Snort a Sprocket

CamelOne 2011

2011-05-25T00:00:00-04:00

To some folks I know, the mention of the word “enterprise” causes them to immediately imagine stodgy old farts talking about how awesome CORBA was, along with “solutions” that involve using huge proprietary software packages that cost a small fortune. Also, those same people dismiss Java as “that thing that may have once been cool in the 90s, but is so done now”.

Enterprise software need not be expensive as purchasing a small island, nor boring as all hell. In fact, one of the things about this conference is that it has made me terribly excited about doing things that really amount to being the trench warfare and/or plumbing of software development. There’s nothing glamorous about either of those analogies, but at the end of the day, that’s what companies of all sizes face: integrating less-than-ideal systems, automating them, managing them, all in the name of getting things done. Oh, and getting paid.

Apache Camel and its growing constellation of sister projects ActiveMQ¹, CXF, and ServiceMix are awesome open-source projects written and maintained by smart, passionate folks. Those packages—especially Camel—allow you to do some pretty incredible integration tasks with less code, allowing you to spend more time writing code that actually matters to your company (i.e. the stuff that makes you money, or saves the world, or both).

Do you work for a company whose customers drop their requests onto a server using (gasp!) FTP? Oh, and did I mention that those customers might use slightly less than ideal data formats, like, say, a pipe-delimited monstrosity? Oh, and some customers might use different fields in that aforementioned monstrosity to mean different things?² If so, you should really look into Camel.

It gets better. If you manage to ~~-browbeat~~- persuade some customers to join the modern era and use a web service with well-formed XML to give you requests, you can add that on without having to switch your old customers over or throw away code.

Best of all, you can do much of this without writing much code at all. A Camel route to achieve this using the Java Fluent API reads almost like plain English:

    // Handle archaic crap
    from("ftp://ftp.electronecromegastompers.com/dropbox/")
        .choice()
            .when(header("CamelFileName").startsWith("CustomerA"))
                .to("bean:normalizeCustomerData?method=handleCustomerA")
                .to("direct:handleNormalizedData")
            .when(header("CamelFileName").startsWith("CustomerB"))
                .to("bean:normalizeCustomerData?method=handleCustomerB")
                .to("direct:handleNormalizedData")
        .end();

    // Handle modern stuff; customer's identity is part of the request
    // rather than encoded in the file name.
    from("jetty://0.0.0.0:16666/spankyNewWebservice/")
        .to("bean:normalizeCustomerData?method=handleWebserviceRequest")
        .to("direct:handleNormalizedData");

    // The route that everything funnels into
    from("direct:handleNormalizedData")
        .to("bean:processNormalizedRequests")
        .to("bean:getPaidCashMoney");

Of course, I’m assuming that you have already written a bean that can handle a common data format, a bean to get various data into that format, and of course, a bean that makes you cash money³. Even so, this beats the pants out of using shell scripts and cron any day⁴.

Oh, did I mention that you can write routes like this using the hipster-compliant Scala, if you so desired?

tl;dr: the company I work for is using this stuff for real production work, and it’s great. The developers who work on these Apache projects are universally smart, approachable people, and I got to meet several of them at the conference, as well as Gregor Hophe, who wrote the book that inspired Apache Camel. FuseSource, the company that rewards a lot of these guys with paycheck for their hard work seem like good eggs, too.

I’m hoping to come back next year.

¹ Apache Camel was initially concieved as a mediation or routing engine to be embedded directly into an ActiveMQ broker.

² The real world is very, very ugly. It’s not all federated APIs, JSON, and ponies.

³ If you have ideas on how to do this, let me know.

⁴ Which is not to say that Taco Bell Programming is without merit.

It ain’t gonna be pretty but you’re not alone

2011-04-26T00:00:00-04:00

This is easily my favorite song off of The Long Surrender, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since I read that a friend of our family who has been serving in Haiti as a missionary has been experiencing a crisis of faith.

I wish I had something really awesome and inspiring to say to her that would help make it All Right, but the truth is that I’ve been struggling with the God thing since, like, forever. Sure, I call myself a Christian; I’m not afraid or ashamed to put a name to it. But when the chips are down, do I really have a faith big enough to keep me going? A faith that is worthy of the Grace that I continue to receive?

The answer is: not really. I struggle. I’m a mess. I’m imperfect. I’m just trying to find a way though life, hoping to leave this world a better place.

I don’t believe in Satan as That Guy With the Horns and the Pointy Stick. I do believe he is the one that whispers into my ears, tempting me to Just Stop. “What’s the point?” he would say. “Just lie down and wait for death. It won’t be long now.”

