Obscure bulk format converters of OpenOffice.org

I needed to convert multiple MSWord documents into the OpenOffice.org format and then later to convert those documents further into HTML. How to do it with a single document is obvious;it took some searching to figure out how to do it for multiple documents.

The magic menu turned out to be File/Wizards (Document Converter . . . →Read More:Obscure bulk format converters of OpenOffice.org

Online typing speed test

Nice,simple typing speed test page. Even with tired hands,I managed to pull good 86 wpm with only a 3 mistakes.

I remember buying the TypeQuick software long time ago to learn touch typing,when it still came on floppies and had some really strange copy protection. I remember the pain it was to . . . →Read More:Online typing speed test

JavaOne 2006 sessions are up with sound and transcripts

The sessions are finally up and like last couple of years have sound synchronized with the slides and transcripts. Like last couple of years,there are some transcription errors. Not surprising given the accents,etc. Still,I wish Sun had given the speakers a way to double check and correct the transcriptions. Given that they . . . →Read More:JavaOne 2006 sessions are up with sound and transcripts

JavaOne session evaluation of my talk

I have received the session evaluations from the talk I did at JavaONE(TS-1669) (slides are available). Differently from the evaluation of the talk two years ago,this time it is more scientific. I guess pushing the evaluation paper on every attendee has paid of.

I am quite happy with the result. The top two quartiles . . . →Read More:JavaOne session evaluation of my talk

Nested Archive Toolkit

IBM alphaWorks has released an interesting tool called Nested Archive Tookit that allows to look inside the nested zip/jar/ear/war files. It looks to be useful for modification of config files deep inside the structure (e.g. web.xml inside foo.war inside bar.ear). It can also provide XML file with the description of the archive to the full . . . →Read More:Nested Archive Toolkit

JavaOne day 0 –the issues Sun will do nothing about

A lot of interesting questions were asked at alumni-only fireside chat with Sun team today. I am only going to mention the questions Sun did not have a good story for.

JVM on PDAs –Sun is pushing Java for Mobiles quite hard. Witness the support for SaveJe. This however is a difficult road especially . . . →Read More:JavaOne day 0 –the issues Sun will do nothing about

Link:Nice port and network services search engine

Ports-Services is a useful service to identify what might be listening on a particular port or what port should particular (well-known) service listen to.

It has some java related ports (RMI,Jini).

It also has trojan listings for the ports and it is a bit scary to see the useful service entries completely overshadowed by . . . →Read More:Link:Nice port and network services search engine

My talk made the top 10 suggestions for JavaOne 2006 Tools

Dana Nourie lists 10 presentations in tools space that she thinks are worth seeing at JavaOne 2006. My own presentation is there as well (number 7). Guess it struck the chord.

I also have 240+ people booked for my session as of now. No way to tell if that is many or not enough for . . . →Read More:My talk made the top 10 suggestions for JavaOne 2006 Tools

Ethereal (network protocol analyzer) 0.99 is out

Ethereal is a tool I always use when I have any kind of network related problems. Be it a firewall dropping packets,a server that incorrectly sets cookies or even an overly clever application that tries to obscure the exact network resources it uses. Ethereal collects that network data all the way up and down . . . →Read More:Ethereal (network protocol analyzer) 0.99 is out

The Art of _Technical_ Customer Service

Guy Kawasaki writes about the art of customer service. While all of the points are applicable,he did not take the one about integrating customer service into the mainstream far enough.

He talks that customer service people receiving accolades as much as sales,engineering and marketing. That’s great. But what about actively helping them to . . . →Read More:The Art of _Technical_ Customer Service