Native Eclipse

I just got the 100% native eclipse from Rawhide up and running. It’s using gcj4, a 100% free and open source software stack which means that it can actually be shipped with Fedora since all other viable Java platforms are non-free.

Writing a GNOME application in Java

The Eclipse RPM’s themselves are compiled natively to i386 code so it feels very snappy since there is no bytecode interpreter in place. However, gcj does provide both a bytecode compiler as well as a bytecode interpreter - it’s a full Java 1.4.2 platform. I’m using the 3.1.0 M5 RPM’s from Andrew Overholt - he told me last week at FUDCon that the CDT (C/C++ Development Tools) would hit Rawhide soon. Also check out Andrew’s Java-GNOME/Eclipse demo - it’s totally sweet (requires Flash).

GTK 2.6 provides excellent platform integration

Free Java has come a long way.

Gejsten, Hunter S. Thompson and Nirvana

I’m happy to see that GEJSTEN.DK is back online - if you understand Danish you don’t want to miss this. In other news, is it just my brain playing with me or does the radios play a lot more Nirvana now that Hunter S. Thompson also shot himself in the head? I’ve heard like three Nirvana tracks on the radio this week. Maybe it’s just inside my head though.

Busy week and finger prints

Had a busy schedule last week; went to Linux World here in Beantown on Tuesday and then FUDCON at Boston University on Friday. Got pretty well wasted with the desktop crew at a bar in Boston Friday evening. Neat.

Captured with my shiny new driver

Spent most of today hacking on a driver for the APC Biopod that I mentioned earlier. I actually managed to find detailed specs and, with some help from usbsnoop, I wrote a quick one-off user space driver using libusb. Happy about that; been wanting to get this device to work for a long time and now I just need to clean things up.. and decide whether it should be a kernel or user mode driver. Then to find some good finger print verification software; this looks like a good starting point. I’m afraid getting all the pieces done in a nice way (e.g. integration with GNOME Keyring) will require major work (finger enrollment, UI, PAM stuff etc.). Still, sounds like a fun project to do on the side. And it would be awesome to have this in Fedora.

World Map

Heh, even after a little more than four months over here, I found this quite amusing

New Car Stereo

I got off my ass today, to buy a new car stereo.

Cracktastic, isn’t it?

It’s a Sony CDX-F700. It passes the davidz checklist:

• Detachable front to deter stupid pricks from breaking into my car


• Ability to hook-up my ohh-so-stylish iPod Mini


• Plays MP3 CD/CD-R/CD-RW. Maybe even regular Audio CD’s as well..

It also got a lot of cracktastic features like a remote control (uhm, right, so the girlfriend in the trunk can change the tunes) and other stuff I’m almost certain that I wont need.

It’s getting installed on Tuesday night, so I’m a happy man.

Google does it again

Google Maps Just Works™.

davidz’s place - click to go to Google Maps

That is all.

Superbowl

Bryan: We got some beer

beer : n : fermented alcoholic beverage brewed from malt and hops [syn: suds]

Seems that krh is already all excited:

krh digs Xprint

Now, GO PATS.