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Opensolaris in a Junior Enterprise

Published by Silveira on 2008-03-07

Ejr empresa júnior da computação
Ejr actual officer

These days I visited the junior enterprise of my course (computer science, UFC). They are just starting and now have they own room.

The Junior Enterprise article at Wikipedia says:

This is an opportunity for students to develop self confidence and experience entrepreneurship at an early stage in their careers, to add practical experience to the theoretical skills and to provide private business with state-of-the-art knowledge from universities.

For my big surprise I found that they have also have an machine with Opensolaris installed for testing they softwares in multiples platforms. Very cool! If they continue to study and improve their skills in Opensolaris they can have an very special differential and goods business opportunities.

Very cool, keep going guys! 😀

Pythons at Sun

Published by Silveira on 2008-03-04

Pythons at Sun
Source: python.at.sun.svg

Good news. Two important Pythonistas, Ted Leung (Apache Foundation member) and Frank Wierzbicki (Jython lead) joined Sun Microsystems.

It’s one important step in the recognition of the Python language and certainly will bring benefits for the Python Community. Some things I’d like to see:

  • Python support on Netbeans. Bringing Python as a first class citizen on Netbeans, syntax highlight, code completion, debugging tools, unitary testing, Jython and a lot of more.
  • Django support on Netbeans. As we have Rails and Ruby support on Netbeans we can have also Django and Python support on Netbeans. Django is accessed with some command line tools, the work is just plug this on Netbeans, and its architecture makes this not hard. We could have a lot of wizards to creating new models and views. I’d love that.
  • More support of Python and dynamic languages at JVM. There’s already the Da Vince Machine Project on the OpenJDK Project. I hope one day we can see call the Java Virtual Machine as Universal Virtual Machine or Multi Language Virtual Machine.
  • More Python on OpenSolaris. Some projects at OpenSolaris are allready using Python, see Image Packaging System Project. Python is a really good language for common script tasks and I use it for that purpose very often. We could see a lot of wizards and configuration panels in Opensolaris using Python and PyGTK or PyQT.

It’s really a great moment for Sun and Open and Free Software. I’m happy with all that? You can bet on it. 😀

Sources: Tim Bray Blog and Cnet news.

More books

Published by Silveira on 2008-02-28

More books to my shelf.

Livros novos

  • Ruby On Rails, Executando. Desenvolvimento Rápido para a Web. Bruce A. Tate & Curt Hibbs.
  • Ruby, conhecendo a linguagem. Eustáqui Rangel de Oliveira Jr.
  • JavaFX Script. Dynamic Java Scripting for Rich Internet/Clien-Side Applications. James L. Weaver.

First I’ll take a look … JavaFX, of course. 🙂

ps: The JavaFX book I win as a prize for naming the SDN Channel podcast, CampusCast. Thanks Edu that bring it to me from USA. 😉

Walker Sphere

Published by Silveira on 2008-02-23

For a while I’m thinking about this hardware project idea and now I’m opening here to get some opinions. After that maybe I’ll submit it for the Sun SPOT Open Grant Program.

What is Walker Sphere? Walker Sphere is a project to made an robot capable with a diferent aproach, without heels, mats, propellers or wings. The main idea is to move only changing its center of gravity.

How change its center of gravity?

It’s a sphere

Sphere Walker Anatomy

with some compartments

Sphere Walker Anatomy

and a Sun Spot.

Sphere Walker Anatomy

One compartment is filled with a liquid. The liquid is pumped to another compartment and so the compartment got heavier and the sphere moves towards its direction.

How the sphere walks

Why a sphere? We can distribute the mass uniformly in a sphere and it’s shapes make it easier to roll. A sphere can encapsulates all components and protect them from the outside world and at the same time all sensors can work, especially using some transparent material for the bark.

Why Sun Spot? The Sun Spot have some advantages that fits perfectly in this project:

  • A broad set of sensors including accelerometers that made possible to know the current state of the sphere.
  • Radio communication that can make possible two or more spheres collaborate to achieve a common task.

Spheres robots talking

  • Programmable using Java.
  • Open and Free Source JVM, Squawk.

It will be free? Yes. I’d like to know more about open and free licenses for hardware projects.

How to pump the liquid into the compartments? I don’t know. Have you some good idea?

Some random ideas:

  • A pressure device.
  • Something like an injection.
  • An Archimedes’ screw.
  • Not using a liquid, use something else.

I’m open for ideas, critics and suggestions. 😉

Tech Demo February

Published by Silveira on 2008-02-22

Today I did one more Tech Demo about Netbeans and also Sun Academmic Initiative and Community Innovation Awards Program.

Below are the slides (in Portuguese). They are an continuation from those from the last demo. You can also download them in ODP or PDF.

I have really little time to prepare this presentation (one day) but everything goes right. I prepared the slides during the night, took some food, soft drinks and gifts, called the students using our mail list. We had few people but was a good audience for the first weak of the university calendar.

