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JAXB sucks

Allow me to enumerate the many ways I hate JAXB. JAXB is an XML data binding tool for Java; that is, it generates code to make using XML more Java-like. This is great in concept. In reality it is not so great:

  • Two days away from your project due date, JAXB lets you know that it isn’t mindful of the method size limits in the JVM. Javac tells you: “code too large.”
  • There’s a limit to method sizes in the JVM?
  • Upon examining a generated class, you discover 25k lines of utter garbage. Things like the same if-then clause being repeated twice in a row.
  • Turning off generation of the validator, or the unmarshaller, or the validating unmarshaller does have the effect of reducing code size, at a cost of generating code that doesn’t compile.
  • Or if it compiles, it throws a runtime exception when you use it.
  • The object hierarchy is all screwed up, such that a concrete implementation type may implement a (JAXB internal) interface that is not also implemented by the corresponding abstract interface (the two are supposed to be interchangeable).
  • You have to do naughty proprietary things to make type substitution work.
  • Creates a new namespace prefix for practically every element even though I only use 3 namespaces in the entire document.

I only just learned about XMLBeans. Dammit.

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Mod

LCD screen

This is going in my mythtv box. I used to have a VFD there but it didn’t work well with lcdproc and the parallel interface required running a cable out of the back of the unit to connect to the parallel port. Very ghetto. This module has a USB interface so I can run it directly to the appropriate motherboard headers. The fun part is just beginning though: while the module matches the case’s display window perfectly, it is too thick to be mounted in the space between the hard drives and the front panel. So I’m going to have to really mod the case – relocate the hard drives elsewhere, and poke a bigger hole in the front. Oh well, at least it’s an excuse to buy a Dremel.

Mythtv now has nice support for LCDs built-in. I’ll try and put up a couple of pictures when I get it all together.

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New goodies

One of the products of Saturday’s spending spree arrived last night: a midrange Denon 7.1 home theater receiver. I think the power supply in my old Aiwa is about to give up the ghost, as the display has dimmed significantly, and the system turned itself off on me once or twice. Also it never really delivered enough power to my speakers in the first place. The new one, though… it’s like I have a whole new HT setup. One really nice feature of this unit is that it comes with a microphone that you place at your listening location, and the amp automatically calibrates the speaker levels and delays. Much more accurate than my previous adjustments by ear, and much less work than the tripod and meter approach favored by Welsh. Unlike all of the other consumer electronics gear I’ve purchased in the past, this one will finally grant me happiness and personal fulfillment.

I’m going to try to freecycle the old amp (unless anyone else I know wants it). No sense in contaminating some third world water supply with electronic waste.

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Free books

On a whim I bought EFFer and BoingBoinger Cory D’s Eastern Standard Tribe when I saw it in a local bookstore. It was actually much better than I had expected, after that really bad excerpt from his next book. So I read EST in dead tree form, and I liked it! Of course one neat thing about Cory’s novels is that he releases them under various Creative Commons licenses, so you can download them at no charge if you are so inclined. After finishing up EST, I downloaded and read Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, which is a novella-length Disney commercial masquerading as SF. Not good, but at least I didn’t pay for it. The book does have the distinction of being only the second book I’ve read entirely in electronic form (the first: Animal Farm).

Saw Sin City over the weekend. Probably one of the best conversions of a comic book to film. And don’t call it a graphic novel kids, you aren’t fooling anyone. The movie is violent, but all the blood is in black and white, which curiously didn’t affect me whereas Kill Bill made me queasy.

Google maps: now with satellite imagery!

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Kites

I leave for the Mall this morning, because I am bored, and because yesterday I spent nearly the entire day on the couch avoiding the rain and buying lots of things on the internet. So they are having this kite festival today, as part of the NCBF. I intend to take pictures, but my camera’s battery is dead. I stop first at a roped-off field where two guys are facing off in a trick flying competition. One guy makes his kite walk on the ground – neat! (I could probably do that too, but not on purpose.)

It is a blustery day as it always is when the cherry trees are in bloom, so I plan to walk around a bit, then head inside, maybe watch an IMAX film or something like that. Halfway to the Capitol, I’m watching someone dump their frog-shaped kite into a tree, when I nearly bump into Steven of the alumni club. This is a lucky coincidence, apparently half the young alumni are also here, flying kites with varying levels of success, or watching the others’ triumphs and failures. So instead of going inside I stick it out a bit longer and join the watchers. A bit of the old vicarious thrill takes over as we watch young kids and grown-up kids struggle with kites of all shapes: colored diamonds, boxes, squares, cylinders, an airborne menagerie of dragons, turtles, pteradactyls, insects, a fleet of airplanes, rockets, and even a pirate ship. Wes’ simple black and neon diamond tangles with the nearby box kite and the mighty Superman…at least seven or eight times. Knots ensue.

