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IE8 crashes on Windows Update

Trying to automatically update my Windows XP, I got a crash from my browser, every single time, while trying to install the automatic updates ActiveX control.

The solution is to go to: Tools / Internet Options / Advanced / Security. Take the check off the "Enable memory protection to help mitigate online attacks" option.

Netbeans, JSF and Oracle Datasource

I've been fiddling with Netbeans 6.5 and Java EE 5 in order to keep up to date with some of the trends in web development on a JEE architecture. When trying to perform a tutorial on the Netbeans DVD Starter Kit, with JSF and Data bounded controls and I found myself having a problem.

I followed the tutorial's steps (enumerated below, give or take a step):

1. Add the database connection to the IDE


2. Create a new project for a JSF Web Application


3. Add a Drop-down control from the Woodstock control palette


4. Add a property attribute for the control


5. Drag & drop the the database table onto the control to perform the data binding


6. Configure the Key/Value field on the drop-down

Executing the above using the JavaDB samples bundled with the IDE performed surprisingly OK, right on the first compilation and execution. However, when I performed the above steps for a neat Oracle 11g database, the Cached Row Set did not work properly and the data binding window did not display the fields available.

Searching on the Web, I found this page about Netbeans and JDBC drivers. So my first lead was the JDBC driver. I changed the driver to be used and reconfigured the connection (I was using JDBC4 and changed it to JDBC3). Tried it and still no luck.

I copied the referred jdbc url to the Service Tab on Netbeans and established the connection. But It still did not work. But something told me it should be the connection string, so I checked the web.xml file for the application and it pointed to lookups on a resource file. I edited the resource file and found the problem: the changes made on the services tab are not refactored on the application.

In conclusion, I edited the resource file, saved it and the second time around the data bind operation worked perfectly!

Nevertheless, I made an identical page using JSTL and the performance was much better. I found that JSF carries some overhead, undesired when performance is essencial.