David Dietrich's Business Technology Blog » Business

Using Verifone RiTA software with IBM WAS

David Dietrich — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:53:32 +0000

If you are running the RiTA software by Verifone, you may encounter a number of issues configuring the software to work in an IBM WebSphere environment. There are two issues you want to avoid:

Not being able to find the tid.jcc file
Not having the .jar files in the correct location

First, the tid.jcc needs to be in the default server directory for IBM WAS. On Linux, this will most likely be the /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/AppSrv01 directory.

To add the tid.jcc reference, you will want to link it from your RiTA installation directory (the default directory being /opt/rita). Run these commands:

>cd /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/AppSrv01
>ln -s /opt/rita/tid.jcc

Next, you will need to link all of the RiTA .jar files to your extensions directory in the Java Runtime Engine. Run these commands:

>cd /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/java/jre/lib/ext
>find /opt/rita/lib/rita -name ‘*.jar’ -exec ln -s {} \;

You will now have symbolic links to all of the RiTA .jar files and it will be accessible to WebSphere and all other Java applications.

The Essential Startup Reader: 10 Lessons in Entrepreneurship

David Dietrich — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 18:12:38 +0000

By Om Malik Jan. 2, 2010, 2:47pm 24 Comments

As a blogger, I spend most of my time writing. But it’s time spent reading that’s most satisfying. Here’s a short (and by no means a complete) list of 10 articles that encapsulate the art of the startup. Most were published during 2009, and I found them educational and full of practical tips that we’ve applied to our business. They’ve also helped me think differently about startups and entrepreneurship. Hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did.

“What Startups Are Really Like” by Paul Graham: This has to be the single best essay I read during 2009. Every entrepreneur should begin the startup journey with this essay. It bottles every essence of entrepreneurship and startups, and is chock-full of practical advise and tips that are applicable to anyone who dares to dream.
“Milestones to Startup Success” by Sean Ellis: Ellis explains the need for minimum viable product, aka MVP, and then outlines how startups can go up his startup pyramid to find success.
“Myth: Entrepreneurship Will Make You Rich” by Eric Ries: “One of the unfortunate side effects of all the publicity and hype surrounding startups is the idea that entrepreneurship is a guaranteed path to fame and riches. It isn’t,” Ries writes in this no-holds-barred essay about the challenges and pitfalls of being a startup founder.
“What Is the Minimum Viable Product?” by Venture Hacks: A great audio conversation on the Venturehacks blog including a slide show.
“The Power of Continuous Improvement” by Mike Speiser: In a guest post for us, Mike talks about the importance of metrics, feedback and how they can drive continuous improvement. Mike’s rules have found eager takers among our team.
“Getting Comfortable With People Who Make You Uncomfortable” by Mike Speiser: In this article, Mike addresses the need for people who challenge conventional wisdom and make everyone around them uncomfortable — which is why every company needs them.
“The Funnel Principle: Software & Making Money” by Tony Wright: It’s good to build great products, but in order to build great companies one needs to have more — a clear path of monetization, an attention magnet, and in general excellence at things beyond product development.
“Does Every Startup Need a Steve Jobs?” by Andrew Chen: A dissection of how insanely great products are built by combining desirability, feasibility and viability. Read this post after reading Wright’s “Funnel Principle.”
“Designing for Social Traction” by Josh Porter

10: “Startup Killer: The Cost of Customer Acquisition” by David Skok: A definitive essay on startup business models, the perils of overoptimism, and the importance of cost of customer acquisitions. Skok is a 3-time entrepreneur with a lifetime of experience.

Bonus links:

Self-serving: “What Every Entrepreneur Can Learn From Derek Jeter” and “What Makes DJ Tick.”
Every startup guy should listen to Jobs’ speech before embarking on their journey.

Steve Jobs\’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

Adding custom palettes to Dundas pie charts in .NET 3.5x

David Dietrich — Mon, 11 May 2009 00:28:29 +0000

One of the new features in Dundas 6.x and above, is the ability to create custom palettes of colors and apply them to pie charts. This way you no longer have to settle for Dundas’s default fluffy colors. In order to change the color palette, create a Color array and assign it to the series like this:

Color[] clrSteps = new Color[] {
Color.Red,
Color.Green,
Color.Magenta,
Color.Blue,
Color.LightBlue,
Color.Coral,
Color.LightCyan,
Color.Goldenrod,
Color.Gray,
Color.GreenYellow,
Color.Honeydew,
Color.Ivory,
Color.Khaki,
Color.Lavender
};
yourPieChart.PaletteCustomColors = clrSteps;

Now your pie chart will start with red for the first slice, then continue to use the clrSteps array for each slice’s color. If there are more slices than colors you’ve provided, don’t worry, Dundas will start at the beginning color in the array and continue through all of the colors as many times as needed.

How to copy Subversion repositories to another server

David Dietrich — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 11:51:02 +0000

Ensure you have a working Subversion installation with Apache installed on your system.

On the source machine, dump each repository:

> svnadmin dump /path/to/repository > repository-name.dmp

Copy repository-name.dmp to the target server.

Load the repository into the new server:

> cd /path/to/new-repository
> svnadmin create repository-name
> svnadmin load repository-name < repository-name.dmp

Reassign apache permissions:

> chown -R apache.apache repository-name

You are now ready to begin using your repository on the new server!

How to install Subversion with Apache HTTPD

David Dietrich — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 10:32:48 +0000

Ensure you have Apache installed on your system.
Ensure you have mod_dav_svn installed:
```
> yum -y update mod_dav_svn
```
Install ssl support to enable https:
```
> yum install mod_ssl
```
Edit /etc/httpd/conf.d/subversion.conf and append the following lines to the end of your config file:
DAV svn SVNParentPath /var/svn AuthType Basic AuthName "Subversion repository" AuthUserFile /etc/svn-auth-file AuthzSVNAccessFile /etc/svn-serve.conf Require valid-user
Create a file called /etc/svn-auth-file
Assign permission:
> chown root.root /etc/svn-auth-file > chmod 644 /etc/svn-auth-file
Add users to /etc/svn-auth-file (one per line) in the form:
tom:$apr1$hDMIx…$abctozvZbC9J6/heHBBe481You can use htpasswd to do this automatically:
> ### First time: use -cm to create the file > ### Use -m to use MD5 encryption of the password, which is more secure > htpasswd -m /etc/svn-auth-file harry New password: ***** Re-type new password: ***** Adding password for user harry > htpasswd /etc/svn-auth-file -m sally New password: ******* Re-type new password: ******* Adding password for user sally >
Create a file called /etc/svn-serve.conf
Fill it with:

[/]
*=
svnUser=rw

The user svnUser is being granted read and write access to all projects, while all other users (*) are being denied access.
Assign permissions:
> chown root.apache /etc/svnserve.conf > chmod 640 /etc/svnserve.conf
Create /var/svn.
> mkdir -p /var/svn > chmod 755 /var/svn
If you are running SELinux, run:
> chcon -R -h -t httpd_sys_content_rw_t /var/svn > setsebool -P httpd_unified=1
You are now ready to being adding Subversion repositories!