A new plugin is now released and here is the link. http://www.axelor.com/fr/produits/openerp-oocrm/outlook.html. I tried to install it unfortunately it does not work... and I could not find a way to save the settings.
So no major progress on that one.
Also, Axelor again annouces its Word plugin but no spec, download or price.
Plenty of good ideas there but...
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Spring 3.0.0 is out !
Spring released its latest major release: 3.0.0.
The new features are there : http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/3.0.x/spring-framework-reference/html/new-in-3.html.
I have been quickly trough the list, at this stage it is hard for me to say that it is going to change my life as 2.xx did. But for sure I will spend some time looking at these new features.
The new features are there : http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/3.0.x/spring-framework-reference/html/new-in-3.html.
I have been quickly trough the list, at this stage it is hard for me to say that it is going to change my life as 2.xx did. But for sure I will spend some time looking at these new features.
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Open ERP - training company project - end of pre-study
Yesterday I sent the result of our pre-analysis for this Open ERP project for a training/coaching/consulting company.
As I expected, training management is not an issue. The organization of the courses catalog and the subscription facility are quite good and I expect a lot of small companies to be able to manage their activities with this module.
Still the project requires a lot of modifications. I expected some of these but not so much.
So of course the budget is high (compared to the first expected figures). Will the customer sign for this ?
I Don't know.
One problem with Open-Source is that a lot of people think that every thing will then be cheap by nature.
So here is a summary of points that need to be addressed:
On the pros side, the customer will get what is needed functionally and will then use a standard platform instead of a proprietary solution. They will have new functionalities and potentially will be later able to leverage more Open ERP standard modules - like stock management, direct mailing etc.
On the cons, they will have to train again their users and probably adopt new ways of working. Also globally the Open ERP interface is not necessary more user-friendly than what they are used to.
Next meeting with the customer is within two weeks...
As I expected, training management is not an issue. The organization of the courses catalog and the subscription facility are quite good and I expect a lot of small companies to be able to manage their activities with this module.
Still the project requires a lot of modifications. I expected some of these but not so much.
So of course the budget is high (compared to the first expected figures). Will the customer sign for this ?
I Don't know.
One problem with Open-Source is that a lot of people think that every thing will then be cheap by nature.
So here is a summary of points that need to be addressed:
- Sales commission / revenue recognition / performance management.
- HR data, contract management (exists but too basic), competency management. Absence management (again it exists but it is too basic).
- Multi-company. Open EPR is multi-company but implicitly. Here in an international context, the customer would like to be able to explicitly choose the company it will send invoices from.
- More flexible invoicing. In clear a project will require multiple invoices with different sources and destinations.
- International handling: internal invoices generation.
- Intermediate accounting movement. Because they are used to request their customers to pay in advance, they need to write in their books 'deferred income' to indicates that they a have debt to perform some services.
- Calendar management. The system need to be able to summarize the availability of multiple resources.
- Time-sheets screens need to be enhanced.
- Document management security need to be enhanced.
- For accounting, the fact is that Open ERP has a lot of international features but does not in standard have all the output to provide legal statements in all the countries covered by my customer. So the solution would be to sync with an external accounting package.
On the pros side, the customer will get what is needed functionally and will then use a standard platform instead of a proprietary solution. They will have new functionalities and potentially will be later able to leverage more Open ERP standard modules - like stock management, direct mailing etc.
On the cons, they will have to train again their users and probably adopt new ways of working. Also globally the Open ERP interface is not necessary more user-friendly than what they are used to.
Next meeting with the customer is within two weeks...
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Ubuntu suspend without keyboard
Some similar problems seem related to the intel keyboard controller.
Well the following command should cure and identify my problem :
root@batman:~# echo -n "i8042" > /sys/bus/platform/drivers/i8042/unbind
root@batman:~# echo -n "i8042" > /sys/bus/platform/drivers/i8042/bind
No change, so I can forget about the entire set of stuff related to this hardware...
Well the following command should cure and identify my problem :
root@batman:~# echo -n "i8042" > /sys/bus/platform/drivers/i8042/unbind
root@batman:~# echo -n "i8042" > /sys/bus/platform/drivers/i8042/bind
No change, so I can forget about the entire set of stuff related to this hardware...
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Dzone article about Java missing features
I could not resit to reply to this article on Dzone about Java missing features:
http://java.dzone.com/news/java%E2%80%99s-missing-features#comment-21249
Well, this is more student work than anything else. So for me Java, the language is fine.New things are nice, yes. Don't take me wrong. But I don't think productivity will dramatically change thanks to closure or anything else in the list.
