Missing artifact com.sun.jdmk:jmxtools:jar:1.2.1 – WTF?

Do you use Eclipse and get this error? Do you use Maven? Have you recently added log4j 2.1.15 as a <dependency>?

If you answered “yes” to all three of the above, then this short post is for you.

To make this work, use a different version of log4j. Yep, it’s that simple. For example, use this POM snippet:

    <dependency>
      <groupId>log4j</groupId>
      <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
      <version>1.2.16</version>
    </dependency>

This will use version 1.2.16 instead of 1.2.15 and you should see this weird error go away.

If you care about what is causing this, read on. If not, good luck and have fun.

Apparently, the 1.2.15 release of log4j has some dependencies that are not available in the central maven repository because of licensing issues. This post (http://unitstep.net/blog/2009/05/18/resolving-log4j-1215-dependency-problems-in-maven-using-exclusions/) has more information in it.

Keep coding.

–jsp

Weird Eclipse Error (Like That’s Very Specific)

Okay, so I get this weird error when starting Eclipse: “An error has occurred. Check the log for details” or something equally unhelpful.

As it turns out, there is a file located in:

{workspace}\.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.core.resources

called .snap that keeps Eclipse from starting up. Delete the file and you’re good to go.

Unit Testing: Don’t Ever Sacrifice It

I was reading this article at JavaWorld.com, where the author makes the argument that unit testing is a means to an end, and that once you are finished unit testing, you are not finished with the project. There are other types of testing to be done, integration testing in particular. While I agree that integration testing is hard and exposes flaws (not to mention poorly defined interfaces), it seems like the author is saying that in a resource-constrained project environment, unit testing may have to be dropped in favour of other types of testing (like integration testing).

My argument is: if your most basic units don’t function as intended, integration testing will fail anyway. So do not ever, ever, ever, sacrifice unit testing. It is fundamental.

To me, unit testing gives the project its first confidence boost: that the code works as designed. All of the code paths that can be reasonably testing work. Why ever sacrifice that?

What do you think?

–jsp

God and Guns: Vote GOP!

Hypocrisy irritates me. Speaking of hypocrisy, this is an election year, and the GOP primaries are in full swing. This week’s topic: morality!

While I believe Mr. Santorum is sincere when he spouts his brand of noise, claiming America’s moral decline is due to the number of unwed mothers, in the end, the GOP utopia is the World of “Bladerunner” where everything is privatized and corporations run the world (we are closer to this than you might think).

The GOP only cozies up to the religious right and the second amendment with their scare tactics to get the votes to bring that utopia to pass (after all they represent only 1%, which isn’t enough votes). The don’t give one tiny toot about morality.

Truth be told, the U.S. is a plutocracy; a system set up to (a) protect the wealthy and (b) make sure the system perpetuates itself. All this talk of morality is scare-noise meant to frighten the religious right into voting GOP.

And it works.

Separation of Church and State

I was reading this article about House Speaker John Boehner making a huge fuss about the White House’s stand on providing equal access to birth control to all women.

Now, I’m no contitutional scholar, but it seems like there are two interpretations of “Separation of Church and State”. The Democrats (for the most part) view it as “Keep matters of faith and religion separate from policy.” While the GOP (for the most part) view it as “Support Christianity – and *only* Christianity – using the full power of policy to do so.”

I may be generalizing, but whenever government supports an idea that benefits society as a whole (such as preventing unwanted pregnancy in this case), the other side (the GOP in this case) claim that government is stepping on religious freedom/rights/whatever. Isn’t the idea that policy be separate from religion? Isn’t America a great melting pot?

Facebook Addicting? That’s Ridiculous (I’m Totally Making That My Status)

I saw this article at ZDNet (they’ve been ON FIRE lately!) about Facebook and Twitter and how they’re more addictive than alcohol or nicotine. Can that be? It…

Sorry, had to check my twitter. What was I saying? Oh, yeah, Facebook and Twitter are addictive. I know for me that they hardly have any effect on me at all. For example,…

Oh, how funny. Somebody just posted the funniest link on my Facebook Wall. Where was I? Oh, yeah, Facebook. I don’t really check it all that often. I mean, I do have alerts sent directly to my Android phone (same for Twitter). But, really, it just doesn’t mean that much to ….

Wow, it looks like Lance Armstrong will be racing a 70.3 Ironman soon. Just saw a Tweet about it. What was I saying?

Oh, nevermind. I forget. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll check Twitter. It’s been, like, forever.

–jsp

Goodbye Napster. Goodbye Rhapsody.

I loved Napster. For about 10 bucks a month I could listen to whole albums, make playlists of my favorite songs, download albums for listening when I was in a, ahem, low signal area (thanks, AT&T). A week or so ago, without much notice (I seem to recall an email about a week before the transition, and I’m being kind calling it a “transition”), I was forced to convert over to Rhapsody. Today I dumped Rhapsody. Here’s why.

For starters, the interface to the Rhapsody App (I have an Android, but can’t imagine the UI for the iPhone app is much better) is TERRIBLE. I’m a techie, so I know my way around gadgets, and how to do stuff. But this interface is squirrelly. How do I pull up my music? Hm. My Playlists? Nope, that looks like someone else’s playlists, I don’t recognize any of these songs.

None of my previous searches were remembered. I tend to listen to the same artists (tried “My Artists” but the list was flooded with a bunch of artists I’d never listened to) a lot, and each time I wanted to pull up a different, say, ELO album, I had to go into Search and type in Electric Light Orchestra (don’t even think of typing in ELO, that didn’t work).

The player was very skippy (ever heard of buffering, guys?). Soooo distracting when listening to a song, and *skip* play *skip* play *skip*. Ugh.

I can flag albums as favorites, but finding them was a bit of a pain. Not very intuitive (did I mention how crappy the UI was, okay, though so).

I don’t know exactly why Napster folded into Rhapsody, but it didn’t result in a superior user experience (I’m sure the folks whose stock went up as a result are crying over this).

Goodbye, Napster. I’ll miss you.

Goodbye Rhapsody. This was great. We should do it again sometime. I’ll call you.