Livin' the life...

At a ceremony on Friday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown opened Warwick’s new ultra-high tech facility – the Digital Laboratory - using ‘virtual scissors’ to cut a ribbon in cyberspace.

The £13 million lab, the brainchild of Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, Director of Warwick Manufacturing Group, has been two years in construction and top international academics are now moving into the building. 

Lord Bhattacharyya said: “This Digital Lab is the future. We are bringing together some of the world’s top academics in digital technologies working on digital manufacturing and digital healthcare.

“We are working with partners on product development and creating virtual reality environments for prototyping and testing human responses. E-security, cradle-to-grave product management and process improvement will also be key themes.” (Full story)

Warwick!

Ah, the Internet: you use it every day for school, work or fun. In such a short period of time, the Net has grown into an essential every day thing that it's hard to imagine life without it.

But how much do you know about the Internet? Did you know that you have the Soviets to thank for this wonderful invention? Or that despite the flack that he got for inventing the Internet, Al Gore actually did play a major role in the creation of the Net?

Here are the 10 Things You Should Know About the Internet!

One of the most important ones identified in this article which people always mix up is the fact that the Internet ≠ World Wide Web!

People can (and will) influence your moods. They can do something nice and make you happy, or they can do the opposite cause you to be upset. Yesterday, the latter happened to me and I was definitely offset by that person and in my opinion, their obvious lack of manners. In these types of situations, one aspect alone is very important i.e. that you don't give root to any severe anger.

Last night as I heard Joel Osteen speaking on this same topic and he commented, "If someone cuts you off in traffic, say to the Lord, 'Lord I hope that person has a blessed day'". Or "if someone does something to offend you, ask the Lord to bless that person." This of course tends to be anything but our first reaction, but to put it simply, is it the right thing to do. By asking God to bless that person immediately, I believe it helps you to see the bigger picture and not allow people to so easily dictate your mood.

God also warns about carrying this anger with you in Ephesians when it is stated, "'Be angry, and do not sin' do not let the sun go down on your wrath". I will leave this verse with you, and pray that you have a blessed and HAPPY week.

Take care! :-)

Techie website Lifehacker reports, "Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth (who we interviewed last year) announced that he's out to make Linux a better-looking operating system than Mac OS X—within two years. An ambitious goal! At O'Reilly's OSCON conference this week, Shuttleworth said:

"I think the great task in front of us in the next two years is to lift the experience of the Linux desktop from something stable and usable and not pretty, to something that's art," Shuttleworth said. "Think of the way the iPhone uses a pure software experience, it abstracts away all the hardware," he said. "You can paint anything on the screen because it's all software.""

Full story here..

Even though this is all fine and dandy, I'm slightly confused as Ubuntu can already be 'tricked out' to great proportions with Gnome add-ons (as I did and displayed a little while ago). I guess Mr. Shuttleworth's aim is to make it prettier straight of of the box?

Undoubtedly in anticipation of the new Batman movie Cracked.com has put up images of 20 "bat items", such as the one above. It guarantees to be a quick laugh!

As the writer correctly states, "If not for these shiny, happy inventions ... the past 25 years would've been a lot less fun"! Check out .. The New Classics: 25 Tech Innovations

My picks are the Gameboy (1989), Realistic Computer Generated characters (1991), Netscape Navigator (1994), Bullet time (1999), Body Motion Capture (1992), Amazon (1995), Polyphonic ringtones (1998) and last but not least YouTube (2005)! What are yours?

With this 'toon, the cartoonist aptly comments, "Our own efforts to 'do our own thing', rather than what God has commanded us to do, will keep us from receiving the good things that God has for us" (Ref).

I don't think it can be said any better. Have a great week all and God bless!

Britain's information watchdog criticised today plans for a massive Government database holding details of every phone call and e-mail and the time spent on the internet by the public as a step too far.

Richard Thomas gave warning that plans being discussed by the Home Office as part of a forthcoming legislation on data communications would raise serious data protection concerns for the entire population.

Mr Thomas, the Information Commissioner, said:"There needs to be the fullest public debate about the justification for, and implications of, a specially created database, potentially accessible to a wide range of law enforcement authorities, holding details of everyone's telephone and internet communications. Do we really want the police, security services and other organs of the state to have access to more and more aspects of our private lives?"

Internet service providers (ISPs) and telecoms companies would have to hand over their communication records to the Home Office under the plans being drawn up as part of the fight against crime and terrorism.

The information would be held for at least 12 months and the police and security services would be able to access it if given permission by the courts. (Full story..)

This is beginning to sound like a bad movie.. But I suppose, anything in the name of security and terrorism.. ..

