HYPERAXE

It’s been a while since I decided to cancel all my Virtual Private Server (VPS) accounts. I decided to do so since I don’t think I am able to use it enough to justify the cost of monthly payment. Well, right now I am starting to think that it has been very useful for me and I’m starting to miss all the things I was able to do with it.

Having a VPS has not only made me more competent on Linux administration, but it also allowed me to have a testing ground for several pet projects or new software applications I wanted to try out. I even used to host my blog on my own VPS and now I’ve downgraded to just making use of a normal web hosting account. Moreover,  I kinda miss having my own email server,  source code repository (CVS and Subversion) as well as some other services that allowed me to make use of Internet services with more control. Right now, just merely updating my WordPress blog is kinda annoying since I only have FTP to connect to and upload/download files and have to rely on the web hosting online backup and restore utilities to put things the way it was before an upgrade. I think it’s a lot easier to be able to connect through SSH and do backup and restore within the system. Also having admin account to your database makes things a lot easier especially on tweaking stuffs or doing some modifications.

Now, I’m starting to think of subscribing again to a VPS but still having second thoughts about it because of the cost and if I can truly make use of every penny I spent on it.  We’ll see…

[tags]Virtual Private Servers, Linux, Linux Administration, Web Hosting, FTP, SSH, CVS, Subversion, Wordpress[/tags]

For some reasons, I was getting XA resource exceptions when wrapping Oracle’s XA data source into Atomikos each time an XA recovery call is made within my application. This puzzled me, so I took time to understand the error and look into Oracle’s XA implementations. Then I found out that XA recovery is by default not enabled on Oracle Express Edition (XE) 10g for all users. I was a bit surprised but maybe there’s some security issues behind this.

So solving these errors in my application was as easy as 4 lines of SQL commands:

GRANT SELECT ON sys.dba_pending_transactions TO PUBLIC;
GRANT SELECT ON sys.pending_trans$ TO PUBLIC;
GRANT SELECT ON sys.dba_2pc_pending TO PUBLIC;
GRANT EXECUTE ON sys.dbms_system TO PUBLIC:

Granting the said privileges to PUBLIC is of course only recommended on a test environment wherein you have a lot of users that may need it. This will somehow save you time to run the commands for each new user that may want to access your test DB. On production servers, it would be wise to just do GRANT for authorized users.

[tags]Oracle Express Editions, Oracle XE, SQL, XA resources, XA Data Sources, XA recovery[/tags]

I’ve been working a bit on some Java based transaction programming lately and it’s a pretty cool experience. I should have known about this in the past since it is quite a cool way of handling transaction validity in your application. This is especially very useful for 2 Phase Commit (2PC) transactions as such in the case of  synchronizing data between a database and a JMS server or broker.

In my case, I’ve used Oracle XE (Express Edition) for my DB server on the test environment, as well as IBM WebSphere MQ for my messaging or JMS server. The core component I’ve used for my JTA transaction manager is Atomikos which just recently open sourced its Atomikos Transaction Essentials product line. Integrating all these components are very easy since they all support XA resources and provide XA enabled APIs for use on your application.

Atomikos offers some very useful wrappers for XA resources such as the SimpleDataSourceBean which you can make use for your XA enabled JDBC classes, and also a NonXADataSource wrapper class if you want to use a non-XA enabled database driver. Sad to say, Atomikos doesn’t have a wrapper for non-XA JMS API or classes, so if you want to make use of Atomikos for your JMS transactions, it’s a must that it has support for XA resources.

I definitely like the idea of an all or nothing transaction, which means that if either the DB or JMS transaction fails then a transaction rollback occurs, and if they both succeed then that’s the only time a commit sequence would push through. Moreover, even if a commit sequence has started but one of the transaction fails to commit such as in the case of a server crash or timeout, then a rollback is called again or in some cases a heuristic exception is thrown. This is most useful for crucial application such as the of what’s used on financial transactions in which the validity of data is of utmost importance.

Right now, I’m really enjoying this java based transaction programming stuffs and I still have a lot of things to learn. Well, competence is built with time and effort anyway.

