Three interesting applications

Trac, Redmine and Retrospectiva are three Issue Trackers/Project Management applications sharing similar features and a killer one in particular: painless Subversion integration.
Which one would you choose (or you already chose) for your team?

Installing CubicTest

Have you ever been in need of an advanced testing tool that makes it easy to:

• Test your web-applications by interacting with them as an human user would do
• Let you define test-steps by drawing simple flow-chart-like diagrams
• Auto-draw the test-steps by recording your actions from the browser window
• Automatically re-execute so-recorded texts against a web-browser

Well, this kind of tool really exists: it's CubicTest and in the last days it really lived up to its promises.

In just one day I wrote a complete test-plan and linked each one of the tests planned to a testcase created with CubicTest.
And not only I "wrote" the tests by simply recording my activities inside the browser, but I also left CubicTest the task of executing them automatically, presenting me with the exact step where the failures occurred.

This way I obtained a "real" test-plan, consisting of human-readable, auto-generated and repeatable acceptance-tests.
Something I could easily bundle into an Eclipse application that could be used by my customers when they will try out my project.

Here's how to install CubicTest:

1. Download and install Eclipse at http://download.eclipse.org
2. Add the following update site to Eclipse: http://boss.bekk.no/cubictest/update/ (or download it from http://boss.bekk.no/cubictest/download.html)
3. Select the CubicTest plugins and install them
4. When asked whether to apply the changes or restart click "Apply Changes" and then manually shut-down Eclipse
5. Open the eclipse.ini configuration file (/path/to/eclipse/eclipse.ini or C:\Program Files\Eclipse\eclipse.ini) and add the following line:

On Linux: -DfirefoxDefaultPath=/path/to/firefox_installation/<firefox_executable>

On Windows: -DfirefoxDefaultPath=C:\path\to\firefox_installation\firefox.exe

6. Start Eclipse
7. Follow the tutorials provided by the CubicTest Team and start using it

Let me know if you like this tool (by clicking the title of this post and leaving me a comment).

VisualVM: graphically profiling Java applications

VisualVM is a new tool Sun is providing for doing runtime analysis of Java applications (both local and remote ones).
It mades available through a simple GUI all sort of graphical data about threads, heap, GC, classes and much more (being it expansible through plugins).
It deeply integrates with a number of CLI ("Command Line Interface") tools the JDK already comes with.

Right now I can't tell you more than this, but I'm looking forward to writing a review if this tool proves itself really useful.

I wonder how it will perform when profiling Tomcat running my webapps...

PDF Vulnerability

ENGLISH VERSION:
Please pay attention while opening Adobe PDF files: a very dangerous vulnerability has been found, affecting Adobe readers until Adobe Reader 8.1 (included).
Also Fox-It reader seems to be affected, altough in a less severe way.
Both embedded and standalone versions of a document are affected by this vulnerability.

The only solution is to avoid opening PDF files from non-trusted sources.
(Evince or other Linux readers aren't cited in the vulnerabilty report)


ITA VERSION:
Attenzione: una grave vulnerabilità è stata riscontrata nei files Adobe PDF. La vulnerabilità in questione riguarda gran parte dei reader in commercio, fino all'Adobe Reader 8.1.
Nella versione inglese di questo post il link all'annuncio dello scopritore della vulnerabilità.
Nei commenti al suo post si può notare come anche Fox-It Reader sia affetto da tale vulnerabilità (anche se meno gravemente).
Notare come sia le versioni leggibili dal proprio browser, sia quelle standalone dei documenti PDF potrebbero essere ugualmente affette da codice maligno.

Unico consiglio: BUON-SENSO; se non si conosce la provenienza di un documento PDF, o in generale se non si è sicuri del grado di sicurezza garantito dalla fonte dalla quale esso proviene, allora astenersi dall'aprirlo.
(Nessun reader linux sembra essere citato nell'articolo; penso Evince sia abbastanza sicuro)

Open source is makin' me loose my temper

UPDATE:
Try InkScape: is way much better than Gimp when it comes to editing box, lines, gradients and, in general, simple linear patterns.
(But it's buggy, too... grrrrr!)