Java the platform is more a problem.
What am I missing from Java :
Also political and commercial aspects matter:
So these are my dreams. And be sure that if I find something open and multi-vendors like this, I will consider to move on.
http://java.dzone.com/news/java%E2%80%99s-missing-features#comment-21249
Well, this is more student work than anything else. So for me Java, the language is fine.New things are nice, yes. Don't take me wrong. But I don't think productivity will dramatically change thanks to closure or anything else in the list.
Java the platform is more a problem.
What am I missing from Java :
- Simpler persistence (I know each version makes it simpler but it is still too complicated).May be a pure standard object oriented database with an integrated reporting...
- Better, much better Swing, an easy Desktop application framework (I know it is coming, just cannot wait).
- MS (or OO) Office like components (a word processor; a spread sheet,...) easy to embbed and to enhance. All in Java please.
- In the same way, a Java based web browser component. Or merge Mozilla in JVM.
- XUL like language for interface building.
- Plenty of bug fixes and performance improvement.
- Better integration with Desktop (Windows, Mac, Linux)
- A standard ZK like web development framework.
- ...
Also political and commercial aspects matter:
- Truly OpenSource I mean the real JDK not a // product.
- Bundlled and distributed in all Linux distro.
- Popular as PHP among hosters with prices comparable to PHP.
- Nice really Open Source apps -for example CMS - not these open-source-for-the-basic-stuff-and-need-to-pay40K$ -for-getting-still-less-than-joomla.
- transparent market place not the -if-you-want-to-know-the-price-write-us.
So these are my dreams. And be sure that if I find something open and multi-vendors like this, I will consider to move on.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Still searching a solution on hibernate for the Vaio - Ubuntu 9.10 - CS31
While I am testing other stuff I re-installed Ubuntu, did an update and switched to the Nvidia driver.
Suspsend: stops the computer quickly. When resuming unfortunately the keyboad does not work !
Hibernate: black screen, then blinking cursor for around 1 minute, then error messages and finally shutdown. Restarting from hibernate. I see Grub loading. The Ubuntu logo (white) then a minute or two (may be three), error messages and finally I can login and indeed my desktop is properly re-initialized.
So the situation has evolved since I started looking at Karmic (Koala 9.10... I will now try to dig in the logs.
Suspsend: stops the computer quickly. When resuming unfortunately the keyboad does not work !
Hibernate: black screen, then blinking cursor for around 1 minute, then error messages and finally shutdown. Restarting from hibernate. I see Grub loading. The Ubuntu logo (white) then a minute or two (may be three), error messages and finally I can login and indeed my desktop is properly re-initialized.
So the situation has evolved since I started looking at Karmic (Koala 9.10... I will now try to dig in the logs.
Two busy weeks - still not hibernating with Ubuntu
I still have problem with my Ubuntu 9.10 on my CS31 Vaio.
An old problem of Ubuntu installer related to hibernation is the swap size. There is a need to have a swap size as big as the RAM size. So, I learned that the swap is used to hibernate. Cool and logical. Usually Linux install are recommending a swap size equal to two times the RAM size. Considering the extra requirement of the hibernate swap the allocation of 12 GB - (2+1) x 4G - of swap for 4GB of RAM makes sense.
Anyway, it is not my problem. I saw may posts on the Ubuntu forum on this issue but none of the tips worked. Some net rumors pointed me to think hat it could be 64 bits related... So I tried 32 bits install, no change - I moved back to 9.04 no changes either ! Glad to see it is not a Karmic problem... Clearly the power - ACPI management changes depending on the video card driver. I swapped the Ubuntu driver by the proprietary Nvidia driver. Good for performance and extra setup controls, but nothing changes on my hibernation issue.
Will I find the time to dig into the ACPI stuff? It is far from my day to day business.
An old problem of Ubuntu installer related to hibernation is the swap size. There is a need to have a swap size as big as the RAM size. So, I learned that the swap is used to hibernate. Cool and logical. Usually Linux install are recommending a swap size equal to two times the RAM size. Considering the extra requirement of the hibernate swap the allocation of 12 GB - (2+1) x 4G - of swap for 4GB of RAM makes sense.
Anyway, it is not my problem. I saw may posts on the Ubuntu forum on this issue but none of the tips worked. Some net rumors pointed me to think hat it could be 64 bits related... So I tried 32 bits install, no change - I moved back to 9.04 no changes either ! Glad to see it is not a Karmic problem... Clearly the power - ACPI management changes depending on the video card driver. I swapped the Ubuntu driver by the proprietary Nvidia driver. Good for performance and extra setup controls, but nothing changes on my hibernation issue.
Will I find the time to dig into the ACPI stuff? It is far from my day to day business.
Two busy weeks - back from Milan - Number portability - the Belgium case
Last Monday, I did a one day trip to Milan to give a class about our middleware for number portability. A big piece of Java work that would have very much benefited of Spring.
In fact I solved the beans configuration exactly the reversed way Spring does. Basically I stored all the configuration stuff in a single object for each sub process and every component take what's relevant for its job.
I know this make all this code dependent on this big fat object. I think some people call that a white board design. I agree this lack elegance and hinder re-usability. On the other side it simplified very much configuration and because objects share the config info it is naturally consistent. The same object also implemented a factory pattern, creating and initializing most of the objects (a better part of my design).
Most of us keep looking forward, but I think checking what happened backwards brings also some values.
There is a lot to say on this project not only on the Java side but also project wise.
Number portability (moving from one operator to another but keeping your number) has been implemented in most European countries (because of European market regulation). Yet each country had the freedom to implement it its own way. This has been for me an opportunity to work many times ( for Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Hungary Finland, Latvia, Nederlands, Lithuania, Estonia, Croatia, Hungary ) on similar but different projects.
Typically, number portability is solved by a central database that lists those numbers that have been ported to another operator. An administrative process - kind of work flow - has to be implemented, usually with time constraints. Once porting is agreed between the donor and the receiving operators, a technical phase propagates the porting information to all operators. The net result being that all operators own a copy of the central database that feeds the operators switches (usually trough what is called an Intelligent Network platform).
Belgium was the first process I developed. The central database project was outsourced to a contractor - a very big, well known international software house.
The entire process was driven by a committee piloting the contractor. That generated what committees like to get: papers (probably also a lot of meetings and a high volume of coffee breaks).
The full documentation filled an entire CD (for comparison I received the Spain technical documentation - a single file format description - on one page).
Technically this was my first exposure to Web services (more or less 6-7 years ago). That part was great. However the web services was described as an XML schema - no WSDL. So I had to use an XML parser,code and decode the messages.
The rest of the project was 'nuts' and was a school case on what not to do.
The committee-contractor tandem generated a lengthy and mostly absurd acceptance process, so we had to simulate business transactions of all kinds in an absurd repetitive fashion. Testing and preparing acceptance reports took finally 3-4 times more resources than developing the Web services.
More funny was the total absence of service oriented attitude of the contractor. The idea of giving an easy test platform, a reference implementation, or any basic tools (e.g: raw messages) for developers was out of their mind. Just for one reason. Not only they got the contract for the central database, they also expected to take the business of all the connecting operators. So the motivation to help anybody was naturally extremely low.
They also provided a web based application. They used Java and the most modern computers stuff at that time - multi-processors Sun servers, clusters, Oracle, Nokia Checkpoint appliances, load-balancers etc This was very professional. Unfortunately the application quickly turned out to be a pig. Users started to complain from availability, performance , error messages, failling transactions etc.
In my opinion, this was due to the inexperience of the programming staff and finally a very poor design.
A constant problem of big consulting companies is that they send their senior people to win a deal and send junior staff to implement it. As the amount of problems became important, their support staff could not follow anymore. They entered into crisis management by the book - thus delivering an help-desk procedure that requested a complete network description just for asking a password... Of course, this exasperated their users more than it solved problems.
I never attended these comittee meetings. The specs were done when I started the project for my customer.Why have they decided to build their on messaging infrastructure on top of relational database using Soap. I don't know. However I saw later similar designs and it seems they copied a system developed in the UK.
In a search to create additional work, they decided that a VPN was not enough. SSL certificates were used between all parties. Good. Obviously they created their own certificate request process with conventions about what to put in each field of the certificate - this was described in a 20+ pages document (all other countries I saw after, simply ask to exchange public certificates between the operator and the central database - final point). In fact their policy and certificate distribution could have been meaningful if the transaction had to be secured end to end - operator to operator - which they did not.
In the line with their policy to create work, the certificates were issued for a single year, this created a permanent state of maintenance multiplied by two (test and production had to be renewed). The funniest thing was when I setup our messages reception point. The only way I could setup the server to get messages was turning off client certificate authentication! Half of their stuff did not work because they were not providing a complete certificate chain. When I discussed that with the contractor security 'expert', I could measure a long silence that finished by 'what's important is that it works now'. Indeed but as far security is concerned...
