Bruno Vernay

Identity and Authentification

2012-01-10T18:42:00.000+01:00

Where it is going ??

Various organisation are working on the problem and its solutions. They produce specification draft, Use case studies, they try to attract members who are waiting for a solution to emerge.

Main players: OpenID & OAuth

OpenId is divided in two: OpenID 2.0 and OpenID Connect. It may be a real plus when linked with WebID, but is still experimental. The decentralized aspect is nice, but I am not sure if people are really concerned. Depending entirely on Facebook doesn't seem to bother anyone. So OAuth or even a proprietary Facebook protocol may seriously reduce OpenID success.

OpenID is supported by Google, Microsoft (LiveID = OpenID), and the US Governement (http://www.idmanagement.gov/)

OAuth 2.0 (IETF) looks like the most successful protocol. It can be used to login even if it was not its first goal.

OpenID and OAuth have a good adoption, which is critical for being relevant in the Identity space.

The US "Federal Identity, Credential, and Access Management" (ICAM) validated OpenID 2.0 and SAML 2.0 as Trust Framework. They provide some good documents.

Experiments: WebID & BrowserID

WebID (W3C)

takes some idea from Microsoft InfoCard abandoned attempt (after the failed Passport attempt)
Avoid the hierarchical trust model used to authenticate servers
could moves toward a Web Of Trust, but does not even mention it.
Looks like it uses RDF to express Trust relationships ?

BrowserID https://browserid.org/ is a Mozilla Labs experiment with the simplified version of the "Verified Email Protocol". It is very simple and web oriented. It doesn't seems to be very successful so far.

Others ??

Usages

Identity in the Cloud (OASIS) is "just" a long and freightening list of use cases. For those who don't see the problem, it is a good read !

JSR 351 is a work in progress "to define API ... that facilitate the use of identity by applications ..." . It will bring standard Java API to well established standards: OAuth, OpenID ... and also annotations to avoid lookups.

Scala, Typesafe, SBT, IntelliJ IDEA, Specs2, Play, Tests ...

2012-01-04T16:43:00.001+01:00

Scala has a great ecosystem evolving from developers needs.

Everything is not "IDE integrated", but I kind of hope that it will stay this way. I don't like menus that fill up the screen.

As a reminder, here is the path I followed:

Go to Typesafe:
1. Download Scala (the "Typesafe Stack").
2. Play with the REPL (the console)
3. Read the free e-book
Download SBT, if not already done
1. Create a project (you just have to follow the quick start)
2. Configure the SBT project to use the sbt-idea plugin
3. Run gen-idea to create the IDEA project files.
Launch IntelliJ IDEA
1. Get the plugins: Scala (and optionnaly SBT, it will only display the SBT console in IntelliJ.)
2. Open the created SBT project
You are already TypeSafe, go to Test or Spec safety also
1. There is no one true path like JUnit here, you will have to choose
2. SBT integrates with 3 main players.
3. I choose to go with Spec². Simply configure SBT to use it.
As for the Web frameworks, Lift and Play are kind of associated with Scala
1. I choose Play 2.0. It is very early and lacking functinonality ! Depending on what you want to do, Play 1 has a more mature Scala Module.

So it is not obvious, but nicely incremental. The starting points are SBT and REPL. From here you choose a IDE and a testing framework.

The rest really depends on your specific needs.

Chrome session management and synchronization

2011-11-15T15:53:00.001+01:00

I searched for browser session management. That is, I would like to

Save my open tabs and be able to reopen it 2 month later.
Find my opened session at home in the state that I have leaved them at work

Here are some of my findings:

FreshStart
- 42,709 users
- Looks good
- Synchronize with Chrome Bookmarks (=> no extra login required)
- Using as of november 2011
TabCloud
- 35,042 users
- Looks Good
- Synchronize with external app: https://chrometabcloud.appspot.com/ (extra login required)
Swimming Session
- 271 users
- Synchronize with external app
8cookies
- also save your cookies (but they provide good security)
- 41 users
Session Manager
- 10,049 users
- Looks good and simple
- Doesn't sync !
Session Buddy
- 53,532 users
- Doesn't sync !
- Used for 1 year

Point is that Chrome has a "Bookmark all tabs ..." menu when you right clic on the tabs !

This allow to manage & synchronize your sessions without any extention ...

(Note that I am currently not interested in cross-browser synchornization)

Virtualization, a Vagrant 0.8 try

2011-10-27T15:51:00.001+02:00

It has been a long time since I wanted to dive in virtualization. I always feared that my PC would not have enough RAM and end up only loosing time.

But I have been using VirtualBox and a bit of VMWare recently ... it looks good.

So next step to really get some benefits is to automate with Vagrant, Chef and Puppet ...

So far the setup is not as smoove as they say it would be ...

From here, this post turns into a rant :-)

First: Ruby. As far as I know, you have no choice here: Vagrant, Chef and Puppet are build on Ruby. I didn't even try to search for Python or whatelse based automations (but I would be glad to know Ruby alternatives).

So, Ruby, there is a Windows installer, click click, OK. Done.

gem install vagrant

"Error: cannot access the Net". Ruby doesn't use the system proxy. You have to set an Environment variable: HTTP_PROXY=http://user:pwd@proxydemerde.com:1234/

gem install vagrant

"Error: you need the SDK". Vagrant uses particular modules that require local compilation (à la Gentoo). So you have to install Ruby SDK. (Why isn't it installed by default ?). Back to the Ruby web site. The SDK is a zip file, no installer this time. and be careful the zip doesn't contains its parent folder: you have to create a folder and uncompress the zip into this folder. Then run a script in the uncompressed folder that will find your Ruby installations and then run another script that will update theses installations so they are aware of the SDK presence.

gem install vagrant

"Error: cannot compile some ffi stuff". Vagrant uses some modules that uses some version of ffi.h and dependencies got messed up somehow. Google and find that you have to "gem install fii --version='1.0.9'" ... Dependency management ...

gem install vagrant

"Success". Nice. Next step install a machine. The examples feature "Ubuntu Lucid", I looked for one of the 3 more recents versions, but there are not a lot of choice here. So anyway it is a LongTermSupport, let not be too picky.

vagrant box add ludic64 http://files.vagrantup.com/lucid64.box

"Error: No space left on device ...." Well, the installer didn't ask for a workspace or project folder. It supposed there was plenty of space in "home". Back to Google, many solutions, some seems to not work for everyone. I edited the gem script to specify the "HOME" variable. Removed the ~/.gem and ~/.Vagrant folders.

vagrant box add ludic64 http://files.vagrantup.com/lucid64.box

"Error: No space left on device ...." Well, ".gem" is created in the floder I specified. But I have to set the variable in the vagrant script also ... Why is there no config file of global environement variable ?

vagrant box add ludic64 http://files.vagrantup.com/lucid64.box

"Success". I am close ! Just two commands left:

vagrant init ludic64

"Success" Just one more:

vagrant up

"Error: method missing in OLE ..."

I tried with the "lucid32", same error. Some Google search, looks like the bug is being worked on.

Well Vagrant is in Beta after all. Sometimes, you are just out of luck. I hope it may help some other poor Windows / proxy users.

I will get back to Vagrant later. Next post may be about Chef or Puppet.

One in six IT projects ends up ‘out of control’

2011-08-31T17:35:00.001+02:00

http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2011/110822_1.html

A surprisingly high number of projects are 'ticking time bombs', according to researchers at the University of Oxford. They analysed 1,500 global projects that had revamped their information technology systems within the last 10 years. They discovered that one in six projects in the sample went over budget by an average of 200 per cent (in real terms) or over ran by an average of almost 70 per cent.

Their conclusion is similar to previous studies: http://brunovernay.blogspot.com/2009/10/excellent-studies-on-software-quality.html

Lower barrier to entry eases community engagement ...

2011-06-29T16:29:00.001+02:00

... and I experienced at least 3 way JBoss made some good step in this direction:

Application Server 7 (JBoss AS7) is lightweigth and start in about 2 seconds on an 5 years old laptop
Wiki are open: you just have to login and you can edit. (and you don't need multiple accounts).
GitHub makes it easy to submit change request from your browser (my small contribution)

So things evolved from the time where Application Server where heavy beast which needed a strong and long commitment just to step in.

More progress is still possible by reducing the amount of information you have to digest and filter to get things done, but no doubt that some semantic web stuff will cover this need.

In the mean time, you can download JBoss AS7 CR1 (released today): http://www.jboss.org/jbossas/downloads.html

Launch /bin/standalone.[bat|sh]
Test the default page: http://localhost:8080/
Simple Admin Console: http://localhost:9990/

There are sample applications:

Documentation: https://docs.jboss.org/author/display/AS7/Getting+Started+Developing+Applications+Guide
Source Code: https://github.com/jbossas/quickstart

Give it a shot

Trail du Prelenfrey

2011-06-22T17:27:00.001+02:00

21km du Trail de Prelenfrey Le Gua 2011: http://www.traildugerbier-prelenfrey.com/test/

Excellente organisation, un peu de boue, pas trop chaud: impec.

Classement: 2h26, soit 33 min derrière le premier.

28/100 en général.

9 /32 de ma catégorie.

La prochaine fois je pars plus vite et je sers bien mes lacets ... j'aurais pu gagner 5 places.

Book: Beautiful Security: Leading Security Experts Explain How They Think

2011-05-30T16:59:00.001+02:00

Beautiful Security: Leading Security Experts Explain How They Think By Andy Oram, John Viega.

