WiFlyer

I haven't mentioned the WiFlyer in a while, but I'm still amazed by it. It is so cool. I live in a rural area where the only internet connection I can get is dial up. I'm really glad I discovered the WiFlyer though. It is a small device which plugs into an electrical outlet and phone jack and turns a dial up connection into a wireless dial up connection. I finally bought myself a laptop, so now I can move all over the house and still be able to surf the web using a dial up connection. No more extra long phone wire and no more confinement to one spot. Very sweet. There is also a new version of the WiFlyer out. It has a few more features and has a longer range.
If interested, check it out here. There is also a promotional code to use on check out. For a standard WiFlyer enter: friendw and for a WiFlyer+v enter: friendv. If you're stuck with dial up, the WiFlyer is definitely worth checking out. BTW, it is also compatible with a broadband connection if you ever switch over. The WiFlyer is also ideal for those who travel frequently as it is very compact and some hotels only offer a dial up connection. It is very easy to setup and very easy to use. I am still amazed every time I use it.
Oh, and the WiFlyer works just fine with Windows Vista.

UnsatisfiedLinkErrors with a jar file, JNI and C++

I've been busy porting legacy C code to C++. Yeah, real fun. I also have a java gui which calls the C code using the Java Native Interface (JNI). This layer also had to be updated in order to use the C++ code. Everything worked great on windows. I then had to make sure everything built and ran correctly on linux and solaris. I am just not a linux or solaris person. Never have been, never will be. However, I did discover something useful.
I built my jar file and shared objects relatively easily. Next I tried running the jar file. The jar file linked to my shared object ok, but it couldn't find the function being called. I kept getting an UnsatisfiedLinkError. I guessed the reason was due to C++ name mangling.
Javah is used to create the jni header files. When the header files are created, javah automatically adds:

#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C" {
#endif

to prevent C++ from mangling function names. I believe the command I used to look at the function names in the shared object was nm. Weird thing is, the names kind of looked mangled. I did some research on the internet, but found nothing useful. Everything worked fine on Windows, the header files use #ifdef cplusplus to prevent name mangling, so how could the function names be mangled? I don't know. I was desperate, so took the #ifdef cplusplus and put it in the C++ source file too. Right at the top, after the includes and before the first function. I ended the #ifdef cplusplus at the very end of the file. I recompiled and tried running the jar file again. What do you know? No more UnsatisfiedLinkErrors. The jar file found the functions in the shared object just fine. Thank goodness.