You already know about Firefox 3's marquee new features, but now it's time to dig deep and unearth the shortcuts, tweaks, and even Easter eggs that Mozilla marketing doesn't mention. In honor of today's official release of Firefox 3—at 10AM Pacific Time—let's dive in past Firefox 3's most talked-about feature-set into its lesser-known power uses, tricks, and customizations... (Source)

If you're a firefox 3 user, I recommend you view the full article - Power User's Guide to Firefox 3 

In previous posts, I've discussed how to include .jar files in the CLASSPATH variable. These settings work fine if you're coding in gedit (or SciTE) and using the javac and java commands, however, if using an IDE such as Eclipse you will get error messages when you include packages (or jar files) in your code. Below I outline how I solved this issue in Eclipse.

In Eclipse (version 3.4.0) go to the menu then 'Project'
In the panel on the left, Select 'Java Build Path'
In the 'Java Build Path' panel now loaded on the right Select the 'Libraries' tab
Click the button 'Add External JARs...'
Browse to your JAR file, select it then Click OK.
Finally, Click OK in the 'Java Build Path' panel to exit it

Eclipse should now (hopefully) recognise the included package and the errors should disappear. If this doesn't happen, possibly try to exit and reload Eclipse. This worked for me, so I hope it can do the same for you!

(PS. This was done on a Linux box, but I don't imagine Windows would be much, if any different.)

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, July 14, 2008 - Officials in Barbados are highlighting the importance of water resource management as that island stands as the 15th most water scarce nation on earth and the 16th most densely populated nation.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, National Insurance and Social Security (Special Assignments), Irvine Best, said that Barbados' limited water resources and management were of significant environmental, social and economic importance. (Full story)

I find both these statistics a bit scary.. Although, I do accept that B'dos is tiny, to be the 16th most densely populated.. wow.. I really would also like to know where the stats have been quoted from however. It's not clear at all on the aforementioned link.

Background: The CLASSPATH in a UNIX-based system is an environment variable that is a list of directories that the operating system looks in to find library classes and modules. For example, to compile Java, the Java *.class files must be in your CLASSPATH.

To set your CLASSPATH: For bash shell use - "export CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH:/java/classes"

Sometimes .jar files also need to be included into the CLASSPATH. A good example of doing this is for XOM (a new XML object model available under LGPL) is:
For bash shell use - "export CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH:~/xom/xom-1.1.jar"

I must say however, the problem with the above method is that it only sets this variable for your current bash session! Therefore, what you likely want to know is how to set this variable permanently,and thus accessible in all subsequent sessions. To do this, go to your user home directory ("cd ~/" should do the trick), in it should be the file .bashrc, open this file (I used Vi), scroll down to where the CLASSPATH variable is set and append the relevant directory (I used ~/xom/xom-1.1.jar), then save and close. (Ensure you don't overwrite the last line after the CLASSPATH is set, i.e. "export CLASSPATH".. if this is not exported, this WILL lead to problems.) Now, for every new session of bash, the added class directory or .jar file will be referenced. You can try "echo $CLASSPATH" to test.

The main reference for this article was is Setting your Classpath at Linux Headquarters. At that link you can also find information on setting the PATH variable.

Enjoy!

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)

These were the kind words recited to me as I wrestled with a couple of testing situations headed my way. None of which I seemed to have much, if any control over.

In situations such as these, it's so easy to get anxious, to worry, wonder why, and even if it gets extreme, just pause and laugh at how daunting things may appear (I must admit, I've laughed many-a-time). But in these situations, it is so very crucial that we grab hold of our faith and remember that, "all things work together for good to those who love God". No matter how bad or complex that situation seems, trust Him, pray to Him, and ask that His will be done (I consider all these things indications of "loving").

My situations are still impending, but I intend to follow my advice. In this week, if you're in the brink of frustration, anxiety, worry, or laughing at how daunting things seem, retreat to a silent place and say a quick prayer to the God you love. He's always listening.

Have a good one!

Hilarious! lol

How to set PATH and CLASSPATH system variables for Java in Windows Vista..

Control panel (Classic View)
System
Click on "Advanced system settings"
Environmental Variables
System Variables
Select the PATH
Click Edit
Add your path to the PATH variable.... normally .. C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_(version)\bin

This tip is thanks to 'sha-k' at http://www.computing.net/answers/progra ... 15739.html

Regarding the CLASSPATH, it's also important to ensure the the CLASSPATH includes "." i.e. the current directory, preferably this is the first entry as well. This ensures Java checks your current directory first when looking to execute the class file with the "java" command (when using for e.g. Command Prompt).

