Posts Tagged ‘Web’

In the incandescent interstice of innovation and imagination, where algorithms awaken aesthetics, Anders Norås, a Norwegian designer and digital dreamer, traces the tantalizing trajectory of computer-generated creativity. From 1960s Silicon Valley’s psychedelic pixels to 2020s generative galleries, Anders animates an anthology of artistic audacity, where hackers harnessed harmonics and hobbyists honed holograms. His odyssey, opulent with optical illusions and ontological inquiries, unveils code as canvas, querying: when does datum dance into divinity?

Anders ambles from Bay Area’s beatnik bytes—LSD-laced labs birthing bitmap beauties—to 1970s fine artists’ foray into fractals. Vera Molnar’s algorithmic abstractions, Molnar’s mechanical marks, meld math with muse, manifesting minimalism’s machine-made magic.

Psychedelic Pixels: 1960s’ Subcultural Sparks

San Francisco’s hacker havens hummed with hallucinatory hacks: Ken Knowlton’s BEFLIX begat filmic fractals, A. Michael Noll’s noisy nudes nodded to neo-classics. Anders accentuates the alchemy: computers as collaborators, conjuring compositions that captivated cognoscenti.

Algorithmic Abstractions: 1970s’ Fine Art Fusion

Fine artists forayed into flux: Frieder Nake’s generative geometries, Georg Nees’s nested nests—exhibitions eclipsed elites, etching electronics into etudes. Harold Cohen’s AARON, an autonomous auteur, authored arabesques, blurring brushes and binaries.

Rebellious Renderings: 1980s’ Demoscene Dynamism

Demoscene’s defiant demos dazzled: Future Crew’s trance tunnels, Razor 1911’s ray-traced reveries—amateurs authored epics on 8-bits, echoing graffiti’s guerrilla glee. Anders applauds the anarchy: code as contraband, creativity’s clandestine cabal.

Digital Diaspora: Internet’s Infinite Installations

Web’s weave widened worlds: JODI’s jetset glitches, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s responsive realms—browsers birthed boundless biennales. Printouts prized: AARON auctions at astronomic asks, affirming artifacts’ allure.

Generative Galas: GenAI’s Grand Gesture

Anders assays AI’s ascent: Midjourney’s mirages, DALL-E’s dreams—yet decries detachment, Dolly’s depthless depictions devoid of dialogue. Jeff Wall’s “A Sudden Gust of Wind” juxtaposed: human heft versus heuristic haze, where context conceals critique.

Anders’s axiom: art awakens awareness—ideas ignite, irrespective of instrument. His entreaty: etch eternally, hand hewn, honoring humanity’s hallowed hue.

Links:

• Anders Norås on LinkedIn

Recent history

BEA WebLogic 9.0, 9.1 and 9.2 were released from 2007: the main features were: a new console, WLST (WebLogic ScriptingTool), deployment plans, WebLogic Diagnostic Framework (WLDF), new security providers (RDBMS, SAML 1.1, etc.), JMS performance improvements, support of Java EE 4, JDK 5, Spring, OpenJPA, Kodo, etc.

Since this date, some events happened:

• Oracle bought Sun (2009)
• Oracle released WebLogic 10.3 (2008)
• Oracle bought BEA (2008)

WebLogic Server 10 General Features

• Developer productivity ehancements
  • JDK 6, Java EE 5
  • Support of EJB3 and JPA
  • BEA enhancements
• Web Services: more annotations, less XML
  • JAX-RPC Web Services Enhancements
  • JAX-WS 2.0 Web Services Implementation
• Misc:
  • Better administration console
  • Auto-Record of Admin Console actions as WLST scripts
  • Automatic JTA Transaction Recovery Service (TRS) migration
  • SNMP 3.0
  • Production Application Redeployment enhancements
  • Clustering – Unicast messaging (in addition to Multicast)

Programmer Perspective

• New persistence engine: TopLink
• OEPE (Oracle Entreprise Pack for Eclipse): sequence of tools and plugins for Eclipse: remote deployment, debugging,  editors for weblogic.xml and weblogic-application.xml, wizards, facets, Weblogic ClientGen, WSDLC and JAXB wizards
• Optimizations for Spring integration and certication
• Web 2.0:
  • Ajax / Dojo client support
  • Http publish / submit engine for collaborative applications:
    • Bayeux protocol
    • data exchange within applications over persistent connections
    • scalability for Dojo clients
• Ad-hoc tools for:
  • Oracle Database
  • Spring
  • JAX-WS webservices

Lightweight WebLogic Server

WebLogic 10 offers a light weight server:

• Install only “core” WebLogic server
• Optionally, startup other services (JDBC, EJB, JMS, etc.)
• FastSwap: modify classes without requiring redeployment.

Architect Perspective

Architects have to consider WebLogic as a complete suite, and not only WebLogic Server:

• Oracle RAC integration: Connectivity to RAC with load balancing, failover, transactions
• Enterprise Messaging with JMS: High performance and reliable JMS messaging engine “built-in”
• ActiveCache with Coherence*Web and EJB/JPA: Coherence Data Grid caching included and integrated
• Operations Automation: Tools for automating management of applications and servers
• Operations Insight: Tools for diagnosing problems in development and production
• Other features
  • Development tools: Choice of tools for developer productivity
  • Web Services: Enterprise Web Services for SOA
  • TopLink: Persist application data to stores with performance and productivity. It works in a way similar to Hibernate L2 cache.
  • Spring: Enable flexible choice of dev frameworks with same WebLogic QOS

Production and Support Perspective

WebLogic 10 provides a tool: JRockit Mission Control

• monitors more than 150 parameters:
• CPU
  • memory
  • leaks
  • latency spikes
  • threads
  • object references
  • JDBC connections
  • JMS
  • pools
  • clusters
  • configuration files
  • etc.
• allows to compare WebLogic domains
• Runtime Analyzer: runtime capture for offline analysis, Garbage Collector analysis, etc.

Coherence – ActiveCache

Coherence is the Data Grid offered by Oracle. It allows to store Java objects in memory, and share them between all instances. From a certain viewpoint, Coherence looks like the GigaSpaces.

Roadmap for Future WebLogic Releases

• Support of Java EE 6 (ratified by the community in last December)
• OSGi deployment
• More native integration for WebLogic Server – Coherence – Oracle Database
• JRockit Flight Recorder for constant record
• Virtualization
• More integration with Maven, Hudson and Cruise Control
• Shared Library: use the same JAR for many applications, rather than packing the same JAR in different EARs.
• On long term:
  • IDE
    • NetBeans to be oriented onto J2ME development
    • JDevelopper to remain Oracle strategic IDE
    • Contributions to Eclipse to go on
  • JRockit and Sun HotSpot JVMs to be merged.