How to buy an orchid at the grocery store

It's winter in the northern hemisphere and Phalaenopsis orchids are literally everywhere. The elegant moth orchid can now be found not only near the register at most garden centres, but also at your local greengrocer, favourite supermarket, and the houseplant section of many large department stores. The single best place to buy an orchid is, of course, from a local orchid nursery. Such orchids are fresh and raised under expert care. Plus, it's always a good idea to support the local hobbyists: they are often talented breeders in their own right, and make exciting and exclusive new crosses available to the community. However, sometimes those sexy Phalaenopsis at the store can be so tempting that you almost don't realize you've got one propped between the corn flakes and fat-free yoghurt, until you're unpacking your trolley at the conveyor belt.I am not a total orchid snob; those store-bought plants can be rewarding. Indeed, most of them originate from giant nurseries in such places as Taiwan and Florida, where they are bred to be appealing and raised to be vigorous. Problems arise when the plants are delivered to the point of sale - supermarkets are not the best of growing environments, and store attendants tend to give the orchids the same treatment as conventional houseplants. How often have neighbours complained of the mysterious and untimely demise of their latest acquisition, mere weeks after purchase! Well, fret no more, folks! The Electric Orchid Hunter is happy to provide some essential buying tips you should know before succumbing to orchid fever in the produce aisle. Buy your orchids as fresh as possible. The ideal would be to get them as soon as they are unpacked, but it is seldom possible to gauge in advance when the next delivery will arrive in the store. The dry supermarket atmosphere can severely shorten the life span of the flowers, and cause unopened buds to abort. Flowers should be waxy, not papery, and buds should be swollen and unwrinkled.Check for any instore damage. This includes cracked leaves, snapped aerial roots, bruised flower spikes and torn petals. Make sure the plant is in prime health. Leaves should be mid to dark green, not yellow, firm and slightly succulent. Look in between the leaves at the crown of the plant - if this is damaged in any way, a Phalaenopsis will usually be unable to recover and will eventually just fade away. Most commercially grown orchids are sold in clear plastic pots to allow the green aerial roots to grow into the medium. These are sometimes slipped inside more aesthetically pleasing clay pots - take out the plastic pot and inspect the roots for healthy growing tips.Consider the type and condition of the growing medium. Don't buy anything slick with algae or with little ferns sprouting in it. Avoid plants struggling in mushy medium that has completely broken down - you don't want to have to repot your purchase as soon as you get it home. Consider what you're comfortable with: are these orchids planted in bark, or sphagnum moss? Moss holds onto moisture for longer, but bark can be more forgiving of mistakes. Remember that orchid roots need air in addition to water. Look for a bargain. Sometimes resellers will discount Phalaenopsis once the flowers are spent. It's pretty much a lucky dip at this stage; you won't know whether you've got a large white or a dainty pink candy stripe until you get it to flower again. If the leaves have some red pigmentation at the bases or underneath, that's sometimes an indication of darker-coloured flowers. Unfortunately, commercial varieties are almost never shipped with name tags, and if they are, these rarely provide a clue to the colours you can expect. Bargain bin anonymous orchids might be worthwhile if the plants are still vigorous. Avoid orchids that are marked down because they are obviously on the brink of death.Go for quality, not quantity. A plant with flowers of good shape and substance and with bold colours will be more rewarding at subsequent flowerings than one that has a few more blooms but the flowers of which are insipid or of poor shape. Perhaps I am an orchid snob, after all.Let's prevent further disillusionment and unwitting cruelty to houseplants. Two final pieces of easy advice that will help you on the road to success with your new moth orchid:If you're unsure of whether your orchid is getting sufficient light, that means you should move it to a brighter location. If you're unsure of whether to water it, that means you should wait another day before you do so. Photography credits: potted Phalaenopsis by Thomas Tamayo; dead Phalaenopsis by Kristin; helathy Phalaenopsis roots by Andrea K. Please visit the photostreams of these Flickr users for more flights of photographic fancy.

