Bundles in OSGi

Interestingly, there is a new project called OSGi which is a specification for developing and managing software components life cycle in Java.

There is a new concept called “Bundle.” A bundle is actually a group of required Java files and resouces.  It is similar to a Jar file which is a zip file containing java class file and resources. However, a Jar file does not have information about OSGi which is used for managing the software component life cycle. It allows developers to add or remove a Java component (bundle) during runtime. Read here for more info on OSGi. Costin Leau wrote a good article on Bundle.

You can simply develop a bundle according to OSGi with Eclipse. Simply select a Plugin Project and choose Equinox as a platform. Equinox is like a container implementing the OSGi specification. You can run your bundles on Equinox.

For a typical java application, you would make sure that you have all necessary jar files. For OSGi, you have to specify the required bundles. Each required bundles will look for its required bundles on its own. If you have a legazy Jar file, you can turn an old jar files into a bundle as well.

If your applications need some kind of modifying components during runtime, you may consider OSGi.

Something that Yahoo is better than Google

I remembered the old days of searching using Yahoo. Nowsaday, I used Google. I wondered why Yahoo is still running.

I found out that some friends from other nations still using Yahoo mails.

Sometimes, Babelfish (now owned by Yahoo) has a better translation from German to English than Google translator.

Actual meaning of Warmieter and Kaltmieter in German

I knew that the Kaltmieter is the rent without the other costs (Nebenkosten in German), and Warmieter is the rent with Nebenkosten. I did not know why they call it Kaltmieter and Warmieter.

Until today, the person sit next to me in a computer lab said that it is cold in the room. Cold is “Kalt” in German. Then I realize that the Nebenkosten in some apartments includes the cost of heating from Gas. Nebenkosten can include a lot of cost such as cabel, house maintenance, insurance, central electricity,  heat, etc. “Warm” in German means hot. I guess that Warmieter refers to the cost of the rent and the Nebenkosten, because it includes the cost of heating.

Stop Disaster Game

Stopdisastersgame.org is a cool interesting education game which teachs you how to increase the defence to disasters. There are many scenarios including flood, earthquake, hurricane, and wildfire which you have to manage infrasctructure in the city to defence those disaster effectively. I tried the flooding scenario, and I found out that there three things I can defense my house which are using the waterproof sealant to prevent water going inside, installing sewer backflow to prevent water from sewage to go back to the house during, and raising the electrical stuffs higher.

For a complete guide on protecting a house from flood try reading this article from FEMA.

Erasmus Mundus : European Projects for Higher Education

It is interesting that there are some interesting projects from the European Union. One of them is the Erasmus Mundus program which promotes higher educations in EU. There are two main programs: exchange program for college students and master program. For the exchange program, college students in EU can have their exchange semester in other universities in EU. For the master program, it is a colloboration master program of 2-4 universities in EU. They provide scholarship for non-EU students. Lists of available master program can be found here. There are new master programs every year. For example, there is a program called European Master of Informatics (EuMI) where students study informatics in 2 universities.