ORIGINAL:
Pleas someone tell them to simply make Gimp work: I've spent the last 40 minutes trying to draw 3 (T-H-R-E-E !!!) bands on the upper right corner of an A4.

Selections that, when moved, move the entire layer instead of just what they are meant to select (why call them "Selections" if they don't "select"?!?), the ridiculous elaboration speed of a "Fill" operation (I was simply filling the entire A4 surface with a plain colour and it took me about 5 seconds!), the total absence of a "transform selection" command (instead, you have to play with mysterious options of the transformation tools option-box)... and other frustrating ones.
And someone dares to compare Gimp to Photoshop!!!

Please "open-source guys", less buzz-words, less auto-contratulating on minimal things, less religion wars, less "Winzozz" and "M$"; please start taking your work seriously, and stop harming users with your incompetence!

Enabling VT capabilities in VirtualBox 1.5

Today I dramatically increased the speed at which VirtualBox runs my Windows XP virtual machine.
I'm not saying that yesterday VirtualBox performances were not satisfactory: even without VT options enabled Innotek did a very good job for the new release of their software.
But (!) , if you really want to boost the speed at which your virtual machines are emulated up, well, you essentially need 3 ingredients:

1. A VT-capable CPU (my Intel Core Duo T2300 is VT-enabled)
   
2. VirtualBox 1.5
   
3. me

Let's go:

1. First of all check whether your CPU supports VT (or AMD-V, if you are using an AMD CPU): see this page for a list of VT enabled CPUs and this one for the AMD ones, or check Intel and AMD websites for more info. [Psssst: I'll explain you a method to check if VT is enabled by using the command line in a Ubuntu environment; all you have to do is to use these instructions more /proc/cpuinfo | grep vmx (or more /proc/cpuinfo | grep svm if you are an AMD-powered guy) and check whether the command returns some text or not. If at least one line of text is displayed you are ready to proceed with the next step]
2. Install VirtualBox and open the preferences window (File > Preferences...). Now, in the right-side pane locate the "Extended Features" section and enable the check-box named "Enable VT-x/AMD-V".
3. That's all: I noticed a very impressive performance improvement in my Ubuntu-box.

I also enabled "Seamless integration" ("'host key' + L" inside your virtual machine), a new feature in VirtualBox 1.5, and you can see the results in this gallery:

Memento (AKA "l'open-source a un bivio")

Firefox comincia a usare un po troppa memoria.
E io potrei stancarmi.

Alla faccia di quelli che criticano sempre IE... ok lui ha i suoi problemi ("narcisismo" e incompetenza, due a caso), ma almeno non mangiava tonnellate di memoria quando lo avviavo.

Credo che gran parte del movimento open-source abbia frainteso il motto "release earlier, release often": vedi la stabilità penosa di molte, troppe distribuzioni.
Non passa giorno che sulla mia UbuntuStudio si verifichi qualche inconveniente grave: oggi mi si è chiusa la sessione utente dopo 2 minuti di lavoro ininterrotto del disco fisso, killando alcuni processi e lasciandone in vita altri. Stavo semplicemente utilizzando VirtualBox (la colpa non è di certo la sua, i problemi li ha il kernel).

E questo è un gran peccato: l'open-source che diventa ciò che ha sempre sbeffeggiato: una mera operazione commerciale e/o di immagine.
Spero di essere io paranoico, altrimenti siamo al principio della fine.

Eclox: Eclipse code documentation made easy.

Eclox is perfect if you need to add complex code documentation to your projects by using the Eclipse IDE and the Doxygen multi-language documentation tool.

You need to separately install Doxygen in order to use Eclox.

