Tim's Blog

When Good things Go Bad

2011-06-16T14:06:00.000+02:00

When does Olive Oil become bad? Why do we buy Olive Oil and cook with it in preference to other oils. What principles can I apply to reap the benefits without becoming an over-concerned health fanatic?

The smoking point of oil is the point at which good oil becomes bad oil (Smoking Point).

Butter 170 C
Avocado Oil 270C
Coconut Oil 170C
Olive Oil - Extra Virgin - 160 C
Olive Oil - Virgin - 216 C
Olive Oil - Pomace - 238 C
Olive Oil - Extra Light - 242 C
Sunflower Oil - 232 C

I'm not going to harp on about the benefits when you can read about them (Olive Oil). I suspect that to gain the benefits you have to consume an olive oil by eating salads/bread with olive oil daily/weekly. My diet is therefore only avoiding the use of bad oils.

Principles:

The more refined, the higher the burning point. Use Extra Virgin or Virgin Olive Oil for salads, use anything more refined for frying and cooking.
When cooking, do not fry/cook above 220 C.
Do not use butter to fry above 170 C.

Remember, using Olive Oil to fry food does not make frying healthy (Burnt).

Principles:

Do not burn/overly burn your food. Turn regularly.

Just Plain Awesome

2010-08-15T22:37:00.000+02:00

This is just awesome... an F1 simulator strapped to a robotic arm for physics simulation.

F1 Simulator.

-Tim

Large Batch Processing using Hibernate

2009-10-08T15:44:00.000+02:00

When using hibernate for the retrieval of large amounts of data, one should remember that memory is limited and that incorrect usage of the hibernate session will cause the first and second level cache to explode in size.

There are two ways to prevent this, either (a) evict the objects once you are finished with them, or (b) use a stateless session. Another point to remember is that you cannot use the list method on the Query because this will retrieve the entire result set.

Statefull Session:

Remember to evict the associated objects from the first level cache once you are finished with them:



Query query = session.getNamedQuery("large");
ScrollableResult result = query
                              .setCacheMode(CacheMode.IGNORE)
                              .scroll(ScrollMode.FORWARD_ONLY);

while (result.next()) {
      Object[] v = result.get();
      Object a = v[0];
      Object b = v[1];

      … batch process …
      Session.evict(a);
      Session.evict(b);
}

Stateless Session:

There is no need to evict objects from the first level cache however all lazy relationships will be unavailable.



Query query = session.getSessionFactory()
                  .openStatelessSession()
                  .getNamedQuery("large");

ScrollableResult result = query.scroll(ScrollMode.FORWARD_ONLY);
while (result.next()) {
      Object v = result.get(0);
      … batch process …       
}

Another useful feature is to utilise the setProperties method on the query object set appropriate query parameters instead of setting each parameter individually.

Bind using parameters:



Query query = session.getNamedQuery("mydosageQuery");
query.setString("dosageForm", "SLS");
display(query.list());

Bind using setProperties:



query = session.getNamedQuery("mydosageQuery");
query.setProperties(new MyDosageQuery(“SLS”));
display(query.list());

(This is more of a note to self really...)

Statements of Truth

2009-07-08T10:32:00.000+02:00

Every statement and/or argument must be supported by evidence, and this evidence should be provided.

Without evidence, a statement could be called opinion and your confidence that the statement is true is related to your opinion of the person making the statement.

Furthermore, the fundamentals of the statement may change over time (due to a change in technology, performance, environment, implementation, etc) making the statement's supporting arguments and statements invalid, and therefore invalidating the claimed statement of truth.

Without the original evidence, you will not allow the reader to determine whether the statement is still applicable. This evidence should be sufficiently verbose for a reader, at the same time to reproduce and come to the same conclusion.

Google AppEngine - Maven POM

2009-04-10T00:16:00.006+02:00

Google have standardised java hosting and deployment with the release of a scalable, standards based java hosting platform. PHP had this 14 years ago and its about time.

The first question is how do I take advantage?

1. After studying the terms of service it seems as though you do not cede intellectual property rights and that it is quite suitable for commercial use where you would normally use a public hosting solution. (You would obviously not store financial transactions in the cloud and you would not store medical or any data that has legal restrictions on where the data may physically reside) and who may look at it.)

2. I still have to determine the confirm BigTable reliability: Will it ever loose data?

3. The Maven POM - What is the difference between the SDK and the real environment.

Investigation

I provide a maven POM that describes the Java Google App-Engine capabilities based upon the classes available to a deployed application. To determine the classes available, I generated a list of all classes included in the SDK and executed Class.forName(String) within a test application that I deployed to Google App Engine.

The results were interesting and are the foundation of the POM that is provided below.

Repositories

From a maven perspective there are only two significant libraries within the SDK that must be installed into your local repository because the can be obtained publicly.

From the root of the SDK execute the following maven commands:

mvn install:install-file -Dfile=lib/shared/appengine-local-runtime-shared.jar -DgroupId=com.google -DartifactId=appengine-local-runtime-shared -Dversion=1.2.0 -Dpackaging=jar -DgeneratePom=true

mvn install:install-file -Dfile=lib/shared/jsp/commons-logging-1.1.1.jar -DgroupId=com.google -DartifactId=commons-logging-repackage -Dversion=1.1.1 -Dpackaging=jar -DgeneratePom=true

I have the following two repositories specified in my maven settings.



    <repositories>
        <repository>
            <id>datanucleus</id>
            <name>Datanucleus Repository</name>
            <url>http://www.datanucleus.org/downloads/maven2</url>
        </repository>
        <repository>
            <id>atlassian</id>
            <name>Atlassian Repository</name>
            <url>https://maven.atlassian.com/repository/centralmirror</url>
        </repository>
    </repositories>

Maven: Provided POM

The following POM describes the libraries for the "provided" maven scope. Google seem to have an API proxy for their data layer and I have not included those libraries in my analysis. I will provide a more comprehensive POM once I understand the technologies and the dependencies.