A few years later, the outsourcing contract expired. The operators committee took the decision to swap the contractor and the entire application! So the new contractor re-implemented the entire system ! Their implementation had to be identical for the Soap transaction and they decided to keep the SSL security system, unchanged...
In fact I solved the beans configuration exactly the reversed way Spring does. Basically I stored all the configuration stuff in a single object for each sub process and every component take what's relevant for its job.
I know this make all this code dependent on this big fat object. I think some people call that a white board design. I agree this lack elegance and hinder re-usability. On the other side it simplified very much configuration and because objects share the config info it is naturally consistent. The same object also implemented a factory pattern, creating and initializing most of the objects (a better part of my design).
Most of us keep looking forward, but I think checking what happened backwards brings also some values.
There is a lot to say on this project not only on the Java side but also project wise.
Number portability (moving from one operator to another but keeping your number) has been implemented in most European countries (because of European market regulation). Yet each country had the freedom to implement it its own way. This has been for me an opportunity to work many times ( for Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Hungary Finland, Latvia, Nederlands, Lithuania, Estonia, Croatia, Hungary ) on similar but different projects.
Typically, number portability is solved by a central database that lists those numbers that have been ported to another operator. An administrative process - kind of work flow - has to be implemented, usually with time constraints. Once porting is agreed between the donor and the receiving operators, a technical phase propagates the porting information to all operators. The net result being that all operators own a copy of the central database that feeds the operators switches (usually trough what is called an Intelligent Network platform).
Belgium was the first process I developed. The central database project was outsourced to a contractor - a very big, well known international software house.
The entire process was driven by a committee piloting the contractor. That generated what committees like to get: papers (probably also a lot of meetings and a high volume of coffee breaks).
The full documentation filled an entire CD (for comparison I received the Spain technical documentation - a single file format description - on one page).
Technically this was my first exposure to Web services (more or less 6-7 years ago). That part was great. However the web services was described as an XML schema - no WSDL. So I had to use an XML parser,code and decode the messages.
The rest of the project was 'nuts' and was a school case on what not to do.
The committee-contractor tandem generated a lengthy and mostly absurd acceptance process, so we had to simulate business transactions of all kinds in an absurd repetitive fashion. Testing and preparing acceptance reports took finally 3-4 times more resources than developing the Web services.
More funny was the total absence of service oriented attitude of the contractor. The idea of giving an easy test platform, a reference implementation, or any basic tools (e.g: raw messages) for developers was out of their mind. Just for one reason. Not only they got the contract for the central database, they also expected to take the business of all the connecting operators. So the motivation to help anybody was naturally extremely low.
They also provided a web based application. They used Java and the most modern computers stuff at that time - multi-processors Sun servers, clusters, Oracle, Nokia Checkpoint appliances, load-balancers etc This was very professional. Unfortunately the application quickly turned out to be a pig. Users started to complain from availability, performance , error messages, failling transactions etc.
In my opinion, this was due to the inexperience of the programming staff and finally a very poor design.
A constant problem of big consulting companies is that they send their senior people to win a deal and send junior staff to implement it. As the amount of problems became important, their support staff could not follow anymore. They entered into crisis management by the book - thus delivering an help-desk procedure that requested a complete network description just for asking a password... Of course, this exasperated their users more than it solved problems.
I never attended these comittee meetings. The specs were done when I started the project for my customer.Why have they decided to build their on messaging infrastructure on top of relational database using Soap. I don't know. However I saw later similar designs and it seems they copied a system developed in the UK.
In a search to create additional work, they decided that a VPN was not enough. SSL certificates were used between all parties. Good. Obviously they created their own certificate request process with conventions about what to put in each field of the certificate - this was described in a 20+ pages document (all other countries I saw after, simply ask to exchange public certificates between the operator and the central database - final point). In fact their policy and certificate distribution could have been meaningful if the transaction had to be secured end to end - operator to operator - which they did not.
In the line with their policy to create work, the certificates were issued for a single year, this created a permanent state of maintenance multiplied by two (test and production had to be renewed). The funniest thing was when I setup our messages reception point. The only way I could setup the server to get messages was turning off client certificate authentication! Half of their stuff did not work because they were not providing a complete certificate chain. When I discussed that with the contractor security 'expert', I could measure a long silence that finished by 'what's important is that it works now'. Indeed but as far security is concerned...
