RestTemplate with custom HTTP headers

Spring Framework’s RestTemplate provides simple ways to make requests to RESTful services. When you want to set additional HTTP headers to such requests, then a tiny bit of more work is needed.

Removing Github repository collaborators

The other day I wanted to remove a few collaborators from a repository in Github. Github has aesthetically really pleasing UI, I must say. This also applies to managing collaborators in the admin section of a repository.

Estonian ID-card support in Gentoo

Some time ago we received a great news that the new software for using ID-card is cooking and its milestones are available at http://code.google.com/p/esteid/. However, if you are a Linux user and your motto is to compile everything that moves, then you may find that the guidelines in http://code.google.com/p/esteid/wiki/Gentoo are not quite working. So here’s my effort to make it better.

Encrypt root partition without re-installing Linux

I had put off encrypting data on my laptop for quite some time.  The main reason was that I knew I had to encrypt the whole root partition (including /home, /var, /tmp), but I didn’t want to re-install my Gentoo.  Encrypting only /home partition (which I don’t have actually, I just use / for everything) or some workspace folders is clearly not good enough, because there are other locations on the disk where sensitive information is stored: /tmp, /var.  Well, /tmp might be flushed during reboot I think, but obviously not /var.  Also swap space should be made secure.

Mobiil-ID on Android Dev Phone

The thing that I seriously missed since I started to use Android Dev Phone 1 was Estonian Mobiil-ID. So in order to visit internet bank I had to use my ID-card again. And as I haven’t bothered to set ID-card software up to my Gentoo box, I could only use bank services in Windows.

ClassCastException in loading subclasses in Hibernate

Recently we had a problem with Hibernate (version 3.2.6) mapping with subclasses that threw a ClassCastException upon casting to a concrete subclass.

Scan Agile 2008

Random thoughts from the Scan Agile 2008 conference: