I recorded some videos that explain the basics of how Marine Arena works, as well as some commentary on a game me and my brother played. I hope you guys enjoy these videos and I’ll record more of these pod-casting type videos 
Marine Arena Intro and Gameplay
The point of web frameworks is supposed to improve programmer productivity, support a variety of extensions and be able to simplify things. Well I found things just the opposite. I’ve been looking for a good Java web framework to work with but in every one I try – Seams, Appfuse and now Spring Roo, I’ve run into difficulties with starting out.
Why is the setup and configuration so difficult? I look at the Get Started and Tutorial links and they seem straightforward. But the problem is that those tutorials are always missing some detail that could wrong and often does in reality.
I followed Spring Roo’s Getting Started article and I followed it very carefully yet inevitable I run into a bug or error the tutorial doesn’t mention:
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[ERROR]BUILD ERROR
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Internal error in the plugin manager executing goal ‘org.codehaus.mojo:aspectj-maven-plugin:1.0:compile’: Unable to load the mojo ‘org.codehaus.mojo:aspectj-maven-plugin:1.0:compile’ in the plugin ‘org.codehaus.mojo:aspectj-maven-plugin’. A required class is missing: org/aspectj/bridge/IMessageHolder
org.aspectj.bridge.IMessageHolder
This is the error I get after fixing 7 other errors that the tutorial convieniently never ran into when building with Oracle, Hibernate and Maven. I had to manually download and install each jar after Maven failed building. The tutorial never runs into this problem, because of course things always go smoothly for them. Even after I ran into this error, I tried posting on the Spring Forums with no luck in getting responses. So now I’m left with two choices: Try to fruitlessly Google the source of the error (which I have been doing but to no luck) or to start over with another framework from scratch (which I’ve already done twice already). What a pain. I ran into the same thing when I was trying to build with Ruby on Rails and Appfuze, I follow the tutorial exactly – I run into an error or something that the tutorial doesn’t explain – I google it / ask for help on forums to no avail – I try starting over with another framework because I can’t find the solution. JBoss Seam 3.0 doesn’t even have complete documentation! It’s awful how I can’t build something as simple as a web interface with a framework without running into numerous bugs. The only one which worked (sort of, I still had to modify some code to get it to work) in accordance with the tutorial was Grails. But, I can’t use Grails because people are unfamiliar with Groovy, forcing me to find a Java framework.
Another thing – Spring Roo only supports Eclipse (which we don’t use); I use Netbeans and there doesn’t seem to be any support for it despite it being able to create a Grails application just fine. Well since Spring owns Grails and Roo, why can’t they make Roo as easy! Inevitably I run into errors with Netbeans because it doesn’t integrate properly. Roo also has a way of editing its files from the command line – but I often find it more tedious than editing using a GUI.
Stevie Ray Vaughan was a very influential electric blues guitarist who was considered by many to be one of the greatest before he tragically perishes in a 1990 helicopter crash. While it is impossible to duplicate Stevie’s tone (as you would need his hands), the following guide can help.
Stevie Ray Vaughan used one guitar mainly and this article deals with his Number One guitar. It was a 1962 worn down sunburst Stratocaster that had 1959 pickups in it. This would give him a very unique tone. His pickups were stock 1959 pickups, not overwound as mistakenly believed, the late 1950s single coil tone is often achieved with low resistance, mostly in the 5.8k-6.8k range, Alnico V magnets, and 42 gauge formvar wire.
Stevie played with Fenders, and he overdrives the amp quite hard, which is what produces his Texas tone. He also uses very thick guitar strings; he played with string gauge 13, and hit them hard. Like Hendrix, he tuned down a half step to Eb for most of his songs.
SRV‘s most famous effect is the Tubescreamer, and he often used two in live settings. He also used a Vox wah and occasionally, a Leslie rotating speaker. The most important part of SRV’s tone is the way he plays rather than the effects.
While it is hard to duplicate SRV‘s playing, he often utilizes he pentatonic blues scale, and has alot of certain licks he frequently uses in many positions. The opening to Pride and Joy shows the normal blues shuffle in E that he uses frequently. This same shuffle is used double time in Rude Mood, which is a hard song to master rhythm wise. The Rhythm has to be properly understood to get closer to his sound. He also displays lots of use of Hendrix style barre chords and double stops for his softer tunes like Lenny and Riviera Paradise. Perhaps his ultimate blues piece is Texas Flood, a slow blues piece in G in which SRV pulls out all the stops. Note the following video in which he plays this piece, he goes from slow to almost-shredding speeds quickly, and also does this move where he turns around and simultaneously undoes his guitar strap and reattaches it behind him so that he plays behind his back. It takes several tries to do this well but it’s a good show-piece.
Fender ’59 Bassman
Fender ’65 Twin Reverb
Fender 1959 Stratocaster Relic
Fender SRV Signature Stratocaster
Fender 57/62 Pickups
Ibanez TS808 Tubescreamer
Maxon OD9 Overdrive
Vox V847 Wah