Clairmont Databasae research

Leading Database researches get together ever so often to discuss the future of the industry. Stanford school of information has a nice blog where they summarized the discussions. Here is the link to the blog:

http://infoblog.stanford.edu/2008/12/vacation-post-claremont-berkeley.html

Netbeans great for class projects

Me and three other students had the opportunity to use Netbeans  6.5 as a common development environment for our airline flight reservation project.  We developed in jsp/javaee and used the University of Florida's department Oracle db as our database.  We also used SVN as our version control system and hosed the code through code.google.com.

Generally, the rest of the group members only had previous experience using Eclipse.  The transition to Netbeans was a 5/10.  It was possible to change the key map to use the same shortcuts as eclipse.  We were discovering new shortcuts and functionality everyday.  

Admittedly, I have not coded a javaee program in Eclipse, but it was simple to set up the project.  Netbeans came pre-installed with Tomcat so we did not do much configuring.  The code completion, automatic formatting, and inline help was easy to use and extremely helpful. These features were also present in both the javascript and css code.  It is usually a pain having to search to remember how to format certain properties.  Netbeans does have visual web creation tool (drag and drop web objects), but I preferred to write the html code by hand.  

Perhaps the most helpful was the database explorer/developer.  Instead of downloading a new application to interface with oracle, we downloaded a jarfile from the oracle website and set up Netbeans to interface with it.  This was extremely easy as well!! (Code completion also works for SQL!!!)

The only gripe I have to complain about is the SVN plugin.  Eclipse's Team Perspective plugin felt easier to work with.  But I was able to install a whole bunch of plugin's with out the system crashing.

I have done a lot of work with eclipse, but in the realm of school projects i felt Netbeans is the best IDE to use within a group.  Our team found it intuitive, user friendly, and very powerful.

Why art thou cast down, O my soul?

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" Psalms 42: 5

David, being a shepherd, here was actually talking about condition among sheep. Below is a excerpt from a website.

"Cast" Sheep

A sheep that has rolled over on its back is called a "cast" sheep. It may not be able to get up. It happens mostly with short, stocky sheep with heavy fleeces on flat terrain. Heavily pregnant ewes are most prone. Cast sheep become distressed and can die within a short time if not rolled back into a normal position. When back on their feet they may need to be supported for a few minutes before release to ensure they are steady.

This is the condition in which David described his soul.  His soul was in a state where it was rolled over and vulnerable, and he couldn't snap out of it.  Casts sheep cannot get up on their own, they need a shepherd to roll them up and stay with them.  It should be no secret, Jesus is our shepherd (Ps 23).  

This tends to happen on flat terrain ... for periods of time in lives everything is the same and repetitive no ups or downs this is when our soul can become casts and we may become depressed.  Maybe it starts off as just boredom and them moves into something more serious. 

Finally, this tends to happen to sheep who are pregnant.  In the words of TD Jakes, we are pregnant of possibilities! At the cusp of the fruition of our potential we are subject to Cast.  Stay on guard, or the seeds we planted yesterday could be choked up by the weeds and thorns of today.

Don't try to struggle and distress yourself to get back on your feet.  Sheeps in Cast may die.  Instead, cast all your cares on somebody who cares for you.  Jesus died for your sins, so you can have a new life and relationship with him.  Giving your life fully to Jesus is the most satisfying decisions you can make.  You will have The Shepherd always with you.

Thank you Jesus!

--thanks Jana Alcorn