Eclipse 'Vote For Pedro' Plugin?

Got this today. No idea why / how. Anyone ever seen this?

Fight Fire With Grammar

So I finally scored a copy of Metallica's latest "offering", which has a few good tracks, I admit. Overall it sounds more like their first few albums than the self-titled "Black" album or the crap that followed, but with cheesier lyrics and still more radio-friendliness. So, more like Nickelback with heavier guitars.

In a brilliant move to fight music downloading, I see they've adopted a new approach: bad grammar. I'm not sure if the ploy is to ensure that anyone foolish enough to listen to their latest, um, load will be dumbed down and lose in court should they get sued, or to discourage downloads in the first place because generally, the people who have the whatnot to understand how to create, seed, and download torrents will also be offended by the inanity of these songs.

Either way, here's a sample. Note the fact that there's no rhyming reason to use the grammatically incorrect "more strong" when "stronger" would also fit the syllable pattern. (I'll forgive "What don't" in place of "That which doesn't" because c'mon, it's a song, and no one talks that way. But "more strong" - no. One must draw the line at hillbilly English somewhere.)

You rise, you fall, you're down, then you rise again
What don't kill you make you more strong
You rise, you fall, you're down, then you rise again
What don't kill you make you more strong 

Rise, fall, down, rise again
What don't kill you make you more strong
Rise, fall, down, rise again
What don't kill you make you more strong 

(more)

Poll the other one

Stumbled on this bit of oddness today... a poll about leg slapping as punishment.

In lighter news, there's also no definitive answer yet on this best movie POTUS poll, much like a certain ongoing 'name next year's Eclipse release' poll...

Burn The Evidence

I recently graffiti'd the Eclipse Planning Counncil Agenda with my $0.02 because I saw something I felt was incorrect. Not being one to posture and postulate wildly w/o facts to back myself up, I also created this supporting document: EMF 2.3 Plan History.

Why? Because on a recent blog entry, Bjorn brought up some excellent suggestions about having a good communication strategy so that your consuming teams (users, developers) can properly be made aware of lumps in the gravy.

At first I was annoyed, because I thought he was throwing rocks at EMF. But because I know we did damn near everything but sending up smoke signals to get the message out, I'd like to instead underscore all the places you can document and announce your plans to help grow your community:

• Architecture Council (meetings + minutes on website)
• Planning Council (meetings + minutes on website)
• Europa/Ganymede meetings (meetings + minutes on website)
• website (4 places: home, news, downloads, docs -- reuse information widgets or database content to be able to inform people in many ways)
• Eclipse wiki (project page, project category page)
• project newsgroups -- don't be afraid to cross-post to related newsgroups
• Cross Projects mailing list (cross-projects-issues-dev@)
• Planning Council mailing list (eclipse.org-planning-council@)

We have no favourite channel. We use them all. Sure, it's a lot of work and could be construed as overkill, but IMHO it's worth the cost because it shows project maturity and respect for the people who use your code. Need a more instant-gratification or cost-benefits-analysis rationalization than the warm-fuzzy-feelings one? How about free testing? Tell people about your planned changes and they can adapt faster -- and give you feedback sooner.

Oh, well, time to crank up some Billy Talent and let the weekend begin.

Registrars: The Good, The Bad, The Confused?

In my weekend role as Rainbow Cinemas' resident geek, I have to handle domain name registration and renewals at various points of the year, for 13 different domain names, currently spread across 5 registrars (for a number of historical reasons).

In trying to consolidate domains and minimize the overhead, I recently has this exchange with the folks at name.net:

I'm trying to transfer my three .org domains held with budgetnames.ca to you, yet I keep being told "transfer of this domain is not supported". I unlocked the domains via their management interface on 09/09, and the DNS records now reflect that fact (as does their interface). Yet I still can't transfer the domains, even with the Auth codes.

Can you explain what I'm doing wrong? Could there be something still locked at their end? I've never dealt with .org domains before, so I don't know what process there might that's different from .ca, .com, or .net.

The domains are:

rainbowcinemas.org
magiclanterntheatres.org
magiclanterntheaters.org

Thanks in advance,

Hello,

At this time, we do not accept .ORG transfers to or from our registrar. I apologize if this has caused you any inconvenience.

If you have any additional questions or concerns, please feel free to let us know.

Thank you,

Name.net
support@name.net

Name.net,

Do you mind if I call you "Name?"

Name, your website says you do. Any reason for this discrepancy? When do you plan to support .org domain transfers in?