A few years later, the outsourcing contract expired. The operators committee took the decision to swap the contractor and the entire application! So the new contractor re-implemented the entire system ! Their implementation had to be identical for the Soap transaction and they decided to keep the SSL security system, unchanged...
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Open ERP Training module - updates
First of all, my project for a training company continues.
We did 3 days of interviews (mind mapping) and drafted the functional perimeter (a structured list of points). Basically for my customer there are two business lines Open Courses (OC) and Intra Courses (IC). The same difference is present in Open ERP training module.
The subscription mechanism, the catalog and offer concepts fill the need for a training center. There is also a few screens for 'Intra' which is basically what I call IC.
For my customer, I think on the OC side we have a 99% match. For IC, the situation is more complex. If things go on, I will post more on this project.In fact the training module is so good that most of the work will be for other business management aspects...
Typically the offering process is more complex for IC because by nature the offers are customized to suit the customers requirements. My customer see each of these offers as a 'project' - the current Intra functionality is elementary compared to their needs (sales management, commissioning, revenue recognition, international aspects,...).
Anyway it seems this training module is gaining interest and I saw some posts on the Tiny partners list.
Without revealing any secret (and nothing official here), we can expect the training module to merge with the trunk within a few weeks. So I hope to find it in extra addons before the end of the year...
Good to know, currently the initial customer for which the module has been developed is in production.
As far as I know they are still at work for the portals. We should have 4 pre-defined portals:student (agenda, achievement, tests results,...), customers-partners (to enroll their employees), suppliers (to view and confirm orders) and teachers (planning + confirmation, access to training material).
On the roadmap they still have the scanning of documents (exams, evaluation form,...).
We did 3 days of interviews (mind mapping) and drafted the functional perimeter (a structured list of points). Basically for my customer there are two business lines Open Courses (OC) and Intra Courses (IC). The same difference is present in Open ERP training module.
The subscription mechanism, the catalog and offer concepts fill the need for a training center. There is also a few screens for 'Intra' which is basically what I call IC.
For my customer, I think on the OC side we have a 99% match. For IC, the situation is more complex. If things go on, I will post more on this project.In fact the training module is so good that most of the work will be for other business management aspects...
Typically the offering process is more complex for IC because by nature the offers are customized to suit the customers requirements. My customer see each of these offers as a 'project' - the current Intra functionality is elementary compared to their needs (sales management, commissioning, revenue recognition, international aspects,...).
Anyway it seems this training module is gaining interest and I saw some posts on the Tiny partners list.
Without revealing any secret (and nothing official here), we can expect the training module to merge with the trunk within a few weeks. So I hope to find it in extra addons before the end of the year...
Good to know, currently the initial customer for which the module has been developed is in production.
As far as I know they are still at work for the portals. We should have 4 pre-defined portals:student (agenda, achievement, tests results,...), customers-partners (to enroll their employees), suppliers (to view and confirm orders) and teachers (planning + confirmation, access to training material).
On the roadmap they still have the scanning of documents (exams, evaluation form,...).
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Not so Karmic Koala
Well, back to my Vaio. I am not yet happy with the current setting. My intention was then to install the latest Ubuntu.
Install was very smooth. I see Ubuntu progressing at each release. very impressing.
Unfortunately, hibernating or suspending is not properly working. Well they may do so but restarting is an issue. I searched a bit on the net. Not that much at this stage...
Install was very smooth. I see Ubuntu progressing at each release. very impressing.
Unfortunately, hibernating or suspending is not properly working. Well they may do so but restarting is an issue. I searched a bit on the net. Not that much at this stage...
Monday, October 26, 2009
XP clock trick
It is difficult for me to remember when the problem started. On my HP portable. The clock goes forward 20 minutes. I fix it. Then a bit later, well, it is back putting me in future !
I found a post on a forum:
net stop w32time
w32tm.exe /unregister
w32tm.exe /register
net start w32time
It seems to work. May be I should restart. I am very much worrying, a second PC is now having the same problem.
I found a post on a forum:
net stop w32time
w32tm.exe /unregister
w32tm.exe /register
net start w32time
It seems to work. May be I should restart. I am very much worrying, a second PC is now having the same problem.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Back to python - Wingware does the job - Netbeans does not
So I am back to Open ERP and Python. I wanted to start tracing in Open ERP. The best way for me to understand the application, see how to make modifications etc. And of course hunting bugs...