For now, this is the pom that best describes the "provided" scope:


<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0
                             http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">

    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <groupId>tim.app.test</groupId>
    <artifactId>TestLab</artifactId>
    <packaging>war</packaging>
    <version>1.0.0</version>
    <name>Test Lab</name>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.google</groupId>
            <artifactId>appengine-local-runtime-shared</artifactId>
            <version>1.2.0</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.google</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-logging-repackage</artifactId>
            <version>1.1.1</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>

        <!-- the following are available on repositories -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>commons-codec</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-codec</artifactId>
            <version>1.3</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.geronimo.specs</groupId>
            <artifactId>geronimo-jsp_2.1_spec</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.1</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.geronimo.specs</groupId>
            <artifactId>geronimo-servlet_2.5_spec</artifactId>
            <version>1.2</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>ant</groupId>
            <artifactId>ant</artifactId>
            <version>1.6.5</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>ant</groupId>
            <artifactId>ant-launcher</artifactId>
            <version>1.6.5</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>commons-el</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-el</artifactId>
            <version>1.0</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>tomcat</groupId>
            <artifactId>jasper-compiler</artifactId>
            <version>5.0.28</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>tomcat</groupId>
            <artifactId>jasper-runtime</artifactId>
            <version>5.0.28</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>jstl</groupId>
            <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
            <version>1.1.2</version>
            <type>jar</type>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>taglibs</groupId>
            <artifactId>standard</artifactId>
            <version>1.1.2</version>
            <type>jar</type>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>        
    </dependencies>

    <repositories>
        <repository>
            <id>datanucleus</id>
            <name>Datanucleus Repository</name>
            <url>http://www.datanucleus.org/downloads/maven2</url>
        </repository>
        <repository>
            <id>atlassian</id>
            <name>Atlassian Repository</name>
            <url>https://maven.atlassian.com/repository/centralmirror</url>
        </repository>
    </repositories>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <configuration>
                    <source>1.6</source>
                    <target>1.6</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

</project>

Ant: Launch and Deploy

The following build.xml file can be used to launch the local GAE development server and it may also be used to publish the latest version to the production GAE server.

Run the deploy from the commandline at least once as you have to put in your username and password.



<project name="Google App Engine">

    <target name="deploy">

        <java   fork="true"

        dir="c:/development/lib/appengine-java-sdk-1.2.0"
        classpath="C:/Development/lib/appengine-java-sdk-1.2.0/lib/appengine-tools-api.jar"
        classname="com.google.appengine.tools.admin.AppCfg">

        <arg value="update"/>
        <arg value="C:\Development\General\TimAppTestlab\target\TestLab-1.0.0"/>

        </java>
    </target>

    <target name="launch">

        <java
        fork="true"
        dir="c:/development/lib/appengine-java-sdk-1.2.0"
        classpath="C:/Development/lib/appengine-java-sdk-1.2.0/lib/appengine-tools-api.jar"
        classname="com.google.appengine.tools.KickStart">
            
        <arg value="com.google.appengine.tools.development.DevAppServerMain"/>
        <arg value="C:\Development\General\TimAppTestlab\target\TestLab-1.0.0"/>

        </java>
    </target>

</project>

Enjoy,

-Tim

Maven

2008-10-10T10:49:00.004+02:00

Sonatype Nexus is great as it simplifies maven. Maven is a useful java tool that allows for simplification of development within a team by removing unnecessary complexity within build scripts however it may seem overwhelming with configuration and repository management.

Development teams should use Sonatype Nexus to provide a cache of public repositories. This also ensures that each developer is using the same internal repository and simplifies configuration on each machine.

The following public repositories should be added to nexus. Note: www.ibiblio.org is a maven 1 repository and you would have to tell nexus to remap virtually present this as a maven 2 repository.

* http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/
* http://download.java.net/maven/2/
* http://repository.codehaus.org/
* http://www.ibiblio.org/maven/

Flexibility

If you need to still need to customise your build you can still use ant by using the antrun plugin.


<plugin>
  <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
  <artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <phase>generate-sources</phase>
      <configuration>
        <tasks>
          <echo message="Hello World"/>
          <mkdir dir="target/sample"/>
          <javac classname="tim.HelloWorld" classpathref="maven.plugin.classpath" fork="true" dir="target/sample"/>
        </tasks>
      </configuration>
      <goals>
        <goal>run</goal>
      </goals>
    </execution>
  </executions>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>tim.example</groupId>
      <artifactId>MyHelloWorld</artifactId>
      <version>1.0.0</version>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</plugin>

Zimbabwe

2008-10-03T16:55:00.006+02:00

Zimbabwe is slowly heading back to the stone age - Banks are now unable to do internet transfers, or even internal transfers within the same bank ( Banking Chaos in Zim ). In some sick morbid way this is an interesting study of how a government can meltdown.

S/PDIF and positional audio using DTS Connect

2008-09-28T09:08:00.005+02:00

The ALC889A and ALC1200 with DTS Connect, DTS Interactive and/or Doldby Digital Live.

Gigabyte ALC889A with software can fully encode positional DTS for 3d games and general windows use. This is a function of the bundled software and I dont think it would work on Linux.

When buying a new PC one of my big concerns was sound quality and sound drivers. I did not want to buy a separate sound card and I wanted to use my home theater system. Unfortunately due to a hasty purchase some years back I somehow managed to buy a home theater system that takes Stereo In, SPDIF Coaxial In and SPDIF/Toslink Optical In. This means that to get surround my sound card must produce a DTS or Dolby digital signal with more than 2 channels. Also, the home theatre system only had a single Stereo. Some sound cards have multiple analog stereo outputs which plug into many stereo inputs on the home theatedr system which relies on the sound card to produce 3 or 4 analog signals.

In persuit of fewer cables, the important bit again: the sound card must produce a DTS or Dolby signal with more than 2 channels. Many sound cards will encode to DTS or Dolby but produce a stereo digital signal. That means you have stereo and in 3d games and it will not be positional sound. When watching movies the sound card will pass the digital signal directly to the sound card but it will not perform any positional encoding. Some sound cards will label this as "DTS" and "Dolby" which is deceptive.

For 3d games or any funky usage of winamp you PC needs to be able to encode DTS or Dolbly signals on the fly. Realtime encoding of DTS and Dolbly goes under the name of "DTS Connect", "DTS Interactive" or "Dolby Digital Live" and involves a combination of software or hardware to produce the multi-channel digital output. (Rember: A 2 channel DTS signal is not the same as 7.1. Many sound cards will perform stero encoding which is not what you want).

I bought a Gigabyte GA-MA78-S2H which has the ALC889A sound chipset and this implements DTS Connect and DTS Interactive and I get positional sound in games and music via my optical out. The software that comes with this Gigabyte mainboard is great and allows you to tweak all sorts.

One of the more impressive tweaks is to adjust the center channel which is usefull when you play stereo music on 5 speakers. Typically you end up getting all of the voice out of the center channel and its nice to distribute this across other channels by making the center channel wider.

Some websites suggest that the using DTS Connect and DTS Interactive takes 1-3% CPU power to perform this. I dont notice a difference so I dont really care. Dolby Digital Live encoding is supposed to be slightly more efficient to encode in software but I dont currently notice a difference so I dont really care - it works.

