Author Archives: Jeanne Boyarsky

getting started with the Finch in NetBeans

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This year the robotics team is using The Finch for teaching the new programmers about programming.  The robot is cute and I know I’d want to play with it so I bought one too.

While I like Eclipse better than NetBeans, the programming team uses NetBeans.  I decided to try out NetBeans with the Finch so I’m familiar with their platform/interface.  I’ll want it soon enough anyway to check out NetBeans projects from git.

Step 1 – Install NetBeans on the Mac

  1. Download NetBeans – the basic JSE edition
  2. Open dmg file which allows you to choose to run the installer.
  3. Choose defaults and install
  4. When first launch NetBeans asks if want to install JUnit.  (not clear on why JUnit doesn’t come with NetBeans – it comes with Eclipse)
Step 2 – Import Finch project
This one took me a few minutes.  You need to
  1. Download the NetBeans project
  2. Copy it to the NetBeans project directory which is /Users/me/NetBeansProjects on a mac
  3. In NetBeans, File > “open project” and then drill down to Finch.
Step 3 – Run a program
  1. Connect the Finch’s USB to your computer.  (The tutorial doesn’t say this, but it is implied.)
  2. Per the tutorial, choose Run > Run File.
  3. Enjoy the Finch.  It’s so cute!
Step 4 – Run a different programs
I very carefully misunderstood the instructions about not choosing Run > Run and did it anyway.  Luckily, you can choose Run > Run File and have it ignore your preset default.  Or you can completely unset it by editing the file FinchBeans/nbproject/project.properties and removing the main class line.  Then I can remember to choose Run > Run File.

jeanne’s attempt at pomodoro

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When I work at home on personal computer projects, I have one of two problems:

  1. getting distracted from my main task by other computer things or other items that need doing around the house
  2. getting so absorbed in my task that I forget to look away from the computer causing me to get a headache and need to stop
Neither of these is an issue at work and I can usually get a couple hours of personal project stuff done on a given weekend day before it becomes a big problem.  Which is all the time I usually have anyway.  One weekend was different.  I was technical proofreading a 300-400 page book (The Well Grounded Java Developer) and needed to get a lot done in a short time.  I blocked out my weekend to have 15-20 hours to do it.  Then all I needed was focus.
I’d read about Pomodoro and decided it to try it with this particular project.  (which is evidence of problem #1 – I was experimenting with Pomodoro when I should be reading.)
Installing software
First I installed the GNU pomodairo app.  Including the download of Adobe AIR itself, this took less than ten minutes.  I added my tasks and kicked it off.
How it went
The beginning two Pomodoros were the toughest.
  1. On the first one, I got water 2 minutes before the break. I needed to trust it and wait longer.  The sound was a bit jarring.  I only read 3 pages (and played with an example.)  Not much momentum yet.
  2. On the second one, I worked a whole pomodoro but only read one page (and fiddled with examples).  I did get in the zone although I could have stayed there longer.  I took a break anyway to avoid burnout.  I did successfully wait out the Pomodoro to check my e-mail (which I noticed because gmail automatically pulls mail and I needed to refer to one as part of my task).  I learned the tool shows your pomodoro as interrupted if you don’t click the right button at the end of a Pomodoro.
  3. On the third one I was starting to feel the flow.  That time I did get fully into what I was doing in 25 minutes and got two tiny chores done during the break.
  4. At this point, it started working.  I got absorbed during every Pomodoro.
My stats weren’t correct.  I lost two pomodoros on the second chapter I read. I think it was because I didn’t explicitly select the next task when I finished the first one.  But the stats didn’t matter.  What mattered is that I was able to get focus and momentum going.  And I didn’t have a headache at the end of the day.
Conclusion
I’m not sure if it was the Pomodoros themselves that helped me or the fact that I was doing something different so felt obligated to be responsible.  Hmm.  That sounds like a good question to post on productivity.stackexchange.com.  Did so here.

installing postgres and tomcat on the mac

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Back when I was setting up my Mac, I installed Eclipse 3.7.  I also installed Postgres and Tomcat so I could run locally.  Postgres was either unnecessarily frustrating or it required knowledge I didn’t know I was missing.  The whole shared memory thing should have been a clue.  The good news is that I think I did almost everything wrong one could so I have a nice list of problems.  I wrote this up two months ago, but waited to post until I understood better what was going on.

I learned I didn’t know where the applications folder is on the hard drive.   First I learned you can view the path of a file in the finder. Which is all well and good.  It tells me the path is Macintosh HD > Applications > Eclipse.  Awesome.  On a UNIX file system, a directory has a slash up front.  Ok.  So I’m now at a UNIX prompt looking for it.  No Mac HD at the root level.  Volumes looks promising so I cd there and see Macintosh HD as a choice.  Great.  And there’s even an Applications folder under it with my apps!  I found it without having to use “find.”  That wasn’t bad, but it was more surprising than I expected.  I also noticed there is /Applications which will be more convenient next time.

Also, the “one click installer that doesn’t tell you what it is doing” installs some things by unzipping to the directory you are in, some files to /Library and presumably some files to who knows where.  Now I see the scripts I was expecting.

initdb doesn’t have enough privileges as me so I tried root and got initdb cannot be run as root.  Ok so it’s a real UNIX install where I need a user to run as.  I wasn’t expecting this because all my previous installs on the Mac have shielded me from a real UNIX install.

I thought I needed to create a  postgres user to run the database.  In Apple’s system preferences it tells me an id with that name already exists.  But /etc/passwd says nothing about it.  Running

dscl . -list /Users UniqueID

does turn up a postgres id. I need to figure out how the Mac Directory Service thing works.  Anyway, now that I know the postgres users exists I did “sudo passwd postgres” to reset the password to something I know.  Turns out the “sorry” message when trying to sudo to postgres wasn’t from an incorrect password.  Eureka!  I needed to type “sudo su postgres” and then type *my* admin password to switch.  Which kind of makes sense because my regular id isn’t allowed to switch user but my sudo admin user is.

I then changed owner of /Library/PostgreSQL recursively to postgres user.  A nice easy step.  (sudo chown -R postgres /Library/Post*)

Finally, I could run initdb and get prompted for the new superuser password!

I then tried to start the database and got a complaint the lock file already exists.

FATAL:  lock file “/tmp/.s.PGSQL.5432.lock” already exists

HINT:  Is another postmaster (PID 94) using socket file “/tmp/.s.PGSQL.5432”?bash-3.2$

Tried rebooting.  Error still there.  Turns out postgres automatically starts up.  I went on to create a user and database using the usual commands.

Then I opened pgadmin to see if I could access the database.

Connected – maintenance db is database name.

Almost there.  I used the wrong password for the id I created in postgres.  (This matters because the coderanch integration tests assume a certain password.  And because the one I picked I will never remember.)

alter user postgres with password ‘better_password’;

Importing data from file went smoothly.

Ongoing Little problems

  1. Copy paste from Eclipse doesn’t work.  You have to go through textedit.
  2. Postgres uses shift arrow key to select a line.  I wish Apple apps would all use the same convention.

Resources

  • http://developer.apple.com/internet/opensource/postgres.html
  • http://zanshin.net/2009/09/07/installing-postgresql-on-mac-10-6-snow-leopard/ – except for the building from source parts this was useful

Tomcat

Given how many problems I had with Postgres, I decided to follow a tutorial for Tomcat.  This one was easy to understand.  I know enough about the Mac to understand what the sudo is for (to be an admin.)  And the rest is pure UNIX – permissions, making a symbolic link, etc.