I like computer security: it is always entertaining and insightful. This book is no exception. It offers a large panorama on Security, as seen from many point of view since this is a collective work.

Advantages:

You see the subject from different angles
One or two author maybe boring, the overall content still has value
It is more like reading many little books on security.

On the other hand:

You get many introduction and conclusions, that doesn't add much.
There is no real continuity nor overall aim or message. It is more a collection of essays arranged and formated to look like a "one story".

Some essays are really insightful:

Psychological security trap: Is certainly something that you want to be aware of! How developers may think that security isn't a real requirement. It is somehow also the point in "security by design" and "Forcing firms to focus", but with an emphasis on project management and process.
Security Metrics is also interesting. It resurfaces in many others essays, mostly to warn about the wrong usage of metrics or the usage of wrong metrics.
The evolution of PGP is nice. It shows how far they have gone with PKI. Now it really looks like a good solution. But as with the Semantic Web, I would say that it is still waiting wide adoption to be useful.
"Oh no, here comes the Lawyer" should have been even more developed. This is where I feel I lack the most insight.
Incident detection: This is well known today. But always good to repeat. This is concrete stuff and where we expect improvement soon.
"Doing real work without real data" exposes a nice idea. Worth to implement if it fits your use case. There are good references to balance pro and cons.
Casting spells also exposes a vendor solution. It uses a combination of technics (virtualization, signature + AI) to secure the user's workstation. Again, it may fit some use case.
Log handling is also certainly a crucial part of the puzzle.
... others essays exposes security breaches, Honeyclient, wireless problems ...

The essays target an average reader. It doesn't require any knowledge in programming, cryptography or Network protocols, but it will certainly help to have some culture in software development. It raises awarness in many differents aspect related to security.

At first, I really liked the introduction in the book: The idea that too often security is seen from the point of view of the failures, like you look for a car race only waiting to see car crashes. The promise here was to focus on how a good design is as beautiful and enjoyable as a car crash. Well the content shows that it isn't that easy. I guess that it would have been a book on protocol design and application architecture. Subjects much harder to enjoy. Still the intent was good.

To conclude, I would say that this book is what computer's security looks like after all: there is no coherent story. But if you have to write your own security story, you will be better of knowing 16 different essays on security than a single long one.

Personal Information management tool

2011-03-03T22:46:00.001+01:00

Personal wiki.
Online sharing may bring more value.

in reference to: Main Page - TiddlyWiki.org (view on Google Sidewiki)

Book: Programming Collective Intelligence by Toby Segaran

2011-01-30T21:07:00.000+01:00

Book: Programming Collective Intelligence by Toby Segaran (2007, 368 pages)
First I should said that I have always been interested in Machine Learning. I believe that a lot of information can emerge from this technology. So I am always eager to know about Statistic, Open Data and Machine Learning. I would like to have more time to dedicate to this field.
So about this book: Well, first, the example are in Python. Obviously, I am more of a "Java Guy" if that makes any sense. But I am glad that the subject forced me into reading Python code. Now I understand better why Python is used in domains like Biology, Genetic and data manipulation. Python is really not only about indentation! It is great at manipulating data structure: multi-dimensional arrays, maps ... Short and powerful. But even if Python is great, I felt that there could have been more schema and pictures, just to relax a bit from certain code intensive sections, specially when dealing with text parsing and word counting.
Last word about the code: the focus is not on optimizing code. But there are advices and considerations on which algorithm suits specific use case. Still, I would be eager to read another volume on the subject. Especially about concurrency, Scala and GridGain. And even more algorithm ! There are a lot left to cover, specially time series, stream ...
The use case are well chosen, interesting and allow to introduce each algorithm and its limitation as he moves to another use case which require another algorithm. The algorithm are "classical", but he cover a wide range, from the Bayesian filter to SVM and even genetic programming. He avoids also the "Recipe collection", he outlines the constant principals about optimisation for example.
The title "Building Smart Web 2.0 App" is very limiting. But maybe having "web 2.0" in the title is required to sell a decent amount of books. The range of application and domain covered is way larger. Incidentally, the author work in a Biology company!
It is rare when I read a book, feels like it covers a lot, but still wants to know even more! Obviously he makes the subject interesting. There are a lot of data available that only wait to be minded. I followed the recent "Strata" thread from O'Reilly with great expectation for "Data Journalism".

Clean up and format a web page for easy and fast reading

2011-01-05T16:04:00.002+01:00

I have been searching this for years.
It allows to clean up and format a web page for easy and fast reading.
in reference to: McReadability – anoved.net (view on Google Sidewiki)

Grenoble Networking and Association

2010-12-08T23:24:00.001+01:00

There are a number of Association related to computer at large in Grenoble. I find it sad that they seems very disconnected. Here is a list if you know more don't hesitate to post comments.
These ones are technical and philosophical oriented:

The Guilde I guess it is the oldest association. It is about Free Software. They have monthly conference.
AlpesJUG a Java User Group association. Also 99,9% Open Source. Monthly conference.
LOG Laboratoire Ouvert Grenoblois is a HackerSpace
CARA "Club Agile Rhône Alpes" about Agile methodologies and Lean.
ACONIT, association pour un conservatoire de l'informatique et de la télématique: About computer museum, but also funny events organization and reflexions about teaching.
Macintosh Alpes Club about the Apple platform. It seems to be oriented towards professional activities. Monthly conference.
CCSTI (CENTRE de CULTURE SCIENTIFIQUE TECHNIQUE et INDUSTRIELLE) about culture and science at large. Not only about computer.

The following are more business oriented:

Grilog is an association to promote entrepreneurship and business around software in Grenoble. Like better synergy between research and industry or helping start-up. They have a huge number of partners.
ADIRA : Association pour le Développement de l'Informatique en région Rhône-Alpes They could add more associations to their list.

Not an association, but still: Grenoble Alpes Incubation (GR-A-IN) encourages creation of innovative start ups. Has members, but may not be an "association", seems that it is a french peculiarity: "public incubators".
On LinkedIN there is also a "Grenoble Network" group.
I am sure that I miss many association. I know that they have different goals and they may not want to be part of some network. But I feel that we are missing something, being so disconnected.

I like O'Reilly newsletter

2010-12-05T21:02:00.000+01:00

Always interesting to watch: O'Reilly !
The December newsletter brings some good stuff:

Column oriented DB: Cassandra The Definitive Guide Eben Hewitt
SQL (still): SQL Pocket Guide Third Edition Jonathan Gennick
Data mining: Data Analysis with Open Source Tools Philipp K Janert
Change management: Driving Technical Change Terrence Ryan
Web: Pragmatic Guide to JavaScript Christophe Porteneuve
Web again! Conversion Optimization Khalid Saleh, Ayat Shukairy. At first I though that it was about data conversion! But it is "The Art and Science of Converting Prospects to Customers". A subject that has recently emerged and a real concern for most web sites!

Also note the Strata "The Business of Data" conference, well in California, a bit too far for me but definitively a key subject.

A must read: Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

2010-11-21T19:18:00.000+01:00

A must read : Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.
Don't let the 900 pages frighten you. There is nothing to throw away. I would even like to read a follow up.
This post is my little contribution to his success. Hope you will follow the links and read the book.

HTML5 editor

2010-10-29T15:16:00.002+02:00

Looks great !
Way better than TinyMCE or FCKEditor ! But much more immature and less features.
in reference to: Aloha Editor - The HTML5 Editor (view on Google Sidewiki)

DocBook collaborative Editing Web Platform

2010-10-29T15:14:00.001+02:00

Really great. Still alpha stage at this point, depending on the browser, but very promising !
Maybe looks a bit complicated, but since it is Open Source, it will be possible to simplify and modularize it.
I am watching with great attention !

in reference to:

"collaborative Editing Web Platform"
- Calenco XML CMS (view on Google Sidewiki)

WikBook, Wiki 2 Docbook java translator

2010-10-20T21:02:00.001+02:00

Nice to see that there are still ongoing efforts to produce Docbook. But:
- Currently only produce "Book" this may be overkill for document < 20 pages, where an "article" is lighter.
- You have to install the tool (I need a web site ala SaaS)
- You need to run the translator and then the docbook tool chain to finally open the resulting html or pdf file and see the result
- no annotation support

in reference to: wikbook - Project Hosting on Google Code (view on Google Sidewiki)

Structured editor

2010-10-01T22:15:00.000+02:00

I am still searching a structured editor. A WYSIsWYM (What You See Is What You Mean) kind of editor.

At this stage, I am very disappointed with the new Google Doc. They could have done something well structured with HTML, but their new markup is just format oriented. A lot of span containing inline style. Unusable. (Same with Zoho and ThinkFree.)

The best structured editor I could find is Syntext Serna: Open Source, Free, multi-platform, supports XHTML, DocBook, DITA and more!

I tried a lot of other tools:

Amaya : the usability is far below Syntext Serna. Maybe an option if you are in XHTML, MathML, SVG trip. But it doesn't seem to support even HTML 5.
Lyx: again the usability is not there. It is way too complex. Only an option if you are in the TeX/LaTeX trip.
XML Copy Editor: Maybe in ten years ...
Gwennel: FreeWare WYSIWYG and WYSIWYM editor for Windows only, supporting natively the Open Document Format.
Conglomerate "XML editor that everyone can use. In particular, our primary goal is to create the ultimate editor for DocBook and similar formats". (GTK ; Died in 2005)
DocBook Wiki "display DocBook documents online. Different from the other applications, which convert a DocBook document into HTML first, in order to display it online, DocBookWiki converts it on the fly, so that the format for saving the document will still be XML". (Died in 2005 too)
There is also XML Mind : it is a very good structured editor, but it has too many restrictions: non Open Source, free only for non-commercial use.
I admit that sometime I just use MS-Word in outline view :-) If interested, there are also commercials: ArborText, FrameMaker ...