My experience with Gigabyte is good. Now although the ALC889A that is used on the gigabyte mainboard can fully encode DTS I believe that this is a feature of the gigabyte software. The ALC889A is a customised ALC885 and is made by Realtek for exclusively for Gigabyte.

One of the alternatives to Gigabyte was ASUS which also has an exclusive sound chipset from Realtek - the ALC1200. I did quite a bit of research and could not confirm that it is able to do DTS Connect. I would imagine it is more advanced because its version number is higher [How technical is that :-) ] but nowhere could I see any mention of realtime positional encoding of Dolby Digital Live, DTS Connect or DTS Interactive and they fall into the same trap where the mainboard supports Steria Digital encoding, will pass DTS and dolby signals from a DVD to your amp or will render the DVD digital to your 4 analog stereo outputs. Very Deceptive.

I dont think that this board will have DTS for linux since the DTS Connect / DTS Interactive has to be implemented by software drivers. In comparison, there has only been one "perfect solution" which was implemented completely in hardware. The nVidia Soundstorm along with its nForce 2 transparently produced full digital signals. This was implemented in hardware.

Enjoy,

-Timothy

2008-09-19T23:54:00.009+02:00

Installing Windows

Its that time again - I have a new computer. Its been about 6 to 8 years since I have bought something new for my home PC. I'm buying a beast in a box (Micro ATX, Quad Core, 8gig memory, Blue-ray, Wifi, etc) and hopefully it will be another 6 to 8 years before I have to buy another PC.

The big question is what software I should re-install?

Windows ultimately ends up as an unstable dog with fleas due to failed attempts at finding reasonable software. Having learned from my many mistakes with software of all types, the following is a list that I consider being the most effective in their category. I have linked to the author's website so that in future the latest version may be downloaded.

There are still a few items that I am looking for (suggestions welcome):

Photo touchup and image Editing
Media Player and Media Organiser
Offline CD Collection Organiser
Archive Organiser (Old Documents, Projects, Backups, etc)

The following list is linked to its author's website. Free may be open source, freeware or freely downloadable (subject to license, eg: ie8, etc).

Operating System
Windows Vista	Operating System		Retail
Windows XP SP3	Operating System		Retail
Office Suite
Microsoft Office	Documents		Retail
Open Office	Documents		Free
Star Office	Documents		Retail (Inexpensive)
Internet Browser
Fire Fox	Internet		Free
Google Chrome	Internet		Free
IE 8	Internet		Free
DVD Player
Windows Media Player 11	Media		Free
Power DVD	Media		Retail
Tools

Acrobat	Documents		Free
KeyNote	Documents		Free
DVD Shrink	File Archive		Free
Image Burn	File Archive		Free
IZArc	File Archive	Slick	Free
Dyna DNS	Internet	Dynamic DNS name	Free
Free Download Manager	Internet		Free
uTorrent	Internet		Free
Google Earth	Map		Free
VLC Media Player	Media		Free
Dot Net	Platform		Free
Java 6	Platform		Free
Shockwave	Platform		Free
CC Cleaner	OS Tool	I don’t like it phoning home	Free
Daemon Tools	OS Tool	Mount CD images (old games, etc)	Free
Easy Cleaner	OS Tool		Free
FreeUndelete	OS Tool	Install this before you need to	Free
Process Explorer	OS Tool	Replace Task manager	Free
Treesize	OS Tool		Free
Tweak All 3	OS Tool	Helps removing Browser Helper Objects	Free
UnixShell	OS Tool	wget, grep, etc	Free
Who Lock Me	OS Tool		Free
Terminals	Remote Desktop	Multi Tab - VNC, Telnet, SSH, Citrix	Free
Google Desktop	Shell		Free
Launchy	Shell	Incredible **	Free
TeraCopy	Shell		Free
Xplore2	Shell	Plugins required	Free
nLite	Slipstream		Free
Virtual Box	Virtual Machine	3-5% slower than VMWare but free	Free
Tomcat 6	Web Server		Free
Development Tools
Hibernate	Development		Free
HSSQL	Development		Free
Inno Setup	Development		Free
IntelliJ IDEA	Development	Amazing	Retail
JDK 1.4.2, 5.0, 6.0	Development		Free
Maven	Development		Free
Subversion	Development		Free
Internet Tools
FireFTP	Firefox Plugin		Free
Adblock Plus	Firefox Plugin		Free
Bookmark Duplicate Detector	Firefox Plugin		Free
Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer	Firefox Plugin	Same bookmarks at home and at work	Free
FoxyProxy	Firefox Plugin		Free
IE Tab	Firefox Plugin		Free
NewsFox	Firefox Plugin		Free
PDF Download	Internet	Better flexability when clicking on PDFs	Free
Web Resources
Life Hacker	Internet Resource	Life	Free
DZone	Internet Resource	Development	Free
Google News	News Resource		Free
SlashDot	News Resource	Technology	Free
Old Version	Internet Resource		Free
Softpedia	Internet Resource		Free

Thats my list of software. Suggestions and recommendations welcome. This list is actually future documentation for myself and it may help others make their life easier.

-Tim

2008-09-08T19:34:00.003+02:00

International Shipping

I have been playing with myus.com which is a US re-mailer and gives me a US address in Florida. This allows items purchased from US companies that only deliver to US postal addresses. This costs about $60 a year which has already payed for itself when buying high cost items.

The price of a mid-range / cheap goods turns out to be only slightly cheaper (R100-R500) when purchasing them locally. High end goods seem to attract a very high margin locally so you can easily save up 50% of the cost by purchasing from overseas when taking advantage of exclusive US discounts.

2008-08-30T09:42:00.003+02:00

IDE + SATA to USB converter

The Vantec IDE+SATA to USB converter is useful and allows you to easily access old IDE drives via USB without cluttering your desk. In addition it seems you can use an IDE drive and a SATA drive at the same time.

2008-08-02T19:49:00.004+02:00

Improving Java Swing Performance

I propose a method to improve java swing performance by force-loading commonly used classes.

It is commonly thought that Java is slow and that Swing GUI applications are slow however after the JVM has been running for some time this is shown to be incorrect. It is obvious that poorly designed Swing applications will be slow however is there anything we can do to speed up well designed swing applications?

Part of my perception of a java application's "slow speed" is due to the fact that java loads the classes it needs when the class is used. This means that when you use a feature for the first time the JVM will spend a small amount of time loading the necessary classes. Milliseconds can affect our perception of performance. The solution is to simply move this processing elsewhere and force load these classes before first use.

I recommend loading these classes while the splash screen is being displayed.

How?

