Mac and Windows Native App Packaging for Java and JavaFX

With the release of Java 7 u6, native packaging support for Windows and Mac Java FX applications is available to everyone. This is totally awesome and I plan to dive in, but haven't yet. But don't wait for me, here are the details so you can get started.



For Mac OS X packaging, here are the details:

• Java Mac Packaging Guide


• AppBundler Project

And for Windows, check out Igor's original post:

Igor's Packaging Blog Post

Java 7 u6 Released

Java 7 u6 is in the wild. Full Mac OS X support is the big calling card in this release, along with Java FX 2.2.



Java 7 u6

Screenium Screen Recorder

This weekend I was trying to figure out how to make a copy of a streamed Flash movie. There is stream recording software out there. However, the easy to use stuff is not free, nor does it work that well. But sometimes, the simplest solution is the best.



So I ended up buying Screenium which is an inexpensive screen recording tool for the Mac. And it did an excellent job of making a copy of the video. Of course it is not perfect as I had to capture the audio and video. But for my purposes, making a copy of an interview for future reference, it worked great.



Also, Screenium is on sale this week for 50% off. So if you want a copy I think you need to buy it today at the latest.

JQuery Accordion Style vi Cheat Sheet

Over the weekend I was able to complete an accordion style vi cheat sheet using JQuery on the Tools section of my web site. It is based on a really good cheat sheet that is linked at the bottom of my page. I just added some style changes, reordered it and made it expand or collapse sections.



If I can find the time, I'll try to make a offline version of the cheat sheet using HTML5.

Mac OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) is out

It's here! Mac OS X Mountain Lion is available on the Mac App Store. CNET has a review.A lot more iOS and iCloud integration. So apps like iMessage and Reminder will also be on your desktop, making them a lot more useful.



As always, I will be waiting for the first major patch before I start installing it.

Internet Usage by Operating System

I found this interesting so I thought I would share:

Usage share of Operating Systems



For my next project at work, I was wondering what operating system to use for any activities. The original course, which this content is based off of, was written for Solaris. But I can't imagine most potential students would have that. So one way of determining operating system usage is to look at statistics gathered by browsers. So the link shows that data for Wikipedia and some other sites that gather these sort of statistics.



Some observations:

• Windows usage is still around around 70% with most users on Windows 7 and XP.


• iPhone plus iPad plus Android share is already over 10%. Smaller than I thought it would be, but if you think world wide usage it makes a lot of sense. Smart phones and tablets are just beginning to penetrate everywhere. And tablets are really gonna take off with 7" form factors and $200 list prices like the Google Nexus 7.


• Mac OS X combined with Linux is only around 10%.

As another data point, I looked at the stats from one of my web sites (abbeyworkshop.com) to see what the geeks are using during the last year. Windows is still strong at 62%, but Mac OS X plus Linux jumps up to 36%. Way to go geeks!



Anyway, it looks like Windows 7 and XP are still my primary targets. But maybe I should think about Linux in the future.

Apple announcements galore!

Apple made a ton of announcements today at their World Wide Developers Conference. Here is a link to the Verge's summary:

The Verge: Best of WWDC 2012

The biggest announcements appears to be the new MacBook Pro Uber. A crazily loaded 15 inch machine with a retina display for $2200. That is a pretty amazing price for what you get.



The new IOS 6 and OS X Mountain Lion announcements were interesting but didn't really measure up to the MacPro Uber! Though I should say, Siri will be included with IOS 6 and expect some functionality updates. Siri being very sports aware was the biggest example given.

Great Cross Platform Programmer's Editor

I am always looking for good tools. When I just need a text editor, I typically use JEdit. It is free, open source, and since it is written in Java, works well on Mac, Linux or Windows. However, JEdit is not always the simplest tool to configure and use.



Recently I ran across Sublime Text. For $60, you get a really nice editor, with an easy to use interface. Plus, the editor is skinnable so you have a number of options on how the editor and your code actually look. It has nice code completion features with customization options. Top that off with the fact it runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux. It is definitely worth a look.

Where is JDK 7 after Mac OS X Install?

Problem: I just installed JDK 7 on Mac OS X, but it seemed like nothing happened. What do I do, where is it installed?



Solution: Everything is explained in the ReadMe. Unfortunately, I missed the link on the last screen of the installer. So here is the link in case you missed it:

JDK 7 Mac OS X ReadMe



Basically, use the Java Preferences application in the /Applications/Utilities directory to choose which version of Java to use. Then open a Terminal window and you will see the JDK you selected is being used.

JDK 7 for Mac OS X is out!

JDK 7 for Mac OS X is out! Yes finally JDK 7 is available for Mac OS X and it includes JavaFX 2.1. A new version of NetBeans (7.1.2) was also released.

Henrick Stahl has the details on the JDK 7 release.

OS X Mountain Lion Adds App Certificates

I found this story from MacWorld on the new certificate system that is being added to the next version of OS X. In essence, any application you wish to install and run on a Mac will need a certificate from Apple identifying the developer. Apple does not have to vet the app, but developers do need to get the certs to sign their apps with.



A few thoughts.

• On the plus side of the ledger, this is intended to and should prevent a lot of malware. That is a good thing and should make for secure systems.


• As long as Apple makes the process relatively inexpensive and easy to use, it should be good. Charging too much would, of course, be devastating to the platform.


• However, I do wonder how well this will work if you are installing an application and your Internet connection is down. Or if you are on a plane without an Internet connection.


• In Mountain Lion, you can still install unsigned applications by answering some security questions. So your computer is not totally locked down.


