Qingjiang Yuan's Blog

How http://www.openl10n.com is used in the localization of Project Wonderland

2009-12-09T11:30:00.000-08:00

Project Wonderland is using the newly released open localization tools on http://www.openl10n.com from WeDoGlobalization.com to localize the product into other languages, here is how the tools are being used:

1.Initial setup:

1.A local Project Wonderland workspace is created on www.openl10n.com
2.A message database is created for Project Wonderland
3.Existing translated messages in all l10n files are imported into the databse

2. L10n end to end process:

1.Check out English files - Check out the latest English files to a local workspace on openl10n.com
2.Create vendor kits and l10n files - Select a language and create vendor kit with untranslated English messages in that language, and create partially translated but synchronized l10n files with file name of *_lang[_locale].properties
The vendor kit is very similar with .properties file but with more information like the product name, release number, date created, database to be used, and also the file path name of the message file for each message, each message in the vendor kit is located using the file path name plus the Property or msgid.
Vendor kit can be downloaded for off line translation using plain text editor or any open sourced or commercial translation tools.
3.Download vendor kit - Download the vendor kit for offline translation
4.Translate vendor kits - Translate the messages in a vendor kit online on http://www.openl10n.com
5.Import vendor kit - After translation, import the vendor kit into the system, this will overwrite the existing translations in the system. After importing a vendor kit, run “create vendor kit and l10n files” to see whether vendor kit is empty which means l10n files are fully translated.
6.Download l10n files - Download the partially (when vendor kit is not empty) or fully translated l10n files for off line check-in, this should be done manually to make sure no wrong contents are checked in to the workspace.

3.L10n bug fixing:

When an l10n bug is found, such as an untranslated message or a wrong translation. Engineer can login into the system, search the database using file/directory name, English message or existing translation, select the message and edit it, save it and recreate l10n files, download l10n files and check-in to the workspace.

4.Reports:

1.How many resource files in English and each of other languages.
2.How many messages in each of the files.
3.How many words in each of the files.
4.How many duplicated messages that should be removed or consolidated.
5.How many messages are the same between English and l10n files,either these messages haven't been translated or they don't need to or shouldn't be translated.

5.Other features:

1.Create pseudo l10n files - Pseudo l10n files can be created together with vendor kit to do i18n testing while the vendor kit is being translated, some characters will be converted into double bytes and some new double byte characters will be added into each message in the pseudo l10n files except those containing only digits.
2.Database search - Search the product database using all fields, or search the translations of one message in all languages for whatever purposes.
3.Glossary - One can easily create a glossary from the database for translators to refer.
4.Import l10n files - One can upload paired English and l10n files into the database, this is usually used at the beginning of a product database setup.
5.Add a new entry - This is mainly used to manually fix some problems, not needed in most of the cases.
6.Leverage – One can decide whether to leverage existing translations from other products on www.openl10n.com when creating the vendor kit, this can significantly reduce the translation efforts when more and more messages from other open sourced projects are added into Open L10n databases.

6.More information about www.openl10n.com can be found on http://www.openl10n.com/about.html

Get the complete process command in Solaris

2009-12-04T13:36:00.001-08:00

/usr/bin/ps only shows part of the command name.

/usr/ucb/ps -wwxaa shows everything

Add Multilingual Dictionary to http://www.openl10n.com

2009-11-30T08:56:00.001-08:00

Added a multilingual dictionary to http://www.openl10n.com, it has millions of entries of many languages: Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chines, Japanese, Korean, Thai, etc, more to be added.

Just published my new web site - http://www.openl10n.com

2009-11-24T13:26:00.000-08:00

Enjoy! http://www.openl10n.com

Added Korean Dictionaries into http://www.openl10n.com

2009-11-24T08:38:00.000-08:00

Added Korean -> English, English -> Korean, and Korean <-> Korean Dictionaries to http://www.openl10n.com, there are also many other improvements.

What is Globalization?

2009-10-22T09:17:00.000-07:00

After working on Software Globalization for about 20 years, I've now started to get familiar with another completely different globalization concept which means the shift toward a more integrated and interdependent world economy. Globalization here includes the globalization of markets and the globalization of production. The globalization of markets refers to the merging of historically distinct and separate national markets into one huge global marketplace. The globalization of production refers to the sourcing of goods and services from locations around the globe to take advantage of national differences in the cost and quality of factors of production (such as labor, energy, land, and capital).