More recently I searched for online structured editor. Google Doc is out, I tried Zoho and ThinkFree without luck.

I also searched Chrome Extensions:

ScribeFire: nice for blog, but not structured.
Chrome Editor: a bit strange. I have to investigate more.
PageEdit it uses CKEditor, it might be configured to produce structured HTML. I have to investigate more.
iDoc: too simple and lack usability.

Sequence Diagram: DSL or not DSL ?

2010-09-09T16:03:00.003+02:00

I had to produce some UML Sequence Diagram and I tested some Graphical and command line tools.
With UML tools there are 3 possibilities (sometimes mixed in a single application):

Draw your diagram (UMLet, ArgoUML, Violet ...)
Reverse engineer your code. It can work for Class Diagram, but the result for Sequence Diagram is generally unusable. (ArgoUML ...)
Describe your diagram in a DSL (PlantUML, UMLGraph, ...)

There is no "Best Option" since it depends on your use case:

for quickly puting an idea on paper, I like UMLet very much for Class, Component ... But I have to admit that VioletUML is way better for Sequences !
When I want to keep my diagram in sync with the code and documentation. The DSL/Reverse Engineering approach allow me to put the diagram description in the JavaDoc. The setup in the Maven POM file (with UMLGraph, should be possible with PlantUML too).
I never have the case where a DSL would be that useful. But you just got all the benefits of text files obviously: diff, grep ... and some tools allow you to embed your description in Wiki, LaTex, Word ... (PlantUML).

I tested several DSL:

PlantUML Sequence mostly reuse and extend WebSequenceDiagram
WebSequenceDiagrams only Web
EasyUMLEditor is a proprietary software also very close to WebSequenceDiagram
UMLGraph to complicated
DSL for UML Sequence Diagram (transform to UMLGraph) Still to complicated, but interesting
Quick Sequence Diagram Editor (SDEdit) again too complicated. A nice thing is that it handles the life line activation and there is a GUI, not just a command line.
Diagrammr way too limited (=unusable)

I have to admit that I am a bit deceived with the current state of DSL for Sequence Diagram.

They are not that obvious. The easiest is "Client -> Server : HTTP request" with PlantUML. But with SDEdit you would read: "Client:Server.HTTP request" !?
They could do more (like automatically activating the lifeline upon message reception). With PlantUML you pollute your description with numerous "Activate Server" ; "Deactivate Client" ...
They quickly becomes hard to read and maintain. Two main problems:

If you send a message at the beginning and got the response at the end. The message/response link is lost in the distance introduced by all the dialogs in between. You can use indentation, but it is up to you, not a DSL feature.
When you have parallel executions or interlinked messages, even the indentation won't be a solution. I don't even see how it could be solved.

You really need to see the resulting diagram as you type, if you don't want to end with a lot of rework.
The tools I used didn't show you the result "out of the box". You have to setup some schell scripts or other tools. (SDEdit being the exception.)

I think that it is not an inherent problem with DSL. But we didn't find a suitable DSL for Sequence Diagrams and an intelligent application that would really understand Sequence Diagram, and not just describe lines with labels. This would introduce more constraints. There are certainly things that we wouldn't be able to describe as we want, but it should solve 80% of the cases hopefully.

Some ref.:

Mashup Integration SOA

2010-09-08T21:56:00.001+02:00

The first 40 min are really worth listening. He cleans up a lot of confusion about mashup, integration, SOA
and the generated buzz fog.

en référence à : InfoQ: Enterprise Mashups: Why Do I Care? (afficher sur Google Sidewiki)

Differences between distributed databases

2010-09-02T10:30:00.001+02:00

Distributed Databases (AKA NoSQL) exist in very different flavor. This article explains and details their architectures and features.
Now, it is up to you to see which one fits your use case.

in reference to: Survey distributed databases - CloudDBPedia (view on Google Sidewiki)

SOAP client with Jax-WS and Maven

2010-08-27T17:02:00.002+02:00

Concise and useful information with code example on how to create a SOAP client with Jax-WS and Maven.

There is a little obvious error in a code sample with "dependencies" but since it is obvious it can be resolved easily.

I like when one references the material used to produce a post.

in reference to: hasCode.com » Blog Archive » Create a SOAP client using the JAX-WS Maven Plugin (view on Google Sidewiki)

2 books about Scala

2010-04-04T23:13:00.002+02:00

http://programmingscala.com/ by Dean Wampler & Alex Payne September, 2009.

http://www.pragprog.com/titles/vsscala/programming-scala by Venkat Subramaniam, 250 pages, Jul 2009.

I had the chance to read two books about Scala. Both do a very good job at getting you up to speed with this new language.

I won't try to convince you to learn Scala, just do a quick research.

You will find that it has many interesting ideas worth learning. (Even if you don't end up using Scala). Functional Programing, closures, DSL, Strong and powerful type system, Actors ...
There may not be a next Java, but whatever will come, it will certainly looks like Scala or part of it.
You can start to use it right now. Either for Test (like JUnit or for Behavior tests) or to integrate with your existing Java code.

Now which book to choose ? If you can, read Venkat first and then Dean. The first is quicker and more didactic. The second is more in depth and detailed.

If you have to choose one, how could I help you ?

Venkat examples are really well though and make the point cristal clear.
Dean goes step by step detailing all part of the language. It can certainly be kept as a reference book. But it requires a certain dose of concentration.
Venkat's strength is to make the reading very enjoyable. The examples "speaks" to you. He shows the power and the sweet spots. How it will help and benefits you. He sells you Scala on every pages.

With so many things popping up from the net, I almost stopped reading books for years. Now I feel like I loosed my time, coping with tons of news. A book is a much more enjoyable and relaxing experience while at the same time brings you lots of knowledge.

Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware

2010-04-04T23:11:00.000+02:00

"Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware" by Andy Hunt (288 pages, Sep 2008)

This is pure genius: a must read ! re-read and apply all the advices ! Just do it !

As Socrate used to say: "NOSCE TE IPSUM" (Know yourself). With this book, you will know more about your brain and how you can use this knowledge to improve.

It is really fun to read, as well as concrete and practical. He doesn't just expose the theory: he told the story of experimental studies demonstrating his point.

Career

2010-04-02T10:24:00.000+02:00

The most beneficial thing to my career has been to practice sport on a regular basis. Way more important than reading news about technology ! It improves little by little.
The most detrimental is procrastination. It strikes unexpectedly and it is harmful in very different ways. Once, my back hurts so bad that I was stuck on my couch for 2 month. More recently, I hurt a bunch of nice people and destroyed their trust.
It is the kind of moment were you wish you could simply disappear. But you cannot escape yourself. I can do more sport, but I feel I am missing something. I hope to find out, I have an ongoing action to find out.

Sonar & Maven

2010-03-22T16:41:00.000+01:00

Sonar is a very nice tool. One of the few that will show how your metrics evolve over time.
But the cooperation between Sonar and Maven isn't that obvious:

There is a misleading org.codehaus.sonar version1.8 that evolved to org.codehaus.mojo version 1.0-beta-1. Internet being what it is, you still find documentation referring to the deprecated version.
There is an interesting debate about what should be in Sonar and what should be in Maven.

Worst Practices for Domain-Specific Modeling

2010-02-14T21:49:00.001+01:00

Short and empirical information on a growing practice : Domain-Specific Modeling. (creating DSL).
Indeed there are many pitfalls and I don't see many solutions apart from having very bright and communicants engineer at work.
Despite the title, the text is positive and helpful.

in reference to: http://www.metacase.com/papers/WorstPracticesForDomain-SpecificModeling.html (view on Google Sidewiki)

Podcatcher

2009-11-03T11:38:00.006+01:00

I tried many podcatcher on Linux recently and it is a long journey:

gtkpod 0.99.14: just to synchronize iPod. Allow to copy playlist and so on. Old and rough but stable.
gPodder 2.0 : podcatcher, manage OPML. This new version is my favorite !
Floola 5.3.1 (proprietary) : hard to run, many dependencies. Buggy and cumbersome UI. No OPML. Good iPod integration.
BashPodder : command line and minimal GUI. No OPML. simple shell script. Create one folder per day.
SongBird 1.4 : Podcast doesn't seem to be on their roadmap. It is sad, because it would make a good web integration with show notes and forums.
Exaile 0.2.14 : No OPML. Almost good, but I couldn't synchronize. Uses a hashkey as file name: unreadable. Python/GTK. (There is a new 0.3 version that is a complete rewrite. I still have to check the new version)
PenguiTV 4.0 : buggy ; Closely tied to Gnome (Python/Glade). Does OPML. Create one folder per day.
PodNova 2.4 : Outdated. a bit hard to run, many dependencies. Python/wxWidgets and a local web server. The integration with the PodNova site is good, you can share, vote and backup your podcast list. But it lacks features and robustness.
Media Chest Java
myPod (2003) Java but uses ligpod from gtkPod
GNUpod Perl pure iPod manager.
Amarok more a music collection manager than a podcatcher, but could do the job.
As usual there are also many dead projects, not updated for years, but still referenced in a lot of places.

I created an open SpreadSheet for everyone to update : Linux Podcatcher.

