Google Plugin for Eclipse OutOfMemoryError

There is some kind of memory leak in the Google Plugin for Eclipse.  I always use GWT and GAE so not sure what the culprit is but adding this to the launch configuration "VM Arguments" helps:

-XX:MaxPermSize=512m

Eclipse not prompting to choose workspace

I upgraded to Juno (Eclipse 4.2) and every time I would re-start, the default workspace was opened even though I set it to work from a different location.

I had checked "prompt for workspace on startup" but it had no effect.

The solution was to run eclipse -clean from the command line.  Open the Terminal app and navigate inside the eclipse package contents to where the actual executable is:

cd Eclipse.app/Contents/MacOS/

./eclipse -clean 

 That sorted it!

Completely delete pending messages from Skype on Mac OSX

When you send messages on Skype they are only delivered when you are both connected to the Skype network.  If you send a message while either you or your friend is offline you see that it is pending and will be delivered next time you both connect.  

If you send a message and then change your mind you can right click on the message and choose to remove it.  You friend will be sent a notification that you removed a message which is a bit annoying because then they will wonder what you are hiding!

To delete messages permanently and without the notification you need to hack Skype's database which uses Sqlite:

First shut down Skype because it locks the database.

in Terminal

> sqlite3 Library/Application\ Support/Skype/YOUR_USER_NAME/main.db

sqlite> select * from messages

Now find the id of the start of your conversation.  The id is the first column in the results.

sqlite> delete from messages where id > 2904;

This will delete all messages after your conversation.  If you want to be more specific then you may be able to delete individual messages.

Eclipse on Mac - Delete key not working

On a Mac laptop the delete key is a backwards delete, not a forwards delete, and so it does not work out-of-the-box with Eclipse.  To fix this just go to Preferences > General > Keys and find Delete.  Remove the binding and then select the delete key again from the drop down to the right.  That should do it!

Google breadcrumbs - itemscope must be first attribute

I want nice breadcrumbs to show on my Google search results as defined here:

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=185417

My web framework must use well formed XML templates so instead of the itemscope attribute (a boolean attribute which is not valid xml) I used itemscope="itemscope"

The handy Rich Snippets Testing Tool showed that my breadcrumbs were not being picked up.  After a frustrating process of elimination I realised that the itemscope attribute must be the first attribute in the element or Google will not recognise it.  Thats not very XML friendly but probably a good performance optimisation.

Janrain Sign-in

Have been looking at allowing users to sign in to the site I'm building using OpenId and FaceBook.  But what about hotmail users?  People I know have either Hotmail accounts, Google accounts and / or FaceBook accounts.  Perhaps Yahoo also.

Janrain seems to cover all the bases, but when I use their demo and try to login with my FaceBook account it asks for a ton of permissions that I simply do not want most websites to have.  Why the fuck do they need to write on my wall?  "Access my data anytime" just sounds creepy even though its probably a pretty basic permission.

I think a lot of people will react like me when a FaceBook connected site asks for too much - I just hit the back button and do not register.  Go to another site.  Customer lost.  Creepy bastards, wanting too much access to my shit.  Next thing they'll be sending friend requests.

Their Google account integration must be using an older Google API (not OpenId) cos the UI looks a little clunky.  The top of the page says "MYACCOUNT.rpxnow.com is asking for some information from your Google Account". Who or what is rpxnow.com???? Well I know now that it was the old name for Janrain's Engage product but it should NOT be used at the top of my login page.  My site is not rpxnow.com

Sure, if you pay Janrain then you can use your own domain name - but I am cheap and the FaceBook permissions thing is kind of a deal breaker anyway. I'll use App Engine's built in OpenId support directly (that will cover Google, Yahoo, Twitter) then use FaceBook s JavaScript API to add those chaps and maybe, just maybe, add Microsoftcocks own protocol later.

GWT Developer mode quietly failing

I got this error message starting GWT dev server but no exception in the dev mode console.

"Plugin failed to connect to development mode server at localhost:9997"

It had been running fine last time I debugged my GWT stuff so why not now?

In the end I had old App Engine jars in my class path after upgrading to the latest and greatest.

In summary: check your app classpath and also your WEB-INF/lib folders for older versions still hanging about.