I already mentioned the new NetBeans support for Python. Unfortunately the debugger is not able to debug multi-threaded application. So I give up. Going through some books and articles I found Wingware http://www.wingware.com/.
This is not free but I think worth its moderated price. It exists for Windows & Linux. My trial is very positive.
I already mentioned the new NetBeans support for Python. Unfortunately the debugger is not able to debug multi-threaded application. So I give up. Going through some books and articles I found Wingware http://www.wingware.com/.
This is not free but I think worth its moderated price. It exists for Windows & Linux. My trial is very positive.
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Experimental plugins for netbeans
http://deadlock.netbeans.org/hudson/job/nbms-and-javadoc/lastStableBuild/artifact/nbbuild/nbms/updates.xml.gz
Configure this url in the list of the update centers...
Well, it contains at least one perk... a plugin that mimize scanning of your project!
Configure this url in the list of the update centers...
Well, it contains at least one perk... a plugin that mimize scanning of your project!
Monday, October 05, 2009
The Vaio install venture continues
Well in spite of the added virtual memory, the Sony recovery software continues crashing when installing on a VM. So forget about my previous post, my only excuse: doing three things at the same time.
Saturday, I registered my new Dyson vacuum cleaner. Instead, of sending the classical postcard I followed the indication in their manual and went to dyson.be. Nice site, built by graphical nuts for sure. Don't expect to see "register your product". After some search, I went to "profile". I did not know that I had a vacuum profile... I created one and finally there, I could register my serial number. These registration processes are really the poorest applications made on the internet... Companies should put much less mony on graphical stuff and much more (that is more than zero) on use-case scenarios
Sunday, I did a bit of homework for the school of my sons. A few parents are trying to setup a library. I already helped, building a small Java program to print stickers with barcode (believe me or not, this was a pain). Currently the inventory is done by people encoding data in spreadsheets. This last sunday, I grouped all the files together and wanted to publish it on Goodle doc. Unfortunately I never suceeded importing the file.
These week-ends are definitively too short !
For this week, I need to finish a web service written in Java with Apache Axis, get back to a customer for an Open ERP project, read a full bunch of paper concerning another Open ERP project and finally may be a bit of Joomla -- I want to try migration from 1.0.xxto 1.5.xx.
Saturday, I registered my new Dyson vacuum cleaner. Instead, of sending the classical postcard I followed the indication in their manual and went to dyson.be. Nice site, built by graphical nuts for sure. Don't expect to see "register your product". After some search, I went to "profile". I did not know that I had a vacuum profile... I created one and finally there, I could register my serial number. These registration processes are really the poorest applications made on the internet... Companies should put much less mony on graphical stuff and much more (that is more than zero) on use-case scenarios
Sunday, I did a bit of homework for the school of my sons. A few parents are trying to setup a library. I already helped, building a small Java program to print stickers with barcode (believe me or not, this was a pain). Currently the inventory is done by people encoding data in spreadsheets. This last sunday, I grouped all the files together and wanted to publish it on Goodle doc. Unfortunately I never suceeded importing the file.
These week-ends are definitively too short !
For this week, I need to finish a web service written in Java with Apache Axis, get back to a customer for an Open ERP project, read a full bunch of paper concerning another Open ERP project and finally may be a bit of Joomla -- I want to try migration from 1.0.xxto 1.5.xx.
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Virtual PC not for me either, so back to the future with VMWARE
Well, I recognize my ignorance. I though the so called XP Mode required the Intel vitualization. Well in fact, it seems Virtual PC has this requirement (logical in fact).
So I give up on MS Virtualization stuff. Strangely, without prompting, 7 activated itself...
I decided to try VMWARE, I requested a trial key and loaded the software. My idea is to try to use the recovery disk from the Vaio to install Vista 32 bits. I will then recover all the drivers and apps originally installed. I will use this 32 bits OS for Checkpoint access. At least that's my plan.
Unfortunately the Vaio recovery DVD crashed with a message "memory xxxxxxxx cannot be read from instruction at xxxxxxxxx" - sorry I forgot to write the exact message. I tried to run the memory diag on the VM , it passed.
By default VMWARE allocated 1GB of RAM; I tried to configure 4GB and... it worked. Well, it started to work since the re-install is still running as I am writing this. Next I will try to get back this Virtual memory...
This give me a bit of time. As most IT, I am use to throw RTFM to users but I must admit myself I don't spend that much time in the manuals of utilities or O/S. Any way I decided to go through the VMWARE workstation manual. Plenty of discoveries there that I will comment later on this blog... as soon Vista runs on 7.