Host multiple domains on one machine

2009-10-19T15:16:00.001-07:00

Recently had to host multiple domains on the same server machine to save hardware cost, after some searching and exploring, got it implemented within Apache very easily following instructions on http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/vhosts/name-based.html

Learning Spring Framework

2009-04-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

Found some useful websites to get started:

http://static.springframework.org/docs/Spring-MVC-step-by-step/

http://www.netbeans.org/kb/61/web/quickstart-webapps-spring.html

http://static.springframework.org/spring/docs/2.5.x/reference/

Too many web application frameworks

2009-04-13T09:16:00.000-07:00

Why are there so many different web application frameworks? Couldn't people stop creating new ones and just improve some of the existing frameworks together?

Category	List of Application Frameworks
Actionscript	PureMVC
ASP.NET	ASP.NET MVC · BFC · DotNetNuke · MonoRail · Umbraco
ColdFusion	ColdSpring · Fusebox · Mach-II · Model-Glue · onTap
Common Lisp	ABCL-web · blow · BKNR · SymbolicWeb · UnCommon Web
Java	Apache Struts · AppFuse · Flexive · Google Web Toolkit · IT Mill Toolkit · ItsNat · JavaServer Faces · JBoss Seam · Makumba · OpenXava · Reasonable Server Faces · RIFE · Restlet · Spring · Stripes · Tapestry · WebWork · Wicket · ZK
JavaScript (client-side)	Ample SDK · Clean AJAX · CougarXML · Dojo · Echo · Ext · jQuery · midori · MochiKit · MooTools · OpenLink AJAX · Prototype JavaScript · Pyjamas · qooxdoo · Rialto · Rico · script.aculo.us · SmartClient · SproutCore · Spry · Yahoo! UI Library · Google Web Toolkit
JavaScript (server-side)	AppJet · Jaxer
Perl	Catalyst · Interchange · Mason
PHP	Akelos · CakePHP · Chisimba · CodeIgniter · Drupal · Horde · Kohana · Kolibri · KumbiaPHP · Midgard · PEAR · PHPNuke · PHPonTrax · Seagull · Simplicity · Symfony · Zend · Zoop
Python	CherryPy · Django · Karrigell · Nevow · Pyjamas · Pylons · Quixote · Spyce · TurboGears · Twisted · web2py · Zope
Ruby	Adhearsion · Camping · eRuby (RHTML) · Merb · Nitro · RubyCocoa · Ruby on Rails
Smalltalk	AIDA/Web · Seaside
Other languages	Application Express (PL/SQL) · Fusebox (ColdFusion and PHP) · OpenACS (Tcl) · Yaws (Erlang) · HAppS (Haskell) · Cappuccino (Objective-J)

How difficult to become Sun's customer - experiences from shopping on sun.com

2009-04-12T07:14:00.000-07:00

0 - Why to write this blog - I recently saw an article about "Sun's Six Biggest Mistakes" at http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/06/sun-microsystems-enterprise-technology-enterprise-tech-sun.html, I couldn't agree more with it especially after my recent shopping experiences, and now I think I understand better of the reasons why Sun is losing customers and cann't become profitable, it's just too difficult to become a Sun's customer and Sun has been wasting too much money and losing too many chances just from a very small purchase, there are 73 e-mails exchanged between myself and 7 people in Sun plus 3 group aliases, and about 10 phone calls, within a couple of days, how many resources (time and money) have been wasted?!

1. Reason to become a Sun's customer - After deciding to purchase some servers and storage systems to setup a web site, I thought for a while about where to get the hardware, from Dell, HP, or Sun? The answer is very simple to me, it's Sun, just because of one reason: I have been using Sun's systems since 1990 and I worked at Sun from 1997 to 2009, I can't hate Sun at all although I lost my favorite working place due to Sun's poor performance for such a long time.

2. Have to speak English in order to learn more about the SSE program online - After deciding to shop from Sun, I went to www.sun.com, saw the "Startup" menu immediately because I once heard a SSE (Sun Start-up Essentials) program which provides good discount to start-ups to not miss next google, youtube, facebook, twitter, etc.
But it's not very obvious where to start, after reading for a while, I clicked on a graphical world map which shows "Startups Enjoy Sun Startup Essentials Now expanded to 30 countries Find Your Country!" and arrived at http://www.sun.com/emrkt/startupessentials/index.jsp?intcmp=2709, btw, I was excited for a couple of minutes when I saw 30 countries are list there, I clicked on P.R.China and it did show translated page at http://cn.sun.com/emrkt/startupessentials/, however, later on I had to use the English version because the website on cn.sun.com doesn't allow me to log in and only has some ads, the entire online ordering system is all in English, I really don't know how many startups in China might come to Sun if this program is fully localized into Simplified Chinese, but now people in China would have to talk to some people in Sun (which many people might not like to do in this Web2.0 era, they would just simply leave Sun's website and shop from other companies) before seeing the products and prices like what I can do in the English version, and I had to spend some time to translate and explain to my Chinese Management Team for what I was seeing in the English ordering system on sun.com.

