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Jeff Sexton

Saturday, November 07, 2009

Streaming Netflix on a PS3

Yesterday, I received a disc from Netflix finally allowing streaming content on my PS.

Interestingly, the feature seems to actually run off the CD they send. It doesn't appear to install anything on the PS3. I put the disc in and selected it under the "video" section of the menus. It popped up with a code to go to the website and type in - I guess you have to use a computer for that, not the PS3 browser.

When I went to the Netflix site there was a link right on the front to activate the device with the code. I put the code in and it said it might take a few minutes, but when I walked back to the PS3, it was already displaying movie choices. Apparently my on-demand queue is already populated with every movie I've ever gotten that was also available on demand.

Anyway, it's about as painless it could be. The interface is very simular to what I've seen on a Roku. The video quality was pretty poor though on the one thing I watched. There is an "HD" icon under selections that are supposed to be high definition, but the selection I tried was still very highly compressed. I hope that I simply picked a poor example, or that this improves over time. Regardly, I'm glad to finally have this feature!

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Shed!


It's a shed alright...
Ready to move in.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Markham


http://www.pps.k12.or.us/departments/schoolmodernization/1627.htm

Portland Pulic Schools has posted a collection of documents on the historic significance of its school buildings. Markham is an interesting case. PDF here:

http://www.pps.k12.or.us/files/schoolmodernization/Markham_ILS.pdf

I attended this school from 4th through 8th grade. I also went there for kindergarten. First through 3rd grades where at a school down the road a bit, no longer standing.

As the historic assessment notes, the Markham school, named for the poet Edwin Markham, is shaped like an 'H'. The reason for this is that it was built at the height of the cold war to serve as a field hospital in the event of a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union.

Really.

This is also the reason it's built of brick, and the reason it has ramps instead of stairs throughout the split-level floor plan. I doubt they are there now, but I recall the large circles painted on the paved playground surfaces behind the building, with X marks in the center. These were of course handy for playground games. They were helicopter landing pads.


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Saturday, October 31, 2009

Shed Update


Moving right along... We have a roof, a door and some further siding.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Shed Again


This new shed actually has its own smaller shed to one side of the door. I'm thinking of adding an additional smaller storage area to the small shed. And so on.

Monday, October 26, 2009

New Shed Internet Web Blog Posting Number III

This is actually from yesterday...


Saturday, October 24, 2009

Shed, Part Two

Shed construction moving right along...

Friday, October 23, 2009

Intercepting Log Messages in Glassfish

TOKYO - JULY 22:  In this handout image provid...Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I wanted a way to capture certain types of errors from an OpenESB application, under the Glassfish application server. I had to do this because a couple of error scenarios get their exceptions handled at a lower level than my application code and I never get a chance to detect the problem. One approach to resolving this is to write some completely external process to monitor the log file itself. But a another way is to use Glassfish's Self-Management Framework, an MBean and a rule.

There weren't a lot of examples of this to be found, so here some code. First, the MBean itself. The MBean needs to be built in conformance with some simple but very specific rules.
  • It must implement javax.management.NotificationListener
  • It must have an interface of its own with the same name as the MBean, but ending in "MBean"
Here is the MBean interface:
package com.log.monitor;

import javax.management.Notification;
import javax.management.NotificationListener;

public interface CustomActionMBean {
public int getA();
public void setA(int a);
}

It is a trivial Java Bean interface with one getter/setter pair added here just as an example. Here is the implementation class:
package com.log.monitor;

import javax.management.Notification;
import javax.management.NotificationListener;

public class CustomAction implements CustomActionMBean, NotificationListener {
private int a = 0;

public CustomAction() {
}

public void setA(int a) {
this.a = a;
}

public int getA() {
return a;
}

public void handleNotification(Notification arg0, Object arg1) {
System.out.println("Called... " + arg0.getMessage());
}
}
These get built into a jar file called CutomAction.jar, using whatever IDE or command line you prefer. I used Eclipse, and I found that I had to uncheck the compression option to get this to fully work.

I deployed the jar file to Glassfish using its web-based administration console. This is done in a manner simular to deploying anything else, but using the section under "custom mbeans." There is a command line method too, using asadmin. The deployment will fail if there's anything wrong with the MBean, such as an incorrect interface name or referring to the wrong Notification classes.

Once this is done, a Management Rule can be created. The key here is that the "event type" should be "log". The MBean deployed above should appear in the "Action" drop down list. Each event type has different options. In the case of a log type it is also possible to select a log level, and a specific logger as filters. But once activated, this rule will call the new MBean as needed when an appropriate log message is created. The raw message string is available from the Notification object with getMessage().

Here's a few good resources on all this:

http://weblogs.java.net/blog/sankara/archive/2006/02/self_management.html


http://blogs.sun.com/technical/entry/self_management_rules


https://glassfish.dev.java.net/javaee5/selfmanagement/selfmanagementhome.html


http://www.caucho.com/resin-3.0/jmx/tutorial/listener/index.xtp
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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Shed, Part One

A shed is going up in the little used corner of my backyard. I took these pictures this morning when there was a little moisture in the air, which was caught in the flash.


The shed is being built by Justin Swanson, the same contractor that did the work on the living room and bathroom a while back.

Monday, August 10, 2009

US Internet Service is Pathetic

I love the smell of presets in the morningImage by [ r ♥ c e y t ♥ y ] {I br♥ke for bokeh} via Flickr

http://www.ohgizmo.com/2009/08/10/getting-bandwidth-envy-portugal-to-have-1gbps-internet-service-by-fall/

"Portugal ISP Zon will be offering its customers 1Gbps service starting this September. The country will then become the world’s third (and the first in Europe) to provide such speeds, along with Japan and South Korea."

Wanted

Good price paid for accumulations and estates of vintage mechanical watch and pocketwatch material and parts. Pre-quartz, pre-battery, Elgin and other American brands in particular, Swiss material less so. Note that I am a watchmaker working to keep the craft alive and well, I am not an antique dealer looking to buy and resell.
Contact jsexton@agora.rdrop.com  - Thanks!