goal of the Legislation?
Out of state Internet and mail order businesses, like Amazon.com, are not required to collect state sales tax in states where they have no physical presence. This principle has been confirmed in several supreme court cases. Most recently, two cases address the issue directly.
- In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court determined in Bellas Hess v. Illinois that states could not require companies without either property or employees in the state to collect sales and use tax – in other words, companies needed a physical nexus.
- The 1992 Supreme Court Case Quill v. North Dakota then reaffirmed the principle that a company must have a substantive nexus in order for the state to require the company to collect sales taxes.
The Democrat lead legislature in Colorado decided that Amazon would be an easy target for some additional sales tax revenue. The Colorado law (House Bill 10-1193) essentially states that anyone involved in an Associate program constitutes the "physical presence" required for a retailer to collect state sales tax. Amazon warned the state that if the law passed, they would have to shutdown their Associate program in the state. Their warning was ignored and here we are.
The Real Story on Tax Revenue and Fees
The goal of law was to raise an addition $4.7 million dollars in tax revenues. What Colorado legislators fail to realize is that Amazon Associates were ALREADY PAYING INCOMES TAXES on any money they received. Some bloggers and web site owners, with enough traffic, manage to make a living through advertising and Associate programs. Although I was hardly making enough money to "retire" I was making several hundred dollars a year from my relationship with Amazon.
With one stroke of the pen, the legislature and Governor Ritter wiped out any revenue Associates were getting. Not only will Colorado not receive $4.7 million dollars from sales tax, they won't receive a dime in income taxes from the 5000 people they put of of business. In addition, the loss of Internet business income tax revenue could be catastrophic. Anyone doing business has a choice of where to incorporate or form an LLC. States known for being business friendly like Nevada, Delaware, and Wyoming, make it easy to setup a business in their state.
Will ANY Internet businesses incorporate in the state of Colorado now? Will Colorado receive fees from these new companies? Will Colorado lawyers be paid to setup these companies? The answers are no, no, and no. Anyone with any sort of substantial Internet business will set up a corporation out of state in the next few weeks and/or months. Permanently exiling any state income tax revenue to another state.
What can you Do About It?
Call your state representatives and ask them to repeal the law.
If you can't wait, look into setting up an out of state corporation or LLC. I am looking into that myself and will report back with more information as I find it out.
For More Information
There is a lot more information out there from other Colorado bloggers that is much more detailed than this post. I just wanted to write up a summary and give myself a chance to vent. :)
Ari Armstrong: Stop the Amazon Tax
Repeal the Amazon Tax - Some bloggers trying to get together to get the tax repealed.
Diane Hsieh: Colorado Screws Amazon Associates
Mar 15, 2010
Backup Your Google Sites Wiki
Looking for a way to backup your you Google Sites Wiki. Check out this tool: google-sites-liberation. Haven't tried it yet, but it looks promising.
Mar 10, 2010
2009 Chevy Malibu vs 1959 Chevy Bel Air
If you are interested in the outcome, check out the youtube video here. I was a bit surprised.
Mar 8, 2010
Zip a Directory and Subdirectories with 7zip
7zip is an open source zipping tool for Windows. Since I often do a lot of fairly intense zipping, I needed to know how to create a zip archive of a directory and its subdirectories with 7zip from the command line. Here is the syntax:
That is it. The
7z a -r -tzip ArchiveFileNameHere.zip DirectoryNameHereThat is it. The
a adds the files and the -r recurses the subdirectories. 7zip has a number of compression options so the -t option selects the .zip format.
Mar 7, 2010
Convert an Unordered List into a Simple Table
Working on a page last night I decided I would like to have a different look for some lists. So I created a Thin List Table that turned out pretty good. Really easy to use and good for discussing code samples.
Symmetry Restored to How To Pages
Spent some of last nite and a lot of today fixing up the CSS on my How To pages. Check out the CSS Pages here.
Mar 6, 2010
CSS Rollover Menu
I added a how to on creating a rollover menu with CSS. A little bit easier than I thought given the code.
After working on this, it seems like using a div as a container for special lists seems like a really good idea. That way, you can right the list the same way every time and just swap out the div class to change is styling. The HTML ends up being really simple.
Mar 4, 2010
To Flash or not to Flash, That is the Question
In a past blog post, I discussed the future of the Flash plugin. Since then, I have been paying closer attention to Flash in my browsers. Have you ever had this problem? You reading a book or something with you laptop sitting on your desk with a few browser tabs open. Suddenly, your laptop starts making sounds like a 737 getting ready to taxi for take off. You take a quick look at Task Manager or Performance Meter and you see that one of your browsers has pegged the CPU utilization at 100%. The culprit? Usually some poorly written Flash ad.
I had thought this only happened on my Mac. But since I have been setting up a Windows 7 machine, the exact same thing has happened with Windows 7. So, what to do?
If you are using Firefox, you have a great option to fix the problem, FlashBlock. This addon blocks all Flash on your web page, and replaces with a small Flash icon. If you want to see the content, like a video for example, just click on the icon and it plays. This addon has really improved the performance of Firefox and my web browsing experience greatly. Finally an easy to use solution to protect you from poorly written Flash ads.
Update: I forgot to mention you can customize the toolbar and add a button that will turn Flash on and off on demand. FlashBlock is the best add on ever! lol.
Win7Tip: Java Plugin not Installed after Installing Java 6 64 bit on Windows 7
It is a bit of a long title but here is the problem.Problem: Java JDK/JRE 6 is installed on my Windows 7 system, but the Java Plugin is not installed in any of my browsers. What gives?
Solution: My guess is, the installed browsers (Firefox, Chrome, IE, Seamonkey, Safari) are all 32 bit versions. So the 64 bit Java installer does not update them.
To solve the problem, just install the 32 bit version of Java 6. This installs the plugin for all the browsers. You end up with Java in the following locations:
32 bit:
c:\Program Files\Java64 bit:
c:\Program Fiels (x86)\JavaJust put the Java of your choice in your path and you should be good to go.
Mar 1, 2010
Set Menu/Application Font Size in Firefox
After using a Windows 7 machine for a week or two I noticed that the font size of the menus of Firefox seems a little small. It turns out you can actually adjust the size of the application fonts in Firefox using CSS.First, you need find the sample template for changing the Firefox UI,
userChrome-example.css. This can be found in the following directory:c:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\profile\chromeFirst, copy
userChrome-Example.css to userChrome.css. Next, add a rule to set the default font size. For example, this sets the font size to 10pts:
* {
font-size: 10pt !important;
}
With the file created and rule added, copy
userChrome.css to your profile directory for Firefox. This gets a little tricky as the AppData directory is hidden by default so you may need to actually type the name into Windows Explorer. So here is the path:c:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\someRandomeString.default\chromeThat is it. The font size for menu and other application text should now be set to 10 pts.
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