3. Too many people got involved for one customer - it's a little surprise that after I signed up the SSE program, I got two e-mails from two different people, kind of confused, looks like a group of people saw my signup but no clear roles and responsibilities, in order to not waste Sun's efforts, I forwarded my first e-mail reply to the second people, good to see the second people became my contact and I didn't see e-mails from the first people later, but still I had to talk to 5 more people and three more groups later, I have to remember or figure out who is responsible for what when I have to ask for help, what's even worse is I got very different replies when I sent e-mails to three people plus one internal alias. BTW, I often don't need to know whom I speak with when I shop from other companies, just one voice from them, very easy.

4. The online ordering system doesn't tell me what I don't need - After I got some configuration advices from the SSE person I mentioned above, I was told that I had to order the system from online, in fact that's what I preferred from the very beginning, so I went there and started to play with it, there are so many options that I was completely lost at the beginning, I once ordered customized Dell laptop from dell.com, that's a very different experience because you will be told what should for what reasons or shouldn't be chosen because of a conflict, but this system is not intelligent at all, one consequence is I had to return a 4-Port SAS PCI-E Host Bus Adapter and two SAS Disk Drive Cables later because they are not used in my system, the sales person recommended it with two 250GB internal disks but later on I only chosed one HDD and thus the 4-port SAS HBA is not needed.

5. My credit card is not accepted even two duplicated orders were recorded without any confirmation e-mails After I decided what to puchase, I entered my credit card, but got the following error message: The credit card could not be authorized! What? I might have entered wrong credit card info, or the system is not working right now? OK, I did it again, but still got the same error message, so I called my bank to see what's wrong there, but was told that my bank system had already approved the transaction request, anyway, because I saw that error, I decided to try another credit card, oops, same error message. So I had to call a number found on Sun's website, and what surprised me is my order was already done and there are even two duplicated orders with the same credit card, wow, why the system was lying? would it only tell me I have completed my order only after I submitted another couple of times for the same order? And why I didn't get any notifications? Anyway, it's OK as long as my order is done.

6. No order confirmation, no status report, no shipping confirmation, just nothing - I always know very clear what's going on with my order from Apple, Amazon, Dell and many other companies, but Sun didn't give me anything after I confirmed my order on the phone, I had to wait, wait and wait, btw, one way I checked the status is whether my credit card was charged, it's interesting that my credit card was charged two days after I received my system, so I didn't get anything from my credit card history, why Sun doesn't charge customers after shipping or even just after ordering?

7. No system was shipped, just a lot of small boxes - I ordered one J4200 Storage Array and one SunFire X2200 M2 server with the following components:
Sun Storage J4200 Array:

1 XTA4200R00A10DSKSU Sun Storage J4200 Rack-Ready Chassis
2 X311L Power Cord Kit, North American/Asian, RoHS Compliant
2 XTA-JBOD-6AMS-SU x6 Air Management Sled, RoHS-5 Compliant
1 XTA-4200-2URK19USU 2U Universal Rack Rail Kit, RoHS-5 Compliant
1 XTA6ST1NJ-500G7KSU 6 Internal 500 GB 7200 rpm SATA Disk Drives
1 SG-XPCIE8SAS-E-Z Sun StorageTek PCIe SAS Host Bus Adapter, 8 Port, RoHS-6 Compliant

Sun Fire X2200 M2 Server:

