SSO vs CAS

• For example, a user logs on to her workstation, then decides to access a company database

Typically, the database would require another username and password for authentication. But in an SSO environment, the application simply determines whether it can authenticate the user based on information the network's authentication server provides

With centralized authentication, this authentication process is different. Using the example above, logging on to the database isn't transparent; the user would have to enter her authentication information again. However, the required credentials would be identical to the credentials she used to log on to her workstation. Centralized authentication effectively solves only one problem: users having to remember multiple sets of authentication credentials.

http://windowsitpro.com/networking/sso-vs-centralized-authentication

• The Central Authentication Service (CAS) is a single sign-on protocol for the web

Its purpose is to permit a user to access multiple applications while providing their credentials (such as userid and password) only once
It also allows web applications to authenticate users without gaining access to a user's security credentials, such as a password.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Authentication_Service

• Central Authentication Service project, more commonly referred to as CAS.  

CAS is an authentication system originally created by Yale University to provide a trusted way for an application to authenticate a user. CAS became a Jasig project in December 2004.
CAS provides enterprise single sign-on service:
http://www.jasig.org/cas

• FreeIPA is an integrated security information management solution combining Linux (Fedora), 389 Directory Server, MIT Kerberos, NTP, DNS, Dogtag (Certificate System). It consists of a web interface and command-line administration tools.

FreeIPA is an integrated Identity and Authentication solution for Linux/UNIX networked environments. A FreeIPA server provides centralized authentication, authorization and account information by storing data about user, groups, hosts and other objects necessary to manage the security aspects of a network of computers.
https://www.freeipa.org/page/About

• cookie-based SSO

share the user logged in across multiple applications using only a cookie on the browser

cookies can be shared if domains have a master domain in common. foo.example.com and bar.example.com can share a .example.com cookie
When the user authenticates on site-a.com, you set a cookie on site-a.com domain. Then on site-b.com, you link a dynamic javascript from site-a.com, generated by server side script (php, etc) who has access to the created cookie, and then copy the same cookie on site-b.com on the client-side using js. Now both sites have the same cookie, without the need of asking the user to re-login
I have seen custom SSO solutions that transmit the payload using XML over HTTPS.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1784219/cookie-based-sso

Static analysis

• Static  analysis

Static program analysis is the analysis of computer software that is performed without actually executing programs (analysis performed on executing programs is known as dynamic analysis). In most cases the analysis is performed on some version of the source code and in the other cases some form of the object code.
The term is usually applied to the analysis performed by an automated tool, with human analysis being called program understanding, program comprehension or code review.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_program_analysis

Using Symlinks in Windows

• Using Symlinks in Windows Vista

One of the long-awaited features in Windows Vista was the ability to use symbolic links, the way you can in linux

For instance, if you wanted to make the folder C:\Users\Geek\TestFolder available from C:\TestFolder as well, you could use the following command.

C:\mklink /D C:\TestFolder C:\Users\Geek\TestFolder

symbolic link created for C:\TestFolder <<===>> C:\Users\Geek\TestFolder




Hard Link

A hard link directly points to the file, and acts to the operating system as if it is the file itself. You’ll want to use this option the majority of the time if you are trying to fake an application’s directory.

Soft Link

A soft link is essentially a shortcut to a file or folder – if you are using Windows explorer, you’ll be redirected to the directory if you double-click on a shortcut, it won’t pretend its part of the filesystem. You can still directly reference or open a file with the symlinked path, and it mostly works.

Deleting Symlinks

To delete a symlink, you can just delete the link. Just make sure you don’t delete the original file.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/using-symlinks-in-windows-vista/

HSQLDB

• HSQLDB (HyperSQL DataBase) is the leading SQL relational database engine written in Java. It offers a small, fast multithreaded and transactional database engine with in-memory and disk-based tables and supports embedded and server modes. It includes a powerful command line SQL tool and simple GUI query tools.

http://hsqldb.org/

• HSQLDB (Hyper Structured Query Language Database) is a relational database management system written in Java. It has a JDBC driver and supports a large subset of SQL-92 and SQL:2008 standards.[1] It offers a fast,[2] small (around 1300 kilobytes in version 2.2) database engine which offers both in-memory and disk-based tables. Both embedded and server modes are available for purchase.