• I do wonder if a more free market approach would be better. Allowing trusted 3rd parties to issue certificates would provide a feeling that Apple is not trying to control everything.


• Not sure this help with browser based attacks which would seem more likely in the years to come.

Collapse and Expand threads with Thunderbird

Here is a quick Thunderbird tip. My inbox has been annoying me lately because I can't read collapsed threads. Did you know Thunderbird has keyboard shortcuts for expanding and collopasing threads? Me neither.



To expand all threads, click the astericks key (*). To collaps all threads hit the backslash key (\).

Library Folder Missing in Lion

I just noticed today that my Library folder was missing on Mac OS X Lion. The folder is located in /Users/YourUserNameHere/Library. The folder is still there, it just doesn't show up in finder. To unhide it, open a terminal window and type:



chflags nohidden ~/Library



You should now be able to see the folder in Finder again.



A more complete write up on the subject can be found on CNET:

CNET: Where did my Library go?

MacLife: Apple MD - Troubleshooting your Mac and iOS Apps

This months issue of MacLife has a great series of stories on troubleshooting problems with your Mac, iPhone, and iPad.



Here are the best ones I could find:

• How to Diagnose Mac Problems | Mac|Life


• How to Reset iOS Apps | Mac|Life


• Why's My Mac Slow? | Mac|Life


• How to Boot Your Mac in Safe Mode | Mac|Life


• How to Fix Your Fonts | Mac|Life


• How to Recover Your Passwords | Mac|Life


• How to Sweep Your Drive Clean with Software | Mac|Life

I highly recommend a subscription.

OS X Tip: Figuring out Server, Background Issues

Problem: I try to start Web Sharing, File Sharing, or a similar background process in OS X and it fails. The process quits with no error message. What do I do?



Solution: Open your Applications --> Utilities folder. In there, start the Console application. This little app captures all the error messages and warnings thrown by the operating system. Try starting the process again. You should see the error message display in the console. From here, you can start figuring out what is wrong.

Mac OS X Lion After Upgrading Review Notes

Well after upgrading to iOS 5 last week I found out iCloud does not work with OS X Snow Leopard. Yes that is a bit bizarre. So over the weekend I upgraded to OS X Lion. Here is a quick summary of my thoughts and findings with Lion.



UI Enhancements

You will get the most benefit from UI enhancements if you are using a trackpad. Switching desktops, and calling Expose (now called Mission Control) can all be controlled with a three finger swipe. Very cool.



Another feature of note is the direction of scrolling has been flipped. The idea is that scrolling should match the direction you use for a touch interface. However, my Mac doesn't have a touch interface. In addition, I'm constantly switching between Windows, Linux, and OS X. So changing the scrolling direction on one OS is really annoying. Thankfully you can still turn this off.



iCloud

Well it turns out the iCloud feature that I really want to use, music syncing, will not be available until the end of October. So enabling the feature has been a bit disappointing. You can sync bookmarks, address book, and calendars. However, unless this will work on other operating systems its kind of useless for me. GMail already keeps all my iOS devices synced and it works on any platform. I still need to do more investigation on syncing between Mac and Windows to really understand what works.



Other Surprises

Installing OS X Lion removes Java from your machine. You can download it from Apple and get it back easily. I did find this a bit odd. Also my Apache Web servers no longer worked on upgraded machines. I had to comment out the FastCGI plugin so Apache would start.



Overall

It has some nice enhancements and pretty much is not that different from Snow Leopard. All my apps seem to run fine (knock on wood), and stability seems to be good. So far so good. But I have to say, it sure was a lot of work just to be able to use iCloud. :)

Mac OS X Proxy Settings Do Not Work

Problem: You have just turned on proxy support for Mac OS X. However, even though your proxy settings are correct, Safari and Chrome cannot connect to any web site. In addition, no proxy settings work, Auto Proxy Discovery, Automatic Proxy Configuration, and Web Proxy (HTTP). The settings are correct, but the browser cannot connect.



When this happened to me, Firefox and SeaMonkey worked just fine. Bizarre and frustrating.



Solution: Reboot you system. Yep, that's it.



In my particular case, as soon as I rebooted with Auto Proxy Discovery checked, everything on my system began to work fine. I hope this post helps save the time of other poor soul who runs into this. lol. No idea why the reboot is required.

App Week

This week I am going to write about some apps and Mac apps I use a lot or have used a lot in the past.



The Mac app store was announced quite a while back, but I never used it until a few weeks ago. Much to my surprise a number of my favorite apps now are on the store. Simply purchasing the app on the store, makes it available on all your Macs. Thus, the App store allows you to sync your purchased apps to all your Macs. Hope you like these apps as much as I do.

Smultron OS X Text Editor - Now in Mac App Store!

I have written about Smultron before a few times. A free open source text editor for the Mac that works really well. However, the original author, Peter Borg, no longer had time to maintain it so the project was on life support. So I stopped using it.



A few weeks back I got some good news. I found Smultron was on the Mac App store for $5. Smultron is back!



Smultron - Mac App Store



That is a great price for such a useful tool. I purchased it right away and now I am using it again on all my Macs. So if you want an easy to use, yet powerful Mac native text editor, check out Peter's site for more information: Peter Borg Apps

OS X Tip: Two Hidden Airport Wifi Features

Ran across a couple of Airport wifi features today that I did not know about.



First, there is a built in airport command you merely need to add a link to. Once you do that, you can do a number of queries on the command line. Details can be found here:



airport � the Little Known Command Line Wireless Utility



Second, just hold down the option key and click on your Airport icon on the menu bar. This provides some pretty detailed information about your connection.