Here are some Screenshots (click to view full-size):

Songbird

I've been trying Songbird for 2-3 days until now.
Pro:

• By using a simple interface that is quite similar to iTunes you'll be able to discover really new music
  

Cons:

• It's a relatively new app and there is still plenty of bugs
• That GUI really does look like iTunes
  

Big Con:

• Is it so difficult to write an iPod library that works with an old Black 1G Nano?!? And are we sure that each project aiming at communicate with an iPod writing its own library will finally provide a working piece of bytes?

BTW: Give Songbird a try because, if you want to discover new music every day, it really deserves your attention.

Update to "Perderne un'altra"

Il tool in questione non è poi tanto usabile: in effetti non fa che scaricare dalla rete un'immagine dell'installer Debian. Immagine tramite la quale, al successivo riavvio del sistema, viene fatta partire l'installazione.
Sembra che per far ciò vada a scrivere su disco (ma non so dirvi dove) e a modificare l'MBR (Master Boot Record). Ergo: utilizzate un Live CD così, prima di installare, potete anche verificare la compatibilità hardware del vostro computer (inoltre vi risparmiate la scrittura dell'MBR e sul disco).

Perderne un'altra

Ecco un'altra buona cosa riguardante il mondo Linux e che finisce a genziane a causa del solito "Microsoft is the Enemy"...
Il tool proposto è un EXE che si scarica facendo click sull'immagine Debian: sembra veloce e usabile, oltrechè essere windows-friendly (da non sottovalutare quando ci si rivolge a un pubblico di utenti windows: li si rassicura già in partenza)...
MA...
Io direi che sarebbe anche ora di smetterla con i varii "Goodbye Microsoft", "Microsoft is Evil" e "Winzozz". Sembrerebbe proprio che Linux non riesca a vivere se non grazie a una costante (e noiosa) contrapposizione a Windows... Ora, se invece ci si concentrasse sul pubblicizzare le belle cose del mondo Linux (e ce ne sono parecchie!) e si lasciasse perdere Microsoft, allora si che si inizierebbe ad apparire seri, professionali e meritorii di essere presi in considerazione. Leggasi: "se si continua con l'atteggiamento Goodbye-Microsoft si fa pubblicità gratuita a Windows e contro-pubblicità altrettanto gratuita al mondo Linux". Il sito si sarebbe anche potuto chiamare "DebianWindowsInstaller.org" (nome bruttino, vabbè) e credo che avrebbe reso un miglior servizio a Debian e avrebbe attirato molti meno "faziosi" del pinguino (che paradossalmente ce l'hanno già installato) e invece molte più persone veramente interessate a cambiare sistema operativo.

Come dicevo: un'altra occasione persa...

[ UPDATE ]

Spread Firefox

Found at "Spreadfirefox.com"
[This work is not mine: visit its original location]

Skype is burning?

It seems that Skype.com is a bit overloaded (but it can also be Firefox: these days the fox isn't working very well).
But the worst thing is that the Skype client can't connect at all (however it seems it succesfully logs in. But nothing more than this...).
Any idea? Anyone knows the reasons behind these problems?
[UPDATE] Skype official explanation for the currently undergoing problems.
[UPDATE] Skype is back!

Sembrerebbe che Skype.com sia sovraccarico (però potrebbe essere anche che "Firefox is burning", specie ultimamente). Inoltre, cosa ancor peggiore, il client parrebbe non riuscire a connettersi.
Mumble mumble... si accettano ipotesi.
[UPDATE] Ecco la risposta: qui
[UPDATE] Skype è up sin da ieri notte tardi quando aveva già circa 3-4 milioni di utenti collegati. Stamani siamo a quota 5 milioni.

Ubuntu: Switch from Gnu GCJ and GIJ to Sun JRE

If you experienced (I did, grrrrr...) some problems like Eclipse not running very well (e.g. CPU at 100% all the time) or Java-based apps stopping with errors, well Alec the Geek has a possible solution (a definitive solution won't be born until the guys at the GNU Foundation will decide to stop messing around with "Free as in speach..." or "Free as in beach..." or "Libertè, Egalitè, Penguinitè" and maybe will turn back to writing code and FIX GIGANTIC BUGS).

