Phurnace Blog

Embedded Ant

Alexander Bibighaus — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:00:00 +0100

Ant, the de-facto standard build tool for Java, could be defined as a platform independent scripting tool similar to Make but with an XML syntax. Ant is mature, extensible, and relatively easy to use. These qualities paved the path for Ant to be applied to other problems besides "building software". For instance, Ant is commonly used as a scripting tool to move files around, and moreover as a test tool to launch tests and generate reports. Most Java developers already know everythin [...]

Press Release - Phurnace Software, Inc. Closes Additional Venture Financing

jgass — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:00:00 +0100

AUSTIN, Texas — July 21, 2008 — Phurnace Software, Inc., the Java application deployment company, today announced that it has completed its $5 million Series A financing, led by S3 Ventures, a Texas-based venture capital firm. Previous investors, including DFJ Mercury, also participated in the financing. The capital will be used by Phurnace to expand sales, marketing and development activities for its patent-pending deployment automation products.

The company provides IT opera [...]

Dancing for Dollars

Pete Pickerill — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:00:00 +0100

As you may, but probably don't know, Phurnace got some Phunding. The management team put in countless hours over the last several months and the process was apparently fraught with twists and turns that would give Gordias pause. Thankfully, our fearless leaders didn't share with us each and every bump in the road. Even more thankfully they didn't share with us those moments, of which I'm sure there were a few, when the road disappeared altogether. I'm a lot like Bill Paxt [...]

No Fluff, Just Stuff

Wesley Willard — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:00:00 +0100

To a non-geek, spending a weekend in hotel conference rooms listening to presentations on the latest technologies in software development might make them beg, "just shoot me now, please". But to someone interested in keeping abreast of these sorts of things, for both company and personal reasons, it was a very nice way to do just that. Plus, it was hot as hell outside, the neighborhood pool is even hot, and the lake is just too far away.

The Lone Star Symposium was held this past weeken [...]

Under the label of Agile Development

Alexander Bibighaus — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 01:00:00 +0100

Recently, I was entertained by hearing complaints from a friend regarding their Agile practice and how impractical and inefficient it seemed. This conversation led me to think about our own agile practices at Phurnace and other companies for which I’ve worked. It is my experience, since the Agile boom, companies tend to adopt a hybrid approach that is typically a collection of agile practices mashed up with traditional practices from which people feel comfortable. I reviewed some of the [...]

How-To Perform In-line Editing of SWT Table Cells

Shawn Spiars — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 01:00:00 +0100

From time to time I visit the Eclipse news groups to find a solution to a problem I am having with a particular area of Eclipse. Since Eclipse is such a huge platform with many projects there are many different news groups, each designed to cover a particular project or API (Application Programming Interface).

Some of my favorite Eclipse news groups are:

eclipse.platform
eclipse.platform.rcp
eclipse.platform.swt

Often while I am looking for answers in a news group [...]

VMWare Server 2.0 Beta

Pete Pickerill — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:00:00 +0100

Even though it’s been available for a few months, I only recently had time to check out the latest and greatest free virtualization offering from VMWare. I haven’t run it through the wringer completely, but from what I’ve seen there are several new features and improvements that will definitely hasten the upgrade process in our test environment once it clears Beta. Here’s what I like so far:

A vastly better web console. The console obviously came under som [...]

Thoughts on HP Software Universe 2008

Daniel Nelson — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:00:00 +0100

I spent most of last week in hotter-than-the-sun Las Vegas at the HP Software Universe trade show. Here are some quick observations:

Hewlett Packard Software is all about the data center. Really. All they talk about is making data centers run more efficiently – from test to deployment to performance metrics. Up and down the stack. It was nice to see such a big company have such a singular focus. There is no confusion in the HP ranks as to what their goal is. As for [...]

Spring Plays Well With JMX

Wesley Willard — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:00:00 +0100

The Spring Framework has become the most popular open source application framework in the Java space in recent years. One of its most powerful features is its ability to allow developers to create Spring Beans, which can be configured together to create an application's object graph, or data structure. The framework provides a consistent interface to accessing these beans which avoids unnecessary dependencies between components.

JMX (Java Management Extensions) is a technology that enable [...]

Java Tools: Eclipse vs NetBeans

Alexander Bibighaus — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 01:00:00 +0100

Switching IDE's has always been something I feel is important to keep an open mind about. I learned this early on when I was an emacs fanatic. I started software development in a Unix/C environment where emacs and vi were the two editors of choice (or debate). Despite all of the vi/emacs wars , my experience was that both came in handy, but at different times.

I recently feel this way about Netbeans vs Eclipse in the Java IDE world. Both IDE's contribute different tools to a [...]

