Problems with Java Swing applications on Ubuntu 8.04 64bit ?

If you are running java apps based on swing (gui) under linux, you should be experiencing some problems, such as a “a completly blank window” or no components showing… This happens if you are using the desktop effects (even in the “Normal” level).

Common applications that I had problems:

• Apache JMeter
• Oracle SQLDeveloper
• IReport

Ok, here is the simple fix: Add these 2 lines in the script that starts the application (sqldeveloper.sh for example).

export AWT_TOOLKIT="MToolkit"
export HOSTNAME=localhost

More details: http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6429775

Looks like the 1.6.1 jdk will have this fixed…

Reading/Speaking ASCII character guide

Who never had problems with character pronunciation on a phone bridge ?! Imagine you and more 20 people over the phone, trying to solve a problem. Indians, americans, people from many different places and then someone say “hey, use the snowman char!” (& <- snowman char).

Well, trying to avoid this, these guys created a table for pronuncation ASCII chars, take a look:
ASCII-Table Pronunciation Guide