Working as a consultant for multiple customers, I get to work with a lot of different desktops, besides my laptop. This used to result in installing the same software again and again on different machines, and keeping it up to date. I found an alternative in PortableApps.
Portable Apps in Windows 7
is an open platform that works from any USB flash drive, iPod, memory card, or portable hard drive. It’s open source, it´s free and it´s convenient. Now I can carry a great bundle of applications and utilities on a simple USB stick (OK, I admit to use an USB hard drive). This allows me to work with the same tools everywhere without additional cost, or the need to install software.
These are the applications and utilities I favor from the collection:
- Firefox: Not only enables this me to take my bookmarks everywhere, thanks to the great collection of add-ons I also take my Twitter and Yammer platform with me.
- Notepad++ a great text editor.
- Task Coach to keep on track with my tasks.
- Filezilla, WinSCP, and PuTTY
- OpenOffice Works great for reviewing etc. However most companies I work with use templates based on the MS office suite for reports, memos, etc. The right version always comes with the PC…
The complete set of applications can be found here.
Experience
When I started using Portable Apps it was installed on the first available USB stick. Which turned out to have a USB 1.1 controller. That was replaced very quickly with one that supported USB 2.0. This device was a few months later replaced by a USB hard drive. Both because of capacity and speed considerations. Now the external hard drive is the primary device and the (network) storage of the PCs serves as back up.
Portable Apps works on any Windows computer.Using Ubuntu you can use Wine to run it.
With the ODTUG Kaleidoscope just a few days away, Vote-a-Session for Oracle Open World 2009 has opened. Here customers, partners, and developers can tell what sessions they would like to see in the program.
Most fun will probably be the session about combining WebLogic Server and Lego Mindstorms. Seeing how Lego Mindstorms can be programmed with JDeveloper, creating interaction with its environment by using the Mindstorm sensors, sending the results back with a SOAP message and having them processed by a Web Service running on Oracle Weblogic.
More on JDeveloper 11G and especially on how to develop an Oracle Fusion Applications with two proven powerfull frameworks, ADF and Eclipselink in this session. It could be a peek into the future, since EclipseLink JPA is the default JPA persistence framework for Oracle and Sun.
No doubt that this session about the business case for governance will give architects some good arguments to get this subject on the agenda.
Once again Mike van Alst got me thinking on some aspects of implementing and managing SOA environments. In his blog post Mike states that he is moving away from the idea that SOA is process driven. I recognize the problems with long running process he describes. These have a great effect on maintainability and manageability of the (BPEL) processes and SOA software infrastructure.
At this time I’m still favoring a process driven approach over an event or message driven approach. The process driven approach has an intrinsic value that none of the other come even close to. It is as close to the day to day operation of an organization as you can get. This implicitly closes a potential gap between business and IT. When choosing a message or event driven approach other mechanisms have to be introduced to bridge this.
To get perspective on the matter, it is important to realize that the arguments presented aren’t on the design, but on the management part of the cycle. Besides that they deal with a subset of all business processes: long running business processes, and especially those that have a high volume of instances.
Decomposing the process, and arranging the parts using another approach than a process orchestration tool moves us away from the Process Centralization pattern. In short this reopens the problem that process logic is not stored in a central location. Which also has a negative impact on management and maintenance of the solution to be implemented.
So there’s the challenge to separate the concern for the process logic, and on the other hand have a platform the accomedates upgrading both your (BPEL) processes and the underlying software infrastructure.
This year Oracle organized their first OTN Virtual Developer Day . A virtual hands-on training in Java and Rich Enterprise Applications. The screencasts and “Hands-On Labs” are still available. The latter require an AWS (Amazon Web Services) account and charges can apply. The following sessions are interesting from an Application Server point of view:
Oracle WebLogic Server: Introduction and Roadmap
This session provides an overview of Oracle WebLogic Server concepts, and discusses the road map for the Oracle Fusion Middleware Application Server infrastructure, explaining Oracle’s current offerings post-BEA-acquisition and where the product is headed. The screencast can be viewed: Part 1 Part 2
or downloaded:
Top 10 Productivity Tools for Java Developers on Oracle WebLogic Server 10gR3
This session highlights the top 10 capabilities that will improve a Java developers working on WebLogic Server include features such as deep Spring framework integration and support, fast Java class swapping, deployment plans, HTTP pub-sub capabilities for Web 2.0 development, sophisticated debugging and end-to-end updates for Java EE 5.0 development. Learn what’s new and see it in action in this demonstration centric session. View the screencast: Part 1 Part 2
or download it:
Get ready for the launch
Yesterday
the launch event for Fusion Middleware 11g was announced.
This is a step a lot of people have been waiting for. Can’t be long before more information will be
available and the
download section for the SOA Suite will reflect the release of 11g. At the time of writing there was not yet any
certification information available for FM 11g.
Expect the following products to be delivered:
- WebLogic Suite 11g
- SOA Suite 11g
- WebCenter Suite 11g
- Identity Management 11g
By the way, this event takes place exactly one year after the BEA Welcome and Oracle’s Middleware Strategy Briefing. What will be on the agenda´s of Charles Phillips and Thomas Kurian in 2010? Will it have anything to do with the announced acquisition of Sun? Or …
Update June 10th, 2009
SOA Suite 11g top 10 features – is it real?
There will be a webcast for Oracle partners, as was announced here . It will be presented by Clemens Utschig-Utschig, and Jürgen Kress. To enter you´ll have to be a members of the SOA Partner Community.
