Extremely handy Java debugging trick

The Coder Lounge: Printpoints : Debugging by writing to console

Adventures in Eclipse-land - Coming to Eclipse from NetBeans

When working with JBoss AS 7, it appears that it's just assumed you'll be working with Eclipse. Nobody seems to really talk about NetBeans, the IDE I've been using most of the time for the last few years. I thought there had to be a reason for this, and decided to give it another go.

I'll be jotting things as I go in the hopes of helping others out, and to highlight potential usability issues.

So far, it's pretty simple. Eclipse is painful to use in places, does some things quite strangely, and it's all worth it for the dynamic web module. I cannot possibly express how wonderful it is to use after the compile-redeploy-test cycles I've been doing while using JBoss AS 7 on NetBeans.

PostgreSQL usability - PgAdmin-III and Pg need some usability love

As anyone who's read much here will know, I'm a huge fan of PostgreSQL, the powerful open source relational database management system. It is an amazingly project with a team that keeps on releasing high quality updates full of very useful new features and improvements.

This is my blog, so there must be a "but", right? You're quite right.

I already wrote a PostgreSQL: Great even when you can see the warts in response to a perhaps overly glowing write-up someone did a while ago. I'm not covering that again here; this post is specifically about a topic more and more dear to my heart, that of usability.

As a long-time UNIX geek I've always found PostgreSQL quite easy to use, because I live on the command line where psql is just wonderful. Recently, though, I had to use PostgreSQL on Windows, and in the process couldn't help seeing it from the new user's point of view. In fact, I tried to think like a new user as I performed the tasks I needed to do.

It wasn't all roses. I knew enough about Pg to get past the issues pretty easily, but some of them would be real roadblocks for new or even intermediate users, and I think they're worth highlighting. Many of the issues were with PgAdmin-III, but far from all of them.

This post started out as a minor critique of a few usability sore points in Pg and PgAdmin-III. As I went through step-by-step producing screenshots and thinking through the process as a user, though, I realised it's an absolute, complete and utter train-wreck. If this had been my first experience with PostgreSQL, I'd be a MySQL, MS-SQL or Oracle user now.

You CAN download legal Windows 7 ISO images, it's just well hidden

Yesterday I had a frustrating time after discovering that the one and only non-OEM-contaminated Win7Pro x64 disk I had was faulty - half way through a win7 reinstall. All I wanted was a download of replacement media, as I had a license already. This should've been simple, but no! Microsoft direct you to your OEM or retailer in all documentation on the topic, never even hinting that you can just download the ISOs without needing MSDN.

I even called Microsoft support, which is a mark of desperation if ever I saw one. They were as unhelpful as expected, patronisingly explaining that the license key is from a computer manufacturer so I have to contact them for replacement media. Even though I don't want the OEM's butchered Windows install media, I just want stock win7. I don't want the mangled Windows the OEM supplies, and even if I did they'd only post it to me not offer a download. They also only supply service pack 0, and I needed SP1-integrated ISOs.

I have a license to the product. You can't use the media without a license. The media have no copy protection so it's not like they particularly try to prevent their copying/distribution. Yet the official story is that you just can't download it unless you've bought an new license to a retail version online through Microsoft Store. Pathetic.

After too long digging around the net I found out that, yes, you can just download the ISOs after all. Microsoft just apparently don't admit it or talk about it. That's customer-hostile even for them. Go here:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-from-digital-river/

or http://www.mytechguide.org/10042/windows-7-service-pack-sp1-official-digitalriver-download/

... to get service pack 1 ISOs. Legally, from Digital River, MS's online/digital distributor. Yes, that means you must have a valid license and key to use them, as normal.

They even provide SHA1 checksums, which NOBODY seems to publish for Windows ISOs or pretty much anything else in the Windows world.

• Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x86 SHA1:
  92C1ADA4FF09C76EC2F1974940624CAB7F822F62
• Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (SP1-U Media Refresh) x86 SHA1:
  65FCE0F445D9BF7E78E43F17E441E08C63722657
• Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64 SHA1:
  1693B6CB50B90D96FC3C04E4329604FEBA88CD51
• Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (SP1-U Media Refresh) x64 SHA1:
  36AE90DEFBAD9D9539E649B193AE573B77A71C83

I've verified the x64 SP1-U checksum to match what I downloaded from Digital River. I haven't checked the others.

Arquillian initially overpromises and frustrates, but delivers real benefits

After seeing a lot of talk, hype and excitement about Arquillian on twitter for several months, I finally got around to introducing it into a new project to give it a try. I'm told it'll make testing massively easier and save me tons of time, so using it is a no-brainer.

Tweet to @craigdevel After my recent experience I recommend that you start using it too - but you'll need to be prepared for some rough edges and the need for workarounds until a few point releases have gone by.

To jump straight to the summary of it all, click here, or read on for the whole experience.

Fixing "Jam in Area A" (E3-6) on Xerox Phaser 5500

My Xerox Phaser 5500N has been failing to print with phantom "Jam in Area A" errors for the last few days. No paper is actually jammed in the printer, it just reports a jam after printing the first page. When viewing the jam log or the web interface, the jam code was "E3-6", which is documented in the manual only as "fuser area".

It turns out that the Xerox 5500 has a common failure point - arguably a design flaw - in the fuser exit switch.

Xerox support wanted $210 to come and look at the printer, wouldn't guarantee to even bring appropriate parts, and said it'd cost another $210 plus parts if they had to come back with parts to repair it. They wouldn't talk about the jam code or do any phone support of any kind at all. Payment for the site visit was to be made up front before they'd even book a tech, and they wouldn't give me an ETA before I paid. They don't sell parts, and won't provide service manuals. This made me very, very angry.

Instead of paying Xerox over $400, I paid the supermarket up the road $3 for some super-glue. After removing the fuser I could see that the fuser exit switch lever had broken, so I just glued it back on and got the printer working again. Depending on the nature of the fault, you might not even need the glue.

DIY data recovery

While perusing ZDNet Australia I encountered this article about data recovery, which appears to be a thinly veiled piece of advertorial about a data recover firm.

The article pissed me off. It doesn't mention the importance of preventative action like good, well-tested backups. It certainly doesn't bother considering the possibility that you can recover from common cases of data loss yourself or with help from a techie friend, avoiding paying huge sums to the DR firm.

Here are a few tips for recovering lost pictures, documents, etc from a hard drive that's in reasonable physical condition but isn't readable from the computer. The same techniques apply to flash media like Compact Flash, MMC, SD Card, USB memory keys, etc, many of which have the unreliable FAT32 file system on them by default and are very prone to being rendered unreadable by minor file system corruption.

You should not attempt these tips unless you can accept the small risk that you might actually make the problem worse. Most importantly, do not attempt any of these steps if you suspect your hard drive has a serious mechanical fault - say it stopped working after being dropped and now makes sqeaky scratchy noises, it was immersed, it was burned, etc. Attempting to power on a hard drive that's damaged like that will make later recovery harder, so you should take drives with serious physical damage straight to DR pros.

For the other 99% of cases, read on.