Our client has just jumped from WLS 10.1 to 10.3. Unfortunately, Oracle have decided a point release was a great time to upgrade the required JVM to 10.6, so I'm back to struggling to get things working.

Currently, the best way seems to be:

1. Hack your JVM

WebLogic's installer won't detect the Apple JVM by default. To convince it that it's kosher, do the following as sudo:

cd /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6/Home
mkdir -p jre/bin
mkdir jre/lib
cd jre/bin
ln -s ../../bin/java 
cd ../lib
ln -s ../../../Classes/classes.jar rt.jar

2. Con the installer

Oracle still haven't fixed disc space detection, so you'll need to lie to the installer about your OS.

java -Dos.name=unix -jar server103_generic.jar

3. Knock your memory up a notch

You'll need to modify your <domain>/bin/setDomainEnv.sh file to increase memory settings. I use:

MEM_ARGS=“-Xms512m -Xmx1024m -XX:MaxPermSize=196m”

4. Enjoy the CPU stealing disc space crunching power of WLS

Fun for all, except your overworked laptop.

EyeTV 2.4 was release today. Among its release notes were many things, but one big one was unmentioned - it now supports H.264 decoding, including that of BBC HD.

It doesn't seem quite so tolerant as some of the Windows codecs, but it works, and fairly fast as well - as long as the signal is strong. Hurrah!

Hurrah! There I was, watching as Elgato and Miglia fell out, when I stumbled across a link with BDA drivers for the TVMini for Windows. This is somewhat handy, given the version of Windows on my Mac is Media Centre Edition. This is even more handy given I had previous failed to get this working under Windows.

Hurrah for digital telly!

While I wait for my Wii to arrive I have a second controller in hand, sitting, not doing much. What to do with it?

WiiSaber.

Connect it to your Mac and let the force flow through you! Fantastic stuff, and a little safer than MacSaber at that.

For those who want a little more control, there's DawiinRemote, and even technical specifications. Reverse engineering is a wonderful discipline.

Yesteday Steve Jobs came out with a rather neat toy - the iPhone. It's small, it's running a variant of Mac OS X, it's completely touch screen driven - given my lack of love for my Windows Mobile device, I was rather excited.

 Then the details came out - EDGE, no 3G (EDGE is conspicuous in its absence from the UK), no expansion slot (which makes the photo viewer somewhat less useful on the run) and most disappointingly, no European release until Q42007. It's also been announced at US$599 with a 2 year contract, so no doubt we'll be lucky to get it at £400 with a similar period of tie-in.

 Worst of all, Steve spent the better part of 90 minutes waxing lyrical about this, and neglected to mention anything about Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), a new iLife or iWork, or any chance of video in the iTunes store outside the US. The first is surprising, given it's aimed for a spring release, the second is a break from tradition and the third sharply drops of the usefulness of the announced AppleTV.

 All in all, less than exciting. Nothing to see here...

2006 is rapidly drawing to a close, and yet I find Microsoft and MarkSpace conspiring to make it difficult.

First up, the Vista upgrade redemption from the good people at Microsoft. For those who acquired an OEM copy of WinXP during the later stages of the year there is a free upgrade to Vista on offer. To do this, jump over to their web-site and enter the coupon details, and Bob is your proverbial uncle.

If only. Firstly, the site is terrible. My first try in November was met by a refusal of the site to acknowledge that Windows XP MCE existed. Today's try got a little further than that at least, but it was a painful journey. Every time you enter something the page reloads. Completely. Even for the obvious choices - such as selecting the only possible upgrade option, and then the quantity. And they use US dates, even when I've said I'm in the UK and my browser asks for UK English. Do I need to play Land of Hope and Glory as well?

Nor can you go back. God forbid that you make a mistake. This becomes particularly problematic around payment. Select your payment type - credit card or debit card. Easy. I've got a Visa card with DEBIT CARD printed in large capital letters across it. It's not easy to confuse it with a credit card. And yet, they only believe in Solo/Switch debit cards. Further, you can't go back. 'Cancel' I cry! They ask am I sure, for if I cancel the order then I'll have to contact customer support. 'Cancel payment' I click instead, and am helpfully returned to exactly the same page. Further, submission results in a generic failure and a 'please try again' message. However, trying again results in 'this coupon has already been used'. Could this all be an elaborate measure to ensure Vista's security by never shipping it? One wonders...