So I give up on MS Virtualization stuff. Strangely, without prompting, 7 activated itself...
I decided to try VMWARE, I requested a trial key and loaded the software. My idea is to try to use the recovery disk from the Vaio to install Vista 32 bits. I will then recover all the drivers and apps originally installed. I will use this 32 bits OS for Checkpoint access. At least that's my plan.
Unfortunately the Vaio recovery DVD crashed with a message "memory xxxxxxxx cannot be read from instruction at xxxxxxxxx" - sorry I forgot to write the exact message. I tried to run the memory diag on the VM , it passed.
By default VMWARE allocated 1GB of RAM; I tried to configure 4GB and... it worked. Well, it started to work since the re-install is still running as I am writing this. Next I will try to get back this Virtual memory...
This give me a bit of time. As most IT, I am use to throw RTFM to users but I must admit myself I don't spend that much time in the manuals of utilities or O/S. Any way I decided to go through the VMWARE workstation manual. Plenty of discoveries there that I will comment later on this blog... as soon Vista runs on 7.
Thursday, October 01, 2009
7 - Virtual PC & XP Mode
Well I will not go further on the XP Mode for the Vaio. It does not install. In fact you need the Intel virtualization extension to install XP Mode. Strange. I understand that performance could be affected but not working at all...
My processor is a t6500 http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=39311&code=t6500. I must say I did not looked at that feature. It is basically in all recent desktop processor but not for in the notebook/laptop product line.
So before considering your migration, look at you processor with the utility provided by Intel
http://www.intel.com/support/processors/tools/piu/.
What's next for the Vaio? In spite of this XP Mode processor issue I will try the Virtual PC (which has the benefit of being free). And I will compare it with VMWARE workstation.
My processor is a t6500 http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=39311&code=t6500. I must say I did not looked at that feature. It is basically in all recent desktop processor but not for in the notebook/laptop product line.
So before considering your migration, look at you processor with the utility provided by Intel
http://www.intel.com/support/processors/tools/piu/.
What's next for the Vaio? In spite of this XP Mode processor issue I will try the Virtual PC (which has the benefit of being free). And I will compare it with VMWARE workstation.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
No securemote on 7 64 bits
I checked and Checkpoint Securemote is not available for 64 bits architectures (and will not be). I have not tried anything more as all my tests with vista 64 bits were negative (more or less one year ago).
Checkpoint has released a new end-point client called 'Endpoint Connect R71'. This one installed pretty well and seems working except that the customer I am connecting to does not have the latest firewall to support this new client.
Practically this one is a big typical gotcha for anybody planning a migration!
Browsing about this, I read a few things about Virtual PC and XP mode (XP mode seems to be a Virtual Machine capable of installing old apps and publish them to the Windows 7 host - kind of screen less VM). This is my next target for the Vaio. If I can get securemote working from there, I am done.This will be an opportunity to look at Microsoft virtualization solution.
On a higher point of view, all this make me a bit laughing at our industry. A properly designed architecture should have isolated developers from this 32-64 bits issue. I understand that this affects some critical spots in an OS but why a printer driver or a network application (even if it is a driver or service) needs to be aware of that silly detail (they don't address more than 3GB as far as I know) that's a key problem. The second major issue is that most people including experienced professionals find this absolutely normal. It is NOT. OS, VM, interpreters etc should shield us from these craps: we should be in the street protesting about these nuts designs!
Think again,was all that Java and .Net fuss not about this?
You think that's not possible? When Apple migrated from the Motorola 68000 processor to the Power PC most parts of the OS was running in an emulator. So why not doing today most of this coding so it would run in a Java VM (or .Net for Microsoft)?
Frankly there is an habit here for not looking at all these undelivered promises! Why? In my opinion because the industry analyst have an over sized ego and exhibit the common weakness that sustains major failures: the inability to recognize their own mistakes.
By the way I did one on this blog. I read that 7 has a disk burner application. I will try this later.
Checkpoint has released a new end-point client called 'Endpoint Connect R71'. This one installed pretty well and seems working except that the customer I am connecting to does not have the latest firewall to support this new client.
Practically this one is a big typical gotcha for anybody planning a migration!
Browsing about this, I read a few things about Virtual PC and XP mode (XP mode seems to be a Virtual Machine capable of installing old apps and publish them to the Windows 7 host - kind of screen less VM). This is my next target for the Vaio. If I can get securemote working from there, I am done.This will be an opportunity to look at Microsoft virtualization solution.