Don't Fear The Reaper

Robert Reeves — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 01:00:00 +0100

Phurnace Software makes its home at the MCC building, which is owned and managed by the Unversity of Texas at Austin . Quite a few really neat companies are located here, including Bigfoot Networks . But, there is no company in the building named MCC. So, what the heck does MCC stand for? Short answer: Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation

Wik [...]

UI Development and Code Generation Tools

Shawn Spiars — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 01:00:00 +0100

It seems like there are more visual GUI builder products available on the market today than ever before. Visual GUI builders propose an easier way to design and create user interface components. They usually consist of a palette from which you select and drag controls or widgets onto a window, frame, or dialog. Then they provide a table or list where you can manipulate the properties of your controls (size, font, color, coordinates, etc) without requiring the user to know the subtleties� o [...]

Enough of the tech talk. Who wants BBQ?

Pete Pickerill — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 01:00:00 +0100

I dream of buying a dilapidated shack in Middle-Of-Nowhere, Texas. All this shack needs is a small kitchen, a BBQ Pit, a sturdy lawn chair, and a butcher’s block. I would spend the wee hours of the morning prepping brisket after brisket, chicken after chicken, coercing a steady fire into life. When the time was right, the meat would hit the pit, I would plant myself in the lawn chair, and wait. The remainder of my workday would be spent checking the heat, tending to my meaty charges, a [...]

Start-up Surfing

Daniel Nelson — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 01:00:00 +0100

Working at a small software company like Phurnace is kind of like surfing. Well, actually, - since I have never surfed - it�s kind of like what I imagine surfing to be like. You are either on top of the world or at the bottom of the ocean, and you spend very little time in between. When Robert and I first started full time with Phurnace, I was only as good as my last meeting. If the meeting had gone well, then I was convinced that our success was all but inevitable. If the meeting went poo [...]

Choosing Open Source Carefully

Wesley Willard — Thu, 29 May 2008 01:00:00 +0100

In the last 10 years, Open Source software has provided an incredible benefit to the software development process. Most open source software projects present quality, well-tested APIs and libraries that can be quickly integrated into a product, providing much-needed functionality that does not have to be developed in-house. While there are too many projects to even begin to mention, the software produced by the Apache Project, and SpringSource provide frameworks and utilities that would t [...]

Some benefits of a Solar-Powered iPhone

Alexander Bibighaus — Wed, 28 May 2008 01:00:00 +0100

I recently read on ecogeek.org, that Apple filed for a patent for “solar cells on portable devices”. I'm a bit skeptical, but solar re-chargeability might be a nice feature for the iPod or iPhone. I still do not see sitting on the grassy bank of Barton Springs Pool with my solar powered Macbook Pro; I might e [...]

First Thoughts: WebSphere 7.0 Beta

Robert Reeves — Fri, 23 May 2008 01:00:00 +0100

IBM has begun the WebSphere 7.0 Open Beta program. Here is a snippet from the email notice:

You may review the features and highlights on the Open Beta overview page at this URL:
https://www14.software.ibm.com/iwm/web/cc/earlyprograms/websphere/
wasndv7/

The Code and Library downloads may also be found at these URLs:
https://www14.software.ibm.com/iwm/web/cc/earlyprograms/websphere/
wasndv7/download.shtml https://www14.software.ibm.com/iwm/web/cc/earlyprograms/w [...]

Is Equinox P2 Ready For Prime-Time?

Shawn Spiars — Tue, 20 May 2008 01:00:00 +0100

When I started working with Eclipse in 2003 I would just download the plug-ins I needed from the Eclipse website, unzip them into my plugins directory, and restart Eclipse. Sometime later, the Eclipse Update Manager was introduced to help you configure your Eclipse development environment providing the ability to update your existing features and plug-ins and search for new features. I have always found the Update Manager dialogs difficult to understand and use. Customizing the Update Manager [...]

Old is Not Simple

Wesley Willard — Wed, 14 May 2008 01:00:00 +0100

Beginning in the 90’s, American software companies began farming out development work to companies overseas, or "off-shoring". These efforts mirrored what had been taking place for quite some time in other industries, such as textile manufacturing, and sent tremors through the software community. The heady days of the dot-com boom gave way to fear and gnashing of teeth in the early part of this decade. CEO’s were pictured riding astride elephants in India, and executives [...]

Ruby on Rails to Nowhere

Alexander Bibighaus — Fri, 09 May 2008 01:00:00 +0100

A long time ago, I was on a NOLS adventure in the middle of the Olympic mountains. My group was resting one day high above the tree-line in a snow covered area when we found a small, but steep bank of snow ... perfect for headfirst nosedives. It all seemed harmless at the time, until our guide angrily reminded us that whatever choices we make, the fact remains, we must weigh the risk versus the reward. Shocked at first by his reaction, we all suddenly had the realization that given our surro [...]