The most interesting thing of the moment: 1/22/06

Met with mayor

Reviewed web site enhancement ideas

ONJava.com: Twelve Best Practices For Spring XML Configurations

ONJava.com: Twelve Best Practices For Spring XML Configurations: "Spring is a powerful Java application framework, used in a wide range of Java applications. It provides enterprise services to Plain Old Java Objects (POJOs). Spring uses dependency injection to achieve simplification and increase testability. Spring beans, dependencies, and the services needed by beans are specified in configuration files, which are typically in an XML format. The XML configuration files, however, are verbose and unwieldy. They can become hard to read and manage when you are working on a large project where many Spring beans are defined.

In this article, I will show you 12 best practices for Spring XML configurations. Some of them are more necessary practices than best practices. Note that other factors, such as domain model design, can impact the XML configuration, but this article focuses on the XML configuration's readability and manageability."

How-to: VMware player modification - hack a day - www.hackaday.com _

How-to: VMware player modification - hack a day - www.hackaday.com _: "How-to: VMware player modification"

Community Virtual Machines

Community Virtual Machines: "Community-built virtual machines are built and hosted by individuals in the VMware community. The list of community-built virtual machines contains a growing set of virtual machines designed for a variety of purposes. See what your peers in the community are building.

To download any of the pre-built virtual machines below, simply download the virtual machine and run it in the free VMware Player. You may also run it in VMware Workstation, GSX Server or ESX Server.

If you have built and hosted a virtual machine that you would like to share with the VMware community, please post a link to it in the VMware Player discussion forum.

Note: Virtual machines are large; we recommend using a download manager in case your download is interrupted.

Note: Community-built virtual machines are neither built, tested, nor endorsed by VMware. Use at your own risk."

Interesting Future Eclipses (1999-2035)

Interesting Future Eclipses (1999-2035): "2017 August 21 -- Finally, another total eclipse in the United States. This one sweeps a 70-mile wide path from Salem, Oregon, to Charleston, South Carolina, crossing coast-to-coast from mid-morning to early afternoon on this summer Monday. Points in the path include Mt. Jefferson in the Cascades and Grand Teton peak in the Rockies, as well as Casper, Wyoming, and Lincoln, Nebraska. In Missouri, Kansas City lies near the southern edge of the path, St. Louis near the northern edge. The eclipse reaches its maximum in western Kentucky, with the Sun at an altitude of 64 degrees and a duration of totality of 2 minutes 40 seconds. In Tennessee, Nashville is near the southern edge of the path, Knoxville near the northern edge. The shadow then passes over Greenville, Columbia, and Charleston, South Carolina, before racing out across the Atlantic.

2024 April 8 -- Another North American total eclipse only seven years later! This 120-mile wide path crosses Mazatlan, Dallas, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Montreal, with over four minutes of totality."

Domain-Driven Design

Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software

by Eric Evans, Foreword by Martin Fowler.

The PatternShare community site brings together software patterns from different authors in one place to show relationships between existing patterns and to encourage you to contribute new ones. By combining our efforts, the patterns community can increase pattern usage and better meet the needs of developers and architects who use patterns.

The Enterprise Architectural Space Organizing Table is the central mechanism for exploring this collection of patterns. For a description of this table and how Microsoft uses it, see AboutTheTable or read the longer paper, Describing the Enterprise Architectural Space, on MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnpag/html/entarch.asp

First banner ad ever in the world. AT&T Hotwired.

First banner ad ever in the world. AT&T Hotwired.: "What was the world's first banner ad?

When HotWired decided to make money from their website in 1994, they set in motion events that would come back to haunt us all: The creation of banner ads.

AT&T was the first to dish over some money to HotWired to display the beast they created, a 468 x 60 banner that came to life on October 25 1994."

How do I maintain and clean the LCD screen on my Dell™ portable computer?

How do I maintain and clean the LCD screen on my Dell™ portable computer?: " 1.

Shut down the computer.
2.

Disconnect power to the system or monitor.
3.

Wipe the LCD or flat panel screen gently with a soft dry cloth.
If any marks remain, moisten the cloth with LCD cleaner, and then gently stroke the cloth across the display in one direction, moving from the top of the display to the bottom.

notice NOTICE: Do not use any of the following chemicals or any solutions that contain them: Acetone, ethyl alcohol, toluene, ethyl acid, ammonia, or methyl chloride. If you have a different chemical or solution and are not sure whether it is suitable, do not use it. Using any of the chemicals in the previous list may cause permanent damage to the LCD or flat panel screen. Some commercial window cleaners contain ammonia and are therefore unacceptable.

4.

Be sure the LCD or flat panel screen is dry before closing it or using the computer.

There are many cleaning solutions sold specifically as LCD cleaners. You can use these to clean LCD screens on Dell notebooks. Alternately, you may use a 50/50 isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and water mixture. Microfiber cloths such as those used to clean eyeglasses are excellent for use with LCDs."

Lights, Camera, Action

Lights, Camera, Action
Originally uploaded by hanzjordan.

Nice picture of a spotlight

Thunderbird -- 1.5 ready for download

Thunderbird -- Reclaim your inbox: "Full-Featured Email
Simple to use, powerful, and customizable, Thunderbird is a full-featured email application. Thunderbird supports IMAP and POP mail protocols, as well as HTML mail formatting. Easily import your existing email accounts and messages. Built-in RSS capabilities, powerful quick search, spell check as you type, global inbox, deleting attachments and advanced message filtering round out Thunderbird's modern feature set.
Junk Mail Filters
Each email you receive passes through Thunderbird's leading-edge junk mail filters. Each time you mark messages as spam, Thunderbird improves its filtering so you can spend more time reading the mail that matters. Thunderbird will also use your mail provider's spam filters to keep junk mail out of your inbox.
Anti-Phishing Protection
Thunderbird protects you from increasingly common email scams—also known as “phishing”—which try to fool you into handing over your passwords and other personal information. Thunderbird will tell you when it thinks a message might be a scam.
Advanced Security
Thunderbird provides enterprise and government grade security features including S/MIME, digital signing, message encryption, support for certificates and security devices. Attachments are never run without your express permission, protecting you from many worms and viruses.
Automatic Updates
The new Software Update feature makes it easy to get the latest security and feature updates to Thunderbird. Thunderbird automatically downloads these small updates in the background and prompts you when they are ready to be installed.
Customize Thunderbird
Select new button controls for your toolbars, install extensions to add new features, or change the look of your browser with themes—the way Thunderbird looks and works is under your contr"