The SquizLogKeith Pitty takes a squiz at the world. |
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The SquizLogKeith Pitty takes a squiz at the world. |
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Having noticed this review of Robert Glass's book, Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering, I couldn't resist purchasing my own copy. I've always valued his contributions to the Communications of the ACM and I'm looking forward to reading this book.
In my humble opinion there is a need to balance what we can learn from exciting new innovations with lessons learned by many practitioners over the admittedly short span of the history of software development.
The next six weeks will be a test of my ability to maintain a degree of calm despite the anger I feel about John Howard's apparent complete lack of shame in misrepresenting the truth.
When I recently received a letter from my local federal member, Jim Lloyd, scaremongering about interest rates and referring to 17% interest rates under Labor, I threw it out in disgust. Of course the letter failed to mention that interest rates reached that level 15 years ago. And naturally it failed to acknowledge that interest rates are set by the Reserve Bank, not the government of the day.
Blatant misrepresentation of the truth, scaremongering and an attempt to capitalise on lack of understanding in the electorate was how I interpreted the letter.
Unsurprisingly, after Howard again pushed the interest rates scare campaign today, economic experts saw little difference in the likely direction of interest rates depending on who wins the election.
I'm certainly not happy, John!
It's a double edged sword.
In the lead up to the Athens Olympics I must confess I wasn't that excited. But then Ian Thorpe and the swimmers started winning races and I've been caught up in the TV marathon ever since. Not that I've been getting up in the middle of the night to watch Aussies win gold, that would be asking for too much trouble in my commuting lifestyle.
But then I'm an absolute sucker for watching Roy and HG and their unique take on the Games. So, even if I tell myself that I should have an early night, I'll find myself deciding to watch just a little more as each ad break arrives until its 11pm and the boys are about to present The Dream.
The trouble is that by that stage I often nod off on the couch...
So I've just about reached the stage where I'm honestly looking forward to the end of the 2004 Olympics so that my life can return to normal.
The temptation has been transformed into action.
I've ordered a 12" iBook (with an extra 512MB of RAM) and I am looking forward to discovering for myself why others wax lyrical about OS X.
Oh, and I ordered an iPod mini too!
It is refreshing to read that the forthcoming Test cricket series between England and South Africa will be played for the inaugural Basil D'Oliveira Trophy.
One can only wonder whose name might appear, in years to come, on a trophy for contests with Zimbabwe.
There's an old joke that "God created economists to make weather forecasters look good."
In today's Sydney Morning Herald, Ross Gittins goes some way to explaining why.
He quotes Professor Richard Thaler of the University of Chicago who, in an article in the Journal of Economic Perspectives, listed five biases that psychological research has shown influence people's forecasts:
The article by Gittins was written about predicting the future of economic trends. But I couldn't help thinking about it's applicability to estimating software development activities.
Predicting the future is inherently difficult, despite the temptation to believe otherwise.
Yesterday after work was one of those times when, having reached the end of the working week, I found the lure of a Squires ale or several was irresistable.
Fortunately, Alan and Charles were of a similar mind and we converged on the Wynyard Hotel. At one point during the flow of beer and conversation, they both unashamedly displayed their geekiness by demonstrating something cool on their respective laptops.
I have to say I did feel a little bit left out, but I plan to rectify that soon!
Scripting the administration of WebSphere applications is an art.
I certainly don't consider myself to have reached guru status in this art and hence am posting this entry, mainly for my own benefit. If it turns out to be useful to you, all the better.
With the help of my boss, one of several Davids with whom I work, I have come to appreciate the value of AdminApp, especially in interactive mode. There is some guidance provided within the WebSphere Application Server Information Center but, as with other IBM documentation, I find that it offers clues rather than a clear indication of usage.
AdminApp interacts with WebSphere to allow scripted and interactive querying of and changes to WebSphere applications. The particular usefulness that I want to record here is how to use AdminApp interactively to help fix up a scripting problem.
Consider the example where an Ant target fails to install an EAR, displaying a message indicating that there was insufficient information for the MapEJBRefToEJB option. The WebSphere documentation doesn't make it easy to figure out what should be provided.
Running wsadmin interactively, the command
$AdminApp taskInfo /opt/WebSphere/AppServer/installableApps/SomeEAR.ear MapEJBRefToEJBMapEJBRefToEJB option and the relevant values after applying default bindings.
All of the above could be completely irrelevant to you, but now that I've written it, there's a chance it will at least prove useful to me one day!
How do you react to deadlines? At times I can accept that they are necessary evils of the software development world, but I do like this Douglas Adams quote:
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
Suspending reality for a moment, I think to myself: "Ah, the serenity of those whooshing sounds!" If only it were that simple...
Warm Light in the Heart. That was the theme for the meditation retreat I enjoyed the weekend before last.
The retreat was held at the Karuna Sanctuary near Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. The Blue Mountains is an area for which I hold much affection, having spent memorable times there bushwalking and playing golf over the years. And I've been privileged to visit the Karuna Sanctuary a number of times over the years. It felt like a special place over 20 years ago when a good friend and I spent a wet Easter camped there.
The land and the bush are still special. To me, they are integral to the sanctuary as a special place.
These days, blended into the landscape is a sensitively designed and lovingly constructed collection of buildings that enable weekends such as the recent meditation retreat to take place.
So what did I get out of the retreat? I find it difficult to adequately convey in words. A chance to catch up with good friends, meet some new people, have a good laugh, breathe fresh mountain air, enjoy the simple pleasure of walking in the beautiful Australian bush; all of those things. At a deeper, spiritual level, the opportunity to experience relaxation through guided meditation which focussed on the qualities of loving kindness, compassion, gladness and equanimity.
On that note, whilst there's much more I could say, it's time to finish so that my wife can have a turn on this computer!
Morning Light
View towards the Megalong Valley
Eating and talking in between meditations
A short bushwalk after lunch
Farewells
Who would spend 12 minutes in a 110 degrees celcius sauna to win a competition? A bloke from Finland, naturally! As far as I'm concerned, he and the other competitors can have it all to themselves.
I'm not sure that my son Alex realised how lucky he was yesterday afternoon.
He was at the SCG indoor nets at Emerging Blues training, receiving tips and encouragement for his swing bowling from none other than Geoff "Henry" Lawson!
So famous Aussie jazz musician James Morrison blows his trumpet for Apple, my former colleague Charles Miller is in love with his PowerBook and there are many others who are effusive in their praise for Apple hardware.
Now just suppose I was in the market for an Apple laptop so that, amongst other things, I could do some serious software development during my commute between the Central Coast and the Sydney CBD. Should I choose an iBook or a PowerBook? And what specifications would you recommend?
Qusay H. Mahmoud has published what, at a quick glance, looks like a useful article on Developing Web Applications with Java ServerFaces.
Having presented an overview of JSF a few months ago and seen the JSF support provided by WSAD 5.1.2 I'm watching this space with interest. Whilst I'm not convinced about the wisdom of using JSF for a production application just yet, perhaps my view will have changed by early next year.
For the second day running I've been almost blown away by the wind in Clarence Street, outside the office here in Sydney!
There is a definite wind tunnel effect in Clarence Street. The blocks of tall buildings on both sides of the street create a space for the cold wind to rush at a rate of knots from the south. It reminds me of days gone by in the cricket season when batsmen not occupied in the middle would congregate between the Number 1 and Number 2 ovals at Sydney University. A similar wind tunnel effect was frequently in operation there too.
Today I guess the wind will give me more incentive to stay indoors and work!