Preamble Explanation of standard formats and protocols: JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight1 data-interchange format with language bindings for C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, TCL and many others. JSON-RPC is a simple remote procedure call protocol similar to XML-RPC although it uses the lightweight JSON format instead of […]
Yearly Archives: 2009
I love using Maven for dependency management and code portability, and I love Eclipse as an enviroment to develop in. However, for the longest time I had trouble getting the two to play well together until I discovered the following commands that made combining the two much easier. To add […]
Getting Maven and Eclipse to play together
At the outset I must admit that I’ve long been skeptical about the relatively recent claims of global warming. Mostly because I’m old enough to still remember the chicken-little stories about global cooling and how we were all heading for the next ice age as depicted in this TV show […]
Global warming, greatest myth of this generation

The Why: Preamble Working in the information technology sector, one of the most common questions I get asked by parents is about monitoring internet access of their children.1 Most parents want to know what their children are doing online but also recognize that most off-the-shelf products are just as easy to […]
Hacking your router for effective internet monitoring
Recently I got tasked with load testing an internal system and producing statistics for the team to show how well it will scale once it is put into production. After some intense research I decided to go with “The Grinder” which allows multiple tests to be run by multiple machines […]
Beginner’s guide to load testing
I’ve recently become a big fan of SocialOomph (formerly Tweet Later), which is a Twitter client that allows users to, among other things, schedule timed tweets. Until I discovered SocialOomph I have been using Ping.fm and still do from time to time if I want to update a broader range […]
Tweet Later Mobile
Recently I attended the Atlanta Linux Fest where a keynote (deceptively entitled “Standing Out in the Crowd“) was given, and I still don’t understand why they felt the need to make this a keynote when there was already a workshop scheduled on the same subject. I, and others at the […]
Social justice and technology
This weekend we took another trip back to Augusta, GA to visit family. On the way I decided to continue wrestling with my phone (Palm Treo 755p) and netbook (Asus Aspire One with Ubuntu’s Netbook remix distribution) in order to connect to the internet. This isn’t something new or unique. I’ve managed […]
Getting internet access on the road
A demo of SOAPjr using PHP/Symfony and ExtJS is now available at http://dev.communitybookshelf.org/ This demo showcases these custom components: Backend: pSOAPjr sfSOAPjrActionPlugin Frontend eSOAPjr Questions/comments? We’d love to hear from you!
SOAPjr Demo
Many might consider even the thought of running PHP inside of a Java Virtual Machine to be anathema. Others will wonder why bother (apart from the novelty). However running PHP in Java has one crucal benefit: it future-proofs your code. Quercus is a nifty utility that will allow you to run […]