Then a song like this comes along to remind me that we’re all one, big broken mess, and that’s alright. When we strip down the barriers, when we put away the masks that we wear in the daytime, we’re pretty much the same:

All my favorite people are broken
Believe me
My heart should know

Some prayers are better left unspoken
I just want to hold you
And let the rest go

All my friends are part saint and part sinner
We lean on each other
Try to rise above

We are not afraid to admit we are all still beginners
We are all late bloomers
When it comes to love

All my favorite people are broken
Believe me
My heart should know

Orphaned believers, skeptical dreamers
Step forward
You can stay right here
You don’t have to go

Is each wound you’ve received
Just a burdensome gift?
It gets so hard to lift yourself up off the ground

But the poet says, We must praise a mutilated world
We’re all workin’ the graveyard shift
You might as well sing along

Cause all my favorite people are broken
Believe me
My heart should know

(As for) your tender heart—this world’s going to rip it wide open
It ain’t gonna be pretty
But you’re not alone

Linford Detweiler wrote the lyrics. His wife, Karin, translates them into a glorious sound.

Only Mercy

2011-03-06T00:00:00-05:00

I’ve had this song running through my head for about, oh, twenty-one years now. Other songs come and go, but I find this one cannot be silenced by death metal, industrial, goth rock, rockabilly, or Björk. It’s now really at the forefront since everybody’s been talking about how Rob Bell has inadverdently ticked off a bunch of traditionalist Christians.

There is my kite
Caught around a signpost
The sign says: You are almost there.
So I was right—there is a Heaven
Very near

But there are no fires in hell
There is only Mercy

Some days my kite goes where I cannot see
And I feel happy for its freedom
When it’s tangled in the trees and wires
I know it’s my own fault
All my fault

But there are no fires in hell
There is only Mercy
(I believe)

One day my kite will escape forever
And I will jump to catch the trailing string
Wishes and wants will fall from my pocket
As I wave, full of peace

—Karen & Don Peris, “Mercy”

As usual, the Slacktivist (now in a new blog home at Patheos) has a great series of posts on the subject:

The last one is my favorite.

One Nation, Unequal

2010-09-07T00:00:00-04:00

Timothy Noah: “[According to the CIA …] income distribution in the United States is more unequal than in Guyana, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and roughly on par with Uruguay, Argentina, and Ecuador. Income inequality is actually declining in Latin America even as it continues to increase in the United States. Economically speaking, the richest nation on earth is starting to resemble a banana republic.”

This is easily one of the most fascinating series I’ve read recently, complete with a set of compelling visuals that illustrate the problem. Maybe the real reason people are so upset lately is there really is a lot less wealth to go around. However, it’s not really because the government is hoovering up the money and giving it to the poor or funding earmarks, but that the top 1% of earners consumed more than 18% of all of the money earned (that’s up from 8% in 1973).

Believe

2010-08-24T00:00:00-04:00

For people like us
In places like this
We need all the hope we can get

While U2 and REM were selling out arenas during the 80s, there was this little scrappy band called The Call, fronted by one Michael Been, that turned some impressive arena-sized albums about love, hope, anger, and faith.

“I Still Believe” remains one of my favorite songs of theirs:

It’s sad that most people know this song as played by Tim Capello, playing himself as the oily, muscle-bound sax player that covered it during one of the early scenes in The Lost Boys.

Michael Been, RIP (1950-2010)

RIP Smerp (1995-2010)

2010-08-17T00:00:00-04:00

I got tired of it, that’s all.

(So Little) Oil Just Out of Reach

2010-06-01T00:00:00-04:00

I’m really tired of people and pundits going on and on about how we have so much oil that just can’t be reached because the mean old government won’t let the oil companies drill for it. Remember “Drill, Baby, Drill”? ANWR? Yeah, that.

FOX Business News correspondent John Stossel is the latest to blame the government for keeping all those precious lands oil-rig free, all the while pushing the oil companies into dangerous deepwater exploration.

[Former Shell President John Hofmeister is] right. More than 50% of Western land is owned by the federal government. But 75% of that is off limits or restricted for private drilling. Land that the government estimates contains 20 billion barrels. If government would just step out of the way and let people drill, oil companies wouldn’t have to go so far offshore!

Well, the truth is that the oil companies were going to go deep-sea drilling at some point anyway, even if they could have gotten permission to drill on government land. They’re just there sooner, but the main reason they are there has less to do with the government than our insatiable demand for “Texas tea”.

20 billion barrels sure sounds like a lot until you put it in perspective up against what the United States consumes. According to the US Energy Information Adminstration’s summary page, we as a country consume 19.5 million barrels a day. At that rate, 20 billion barrels will give us an extra 2.8 years of oil.