There is an Podcatcher Matrix that would be very nice if not outdated and a bit closed !
There is also a Wikipedia entry on aggregators, but it doesn't distinguish between text feeds, Podcast and Video and is a bit outdated and cumbersome.

Excellent Studies on Software Quality

2009-10-15T22:04:00.003+02:00

The studies measure the impact on quality that common software engineering practices have: Exploding Software-Engineering Myths By Janie Chang 11/2009 at Microsoft Research.
Found via InfoQ.

it is very nice to have real studies and data. Too often, we heard only claims that Software engineering practice X or Y is THE best practice. At best there are 3 successful projects to back up the claims or some niche cases where THE best practice works.

It demonstrates alas that Software engineering is still very young ! I even think that the subject is so large that it doesn't make sense to consider it as a whole. You would not compare how you build an Airbus to how you build a scooter.
The Influence of Organizational Structure On Software Quality is revealing ! 10 pages from early 2008 : a must read !

Web-Based Software Project Portals trends

2009-10-08T00:27:00.002+02:00

Good article in Dr. Dobb's : Tools for Teams: A Survey of Web-Based Software Project Portals
It was pointed by the Modeling Languages Blog. Usually the blog is about UML, DSL, MDSD and such. But they personally participated to the study, so ...

It is well written. They take objectivity very seriously. and I would like to highlight some points:

"project portals would merge or integrate with social networking tools such as LinkedIn and personal life management tools such as Google Calendar." I strongly believe that it will happen. I see many trends to put everything (the code, the IDE ...) on-line and then search, connect and socialize. I wouldn't be surprised if someone came with a catchy name for this trend.
"we now wonder about the real importance of requirements elicitation and structured development process in the success of a development project". A direct result of Agile : Requirements are managed more efficiently and teams structure their processes to what fit them best.
"One clear trend in the portals ... was providing a hosted service." It will take some time, but enterprises will realize that their data are more secure and reliable within a well maintained application than behind their dumb firewall.
"...the portals were built ... to allow ... teams to scale up and ... spread out geographically. We believe this explains why they emphasize asynchronous communication (e.g., bulletin boards) over synchronous (e.g., chat)." I have a mixed feeling about this point. Some believe that teams could be just the temporary collaboration of highly specialized and efficient individuals. I doubt that it really works. Certainly the goal is to remove frontiers for developers. But face to face communication is still crucial for a team.
they "mainly target agile teams" and "none explicitly encouraged more traditional development processes". Looks like Agile has no competitors, but changing is hard. (By the way listen to all Linda Rising episodes : her voice is perfect for radio.)

The Case for Open MTA Data: Transparency, Savings, and Easier Riding

2009-10-06T14:53:00.002+02:00

Interesting article The Case for Open MTA Data: Transparency, Savings, and Easier Riding by Ben Fried on September 23, 2009 in Streets Blog.
I have heard about similar project in France. I hope they will make the information directly available to developers and not shielded behind clunky applications.

The Guava library: a Google lesson in API design

2009-10-04T22:34:00.005+02:00

When I first read an article about a new library to do String manipulation, I wondered what could be so interesting in there ? Isn't such a basic topic already well addressed in the standard library ?
But since I am a bit concerned in API design and really wanted to know what would justify to create a new library, because the class String looks OK to me, so ... I gave it a look.
No regrets. Indeed the API is clean, consistent and simple to use.
The guava library.
I wouldn't care for trivial String manipulation, but if I have anything just a bit less than trivial, I will definitively use it !
More importantly, I know I have to look more and more to these "praised" project : google collections being next

LinkedIn groups for social networking

2009-10-04T22:04:00.004+02:00

I am starting to use LinkedIn and Ning to build some social networking sites. I find the state of these tools a bit lacking. OpenSocial had some big promises. Yet, there are less than 10 applications on LinkedIn and nothing for groups.
LinkedIn made it clear : There are no Applications available for groups.
Ning looks great at first, but it has some strange limitations. For example you cannot rename a post: you have to create a new one, copy the text and delete the old one.
There are good surprises also: the collaboration between Apec and LinkedIn is a big plus.

Scala and idioms

2009-09-20T22:39:00.005+02:00

From the article : Is Scala really more complicated than Java? The same program can be written in Scala with different idioms:

Easy way:


val name = "Dick Wall"
println("""
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear """ + name + """
Happy Birthday do you
""")

Procedural:

for (n <- 1 to 4) {   
  print("Happy Birthday")   
  if (n == 3)     
    print(" dear XXX")   
  else     
    print(" to you")   
  println
}

Mixed:


(1 to 4).map {
    i => "Happy Birthday %s".format(if (i == 3) "Dear XXX" else "To You") 
  }.foreach println

Functional:


(List.make(4, "Happy birthday ")
  zip (List.tabulate(4, {
    case 2 => "dear friend"
    case _ => "to you"}))
) map (Function.tupled(_+_)) mkString ("\n")

More freedom ? hope Scala will avoid to be like Perl ! Not everybody will be able to maintain a Scala program. But that is also true with Java or anything. The complexity can be everywhere anyway, it is just more or less visible.

Read also: It's not the languages, but their idioms that matter.

Nice way to describe Kerberos: a Dialogue in Four Scenes

2009-09-11T21:57:00.002+02:00

As I needed to refresh my knowledge about Kerberos, I found a nice theater-like Dialogue in Four Scenes. Kerberos is really complex and hard to follow. It is revealing that its authors found theater more efficient than traditional technical docs and schema to explain their ideas.
It remember me of the comics used by Google to describe Chrome. Only it was done in 1988 !!
Also the best theater reference for me is always Ralph König's Lysistrata, his prologue really strikes me.

MDSD: UML or DSL ?

2009-09-07T22:35:00.003+02:00

This blog is a lot about Linux, because I use it as a reminder. I want to remember how I solved some problems or some great applications or short cut.
But it doesn't reflect my main interest that is development, design and creation. My Google Reader Shared post gives a better view of this part.
Also how I shifted my interest from Semantic web to Model Driven Development and DSL.
So I will just notice that I didn't realize how UML and DSL can be antagonist.

Sound and iPod with Awesome Windows Manager

2009-09-07T22:23:00.005+02:00

Just a short note about the great Awesome window manager.
There was no sound with some applications. There are 2 programs to know about sound control : alsamixer (command line) and pavucontrol (manage PulseAudio with a simple GTK interface).

For the iPod, I am using RockBox, gtkPod and gpodder. Nothing fancy, but it does the job quickly.

Just have to remember to manually mount the iPod, by adding this in /etc/fstab:
/dev/disk/by-label/IPOD /media/IPOD vfat defaults,umask=000,auto,rw,user 0 0

Also a simple trick to eject the iPod : eject /media/IPOD

LUA, commun point for VLC, Awesome, SciTE ...

2009-08-17T13:32:00.005+02:00

It is amazing to see that most of the software I like and use embed LUA, the "powerful, fast, lightweight, embeddable scripting language" :

VLC Multimedia player can uses LUA playlist.
Awesome Window Manager can be extended with LUA:
SciTE source code editor can be extended with LUA.
Rockbox firmware for mp3 players can be configured with LUA too, even if I cannot find a good official link.
Grub 2 the boot manager has integrated lua as an alternative script engine.

It is good to know that you can invest into it.

Getting rid of the DisplayManager, Choose your run level

2009-08-09T01:00:00.010+02:00

The Display Manager (generally: GDM, KDM, or XDM, Slim ...) is there for historical reason, but it isn't useful unless you need special features.
Now the problem is that Ubuntu restricted the uses of Run Levels ! So you have to tweak the system a little bit if you want to start in text mode.
So lets read:
Add a text-only runlevel to Ubuntu Gutsy and
Boot time RunLevel
Then modify your /etc/event.d/rc-default:

#
# This task guesses what the "default runlevel" should be and starts the
# appropriate script.

start on stopped rcS

script
      runlevel --reboot || true

      if grep -q -w -- "-s\|single\|S" /proc/cmdline; then
          telinit S
      elif RL="$(grep -o "[[:blank:]][2345]$" /proc/cmdline || true)"; then
          if [ -n "$RL" ]; then
              telinit $RL
          else
              telinit 2
          fi
      elif [ -r /etc/inittab ]; then
          RL="$(sed -n -e "/^id:[0-9]*:initdefault:/{s/^id://;s/:.*//;p}" /etc/inittab || true)"
          if [ -n "$RL" ]; then
              telinit $RL
          else
              telinit 2
          fi
      else
          telinit 2
      fi
end script

Then knowing that I use Grub 2, the following file has to be modified /etc/grub.d/10_linux (no more menu.lst). Just add the bold part:

...
 cat << EOF
menuentry "${OS}, linux ${version}" {
       linux   ${rel_dirname}/${basename} root=${linux_root_device_thisversion} ro ${GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX} ${GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT}
EOF
 if test -n "${initrd}" ; then
   cat << EOF
       initrd  ${rel_dirname}/${initrd}
EOF
 fi
 cat << EOF
}
EOF

 cat << EOF
menuentry "${OS}, linux ${version} (text mode)" {
       linux   ${rel_dirname}/${basename} root=${linux_root_device_thisversion} ro 3 ${GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX}
EOF
 if test -n "${initrd}" ; then
   cat << EOF
       initrd  ${rel_dirname}/${initrd}
EOF
 fi
 cat << EOF
}
EOF

 cat << EOF
menuentry "${OS}, linux ${version} (single-user mode)" {
       linux   ${rel_dirname}/${basename} root=${linux_root_device_thisversion} ro single ${GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX}
EOF
 if test -n "${initrd}" ; then
   cat << EOF
       initrd  ${rel_dirname}/${initrd}
EOF
 fi
 cat << EOF
}
EOF

...