Soon the wind gets the best of everyone so we head to the cafeteria of the new Native American museum. The food is good but it isn’t cheap. I believe the cashier’s small talk is an unspoken apology for the pricing. She is no doubt accustomed to sudden frowns of tired visitors when the total is announced and wallets are emptied. So we eat our authentic Native American foods and drink our not so authentic Coca Colas, then lunch is over and we part. I return home to reoccupy my couch.

Well, at least I did something this weekend.

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Braindump

I helped a lady carry her luggage down the escalator this morning. She told me she had a hernia condition and that I was very kind and which way does she go to get to the airport. I said, “Blue line, this platform.” I’m a nice guy right? Wrong. She walked down to the end of the platform, I stayed somewhere near the middle, then I proceeded to watch her get on the next Orange line train, without making an effort to stop her. So, I’m a jerk. (Someone else told her so she managed to get off the train in time.)

The coolest thing Georgia Tech has ever done: hooking the laundry machines up to the Net. Too bad they just bought some company’s software instead of rolling it themselves.

Accenture (aka Andersen Consulting) is (still) running an ad campaign sporting Tiger Woods (“Be a Tiger” – PDF). Who sees these and thinks, oh hey, Accenture will do to my IT infrastructure what Tiger Woods did for the PGA? Also regarding the linked ad: I didn’t know golf normally involved so much theory. But, yes, Stephen Hawking himself has written several papers on the composition of bunkers (“Hawking Sand”) and their impact on the dynamic subspace domain of score gradients. Of course the real story here is that they are trying to make an impression on the decision makers, who play golf four days a week. Hire us for your consulting work and you can pretend you are good at this ridiculous “sport.”

My favorite unix utility is dd. Most recently, it saved all of my music on my multitracker’s dying hard drive. What did I do before unix, copy /b?

I hate the April 1st internet scene. Except for this awesome tutorial — that one is cool.

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Going Underground

I don’t know why, but the demise of the Crystal City Underground (where I work) fascinates me. Perhaps it’s because the place is dominated by the most marginal of retail stores yet the least worthwhile seem to be the ones with the most staying power. Since the last update, the following stores have left: B. Dalton, Kraven’s deli, The Dutch Lady, Like On TV, the store that sold earrings to prostitots, and whatever used to be between the Village Cobbler and The Engraving Store. Mad About Bears and Puppet Heaven: both still around. I marvel at the demographics that make Taco Bell an unsustainable business while any place that sells statues of dogs is a guaranteed hit.

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Euros

The best part about Coinstar, after fattening your wallet with bills and the satisfyingly loud noise of money-meets-machinery, is all the reject change that the device spits out. I can’t help but wonder what story lies behind the migration of 22 euro-cents from the Old World into the penny tray of whichever stateside cash register housed them before they wound up in my pocket. The river of money is a marvelous thing. And I got a wheat penny too.

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Vai


Last night I went to Baltimore with Wizz and Newman to watch Steve Vai in all of his completely over-the-top vainglory. That’s not me being harsh, that’s just his shtick: the guy even has a fan on stage to blow his long flowing tresses about. As Brandon put it, “wardrobe changes, interpretive dance, homo-erotic guitar sharing, what more could you want?” Well, for all that, the guy definitely has skills. Pictured above-left is one of the highlights of the evening: Vai and other masterful guitarist / keyboard player Tony MacAlpine trading licks behind someone’s gargantuan head. TMAC’s shirt said “I trip over my wiener” and there’s a picture of a dachshund. The show closed with a jam number including special guest Mike Keneally aka Hat Guy, bringing the total number of guitarists on stage to five.



One thing is clear: I need a guitar with LEDs in the fretboard.

I left my wallet in Brandon’s car, and didn’t feel like going back over to retrieve it at 1:30 AM last night. This brought up an interesting problem: how do you get to work the next day if Metro costs $5 and you have no money or no obvious way to get money? The answer: Coinstar! Though, it just might be a good idea to keep a couple twenties in the house in case that ever happens again.

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Paint

Well now that Tech’s been knocked out I don’t have to care about the tourney anymore. Good luck NC State!

Last weekend I finished up painting my bedroom. I’m not really happy with the color though: I was expecting something a little darker or more silvery than I wound up with. Something a bit more masculine. The color Hemingway might paint his bedroom between killing a bull and drinking a tumbler of rum straight up. But instead I have this light pastel blue. So I may just repaint it another color while I still have all my furniture moved out. What does the bluesterror readership think?


Here is my living room. I like it except for the clash with the existing wallpaper.