Helmet Rule – Safety or discomfort ?

One of my friends happened to visit a IT company campus recently and had a taste of the efficiency of the helmet rule there

He had stopped in the shop just a few feet away from the entrance gate for a quick smoke and then when he tried to enter in TCO, he was stopped by the security. He did have his ID, but then why did they stop him?? For the reason that he was not wearing his helmet! My friend is an affable, law abiding dude who has been using helmets even before the government passed the rule. So he was not one of the “regular” guys who hates to wear helmet and carry it like their baby on their bike tanks. He judged that he only had a few feet to go into the campus and didnt want to do with the hassles of putting on his helmet for a distance of 20 feet. For “clever” people who might argue that the TCO parking lot is more than 100 metres from the main gate, I would like to remind them that we are not having a highway within the campus and company parking lots are not supposed to be accident-prone areas.

The security will not allow him to enter without his helmet on; the reason – they have been asked to ensure that motor-cyclists wear helmets. This is the “best” form of following rules in word, I would say. There is no reason why a person has to wear helmets while riding inside a company campus, except when

1. people working there drive insane and
2. the speed limit is strictly more than 50.
Everyone would agree that none of the above is true

Another question that comes to my mind is , how far can we put rules to ensure that an associate is safe? If an associate is not willing to wear helmets, nobody can force him/her to do so. What if they remove it as soon as they step out??? So there are some suggestions that might help all employees to be safe drivers

1) There be driving lessons for all employees. Even if you have a license( Offshore/onsite ) it doesnt matter. You will have to enroll yourself in these sessions. All employees must pass an exam which will help you to drive a car/ motorcycle within the campus.

2) There will be disciplinary action against an associate if he/she meets with an accident outside the campus. Inside the campus, they will be treated with Tincture and Dettol, so that they drive safely the next time:)

3) Setup random security personnel to follow associates to ensure that they wear their helmets until they reach home. If not a report will be submitted to their managers.

4) Associates wearing helmets for longer durations will be recognized and promoted with “safe-techie of the month” award. It will be worth 50 WAH points

Jokes apart, helmets are life-savers and we need them for our safety. Lack of safety measures leads to death in almost 60% of the accidents and for the bereaved family/friends, death does leave a void which will be abyss. I think the authorities should think through the reason for bringing in the helmet rule in first place is for the peoples safety and not to harass them!

Jus like that

ஒன்னு ரெண்டு மூணு நாலு
அஞ்சு ஆறு ஏழு எட்டு
பத்து பதினொன்னு பன்னெண்டு பதிமூணு
எழுதிட்டேன் பாரு நானும் புதுகவிதை !


நாலு நாலு வார்த்தை சேத்துபோட்டேன்
வைரமுத்து வரியை ஆட்டைய போட்டேன்
அடுத்தவன் ப்ளொக்லே கமெண்டை போட்டேன்
கவிதேன்னா இது தான்னு சொல்லிபோட்டேன் !


காதல்லே தான் ஆரம்பிச்சேன்.
காதலேயே நின்னுகிட்டேன் !
உருகி உருகி எழுதிடுவேன் ,
காதலை விட்டு வேற கேட்டா…
தத்து பித்துன்னு உளறிடுவேன் !
கேட்டா “கவிஞன்”னு சொல்லிடுவேன் !


சின்னவயசு பள்ளிகூட கட்டுரை,
வாரம் ஒன்னு எழுதிடுவேன் .
நெட்டுலே “கவிஞன்”னு சொல்லனும்னு ,
நாலு நாலு வார்த்தையா பிரிச்சி போட்டுடுவேன்

Saint Pattinathar was a Saivaite and a Spiritual leader who lived in TamilNadu 500 years ago.He was born to Sivanesa chetty and Gnanakalai. His father was a trader in Tiruvidaimarudur, Thanjavur district. His birth name was Swetharanyar after as epithet of Lord Siva of Swetharanyeswarar Temple. He was also called as Thiruvenkadar by the people. When he was five years old, he lost his father. Like his father he spent money on Siva devotees, and fed them daily. He was a trader and had enough wealth. At sixteen years, he was married to Sivakalai, daughter of another trader by the name of Sivasithamparam Chettiyar and his wife Sivakamy. Even after fifteen years of marriage they had no children. Meantime there was a very poor Saivaite by the name of Sivasarumar who spent all his wealth in feeding the Siva devotees. When all his wealth was spent he sold his wife's nuptial chain (thali) and fed the devotees of Lord Siva. Once in his dream, Lord Siva appeared and told him, he would find him (Siva) as a baby at a certain spot. "Hand over the baby boy to Thiruvenkadar. He would give gold equal to the weight of the baby. The Saivaite devotees found the baby and took him to Pattinathar. He adopted the child and gave the couple, gold and more wealth.


The divine child grew up and followed in his father's footsteps. Once the father sent him on a ship with a good lot of merchandise and when he came he brought back sacks full of paddy husks. The father was angry and locked him up in a room and going to the harbor, threw the husks out. What was his surprise to see they were all gold; Every dried piece of the husk turned out to be gold and precious gems. He hurried home to see his son. He was not in the room. His wife gave him a small box the son had given before he disappeared. In it was an Palm-leaf manuscript and a needle without an eyelet. On the script were the following words (in English for understanding):

"Not even an eyeless needle will accompany you in the final journey of life."

Pattinathar(Thiruvenkadar) realized the philosophy and wisdom of the words, and renounced everything - his wife, his wealth, his kith and kin and all other mundane attachments. With only a loin cloth he left. He sang many a philosophical song to enlighten people on the blissful state of renunciation. He sang about the human life and its complex dimensions, made his lyrics more appealing to the common man. He urged repeatedly not to be attached to the body and its pleasures, for the body which perishes and becomes food for animals and worms. Think of God and surrender at God's feet.

Pattinathar worshiped Shiva at the Srikalahasti temple, which has inspired great poetic and musical works. The samadhi [attained salvation in this place] of Pattinathar is a historic landmark located on the Ennore Expressway in Tiruvottiyur.

Inside the Nandrudayan Vinayaga temple in Devadhanam, Tiruchirappalli, idol for Pattinathar is found.

Working with RAD - Common errors & fixes

I am documenting some of the common issues that we face while setting up your project workspace with an IDE like RSA/RAD. Basically all the Java development IDEs(like JBoss Developer Studio, Weblogic Workshop) are developed with Eclipse as their base. So most the problems and solutions are similar.


Please post your comments on how you liked this posting.


1) Deployment descriptor cannot be loaded :
“The deployment descriptor of the module yourAppplication.war cannot be loaded”

Soln: You would have to refresh the workspace and do a clean build. If that doesnt work, you should remove the WAR entry thats causing problem in the application.xml(deployment descriptor of EAR project) and then try adding the web module back to the EAR. This should solve the issue.




2) While running the server, if you get an error saying some file not found exception or EAR not found error and if you are sure that you dont need any EAR of that name, you can remove the EAR from the WAS profile folder that you are working on.


Eg path: 
C:\IBMSDP70\runtimes\base_v61\profiles\ThisProfile\config\cells\<>\applications


If you still keep getting the errors on server startup , you can ignore them as they wont cause any issue. If you would like to get rid of them anyhow, remove the lines that reference it from the serverindex.xml. The tags to look for is .
This file can be found under
C:\IBMSDP70\runtimes\base_v61\profiles\ThisProfile\config\cells\<>\nodes\<>





3) Class not found exceptions java.lang.ClassNotFoundException
    Could not instantiate class XXX


Soln: 
a)Try to see if you are able to find that class in the workspace using "Open Resource" option(Ctrl+Shift+R). If it is expected to be within a jar, then try finding the class using "Open Resource" option(Ctrl+Shift+T), you will surely find it (if the source code ins SCM is integral/complete). Once you find the class, identify the jar that owns it and try to put it in the buildpath of the project.


b) If the above solution doesnt work, then place those jar files under C:\IBMSDP70\runtimes\base_v61\lib\ext. The path may vary depending on your RAD & app server version. This solution makes the jar files available for all the EARs, all the profiles that would be deployed to the application server(if put inside WAS6 , it will not be available for WAS6.1 version profiles) 

4) If you get any error like ,Error loading deployment.xml for URApplicationEAR: com.ibm.ws.exception.ConfigurationWarning , then chances are that the application, URApplicationEAR is missing in the deployment folder for RAD, but mentioned in serverindex.xml. Remove that entry from that file and re-run the server


File location: C:\IBMSDP70\runtimes\base_v61\profiles\ThisProfile\config\cells\UrPCNameNode01Cell\nodes\UrPCNameNode01


5) Some times you get an error, ERROR IWAE0053E "explaining" that an internal error occured. Sometimes you also get a pointer that an validation error occured with your EAR or WAR. 


