100th tour de france doodle

If you read the bike wheels backward, you get 100.

The registry refers to a nonexistent java runtime installation

Installing the EID viewer software for Belgian electronic identity card and got this error:

The registry refers to a nonexistent java runtime installation

Google showed some minecraft gamers having the same problem, so here's how I solved it on Windows 7.

Open the registry editor (regedit.exe).
Go to Computer\HKEY_LOOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment
For each version under this path, verify if the paths for the JavaHome and RuntimeLib variables are correct.

• RuntimeLib should refer to an existent jvm.dll file, 
• JavaHome should be the start of this path with the "\bin\client\jvm.dll" part removed. 

For each version of Java you have, you need to do this twice (once for the particular build you have (example 1.7.0_04) and once for the base version (example 1.7). Mine (but take care, I installed to a custom location) are:

• JavaHome C:\java\jre
• RuntimeLib C:\java\jre\7\bin\jvm.dll

I got the error because I moved the software to another directory after installation.

Android Studio Early Access Preview

@ Google I/O there was an announcement for an Android development environment for IntelliJ IDEA.

Hybris 5.0.1 released

New Accelerator feature highlights:

• Subscriptions (Telecommunications/Digital Accelerator):
• Define complex subscription offerings with combinations of one-time, recurring, and per-usage charges
• Manage multiple price periods
• Personalize pricing based on customer profile
• Manage subscription promotions by defining free trial or reduced price periods
• Integrate with the organization’s billing system
• Manage billing cycles (e.g., frequency, cycle type, cycle day)
• Define metered and non-metered entitlements and associate them with subscription products

• Order processing and delivery information Integrated with Store front (My account), Customer Service WebApp, email notification...
• Progressing uncollected Buy-Online-Pickup-In-Store orders
• Customers are reminded to pick up their orders if they forget
• If customers never show then the order is cancelled and a ticket is generated for the Customer Service representative to contact the customer and refund.

Hybris v5 new features (updated)

In march Hybris made an announcement of a new release. For a major version release the announcement was very low profile. It does not even say that it is a release at all, it just mentions some new features. Maybe they will make a more official announcement yet, who knows.
The release is much more about internals being updated than about radically new features, although there are some. Here's the stuff that caught ^my eye:

• Architecture
• New cockpit framework (a cockpit is a small web application directed at a specific task)
• made up of widgets: multichannel screens that may user multiple datasources
• Application Orchestrator: a graphical workflow tool to link widgets
• Accelerators now have Addons: extensions without modifying the accelerator codebase. They may contain frontend functions
• Mobile SDK
• HTML5
• sample apps with  GPS, camera, QR-code scanning, NFC...
• Clustering without multicast
• Better caching (EhCache default)
• Default lazy loading
• Media storage plugins + Cloud media support
• Graphical workflow preview
• Order Management Services (OMS) cockpit
• single inventory view (multi shop, multi shop)
• sourcing and allocation
• pick/pack/dispatch
• expected for V5.1
• return management
• back orders
• Commerce Infrastructure Services (CIS): 
• framework with pluggable payment, taxes, address verification, shipping, fraud detection, geolocation...
• third party plugins for various services
• InStore module: module providing services in brick and mortar stores
• QR code, barcode, NFC identification
• show rich product info
• access to stock and order management

DZone Cloud Provider Overview

DZone has published an abolutely free (though you have to register) overview of cloud providers, with

• A definition of different cloud types
• A presentation of vendors for each type
• A feature by feature comparison of vendors for each category
• User survey on cloud intention

The guide does not contain a real evaluation of each product, but still is a great overview of the cloudscape.

SAP acquires hybris (updated)

German enterprise software builder SAP announced that it is acquiring the Hybris e-commerce platform.
From a product perspective this makes sense: e-commerce software always needs to be integrated with enterprise ERP/CRM backend systems. With the growth of e-commerce SAP needs this to offer an overall solution to its customers and its own WCEM (Web Channel Experience Management) was too limited and too much linked to the SAP backends. Of course we can expect SAP technology creeping into Hybris in the future, like strong integration with the SAP backends and SAP's im-memory HANA database.
Care should be taken that these integrations do not reduce fexibility. Software moloch SAP does not exactly fit Hybris' catch phrase agile e-commerce. Let's hope agility prevails

online retail trends (updated)

A recent report by the UK Center for Retail Research shows the expected rate of online retail increase. Increasing by 50% by 2018, almost one out of three non-food products will be bought online.

Retailer networks will need only 70 stores to cover the UK, compared to 250 in the mid 2000s.
Even the consumers that buy in brick go online to select the product they want to buy.

Here's what people are buying online (in Belgium). If you combine hotel and travel than holidays is the most important online sector.

In other countries the online retail market share is lower:

In Belgium, according to a study by retail organisation Comeos, the online retail market share is 3%. This is the level the Benelux market was at in 2008. If Belgium follows the global Benelux trend the market should double over the next four years.
Half of Belgian respondents prefers to buy in a Belgian webshop. 70% would like the goods to be delivered at home.