That worked for me, but be careful as it can screw your system !
Now just log in and type: $ startx awesome

Set up wireless without KDE nor Gnome

2009-07-30T02:54:00.003+02:00

One of the first problem faced when going away from KDE, Gnome or XFCE is that you have to set up your wireless connection manually.
If you have 10 minutes, it can be done once and for all: just follow this how to HOWTO: Wireless Security - WPA1, WPA2, LEAP, etc..
Then you can remove the NetworkManager startup script : "sudo update-rc.d -f NetworkManager remove".
Keep in mind to launch a "sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart" in case of problem.

Update: I just found a solution to automatically start Network Monitor Applet (nm-applet) with Awesome Window Manager. But I am quite happy with my current setting, it just connect when it starts.

Java GUI application in Awesome Window Manager

2009-07-30T01:49:00.003+02:00

There is a known problem with Java and the non-reparenting Window Managers like for example Awesome.

Java applications which use the XToolkit/XAWT backend may draw gray windows only. The XToolkit/XAWT backend breaks ICCCM-compliance in JDK 5 and 6 because it assumes a reparenting window manager.

There are a number of places where this is described:

in the FAQ : GUI Java apps appear as a gray screen!

in the wiki Problems with Java

in the Man page

To sum up:

it doesn't affect version Java 1.4.2 and before.

it doesn't affect version Java 1.7 and hopefully after.

the best workaround by far, is to set a name to the Window Manager, so it is recognise by Java as a non-reparenting Window Manager. A simple utility allow to set this name. Just add 'wmname LG3D' to your .xinitrc or simply run it.

Here are other workarounds left here for reference:

launch another X server, like Xephyr

set the following environment variable (to use the older Motif back-end instead): AWT_TOOLKIT=MToolkit. But this won't work in the following cases :
- OpenJDK/IcedTea doesn't include the Motif toolkit.
- doesn't work for x86_64 Java, for whatever reason.

Lightweight OS : Awesome Window Manager

2009-07-30T00:26:00.003+02:00

Some year ago I used to try all kind of Window Managers on Linux and basically loosed a lot of time for nothing. I never though that I would fall back again, but having just 1Go RAM and running JetBrains MPS forced me to consider lighter alternatives than KDE.

First I tried XFCE, but it wasn't enough: too close to Gnome, too traditional. So I tried Fluxbox, didn't like the menu, RatPoison too simple and finally: Awesome. As usual, I found the Wikipedia list very useful.

And so far it is the best Window Manager I ever used.
- Fast, clean and simple, even their Web site is well designed.
- No more loosing time resizing the windows ! At about 98% I just need to have the applications full screen.
- But still it is easy to resize, typically popup window are often too small.
- No waisted screen space : no desktop.
- an unified way to close applications (no more Ctrl-Q, Ctrl-E, Ctrl-X ... one Mod4-Shift-c for all !)
- easy shortcuts
- search through the menu. It is not as good as Spotlight on a Mac or the KDE4 launcher, but I guess it can be configured.

It may sound enough, but there is more:
- highly and simply configurable with a scripting language: LUA. I already known LUA for being used in SciTE a very good code editor.
- it isn't a general purpose Window Manager, it targets my profile. It suits me: a bit cutting edge but not bleeding.

I always though that the "Desktop" was not a good abstraction, unless you have at least three 22' monitors. It becomes often a trash bin and is almost always covered with the application you are working with anyway. That is why I kind of like the KDE4 approach of a desktop that is more than a folder.

DSL and Meta Programing System

2009-07-29T22:57:00.003+02:00

As a regular Software Engineering Radio listener, JetBrains MPS 1.0 release came to my attention.
I read articles, watched the screen-casts and downloaded the beast to put my hands on.

I have a mixed feeling: on one hand, it is a step towards higher abstractions. From bare metal to assembly to C to C++ to Java, this is where we are doomed to go.
But on the other hand, the tool and the concepts are really complex. It is not the kind of tool that you download and play with before digging the manual ! With MPS, I have been following the tutorial carefully, step by step. It won't be mainstream yet.

Nonetheless, it opens a whole new landscape. I guess that there will be DSL users, DSL developers and of course DSL architect !? The tool is already very powerful. The samples with complex numbers and mathematical notation are impressive: the readability is way better.

It remind me the idea that code isn't meant only to compile, but its most important purpose is to communicate its intent to other developers and designers. I could not find back the reference to the specific article where this idea was exposed, but anyway, this concept concern all DSL.

It remind me of the JBoss approach to BPML: they didn't try to do everything with the "graphical designer". They kept it simple and provided a way for the developer to deal with the implementation details. So "Graphical DSL" is more a collaboration tool between the analyst and the developers, than a bloated UML/OCL do it all thing. (Note: I like UML.)

No doubt that there is a strong need to reduce the gap between functional/business analysts and developers. Even worse with offshore developments. Agile is mostly about getting developers closer to the client, DSL are coming along. Will linguistic be the next buzz ?

UMLgraph and Maven

2009-07-21T22:39:00.005+02:00

Just a quick note on how to setup UML Graph in Maven.

{plugin}
  {groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins{/groupId}
  {artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin{/artifactId}
  {configuration}
    {excludePackageNames>com.comp.proj.internal.stuf{/excludePackageNames}
    {doclet>org.umlgraph.doclet.UmlGraphDoc{/doclet}
    {docletArtifact}
      {groupId>org.umlgraph{/groupId}
      {artifactId>doclet{/artifactId}
      {version>5.1{/version}
    {/docletArtifact}
    {additionalparam>-attributes -enumconstants -enumerations -operations -types -visibility -inferrel -inferdep -hide java.*{/additionalparam}
    {destDir>withUML{/destDir}
    {show>public{/show}
  {/configuration}
{/plugin}

The only trick is that all the additional parameters must be set on one line ! This doesn't appear in the documentation nor on the web. Quite the contrary, I found a lot of bad examples on the web !

This POM configuration simply works great. I noticed a new UMLGraph version 5.2. I didn't try but it should work also.

There is a tiny example in the Maven documentation about Using Alternate Doclet.

There is a dead project to create a plugin for Maven: DotUML. No updates since 2007.

Maven how to set the Main-Class in the Manifest

2009-07-21T21:57:00.002+02:00

In Java, for a jar to be executed, the easiest way is to set its entry point. This is done by setting the Main-Class in the Manifest. Easy.
Now let's do it with Maven !

First you use your jar, in Maven, you can to configure it this way:

project/build/plugins/plugin
artifactId maven-jar-plugin
version 2.2
configuration
archive
manifestEntries
  Main-Class com.comp.proj.main

Now you would like your jar to contain all the dependencies, then you use the maven-assembly-plugin. But it won't take the configuration set in the jar plugin. You have to reconfigure the exact same main-class again. It is redundant OK, but why should it have a different syntax !?!

project/build/plugins/plugin
artifactId maven-assembly-plugin
configuration
archive
  manifest
    mainClass com.corial.cosma.apptest.apptest

OK, the point is that there are at least two way to configure the Manifest. Either with a free key/value syntax, with Manifest Entries. Or with the class Manifest which has a mainClass element. So it is up to you to be consistent in your POM and not copy everything found on the net ...

Notes:

Even if the assembly plugin doesn't explicitly mention it, both plugins depend on the Maven Archiver shared component.
You could also specify your own manifest file META-INF/MANIFEST.MF.
There is a Maven Guide to Working with Manifests with few information and no links to the relevant information which is a shae for a "Guide".

Cross platform development with Qt and Netbeans

2009-07-08T09:51:00.002+02:00

Two very good tools associated to develop cross platform (Linux, Windows, OS X, mobiles ...) applications in this tutorial on Working with Qt Applications:
NetBeans IDE 6.7 seamlessly integrates Qt Designer for productive C++ development !

Store Flac, broadcast MP3 : mp3fs and Ampache

2009-07-07T21:46:00.005+02:00

Lets say that you keep your music with the best quality while still consuming very little disk space : flac (lossless audio compression).
Now that is fine for PC, but most portable players (iPods) doesn't support flac, but MP3, MP4 and other .
You could duplicate your whole collection in two formats, or transcode as needed, but that would be painful. (Even if some application like Amarok are able to transcode on the fly the music or podcast transfered on an iPod.)
A solution for me is to use mp3fs. Mp3fs takes a directory full of flac and present it as another directory full of ... MP3 ! That is very useful for FTP, NFS or Samba shares.
So your Flac music can now be copied on your ipods easily.

One caveat: unless you have a powerful PC, don't expect to listen directly the mp3: the transcoding take some time. It is fine to copy, but not to stream !

Lastly, I didn't find package for Kubuntu nor Fedora. You just have to compile, which is very simple. The only problem being to get the libraries !
There are some hints for Kubuntu. But for Fedora, the library's names are not exactly the same. After a little "yum search ...", I installed: libid3tag-devel, lame-devel, flac-devel, fuse-devel, libogg-devel.

But still, I don't see the point of having different packages, as if Linux needed to be fragmented !

Ampache is another project that can provide transcoding over the web and essentially much more, but see for yourself.

Programmers: Before you turn 40, get a plan B

2009-06-12T13:13:00.002+02:00

Nice post : Programmers: Before you turn 40, get a plan B Posted on May 19, 2009 by John Fuex (johnfx).
I started this questioning about a year ago, but I still see no clear path to escape programming.