On a higher point of view, all this make me a bit laughing at our industry. A properly designed architecture should have isolated developers from this 32-64 bits issue. I understand that this affects some critical spots in an OS but why a printer driver or a network application (even if it is a driver or service) needs to be aware of that silly detail (they don't address more than 3GB as far as I know) that's a key problem. The second major issue is that most people including experienced professionals find this absolutely normal. It is NOT. OS, VM, interpreters etc should shield us from these craps: we should be in the street protesting about these nuts designs!
Think again,was all that Java and .Net fuss not about this?
You think that's not possible? When Apple migrated from the Motorola 68000 processor to the Power PC most parts of the OS was running in an emulator. So why not doing today most of this coding so it would run in a Java VM (or .Net for Microsoft)?
Frankly there is an habit here for not looking at all these undelivered promises! Why? In my opinion because the industry analyst have an over sized ego and exhibit the common weakness that sustains major failures: the inability to recognize their own mistakes.
By the way I did one on this blog. I read that 7 has a disk burner application. I will try this later.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Windows 7 64 bits & HP Laserjet 3550N
May be this will help somebody. I decided to try the Vista 64 bits drivers for my HP Laserjet 3550N on my Windows 7 and it works without a glitch ! Why is HP announcing this as not supported. Again mysterious.
Next I will try to get Checkpoint Securemote at work...
Next I will try to get Checkpoint Securemote at work...
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Windows 7
I re-installed again the new Vaio. This time with Windows Vista Ultimate. The install is very smooth and quick. Of course I lost the pre-installed application given with Vista. The most annoying being the CD burner. Why is this not bundled in a product called 'Ultimate' is a mystery.
The net result of installing a 64 bits OS is that I have now 2GB free on 4GB. So be happy that the half RAM of your new still idle, unused computer is free...
I must say that I was a bit confused about Microsoft OS naming. 95,XP,2000.. Vista and now 7...
May be, because, ideally you should have 7GB of RAM to get 4 free... or may be because I will have to wait 7 months to get drivers for my HP3550.
I must admit this HP printer was a bad choice, not because it is a bad printer but because some processing is off loaded to the host driver which is then more complicated and basically available much after anything... on board PCL and Postcript printers are much better supported. One remark, it now prints remarkably well from Linux.
Another point: 7 seems to go on the hard disk for no reason every 20 seconds...strange...
So getting the right OS is still not easy. I prefer Windows to get Office - more used but also much more useful than Open-Office. It is good to remind that the common cut & paste is in most case not working between Linux apps.
I like Linux for the OpenERP and development in general. Vista is crap in average, XP becomes outdated and the XP64 bits support is problematic (drivers, apps) ,Windows 7 lacks some drivers.
Using VMWARE is of course an alternative. Although it adds complexity on everything (cut & paste works even less in this case). My idea was to use Windows as a host for my VM. The reason was that I expected to carry this Vaio much more than the previous HP to replace my classical notebook. So the starting time of a session with Office is critical.
Summary for this sunny Sunday: getting it all at work is still not easy !
The net result of installing a 64 bits OS is that I have now 2GB free on 4GB. So be happy that the half RAM of your new still idle, unused computer is free...
I must say that I was a bit confused about Microsoft OS naming. 95,XP,2000.. Vista and now 7...
May be, because, ideally you should have 7GB of RAM to get 4 free... or may be because I will have to wait 7 months to get drivers for my HP3550.
I must admit this HP printer was a bad choice, not because it is a bad printer but because some processing is off loaded to the host driver which is then more complicated and basically available much after anything... on board PCL and Postcript printers are much better supported. One remark, it now prints remarkably well from Linux.
Another point: 7 seems to go on the hard disk for no reason every 20 seconds...strange...
So getting the right OS is still not easy. I prefer Windows to get Office - more used but also much more useful than Open-Office. It is good to remind that the common cut & paste is in most case not working between Linux apps.
I like Linux for the OpenERP and development in general. Vista is crap in average, XP becomes outdated and the XP64 bits support is problematic (drivers, apps) ,Windows 7 lacks some drivers.
Using VMWARE is of course an alternative. Although it adds complexity on everything (cut & paste works even less in this case). My idea was to use Windows as a host for my VM. The reason was that I expected to carry this Vaio much more than the previous HP to replace my classical notebook. So the starting time of a session with Office is critical.
Summary for this sunny Sunday: getting it all at work is still not easy !
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