Latest News from Ken Fogel

.keystore, Tomcat, NetBeans and Java

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 23:29:32 EST

I give a course on Servlets and JSPs at Concordia University’s School of Extended Learning. One of the topics is SSL. I demonstrate how to create a .keystore file using Java’s keytool.exe. Then I edit Tomcat’s server.xml. Presto! All you have to do is use https rather than http and my lecture on SSL is [...]

My First Week With the Amazon Kindle

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 11:00:00 EST

I received an Amazon Kindle for Xmas. It wasn’t a surprise as I put it on the Xmas list my family insisted I provide. My wife had me order it with her credit card to make sure it was exactly what I wanted. The order was placed at the beginning of December to ensure it [...]

Fall 2009 Java Courses

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:05:00 EDT

This coming Fall term I will be teaching two courses at the Concordia University School of Extended Learning. They are Java Programming Fundamentals on Tuesdays and Web Services and XML Processing on Mondays.

Upgrading to Windows 7 – Part Two

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:00:00 EDT

With the installation complete it was time to test the critical software I use daily. The first was Microsoft Outlook and as I expected it worked perfectly. So did the rest of the Office suite. Next on my list were the Java environments that I use, Eclipse and NetBeans. First I checked at java.sun.com for newer [...]

Upgrading to Windows 7 – Part One

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 11:15:00 EDT

It is now one week since I upgraded my primary desktop system to Windows 7. I had been an early adopter of Vista and had a number of problems, even an occasional BSOD in the early days. I delayed putting Vista on my school computer because it did not support Novell which is used at Dawson College where I teach. Today I upgraded my school computer and I am fully integrated into the Novell structure. Here is the what and why of what I did, part one.

Configuring the PHP Version of Eclipse 3.5 RC4

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:30:00 EDT

Step by step instructions to configure Eclipse for PHP with the WampServer on a Windows platform. The most recent version of Eclipse, version 3.5 RC4, is used.

Movie Roundup: The Watchmen, Wolverine, Star Trek, Terminator Salvation, and Transformers

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:14:41 EDT

Before I started to write this I checked out Roger Ebert’s web site. The only one of the five movies he liked was Watchmen and likely because it was the only movie with exposed boobies. I thought I would write about these five movies from the perspective of someone who though Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino [...]

Progress Report On My iPhone Course

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:41:56 EDT

I am writing this just before I watch lecture 4. I have completed assignments 1a, 1b, and 2a. I will be able to start 2b after today’s lecture. I will reserve detailed comments about the course until I finish it but I will say that Allan has a much better tan than Evan. The assignments have [...]

Why You Would Rather Die (or Get Well) in Canada

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:47:39 EDT

This week I am taking my wife’s uncle to the hospital for radiation therapy. He is 88 years old and is slowly dying from lung cancer. As a cancer patient he has been visiting the oncology clinic every three weeks since his diagnosis to assess the course of the disease. At his last visit he [...]

My First Day at Stanford Learning to Program the iPhone

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 14:11:00 EDT

Before the registrar at Stanford writes me a cease and desist letter, let me state that I am not a student at Stanford. Rather I have downloaded the 17 lectures and 3 supplemental sessions of the CS193P course entitled iPhone Application Development from Open Stanford. According to an article published on the Stanford web site [...]

Encouraging Enrolment in Computer Science Technology in English at CEGEP in Quebec

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 11:06:41 EDT

Two years ago my department submitted a proposal to the Canada–Québec Agreement On Minority-Language Education And Second Languages Instruction. This is a fund established to support projects in education in the English language in Quebec. Similar agreements exist to support the French language in the other provinces. At the time of the submission enrolment in [...]

Workaround to WampServer Apache Fail to Start Problem

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:50:47 EDT

While writing my article on configuring Eclipse for PHP in Windows for my Ulitzer (http://kenfogel.ulitzer.com) page I encountered a problem with the WampServer. Initially WampServer would start up properly and work for a while. But after using the Restart All Services a few times because of changes to php.ini or to add a new alias, [...]

Summer 2009 Courses

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 12:24:04 EDT

This summer I am scheduled to teach two courses in the School of Extended Learning at Concordia University. They are: CEBS 210 Microsoft Outlook Online Course This course gives students the ability to work effectively using e-mail in a professional environment. Students will learn to configure Outlook to send and receive e-mail, learn how to open attachments, [...]

CNN Video Fails With A Problem About IEPersistence.html

Tue, 19 May 2009 20:02:17 EDT

I have had problems with CNN video for some time. On some Windows computers they would work and on others they would fail. The failure occured with both IE7 and IE8. By clicking on the yellow icon on the status bar next to the message ‘Done with Errors’, the error dialog stated that the problem [...]

Null Pointer Error in XSLT Transformation

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:48:54 EDT

In a recent lab session with my students one of them presented me with what I thought would be a simple problem to resolve. Their code was transforming a DOM into an XML document using the XSLT engine in Java 1.6. The source of the data was an ArrayList of JavaBeans created from a JDBC [...]

The Toyota Prius Experience

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:06:11 EDT

My experience driving a Prius for the past year in a region with a winter climate.

The iPhone and Me

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:16:15 EDT

When I got a Palm Pilot some years back I was somewhat awed by the fact that it was as powerful as the first few generations of the original Macintosh and fit in my hand. But it was not as convenient as I had hoped and data entry with the stylus was far from reliable. [...]

Life with my Mac continued

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:12:36 EDT

It has been about two months that I have lived with my MacBook. I had planned to write sooner but I realized that I was still suffering from Windows Comparison Syndrome. Well I have moved on to Windows Companion Syndrome so it is time to write again. The MacBook has become my constant companion. Its relatively [...]

My First Week with My Mac

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:21:49 EDT

It is now one full week that I have had my MacBook. In this week I have come to learn what makes a Mac special and what makes a Mac an infuriating machine to own. Let’s begin with the infuriating. There is no such thing as Mac software, at least in the retail channel. Here in [...]

Apple ][+, IBM PC, and now a Mac

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:01:36 EDT

In August 1980 my wife and I borrowed three thousand dollars from a bank. One thousand was earmarked for body work on our van. Two thousand dollars was for the purchase of an Apple ][+. I wanted the Apple because I thought it would be the neatest toy I could ever own. A neighbor had a Commodore [...]

Courses in Java Programming Spring 2008

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 23:07:13 EST

I just received my assignment for the spring semester at Concordia University’s Continuing Education department. These are non-credit courses that focus on training students to write code in Java. I will be teaching: CI651/C1 JAVA PROGRAMMING FUNDAMENTALS Wednesdays 2008-04-02/2008-06-04 CI665/C1 JAVA SERVER-SIDE PROGRAMMING WITH SERVLETS AND JSP Thursdays 2008-04-03/2008-06-05 CI675/C1 WEB SERVICES AND XML PROCESSING Tuesdays 2008-04-01/2008-06-03 If you are in the [...]

Files & Directories Disappear in Eclipse’s Project Explorer

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 11:06:33 EST

Since the release of Eclipse 3.3 and continuing thru to the new Fall release I have observed an annoying problem when running Eclipse in both Windows XP and Windows Vista. Without any discernable reason or time frame, the Project Explorer window loses files and directories. They are not physically lost. The first time it happened [...]

Configuring the PHP version of Eclipse 3.5 RC4 to work with WAMP 2.0h on Windows

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

The step by step instructions to configure Eclipse for PHP with the WampServer on a Windows platform. The most recent version of Eclipse, version 3.5 RC4, is used.