Cheers,

Dear Nick,

Thank you for your question. Name.net is .org accredited, however we are still integrating this tld into our transfer system. This service should be available with in the following 2 months. If you have further questions or concerns, please let us know. We would be happy to provide further assistance.

Thank you,

Name.net

Dear Name,

Well, as my .org's are up for renew in the next month, I guess I'll have to stay with my current registrar for now. Thanks for the information.

FWIW, if I was running your website, I'd revise the copy on https://www.name.net/bath-transfer/ to state that your support for .org is coming soon, not available right now for $6.99. It would avoid support questions like "Why can't I transfer my .org to you?" ;-)

Cheers,

Nick, usability geek
http://divbyzero.com

Dear Nick,

We certainly understand your point. This issue has been resolved, and you should be able to transfer your .org domains to Name.net at this time. You will certainly want to keep a close eye on these transfers in order to make certain they transfer before they expire at their current registrar. Please let us know how we can be of further assistance.

Thank you,

Name.net

Dear Name,

Ok, now I'm confused. First you say "This service should be available with in the following 2 months.", then you say "This issue has been resolved, and you should be able to transfer your .org domains to Name.net at this time."

I've initiated the transfer and it looks like it's going through, though as usual you reject my credit cards and I have to use Paypal instead. (Not a big deal, just FYI.)

I'm baffled how you shaved 2 months of development/integration/paperwork/whatever off the plan just because I said I'll have to renew w/ my current registrar instead of transferring to you. That's quite the impressive developer overclocking just to make $21 in revenue -- from 2 months down to 2 hours! My compliments to your dev team! ;-)

Cheers,

Nick

Dear Nick,

We are very pleased to have been able to resolve the issue in well under our estimated time frame. Transfer confirmation emails will be sent to mlt-rc@divbyzero.com for the domains in transfer ID 88 in the very near future. If you have further questions or concerns, just let us know. We would be happy to provide further assistance.

Thank you,

Scott (yes, finally, a first name!!)
Name.net

Meanwhile, I tried to get an explanation from another registrar as to why they'd overbilled me -- early -- when the domain account was NOT set to auto-renew, and had this conversation:

The domain rainbowcinemas.sk.ca is not set to expire for another month (2007/10/11), and the domain, according to your site, is not set to renew automatically.

Yet despite this, I just got an invoice for $31.79 for a single year's renewal, when last year it was only $16.95.

Why has the cost nearly doubled? Why did a non-renewing domain auto-renew? And why did it do so a month early?

Thanks in advance,

Nick Boldt
Webmaster, Rainbow Cinemas

Hello,

For .ca renewal it is 19.99 + GST 1.20
Total cost is 21.19

Since you had paid $31.79

I have updated your account and added credit of $10.60 to your account. Next renewal you will be paying $21.19 for 1 year renewal.

If you have questions or concerns please do not hesitate to ask us.

Regards,
Wilson

WebServe Canada
www.webserve.ca "the power to serve"

Wilson:

Thanks for the price explanation (though I might question why the price has gone up 17% since last year). That said, however, the domain, according to your site, is not set to renew automatically. Why did it renew a month early, and why did it renew automatically (at the wrong price, too)? Is there something amiss with your renewal system?

Thanks in advance,

Nick Boldt
Webmaster, Rainbow Cinemas

Hello Nick,

We apologize for our billing error, I have corrected and you will not be overcharged or billed extra. Even thou it is not set to renew automatically, our billing system renews the domain one month in advance. If you have questions or concerns please do not hesitate to ask us.

Regards,
Wilson

WebServe Canada
www.webserve.ca "the power to serve"

At this point I gave up arguing the point since he didn't seem to care, and the 17% price increase was clearly not in order to hire people for tech support.

Anyway, the point here is that not all registrars are created equal, and cheap-as-free does not necessarily mean crappy service. In fact, it can be quite the opposite. If only everyone was so responsive to usability (and therefore marketing) issues!

This Just In..., Part 2

As Mike reported earlier today, the results of the JDJ Reader's Choice Awards are finally out (a mere 7 weeks after they were supposed to be available). Mike covered a lot of the Eclipse highlights -- here are some Modeling highlights:

• Java Component: Infragistics JSuite mysteriously sneaks past EMF (when 153 votes appear AFTER the polls closed). Despite the voting irregularity and as yet no response from JDJ to explain the surge, we did beat out EJB and JSF. I do find it a little suprising -- unlikely even -- that a $795 - $1495 component set beat out 3 free offerings from Eclipse and Sun, but hey. Maybe if the JDJ makes the voting/auditing process open next year, we'll have nothing to kvetch about.
• Modeling Tool: MagicDraw UML, followed by MyEclipse, EMF, and Borland's Together 2006.
• Java Persistence Architecture: Hibernate, BEA Kodo, Java Persistence API, TopLink. Next year, Teneo? EclipseLink?