People
Some guys at the beginning of the demo.

We talked two hours about stuff like:

  • Netbeans: Netbeans history, architecture and available modules. We did a demo showing some functionalities and I showed how use Issuezilla to report an bug.
  • Sun Academmic Initiative: how can we benefit from the program using Sun Learning Connection and 60% discount for Sun Certifications.
  • Community Innovation Awards Program: Sun Microsystems is giving one million dollars for innovations in Open and Free Software. I showed to the students details of the program and how to participate.

Hora do almoço
Lunch: Sfiha and soda.

Sorteio de Brindes
We used the JavaFX Wheel of Fortune for give prizes.

The next tech demo will be about one of those themes: JavaFX, Opensolaris or How to develop a module for Netbeans. I’m open for suggestions.

More photos at Flickr.

JavaFX: Side-scrolling

Published by Silveira on 2008-02-20

An side-scrolling game attempt.

an plane

I used two images, this mountain background made with Gimp (xcf sources here) and that ship above made with Inkscape (svg sources here).

[youtube]5F4STuluSiM[/youtube]

import javafx.ui.*;
import javafx.ui.canvas.*;

var scroll;
scroll = [1..800] dur 60000 linear continue if true;

var mountains = Clip{
    transform: bind translate(-scroll,0)
    shape: Rect {x:bind scroll, y:0, width:400, height:200}
    content: [ImageView {
            transform: translate(0,0)
            image: Image { url: "http://silveiraneto.net/downloads/mountains.png"}
        },
        ImageView {
            transform: translate(800,0)
            image: Image { url: "http://silveiraneto.net/downloads/mountains.png"}
        }
    ]
};

var h = 50;

var ship = ImageView {
    cursor: HAND
    transform: bind translate(0,h)
    image: Image { url: "http://silveiraneto.net/downloads/jfx_plane.png"}
    onMouseDragged: operation(e) {
        h += e.localDragTranslation.y;
    }
};

Canvas {
    content: [mountains, ship]
}

JavaFX: Color picker

Published by Silveira on 2008-02-19

An simple color picker that can be also used as a gadget.

import javafx.ui.*;
import javafx.ui.canvas.*;

var colors = [red:Color, orange:Color, yellow:Color, green:Color,
     cyan:Color,blue:Color, magenta:Color, gray:Color];

var chosenColor: Paint;
chosenColor = black:Color;

var x = 120;
var y = 70;

Canvas{
    content: Group{
        transform: bind translate(x,y)
        content: [Star{
            points: sizeof colors
            rin: 30
            rout: 50
            fill: bind chosenColor
            onMouseDragged: operation(e) {
                x += e.localDragTranslation.x;
                y += e.localDragTranslation.y;
            }
        },
        foreach (i in [1..sizeof colors]) Circle {
            var: self
            transform: [rotate(i*360/sizeof colors,0,0), translate(50,0)]
            radius: 10
            fill: colors[i%sizeof colors]
            onMouseClicked: operation (e){
                chosenColor = self.fill;
            }
        }]
    }
}

Draggable and Growable Ball in JavaFX

Published by Silveira on 2008-02-16

Two simple JavaFX code handling onMouseDragged event.

import javafx.ui.*;
import javafx.ui.canvas.*;

Canvas {
    content: Circle {
        var x = 50
        var y = 50
        transform: bind translate(x, y)
        radius: 30
        fill: red
        onMouseDragged: operation(e) {
                x += e.localDragTranslation.x;
                y += e.localDragTranslation.y;

        }
    }
}


import javafx.ui.*;
import javafx.ui.canvas.*;

Canvas {
    content: Circle {
        var x = 50
        var y = 50
        var radius = 30
        transform: bind translate(x, y)
        radius: bind radius
        fill: red
        onMouseDragged: operation(e) {
            if (e.button == 1){
                x += e.localDragTranslation.x;
                y += e.localDragTranslation.y;
            }
            if (e.button == 3) {
                radius += e.localDragTranslation.x;
            }
        }
    }
}


import javafx.ui.*;
import javafx.ui.canvas.*;

Canvas {
    content: [
    Rect {x: 50, y: 50, width: 50, height: 50, fill: orange },
    Circle {
        var x = 50
        var y = 50
        var radius = 30
        var color = red:Color
        transform: bind translate(x, y)
        radius: bind radius
        fill: bind color
        onMouseDragged: operation(e) {
            if (e.button == 1){
                x += e.localDragTranslation.x;
                y += e.localDragTranslation.y;
            }
            if (e.button == 3) {
                radius += e.localDragTranslation.x;
            }
        }
        onMousePressed: operation(e){
            color = Color {blue: 0.0, green: 0.0, red: 1.0, opacity: 0.5};
        }
        onMouseReleased: operation(e){
            color = red:Color;
        }
    }]
}

You can test this examples with thhe JavaFX Pad or using Netbeans with the JavaFX Plugin.