Sun's JVM has an HTTP server embedded: com.sun.net.httpserver

2009-05-09T21:40:00.006+02:00

Very useful ! Sun's Java Standard Edition has a simple HTTP Server: com.sun.net.httpserver.

It simplifies dependencies since you don't have to add a new library. It is straightforward to use it with Jersey to publish Restful Services. But it isn't a standard feature !

Eclipse users might see compile errors saying Access restriction: The type ... is not accessible due to restriction on required library ...
The problem is that the HTTP server is part of the Sun JRE6 but not part of standardized Java.
Eclipse therefore blocks access to it.
This can be fixed by going to the Window->Preferences window, selecting Java->Compiler->Errors/Warnings, selecting Deprecated and Restricted API and then changing the setting for Forbidden Reference and Discouraged Reference to Warning instead of Error.

Jersey client, Jax-rs, Jaxb, RESTFUL client in Java

2009-05-09T18:52:00.004+02:00

RESTFUL web-services, in Java, concern mostly server side developments. The client is generally the browser.
Now I am in the process of developing a Java client for web-service. I searched Java solutions in this space and found that Jersey was also a good client. I already known Jersey, for being the reference implementation for Jax-rs (Restful Services ?) and even saw Paul Sandoz himself in Grenoble. But I never imagined that there could be another consumer than the browser.
Well obviously, they needed to test Jersey, hence ad-hoc code, then a framework and a finally a jersey-client for everyone's pleasure.
The funny parts is that I am using jersey-server to test jersey-client: the other way around ... That is not pure Unit Test, in the sense that I prefer functional or integration test than testing every tiny development chunk and mocking everything around.
Point is that implementing Restful Services in java with Jersey and Jasxb is really easy. overall, I stumbled on a problem with Jaxb and the way it doesn't handle immutable objects, but I will make another post about this.

Hadopi, Création et Internet.

2009-04-22T15:37:00.003+02:00

Encore une série d'article sur Hadopi.
Franchement on aurait mieux à faire, surtout en temps de crise ! Il existe des problèmes plus important, non ? Comme par exemple le retard de la France pour ce qui concerne Internet, les Spam, la vente liée ...

Bref, en vrac : Victoire pour les citoyens européens ! L'amendement 138 de nouveau voté

L'amendement 138/46-135 dispose que l'on ne peut restreindre les droits et libertés fondamentaux des utilisateurs qu'après une décision de l'autorité judiciaire (exception faite des menaces à la sécurité publique, auquel cas la décision peut être postérieure). Cet amendement avait été adopté en septembre dernier par une majorité écrasante au Parlement européen et ensuite approuvé par la Commission européenne malgré les demandes répétées de la part de la Présidence française de le rejeter. Le Conseil de l'Union européenne l'avait finalement rejeté sous la pression du gouvernement français et à la suite de la désinformation de juristes employés par le Conseil sur une prétendue contradiction avec les lois nationales existantes.

Malgré une forte pression pour obtenir un compromis sur la directive cadre du Paquet Télécom la commission ITRE du Parlement européen a de nouveau adopté l'amendement 138/46 par une forte majorité de 40 contre 4. Il faudra s'assurer dans la suite des débats que ce vote sera confirmé en session plénière, mais il s'agit d'un signal fort et évident.

Hadopi pour les nuls : un bon résumé.

Adresse IP : la démonstration de l’UFC-Que Choisir L'association de consommateur (UFC-Que choisir, dont le but est de défendre les consommateurs) a démontré avec le professionnalisme juridique requis huissier, tribunal ... que l'IP n'était pas une preuve suffisante pour identifier un coupable.

Manifestation-contre-hadopi.com

2009-04-20T22:04:00.003+02:00

Pour ceux qui ont le temps : des manif partout contre la loi HADOPI.

Voir aussi l'article de la Quadrature du NET :
"Un amendement crucial2 visant à protéger les citoyens de l'Union européenne contre la police privée et la justice parallèle des industries du divertissement (« riposte graduée » instaurée par la loi HADOPI) a été adopté par 88% des eurodéputés lors de la première lecture du paquet télécom, le 24 septembre 2008.

Sous la forte pression de Nicolas Sarkozy dans le cadre de la présidence française de l'UE, le Conseil de l'UE a supprimé cet amendement 138 sans aucune justification"

How to compare a Java Web Framework

2009-03-11T21:51:00.004+01:00

Far from being achieved, but at least a major update of How To compare Java Web Framework and the Java Web Framework matrix.

My first JavaFX tutorial completed under Linux

2009-02-27T22:40:00.002+01:00

I was eager to start using JavaFX, because Linux isn't yet fully supported as a development platform. So I used this tips on how to install Netbeans with JavaFX on Linux. And I have been able to follow this tutorial.
Nothing fancy, but I have a good feeling about JavaFX : the code is clean, powerful and very readable. Not cluttered with legacy stuff.
I hope I will be able to do more with it.

Java on Linux, So Many Free Choices

2009-01-22T13:22:00.002+01:00

Or should we say too many choices ?
This post is essentially to cleanup some bookmarks I tagged "To Read".
There is an article in Fedora Weekly Issue 133 about Java.
I like to have a clean Linux install and having Sun's Java, GCJ, IcedTea and others gives me a bad feeling.
Hopefully the road map toward OpenJDK is clear.

The trouble with triggers

2009-01-19T22:41:00.002+01:00

It is nice when I get a confirmation for a feeling I had for a long time.
Triggers should be use with extreme care. It is a bit like AOP, very powerful but you don't let anyone play with a chainsaw.
So it is worth reading an article The Trouble with Triggers By Tom Kyte in Oracle magazine.
Note that there is a free paper version if you don't have a netbook for the toilets.

Installing KUbuntu alongside Fedora

2008-11-27T20:49:00.006+01:00

What decided me to try Kubuntu is the updated Miro version, the one that allow to download Youtube chanels. Ubuntu has it, but Fedora is lagging a bit behind. (Notice that Mandriva and Suse had it too).
Besides, the Fedora 10 Feature list didn't excite me.

In order to install Kubuntu alongside Fedora on a free LVM volume, I decided to use UNetBootIn. There are no RPM, you have to download it from sourceforge. Since it is only one single exec, there are no problems.

So, you just launch unetbootin, choose which distribution to install, I choosed Ubuntu 8.10 Net install. It download a little file and ask for reboot.

I rebooted and choose "Unetbootin" in the Grub menu. It launches Ubuntu's install.
Partitionning is the scary part: Ubuntu doesn't help you much to choose the right LVM volume ! Basically, don't use your existing /boot, choose to config LVM and only mount the LVM volume that will contain Ubuntu. It still says that it will change the partition table, but luckily, it didn't break too much things.
I did a bare lightweight install (no X server).

Ubuntu's install changed the partition's UUID. Normally, it wouldn't have been a concern. But I used to configure Fedora's fstab to mount it under /mnt/ubuntu. So when I booted back to Fedora it falls short on a "Repair System" shell. Just because it couldn't find the UUID anymore !! Anyway after some Googling, I remounted the filesystem in read/write mode : "mount -w -o remount /" as seen in Linux Forum and just commented the bad line.

After rebooting, I used system-config-lvm (don't know why it doesn't appear in the menu) to mount the kubuntu partition back on /mnt/ubuntu. Then I wanted to copy the /mnt/ubuntu/boot/ to /boot/ and add Ubuntu to the Grub menu. But I only had to updated Grub to add the Ubuntu menu. The file were already in /boot/ : I wonder if UNetbootin copied them there in order to boot the install ?

Anyway, I just rebooted and choose "Ubuntu" in the Grub menu. It reached quickly a standard shell where I did a sudo apt-get kubuntu-desktop, triggering the download of not less than 1,5Go of deb files. But I know that I can switch from one to the other systems.

After rebooting, I still have to configure the NVIDIA drivers, since it gives me a blank screen yet ...

Xebia Web Framework Contest (French)

2008-10-15T14:55:00.003+02:00

Xebia is a well known company with a strong focus on Java and Agile.
I already heard of them through Gero Vermaas's blog.
I saw this context in a post from Matt Raible.
See: RIA Contest : Flex / Silverlight / GWT / Echo3 / JavaFX.

The comment are worth reading too : it shows that it is an interesting experiment, but very limited in time and focus. So it won't be true in 3 month or on another kind of project.

Java browser plugin on 64 bit Fedora and more

2008-10-03T01:18:00.002+02:00

It's been a long time. So just to say that :
- Fedora 10 should be there soon

- There is some hope for a good java plugin on 64-bits browsers. For now just install java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin. Or better, just yum install java-1.6.0-openjdk-*

- being on a project with a lot of JMS, Tibco RendezVous, Complex Event Processing, Event Driven Architecture and the likes, It is the kind of paradigm change that bring some fun to the job ! So no more HTTP request nor function calls : just send events and hopefully someone else will write the code to react to them. We are so used to HTTP and the firewall censorship that we don't even consider JMS ! But there are plenty of cases where it makes perfect sense to use events and messages : a lot of them !

Web Development as Tag Soup

2008-07-22T10:56:00.004+02:00

A post Web Development as Tag Soup by Jeff Atwood in Coding Horror. Very good blog indeed.
There are so many things to say about this problem. Maybe because it touches the Sacred Graal : separation of concern : Presentation and Business Logic.

Overall, there is no silver bullet, but people tends to forget that a Web Application, Web site or intranet can be very different projects and they compare Oranges to Apples. The client and development team changes everything.

