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When you’re deploying and running a MuleSoft Mule Application in Anypoint Studio, it’s not immediately obvious where on your local machine it runs. Often this won’t matter, but when you are trying to build/deploy an application and the only error you get in the console is “check the logs”, maybe it’s time to find out where they live.

This happened to me when I received the following error (and very little else) when trying to deploy a simple application (you know the kind Mule support always ask for when you raise a support ticket?).

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Failed to deploy artifact '<myApplication>', see +
artifact's log for details +
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

You might think the Mule Runtime would be under your AnypointStudio installation but this isn’t the case. Instead, Anypoint Studio executes a temporary instance of Mule Runtime which is located inside your user folders. On my Windows machine this is at
C:\Users\<windowsUsername>.eclipse\1940610523_win32_win32_x86_64\plugins\org.mule.tooling.server.4.1.5.ee_7.3.1.201908272106\mule

In the above folder, there are all the folders you’d expect to see associated with a Mule runtime – including a folder called logs. In this case, the <myApplication>.log file shows that my HTTP listener couldn’t bind to port 8081. It might have been nice to bubble this up to the main console, but at least I got there.

Further to my recent post where I explained that I wasn’t getting any sound following an upgrade of Ubuntu to Lucid Lynx (10.04) and my EeePC’s BIOS (which, incidentally, seems to have fixed the WiFi problems I was having with a particular Belkin router specific to Linux), I just wanted to post up some extra facts I’d discovered.

I should also point out that I added my user to the “sound group” as described in the Ubuntu Sound Troubleshooting Guide, however I’m not convinced this was relevant.

Anyway, further use has led me to conclude that:

• The login splash-screen sound is audible. There is no sound after I login at first. If I log out and login again, the sound is fine.
• Only the internal sound is affected. If the netbook is plugged into speakers, sound is fine.
• As stated previously, the sound issue only appears on Ubuntu, not on Windows.
• Asus don’t give a shit.

How annoying is that?!

On the face of it Nokia’s N96 seems like a device that does pretty much everything. Unfortunately it’s handicapped by pathetically miserable battery life (you’ll be charging this bugger at least once a day in all likelihood) and for some reason your text message inbox doesn’t display the date/time when messages arrived (like my old N73 did).

It doesn’t stop at the batter life though. Sadly BBC have seen fit to also cripple the N96’s iPlayer. The N96 comes with everything, headphones, a car charger and even an RCA cable to let you connect your phone to your TV and watch videos on your TV.  Which is great – except the iPlayer’s DRM prevents the video from being sent over the video-out line. WHHHAAAAT?!

I don’t know, it’s like they want people to download their shows from BitTorrent instead! At least that way you can do what you like with it once you have it.

In their defence, I guess it’s because it would make it possible to plug the TV-out cable into a PVR (or video recorder if you so wished) and record the programme without any DRM restrictions on it and retain it for as long as you want, but if someone’s THAT keen I’m sure they’ll find a way anyway.

The verdict? Swing and a miss!

Oh dear – my heart’s all aflutter!! According to reports (from dialaphone, PC World magazine, Trusted Reviews and many more) Nokia’s long-awaited (by me, anyway) N96 has been released.

It hasn’t made it’s way to the shops or web sites of any of the operators yet, but Nokia are apparently shipping N96s already! The phone’s still showing as a pre-order on Nokia’s online shop, but presumably this is because they’re shipping to customers who pre-ordered first.

I also noticed yesterday and today that Vodafone are pushing the Samsung Omnia, which is free on a £35/month contract including data (oh, yes, the inclusive data plans that hit the shops 3-4 months ago are finally available online – I think).

I think it’s safe to say things just got quite interesting.

It seems it’s the time for it. Queen’s University’s student newspaper, The Gown, published a story about the recent death of a man who they allege had a history of intimidating students.  Some seem to feel that it went a bit far in intimating that this death would be a source of relief to students in the area.

Then I get home on the same day and have an email from Flexicover, from whom I’ve previously bought travel insurance, using a news story about "The death of five girls involved in a tragic accident in Ecuador whilst on a gap-year" to highlight "the risks of travelling overseas" and sell me travel insurance.  They offer 6 helpful hints to people planning gap years and, unsurprisingly, number 6 is: yes, you guessed it, insurance.

A bit scummy, is it not?

Hello all and welcome to my new blog. Once the design is finalised I will be uploading guides, reviews, ideas and problem solving / ‘how-to’ posts based on my daily struggle with the beast that is technology. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for some time, in particular with a view to recording the problems I’ve had with particular devices and/or programs so that others may find the solutions without resorting to pulling their hair out like I often have.

The topics covered will largely be computer related (hardware and software) including compatability issues, dodgy hardware/software, wired and wireless networking etc. I may also touch briefly on UK Digital Terrestrial Television (ie Freeview) and, well, anything else that I determine worthy of comment.

In fact I’ve already written one or two little guides that I plan to post in the next few days. I just hope they will prove useful to someone.