2014-11-28

2014-11-28 Friday - Dev Lab Upgrades

Although my role these days is primarily as an architect - I continue to keep my hands firmly familiar with the full technology stack of tooling for developing solutions on different platforms.  A core belief in my view is that architects must not lose touch with their coding skills...and even better, when they are active contributors within an organization...

This post will be a bit messy over the next few days as I continue to add links, commentary, and clean-up the list with the final bits of software upgrades and installations.

My current primary dev machine is a Sony Viao VPC-F23BFX/B notebook running Windows 7 64 bit, with 8GB of RAM, with an Intel Core i7-2670QM processor (quad core, 8 threads, 2.20 GHz), a 640 GB internal hard drive, an NVIDIA Geforce GT 540M GPU, dual external LG Flatron E2260 LED-backlit LCD monitors, and two external USB attached Western Digital My Book drives (an older  2x500MB drive configured with RAID 1, and a more recent 2 TB drive). Additionally, I leverage various cloud hosting service providers when additional hardware/server test configurations are needed.

I've kept several older versions of Eclipse handy as part of my personal Dev Lab environment - but this week decided to discard them and work exclusively in the 4.4 (Luna) release.

Additionally, there are a number of tools which I've spent some time upgrading to their latest releases:


Virtual Machines...
- Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.3.20
[which I use when I need to work in a Linux environment - currently preferring Fedora Desktop 20 - with plans to upgrade to Fedora 21, when it is available as a GA release after December 9th]

Mobile Development Tools...
- Android Development Tools (ADT) 23.0.2


Static Code Analysis Tools...
- FindBugs 3.0.0
- PMD 5.2.1
- Checkstyle 6.1.1


Source Code Management
- Git 1.9.4
- Apache Subversion 1.8.10 [...pending build from source]



Build Tools...
- Jenkins 1.588
- Apache Ant 1.9.4
- Apache Maven 3.2.3


Programming Languages...
- PHP 5.6.3
- Python 3.4.2
- Scala 2.11.4
- R 3.1.2
- Groovy 2.4.0-beta-4
- Julia 0.3.3
- Perl 5.20.1 [changes since 5.18]
- Clojure 1.6.0
- Ruby 2.1.5
- Java 8


Libraries...
- Apache Commons Math 3.3
- Apache POI 3.11-beta3
- Apache Camel 2.14.0
- Apache Commons Lang 3-3.3.2


Application Servers...
- Apache Tomcat 8.0.15
- Jetty 9.2.5
- ElasticSearch 1.4.1
- Node.js 0.10.33


Distributed Computing Tools...
- Apache Storm 0.9.3
- Apache Zookeeper 3.4.6


Database Technologies...
- Apache Cassandra 2.1.2
- MariaDB 10.0.15
- Datomic 0.9.5078


IDEs...
- Eclipse Luna 4.4.1


For my Eclipse Luna environment, I'm still evaluating the mix of the following plugins that I've installed...


PHP (PDT)
http://download.eclipse.org/tools/pdt/updates/3.3.2

Python
http://pydev.org/updates


http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/easyshell
http://pluginbox.sourceforge.net


CDT
http://download.eclipse.org/tools/cdt/releases/8.5/


http://pmd.sourceforge.net/pmd-5.2.1/usage/integrations.html#eclipse
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pmd/files/pmd-eclipse/update-site/


http://findbugs.sourceforge.net/downloads.html
http://findbugs.cs.umd.edu/eclipse


http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/checkstyle-plug
http://eclipse-cs.sourceforge.net/update/

http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/oracle-enterprise-pack-eclipse-luna
http://download.oracle.com/otn_software/oepe/luna


http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/red-hat-jboss-developer-studio-luna
https://devstudio.redhat.com/updates/8.0/


http://aws.amazon.com/eclipse/


https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/


StatET (for R)
http://www.walware.de/goto/opensource
http://download.walware.de/eclipse-4.4



https://developers.google.com/eclipse/
https://developers.google.com/eclipse/docs/install-eclipse-4.4
https://dl.google.com/eclipse/plugin/4.4


http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/nodeclipse
http://www.nodeclipse.org/
http://www.nodeclipse.org/updates/


http://subclipse.tigris.org/update_1.10.x

If you have used Subclipse in a previous version of Eclipse - and then think, "oh, why don't I try Subversive this time?" (or vice versa)  - then you'll probably find these links helpful (eventually)...

Restore Eclipse subversion project connection
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/166220/restore-eclipse-subversion-project-connection

Cannot connect existing project to SVN using Subversive
http://www.eclipse.org/forums/index.php/t/398103/

2014-11-21

2014-11-21 Friday - CERN Open Data


http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2014/11/cern-makes-public-first-data-lhc-experiments

 http://opendata.cern.ch/

2014-11-21 Friday - Toshiba Qosmio X70-AST3G26 Laptop

I'm not quite yet ready to pull the trigger on buying a new laptop - but sometime in 2015 I think I will do so.