1. Track what classes are used
2. Identify which classes you want to load during your splash sequence
3. Load your classes

1. Track what classes are used

The following class is used to instrument java and track class loader activity. Pack the following files into a jar along with the manifest and add the following to your application's command line:

-javaagent:MyInstrument.jar=dummyArg

eg:

java -javaagent:MyInstrument.jar=dummyArg -jar MyApp.jar

ClassLogger.java

public class ClassLogger implements ClassFileTransformer {
String output;

ClassLogger(String output) throws Throwable {
   this.output = output;
}

private void log(String s) throws FileNotFoundException {
   PrintWriter writer =
      new PrintWriter(
        new FileOutputStream(new File(output),true));
   writer.println(s);
   writer.close();
}

public static void premain(
         String agentArgs,
         Instrumentation inst) throws Throwable {
   System.out.println("Class Logger Active");
   inst.addTransformer(new ClassLogger("loaded.txt"));
}

public byte[] transform(
         ClassLoader loader,
         String className,
         Class classBeingRedefined,
         ProtectionDomain protectionDomain,
         byte[] classfileBuffer)
             throws IllegalClassFormatException {
   try {
       log(className.replaceAll("/","."));
   } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
       e.printStackTrace();
   }
   return classfileBuffer;
}
}

manifest.mf

Premain-Class: tim.build.instrument.ClassLogger

2. Identify which classes should be force loaded

The above will create a file loaded.txt which will contain a list of classes. You will have to review this class list and remove any classes that should not be loaded.

It is easy to identify common functions. Consider using the most common features in the application and forcing these to be preloaded.

Classes created by CGLIB are dynamically generated and do not exist in your application. These should be removed from the list of classes.

3. Load classes during the splash sequence

The following code will have to be customised based upon your application. Basically it loads the list of classes and executes Class.forName on each of them. Java does have java.lang.Compiler which has a method compileClass(Class) and, although I call it below, I believe that it does nothing with JDK6 (I secretly hope it improves performance).


 public static void precacheClasses() {
     try {
         InputStream is = Thread.currentThread()
                  .getContextClassLoader()
                  .getResourceAsStream("precache.txt");
         try {
             java.lang.Compiler.enable();
         } catch (Throwable t) {
             log.warn("Compiler force JIT is not enabled",t);
         }
         if (is != null) {
             String s = IOUtils.toString(is);
             for (String sv:s.split("\n")) {
                 String value = sv.trim();
                 if (value.length()>0
                     && value.charAt(0) != '#') {
                     try {
                         Class clazz = Class.forName(value);
                         java.lang.Compiler.compileClass(clazz);
                     } catch (Throwable t) {
                         log.warn("Could not compile class ["+
                                    value+"]",t);
                     }
                 }
             }
         }
     } catch (Throwable t) {
         log.warn("Problem trying to precache classes",t);
     }
 }

Usage

Small Applications: Force load every class used. A small utility may be used many times and there is no chance for the JVM to store pre-loaded classes.

Larger Applications: Force load only the classes related to the most commonly used features because of memory constraints.

Success

This makes a well designed application snappy right from the start.

Enjoy,

-Tim

2008-02-16T23:14:00.005+02:00

I've recently been fiddling with a range of Java technologies with ideas involving the application of XWork and EventBus in the context of remote rich clients. With this in mind, I've been porting some of my older applications to the newer frameworks with renewed interest in seeing how much code I can delete using the most advanced features from the various tools.

Some of the tools I've covered are:

Hypersonic SQL
OGNL
XWork
Hibernate / EJB3 Annotations
Spring Framework
SWT
JGoodies
EventBus
MigLayout
XFire
JGoodies Binding
JIDE

Most Impressed With:

Hypersonic SQL - Its ease to setup and has certain deployment possibilities that are not possible with another database.
EventBus - The conceptual application of this is quite broad.
MigLayout - Simplicity - It makes SWT and Swing layout simple.

Most Dissapointing:

SWT - Binding seems horrible and JFace seems annoying to use if you dont use Eclipse. Maybe I'm not using the correct data binding frameworks or using it incorrectly. The basic component layer is incredible but the binding is severely lacking.

Most Eager to Work With:

OGNL - This could be applied in quite a few areas.
EventBus - Conceptual application could simplify a few areas.

Most Mature:

Hibernate - Its come along way from when I last used it and the documentation is good.
Spring - It still does what I expect of it.

Most Flexible:

Hibernate - Its event listeners are mighty useful.

Most Lusted After:

JIDE - If only it were free. If I were developing commercial rich client projects this would be good value.

Most Complex:

JGoodies Binding - Admittedly, binding is a complex problem, especially when considering Swing. (After being exposed to SWT I feel that the SWT component hierarchy has a level of simplicity around which binding might be made slightly easier. I dont think it will be less complex but there would be at least one or two layers of abstraction less.)

Having listed the above, I'll go into more detail in future posts however. I still need to look at a few gaming libraries for Java (Java 3D, AI, Swing & SWT Theming, etc).

2008-02-08T11:06:00.000+02:00

Well, its been a while. In that time a lot has happened... I've climbed Kilimanjaro, scuba dived in Zanzibar and I've even started painting (water paints, still learning before I move to acrylic).

I have a renewed interest in a few technologies so I expect to post more technical commentary and technical ideas/concepts. Over the last 7 years I have great opportunities to experience a very wide range of technologies and paradigms and I am reviewing certain paradigms and technologies a good 7 years later. I hope to blog on my understanding of some of the changes.

-Tim

2006-08-08T03:17:00.000+02:00

To Bryan and Katherine,

To Brattex and Badkat,

The future has always been yours share.

I hope its filled with tears of happiness and songs with laughter.

Only the best for the the two of you.

Miss you lots.

Congratulations on your engagement!!!!

Love you both.

-Tim

Photos are up...

2006-07-27T21:09:00.000+02:00

Villa
Originally uploaded by Tim Twelves.

I've put some photos up on my blog. This entry is more of an excuse to see Flickr (yahoo) integrate with Blogger (google). It seems as though they've got some nice site integration and its great to see the end user benefiting from the cooperation.

2006-05-19T20:41:00.000+02:00

Its been a while since I last posted to my blog but I've made up by posting alot of photos. Most of the photos are either taken by my cellphone or they are group photos from weekends away, etc that i've assembled in online.

A weekend or two ago, I spent rafting down the Orange River. A great weekend although it wasnt without its troubles. On the way there, about 5 hours out of JHB when we were having breakfast at Wimpy after which I realised that I had left my passport behind. This was a blunder of the biggest proportions as the base camp from which we would start was on the Namibian side of the border. I spent about 4 hours on the phone over about 7 hours. During this time, we had taken an accidental 300km detour and we fought with home affairs and they wouldnt get me an emergency passport (it was a public holiday). By the time we got to Pofadder I was slightly hysterical and had happily consigned myself to staying in Springbok for the next 5 days while everyone else went rafting.

