Blog Reflections

Wow. It's been a couple of months of active regular blogging. I never really thought I could write so much. But hey, here I am... IronCladZone is now almost 111 posts old and going strong :)

If you might have noticed, much of my content currently focusses on coding, programming & technology. I also do mix in some light hearted posts featuring music, movies, food, entertainment etc. I think such an approach gives a nice relaxed comfortable feel to the visitors visiting my blog. I mean imagine if you landed on my blog through some technical topic, you can also have some quick fun by reading posts on HBO or entertainment or some Hollywood movie or travel or photography. As I said previously, I plan to diversify the topics of interest so that, "there's something for everyone".

Though so far, technology appears to be the center point of this blog, I constantly think about diversifying it and widening it's scale. Folks, do drop in your thoughts, suggestions and views on how to enhance the quantity & quality of the blog so that it reaches a much bigger audience.

Info on Google Chrome with Java 7 on Mac OS X

Fact Check : Guys, did you know the following fact about Chrome : Google Chrome does not work with Java 7 on Mac OS X. Turns out that the 32-bit Chrome browser does not support Oracle Java 7 on Mac OS X.

Folks, please make a note of this, in case you're planning to upgrade Apple supplied Java 6 to Java 7.

Also note that Chrome works perfectly fine with Java 6 while other browsers like Mozilla Firefox & Apple Safari do support Java 7 out of the process.

Refer the following official Oracle Java link about this fact.

Chrome's 64-bit version is among it's future plans as listed on this Chromium Design Documents page.

Tomcat Controller for Mac OS X

Folks, if you've installed Apache Tomcat on your Mac OS X machines for deploying webapps, this post will surely interest you. This quick byte is about a free small useful utility - Tomcat Controller, used for starting and stopping Apache Tomcat with a single mouse click.

Once downloaded, install it. Observe that it will add a new PrefPane in the System Preferences. It supports the newer 64-bit machines and older 32-bit machines as well. However, on newer 64-bit machines, am wondering why it closes and reopens the 32-bit System Preferences. Guys, do drop in your comments if you're aware of the reasons why it happens this way.

You simply have to mention the location pointing to the Tomcat instance. The current version 2.1 works like a charm for Tomcat 6 & 7 alike. Just click Start Tomcat Server. This comes in very handy if you have to bounce the server over and over again.

Finally, if you need some help with installing Tomcat & accessing the Tomcat manager, do refer my previous post. Bye.

Repositories in Maven - A Refresher

Before covering a topic on Nexus repository manager, let's first understand the various types of repositories in Maven. In Apache Maven, there are 3 basic types of repositories :

• Local
• Central
• Remote

Let me quickly cover a few basics about each one of them :

The Local Repository is the local folder on your machine that you mention in the project's settings.xml with <localRepository> tags. This is where all the artifacts - plugin jars, dependencies and other configuration files that Maven downloads, would be stored. 

The Central Repository is http://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2 which redirects you to http://search.maven.org/#browse. If the dependencies are not found in the local repository, Maven attempts to download them from this central repository. This is Maven's official central repository, where you search for various artifacts. This is analogous and similar to Perl's CPAN for searching modules.

Note that at the time of build, the download of dependency is triggered only if the required dependency is mentioned in pom.xml.

On certain occasions, it may happen that the required dependency does not exist on either local or central repository. It may exist on some other Remote Repository. For instance : Jboss or Java.net repository. In that case we have to mention the remote repository url in the pom.xml so that at the time of build, Maven will scan pom.xml and download the dependency jars from the mentioned remote url.

Remember, the thumb rule for Maven's dependency management is as follows : 

1. First it will search local repository for the dependency.
2. If dependency is not found in local repository, it will download it from central repository. 
3. If dependency does not exist on either local or central repository, it will download it from the remote repository url mentioned.

Guys, more Maven posts are in the pipeline. Lots of useful information is coming up. Be positive, stay healthy and enjoy your life :)

Samsung Galaxy S5 Launch - First Thoughts

Ever since the first Samsung Galaxy S I, the brand has rapidly evolved into a more matured, technologically advanced superior product. There's no doubt about it.

The latest Samsung Galaxy S5 promises to take the phone to yet another level. Bundled with a fresh new fingerprint scanner, heart rate sensor, it is powered by a faster 2.5GHz Quadcore processor.

Image Courtesy : The Verge

The phone now sports a fresh new 16MP camera with HDR recording capabilities. This seems to be an answer to Nokia Lumia camera phones.

The fingerprint sensor is a direct reply to Apple's fingerprint recognition. Though it's a bit slow, I guess this feature will improve over time ( in terms of privacy, security, reliability ).

This phone made with the tough looking industrial polycarbonate grants it a sturdy durable look from the rear. This makes it one of the perfect phones for extreme regular outdoor use. Let me explain why.