The specs for the Toshiba Qosmio X70-AST3G26 Laptop look quite appealing...something beefy enough to use as a portable development workstation...
http://www.toshiba.com/images/products/300/qosmio-X75-A7290-laptop-300.jpg

http://www.toshiba.com/us/computers/laptops/qosmio/X70/X70-AST3G26

  • Intel® Core™ i7-4700MQ Processor
  • 32GB DDR3L 1600MHz memory
  • 3GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GTX770M with Optimus™ Technology
  • 2.75TB: 256GB Solid State Drive (mSATA, SSD) + 1.0TB (5400 RPM, Serial ATA) + 1.5TB (5400 RPM, Serial ATA)
  • Blu-ray Disc™ Rewriteable (BD-RE) and DVD SuperMulti drive
  • FHD TruBrite® TFT LED Backlit Display with Intel® Wireless Display Technology
  • Intel® Dual-Band Wireless-N 7260 2x2 AC + Bluetooth® 4.0
  • Premium Frameless LED Backlit Raised Tile Keyboard with 10-Keypad (black)
  • 10/100/1000 Ethernet LAN
  • Starting at 7.6 lbs
  • Black Widow Styling in Textured Aluminum

2014-11-18

2014-11-18 Tuesday - NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet Android Lollipop

When looking for high performance technical computing tools, I often consider computing platforms that have been specifically designed for heavy duty gaming - but which would be just as fitting in an office environment.

I'm intrigued by the computing power bundled into the latest NVIDIA Shield  tablet with Android Lollipop...

http://www.slashgear.com/nvidia-shield-tablet-review-29338942/

http://www.mobiletechreview.com/tablets/NVIDIA-Shield-Tablet.htm

NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet Android Lollipop Update Hands-On With Benchmarks
http://hothardware.com/News/NVIDIA-SHIELD-Tablet-Android-Lollipop-Update-HandsOn-With-Benchmarks/

http://www.amazon.com/NVIDIA-940-81761-2500-000-SHIELD-Tablet-WiFi/dp/B00LM6KF7O

2014-11-18 Tuesday - XPerf

This posting is a placeholder for links and information regarding Windows Performance Toolkit

Two Minute Drill: Introduction to XPerf
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askperf/archive/2008/06/27/an-intro-to-xperf.aspx

XPERF and the Windows Performance Toolkit
http://www.drdobbs.com/article/print?articleId=227001079

Windows Performance Toolkit Technical Reference
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/hh162945.aspx

Xperf Command-Line Reference
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/hh162920.aspx

2014-11-10

2014-11-10 Monday - QCon San Francisco Trip Report

Last week I attended QCon in San Francisco as a Gold Alumni (which included a free O'Reilly book)

I flew into SFO on Sunday and caught a cab (~$55) to the Hyatt Regency (I splurged for a balcony / bay view room - $295/night conference rate).  The hotel is really top shelf - and the venue was an excellent choice. The 7-11 and Starbucks across the street allowed me to refuel with moderate expenses for some additional refreshments.

The conference spanned three days (Mon-Wed) - with two days of tutorials on Thur-Fri.

Several familiar faces were speaking this year - but many/most were new.

LinkedIn and Netflix - as well as Google and Facebook - had some of the most interesting presentations.

I enjoyed meeting Bruce Schneier after his keynote:
https://qconsf.com/keynote/Bruce-Schneier

Some of my favorite sessions included:

Jafar Husain
Asynchronous Programming at Netflix
https://qconsf.com/presentation/asynchronous-programming-netflix-0


Neha Narkhede
Samza in LinkedIn: How LinkedIn Processes Billions of Events Everyday in Real-time
https://qconsf.com/presentation/samza-linkedin-how-linkedin-processes-billions-events-everyday-real-time


NOTE: Neha is a true standout at this year's QCon - she is an established professional - with solid accomplishments - but she is still early in her arc of success - she is definitely someone that will have even bigger successes in her future. A definite rising star...


Aaron Gardner
Etsy Search: How we index and query 26 million one-of-a-kind items
https://qconsf.com/presentation/etsy-search-how-we-index-and-query-26-million-one-kind-items


Jeff Lindsay
Real-world Docker: Past, Present, and Future
https://qconsf.com/presentation/real-world-docker-past-present-and-future


Randy Shoup
Concurrency at Large-Scale: The Evolution to Reactive Microservices
https://qconsf.com/presentation/concurrency-large-scale-evolution-reactive-microservices

I met Randy at a previous QCon some years ago - and have sat in on one of Java One presentations at Oracle World. He is a top shelf speaker - always informative, thought provoking, and entertaining. My one suggestion to anyone that ever has a chance to work for him: Immediately quit whatever else you are doing and go work with this guy. You will gain an invaluable education and the depth of your experience and knowledge will be magnified far beyond your imagination.

Sean Taylor
Putting the Magic in Data Science @ Facebook
https://qconsf.com/presentation/putting-magic-data-science-facebook

One of the most informative sessions for me this year...

Lin Qiao
Gobblin: A Framework for Solving Big Data Ingestion Problem
https://qconsf.com/presentation/gobblin-framework-solving-big-data-ingestion-problem

Another rising star to watch for in the future...

Julien Le Dem
Efficient Data Storage for Analytics with Parquet 2.0
https://qconsf.com/presentation/efficient-data-storage-analytics-parquet-20-0


The hotel offered a town car service to the airport ($65) - which was a bit of an extravagance and indulgence on my part - a welcome reward for the last few years of multi-year client engagements.

Overall, it was a good trip - just the tonic I was seeking for inspiration, insight, and motivation.

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