Obviously, there are tons of comments, I will try to extract some :

- Mixing HTML / Javascript / server code : is it that bad ? Can there be a "good tag soup" ? "You recently championed Embracing Languages Inside Languages."

- Everyone is promoting his solution : generally a templating engine, but with some discipline to reduce the amount of code in the soup.

- A part of the problem is readability : <a href="<%=foo%>"><%=bar%></a>. Some suggest that "attribut soup" might be more readable. At least it is well formed XHTML : <p tal:content="string:foo"/>. Others consider that it is still a kind of Soup.

- "MVC tends to lead to file proliferation. It takes at least 5 files to create a single page: 3 JSP (using Tiles), 1 servlet, and 1 bean. I have to open 5 files to change a page."

Aims :

- Testability : code in the controller is easier to test than code in the HTML page.

- Wysiwyg : If the HTML is in the server code : only server-side developer can touch it. Designer won't be able to change and refine it. It is best to have well formed HTML templates to work with.

- i18n : what if the text is in the server-side code and in the HTML !

- Same kind of problems with escaping strings and unicode : Javascript, HTML, forms ... all different ways for your text from the Database to your front end !

- Readability, maintenance

- reuse, component

Solution proposed :

- Template Attribute Language : TAL (Python, PHP, Java ...) or XMLC (Java). A bit like the Wicket templates.

- Google XML Pages (GXP) Not very impressive yet. Wuld have to be coupled with some tools or IDE to be compeling.

- Get rid of HTML : GWT (almost), JavaFX, Flex, Curl ...

- Get rid of old paradigm : from Server-side generated HTML switch to SOFEA, Thin Server Architecture.

- more declarative language : XForms ...

- Use an all in one IDE + framework (JSF, JSTL ...) : Eclipse RAP, Netbeans, ...

Argument in favor of Tag Soup :
I quote :

Using more abstraction is just plain wrong, because:
1) you want to control what the output HTML will look like, so forget about a 'builder' tool, like a series of doc.addTag("P",content,attributes) ... it's Ok for passing data through some XML markup, but HTML documents are to complex to keep a clear idea of what the output will be this way. Customizing the layout is going to be a mess.
2) You want to use a 'template' library to avoid using too much logic inside your markup. This ends up being a joke, because you still want some logic, and you end up re-inventing a worse language that has to do loops, conditionnals, formatting, while your base language has certainly a better, more elegant syntax.
3) "simpler" intermediary language, like some XML markup then transformed to HTML through XLST leads you to the same pitfalls. You think you can avoid having logic in your markup, you end up reinventing another language, having to learn that language, to find out you get even more complexity.

The problem with tag soup is just the same of any language in any situation when you lazily prefer writing spaghetti code than creating meaningful functions, explicit variable names, clear indentation, well divided problem solving. Any programming language embedded in HTML is OK, anything else is a waste of time. What you need is to do all the complex stuff outside that embedded HTML file : do the business stuff and read all the records in the controller, and when you need complex formatting or logic rules, do it in helper functions that you'll define in a library accessible from your embedded html. In that embedded HTML, use your primary language, except everything must be very concise and trivial. Anything non-trivial as to be in outside helper functions with meaningful names. How do we program in general ? When we write a method we make sure all the code is about the microproblem you're trying to solve through that method, and anything too complex has to be in other methods, right ? That's just the exact same thing happening here. Being in the middle of HTML markup doesn't mean you can forget those programming rules. It's lame to blame your programming language when you put yourself in a mess, and that applies here too.

UML is going down ? or is it the whole programming thing ?

2008-07-08T15:51:00.004+02:00

At first I was looking at UML because I like it and would like to see more MDA and MDSD done. But I read 13 reasons for UML’s descent into darkness and the future doesn't seem to shine :

But since I am very skeptical about the conclusion that are generally drown from Google Trends, I searched a little more and it seems that whatever the subject "Java, SQL, HTML ..." the trends goes down more or less :

So, I still hope to see something good out of AndroMDA or Taylor.

Linux Podcast

2008-07-01T11:49:00.002+02:00

#! CrunchBang has a nice Linux Podcasts Roundup
And there is a long uncommented list in Monterb.org !
Another commented list in Tux University. (By the way, LearnHub seems to be a nice place !)
Another one from LinuxLink with little comment and logos . Go to Google for the others.

But it will be hard to replace Lug Radio !!

Storage : S3 vs. Hard Drive

2008-06-25T22:52:00.003+02:00

I looked at Amazon S3 service, but it is still expensive, especially if you plan to just "store" files and not often touch them. For example keeping 500GB would cost $90 per month. Compare to a 500GB Hard Drive that cost less than 60€ ! You may count about $10 per month for electric power, depending on your region.

So I planned to use the Open Source Java client : JetS3t, but abandoned it altogether.

Then I have to check for solutions to replicate the files to friends machines. It wouldn't make sense to me to use RAID mirror. Mirror won't protect against thieves or fire !

Good Grasp on what Appcelerator is

2008-06-25T15:23:00.002+02:00

Just read the 5 short chapters about what Appcelerator is
It will take 5 minutes and it explain it all.

(I already looked at their site, but didn't find clear explanation, beyond "... everything you need to build RIAs and SOA-based services the way you want — while being flexible bla bla bla ..."

Note also that they added support for Google AppEngine : so you can easily deploy your backend on Google services.

Johanna Rothman about project management

2008-06-25T14:49:00.003+02:00

Good article, nice schema about differences between serial, iterative, incremental and agile.
What Lifecycle? Selecting the Right Model for Your Project by Johanna Rothman.
Johanna is doing what I would like, with a more technical point of view still.
Look at her site : really good stuff about project management.

Fedora 9 and Java OpenJDK

2008-06-16T10:33:00.000+02:00

I upgraded to Fedora 9 some days ago, it went very well. I used the preupgrade GUI tool.
I just have a little mess in the menu, but easily cleaned up.

I am a bit disappointed by OpenJDK Firefox plugin. Basically, it doesn't work, nor WebStart.
So I will switch to the Standard SUN Java back again. Especially as they fixed and enhanced the applets with Java SE 6 Update 10 b25 !

Resources :

JavaFAQ is a bit outdated (still cover a large part of FC6 !? )

I will have to check this : http://fedorasolved.org/browser-solutions/sun-jdk

Mauriat Miranda guides

http://dnmouse.webs.com/index.html Quick guides (feature autonine : a GUI that install non-free apps)

http://easylife.dulinux.com/ just another GUI that install non-free apps.

People hang out on #fedora-java on freenode. There are also people on #classpath

Fedora Java Mailing list

I would really like some kind of group about "Java on Fedora", like the Java topic on Debian Wiki

New Firefox 3 Extensions

2008-06-12T20:25:00.005+02:00

So extensions are add-ons, but different from plugins like Java or Quick-Time or themes.

Since I switched to Firefox 3, I had to change some extensions :
Google Browser Sync isn't available anymore, so I switched to Weave. It is still under heavy development, as of 0.2 no Mac and no 64bit which are my 2 machines ...
I use InterClue (link preview), but I am not sure if I will keep it, or maybe just only enable it when needed.
Gmarks obviously for Google bookmarks.
Google Gears.
Google Web Comment isn't available anymore. Anyway, I wasn't really using it.
Firebug verion 1.2 works with Firefox 3 !

Firefox Add-ons doesn't allow to filter the Firefox 3 compatibles, which is a bit annoying.

I tried KDE 4 and I like it

2008-06-10T18:27:00.002+02:00

Fedora 9 comes with KDE 4 and it is really great !
Still some details to be fixed but overall I like it much more than Gnome !

About this blog

2008-06-10T17:57:00.002+02:00

Looks like this blog is becoming some kind of personal rant.
There are more political, controversial posts and less technical ones.

There two reason for this :
- creating links on subjects that matters to me is a way to vote for them on the Internet.
- I use Shared Items on Google Reader to mark and comment news. It is much quicker than posting on this blog ! My Shared Items.

But I would like to keep this blog focused on technical articles. Maybe I will split it and create a dedicated blog for the "voting" stuff ?
Will see on next post.

French jobs and salary : articles and web sites.

2008-06-02T11:04:00.003+02:00

Well a few links about Jobs and Salaries in France :

Enquête salaires 2008 : les spécialités qui rapportent le plus (LMI 02/05/2008)

Juri Travail : des conseils et des données sans trop de pubs.

Requirements Engineering

2008-05-20T15:34:00.002+02:00

I know I should read all those methods more in details.

I found this in the Poll Best Requirement Survey by Xebia.

So what is a requirements method? Since this is not a generally agreed-upon term from the dictionary, we need to define it. There are a few cases where a coherent set of ideas, written down in a book, can easily be seen as a 'method'. Two cases in point are "Volere" and "the Wiegers approach". They both cover almost the entire working area of requirements engineering in at least some detail. In other cases, an approach only covers one area of requirements engineering, such as elicitation techniques. Another possibility is a method that covers a larger area of software or business development, and includes part of requirements engineering. An example of the latter is RUP.
Methods
The methods covered in this survey are:

* Volere (Suzanne and James Robertson)
* Wiegers (Karl Wiegers)
* The Software Requirements Memory Jogger (Ellen Gottesdiener)

* Requirements by Collaboration (Ellen Gottesdiener)
* Just Enough Requirements Management (Alan M. Davis)
* Competitive Engineering (Tom Gilb)
* eRequirements (Stephen Robinson)

* RUP (Rational Software)
* Scrum (Sutherland, Schwaber et al.)