The Eclipse Freeloader Award

The future of eclipse in in danger: The problem is that there is no real pressure for companies to contribute back to the community and it is easy to use the eclipse "for free" for the own products. There are some interesting blogs on this topic by Doug Schaefer on the future of eclipse and Bjorn on life at Eclipse in the new world. According to wikipedia, this is called free loading: "choosing not to do work and letting others do it". Eclipse is open source and companies can take advantage of the open source work. There is nothing legally that can prevent them from doing so. But the eclipse community should create peer pressure to prevent the freeloaders and parasites from getting away without punishment. A few ideas to increase the pressure for freeloaders: Create an eclipse freeloader award Have an "eclipse supporter" logo Have a list of of freeloaders prominently on the eclipse page Create an eclipse pillroyIs this too harsh? Well, it is less harsh than to take advantage of the work of others and letting eclipse die. It seems that positive stimulus is not enough. I want eclipse to succeed in the future. But if everybody is only thinking about his own agenda the entire system will die. Eclipse has to defend itself. The eclipse foundation is to polite to upset some companies. That has to change. It has to be an honor being part of eclipse, and is has to be crystal clear that eclipse is not for free! Disclaimer (not sure if this helps, but it seems common to add a disclaimer to anything that could potentially upset an employer): This is my personal opinion and not the opinion of my employer.Michael Scharfs Eclipse and Java Blog http://MichaelScharf.blogspot.com/