Consider the following scenario - you often visit the bars, restaurants and lounges after work or on the weekend. You often tend to use the phone while chatting up with your friends, girlfriends. You usually are inclined to keep the phone on the bar or the table - I mean the phone usually comes in direct contact with external surfaces like wood or stone or marble. Frequent usage leads to scratches on the back of of the phone. Right? In my opinion, the simple dotted polycarbonate rear cover design greatly reduces the chances of scratches and improves overall grip as well. Since you also never know when you would slip the phone from your hands while holding.

Image Courtesy : Engadget

What's more is that it is waterproof now - a direct answer to Sony's top-shelf Experia lineup. Yet another useful feature to protect the phone from spilled drinks and water. Now you can roam around the crowded bars fearlessly and worry-free.

The phone also comes loaded with a heart rate sensor - a great feature to capture a couple of health metrics. Well, reportedly it works with S-Health app for now, am wondering if it would work seamlessly with Strava. With this feature, Samsung tries to woo the niche athletics-oriented sportsmen as well as the fitness-savvy and health conscious crowd.

Overall, this product pushes the bar of the heavily crowded smartphone market. It tries to incorporate all the killer features of multiple rivals ( read Apple, Sony, Nokia ) and positions itself as the universal All-in-One multi-purpose superphone. This phone pitches itself as "Hey, I've got it all, you don't have to look elsewhere".

True Detective - Climax Clue Sheet - Part 1

True Detective - HBO's awesome mystery thriller whodunnit is almost reaching its climax. But hey, with each episode the plot thickens and each episode drops some significant clues. Let me put down some clues which seem to hold a key to the plot.

Clue 1 : The title "True Detective" with word Detective in singular is the first big clue. Also, in latest episode 6, Rust says to Marty "Without me, there is no you". Could this mean the plot resembles "The Fight Club"'s alter ego scenario ? Strange and supernatural ? Is Rust a figment of Marty's imagination?

Clue 2 : Episode 2 : Marty & Hart chat with deceased Dora Lange's mother. At one moment the camera zooms to a picture frame on the wall. This shows 5 men wearing conical masks surrounding a little girl. A hint to the esoteric pagan rituals perhaps.

Clue 3 : Episode 2 : The black star tattoos on the neck of victim's friend - Miss Carla. The Black Star significance is intermittently visible through the storyline. 

Clue 4 : Episode 2 : Marty tells Rust that the Sheriff Tate too has a stake in the whorehouse run in the woods. So assuming if there are 5 people involved in the ritualistic cult killings, the Sheriff also could be one of them or atleast knows who the killers are.

Clue 5 : Episode 2 & 5 : The Carcosa, the black stars & the Yellow King references in Dora's diary and their recurring references by the prisoner in Episode 5 who tries to cut a deal with Rust in return for tips and information.

Clue 6 : Episode 3 : Also, Maggie's grandfather is seen drinking a Lone Star beer while chatting with Marty. This seems to be a subtle hint that he might be involved as well, since Rust drinks Lone Star beer all along the interrogation. Also, note the fact that Marty's daughter created the setup of miniature dolls on floor ( girls surrounded by men ). Perhaps she saw the gangbang like orgy act with her own eyes.

Clue 7 :  Episode 5 : If you pay attention, Rust carves out exactly 5 men from the empty beer cans from the available 6-pack. He smashes one can into a flat circle. This definitely seems to have significance to the plot - highly indicative of involvement of 5 men in the gruesome killings.

Folks, if you have any theories, any clues, any hints, do comment in your suggestions, which can be included in the Climax Clue Sheet - Part 2

Installing Apache Maven on Mac OS X

Well, all new Mac machines loaded with Lion and above, come pre-installed with Maven. In order to find out which version is installed on your machine by default, just type the following in terminal :

mvn -version

Mine came pre-loaded with v3.0.3 and the default Maven Home was set at /usr/share/maven

However you if want to upgrade the version or configure the Maven Home to a different location, perform the following steps :

• Download the latest Apache Maven distribution from it's official download link. Presently it is v3.2.1, so download the relevant binary ( apache-maven-3.2.1-bin.tar.gz ).

• After downloading, unzip it and copy the entire folder to some other directory. Let's say for instance - /usr/lib/apache-maven-3.2.1

• We now need to a couple of environment variables to our bash profile. In terminal, type vi ~/.bash_profile and insert the following variables to it ( i for insert ).

• Now lets add the environment variable M2_HOME so type export M2_HOME=/usr/lib/apache-maven-3.2.1

• Also define the M2 environment variable so type export M2=$M2_HOME/bin

• Next type export PATH=$M2:$PATH and save .bash_profile and quit ( :wq )

• Finally type source ~/.bash_profile. Note that when you close and open a new shell, the same settings will be intact.

Confirm the new settings by typing mvn -version to see the updated Maven version and home.

Congratulations, you just customised Maven on your machine. 

Just as am writing this post, am thinking about some stuff about Nexus repository manager which will enable you to manage your Maven repositories. Never mind, I'll cover Nexus in another upcoming post. Stay tuned :)