How to Run a Java application as a Windows Service or a UNIX Daemon

There is a wrapper by Tanuki Software, that allows you to run any Java application (including servers like Jboss/Tomcat) as a windows service or a Unix daemon.

This is pretty cool if...

• you have applications that depend on other services to be stopped and started in conjunction
• you like a single place from where you can control all your services

Where is my android market?

Recently, I lost the android market on my phone. This was quite an unpleasant moment and I spent half an hour looking of what the hell happened. It turns out that the market was still there, but now called 'Google Play'. They even gave a new icon to the Market app.
Bad move Google! I am sure that there were other users who were confused how they 'lost' the market app.
The transition should have taken place in 2 phases. Change the name, then the icon, or the other way round.

Anyway, duly noted, Android Market is now called Google Play.

How to find out the version of Jboss

1. Open jboss/jar-versions.xml in an editor
2. Look for jboss.jar
3. the implVersion attribute gives you the Jboss version.

My favourite Java Decompiler

For years I have used frontend plus with JAD to decompile class files. But since it is not a supported product since circa 2001, i decided to move on.
I found this http://java.decompiler.free.fr/ to be a free software that does the job to a good standard.
Comes in 2 variations: stand-alone (no installation necessary) and as an Eclipse plug-in.

Thanks to Canadian Mind Products for the recommendation.

App42 Cloud API

If you ever thought of using the cloud for your apps, go ahead give these guys a try apps.shephertz.com. This is lighter than cloudfoundry.com.

To each, his own
Case 1: If I have a project like a mobile app that pulls data from your central source. I do not need a full server. I just need a data source that is reliable (up-time and speed). For such a situation, I should go to Shephertz.

Case2: If I need a full-blown web-server that I can tune and configure, that hosts multiple apps that talk to other parts of the Internet, then I would prefer Cloudfoundry.