gpoul's Out Of Memory Blog

This is not rocket science, but I’ve already looked up how to configure the language for a WAS JVM to en_US several times and it always takes quite a long time to find the right switches. To make life easier for all of us, I decided to write this short blog post :-)

To switch the JVM language to en_US either configure the following two custom properties on the WAS JVM settings:

user.language=en
user.country=US


or add -Duser.language=en -Duser.country=US to the JVM’s Generic JVM properties.

After downloading RAD V8.5 images two weeks ago I tried to install it last week, but didn’t have much luck as I always got some installation errors from Installation Manager before the installation would even start about some missing features in the disk images.

Yesterday I had some more time and googled for my problem and found a discussion on developerWorks that covers a similar RAD V8.5 installation error. It turns out there is a corruption in the RAD_WS_8.5_Master.zip image and there is a replacement up on the public.dhe.ibm.com server. After downloading this replacement image I was able to successfully install RAD V8.5 and the WAS V8.5 test environment and the Liberty Profile.

btw: The disk image on Passport Advantage Online should be fixed on July 3.

We’ve long had websites that could decode WAS passwords, but it’s not really wise to share your sensitive passwords with others or trust them that the javascript only runs in your browser without any hidden backchannels.

Then there were the tricks with quite long java command lines that you can find on google, but they’re not really easy to remember and you always had to write your own shell scripts.

I can’t really solve that, but I found a nice new variant that doesn’t need a long java command-line, but rather uses the wsadmin and Jython IBM ships with WAS.

Encoding:


$ ./wsadmin.sh -lang jython -conntype none -c "import com.ibm.ws.security.util.PasswordEncoder as pe; pe.main(['foo']);"
WASX7357I: By request, this scripting client is not connected to any server process. Certain configuration and application operations will be available in local mode.
decoded password == "foo", encoded password == "{xor}OTAw"


Decoding:


$ ./wsadmin.sh -lang jython -conntype none -c "import com.ibm.ws.security.util.PasswordDecoder as pd; pd.main(['{xor}OTAw']);"
WASX7357I: By request, this scripting client is not connected to any server process. Certain configuration and application operations will be available in local mode.
encoded password == "{xor}OTAw", decoded password == "foo"


not easy to remember either, but I like it :)

Running Linux on a Mac has been possible for quite some time, but it was never really easy or a “great” experience. It doesn’t help that Apple is not the most open company regarding the hardware or software they design, but their hardware really works well and there are only a few hardware variations to support, so it would be an interesting proposition if there would be a Linux distribution out there that would support the hardware well enough and provide a nice installation experience.

We’re not there yet, but the Fedora team made quite some progress recently and improved the Mac support in Fedora 17. They were even able to build a hybrid iso that boots natively on a Mac.

Last week Lenovo finally announced their new ThinkPad T430, T430s, T530, W530, and X1 Carbon with Ivy Bridge. [via engadget]

I’m still very much a fan of the W5x0 workstation and the thin-and-light T4x0s. The newly released ThinkPad X1 Carbon also looks pretty neat, but unfortunately it’s only offered with 8GB RAM max and has no ThinkPad docking port. I’m sure there is an audience that will like those anyway given how MacBook Airs also get sold, but most of the people who’re used to the ThinkPads docking port and need a thin-and-light notebook will probably still choose the T430s.

btw: the first one to get a W530, please let me know if they reduced the size of its power brick :-)

Have you ever wondered what Twitter knows about you, but never found the motivation to request a copy of the information they store about you? Andy didn’t only do that, but he wrote a blog post about what Twitter knows about him and did some analysis on the data.

In the last weeks I’ve been asked twice about the future of Lotus Symphony and OpenOffice. To learn more about this I’d definitely recommend you read the post Ed wrote after the release of Apache OpenOffice 3.4.

Update 5/21: Combining Symphony with OpenOffice.

On April 24 IBM announced the release of WebSphere Application Server V8.5 and it’s especially exciting to see our innovation in the application server space continue with this very strong release.

It includes the following new capabilities:

• Liberty Profile
• Application Edition Management
• Intelligent Routing Capabilities
• Application Server Health Management
• Dynamic Clustering
• Support for Java SE 7

This new version of WAS will eGA on June 15, 2012, and GA on July 13, 2012.

Two weeks ago IBM announced a new category of systems called Expert Integrated Systems. The IBM PureSystems family initially consists of two products. The most interesting for me is the PureApplication System, which combines Compute Nodes, Storage, Networking, and Middleware Software into one easy to manage platform as a service.

The PureApplication System provides a unique opportunity for our clients to focus on what’s important for their business instead of integrating, assembling, and testing all these components on their own and gives them a time to value that has never been achieved before.

To get an overview of the IBM PureSystems Family, watch the video below, or attend Jason’s Keynote tomorrow at IMPACT.

The ultimate test: Running WAS Liberty Profile on the Raspberry Pi