Everything eventually sorted itself as I eventually had my passport flown to Capetown and couriered to Springbok (on a public holiday) and by 5am I had my passport. Good times. I'd spent the night in springbok in a bed and breakfast while everyone went ahead. This wasnt such a bad thing as the B&B was kitted out with this massive down duvet and huge bed with a hot shower. The 6 days that followed this were unbelievably awsome. 44 of us struggling down a river, alcohol in hand and sometimes being pursued. We had quite a few rafts topple. Sight of cooler boxes floating down river were some of the sad moments. Fortunately we managed to recover the beer. Great times.

Since then (its been about 2 to 3 weeks now) I've been grafting and spending some hectic time at work getting stuff finished. Tomorrow is the beginning of 23 days away from work. This is probably the first time I'm taking more than 2 consecutive days of leave in the last 6 years. I am not counting the leave I had that I was forced to take around christmas so maybe I shouldnt say 6 years - however - its not the same thing. You cannot move the Monaco F1 GP to christmas.

I'm off to the UK for a while and then i'm going to spend a week in Monaco. We've got a villa for a week and will be partying and watching the F1 GP which is going to be awsome. Definately going to head past a few french vineyards. I usually spend sundays watching the GP with a small braai on the side and a cheeky tomato relish for whatever is ooking. I've watched an A1 GP and I'm definately going to have a mad week. The other days, i'll be chilling and travelling. I hope it'll blow away all my expectations.

Im going to have lots of photos as I'm set on getting a camera while i'm in Dubai. I'm looking for a Canon IXUS 65 but I couldnt find any prices specific to Dubai so I dont know if the pricing is "outa this world" or "outa my league". Will see.

Anyway...

Good times.

2006-03-30T23:56:00.000+02:00

Whats the worst steak you've ever had? Well, McGinty's sandton... the steak was horrible, the service worse.... the beer was good. Next time, just drink beer.

Johann + Sybrand: This is the telescope I'm getting - SkyQuest XT8. Its +- R3500, which is reasonable. I've been warned that it might not fit in my car.

2006-03-24T13:43:00.000+02:00

Well... its been a busy 2 weeks. I've had very little sleep over the past 3 weeks and well... I'm tired. It may be the sushi I just had for lunch. The smacks of wasabi didnt manage to wake me up (its a shame how weak they're making wasabi these days).

In the last 3 weeks i've been quad biking, done a bit of paintball, watched some amazing cricket (I lost 10 cases of beer when RSA beat AUS @ 434 runs), went to watch Metallica at the Coca Cola Colab, went to a lion farm to check out a few cats, played in an MTG tourneyment, started playing GO again, pretty much been having a good time outside work. I've posted a few photos in my photo album (on the right) and I've got more to post.

The Colab was good, Metallica were great and the chap selling air guitars on the side of centurion cricket stadium - you're a life saver. (Managed to get him to run to the bottle store and buy about 6 bottles of vodka and 6 2L cokes.) Unplanned but typical - dave and I ended up bumping into Mike, Stu and Miles. This, chantelle and craig managed to get us to skip the entire queue (about a kilometer long). More photos on the way.

On a more computer related topic:
I also been thinking and i think i've come up with a "killer" app. Will have to see.

I've recently been annoyed at why people deviate from best practices. Why reinvent the wheel? For this reason I now understand the real meaning of history. Those who dont understand the history are doomed to repeat it. Learn from your forefathers.

Back to food:

You really have to try sushi with the hottest wasabi possible.

2006-02-08T10:43:00.000+02:00

Its been a while since I last posted. Christmas and New Years Day has come and gone. So has the feeling of being exhausted (company year end). Since then, a few things have happened...

My sister's birthday on the 9th of Jan.
Finally recovered from the year end on the 25th of Jan.
A1GP on the 29th of Jan.
Lion park this last weekend.

2005-12-21T11:31:00.000+02:00

It is done. I have a new car - 2005 A3 2.0 fsi. The Smurf lasted well and has some good memories but alas, trustworthy brakes, a handbrake that works, 110 kilowatt of power and a CD player is something that is worth it. The last straw was the Smurf getting stolen. I would possibly still be driving it as i was not in a hurry to change my car (I'm not worried about safety/status/ego). Cost was possibly the biggest issue. I do not mind spending money aslong as I'm getting good value for what I spend and there are no problems with what I buy. I'm quite comfortable with an old Uno Fiat and I could have waited. After my car was stolen it pressed me to find what was good value and what I'm comfortable with. I spent a good 6 months looking and its a good car and I'm happy.

I test drove an A3, A4, two different 318ti, a Yaris, a Getz, and an old automatic nissan. The A3 (my car) was the best of the lot and it has a good interior and the previous owner was kept good care of it. The automatic is was great. I would have to get an automatic at some point in the far future.

On a side note, went out during lunch to drop off a DVD at a video store. I had this TP option enabled on my radio and it switched to a radio report and returned to play my CD once the radio report had finished. Nice.

I'm listening to Coldplay X&Y and Madonna Confessions. Both are great CDs. The confessions CD is possibly one of the best dance CDs. My impression of Hung Up is that its a great hit but thats where it ends. The other songs on that CD have alot more depth (for dance songs) and the compilation will last longer than that particular song. X&Y is a great compilation and its going to be on my favorites for along time.

2005-12-18T11:28:00.000+02:00

I went to watch DooM the movie on the weekend. Lotsa memories came flooding back. In particular, they missed a huge part of the movie.

(a) No monsters - sure they had these imp like things with eyes. They missed the cacodemons, lost souls, hell knights and most importantly - the cyberdemon and spiderdemon. The cyberdemon is by far the most fear inspiring thing i've ever experienced in my not so long 26year life.

(b) They missed the whole 'from hell'. I guess they were afraid of the religious activists. In the end they settled for the whole genetic experiment gone bad plot. Lame.

I do not think that the movie did the game justice. It could have been alot more frightening.

2005-12-14T19:58:00.000+02:00

Its almost the new year and its that time to start contemplating resolutions. Things done, things not done, good and bad. Time well spent and time lost.