The idea is simple and useful even for other needs: you point the wrappers to the Java compiler and the Java bytecode interpreter to the official Sun JRE, instead of using the GNU implementation (which is the default Ubuntu behavior).
You do that by using the following command, sudo update-alternatives --config java , and by choosing the Sun JRE from the list (only if you have installed it, of course...).

Guys, repeat with me: "Thaaanks Aleeec"

TCS vs TCB

Quando inizi a scrivere TCS (Tiscali Customer Service) al posto di TCB (Task Control Block), considera l'ipotesi di abbandonare le "tue" (!) creature fatte di bits al loro destino (almeno per un pò, sigh!) e di dedicarti a del sano sport... o magari a delle relazioni inter-personali che non abbiano come medium MSN (anche se io uso Pidgin, tiè!).

Al solito, un link per voi, tanto per gradire: Cleversafe Open Source Community

Make two different Thunderbird versions cohabit in the same Ubuntu installation

In my recent post "Make two different Firefox versions cohabit in the same Ubuntu installation" I explained why (and how) I have two different Firefox installations sharing the same settings, bookmarks and add-ons.
This time things get a little more tricky, but don't worry and let's get the party started.

1. Download Thunderbird
2. Unzip to your home directory (tar xf thunderbird-2.0.0.6.tar.gz , TAB is your friend, use TAB)
3. Now you have to make mailboxes, settings and the other stuff be shared between your two Thunderbird installations (the "native" one and the "new" one). NOTE: follow these steps before you start your newly downloaded Thunderbird
   
1. Locate in your home directory the folder ".mozilla-thunderbird" (you must select "View > Show hidden files" or press "Ctrl + H" if you are using a file manager)
2. Look at the files that the folder contains: we are interested at the file "profiles.ini" and at a folder named "XXXXXX.default" or "default.XXXXXX" (where "XXXXXX" can be "whatever-Thunderbird-decided" sequence of letters and numbers)
3. We must link this folder and "profiles.ini" to the folder "/home/$USERNAME/.thunderbird" (if this folder doesn't exist, create it):
1. cd
2. ln -s ./.mozilla-thunderbird/profiles.ini ./.thunderbird/profiles.ini
3. ln -s ./.mozilla-thunderbird/XXXXXX.default ./.thunderbird/XXXXXX.default
4. Start Thunderbird: /home/$USERNAME/thunderbird/thunderbird
   

NOTE: You can use both Thunderbird installations and this HOWTO can be applied to any version of Thunderbird and Firefox. This comes pretty useful especially when testing beta (and/or alpha) versions of the two products.

As previously said: let me know if that works (it seems that my comments aren't accessible from the home-page of the blog: to comment you must open the post in its own window by clicking the post title and scroll the page down until you see the "Comments" box).

Make two different Firefox versions cohabit in the same Ubuntu installation

Few days ago I was founding quite disappointing the performance of my Firefox web browser under my Ubuntu distro. In addition, the installed Firefox version won't be updated until Gutsy (or until a security update will be published). (this is a policy I sincerely don't understand: why I can have the always up to date software in Windows and not in Ubuntu? Mah!)

BTW, I came to a solution: installing from the binaries provided by the Mozilla foundation would be enough... Nearly enough: I also didn't want to loose my current Firefox installation, nor I wanted to loose all the plugins and the extensions I had already installed and configured.
So I turned to this solution: install the new version (downloaded from here) side by side with the "old" one, letting them share the same settings folder.

1. Download Firefox
2. Move "firefox-2.0.0.5.tar.gz" to your home directory
   
3. Extract it (tar xf firefox-2.0.0.5.tar.gz)
   

That's all: from your home folder run firefox/firefox or type ./firefox from the "firefox" folder or place an icon on your desktop.

From now on the two versions of Firefox will share preferences, settings and extensions (all the settings and the extensions are located into your /home/$USERNAME/.mozilla/firefox folder).

Let me know if that works.