1 A85SGZ2H4GB-GA1-SU Sun Fire X2200 M2 Server,2 AMD Opteron Model 2218 dual-core processor,4 GB Memory,1 x 250 GB SATA II Disks,DVD-ROM,1 PSU,Svc Proc,4 x 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports,6 USB 2.0 ports,1 I/O riser card with 2 x8 PCIe slots,RoHS-5 Compliant
1 X311L Power Cord Kit, North American/Asian, RoHS Compliant
1 SDNAA-1007-T99M-SU Multilanguage Sun Developer Network (SDN) All Access Media Kit
1 X5288A-C-SU 4 GB Memory Kit (2 x 2 GB Registered ECC Single Rank DDR2-667), RoHS-6 Compliant
1 XRB-ST1CE250G7K-SU 250 GB 7200 rpm SATA Disk Drive with bracket, RoHS-6 Compliant
1 X5295A-Z SAS Disk Drive Cable Kit Includes Two Cables
1 SG-XPCIE4SAS3-Z 4-Port SAS PCI-E Host Bus Adapter, RoHS-6 Compliant
1 X8029A-Z-SU Slide Rail Kit , RoHS-6 Compliant

What I got from Fedex are the following boxes:

One large box of the X2200 M2 Server
One large box of the Sun Storage J4200 Rack-Ready Chassis
One large box with more than 10 small boxes, what's surprised me is the DVD and 250GB HDD that are part of the X2200 M2 Server component were also in two boxes shipped separately, why Sun didn't insert the DVD and HDD into the server? it's very easy, and why Sun did put the additional 4GB memory into the server? and why the 8 Port HBA was not inserted? Really weird.
Three medium boxes, one has the 6 500GB HDD for the J4200 array, two other boxes are empty with notes saying they are for HDD replacement, how much money did Sun spend on shipping these two useless boxes?

If I were not so familar with Sun's stuffs, I would most likely return everything right away after seeing so many boxes and small components were shipped to me, even I know a lot about the systems, I still spent a lot of time on the 4 port HBA because I really couldn't figure out why I needed it although it was in the list that the second Sun sales recommended, after exchanging a few e-mails with 4 more people, I was allowed to return the 4 port HBA together with the two cables to Sun, bad thing is Sun wasted some more money on the UPS shipping.

8. Weird way to save cost - When I asked why so many small boxes were shipped to me instead of one pre-installed system? I was told that's the way Sun cut costs, really? To cut cost by not putting thing together but to waste shipping fee and take the risk of losing customers? Maybe it's really expensive for Sun to put those components together? But it's really not so difficult for even not experienced people to put everything together! And why don't charge customer a little more money so that customer can get a ready to run system? I have spent thousands of dollars for the system and why I wouldn't pay one or two hundreds more to get the pre-install or pre-configured system? Do Sun know what customers really want? What's more interesting is I got the following suggestion when I "complained" about the boxes: if you're not familiar with these devices, we can offer "professional services" through one of our local partner. OK, got it, that's another reason why Sun don't provide one runnable system with a little more cost, Sun is so nice that it always thinks about its partners, if Sun provided everything to all customers, how could those partners survive?

9. No documents for how to install hardware components - couldn't find any information from hardcopy docs and also online docs from *.sun.com about how to install the 8 port HBA into the X2200 M2 server, after spending about half an hour on searching info online and from the hard copy materials and looking at the PCI slots in the X2200 box carefully, I figured out that I had to first pull out one card from the server and insert the HBA into that card, then put everything together back to the system, terrible hardware layout design! One note, there are two PCI slots for the HBA, I first tried the bottom one but for some unknown reasons it didn't work because I couldn't find the J4200 from the Sun StorageTek Common Array Manager Software 6.1.1, then I tried again by using the first PCI slot and it worked! Of course I had to pull out two cards together, separate them and re-insert the HBA into the other slot and then put everything back together, good thing is I don't need a screw for this job, a very cool idea, maybe a pending patent? I should take a picture and share it here :-)

10. Garbage in both Solaris OS and Storage Software installation GUI - After putting all of the components together, I started to install OS which is Solaris 10 10/08, btw, why Sun doesn't provide OS to the machines that have DVD and HDD? It won't cost a lot to automatically provision OS, I did see information like machines would be pre-installed with both Linux and Solaris somewhere on sun.com, but I had to do everything myself on my X2200, just because the system I got has some SSE discounts? Anyway, it's not a problem to me at all, I did it hundreds if not thousands of times in the last twenty years, I selected Simplified Chinese language at the very beginning for some very obvious reasons, and selected UTF-8 locale as the installation and also the system default locale because I want to have Chinese Unicode locale by default, but when I reached the partition step, I was surprised that the buttons are all garbage, it's good that I still can remember or guess out all of the buttons, so I could customize the partitions of my internal HDD easily.
After installing Solaris, I logged into the system using the default locale I specified, Simplified Chinese Unicode or zh_CN.UTF-8 locale, and started to install the Sun StorageTek Common Array Manager Software 6.1.1 for my J4200 array, this time I was completely lost because everything was garbage, looks like the Simplified Chinese Localization QA team in Sun's Globalization Engineering group where I worked for many years didn't test this software in Chinese UTF-8 at all! Just for fun, I figured out this installer was localized in French, Japanese and Simplified Chinese for all of the locales of each language, I tried all of the other languages/locales, good to know that only Simplified Chinese UTF-8 locale was not tested, the reason of the garbage might be very simple - the source .po message file was not converted into UTF-8 or has a wrong encoding tag before it was complied into the binary .mo file.