I would have liked to,
* gone back to durban more often
* done more rock climbing

I did,
* change jobs
* study and pass a few unisa courses + certifications
* spend too much money over the course of the year

I will,
* do more rock climbing
* pick up fencing again or possibly squash (but one of them)
* overcome my slight fear of horses (not sure if you could call it fear - its more like an inability to ride)
* finish my architect exams
* finish my mcsd (possibly just the 300-70 exam)
* start a cfa (possibly not)
* change my car (i'm currently looking at this)
* go overseas for a few weeks and spend time with my sisters and a friend or two.
* chat to Jutta and find out more about how she's doing.
* play more go

Bad things,
* Forgetting my sisters birthday
* not going to Durban enough

Good things,
* Robbie Williams Golden Circle
* Cooking for Friends
* Finally getting 'a feast for crows'
* (I'm leaving a few off of this list, tho maybe they should be on the
bad things list)

Plans for the next year,
* White water rafting
* Overseas for a short while
* Lots more cooking

Anyway. Good times.

2005-12-12T10:40:00.000+02:00

There aint no place like home. The air in durban definately gives you more energy and your best friends even more. Funnily enough, I spent most of the weekend sleeping. I nearly missed a braai.

I stayed in my mothers new house. Its quite well designed. There is so much space available and so much thought has been put into the layout and placing of rooms and areas. Alot still needs to be unpacked but that just takes time. Boxes.

On saturday night and sunday morning Brad, Justin, Mike and I ended up playing Tichu till silly hours of the morning (8am). This has almost become a ritual when I go to Durban. The first set was decisivly won by Justin and I over 1h30m. The second set was a bitter battle to the end, won by Brad and Mike. Regrettably we couldnt find the original cards and had to remark the deuces as the One, Dog, Phoenix and Dragon.

A good weekend I'm definately relaxed/destressed after that weekend tho I wish I could go down more often and I forgot to copy a DVD of photos.

2005-11-30T16:35:00.000+02:00

Well. Cooked for 16 people last night and thats the most i've cooked for. (I think it was 17 - i might be out by 1). Got asked to cook for them the night before as i've got two friends going overseas (Dave is off to Aspen and Dave is off to Brazil).

It went quite well, a tasty 3 course meal (lots of flavour) was accompanied by Dom Pedros and a few cheeky tequilas (thats dave's doing). The theme was that everyone had to dress in all white clothing (which a few people adhered to... not everyone has white trousers). I'll definately cook for dinner parties more often - its lots of fun.

2005-11-27T09:07:00.000+02:00

Well. Once again, I know what its like to have a stake driven through your heart. You see it in vampire movies but this is no movie. Even worse is when you're to blame. Gotta kick yourself.

On a completely different topic - I forgot my sisters birthday. Argh! So I'm having a bad couple of months. She's back from holiday sometime today so tomorrow I'll have to make some long distance gift buying, etc. I do think its too late tho - few things are worse than having your close family forget your birthday. Especially if you're also going through tired times. Argh!

I was going to buy a car (i dont trust my current car) but I'm going to hang back and find a bit of direction first. There are more important things.

2005-11-20T21:47:00.000+02:00

Two great friends of mine had their birthday in the last 2 weeks. I'm the guy with the horizontal stripe on his shirt. To my left is Wayne, it was his birthday last week wednesday. To my right is Brad. His birthday this last saturday. I sadly missed their birthday dinner. (being in jhb).

2005-11-20T21:07:00.000+02:00

Well... ended up buying another 6 tickets for RW. I only managed to get field standing. It sold out at 5 and I know that there are friends who are going to want tickets. I've already given 2 away (for the price i bought them).

I went to Mexicasa on friday. Its a great mexican resturant in village walk in sandton. Lots of tequilla was flowing (too much actually) and even a tabasco shooter.

Otherwise, at work on a sunday night pondering over a messaging system. Happiness.

2005-11-13T23:33:00.000+02:00

I've just finished reading the Assassins Trilogy by Robbin Hob. Along with this I've been listening to Coldplay X&Y, James Blunt, and Now 41 (assorted pop artists).

Its easy reading and quite personal as it closely follows a single character, FizChivalry, the bastard son of a prince who abdicates and gets killed. A whole lot of intrigue by his "uncle" leads to various political issues in which he gets thrust into as a catalyst for others. Fortunately, there are bigger issues (it all makes sense in the end). Hobb takes us on a tour of the entire fantasy genre without overdoing any one particular aspect. I particularly enjoyed how the "magic" aspect was integrated into the story without overpowering the story.

There is a good love story or two that run through the three books and this seemed to coincide well with the James Blunt and Coldplay CDs I recently bought. I do feel that this got dragged out in quite a bit more detail in book 2 than was necessary but there is alot of significance to it when it comes to closing the trilogy.

I enjoyed the "encyclopedia" extracts that were at the start of each of the chapters that give you background to the world as the story progresses. At points I was reading chapters to get to the next extract.

As a whole, the trilogy is quite good and I recommend it to fantasy readers and those who enjoy fantasy once in a while. The trilogy is definately larger than the sum of its books. Book 3 brings alot of closure to some very large open ended questions from book 1.

2005-11-09T15:58:00.000+02:00

F1 Madness

Tomorrow from 12h00 to 13h00 there will be a few F1 cars racing around Sandton (which is closed off for a few hours). Fortunately my offices are "on the track" so they'll be going past my window.

Robbie Williams

I just bought 4 tickets for robbie williams @ loftus. Sometime in April.

2005-11-08T16:02:00.000+02:00

In the last week I've had 2 of the best burgers. (1) A normal beef cheese bacon and pineapple (i think) burger from Chuckleberrys, and (2) a single mild chicken burger, no mayo, with extra cottage cheese from Steam.

I tried a Quarter Pounder Delux with an extra "100% beef" patty. It makes a good burger and almost as good as a king steer. The only reason that the king steer doesnt come out on top is that i think its too juicy and its classified as fast food. The other two burgers are slightly more wholesome.

The extra cottage cheese makes a huge difference. A burger is all about the flavour. If there is too much bun or if its too dry, or the sauce is too synthetic such that you cannot taste the burger, then its not worth eating. You mightaswell have bread or a bottle of sauce.

There is this little german burger maker in the far corner of the Rosebank Flea Market that also makes good burgers. Its a great burger but it seems to be missing something. They put mayo on the burger to transport the taste but you end up tasting mayo instead of the combined burger flavour. It is definately a high quality burger.

An interesting burger possibility is to have a burger that changes its taste as you eat it. You could possibly have a beef pattie made up of two different mixtures and then somehow get them to bind together. Not sure how strong a bind you could make.

2005-11-06T15:35:00.000+02:00

Kuro5hin - The French Scape Goat

I feel quite strongly about this. Unnecessary and orchestrated. A true friend will take advice and criticism from a friend, without retalliation. Providing friends with gifts doesnt mean that they must agree with your viewpoint.

This is where the misguided few with influence do the most damage to society in the long run. To follow a pattern, family feuds in italy last/lasted ages. I imagine that sentiment built up in the last few years last just as long.

