New UM Sites Launch

August 31, 2008 · 16 Comments

Today we launched the new set of Universal Mind websites:

www.universalmind.com

and

blog.universalmind.com

Adam has gone into a great deal about the technical specifics of the new www.universalmind.com, so I will go into the technical specifics of blog.universalmind.com, since I wrote it (skin by Nahuel and Laura).

Previously, the UM Blog Aggregator had been an experiment in combining Hibernate and ColdFusion with Mach-II. This, over time, proved to be a bit unstable, to say the least. About a month ago, I took on the initiative to re-write the entire aggregator using Java. Under the hood, we're still using Hibernate, but we're also using Spring and SpringMVC to manage the transactions and Hibernate sessions a bit better. One thing you'll probably not notice, but is the coolest to me, is that the post search is now powered by Hibernate Search. What does this mean? Well, every time a new post is aggregated and persisted, Hibernate transparently indexes the object and makes it searchable. It's powerful stuff.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the site and please give us some feedback.

New UM Sites Launch

Tags: Apache · Java · ColdFusion · Flex · General · Adobe · Mach-II · Universal Mind · Hibernate

16 responses so far ↓

1 Peter J. Farrell // Aug 31, 2008 at 6:01 PM

Andy, you make it sounds like Mach-II was causing the unstable-ness in your architecture. Please elaborate.
2 Andy Powell // Aug 31, 2008 at 10:20 PM

Sorry, that was not the intent. The actual problem, I believe, was how sessions and transactions were being handled. Essentially, we were getting stack overflows every few months. SpringMVC handles all that stuff for us and is better suited. Mach-II is not the issue at all.
3 Sami Hoda // Aug 31, 2008 at 10:35 PM

Firefox and Ad-Block don't seem to like your site.
4 Andy Powell // Aug 31, 2008 at 11:17 PM

@Sami - how so? Is it the Amazon stuff?
5 Matt Woodward // Sep 1, 2008 at 9:07 AM

Sticks at "initializing" for me.
6 Josh Rodgers // Sep 1, 2008 at 9:08 AM

Nice design, very cool graphic and professional at the same time.
7 Mark Ireland // Sep 1, 2008 at 5:10 PM

Can you elaborate about 'getting stack overflows every few months'? I mean, how you spotted it, what you did to fix it straight away and what you did in the longer term (before your rewrite) Thanks
8 Andrew Powell // Sep 5, 2008 at 8:32 AM

@Matt - make sure you clear cache. @Mark - It was fairly easy to spot... it would start throwing HTTP 500 errors and dumping stacktraces while processing CFOUTPUT. There was no long-term fix, except for the rewrite, as I never really had time to devote a lot of attention to it.
9 oyun gemisi // Sep 16, 2008 at 5:34 AM

what you did to fix it straight away Greetings!!I will bookmark for my son this site..
10 oyun gemisi // Sep 16, 2008 at 5:35 AM

There was no long-term fix, except for the rewrite,thanks
11 araba oyunu // Sep 16, 2008 at 5:36 AM

very cool graphic and professional at the same time Thanks, for this information and news it was very useful to me
12 mukesh // Oct 1, 2008 at 1:06 PM

Hi Webmaster, We can do directory and article submission. If you are interested to deal with us . you can provide submission work to us . We will promise, your work will complete in best way (in good page Rank Directory). we will give you complete work with in proper time period. We can do work both salary and commission base. please help me . i can do 100 Directory Submission 8$ We are waiting your positive response Have a nice day
13 sava? oyunlar? // Dec 25, 2008 at 6:45 PM

? have followed your writing for a long time.really you have given very successful information. In spite of my english trouale,I am trying to read and understand your writing. And ? am following frequently.I hope that you will be with us together with much more scharings. I hope that your success will go on.
14 komik oyun // Feb 17, 2009 at 4:30 AM

There was no long-term fix, except for the rewrite,thanks
15 makyaj oyunlari // Feb 17, 2009 at 4:32 AM

hope that your success will go on.
16 Dave // Feb 17, 2009 at 7:43 AM

Hello I am Freelance SEO (Search Engine Optimizer). Search Engine Optimization (SEO) basically means optimizing your website through on page and off page factors to get you High Rankings and more Traffic in the Search Engines. I can do Off Page Optimization like Directory, Article, Low Quality Links, Social Media, and Press Release, Forum & Blog Comments and so on. Links will actually help your site to Rank High in the Search Engines. So what are you waiting for? For high Search Engine Rankings (Google, Yahoo or MSN) you can contact to me at any time. I promise, your site will be in top Search Engines within 6 months, if I do whole Optimization of your site. I will give you Directory, Article and Press Release submissions with snaps of Entire Page of filled form. I can give 100 submission 8$. Thanks & Regards (Mukesh)

Andrew Powell

Into The Mind of A Solutions Architect