11. No instructions about which Ethernet port is bg0, bg1, ng0 or ng1 - there are four Ethernet ports on the X2200 M2 server, I simply connected the first port to the Internet and assume it's the default one, but I had to manually select which port to configure from bg0, bg1, ng0 and ng1, because I had no idea what's the port I used, and I saw the second port is the "Net Management" so I assumed the first port that I used might be ng0, but it didn't work, I couldn't access Internet after installation, so I had to try all four ports and at the end found the last port is ng0 that I configured, later on I figured out from other places they are two Broadcom ports - bg* and two Navidia ports -ng*, it's really weird that the last port is ng0 instead of ng1, it's more reasonable to me if it's named like port 1 - bg0, port 2 - bg1, port3- ng0, and port 4 - ng1. But this is a small problem anyway, I won't return the system just because I had to try out all of the four ports :-).

12. Credit card is not shared among different ordering systems - I ordered another three servers from a different program but had to talk to different people and provide my credit information again on the phone which I didn't like at all for security reasons, why Sun cannot use the credit card info that I saved in the SSE program when I ordered the X2200 and J4200 oline?

13. Difficult to return - Have to fill in a return form, mail it to a return alias, then call another person in the return team even after everyone I had communicated agreed that I could/should return those two unncessary components. Why Sun can't learn from other companies like Dishnetwork, Amazon or Dell where we can do everything easily online? All of the information manually filled in the form can be found from Sun's ordering system, why don't automate it? Sun still has so many smart people even after so many RIFs.

14. The fans are so noisy, especially those in the J4200 - I know those are servers and storage systems that are usually put into a huge server room where only a few people occasionally visit, but can't it be a little quieter? If Sun does care about startups or small businesses who might not have the luxury to have a separate server room, can you provide some quiet servers and storage systems with some trade offs of capacity, performance or price? Price is not the only thing I care, seriously. Just saw Jonathon's blog on March 18, he said Sun has less than 100,000 customers while there are 10,000,000 MySQL users, does he know how many of those MySQL users would prefer WinTel systems for web/app servers just because of the noises? At least I have started to think about it now.

To summarize what I said in the subject, it's too difficult to become a Sun's customer, I would have left the website or the ordering system, or have canceled the order or returned all the systems to Sun many times if I didn't work at Sun for so long time and was kind of being prepared for so many surprises.

Anyway, I wrote this blog to record what I experienced, whether it's fun or not, I have finally setup everything properly, still waiting UPS people to pick up the 4 port HBA and two cables and waiting for the other three servers, no idea how many boxes I will receive again and how many interesting or weird stuffs I will have to handle with.

Last but not least, thank you very much for reading this very long post!

Part of Sun Alumni Blogs

2009-03-24T05:03:00.000-07:00

Glad that my blog has been added onto Sun Alumni Blogs at http://planets.sun.com/alumni/group/blogs/, thanks a lot, people in the Sun Blogs Support team!

What's Statistics

2009-03-07T20:08:00.000-08:00

Statistics is defined in the American Heritage dictionary as, “the mathematics of the collection, organization, and interpretation of numerical data, especially the analysis of population characteristics by inference from sampling.”

2009-03-06T20:06:00.000-08:00

How to deploy gwt rpc separated into Apache 2.2 and Tomcat 6.0:
I followed the GWT Tutorial and successfully ran the StockWatcher in hosted mode using Eclipse on Windows Vista 64bit, then was completed confused and lost at Using Tomcat with Apache HTTPD and a proxy, after some searching, guessing and trying, I finally got the StockWatcher server side deployed to Tomcat and the client side deployed to Apache, here are my configurations:

1. Tomcat 6.0.18 64-bit is installed at C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache Tomcat 6.0.18, port is 8080
2. Apache 2.2.1 win 32-bit is installed at C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2, port is 80
3. PHP 5.2.8 win 32 is installed under Apache 2.2 at C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\php
4. MySQL 5.1.31 Win 32 is installed at C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1
5. mod_jk 1.2.27-httpd-2.2.10.so is installed under Apache 2.2 at C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\modules
6. Modified the httpd.conf of Apach 2.2.1 with the following new lines:

ProxyPass /StockWatcher/StockWatcher/ http://localhost:8080/StockWatcher/
ProxyPassReverse /StockWatcher/StockWatcher/ http://localhost:8080/StockWatcher/

7. Create web.xml under Tomcat (C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache Tomcat 6.0.18\webapps\StockWatcher\WEB-INF) with the following contents:

<web-app version="2.5" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee
http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd">

<servlet>
<servlet-name>StockPriceService</servlet-name>
<servlet- class="">com.google.gwt.sample.stockwatcher.server.StockPriceServiceImpl</servlet->

<servlet-mapping> </servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>StockPriceService</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/StockPriceService</url-pattern>
</web-app>

8. Use the following lines to create the StockPriceService in StockWatcher.java:

 ((ServiceDefTarget) stockPriceSvc).setServiceEntryPoint( GWT.getModuleBaseURL() +
                        "StockPriceService");

9. Put the following line in the StockWatcher.gwt.xml:

<servlet path="/StockPriceService" class="com.google.gwt.sample.stockwatcher.server.StockPriceServiceImpl"> </servlet>

10. The following changes in Apache http.conf is to integrate Apache 2.2 and Tomcat 6.0 for generaly deployment purpose:

LoadModule jk_module modules/mod_jk.so

JkWorkersFile conf/workers.properties
JkLogFile logs/mod_jk.log
JkLogLevel info
JkLogStampFormat "[%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Y] "
JkOptions +ForwardKeySize +ForwardURICompat -ForwardDirectories
JkRequestLogFormat "%w %V %T"
JkMount /*.jsp worker1
JkMount /StockWatcher/StockPriceService worker1

C:/Program%20Files%20(x86)/Apache%20Software%20Foundation/Apache2.2/conf/workers.properties has the following lines:

worker.list= worker1
worker.worker1.host=localhost
worker.worker1.port=8009
worker.worker1.type=ajp13

11. The orginal source codes can be found at http://code.google.com/docreader/#p=google-web-toolkit-doc-1-5&s=google-web-toolkit-doc-1-5&t=GettingStartedTutorial

Setup Netbeans 6.5, Glass Fish v3, PHP, MySQL, Apache and xdebug on Windows Vista

2009-03-02T20:22:00.000-08:00

Just started to play with IDE on Windows Vista, spent a lot of time on the Internet Searching and finally got everything setup for Glass Fish, Ajax, PHP, MySQL, xdebug and Netbeans 6.5 on Windows Vista, here are some issues and workarounds:

1. Annoying UAC

See http://www.petri.co.il/disable_uac_in_windows_vista.htm and http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/06/dont_shut_off_v.html before deciding whether you want to install applications to Program files directory without clicking and clicking all the time.

2. 64 bit vs 32-bit.
Some applications don't work with 64-bit JRE/JDK so better to install 32-bit only.

3. Run Netbeans as administrator to start Glass Fish V3, somehow I couldn't start it if I didn't run Netbeans as administrator.

4. Install php_xdebug-2.0.4-5.2.8* instead of *-5.3.0* for PHP 5.2.8, php_xdebug-2.0.4.-5.3.0*dll doesn't work with PHP 5.2.8 at all.

5. The Apache server in the XAMP package craches with PHP files so I had to install separate MySQL, PHP and Apache.

6. Pay attention to Skype who is also using port 80 if you see Apache 2.2 doesn't work on port 80.

7. To stop some services manually:
Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services -> MySQL (or Apache2.2)

8. To clean registry to completely remove some programs:

run "regedit" from Start menu, goto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE-> SYSTEM->CurrentControlSet->Services->The Application You want to remove

Objectives of ISO standards

2009-02-17T09:17:00.000-08:00

The ISO standards have five objectives – achieve, maintain, and seek to continuously improve product quality, improve the quality of operations, provide confidence to management, provide confidence to customers, and to provide confidence that the quality system requirements are met.