[tags]Oracle DB, Oracle XE, Atomikos, IBM WebSphere MQ, JMS, JDBC, Java Transaction API, Java Messaging Services, Two Phase Commit Transactions[/tags]

Since Aphilo heard Josh Groban sang , she immediately became a huge fan of this guy and it had always been her dream to see him perform live. Now, for some twist of fate she’ll finally be able to fulfill this dream since Josh Groban would be visiting Manila to peform on October 17 & 18, at the PICC Plenary Hall.

As early as August, she already knew of this planned performance of Josh Groban in Manila, and was always keeping track of when the tickets for the concert would be available. She also learned by then that the performance on October 17 would be “BY INVITATION ONLY”, so she only has October 18 to watch since this is the only date available to the public. Almost every week, she calls TicketWorld to get some updates as to when the tickets for Josh’s concert would be available and the prices as well. Come September, she learned that one of the sponsors, which is Smart Communications, Inc. would have the privilege to offer free or discounted tickets to their Infinity subscribers from September 7 - 16 before all available tickets would be available to the general public on September 16 @ 10AM. She also learned that the tickets are priced at 25K, 20K, 15K, 10K, 5K, and 3K. Too much for a concert maybe but she’s willing to buy the 5K or 10K tickets. She told me that, that’s just how much she can go.

Aphilo tried to call up her friends and relatives for anybody who knows a Smart Infitiny subscriber that can help her get some discounted tickets. But sad to say, as soon as she found one it was too late since it was already September 17 and the concert tickets are already up for grabs for anyone. So it would probably mean that the cheaper tickets might be sold-out by that time. True enough, when she called TicketWorld, only the 20K tickets are available. She tried to ask her friends if they are willing to go with her so that we’ll only be spending 20K instead of 40K if both of us go. She was even willing to offer the tickets to her friends, in installment basis but nobody really wants to go with her. It’s either they are really not die hard Josh Groban fans or they don’t have that much money to spare for a one night event.

Heaven and earth seemed to have closed down on her after learning how expensive her option is for watching Josh, since even though we have the resources to buy those tickets, she thought that it might not be that practical anymore to spend that much for a concert. I kept telling her that it’s ok for me to spend 40K, as long as she’ll be happy, but she was already determined to just let it go and just hope that sometime in the future this chance would pass again. I felt so sad for her, as I am fully aware that she’s been waiting for this chance to come, and when that time arrived she had to let go of that chance.

In my hopes to somehow cheer her up and make it easier for her, I invited her to watch a movie last Friday and also asked her that maybe we can just visit a TicketWorld outlet nearby just to confirm that only the 20K tickets are available. I was telling her that it might be better to personally talk to a TicketWorld representative and confirm it personally before letting the chance to see Josh pass her by. So off we went to the TicketWorld outlet and to inquire about Josh Groban’s concert, and to our surprise the sales lady told us that just moments ago the 15K tickets are already available. Aphilo felt happy to hear about this, but she was still thinking that 15K for each of us or 30K all-in-all might still be too much so she might need some more time to think about it. Well, I told her that we can’t let this opportunity pass by, and there’s no point in waiting anymore or thinking about it since it might be too late by the time she makes up her mind. I asked her if we should get the 20K tickets or 15K, since it would just be a matter of 10K if both of us go to the concert. She still stood firm that 20K would be too much, and also when we saw the seating arrangement at PICC, the available seats for the 20K are farther behind and they are just priced high because of the frontal view to the stage. The available seats for the 15K are much closer but a little bit positioned at the side. So I quickly asked the sales lady what are the best seats available for 15K, and when Aphilo and I agreed what seats to take, I paid for the tickets and handed it to Aphilo. Things happened so fast and Aphilo seemed nervous and excited while I was paying for the tickets, but her eyes sparkled as soon as the tickets were in her hands, and she never stopped thanking me.