So, even if the government “stepped out of the way”, it will cost a lot of money and time to get those oil wells online and producing, and there will be an environmental cost. And after all that, you’ll have a little less than three years of oil to show for it. Those consumption figures were current as of 2009; by the time we have those hypothetical rigs online, who knows where are consumption will be? Even if consumption were to stay flat or decrease, will the rest of the developing world curb their nascent appetites? (Mumble mumble China mumble.)

Is having an extra three years of oil worth spoiling precious natural resources? According to this chart, the entire Gulf of Mexico is estimated as having only 3.5 billion barrels total. That’s enough to last a paltry 177 days at the US’s current rate of consumption.

While we’re doing some number crunching, let’s think about those thousands of barrels of oil that are currently spewing into the Gulf of Mexico from the foundered Deepwater Horizion. The government estimates—conservatively—that the flow rate is 19,000 barrels of oil a day. At that rate, as of this writing, over 800,000 barrels have spilled in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s a spill so large it’s easily visible from space. It’s going to ruin coastal fishermen’s livelihoods, kill wildlife, and spoil the coastlines of several states. But had we been able to use the oil that’s been spilled, it would only equal the amount of oil that the entire US consumes in a single hour. ONE. LOUSY. HOUR.

The idea that somehow we could ever become energy independent on producing our own oil alone is a complete crock unless we learn to do with a lot less of the stuff and look for more sustainable resources. Oil is not the final answer, and if we act like it is, we’re going to be in a heap of trouble when the wells run dry and we have nothing to show for it.

o

2010-04-12T00:00:00-04:00

Meanwhile, Jonna Lee has deleted her accounts on Facebook and Twitter because

she is undergoing a radical metamorphosis, or
she’s sick of everyone assuming that she’s iamamiwhoami, or
sunspots.

Pick one. Whatever the reason, I’m loving this video and viral video series.

I Am... Mandragora Officinarum

2010-04-09T00:00:00-04:00

“To whom it may concern.”

I have really been enjoying watching the viral campaign for iamamiwhoami unfold since the beginning of this year. If you haven’t already seen the videos that have been released, you owe it to yourself to go and watch them in chronological order, especially if you like music described as “ethereal”, “odd”, “otherworldly”, and “dark”.

However, with a single release on iTunes for “b”, and a forthcoming single called “o” available on 11 April 2010 via Amazon MP3, it looks like the mystery is finally drawing to a close. I, along with most of the other folks following the evolution of the campaign, believe that she is the alter ego or side project of Swedish singer Jonna Lee. After all, Jonna’s picture in Wikipedia looks like this picture from iamamiwhoami’s Twitpic. Also, why would Jonna need an inflatable pool full of mud if not to romp around in like the pre-born version of iamamiwhoami?

Whatever the case, she promises to reveal herself to the world if she gets 10,000 followers on Twitter by the 15th of April. I’m looking forward to it.

Incidentally, I’ve enjoyed discovering Jonna Lee (as herself). I really dig her song “Lake Chermain” from her most recent album This is Jonna Lee, as well as “I Wrote This Song” her début 10 pieces, 10 bruises. Finally: check out her haunting, sparse cover of “Violent Playground” by Nitzer Ebb.

UPDATE: I should note that synth Goddess Tara Busch of AnalogSuicide.com has made a remix of “b”.

Hell

2010-04-06T00:00:00-04:00

LAUNCELOT: Nay, indeed, if you had your eyes, you might fail of the knowing me: it is a wise father that knows his own child. Well, old man, I will tell you news of your son: give me your blessing: truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long; a man’s son may, but at the length truth will out.

— Shakespeare
The Merchant of Venice
Act II, Scene 2

I was ordered to go in there and destroy the enemy. That was my job that day. That was the mission I was given. I did not sit down and think in terms of men, women and children. They were all classified as the same, and that’s the classification that we dealt with over there, just as the enemy. I felt then and I still do that I acted as I was directed, and I carried out the order that I was given and I do not feel wrong in doing so.

— 2nd Lt. William Calley
spoken during his murder trial
for his role in the My Lai Massacre

There is no question that coalition forces were clearly engaged in combat operations against a hostile force.

— Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl
Spokesman for the multinational forces in Baghdad
13 July 2007, one day after the engagement

Well it’s their fault for bringing their kids into a battle.

— Unknown US soldier
regarding children who were wounded during an engagement on 12 July 2007

During this engagement, US Soldiers killed over a dozen civilians including two journalists for Reuters. The civilians were believed to be hostile forces armed with RPG launchers. Over the past two and a half years, Reuters’ requests for the footage of the incident under the Freedom of Information Act had not been granted by US Military, who said as recently as last week that they were still processing the request.

On 5 April 2010, WikiLeaks released the footage obtained by military whistleblowers. It’s as horrifying as you’d expect.

This is the inevitable consequence of war. To those of you who advocated for it in 2002 and continue to do so today, I have to ask: how do you sleep at night?