With our move to production last week came a number of “interesting” challenges. One particularly fascinating artifact was that switching context between SSL and non-SSL would cause the connection to be dropped and therefore clicking on links under SSL would produce.. nothing.

It turns out that many “free” and open-source products or APIs will get you on SSL and charge you big bucks when you are most vulnerable – i.e. when you need SSL support (a.k.a moving into production). This is true of Google and also of IceFaces and several others.   

Here’s the background for the situation we found ourselves in: we use Google’s “free” map API extensively throughout the website to provide information to our customers about distances to and from airports, airport information, directions, etc. and of course actually mapping the airports graphically on a map.

The free version of Google maps – as it turns out – does not work under SSL. That is, unless you have an extra $10,000 laying around that you are just eager to pass on to Google just for the privilege of being able to do Google maps through SSL. By the way, Google buries the price information about this deep within its site and even then it only offers prices in GBP – not in dollars.

This made IE completely unusable but worked reasonably well under other browsers, although not without problems. This had to be fixed.

Of course, we’re a startup and we have much better things to do with $10,000. But even if we weren’t – it is ludicrous that Google would charge that kind of dough just for SSL support. There is and cannot be any justification for that. The paid Google maps “Premier” is supposedly for sites that charge customers for access to maps (or where only paying customers can access maps). In our case it is completely free – both registered customer and non-registered customers can access maps and even registered customers are not charged for their membership. We have no need to be a “Premier” customer.

It also turns out that IceFaces’ ‘push-server’ does not support SSL out of the box – only the paid “enterprise” version does. The only way to find that out is on the forums as it is never mentioned in the actual product literature. I’ve complained about IceFaces here before, but unfortunately we still have to use them in various parts of our product-suite.

However, if we are not happy with “free” version, why on earth would we pay for the enterprise version?

The 1st part of our solution was to isolate the checkout page to use SSL (https) and have the pages that use Google maps run under regular http. We can do that since we use the Google API on pages that do not contain any sensitive information.

This would solve our Google maps problem.

It also means that we need to switch context between SSL for some “pages” and non-SSL for others.

This “context-switching” cause IceFaces to drop connections:

[..] com.icesoft.faces.webapp.http.core.RequestVerifier service
INFO: ‘POST’ request expected. Dropping connection…

My first reaction was to blame IceFaces for yet another bug.. – but it turns out to not be a bug. It’s just that IceFaces is such an intrusive API that you have to do a lot of extra administrative work to make it work through Apache SSL. Especially in our case since we use mod_rewrite extensively.

So here’s the setup:

In httpd.conf we have 2 virtual hosts one SSL (port 443) and the other not (port 80). We intercept calls to secure pages that go to the non-SSL virtual-host and mod_rewrite them to the secure host – and vice-versa for the context switching back.

You need to make all IceFaces resources switch contexts together with all the uris they are linked to. Otherwise, IceFaces will not be able to find it’s /block/ content.

The best way to see what content IceFaces is trying to get is through a javascript debugger like FireBug.

In it you will see that resources such as

/push-server/block/receive-updated-views

cannot be found (error 404) or – if you do mod_rewrite redirects like we do – it will say something like:

“301 resource moved permanently”

This is your hint that during context switching you are redirecting away IceFaces resources. So in httpd.conf you need to add the following RewriteCond’s for the SSL virtual-host:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/<uri-path/to/secure/resource1>$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/<uri-path/to/secure/resource2>$
[…etc. secure resources..]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/push-server/block/receive-updated-views$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/<uri-path>/block/send-receive-updates$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/<uri-path>/block/ping$

Then add the same configuration with reverse logic in the non-SSL host. i.e the above example checks that the resource “IS NOT” (!) and has an “AND” relationship between RewriteCond’s; whereas the non-SSL host checks that the resource “IS” and has an “OR” relationship between RewriteCond’s.

We hope this helps others who are stuck in the same situation, but especially it will help others fight back against deceptive practices by some supposedly “free” and “open-source” companies that try to milk you when you’re most vulnerable.

Gad Barnea – CEO- FlyMiwok, Inc.

The daily Funnies entertain us, typically by pointing a mirror at us and our behaviors. Case in point: Today’s comic strip by Rina Piccolo, one of the “Six Chix“. In the strip, a hospital nurse explains to concerned patients looking at all the equipment connected to the patient that technology cannot be stopped – all the equipment would soon be replaced by an iPhone app. I laughed – and then started to ponder.

