Replace jconsole with command line based jmxterm

JMXTERM is a command line based interactive JMX client software. It opens a command line console and user can open connection to an MBean server, then operation against it with interactive commands. The user experience of JMXTERM is like a combination of jconsole and ftp. With JMXTERM, JMX operation doesn't have to be done in graphical environment anymore.

JMXTERM project has recently release the second version 0.2, which is much more reliable and better documented than the previous version 0.1. Several serious bugs including white space in MBean name and user/password based authentication were resolved in version 0.2. Besides, version 0.2 adds the feature of listing local running Java process even if they aren't launched with jmxremote argument.

Links:

• JMXTERM project home page
• Download packages
• Version 0.2 release note
  

Dark Knight, the #1 movie in IMDB

This movie tells that,

1. A comic super hero move, a box office blockbuster movie can be appreciated in the same way God Father or The Shawshank Redemption is
2. It doesn't take comedy to be a profitable super hero movie
3. To be a good movie, it doesn't matter how many predecessors there are.

Dark Knight is unique and unconventional. The #1 position in IMDB may turns out to be too overwhelming in the future, but it's definitely easily the best movie of year, best superhero movie and a movie should be appreciated by Oscar academy.

Reflection is expensive? Illusion!

Reflection invocation is a little bit more expensive comparing to the direct call, but it wasn't very slow and it's not slow at all now in JDK 6. It is looking up by name that takes long time.

Operation	2000/11 (probably jdk 1.3.1)	2003/1 (probably jdk 1.3.1)	2004/10 (jdk1.4.2_03)	2007/2 (jdk1.6.0_b105)
100,000 regular calls	2664ms	281ms	203ms	78ms
100,000 reflection calls without lookup	4216ms	297ms	250ms	78ms
100,000 reflection calls with lookup	45505ms	938ms	562ms	203ms
1,000,000 regular calls	27840ms	2578ms	1828ms	594ms
1,000,000 reflection calls without lookup	43863ms	2782ms	2485ms	641ms
1,000,000 reflection calls with lookup	47097ms	5453ms	9343ms	1984ms
10,000,000 regular calls	-	25906ms	17766ms	5063ms
10,000,000 reflection calls without lookup	-	27891ms	24813ms	6141ms
10,000,000 reflection calls with lookup	-	54843ms	93611ms	20093ms

Link: What are the performance costs involved in Java reflection? E.g., looking up a method by name and then invoking it.

Neutual density filter and long exposure

Pictures in this album were all taken from Pier66 in Seattle, between dawn and pitch black night. Most of them were under long exposure (5~60 seconds). Some were taken with neutral density filter. For examples:

• P7137679 is taken in early dawn with 5s exposure, with .9 neutral density filter plus a .6 graduated neutral density filter.
• P7137705 is taken in late dawn with 40s exposure, with .6 neutral density filter and a polarizing filter. It was already dark at that time, lights in building is on.
• P7137712 and P7137721 are both 50s exposure with only a polarizing filter, they were taken in dark.