And a few IBM highlights:

• Java Messaging Tool: IBM WebSphere MQ (3rd place after SwiftMQ & Sun)
• Java Virtual Machine: IBM (3rd after Sun & JRockit)
• Enterprise Database: IBM DB2 (3rd after Oracle and MySQL)
• Java Application Server (Commercial): Websphere Application Server (2nd after WebLogic)
• Java Application Server (Free): WebSphere Application Server Community Edition (4th after JBoss, GlassFish, and Geronimo)

This Just In...

The results of this year's JDJ Readers' Choice Awards are in... well, sort of.

According to the JDJ site:

Voting has now closed, stay tuned for the audited voting results to be announced at SOA World Conference & Expo 2007 East June 25-27, 2007 in New York City.

After a few weeks of intermittently looking for results (only to find past years' results), I finally managed to unearth the results.

Oddly enough, however, there is *NO* mention of any of the Eclipse technologies listed in the various 29 categories of the original survey, and only a few mentions of Eclipse member companies like Borland, IBM or Oracle. Categories, like Best Book, seem to have been renamed to make them more SOA-centric with all non-SOA contenders dropped from the pile. Some categories seem to have been merged, like the Best Java Application Server (Free) and Best Java Application Server (Commercial) categories. But perhaps the wierdest part is how votes seem to have just vanished from the registry. It's like the US 2000/2004 elections all over again!

Let's look at the first category listed in the results: Best App Server. Here's a copy of the survey data posted here and here, which shows:

Product	Company	Points
Sun Java Application Server 9	Sun Microsystems	21
Enhydra	enhydra.org	37
JOnAS	ObjectWeb	53
WebSphere Application Server Community Edition	IBM	345
Geronimo	Apache Software Foundation	508
Project GlassFish	Sun Microsystems	680
JBoss Application Server	Red Hat Middleware	2150
Product	Company	Points
Interstage Application Server	FUJITSU	4
uCosminexus Application Server	Hitachi, Ltd.	18
EAServer	Sybase Inc.	27
None	None	27
Pramati Server 5.0	Pramati Technologies	29
NetWeaver	SAP	42
JRun	Adobe Systems Incorporated	47
Resin	Caucho Technology, Inc.	88
Borland Enterprise Server	Borland Software	162
Oracle Application Server	Oracle	454
Sun Java System Application Server	Sun Microsystems, Inc.	511
WebSphere Application Server	IBM	536
WebLogic	BEA Systems, Inc.	2169

* Note: These results are un-audited numbers. All voting results will be tabulated, and will go through Java Developer's Journal's extensive auditing process at the conclusion of voting. The results you see here may alter slightly or significantly as a result of that auditing process. JDJ makes no guarantees, and gives no endorsement to the live results which you see here.

So the winners would appear to be BEA's WebLogic and RedHat's JBoss with their commanding leads of over 2000 votes each, followed by Glassfish, the combined Websphere, Geronimo, and the combined Sun App Server in the 500-900s. But after tabulation and the "extensive auditing process", here's the final results, in the order reported with un-audited numbers added:

Best App Server
Java System Application Server, Sun Microsystems, 511 + 29 = 540
Oracle Fusion Middlware, 454?
Pramati Application Server, Pramati, 29
Borland Enterprise Server, 162

I guess those 5000+ votes for WebLogic, JBoss, Geronimo, Websphere, and even Glassfish didn't count. Maybe the voters used Diebold browsers to cast their votes. ;-)

Another turnout I find surprising is how Eclipse lost the Best IDE / Best Java IDE Environment category, despite its huge lead (1726 votes) over the second-place contender, MyEclipse (1040+12), also conspicuously absent from the final results. Even the third-place contender, BEA Workshop (563) seems to have not managed to keep its lead over TIBCO (not listed in unaudited data!), JetBrains (375), Oracle (338), and Sun (320, 185).

Anyway, auditing discrepancies aside (could the process be more transparent next year?), I'm also surprised that several of the more interesting (to me, anyway) categories have vanished.

EMF was in third place for the Best Java Modeling Tool and second for the Best Java Component, but neither of these categories made JDJ/SOAWorld's 'worth a mention' list, so I've still no idea how we did after the audit.

Does anyone who attended SOAWorld know if the other 9 categories were mentioned anywhere, and if so, who won? What about the Most Innovative Java Product category?