Terms and definitions

Requirements Engineering : All project life cycle activities associated with understanding a product's necessary capabilities and attributes.
Includes:

Requirements Management : Working with a defined set of product requirements throughout the product's development process and its operational life.
Includes: status tracking, tracing, change management, versioning

Requirements Development : The product of requirements development is a requirements baseline that defines the product to be built.

Elicitation : Identifying software or system requirements from various sources through various techniques.

Analysis : Classifying requirements information into various categories, evaluating requirements for desirable qualities, representing requirements in different forms, deriving detailed requirements from high-level requirements, negotiating priorities, etc.

Specification : Documenting a system's requirements in a structured, shareable, and manageable form.

Validation : Evaluating a work product to determine whether it satisfies the specifications and conditions imposed on it at the beginning of the development phase during which it was created.

Stakeholder Management : the activities a business enterprise initiates to manage the relationships with its stakeholders

I can't help to copy the whole thing since I am not sure about the longevity of this page.

Some points also in Wikipedia on Requirement.

What is an architect ?

2008-05-16T15:19:00.002+02:00

Two good elements of response :
- Role Profile for Software Architects by Simon Brown. A great way to structure the response.
- Characteristics of a software architect by Peter Eeles (Maybe tainted with functional or domain architect)

Enterprise Architecture

2008-05-07T14:10:00.002+02:00

A nice PDF from The Zachman Institute for Framework Advancement (ZIFA) about Enterprise Architecture.
Seen in Red Hat post : Provisioning our New Middleware Architecture.
Note : RedHat lacks a podcast : they started one but the latest post is 2 years old !

In search of a good Pen

2008-04-10T15:23:00.012+02:00

I am searching a good pen. Easy, clean, since I have a very poor calligraphic skill.

I tried the following :

HI-TECPOINT V5, LIQUID, BLACK : BX-V5-B

Roller Ball Pens 0.5, Width of stroke: 0.3 mm

So far the best I tried. A bit too fine and the grip isn't that good, but no big problem. 05/05/2007.

SUPER GRIP,M,BLK,BK INK : BPGP-10R-M-B-B

Ball Point Pens, Width of stroke: 0.4 mm.

The ink doesn't flow very well, looks like their "oil based ink" becomes hard.

ALPHAGEL BLACK, 07, B.INK : BL-AG-7-B

Ball Point Pens, Width of stroke: 0.4 mm.

Big deception : the ink flow isn't steady some blanks and some splotch. It is sad because the shape and the grip is very good.

MARKING PEN, V-SIGN, BLACK : SW-VSP-B

Width of stroke: 0.6 mm.

Stroke too wide for me. 10/04/2007.

MARKING PEN, V FINELINER, LIQUID, BLACK : SW-VPP-B

Fine Line Marker Pens 1.2, Width of stroke: 0.5 mm

Stroke too wide for me. 05/05/2007.

Semantic Web, RDF and URI in the real world

2008-04-06T15:02:00.003+02:00

My interest in Semantic Web has slowly diminished as so few applications and data are available. But I keep an eye on it and from time to time, I read an article.
This time : Cool URIs for the Semantic Web a note from the W3C. It is about the way you should serve content and uses URI for RDF, HTML and "Real Things". Conclusion is : there are no good way to do it, they present 2 very different solutions among others. So since both solutions are far from perfect, every one is making his semantic web.

One strange point : "a naming scheme should not confuse things and the documents representing them.". I have a mixed feeling about this. It states that a "Thing" should have an URI, but that URI should be distinct from the URI of the document describing the "Thing". So what is the point of having an URI if it just redirect to a real document. Just for reference ? Then why should it return something at all ? It is more practical. Sure. Then it looks like a mess resulting from theoretical and practical views.

Among the articles I read and didn't blog about :
- Some editors/publishers may see a value in adding metadata to their content (articles, reviews ...). This would provide more content to be retrieved with semantic Web applications.
- Computer will be able to add more significant metadata automatically. Normal users would just have to validate.
- Data-portability, will raise the need to detach the data and replace the format (HTML/CSS) with metadata. So one will be able to move his data from one site to another, each one providing its own format and applications.

No doubt that we are going to benefit from the semantic web on a large scale one day, but not today !

Easy creation of Java EE application

2008-04-04T14:44:00.002+02:00

A bit like WaveMaker : Java EE Spider will allow you to create a Java EE Web application.
From the screenshots it seems to be "wizard driven".

They have controversial view about Model Driven Development, with the UML diagrams and code generation tools. I don't agree that MDD isn't agile, it is more in the way it is used and the culture associated.

It looks like a wave of UI-First Software Development things.

I feel like we are trying to establish a continuum from requirements and prototypes to final products, using successive iterations.

WaveMaker : easy web app creation

2008-04-03T15:39:00.005+02:00

Good interview from Redmonk about WaveMaker : RIA Weekly #11 - WaveMaker.
So WaveMaker is an easy to use IDE and Framework to build web application. It is Open Source and based on Open Source : Spring / Hibernate / DOJO ... They gets data from Databases as well as WebServices.
- They use WaveMaker to build WaveMaker
- They point out the scattered state of AJAX libraries (DOJO, jQuery, Prototype, Scriptaculous ...) opposed to the clear path offered by Adobe or Microsoft.
- As a workaround they try to provide a level of abstraction above all those libraries, so you are not tied on a specific one.
- They mention Appcelerator too, wich is more database driven.

83 slides about Javascript Library (10/2007), Ajaxian list, Wikipedia Comparison

Quotes from Kent Beck on Implementation Patterns

2008-02-06T22:21:00.000+01:00

Kent Beck on Implementation Patterns
(Interview with Kent Beck by Niclas Nilsson, Floyd Marinescu on 25/01/2008)

programmers communicate with other people with their code, so it's not enough to just instruct a machine to do something that you need also to think about what will people read in what I write here, so it's programming more like a writer would write, than just thinking of a set of instructions for a machine.

the easy part of XP is practice related, but there is 3 legs on the stool: practices, values and principles... This gets back a little bit to some of my disenchantment with the direction of agile development in general, people are now asking the question: "How am I going to do agile development?" and agile development isn't a thing you do, it's an attitude, it's a set of personal values about responding to the real world, being open to the information that is there and being willing to do something about it.

First FreeNX problem and solution

2008-02-03T21:40:00.000+01:00

I experienced my first problem with FreeNX : couldn't reconnect after a hard reboot. (Some electrical problems in house, but it is solved now : at least there is light in the bathroom.) Anyway, the error message looked like some old stuff was pertubing the session. So some simple commands to remember :
nxserver --list # Gives the list of session
nxserver --terminate SessionId # Terminate a session
nxserver --history # Gives the list of historic sessions
nxserver --hitory clear # Solved my problem !!

That all Folks

Eclipse on Linux install

2008-01-29T16:45:00.000+01:00

So once again, I have to install Eclipse on Linux.
Several options :
- JPackage : as I posted before, unless you share your install, there are no compelling reason to depend on JPackage.
- Download from Eclipse site. Generally, I download a tiny Eclipse : the "Portable runtime Binary" and then I select only the plugins I need.

Still, I always wonder what is the "good" way to install Java Apps on Linux. They don't fit the /etc, /usr /bin folders. The FHS (File Hierarchy Standard) doesn't seem to be followed very much.
For example, FreeNX from NoMachine is installed in /usr/NX, as if /usr was "\Program files" !

Google Custom Search and Bookmarks

2007-09-20T17:35:00.000+02:00

I have been waiting for years to be able to do a search with an emphasis on the sites that are in my Bookmarks.
Finally it is possible with Google Custom Search and Google Bookmarks.
This article inspired me :
Google Custom Search: Custom Search Engine APIs

Right now, it is not synchronize : if I add a bookmark, I will had to add it to my CSE too. But I bet it won't be long before Google makes it dead easy to have a CSE synchronized with your Bookmarks.

So for thoses interested, I simply :
- exported my Google Bookmarks,
- open the page in Firefox
- right clic to have the Page info
- clic on the Links tab
- select only the link column (clic on the rightmost little column)
- select all, copy
- create a new CSE and paste the url list into the text area.
Your done

Software Development Trends for 2007

2007-01-02T10:30:00.000+01:00

Interesting article from Manageability : Software Development Trends for 2007.
Notably : he points out Piggy Bank and OpenId, that are not so well known.
I think Google will play an important role too as well as VoIP interoperability like OpenWengo pushes.
XML may slow down at least in the configuration space, where there are alternatives (like using Groovy). and I hope that Relax-NG will be chosen more often instead of XML-Schema !

Characterizing People as Non-Linear, First-Order Components in Software Development

2005-07-31T22:56:00.003+02:00

Alistair Cockburn has reviewed three dozen projects and methodologies over 20 years. I quote his conclusions :

We are sensitive to communication timing and modalities. The prediction is that physical proximity and ease of communication has dominant effect.
People tend to inconsistency. The prediction is that methodologies requiring disciplined consistency are fragile in practice.
People vary, not just daily, but from group to group. Methodologies don't currently, but do need to deal with this cultural variation.
People like to be good citizens, are good at looking around and taking initiative. These combine to form that common success factor, "a few good people stepped in at key moments."

Characterizing People as Non-Linear, First-Order Components in Software Development.
Form : 9 pages (I had to copy and paste the whole text in OpenOffice in order to get a readable printout !)
Source : I saw a reference to his article on the TheServerSide.