well, it seems quite apparent that one cannot allow anonymous comments on a blog anymore without getting spammed to hell. I'll have to implement some kind of solution when i get back.

why are people so lame that they have to abuse everything they possibly can. one must wonder if there really is any hope for us.

I don't usually post work related stuff for some reason, but after battling this problem all morning i figured i should do the nice thing and save someone else the time.

So we have a pretty funky webserver setup for this project right now, and basically what we have is apache on port 80 connected to tomcat via mod_jk, and in front of apache we use an ssl accelerator. Our problem was that any time something in tomcat does a response.sendRedirect(); then the url that would come out was wrong.

example:
  request -> "https://mysite/index.jsp"
      index.jsp does a request.sendRedirect("/somedir/");
  response -> HTTP 302 ... location "http://mysite/somedir/"

notice that we lost our "https" and now have a broken url.

The root cause of the problem is that tomcat doesn't have all the right information about the server environment. It thinks that it is running in a basic http port 80 web environment, and thus the redirect url is incorrect.

To fix the problem we found a couple properties of the tomcat server.xml connector element which fixed the problem. Here's the old and new connector definitions.

<Connector port="8009"
               enableLookups="false" redirectPort="8443" debug="0"
               protocol="AJP/1.3" />

<Connector port="8009" scheme="https" secure="true"
               enableLookups="false" redirectPort="8443" debug="0"
               proxyName="mysite" proxyPort="443"
               protocol="AJP/1.3" />

what this basically does is overrides the values of request.getServerName(), request.getServerPort(), and request.getScheme() which are used when forming the redirect url.

Every now and then you have to put yourself at risk a little and buy simply on impulse. Here's what I got ...

Amon Tobin - Supermodified
Federico Aubele - Gran Hotel Buenos Aires
Afterdark - New York City

*always* get new beats before you leave on a trip ;)

16th @ Valencia

Pakistani food; fast and cheap. This is a really great bang for the buck place which serves up good quality food for a few bucks. We had plenty of food for 4 people and spent only $37. Add to that a nice 22oz beer from the corner market (they don't sell any alcohol) and you've got a great meal.

I pickup up a wireless ethernet bridge today figuring that I would use it to eventually connect to the wireless network we'll setup at home, and when I started it up to just see what it could do I was startled to find 5 networks already prime for me to access.

So I jumped on one and here I am. Sigh. I am glad for the free connect, but i fear the number of unregulated networks that must be out there waiting to be abused.

"Simplicity of character is the natural result of profound thought."

I think the fact that I've started riding the train frequently has somehow lowered my car karma. I was down in SJ on Tuesday going to a movie with some friends and after the movie I get in my car to leave and it won't start. Luckily it was easy to just go to my parents house for the night and borrow a car from them for the next day while the car could be looked at.

The good karma part is that it ended up just being some corrosion around the battery, something which i probably should have been able to notice and fix myself, but i suck with cars. The fact is that I've never ever had problems with the only car I've ever had, so there really hasn't been a reason/opportunity to learn anything. But this time I did learn about corrosion around a battery connector.

Tip:
If it looks like there is built up corrosion around one/both of your battery connectors then simply disconnect, clean it off, reconnect ... a soda like coca-cola works fine for breaking down some of the corrosion that is solid and won't come off.

something new every day :)

Last night I tried out this vegan/vegetarian restaurant at Valencia and 20th (i think) called "Herbivore". Now, I am always a little reluctant to eat at vegetarian resaurants because for some reason they just never seem to work for me. I love veg. food, but I find that full veg. restaurants always go off the deep end some how and can't deliver good meals.

Luckily "Herbivore" was pretty good and kept me interested enough to go back for another try. My meal wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. What I loved about the place was that you get a lovely, good-sized salad with your meal, and the portions are huge. i mean huge. i was in pain about halfway through, you know ... like when you start to slouch over your meal so you don't have to lift the food as far into your mouth, then you get *the extremely long chew* and each bite seems to go on forever. Anways, i got a heaping pile of brown rice w/ veggies and tofu that easily left me with enough for a second meal.

So, kewl place, good portions, but try something other than the Kung Pao.

hadn't seen this one before ... but it brought a big smile to my face 8D

java.lang.ThreadDeath
	org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1229)
	org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1189)
	java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(ClassLoader.java:302)
	org.apache.log4j.spi.LoggingEvent.(LoggingEvent.java:145)
	org.apache.log4j.Category.forcedLog(Category.java:372)
	org.apache.log4j.Category.log(Category.java:864)
	org.apache.commons.logging.impl.Log4JLogger.error(Log4JLogger.java:192)
	org.apache.jasper.compiler.Compiler.generateClass(Compiler.java:387)
	org.apache.jasper.compiler.Compiler.compile(Compiler.java:472)
	org.apache.jasper.compiler.Compiler.compile(Compiler.java:451)
	org.apache.jasper.compiler.Compiler.compile(Compiler.java:439)
	org.apache.jasper.JspCompilationContext.compile(JspCompilationContext.java:511)
	org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:295)
	org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:292)
	org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:236)
	javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:802)

Went to this great Vietnamese place called "Sunflower" right on the corner of 16th and Valencia. The food was excellent, especially the clay pot catfish which was some of the most juicy and tender fish I've ever had in my life. I didn't try the Pho this time around, but I'll definitely be back some time to try that out.

mmm. nothing beats the food in the city =)

"Carve your name on heart and not on marble."

So one of the things that was pretty exciting about moving to SF was the opportunity to take public transportation to/from work. I had done some research here and there, looked at time tables etc, and knew that taking caltrain/bart would get me to and from work, but i wasn't sure how long it would really take and if it would be worth it.

Wed night I took the Sun shuttle from work over to the train station, then caltrain to Millbrae, and then BART to SF. The travel was easy, but the total travel time was roughly 2 hrs, which just won't cut it. By car I am looking at 60-70 mins and I am prepared to add a bit to that for public transit since at least I get to relax instead of drive, but 2hrs was way too long.

Thurs night I decided to try again, but this time I would skip the Sun shuttle and just drive to the station myself. The shuttle is nice, but unfotunately it is only scheduled once per hour and is designed to get everyone there early enough to catch either a northbound or southbound train. The result is that you waste a good 15-20 mins. Anyways, that pretty much solved the whole 2hr issue and this time my total travel time was 90 mins, which is long but acceptable I say since about 70 of those minutes are just sitting on trains and reading/writing/drawing/music/etc.

When I think about 3hrs of cummuting each day I cringe, but with a little more time to adjust I think it will be a great option. Plus, it's great for the environment.

Note: I am really disappointed that BART doesn't go to Millbrae except during peak traffic times, which makes this commute impossible at off times or on weekends if i want to take the train home :(

was walking around last night and came upon a Tower Records, so I had to stop in. Came out with only 1 disc though ..

Frequent Flyer - Rio De Janeiro

good stuff. has that great latin/bossa sound that i love so much these days.

"It is not your character to give up."

Well, it's been a pretty hectic past couple of weeks, but I've finally got moved up to SF and into my new home. The place is great and the room has worked out perfectly and has plenty of space for all my stuff. I don't have anywhere to put my clothes as of yet, but other than that it's all good.

Parking is going to be a nightmare for the first couple weeks or so until I finalize my parking permit. I let my dad park my car last night while I was working on a couple things and figured it would be okay until this morning ... wrong. First night in SF, first parking ticket. crappo. Ah well, lesson learned.