Sad.

2005-11-04T11:27:00.000+02:00

Just had my hair coloured silver for CANSA. I'll see if i can get a photo posted. I'm going to start using Flickr to post photos.

2005-11-04T08:52:00.000+02:00

Robbie Williams is coming to RSA in April 2006. Good times. Tickets go on sale on the 16th of November.

Well... I think the storm lastnight has blown my telephone AGAIN. This is getting ridiculous. I need a phone with an optical link so it doesnt get continually damaged.

2005-10-31T22:26:00.000+02:00

Well... i'm waiting for some database analysis to finish running (+- 6 hours). I mightaswell add another thought about the cellphones.

There should be an option that will put automatically put cellphone into silent during a meeting (as scheduled by calendar integration). That way, you dont get notification that you've got a meeting in 15 minutes during your previous meeting and disrupt a meeting of about 10 to 12 people. If anything, there should be a configurable chime so that you could set it to some slight beep + buzzer.

---

I've realised that i've been working quite late for the last 4 to 5 weeks. Its a good excuse to make the weekend worthwhile but you get quite exhausted. In think 2 weekends ago was the first time slept for 12 hours (on a friday night). It has to happen.

It even looks as though i wont be taking much leave during december (alot of others in the team are taking leave and they'll need someone to do standby over xmas). I'll see what happens. I've been too busy to even think about leave and will feel bad turning down the trip to CT with friends.

Time to see how empty JHB gets around XMAS and NY - its been 2 years so far. Fortunately, I'm saving up my leave and will spend alot of it overseas.

2005-10-26T16:52:00.000+02:00

Well... its Wine X tonight. Tomorrow will be interesting.

Tomorrow night is SFSA.

2005-10-24T08:39:00.000+02:00

I have to recall an "ugly" aspect of the W800i. I said that "You can only take video clips of +- 20 seconds in length.".

I found the configuration option that disabled this. It was labelled as "Record video for MMS". Disabling this enables videos of proper size and any length (up to a maximum of the memory stick).

---

On a technical note, I've been posting technical articles to the Portland Pattern Repository - TimTwelves as opposed to on my blog. I like the idea of JRoller but maintaining two blogs would be a nightmare as i'm not inclined to write more than a few paragraphs once a month.

2005-10-18T17:35:00.000+02:00

W800i,

The good:

(a) I've just started using calendar synchronisation between my outlook calendar and my cellphone calendar. WOW. Firstly, i've got alot of meetings. Secondly, its easy to use and the software is non invasive. I bought a pc bluetooth adapter and I use the software that comes with the phone. It includes time, title, venue details on its recurrence, etc. I set the phone to ALWAYS notify me - thus, if my phone is switched off, it will power up and notify me.

(b) I unplugged the Memory Stick DUO 512meg card lastnight. Its a bit difficult to pull/rip out... you have to press it in before it springs out. (My bad). Anyway, it was suprisingly easy. I didnt use the CD that came with it because I left it at work. I used one of those 11 in 1 card readers.

The bad:

(b) By default, the notification was set to "Only when On". I had to change this to "Always" before i would get reminded of a meeting. I think i was possibly wasnt giving it enough time, anyway, I spent time fiddling to find out whether I was going to get notified a few minutes before the event.

(c) The ringtone/signal for the calendar notification cannot be changed, nor can the amount of time before the event be set. Its set to notify 15 minutes beforehand. (I had to wait and see).

(d) I have to press a button to get my phone to synchronize. I want it to synchronize when I walk past my PC. (i'm lazy).

The ugly:

(d) The MP3 playback speed is slightly quicker than when playing through winamp and thus not accurate to the song. It is a really subtle difference that cancels out a small amount of the base and makes the trebble only slightly more noticable (i might be wrong with the physics). I am going to guess that winamp is correct and the w800i is wrong since winamp has been around for alot longer - more testing. If you play songs side by side, the w800i moves through the song quicker.

The MP3 playback is still good and not noticable unless you compare songs but since it is marketed as the "Sony Walkman", i would expect the playback to be accurate.

-Tim

(On a side note, james blunt, Wow)

2005-10-17T13:48:00.000+02:00

I just recently got a Sony Ericsson w800i. This phone is the distant grandchild of the T610 (the phone i recently lost). The w800i fixes every issue and completes the T610 wishlist but I do have a few problem with it.

The good:
(a) Nice camera
(b) Nice radio
(c) Nice GUI - very responsive and well thought out. A good improvement on a good interface (T610)

The bad:
(d) The automatic keylock is a bit too quick. It needs to be a few seconds (4) longer.

The ugly:
(e) The T610 side grooves are missing. This makes the phone more difficult to handle (in comparison to the T610). Its still on par with other phones but the T610 ensured that you had a great grip on the phone by its side grooves.
(c) You can only take video clips of +- 20 seconds in length. This is horse shyte... I've got a 512meg memory card and I want to use it.

Conclusion

I am enjoying the phone. Its ever so slightly larger than T610 and its quite a refreshing facelift. Its got most of the latest features (i dont know what i'm missing). A good phone.

2005-10-17T10:15:00.000+02:00

Exceptions are like shotput, the further you throw, the better.

2005-10-11T02:03:00.000+02:00

Client Java

One of the biggest gripes about java is the Swing support. Unfortunately, swing does not provide training wheels. Its easier to create a bad swing application than a good one. A good example is IntelliJ IDEA. The problem is typically a lack of understanding of various advanced swing topics by new developers. A few issues lacking in previous JDKs have made developers experiences difficult and has tarnished the view of swing development but once you understand the various concepts it becomes enjoyable.

Anyway, the whole point of this post was that I rediscovered the Client Java blog. In my opinion, it is a significant resource to keep up to date with Swing advancements. It is a community blog focused on various technology and concept advances in java for clients.

2005-10-06T11:57:00.000+02:00

V02 max

An interesting site on VO2max.

2005-10-05T16:57:00.000+02:00

Well... I went to Body IQ in an attempt to increase my vitality status.

My results are:

Body Weight: 86kg
Height: 177cm (5'9")
Body Fat: 15%
BP Systolic: 110
BP Diastoic: 70
Cholesterol: 4.87
VO2 max: 47.0
Sit & Reach: 55cm
Situps (per min): 50
Pushups (per min): 43

The particular examination was - (a) a questionair, (b) a cholesterol test, (c) blood pressure, (d) some odd belt gets strapped around your waist and a watch gets placed on your wrist to monitor heart rate, (e) a step test, 4 sequences of stepping to a particular taped beat that increases in frequency every sequence with a minute or two rest between each sequence and a final rest of 3 minutes, (f) max situps in 1 minute, (g) max pushups in 1 minute.