Even though this article uses Google search Trends to make its conclusions, I think it is worth a read for those of us who are interested in Linux distros.

See full article -> Which Linux Distributions Are Dying?

Following up from my previous post on this subject, BBC News reports...

Mozilla has officially made history with a new Guinness world record for the largest number of software downloads in a 24-hour period.

The final record breaking 8,002,530 downloads for web browser Firefox 3.0 took place in June.

"The enthusiasm and creativity of Firefox fans was key to making this happen," said marketing head Paul Kim.

Gareth Deaves of Guinness World Records called it "an extremely impressive accomplishment".

The official figure was confirmed after logs from download servers were audited and checked to ensure duplicate and unfinished downloads were not counted. (Source)

Congrats Foxy!

Check out this story...

One day while walking down the street a highly successful executive woman was tragically hit by a bus and she died. Her soul arrived up in heaven where she was met at the Pearly Gates by St. Peter himself. 'Welcome to Heaven,' said St.Peter. 'Before you get settled in though, it seems we have a problem. You see, strangely enough, we've never once had an executive make it this far and we're not really sure what to do with you.'

'No problem, just let me in.' said the woman.

'Well, I'd like to, but I have higher orders. What we're going to do is let you have a day in Hell and a day in Heaven and then you can choose whichever one you want to spend an eternity in.'

'Actually, I think I've made up my mind...I prefer to stay in Heaven', said the woman.

'Sorry, we have rules...' And with that St. Peter put the executive in an elevator and it went down-down-down to hell. The doors opened and she found herself stepping out onto the putting green of a beautiful golf course. In the distance was a country club and standing in front of her were all her friends - fellow executives that she had worked with and they were all dressed in evening gowns and cheering for her. They ran up and kissed her on both cheeks and they talked about old times. They played an excellent round of golf and at night went to the country club where she enjoyed an excellent steak and lobster dinner. She met the Devil who was actually a really nice guy (kinda cute) and she had a great time telling jokes and dancing. She was having such a good time that before she knew it, it was time to leave. Everybody shook her hand and waved good- bye as she got on the elevator.

The elevator went up-up-up and opened back up at the Pearly Gates and found St. Peter waiting for her. 'Now it's time to spend a day in heaven,' he said.

So she spent the next 24 hours lounging around on clouds and playing the harp and singing. She had a great time and before she knew it her 24 hours were up and St. Peter came and got her.

'So, you've spent a day in hell and you've spent a day in heaven. Now you must choose your eternity,' he said.

The woman paused for a second and then replied, 'Well, I never thought I'd say this, I mean, Heaven has been really great and all, but I think I had a better time in Hell.'

So St. Peter escorted her to the elevator and again she went down-down-down back to Hell. When the doors of the elevator opened she found herself standing in a desolate wasteland covered in garbage and Filth. She saw her friends were dressed in rags and were picking up the garbage and putting it in sacks. The Devil came up to her and put his arm around her. 'I don't understand,' stammered the woman, 'yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and a country club and we ate lobster and we danced and had a great time. Now all there is a wasteland of garbage and all my friends look miserable.'

The Devil looked at her and smiled. 'Yesterday we were recruiting you; today you're staff.'

Ha! This just goes to show that at times 'hell' or its precursor, sin, does seem like the sweetest things ever! However, don't be fooled my friends, don't be fooled! There is a price we pay.

Thank you for this story P.

I wish you all a great week!

Curious about what's going on in my homeland, I headed over to Nation News website, and what would greet me but the 'article' below.. I think this is intended to be a joke, but it's soo random, I could not help but blog about it. Enjoy!

PS. You can click on the image for a more complete screenshot of that section of the Nation News page.

To be honest, I'm not really a Crop Over fan at all, and believe me, that makes me stand out like a sore thumb in Barbados around this season. When it comes to the music, it's really only 2 or 3 songs that I at least would tap my foot to.

This year I must say that I'm filled with mixed feelings. I do admit that there are a few songs I have taken to mainly due to their rhythm, but what some promote is.. shady at best. The ones I refer to specifically are:

Contone - Hard Times (alcoholic?), Pong - Offset (rum?), John Mahameed - The La La Song (not sure what's a "la la"), Stabby - Stabby De Guard (starts funny, but a bit.. radical), Edwin Yearwood - Nah Missing Me, Nard - Socarobics (..), RPB - Wrong Gal (..), John Mahameed - Hold The Brass (still trying to figure this one out).

If you want to hear these songs and judge them for yourself, you can head over to BajanTube or 98.1 The One (requires a .m3u player) websites.