Glossary for Quality Management

2009-02-16T19:46:00.000-08:00

Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction occurs when products and services meet or exceed customer expectations
Design Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (DFMEA)
The purpose of DFMEA is to identify all the ways in which a failure can occur, to estimate the effect and seriousness of the failure and to recommend corrective design actions. Using DFMEA will not only improve product functionality and safety, but also reduce external failure costs-particularly warranty costs, as well as decrease manufacturing and service delivery problems.
Design for Environment (DfE)
DfE is the explicit consideration of environmental concerns during the design of products and processes, and includes such practices as designing for recyclability and disassembly
Design for Manufacturability (DFM)
DFM is the process of designing a product for efficient production at the highest level of quality
Effective Leadership
Effective Leadership requires five core leadership skills: vision, empowerment, intuition, self-understanding and value congruence
Employee Empowerment
Empowerment simply means giving people authority to make decisions based on what they feel is right, have control over their work, take risks, learn from mistakes and promote change
Expected quality
Expected quality is true customer needs and expectations, that is, what the customer assumes will be received from the product.
Kaizen
Kaizen focuses on small, gradual, and frequent improvements over the long term with minimum financial investment, and participation by everyone in the organization
Mission
The mission of a firm defines its reason for existence; it answers the question, "Why are we in business?"
Perceived Quality
Perceived quality is actual quality minus expected quality. If the amount of actual quality provided is equal to or more than the expected quality, the customer perceives positive satisfaction. If the amount of actual quality provided is less than the expected quality, the customer perceives negative or dis-satisfaction.
Process Management
Process management involves planning and administering the activities necessary to achieve a high level of performance in key business processes and identifying opportunities for improving quality and operational performance and ultimately, customer satisfaction.
Product Based Quality
Quality is precise and measurable; it can be ranked on various attributes and is an inherent part of the product or service. An example would be the number of stitches in a shirt, the number of cylinders in a car, or more memory in a computer.
Quality Function Deployment (QFD)
A Japanese approach to meet customers' requirements throughout the design process and also in the design of production systems. QFD is a planning process to guide the design, manufacturing, and marketing of goods by integrating the voice of the customer throughout the organization.
Six Sigma
Six Sigma concentrates on measuring product quality and driving process improvement and cost savings throughout the organization
Six Sigma Concepts
The Six Sigma Concepts are based on the ability to control a process to produce at the most only 3.4 defects per million opportunities
The DMAIC Methodology
There are five steps to DMAIC: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control.
The Deming Philosophy
The Deming philosophy focuses on continual improvements in product and service quality by reducing uncertainty and variability in design, manufacturing, and service processes, driven by the leadership of top management
The House of Quality
The House of Quality is based upon using a set of matrixes to relate the voice of the customer to a product's technical requirements, component requirements, process control plans and manufacturing operations.
The Leadership System
An effective leadership system respects the capabilities and requirements of employees and other stakeholders and sets high expectations for performance and performance improvements
Transcendent / Judgmental Quality
Quality is recognized through learning and experience, is absolute and universally recognizable an example would be a BMW automobile, a Rolex watch, service at Disney.

User Based Quality
Quality reflects personal, idiosyncratic view; quality is the ideal combination of attributes maximizing consumer satisfaction (fitness for use). An example would be family cars versus sports cars or a luxury hotel room versus an economy hotel room.
Value Based Quality
Quality is defined as performance or conformance at an acceptable cost; this is the notion of affordable excellence. An example would be a brand name product or service versus generic named product or service.
Values
Values (or guiding principles) guide the journey to a vision by defining attitudes and policies for all employees, which are reinforced through conscious and subconsc8ious behavior at all levels of the organization
Vision
The vision describes where the organization is headed and what it intends to be; it is a statement of the future that would not happen by itself

Critical Communication Skills - Selling your ideas

2009-02-09T19:47:00.000-08:00

Critical Communication Skills can be categorized into three clusters:
1. Persuasive Skills - this cluster is comprised of skills which are basic to situations that call for influencing and motivating others:

Clarifying Needs - Questioning and Pressing for Specifics
Communicating Benefits
Gaining Commitment

2. Tracking Skills - These skills are used continuously during interactions to make sure you and others are on the same "wavelength." Tracking provides you with a greater element of control and allows you to move the persuasive process forward in a positive direction. They include:

Reading Cues
Testing for Reaction
Listening Actively - Acknowledging, Paraphrasing, and Empathizing

3. Shaping Skills - This cluster is used both selectively and purposefully to help create a climate of acceptance and to achieve objectives. Effective use of these skills distinguishes the successful influencer. They include:

Reinforcing Positive Responses
Handing Objections
Creating Need Awareness

Efficiency vs effectiveness

2009-02-09T19:31:00.000-08:00

Efficiency is the quantity of resources used in producing the output: time, money, people, materials, and energy.
Effectiveness is the number of times or degree to which the output meets the needs of the customer.

