Note To Self

Reducing Tooltip Time in Eclipse 3.5 (Galileo) on Mac OS X

Tooltips in Mac OS X display, by default, after 2 seconds. I find this is ample time in the general operating system, but in Eclipse it’s an eternity. Eclipse uses Tooltips in the Java tooling to display all kinds of useful information, not the least of which is the javadoc for the element and the source.  Waiting for these is frustrating.

The general workaround of using OS X defaulting to change that didn’t work with previous versions of Eclipse because the SWT (IBM’s excellent widget set) was built on Carbon, OS X’s “UI Compatibility Library”, which ignored the default.  Eclipse is now available for Mac in a native Cocoa version, which does take the defaulting into account.

Here’s how to change the global OS X tooltip delay (in Terminal):

defaults write -g NSInitialToolTipDelay -int 100

I personally want to keep the 2-second delay for everything except Eclipse, so I applied the default just to Eclipse using the Eclipse bundle name:

defaults write org.eclipse.eclipse NSInitialToolTipDelay -int 100

The delay time is in milliseconds. You might have to log out and back in again to make the default take, but usually restarting Eclipse does the trick.

Nice work IBM!

Overloading the Eclipse Job Management System

We’ve had an issue with our Eclipse-based application which would cause it to slow down exponentially under stress test.  The problem lie in the job management system:  new fast code could essentially cause it to bog down under the weight of update jobs.

Read the rest of this entry »

Exporting “Non-Exportable” Private Keys from Vista

Going through the Thawte sign-up process to get a code signing certificate, I noticed that the certificate signing request (CSR) generated by Vista has the “Yes, export the private key” option grayed out.  I’m surmising that Vista marks all keys (at least those for code signing certificates) as not exportable.

This is obviously bad when you have more than a single developer who must sign code.  After beginning the process I found an article at Thawte which says ‘don’t do this on Vista!’, but I also found the Jailbreak util from iSec.  This was able to export the private key with the CSR into a PFX file.  As a test I also re-imported it from the export file and that worked fine.

Mysterious CPU Performance Loss Solved

I just started to notice that the CPU in my main desktop machine was grossly underperforming, despite BIOS tools telling me it was running at nominal speed.  It’s a (now old) Pentium 4 3.0 GHz HT single core which has been fine for what I need up to now, but lately I’ve been getting massive frame-rate problems with MS Flight Sim 9.

I should get around 20 FPS (I’m using some really detailed sceneries and aircraft) but it was topping out (!) at around 4.  This is unplayable.

In the BIOS I found an option entitled “CPU Internal Temperature Control”, which apparently means that if the chip gets hot, it internally idles to prevent overheating.  This occurs while the FSB and the internal clock gen operate at the same frequency (according to Gabriel Topola’s excellent SIW – System Information for Windows.)

I turned that off and started Flight Sim.  Temperature shot up to 98°C (the last time I was able to check it) then the machine shut down – it didn’t halt, or hang, it turned off – completely.

Spring cleaning time.  I took the CPU fan off, took the CPU out of its ZIF socket and cleaned all the thermal paste off both parts.  The paste had totally broken down.  I blew out the CPU fan (outside) and a very large quantity of dust came out.  New paste, replace the fan assembly and voila – 20 FPS and the temp tops out at 55°C.

Eclipse Won’t Update Any More

If you use Eclipse with lots of plugins, eventually you might get into a situation where the Software Updates ‘feature’ doesn’t work any more.  It will find updates okay, but when you come to install them, you’ll get a message which reads something like “No repository could be found containing bundle…”.   I think I’ve solved this problem.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Hidden Danger of Synchronization

A programmer realised he had a problem which could be solved using threads.
Now he has two problems.

This isn’t going to be an anti-thread post, but I do want to sound a few words of caution about threads, and, specifically, synchronizers and monitors, and the order in which you acquire them.

Read the rest of this entry »

We’re Live

As the omnipotent Landon’s already spotted, I switched over the DNS last night and barring any propagation errors, the site is effectively live. I’ve moved over all of the music too, and I’ll be keeping a keen eye on the bandwidth-o-meter to make sure I don’t get a nasty surprise when my ISP bills me ;-)

Initial Revision

Hello everybody, welcome to the blog.  Before we get cracking, let me establish what I’m doing here:  technology, software engineering and music.

I want to post about technology, software engineering and the SE process.  I work extensively in Java so you can expect a fair percentage of posts to pertain to that.   That’s my day job.  I’ll also be posting about music, in particular percussion and my collected knowledge in that field.  I also write music so there will occasionally be plugs for that too.

Think of it as a Yin/Yang balance thing.

Comments will be initially open while I see how that pans out.  Please feel free to comment and send mail – the address is in the footer.

Meta

This blog is powered by WordPress, using the Pixeled theme, with icons by famfamfam.  It’s hosted on a virtual machine in Koeln, Germany, by HostEurope.