(Coming soon: the same way for... Thunderbird!)

The professional Ubuntu (first part)

Ubuntu Studio is an unofficial flavor of Ubuntu, based on Gnome and few other apps, all available through the official Ubuntu repositories.
I will not discuss on how installing Ubuntu Studio in details (see UbuntuStudio.org or/and this wiki for more infos on this topic), but I will tell you one thing: this distro best embodies my concept of "modularity". They took the very few of the Ubuntu core (the "main module") and built up around it a consistent distro, made itself of other modules (that are known, in the Ubuntu language, as "meta-packages").
Ubuntu Studio is made up of 4 meta-packages:

• Graphics, featuring Gimp, Inkscape, Agave, CinePaint, Scribus and so on
• Audio, featuring Audacity, Jack, Ardour, Muse and others
• Video, a metapackage that contains Cinepaint, Kino, Stopmotion and others
• Audio plugins, containing the most useful plugins for the apps of the Audio meta-package

When I came to install Ubuntu Studio on my laptop I found very interesting to choose at install-time which of those sets of apps will be installed: the installer did all of the hard work on his own, by taking all the .deb packages from the installation CD.
So, this is the first goal of modularization that has been obtained : simple and powerful 20-minutes installations that lets your system in a consistent and immediately productive state.

Also, Ubuntu Studio does so by targeting a precise and unique target of users: the creative professionals.
I want modularity... just give me all AND ONLY the packages I need for my work!

<< Link to the Intro | Link to the second article >> [COMING SOOOOON...]

The professional Ubuntu (Intro)

When I came the first time to UbuntuStudio.org I promised myself the next time I'll be upgrading my Ubuntu I will install this professional flavour of the "human distro".
So, when the Feisty Fawn was born I decided to move from classical Ubuntu to Ubuntu Studio.
Currently the first screenshot (click to see the full size version) you see on the left is the result of some customizations.


Some lines back I highlighted the word "professional"; I did so to focus your attention on an aspect of Ubuntu that is often guiltily omitted: Ubuntu lacks an "I-don't-know-what" that will make it truly professional.
I know, I know, Ubuntu has several "pro-level" apps, offers a highly usable and friendly desktop, is becoming more mature every day, is already a competitive alternative to MS Windows, but I think it really misses a "behavior" that puts it on the same level as Mac OS X is.
No, I'm not jocking, I really do mean that with some adjustments Ubuntu could be a competitive alternative even for those people that every day need a stable, simple, homogeneous and "serious" working environment (talking about you, OS X).

The point in this post is that we can't wait to Ubuntu to become this way, so we can go two different ways:

1. Help Ubuntu change and become more professional (I absolutely do not mean to make it more OS X like): Launchpad is supposed to be the center of the community, so manifest there your requests for a better Ubuntu and help developers with bugs (the least you can do is help who provides you such a good system with such a little expense (zero, nada, nothing, zéro, null, nil, nothing ...))
2. Try to customize yourself Ubuntu or any derivative distro, like I did and like we are going to explore in this post

Notice the two preceding points are complimentary: I really encourage you to follow both of them!

Before we develop the central topic of the post I want you to acknowledge the human distro to be a heavy modular one: Linux is modular to a near-to-the-maximum extent and Synaptic and the system of packages and meta-packages that constitute Ubuntu is a perfect and user-friendly complement to this modularity.

We were speaking of "professionalism", why turning to "being modular"?
Because I think the two things are strictly correlated when it comes to operating systems.
So I'll explain how to achieve professionalism through being modular.

Link to the first article >>

The power(s) of Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a wonderful tool that you can't miss if you must manage and monetize one or more web-sites.

It's so full of interesting and useful features that I'm finding new ones every day.
E.g., this way for a awesome result:
1. Login to Google Analytics
2. Select the web-site you want to analyze
3. Select "Content" from the left menu
4. Now select "Site Overlay" from the newly displayed list
5. Check the scores of your links and contents by watching at the little blue-and-white colored bars