While we were driving home, she thanked me again and asked me, “Is it really ok for you to spend this much and go with me to the concert?”. I just smiled at her and replied, “Honestly speaking, I like his songs but I’m no big fan of Josh Groban, but then again I am your biggest fan so I’ll go with you. I really don’t care how much we’re spending for this, for the fact that this is a dream come true for someone I love and it would make her the happiest woman in the world that night, that’s priceless… I love you.”

Josh Groban… see you on October 18.

[tags]Josh Groban, Josh Groban Live In Manila, Josh Groban Concert, Josh Groban Live In The Philippines[/tags]

This post is quite emotional or “emo” as some people call it, so bear with me my beloved friends.

My family and I usually spend the weekends at my parent’s house and this is one of the things I look forward to every week. Not only am I able to rest and spend some quality time with my family, but I am also able to spend time at my quiet corner. It’s a place beside our garden’s grotto where I usually sit ever since I was young to pray, reflect, or simply let time pass by. But for the past few weeks we weren’t able to spend the weekends with my parents since there were a few things that came up that prevented us from doing so. Because of this, I kinda miss my quite corner so much, that I am starting to feel sad about not being able to go home.

I’m glad that for this weekend, we were able to go home and right now I am posting this blog in this quiet corner of mine. So what is this quiet corner? Well, this is a place where I usually pray and reflect. A place where I usually express both my happiness and sadness, with the Lord and our Blessed Virgin Mary or simply just be with myself. Ever since I was young this is the place where I usually stay at night or early in the morning while waiting for the sunrise; oftentimes when I feel down and battered from the hardships of life. But I also celebrate some good times in this place, with a couple of beer maybe and a few songs with my guitar. This place had been a witness of both my tears and laughters, my success and downfalls, a refuge for me when I just needed some time alone, and it’s where I had written most of my song compositions about life and love. So more or less this quite corner is not merely a place for me, but a friend.

So now I sit here trying to reflect about my life and try to answer questions that had lingered through my mind for quite some time. Before this night ends I know, I’ll have some peace of mind again, and the strength to carry on after some tiring ordeal. I just feel so relieved to have finally taken the time to stop for a while and return to this place where I can truly be myself and thoroughly search what’s inside of me and let it all out. Once in a while it’s a good thing to leave the fast lane, rest for a while to regain some energy, plan the next route to take, and move on again with life, with high hopes that things would be better this time around.

Funny as it may seem but it has always been my dream to own a pair of Converse Chuck Taylor shoes. This dream started during those times when I was playing guitars for several bands. Back then, most of the band members wore Chuck Taylor shoes. I’m not really sure where this fad starded, but in every gig I went to and played for, everyone seems to be wearing these pair of shoes and some of them are even girls. It also seems that the more the shoes are worn out or torned, the better and cooler you look. Weird, isn’t it?

So I started feeling that I should be “in” and have these shoes as well. Sad to say, even though I wanted it badly, I just don’t have the money to buy it. I also can’t ask my parents to buy it for me since I’m not used to asking my parents to buy the things I want since we’re not really that rich and I just don’t want to add burden to our finances. Back then, if I want something, it’s either I work for it or save for it from my daily allowance. Then years passed by and I wasn’t into band playing anymore, still I didn’t get hold of these dream shoes.

It was during one trip to the mall wherein I passed by this Converse shop and looked around. Then I saw this new limited edition of Chuck Taylor which looks like the classic version, but with some added twist of foldable tops to convert it to a mid-cut pair of sneakers. So I remembered this dream I once had, and even though I’m not into bands anymore, I guess it’s never too late to make a childhood dream come true. Aphilo knew of this dream all along so when I picked up the shoes and looked at her, she just smiled at me and told me, “It’s a dream come true.” So I bought it and since it’s a Saturday, I wore the shoes when we attended the anticipated mass. While walking to the church, Aphilo was laughing at me since I was walking like a child so proud and excited to show off of his new pair of shoes.

So to all the band I played before…I just wanted to shout… “YIPEEEEE!!! I HAVE A PAIR OF CHUCK TAYLOR SHOES!!!!” .

[tags]Converse, Chuck Taylor, Converse Limited Edition, Shoes, Sneakers[/tags]