While technically imaginable and while other high-tech equipment, such as digital cameras, can be controlled from an iPhone today, there have to be boundaries. Human touch is important and re-assuring. Just imagine that upon checking in to your FlyMiwok flight, the pilot from New Vectors Aviation, our approved operator in the SoCal area, would whip out an iPhone and explain that the iPhone would fly the plane. Would you feel good about that? We would not. Thus, no matter how much technology there is helping pilots, the pilot remains firmly in charge of flying you from your origin to your destination. And that is a good thing!

New Vectors Aviation’s pilots might carry iPhones. But they are switched off during the flight and they certainly do not fly the plane. And I stopped pondering and started to read Dilbert…

Veit Irtenkauf – Chief Product Officer – FlyMiwok, Inc.

Flight Global just came out with an excellent overview of where the air-taxi/on-demand industry currently is.

This article follows last years coverage which came right after DayJet’s collapse. The recent article is significantly more upbeat. The reason must be in part that most of the companies covered last year are still around and apparently doing well – relatively speaking…

I think it is a testament to the men and women behind these companies that they are able to continue going in a time of severe economic pressure, adjust their business plans and their operations and keep their eyes on the ball.

It is also a testament to the strength of our collective vision. The article quotes Joe Leader – CEO of the air-taxi association as saying that air taxis are about the "democratization" of air travel, bringing links to the rest of the country to communities that have little or no scheduled air service.

The “democratization” of air-travel is also about making on-demand air-travel available to a wider and wider segment of the population whether it be in rural areas or metropolitan areas such as the Los Angeles basin.

We were the only company mentioned that pursues some variety of the “Per-Seat On-demand” (PSOD) model. It is a model that requires a lot of very sophisticated technology to work, but we believe that it is the best way for an unscheduled (on-demand) operation to offer the lowest possible rates to the general public while maximizing revenues for the operator.

Hopefully, by the time NBAA2010 comes around our industry would have moved from “turbulent” through “believer” to “growth”. Only time will tell.

Gad Barnea – CEO – FlyMiwok, Inc.

Airlines and air-travel are not the only areas where technological innovation, social networking and open APIs are being developed and deployed. Some agencies are really starting to think outside the box. For example, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority recently launched a developer website to allow 3rd party developers access to integrate transportation data into their applications.

Here’s an excellent review of the current state of social networking in the ground-transportation industry:

Right now it powers your margaritas. Soon it might power the airplane you’re flying.

According to an article in “The Australian”, an international team of bio-energy scientists and entrepreneurs is looking to produce bio-fuels from blue-green Agave Tequiliana plants in Queensland’s Burdekin region and other dry-climate locations around the globe. After convincing the Mexican authorities that the Agave-growing operation will not result in an “Australian tequila” competitor, they finally got the permission to plant, last July, 2500 Agave in Burdekin soil.

According to Don Chambers of Ausagave.

"We had to convince the Mexican government that we wouldn’t be going in opposition by growing the plant for tequila. It’s their ‘noble plant’. It took us a long time to gain their trust."

Joe Holtum – one of the scientists behind the project explains the uniqueness of the Agave as:

"They take up CO2 in the dark, when it’s cool, and so they don’t lose much water by evaporation. But, of course, the metabolic battery doesn’t have enough power to convert all the CO2 to sugars, so what they do is store it as malic acid in their succulent cells.

"In the daytime, when it’s hot, they close the little holes in their leaves, the stomata, so they’re not losing much water, and they break down the malic acid inside the leaves. They do photosynthesis under very high CO2 concentrations, so it’s really efficient."

Here’s Don Chambers take on the project:

…now just add a splash of lime and serve your biofuel on the rocks!

Gad Barnea – CEO – FlyMiwok, Inc.

In the airline world, “paperless check in” is the latest technological trend. You basically get an electronic boarding pass emailed to you that has a digital bar code embedded in it that can be scanned at the airport by TSA and the airline gate agent.

There are 5 airlines and 27 airports around the country that support “paperless check in” and the trend is expected to grow in the coming years. This is a positive trend that actually makes it easier on passengers (once they become familiar with the process) to check in. Nothing to print. Nothing to forget.