---com.ibm.etools.validation.ValidationException: CHKJ3008E: Missing or invalid WAR file.


If you have taken the code fresh from SCM repository (SVN/CVS/VSS etc) and it is a valid code, then the problem just lies in our workspace. To fix this issue, just refresh the projects in your project explorer. If that doesnt work, do a clean & build. 


In one of my projects, the error went away when I manually removed all the WAR and EJB references in the EAR project application.xml and then adding them back. But in another project of mine, I couldnt find the EJB reference after removing it from EAR. So clean build worked here.

The Jungle is mine!

The jungle is dark

My journey's all alone!

The night is long,

But I ain't gonna groan!

The hyenas are out

With the werewolves along,
They are going on a stroll !
Should be having a ball..
Until I own them all !


With no help near
You can try to strike me with fear.
You can sure see me crouch!
Its just one of my tricks,
Many in my pouch !
With my quick hard clout,

U r never gonna make it count !!!

The night is dark,
But the jungle is mine !
Stay away bitches !!!
U r not looking at a bloody fat swine !


I never needed to tout
Cos when the "Tiger" is out,
There's hardly a bout !!!


P.S: This is my attempt to write something similar to the rap song that comes in Sivaji Mottai boss introduction, sic, "You can neva take me , break me and neva gonna get away ....". Let me know how  you liked it.

Copying Websphere Environments settings to a new workspace

Time and again, you might be facing a situation where you would have to setup a new workspace in RAD/RSA (or any Eclipse based, IBM's Rational application development tool) and you would find it tiring to set up all the JNDI configurations like datasource, message queues, security etc from the scratch.

If your server settings are going to be similar to the one that you have already created in another workspace or another PC, we have an option to copy(reproduce exactly) the same settings in the new workspace(provided you are using RAD versions 7.x or above). It is technically known as importing WAS profile. The server settings that you want to copy(export) are copied into a archive file called CAR(Configuration archive).

Please post your comments on how you liked this posting.

Importing a server configuration settings to your workspace is ironically called Exporting Server configuration. It uses the same functionality as wsadmin AdminTask importWasprofile.

For experts who are just looking for quick rehash on how to do it, just follow the next 2 points.
1) Import the CAR as a project using general->existing File system
2) Select the server while it is stopped, right click and choose Export server configuration to server and select the project that has the CAR.

For others who are looking for more details, I have presented the extra details from IBM support documentation. If any of the readers face any issues, please drop a comment and I shall try to help you.

The Export process actually incorporates an existing server configuration into an WebSphere Test Environment whereas the Import mechanism actually creates the .car file from an existing server configuration.

You must therefore run the Import wizard first to create a .carfile from a WebSphere Test Environment and thereafter run the Export mechanism to adopt this into the target server, as detailed below.

Steps to adopt existing Server configuration in new WebSphere Test Environment:

1. Select the Import configuration option by right-clicking the applicable WebSphere Test Environment and select Import Server Configuration from Server
2. Name the .car file that will be created with the preferred name within the wizard and save it within the workspace in an existing project.

Result: The creation wizard will then run and Rational Application Developer status bar will show the import progress until the completion of the wizard. On completion the Console view will output any errors with the import process where applicable. On successful completion, the generated .car file will be located in the target project.

3. Import the .carfile into a new workspace directly to an existing project. The .car file should be located within the workspace so the Export wizard can access it.

7. Implement the Export server configuration to Server option pointing at the existing .car
file.

Result: On successful completion of the Export wizard the server configuration from .car
file will then be merged with the existing server configuration of the target WebSphere Test Environment.


Please post your comments on how you liked this posting.