Efficiency ties most directly to margins and profitability. More efficient processes can allow a business to be more effective in satisfying customers.

Efficiency Measurement:

Total cost
Total Cycle Time
Resources Consumed
Amount of Rework
Cost of Defects
Scrap or Waste

Effectiveness Measurement:

On-Time Delivery
Adherence to Specs
Service Experience
Accuracy
Value-added Features
Customer Satisfaction

What's process

2009-02-09T14:31:00.000-08:00

A process is a unique set of conditions that takes the inputs and produces the output.

A process is the composition of

Materials: e.g. raw materials
manpower: e.g. labor
methods: e.g. operational procedures
machines: e.g. tools and equipment
measurement: e.g. test equipment
maintenance: e.g. preventive maintenance
management: e.g. polices, culture

Output varies due to common and assignable causes.

Statistics

2009-02-08T14:43:00.000-08:00

Statistics is a science concerned with "the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data."
Statistical thinking is a philosophy of learning and action based on the following principles:
1. All work occurs in a system of interconnected processes.
2. Variation exists in all processes.
3. Understanding and reducing variation are keys to success.

Usage of Experiences vs Knowledge vs Theory in Management Decisions

2009-02-06T06:06:00.000-08:00

Any rational plan requires prediction concerning conditions, behavior, and comparison of performance. A statement devoid of prediction or explanation of past events conveys little knowledge. Experience only describes—it cannot be tested or validated—and alone is of little help to management. Theory, on the other hand, shows a cause and effect relationship that can be used for prediction. Methods that have sustained success are grounded in theory. This notion implies that management decisions must be based on facts and objectivity, rather than solely on instinct.

Leadership styles vs follower maturity/readiness

2009-01-27T10:27:00.000-08:00

Leadership style might vary from one person to another, depending on the "readiness" of subordinates, which is characterized by their skills and abilities to perform the work and their confidence, commitment, and motivation to do it.

There are four level of follower maturity (readiness):
1. Unable and unwilling
2. Unable but willing
3. Able but unwilling
4. Able and willing

Four leadership styles can best address these four levels of maturity (readiness):
1. Directing
2. Coaching
3. Supporting
4. Delegating

A leader might also apply different styles to the same person at different times.

What's Leadership

2009-01-27T10:04:00.000-08:00

Leadership us the ability to positively influence people and systems under one's authority to have a meaningful impact and achieve important results.

Executive leadership focuses on the roles of senior managers in guiding an organization to fulfill its mission and meet its goals. The many activities that senior executives perform include the following:

Defining and communicating business directions
Ensuring that goals and expectations are met
Reviewing business performance and taking appropriate action
Creating an enjoyable work environment that promotes creativity, innovation and continual improvement
Soliciting input and feedback from customers
Ensuring that employees are effective contributors to the business
Motivating, inspiring, and energizing employees
Recognizing employee contributions
Providing honest feedback

Formal organization leadership is manifested in developing clear values, creating a competitive advantage, defining customer and market focus, and encouraging continual learning.
Ad hoc leadership within project teams is seen by observing the leader working to make those around her or him successful, removing barriers to team performance, establishing good lines of communication, and resolving problems.
Individual leadership is revealed through people maintaining the focus and discipline to consistently complete jobs, being proactive in identifying and solving problems, working for win-win agreements, and making continuous learning a personal habit.

Leaders are visionaries; they manage for the future, not the past. Six key leadership competencies can be described as navigator, communicator, mentor, learner, builder, and motivator.

The following is a collection of personal leadership characteristics:

Accountability - taking responsibility for the organization, community, or self that the leader serves.
Courage - the mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger; fear or difficult with a firmness of mind and will; allowing leaders to navigate into the unknown.
Humility - what gives excellent leaders their ability to mentor, communicate and learn, and understand that they are servants of those that follow.
Integrity - the ability to discern what is right from wrong and commit to the right path.
Creativity - the ability to see possibilities, horizons, and futures that don't yet exist, enabling the leader to help create a shared vision.
Perseverance - sticking to a task or purpose, no matter how hard or troublesome.
Well-being - the ability to stay healthy in both work and play, demonstrating the importance of being ready to implement leadership competencies when needed.