|
|
Script to build a Java classpath
May 13 2008
If you need to compile or run Java programs from the command line, it can be a real hassle to identify all the jar libraries the program requires and include them in your classpath. Here is a short script that will do this work for you on Unix, Linux or… read moreS3 Copy Object feature is now available in beta
May 05 2008
Amazon has announced beta support for the Copy Object operation in S3. This feature was pre-announced in March. The copy functionality allows you to copy objects within or between your S3 buckets, and optionally to replace the metadata associated with the object in the process. The single new operation makes… read moreBrowser Uploads to S3 using HTML POST Forms
May 01 2008
I have added an article about the S3 service’s POST upload feature to the AWS resources site: Browser Uploads to S3 using HTML POST Forms. The article describes how to create HTML POST forms that allow your web site visitors to upload files into your S3 account using a standard web… read moreProgramming Amazon Web Services is published
March 26 2008
I am pleased to announce that my book Programming Amazon Web Services: S3, EC2, SQS, FPS and SimpleDB is now officially published and should soon be available from booksellers. It will hopefully prove to be a valuable resource for people who are building applications on top of Amazon’s infrastructure services,… read moreAmazon is planning to add “copy” support to S3
March 22 2008
Amazon AWS developers are planning to add a new “copy” feature to the Simple Storage Service (S3) API that will make it possible to copy your data objects to a new location in the service. This feature could be used to rename objects you have already stored (copy to a… read moreRuby on Rails: errors when launching threads from a controller
March 19 2008
While writing a proof-of-concept Ruby on Rails application (Ruby 1.8.6, Rails 2.0.2) I was stumped by an intermittent problem where long-lived processes would fail with the error message: <ArgumentError: A copy of TransactionController has been removed from the module tree but is still active!> Admittedly, I do some potentially dodgy things… read moreGmail bug? Conversation labels do not apply to new messages
March 13 2008
Gmail has a nasty bug (or quirk) that I have only just discovered. It explains why I sometimes have trouble searching for specific emails in my archive. To use Gmail effectively you will need to know about this bug, and how to avoid it. Background In Gmail, messages are automatically grouped together… read moreMarch 05 2008
In my time at University I was fortunate enough to be able to study Philosophy. And I mean properly study it; I finished a major, completed and enjoyed an honours year, and considered doing a PhD. Ultimately I decided against a career in academia (or whatever it is one does… read moreAn introduction to Amazon’s infrastructure services
March 03 2008
Here is a video interview with Jeff Barr from Amazon.com talking about the AWS infrastructure services – Amazon’s Challenge to Business: Turn Off Your Datacenter. The video gives an introduction to the services, followed by some in-depth technical discussion. If you are new to the Amazon Web Services, this is… read moreGmail mobile phone application for Google Apps
February 29 2008
I have been using Google Apps – Google’s set of hosted email and collaboration tools that are available from your own domain name – for some time now. The service works very well but it has one annoying drawback: many of Google’s other services and tools do not recognise your… read moreShell script to find a class in a set of Jar files
February 19 2008
When you work on a Java project with many library dependencies it can be difficult to know which Jar files contain which classes. Hunting down a particular class in a tangled mess of Jar files can be painful, especially if you need to do so on a server over a… read moreMajor S3 and AWS outage leaves us in the dark in more ways than one
February 15 2008
A number of Amazon’s AWS services suffered a massive outage earlier today. For some customers, the S3 data storage service was unavailable for hours. The forum thread where this drama played out makes for some interesting reading. Most notable is the ongoing clamour of users for information fr read moreSOAP - the complexity of simple
February 15 2008
A friend recently asked me how to go about writing code to access a SOAP API to perform a one-off task. Below is the bare-bones step-by-step summary I sent him. I feel sorry for anyone encountering this travesty for the first time… Find a good free SOAP library (eg Apache Axis) Obtain… read moreFebruary 09 2008
Amazon have announced a new API version (2008-01-01) for the Simple Queue Service. The new API promises much cheaper usage fees for the service, but the API update includes a number of major changes that are not compatible with prior API versions. For those already familiar with SQS, you can find… read moreFebruary 07 2008
I am pleased to announce the release of JetS3t version 0.6.0, available now from the JetS3t web site. This release has been a long time coming (over a year since 0.5.0) and it includes numerous bug fixes and enhancements. read more