On the desktop side, MarkSpace and their Missing Sync for Windows Mobile product has been driving me mad. Not only did they release the WM5 version (v2.5) and then follow it but a few months later with v3, but it doesn't work. Can I get a USB connection to work with my HTC Wizard? Not a snowflake's chance in hell. Bluetooth is my only option, and even that is flakey as hell, usually resulting in a crash of the software after disconnection and bollocksing up network access on my machine. Nor, looking at the forums, do I appear to be the only one suffering. No wonder people are happy to pirate software willy nilly when when one pays one gets such rubbish.

But never mind. This evening we're off to Somerset House for New Year's, where we can watch the fireworks in the howling wind and avoid the exceptionally packed Embankment. Assuming, of course, it doesn't piss down. (Ironically enough, just as I wrote that line the rain started... figures).

One of the more ambitious projects ever to see a beta release - Wine - runs on the Mac. With caveats - it's a pain in the arse to get working.

1. Remove Apple's X11 if you want any chance of using 3D.
2. Get Fink and install x.org 6.8.2 and applex11tools.
3. Install FreeType and FontForge by your favourite means (I suggest MacPorts).
4. Download the Wine source - you could use the Darwine Mac OS X wrapper for Mac-ish goodness, but you'll need to hack the script to do the configure change below.
5. Run configure for Wine using LDFLAGS='-framework CoreServices' ./configure --prefix=/usr/local (or where ever you so wish). The link to CoreServices is needed to stop one of the Font Tools failing.
6. Configure should complete without warnings, otherwise panic.
7. Run make depend && make && sudo make install
8. Finally, run using DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/local/lib wine <program> - if you installed FreeType elsewhere then substitute that location for /opt/local/lib. Even better, encapsulate this part in a script.

At this point you should have a Wine installation that runs Steam. Wasn't that simple?

Those for whom the vast array of visual styles in Mac OS was far too limited will do doubt take pleasure in the new iTunes 7 visual style. Yes, another one. Sigh. But otherwise it's not too bad - bar the fact that it gets album art really quite wrong on occasion. And the titles in capitals... what were they thinking?

In any case, Uno has been updated to restore some UI consistency. Blessings be upon it.

Sometimes one wonders if release control should be beaten into some people with a stick. Drupal 4.7.3 breaks the MoveableType interface. Bless them.

At least I'm not the only one being driven mad. That last link has a typical example of 'we-don't-care' when someone replies with a link to the diff file. Yes, these people are donating their time for free but really, if you're going to do something, do it properly. And for the love of God, don't break point releases - save that for minor and major revisions.

At work we use the world's worst version control system (VCS). Actually I kid - we're not using Microsoft SourceSafe. As previously mentioned we're using MKS, which lacks Mac support. So I went out and purchased a copy of Parallels and sent up Ubuntu.

This proved to be harder than was expected. Firstly, because the fine people who package Ubuntu decided to use the GPL implementation of Java, which didn't work with anything useful. So after installing Sun Java I moved on to directory servers. This got worse - Sun Application Server wouldn't install, due to missing shared libraries, and so I tried Fedora Directory Server. Even with a HowTo I haven't managed to get the admin interface working, not to mention the need to track down extra packages from Ubuntu 5 and hack, hack, hack. Sigh. But, finally, a working environment. However, he thought does occur that I would have been finished much earlier had I just installed Windows.

Parallels is quite a nice beast though. It's affordable (£40) and fairly solid. The sound support is a bit spotty (or Ubuntu is, it's hard to tell) and there's no dual-head support, but it's fast enough (using the current beta) for work to get done.

On a similar note, CodeWeavers have finally released their long promised August beta of CrossOver Office. It all seems very nice - much easier to get going than Darwine, obviously - and unlike Darwine is running Steam and has almost finished installing Half-life 2. So it appears I may have to do some stress testing tonight ... oh, the sacrifices we make.

Plus, there's a nice warm geeky feeling in running Steam alongside Ubuntu under Parallels while browsing NetNewsWire...