FlyMiwok is not an airline and neither are our operators. This allows us to be much more flexible. Customers who book through FlyMiwok’s reservations system have even less to worry about. They will also have the option of a paperless check-in. In fact they just need an “itinerary number” (a string of numbers and characters that looks like: 926bda36e057a). And there’s no airport limit – this is true for any airport served by our operators.

Our operators verify the itinerary number from the booking confirmation email or printout (which can be printed or saved on a mobile device) – there’s nothing to scan. They do however check the customer’s ID by verifying their passport or other government issued ID (e.g. driver’s license) – to know that the customer is indeed who he or she says they are.

It’s really that simple – all you need is an itinerary number. 

‘Helioculture’ is a fascinating concept being pursued by Joule Biotechnologies of Cambridge, Mass. The company is in stealth mode and not much actual information is available about the plan, but the Boston Globe was able to get a glimpse into the process and the ‘designer’ organism that the company has developed.

According to the article, the organism developed by Joule is a green Jell-O-like substance that the company plans to put into specially designed solar panels. These panels will use sophisticated optical and thermal engineering to essentially ‘marinate’ the organism with brackish water and nutrients and – through some photosynthetic process – the organism will transform the energy and ‘sweat’ ethanol, hydrocarbons, and petroleum-based chemicals. They hope to be able to generate 20,000 gallons of SolarEthanol™ fuel and more than 13,000 gallons of SolarDiesel™ per year from every acre of solar converter panels.

As far as pricing, the company expects to deliver SolarFuel™ liquid energy at the energy equivalent of less than $50 per barrel for diesel and less than $75 per barrel for ethanol.

Beautiful images of the earth and a 360 degree back flip called the Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver.

I hope Rick Sturckow (the pilot) remembered to turn on the seating lights..

JSF is nice.. but sometimes you just pull your hair out for hours just trying to implement some ridiculously simple features that shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes..

One example is external redirects (i.e. redirecting to URLs outside your webapp). It’s easy enough to use JSF navigation for internal redirects, e.g.

FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext()
.redirect(“mypage.jspx”);

or

    <navigation-rule>
        <navigation-case>
            <from-action>#{myBean.doSomething}</from-action>
            <to-view-id>/mypage.jspx</to-view-id>
        </navigation-case>
    </navigation-rule>

External redirects – not so much…

It might be the late night after a long work day – but all my searches on Google offered practically no solutions except for maybe writing new filters.. [overkill].

So, in the hopes this will some day help another late night coder, here’s my simple solution:

Create a jsf page called redirect[.jsf/.jspx/.xhtml,…] and add the following:

<html>
<head>
</head>
<body onload=”getNewLocation();”>
<script type=”text/javascript”>       
     function getNewLocation(){
         window.location = ‘#{myBean.locHref}’;
     }
</script>
</body>
</html>

Note the call to the backing bean from javascript (#{myBean.locHref}). This is how you pass the external url (e.g. http://www.someotherwebsite.com) to the javascript.

In your <navigation-rule> or straight redirect make sure you set the value for ‘locHref’ and call redirect[.jsf/,jspx/.xhtml,…] from your preferred form of jsf navigation. (i.e. a  <navigation-rule> view-id, or using forward() or redirect()).

That’s it. Can’t be much simpler. But if there’s a JSF guru out there with a simpler and better solution (with emphasis on simple) – please let us know.

Algae could be powering the aircraft you’re flying pretty soon. There are currently over 50 companies focusing hundreds of millions of dollar on research (and presumably deodorant) harvesting the power in algae.

An CNN article recently discussed how a company called Synthetic Genomics is pursuing an approach called ‘tweaked metabolic pathways’ in algae (others have done similar work with engineered E.Coli and other sources). The company has received investment from ExxonMobil of up to $600 million last month to collaborate on R&D – and investment which, many believe, takes algae research to ‘prime time’.

As we’ve written here, algae was used in both JAL and Continental’s test flights earlier this year. Both times the tests were very successful.

There are still plenty of obstacles to overcome before biofuels – from algae or anything else – are a true alternative to the fuels currently running our aircraft engines – but the engine of innovation is definitely moving ahead full speed.

Gad Barnea – CEO – FlyMiwok, Inc.