Axis2 now supports CORBA services

Axis2 has a new module that makes it possible to take an existing CORBA object and automatically expose it as a Web service. Developed by Eranga Jayasundara, it includes an IDL parser which is used to automate the mapping from the incoming XML message to IIOP and back. We use Apache Yoko underneath.

This used to be the territory of expensive products (such as Iona Artix) but its now completely free. In fact the mapping appears to be more complete than that peformed by the proprietary products- and the performance better too.

Eranga (who did this as his MSc project at the Univ. of Moratuwa and is currently working at the ICT Agency in Sri Lanka) has written an article on WSO2's OxygenTank explaining how the module works and how you can use it.

We're not quite done with this yet- we're also working to integrate this code under the Axis2 client API- once done that means you'll be able to talk to either a WS-* Web service, an HTTP service, a Java object or a CORBA object using the same API. In fact, once we're done any Apache WSIF style binding will be supported directly under the Axis2 client API.

REST vs. WS-*: Facts, Myths and Lies

I recently gave a talk on REST vs. WS-* at both QCon San Francisco and ApacheCon US. The slides can be found on WSO2 Oxygen Tank. I suggest reading the ApacheCon slides as those are slightly updated from the other one.

At ApacheCon Roy Fielding spoke right before me on REST. It was great to listen to Roy present his vision and to hear about REST from the horse's mouth so-to-speak. It was an honor to have him introduce me and then to have him right there to provide additional anecdotes and corrections to my points :).

Comments welcome, especially from those who feel I got it wrong (on either side).

Hillary Clinton on terrorism in Sri Lanka

I saw this a while back but never got around to blogging about it.

Ms. Clinton seems to think that some types of terrorism is acceptable. In particular, I'm annoyed because she seems to think that what the LTTE has been doing in Sri Lanka is acceptable.

WTF?? Has she been on drugs in the last 20 years? LTTE has killed villages full of people from the 80s and the world said "nahh, they're fighting for their rights." They bombed civilian sites, religious sites and economic sites (including our central bank in an attack which was comparable proportionately to the infamous 9-11 attacks).

Until 9-11 the US, Europe and many countries ignored the LTTE and effectively supported them. India supported them, trained them back in the 80s .. until they came back and killed 1500+ Indian troops in Sri Lanka in the late 80s and then killed Rajiv Gandhi. Does she not know that the LTTE leader is convicted of having killed Mr. Gandhi?

Ms. Clinton must be proud that the LTTE site has a reference to it as a way of justifying themselves. Maybe she doesn't know that the US State Department just froze the assets of the TRO an NGO which is funneling funds to the LTTE.

I cannot stand the right wing mania that is driving the Republican party in the US, but getting someone in the Oval Office who thinks that some types of terrorism is ok is far worse for the world and will do more damage than the wonderful Mr. Dubyah has done.

Tamil people in Sri Lanka do have absolutely legitimate reasons to be unhappy with the status quo. I'm a firm believer in some type of decentralized federal political structure for Sri Lanka - all people in Sri Lanka need it! However, LTTE's approach is not the way to get there.

Terrorism is a disease. Eradicating it has to be a global fight and not a fight where one country helps someone else's terrorists. That's what everyone did in the 80s and the 90s .. destroying countries like Sri Lanka in the process. It took 9-11 to change that retarded mindset. I cannot believe that a US presidential candidate really thinks like this about terrorism in 2007 .. maybe in fact she is soft on terrorism as the right wing says.

I hope she loses.

REST is complex

James Snell: REST is complex.

For the last few years the REST community has been hammering the WS-* world saying that its so complex in the ugly WS-* world and so simple in the REST world. It looks like reality is finally setting in: Its all complex.

I was a bit unfair in picking up only a bit of what James wrote. He did say its all complex ... still, that's quite a change for a REST guy :-).

Running into Jonathan Schwartz

I was at QCon San Francisco the last few days and gave a talk on REST vs. WS-* in the track organized by Stefan Tilkov. That was a great track .. they'll be putting up the talks soon (and if its getting late I'll put the slides up; but given the slightly controversial nature of my comments I'd rather have the whole talk rather than just quiet slides).

After all the talks a bunch of us went out for dinner to a nice restaurant at the nearby Four Seasons Hotel. Seated at the table next to us was none other than Mr. Sun himself - Jonathan Schwartz. He was having some power pow-wow with more serious looking older guys.

After he left, we realized that we missed a golden opportunity to go and ask him "WTF were you thinking in changing SUNW to JAVA?"! Dan Diephouse said he'd have given $1000 for anyone who'd have asked that .. I said I'd have done it for $100 without a blink. Then Pete Lacey and Stefan Tilkov and all of us starting low-balling the figure .. finally it came down to we'd have all done it in unison for free!

Oh well; too bad .. but at least next time I run into Jonathan I know what the pick up line is going to be!

Flying Virgin America

I had to book a flight from San Francisco to New York and Orbitz found a ticket on Virgin America for $179. Pretty cheap really. This will be my virgin flight on Virgin America .. so I ended up registering for their frequent flyer program too (which has nice features like no blackout dates- if there's a seat and you have the points then you can have it; wow what a concept!).

In the place where they ask you to enter a question to be asked in case you forget your password, one of the choice was "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?". Made me chuckle ..

I'm looking forward to this flight .. just look at their Web site and you'll be understand why! Damn, I should've probably taken a shuttle down to LAX and then gone LAX -> IAD and then flown up to NYC .. just to be on this flight!