Additionally, it includes tools such as a minimal web server, command line and GUI management tools (can be run as applets), and a number of demonstration examples. It can run on Java runtimes from version 1.1 upwards, including free Java runtimes such as Kaffe.

HSQLDB is available under a BSD license. It is used as a database and persistence engine in many open source software projects, such as OpenOffice Base, LibreOffice Base, and the Standalone Roller Demo,[3] as well as in commercial products, such as Mathematica or InstallAnywhere (starting with version 8.0)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSQLDB

• 1. The dialect is set to the database we are using which is HSQLDB

2. The JDBC driver is also set to HSQLDB
3. We set the database to one called testdb and request that the database be shutdown when our program exits
4. The default user name and passwords are used (change if yours differs)
5. I use the create-drop option to create the database and table(s) if they doesn’t exist, if they do they are dropped leaving me with a clean database each time I run the program. Other options are: create, update and validate

http://www.giantflyingsaucer.com/blog/?p=2902

• querying using hsql database manager :

select your connection

    type: HSQL DATABASE ENGINE SERVER
    Driver: jdbc.hsqldb.jdbcDriver
    URL: jdbc:hsqldb:hsql://localhost/

jakarta commons logging

• When writing a library it is very useful to log information. However there are many logging implementations out there, and a library cannot impose the 

use of a particular one on the overall application that the library is a part of.

The Logging package is an ultra-thin bridge between different logging implementations. A library that uses the commons-logging API can be used with any 

logging implementation at runtime. Commons-logging comes with support for a number of popular logging implementations, and writing adapters for others 

is a reasonably simple task.

Applications (rather than libraries) may also choose to use commons-logging. While logging-implementation independence is not as important for 

applications as it is for libraries, using commons-logging does allow the application to change to a different logging implementation without 

recompiling code. 

Note that commons-logging does not attempt to initialise or terminate the underlying logging implementation that is used at runtime; that is the 

responsibility of the application. However many popular logging implementations do automatically initialise themselves; in this case an application may 

be able to avoid containing any code that is specific to the logging implementation used.



http://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-logging/

cells on laptop batteries

6 cell 2 1/2 hrs
9 cell 4 1/2 hrs
12 cell 4 hrs plus
depending on your power saving options
the higher the cell capacity the higher/heavier the price.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091001184320AAmwNsS

toad 9.1 toad 9.5 problem with oracle 11g client

toad 9.1 toad 9.5 problem with oracle 11g client

I logged a support ticket at Quest. The support over there is really quick and helpful. In less than a day I got a message back that they were going to try it themselves, it went even to the technical people (development team) and after a few mails of back and for I got this final message: "Unfortunately, it was confirmed by our team's technical lead that Toad version 9.5 only support Oracle server 11g and not Oracle client 11g. My only suggestion for you is to install another client on your machine that is 10gR2 version or lower."

http://dgielis.blogspot.com/2007/11/quest-toad-on-oracle-11g-not-supported.html

ORACLE_HOME

ORACLE_HOME refers to either:

    a directory where the Oracle software is installed; or
    an environment variable pointing to the directory where the Oracle software is installed.


Windows

Check current value:

echo The current ORACLE_HOME is %ORACLE_HOME%

Set the ORACLE_HOME environment variable:

set ORACLE_HOME=C:\oracle\ora10.2

On Windows the ORACLE_HOME may also be stored in the registry:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\HOMEID
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\ALL_HOMES
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services

http://www.orafaq.com/wiki/ORACLE_HOME