Microsoft Patch Tuesday for October 2008

Hello and welcome to this month's blog on the Microsoft patch releases. This is another fairly heavy month, with 11 bulletins covering 20 vulnerabilities. There are 10 critical issues this month affecting Internet Explorer, Excel, Active Directory, and the RPC service of Host Integration Server. All of them are remote code-execution issues, but the issues affecting Host Integration Server and Active Directory do not require any user interaction, making them potentially the worst of the bunch. The remaining issues (rated Important and Moderate) affect Message Queuing Service, Internet Printing Protocol (IPP), Windows Kernel, Ancillary Function Driver, Virtual Address Descriptors (VADs), and Server Message Block (SMB). As always, customers are advised to follow these security best practices:- Block external access at the network perimeter to specific sites and computers only.- Avoid sites of questionable or unknown integrity.- Never open files from unknown or questionable sources.- Run all software with the least privileges required while still maintaining functionality.Microsoft's summary of the October releases can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms08-oct.mspxSome of the notable vulnerabilities this month are:1. MS08-058 Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (956390)CVE-2008-3472 (BID 31615) HTML Element Cross-Domain Vulnerability (MS Rating: Critical /Symantec Urgency Rating 8.5/10)A cross-domain remote code-execution and information disclosure vulnerability affects Internet Explorer because it incorrectly interprets the origin of script code. An attacker can exploit this issue by enticing a victim into viewing a specially crafted web page. Code execution in the context of another domain or security zone is only possible when exploited through Internet Explorer 6 SP1 running on Windows 2000 SP4, otherwise a successful exploit will result in information disclosure only.Affects: Internet Explorer 5.01 SP4, Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 6 SP1, and Internet Explorer 7.CVE-2008-3473 (BID 31616) Microsoft Internet Explorer Event Handling Cross Domain Security Bypass Vulnerability (MS Rating: Critical / Symantec Urgency Rating 8.5/10)A cross-domain remote code-execution and information disclosure vulnerability affects Internet Explorer because it incorrectly interprets the origin of script code. An attacker can exploit this issue by enticing a victim into viewing a specially crafted web page. Code execution in the context of another domain or security zone is only possible when exploited through Internet Explorer 6 SP1 running on Windows 2000 SP4, otherwise a successful exploit will result in information disclosure only.Affects: Internet Explorer 5.01 SP4, Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 6 SP1, and Internet Explorer 7CVE-2008-2947 (BID 29960) Microsoft Internet Explorer 'location' & 'location.href' Cross Domain Security Bypass Vulnerability (MS Rating: Critical / Symantec Urgency Rating 8.5/10)This is a previously documented cross-domain security-bypass vulnerability affecting Internet Explorer originally disclosed on June 26, 2008. The problem occurs when handling the "location" or "location.href" property contained in a window object. An attacker can exploit this issue to execute arbitrary code in another browser window's security zone. Affects: Internet Explorer 5.01 SP4, Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 6 SP1, and Internet Explorer 7CVE-2008-3475 (BID 31617) Microsoft Internet Explorer Uninitialized Object Remote Memory Corruption Vulnerability (MS Rating: Critical / Symantec Urgency Rating 7.1/10)A remote code execution vulnerability affects Internet Explorer when it accesses an object that has not been properly initialized or has been deleted. An attacker can exploit this issue by tricking a victim into viewing a specially crafted web page. A successful attack will result in the execution of arbitrary code in the context of the currently logged-in user.Affects: Internet Explorer 6, and Internet Explorer 6 SP1CVE-2008-3476 (BID 31618) Microsoft Internet Explorer HTML Objects Uninitialized Memory Corruption Vulnerability (MS Rating: Critical / Symantec Urgency Rating 7.1/10)A remote code execution vulnerability affects Internet Explorer because it attempts to access uninitialized memory in certain situations. An attacker can exploit this issue by tricking a victim into viewing a specially crafted web page. A successful attack will result in the execution of arbitrary code in the context of the currently logged-in user.Affects: Internet Explorer 5.01 SP4, Internet Explorer 6, and Internet Explorer 6 SP12. MS08-059 Microsoft Host Integration Server RPC Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (KB956695)CVE-2008-3466 (BID 31620) HIS RPC Buffer Overflow Vulnerability (MS Rating: Critical / Symantec Urgency Rating 8.2/10)A remote code execution vulnerability affects the SNA Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service of Host Integration Server. An attacker can exploit this issue by sending a malformed RPC request to the affected service. A successful exploit will result in the execution of arbitrary code in the context of the affected service. This could facilitate a complete compromise of the affected computer.Affects: Microsoft Host Integration Server 2000 SP2, Microsoft Host Integration Server 2000 Administrator Client, Microsoft Host Integration Server 2004, Microsoft Host Integration Server 2004 SP1, Microsoft Host Integration Server 2006 32-bit, and Microsoft Host Integration Server 2006 x64.3. MS08-057 Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution (956416)CVE-2008-3477 (BID 31702) Microsoft Excel Calendar Object Validation Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (MS Rating: Critical / Symantec Urgency Rating 7.1/10)A remote code execution vulnerability affects Excel when processing a VBA Performance Cache. An attacker must trick a victim into opening a malicious project file to exploit this issue. A successful attack will result in the execution of arbitrary code in the context of the currently logged-in user. Affects: Excel 2000 SP3, Excel 2002 SP3, and Excel 2003 SP2 and SP3CVE-2008-3471 (BID 31705) Microsoft Excel File Format Parsing Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (MS Rating: Critical / Symantec Urgency Rating 7.1/10)A remote code execution vulnerability affects Excel when processing a malformed Excel file. An attacker must trick a victim into opening a malicious file to exploit this issue. A successful attack will result in the execution of arbitrary code in the context of the currently logged-in user.Affects: Excel 2000 SP3, Excel 2002 SP3, Excel 2003 SP2 and SP3, Excel 2007, Excel 2007 SP1, Microsoft Office Excel Viewer 2003, Microsoft Office Excel Viewer 2003 SP3, Microsoft Office Excel Viewer, Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats, Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats SP1, Office 2004 for Mac, Office 2008 for Mac, Open XML File Format Converter for Mac.CVE-2008-4019 (BID 31706) Microsoft Excel Formula Parsing Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (MS Rating: Critical / Symantec Urgency Rating 7.1/10)A remote code execution vulnerability affects Excel when parsing a malformed formula embedded in a cell. Specifically, a REPT function call can be exploited to cause an integer overflow. An attacker must trick an unsuspecting victim into opening a malicious file to exploit this issue. A successful exploit will result in the execution of arbitrary code in the context of the currently logged-in user.Affects: Excel 2000 SP3, Excel 2002 SP3, Excel 2003 SP2 and SP3, Excel 2007, Excel 2007 SP1, Microsoft Office Excel Viewer 2003, Microsoft Office Excel Viewer 2003 SP3, Microsoft Office Excel Viewer, Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats, Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats SP1, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP1, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 x64 Edition, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 x64 Edition SP1*, Office 2004 for Mac, Office 2008 for Mac, Open XML File Format Converter for Mac.4. MS08-060 Vulnerability in Active Directory Could Allow Remote Code Execution (957280)CVE-2008-4023 (BID 31609) Microsoft Windows Active Directory LDAP Request Handling Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (MS Rating: Critical / Symantec Urgency Rating 8.2/10)A remote code execution vulnerability affects Active Directory on Windows 2000 because of insufficient validation of LDAP requests. A remote attacker can exploit this issue by sending a malformed LDAP packet to an affected server. A successful exploit will result in the execution of attacker-supplied code in the context of the affected service. This may facilitate a complete compromise of the affected computer.Affects: Active DirectoryMore information on this and the other vulnerabilities being addressed this month is available at Symantec's free SecurityFocus portal and to our customers through the DeepSight Threat Management System.

