Web Application Configuration Using Java

I just spent 4+ hours on a bug that was extremely nuanced. If you name a servlet default, you will not be able to access any of the static pages. This means:

<web-app>
...
<servlet>
<servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
<load-on-startup>3</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>*.html</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
.....
</web-app>

will prevent all static content from being accessed through the application server. It will give you 404 errors as if the content doesn't exist. Hope this helps someone else save some time, it definitely cost me some.

For this problem, I was using Jetty with a open folder instead of a war file.

Finally got my router configuration done

Let me tell you, setting up 2 routers to work on the same subnet to share files is no easy task. It is also something that I could not find very good information on. Every post and documentation I could find continued to ask why would you do it. So, I will start off with the why I needed to do it.

I have an airport extreme that is broadcasting over 802.11n (the a spectrum to reduce interference) and I needed to connect my Playstion 3 and my Tivo to the network for updates and schedule changes. So I needed a 802.11g router to help me connect those to the internet. First thing I did was the obvious, I took my old 802.11g router that I've installed DD-WRT on (quite possibly the best open source firmware out there) and I plugged the WAN port of the WRT into an airport extreme LAN port. That gave me the internet I wanted. That was easy, but....not really what I wanted because you cannot share files or folders accross different subnets. So instead of explaining all of the trials and tribulations that I just went through, I will tell you the right way to do it and hopefully help out some people the way I've been helped out on the internet!

First thing I will do is describe the layout. Here are my assumptions for this tutorial:

1. You have 2 routers.
2. You have DD-WRT installed (if you read this you probably can figure out your own settings if you don't have it installed but it is all I have for reference)
3. You have some experience setting up a router
   

There will be a master router and a slave router. The master router will have the internet directly connected to it. First thing to do is connect the master LAN out to the WAN in port on the slave. Go into the setup tab under dd-wrt's configuration page (http://192.168.1.1) and select disabled from the "internet connection type." Save your changes!

Before moving on, be sure that the slave router wireless settings are all set the way you want them to be because once you do this next step you will have to reset the router to get back into the setup page.

Now you need to define the gateway as the IP address of the master router. This will let that router handle the DHCP address managment. Next make sure that the subnets are the same (just double check, I haven't seen one yet that isn't 255.255.255.0) Now that you have those things done, go ahead and turn DHCP off on the slave router. Click save and that should be it. You should now be able to share filees, internet and more through all ports wireless and wired. If this helps or if there is something missing out of these instructions, leave a note and I'll fix it appropriately. I will get snap shots up when I get it done and a picture of what my setup looks like now. Good luck!

Is IE8 A Nearterm Reality?

Reading through this article really makes people wonder what Microsoft is up to. Why is everything so secretive about IE 8. I don't understand why a development team that directs the majority of installed web browsers in the world would not have full disclosure on the direction of the next big advancement. What are they hiding?

Day 1 (Tutorial on Scrum Master) at QCon

I came in with low expectations for the Scrum Certification course being taught because I have read and have attended many Agile talks in the past.  I will have to say the class has been extremely enlightening!  The real world examples that Gabrielle Benefield gave has been very helpful.  I hope I can take this experience and have an opportunity to change the way we are doing things back on the project I'm working on now.

I  think there has been a lot of exercises that were really telling about how agile development is not the easy route that has no discipline, etc.  These types of rumors are prevalent in my current customer's view and need to be explained why they are not true.  I plan on pitching some ideas so that we might be able to really start showing what is getting done and velocity our project is operating at.  I think that we're doing a lot of work to be agile but not seeing any of the rewards because of a few hitches in our process.

One of the main problems we as a 3 scrum team might have to overcome is that we need to have everyone on board and motivated to make the process work.  I have the best team on project right now with everyone extremely motivated, so we will try to be as productive as possible to set an example for the other two scrums.

Ok, off to day 2 of the scrum master course, more on QCon later.

My First Post

I think the first thing I have to talk about is why the heck did I decide on SignedByte as a blog name.  I've been a Java developer professionally for five years and one piece of trivia I've found is that Java uses signed bytes while every other language and specification has the byte unsigned (since having a negative byte really doesn't make too much sense.)

So what does this mean?  Every time you have to interact with anything non-Java, you have to do a conversion.  Interesting, yet something you probably couldn't care less about!  If you're still curious, check out this article.