ReisTips

ReisTips, Wereldkaart en Algemene Informatie ReisTips.nl - ReisTips - Wereldkaart - Samenstelling : Els Straus - Ontwerp : Ruud Heldens - Over Over ReisTips : "Reistips.nl is DE informatiesite voor iedere vakantieganger. Hier vindt u overzichtelijk alle informatie over uw land van bestemming. U krijgt algemene informatie (aantal inwoners, oppervlakte e.d.) over het land, reisdokumenten en inentingen die u nodig heeft..."(ReisTips.nl)Klik op de wereldkaart het land of continent van je keuze aan en je kunt uitgebreide nuttige informatie vinden over het betreffende land.Del.icio.us Tags: reistips wereldkaart reizen informatie Technorati Tags: reistips wereldkaart reizen informatie BlinkList Tags: reistips wereldkaart reizen informatie IceRocket Tags: reistips wereldkaart reizen informatie Google Search: reistips wereldkaart reizen informatie Beertjes Weblog by Peter Franken

AspectJ load-time weaving and memory usage

To skip the background and just learn about the new weaver flags to control memory usage - just scroll to the end of this article.Weaving is a complicated process and to reduce the complexity within the weaver it likes to take control of everything and know what it is dealing with. It builds a large data structure called a World. This World knows all about types - it knows intimate details (the bytecode) of the types being woven, and it knows the basic structure of types from the classpath that are being referenced during weaving (but are not themselves to be woven).Knowing all this causes Worlds to get quite large, and they don't really give up the space they consume. This is mainly by design, a legacy design from when weaving was more something to play with than something to seriously use and rely on in your production quality application.This article is about how to solve the Worlds problems (Badum-tish!).The key data structure in the World is a typemap and the design is that it holds two categories of entity:1) a representation of a type that would be hard to recover later2) a representation of a type that would be easy to recover laterWhat falls into these two categories? From an AspectJ 1.6.4 point of view:- aspects and anything that gets woven is category (1)- types just referenced from woven types are category (2)Category (2) can be basically treated like a cache - where if the information is in memory that is great, but if it isn't we can recover it quickly. Category (1) is the data we can't recovery quickly/easily and so represents a growing fixed part of the World - as more types are woven it gets larger and the space is never released.For AspectJ 1.6.5 we are looking at what to do here. There are a few issues that with a little work could contribute a lot of benefit to the memory footprint.Firstly, it is not true that just because something gets woven that it should be considered category (1). Sometimes weaving affects the type structure (intertype declarations), sometimes it does not (basic advice weaving). If the structure of the type is not affected then we don't need to remember it in detail and once it is woven we can forget about it. If we need to recover information about it later we can do so from the classpath or from the VM that loaded it (via reflection). The fact that it was woven will no longer matter because we will only be reliant on the structure, which we know did not change due to weaving.Secondly, there are links between the two categories. Using either weak or soft references for category (2) entities is great but if there is a hard reference from a category (1) object to a category (2) object then it will never be garbage collected. Being smarter about type references will enable category (1) objects to have a 'softer grip' on the category (2) entities, allowing them to be GC'd.Some initial weaver options are live today in AspectJ 1.6.5 dev builds. These options enable the weaver to consider types only affected by advice as category (2) - disposable and recoverable.New weaver options.The new options are related to what we shall call 'type demotion'. Once enabled, then after the weaver weaves a type it will look at whether it can be demoted from the fixed set of types in the World to the garbage collectable set of types. If it can be demoted then it will be eligible for GC later.As an example, I used yourkit to attach to a weaver that had just (load time) woven 1400 classes with simple before advice. With type demotion switched off the size of the weaver was 14Meg and fixed, with no amount of forced GC's shrinking it. With type demotion switched ON, the size of the weaver was 2Meg.The options can be specified in the aop.xml file:The former option 'typeDemotion=true' switches it on. The latter option will produce a few diagnostics about demotion when it occurs. If enough people try it out and it behaves then it could become default in AspectJ1.6.5 (I am expecting some issues that need solving).I haven't fully thought through how this option will affect source compilation/weaving so use it in that scenario at your own risk (but I'd be interested in feedback!). I suspect:TypeDemotion + IncrementalCompilation = headacheThe work is being done under bug https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=227484 in Eclipse bugzilla.

My Christmas in Wonderland

photos courtesy of ashley choo (a.k.a. tweedledum!)Christmas in Singapore this year was different from the one last year, yes the one spent in the thick of Taiwan's scenic mountains.My Christmas this year was far from quiet and far from boring. I have my dear friends to thank. My dear fun enthusiastic friends from my Ngee Ann Mass Comm poly days. Dull moments are non-existent when you're in their company. I couldn't attend the one last year because I was in Taiwan but this year, this year I could and I did and it turned out to be the best christmas ever.The theme for the party was 'Down the Rabbit Hole'. You obviously know what that means. It's Wonderland with all the quirky characters and of course Alice. We had in total one Alice, two white rabbits, two queen of hearts, one king of hearts, one cheshire cat and the twins tweedledee and tweedledum. Can you guess which character I was? You only have to check out the photo to figure out :) To Ashley, Ghimz, Ronald, Valerie, Geetha, Sheryl, Ivy, Adeline -you're the coolest. Thanks for making my Christmas fun and memorable!The party was at Ivy's place except that she wasn't due to come back home at 11pm. So we went to her place first and laid out all the food and took more photos and finished the rest of our outfits. Later on, we decided to go to Changi Airport to fetch Ivy. Yes, in our Alice in Wonderland gear. That's what we did.Check out the Queen of Hearts with The White Rabbit. They're waiting for Ivy to come out of the arrival hall. She was surprised to see us, but she was clearly more shocked at our awesome dress sense. I think she called us morons :)Here's us at the travellator:When we went back to Wonderland, we ate somemore. The food was delicious. Ashley bought gourmet sausages and salami! Green olives stuffed with Feta too. Ghimz bought shepherd's pie. Adeline bought fries and Ronald brought carrot and celery sticks with dips. Valerie baked cookies!And I brought my apple tart:It was a fun filled night. I will definitely want to spend next Christmas with them. Here's to us and may the coming year bring more joy, fulfilment and satisfaction!To all my dear readers, Merry Christmas to you! I hope you had a fantastic Christmas. *Photos by Ashley Choo

The Life of Galileo

In celebration of the 400th anniversary of the year Galileo first turned his telescope upward and changed the way human beings thought of their place in the cosmos, Catalyst Collaborative @ MIT and Underground Railway Theater present Bertolt Brecht’s The Life of Galileo! Playing Friday, April 10 through Sunday, May 17 at Central Square Theater, this production of The Life of Galileo, Brecht’s widely acclaimed masterpiece of science theater, is translated by David Hare, directed by David Wheeler, and stars Boston area favorite Richard McElvain in the title role. One of Brecht’s most well known and complex plays, The Life of Galileo explores the life of the founder of modern science and the conflict between reason and faith. Written on the brink of World War II while the playwright was exiled from Germany and living in the U.S., Brecht examines the ordeal Galileo was forced to undergo as he set his personal passions and beliefs against the authorities of Church and State. It reveals the famous scientist’s self-hatred for giving up his convictions in the face of the Inquisition, and poses powerful questions that resonate today about the social responsibility of the scientist. The Life of Galileo also takes a bold look at the costs and implications of scientific discovery. What are the repercussions of a fundamental paradigm shift? What must we change about the ways we live our lives when a single breakthrough rocks the very foundations of our belief systems? In the late Renaissance, it was the cosmos; in the 19th century, evolution; today, the possibilities that might be unearthed by unlocking the human genome. In The Life of Galileo, Galileo’s scientific and personal integrity are put to the test as he argues for his very life in a passionate debate over science, politics, religion and ethics; the debates rage on today. The Life of Galileo plays Friday, April 10 through Sunday, May 17 at Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge. Performances are Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 PM, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 3 PM. Tickets are priced at $32; $22 for seniors; and $18 for students with a valid ID; student rush tickets can be purchased the day of the show for $12 in person at the box office or by calling (617) 576-9278 x213. Tickets can be purchased by calling (866) 811-4111, online at www.centralsquaretheater.org, or at the Central Square Theater box office. For box office hours, group discounts, and more info call (617) 576-9278 x213. During the run of The Life of Galileo, there will be talk-backs after selected performances led by world-class scientists such as Eric Lander (Co-Director, Broad Institute and President Obama’s newly appointed science advisor); see www.centralsquaretheater.org for a complete schedule. In addition, a Galileo Symposia Series will take place before every Saturday night performance. Audience members will have the opportunity to participate in stimulating debates with renowned scientists and professors, providing insight into Galileo’s life and times, and also into how the questions raised by the play impact us today. The Galileo Symposia Series is free with the price of admission to The Life of Galileo, and the schedule is below. Symposium leaders include Nobel Laureate Jerome Friedman, Owen Gingerich, Alan Guth, Ian Hutchinson and Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek. Sat., 4/11, 6 PM: Who rocked our world more – Galileo or Darwin? Sat., 4/18, 6:45 PM: Scientific discovery for whom? Sat., 4/25, 6:45 PM: What did Galileo unleash? Sat., 5/2, 6 PM: The battle for the truth: science vs. religion. Sat., 5/9, 6:45 PM: Brecht in action: the creation of a master-work. Sat., 5/16, 6:45 PM: Is the scientist responsible to anyone?When: Apr 14, 2009 12:00:00 AM Where: Central Square Theater in Boston,Massachusetts Posted by:jdd3