In total I get about 16000 points from that little exercise which should push me into silver status.

2005-09-21T17:24:00.000+02:00

Well... My car got stolen on sunday and was recovered by the police on tuesday. Its now in a vehicle pound awaiting the insurance agency picking it up for assessment.

Its quite amazing, I had to go very close to some super dodgy areas in JHB to fetch my car. I used Google Earth to view the area where I would be going allowing me the peace of mind to head there without any worries. Google Earth rocks, I've used it practically - for security reasons. When the chap was explaining how I get there and how some signs/small roads were difficult to read (you might miss it), I could see exactly what he ment and could never go wrong after using Google Earth.

The exact coordinates of my car when I left were 26`16'06.57" S 27`56'46.91" E.

They took,
1. Maccadamia nuts (R20)
2. Car radio (+-R300)
3. 2x Speekers (+-R800)
4. Cassette tapes (gift)
5. Night stick (??)
6. Sun blocker (R40)
7. Parking disc (??)
8. Money (+-R15)
9. Some shopping (+-R550)
10. Can of deodorant (R15)
11. Lipice (R5)

Total = R1695

They messed up,
1. Stuff around the ignition
2. Passenger seat
3. Boot area
4. I suspect something was taken from the engine
5. I suspect that the engine is dodgey

They left
1. Gift vouchers (R400)
2. Some bank receipts

Anyway... I was planning on changing my car so I was not suprised or unprepared for the financial impact (should they not recover my car).

-Tim

2005-09-02T11:52:00.000+02:00

Well... A few thoughts... 811

1. Starteam 2005 is Awesome. Its leaps better than Source Vault, which is huge strides better than Source Safe.

2. I quite like Weblogic 8 and EAR deployment (especially when you've got some massive projects). I've come to realise how much is missing from Tomcat. I still dont like the custom deployment descriptors that all J2EE servers require. The fact that you have to pack and unpack jars to configure descriptors is just plain unhappay.

3. IntelliJ IDEA 5 is great. I like the Favorites view, the javascript support and the html support but I will wait for more features before I shell out more cash for IDEA IntelliJ as 4.5 still keeps me highly productive.

4. Error handling and logging... If I get furious about one thing, its error handling. There is no excuse for poor error handling and use of logging. None at all. One of the worst things I was once told was that "Logging isnt required because its not a requirement. Oh, and who is going to look at the logs anyway". (That just makes me angry). Anyway, thats in the past, right now I'm dealing with a decent system that could be one third its current size.

5. Toplink ORM - Seems nice, I still prefer Hibernate as an ORM. I'm still to work with Hibernate 3 but from what I've read it's come along way. The only additional feature that I would like is for it to calculate and apply additional indexes (as specified) by SchemaGenerator.

6. We got a new Nescafe coffe machine. #811 is the number for hot chocolate. Its enabled me to cut coffee out of my diet. All i've got to do is spend a bit more time in the Gym and a wont see the effects at all. If only I could cut out beer + redbull + jagameister I'd have slightly more healthy weekends.

7. Whats with lists anyway? I'm just jotting down a whole lot of thoughts.

8. I thought I'd have had withdrawl symptoms when moving from Java 5. Alas, a whole lot of libraries need to start using annotations effectively (reduce total code by 10%).

9. J2EE Client Application Modules... First time I've heard of those. A J2EE client container sounds intresting but I wonder what horrors are involved in getting that to work.

10. After work... ? Probably newscafe, its in walking distance now that I'm @ Discovery. Too convenient. Even better is the company bar - R5 a hansa.

11. What have I been up to lately? I went to a charity ball last weekend... theme... larger than life. I bought a large cowboy hat, othewise, very memorable. 5 weeks ago I went to another charity ball - Christmas in July. Very red, lots of elves. Then the polo @ Inanda polo Club. Its been a while since i've been in the sun the entire day.

12. Otherwise, time to go look at a problem ... :(

2005-08-10T11:49:00.000+02:00

The Guide to the Southern African Financial Services Industry - SA Financial Sector Forum

An intresting website that regularly updates financial indicators and links to papers about the South African financial industry.

I was just looking for the prime (overdraft) intrest rate and stumbled across this site.

2005-07-03T22:00:00.000+02:00

One of the biggest myths about AMD and Intel is that an AMD chip runs hotter than Intel chip. This was valid of the K6 (and early K7s when you compare how far the K7 got pushed).

Roles have been swapped - AMD is far superior at controlling their heat and power consumption.

Power Consumption Chart
Power Consumption (Dual Core)

I recently got my mother a new computer. At first we tried purchasing it through a private dealer who tried to include a R4000 video card and secondly an intel box that was unnecessarily expensive (something like R11,000). What an utter rippoff. After a bit of a conversation with the chap, his defense was based on experiences about 4 to 5 years ago.

I cannot blame him for his experiences but I can blame him for not keeping up to date, his ignorance hurts customers and unnecessarily overcharges them.

2005-06-01T22:50:00.000+02:00

Well, when you're at terminal velocity... and you're smiling... your front teeth tend to get slightly cold and you get sensitive teeth. Well thats how I felt after I went skydiving for the first time.

Mike, Astrid and I did Tandem jumps at the JSC (about an hour out of JHB). We got it filmed and on DVD (although we still have to edit it and join the 3 videos together).

An amazing rush but once you're parachute opens everything's different. Beautifull would be one way to describe it.

Heard a funny story about tandem jumps the other day... Two people do a tandem jump and pull their chute immedately. They carry a six pack of beer with them and drink it on the way down.

-Tim

2005-05-18T11:54:00.000+02:00

Last night I watched the ending of Jason vs Freddy before CSI and 24. The last nights episode of 24 was amazing stuff. Exactly what I expected from Jack Bauer. I've watched season 1 and 3 of 24 and its well worth the 24 hours you sit watching the season. I'm now 3 hours into season 4 and 4 hours into season 2 (i'm getting season 2 from the video store and watching season 4 on mnet).

They should have a Jason vs Predetor. Or even better, Jason vs Predetor vs Alien vs Freddy vs Chuck Norris vs Steven Seagal.

2005-05-13T00:19:00.000+02:00

Alot has happened since my last post...

I left my previous company (miss them quite a bit, unique company and good products); had drinks with the entire company for the 2nd time ever (might be the first); watched the battlestar galactica remake; had a 15 year family reunion; went to Hluhlue game reserve; went on a battle tour of Rorkes Drift and Isandhlwana; started at a new company; started waking up early (first concerted effort to get up early since... grade 6 at primary school); got ill; got well; went on systems induction; a few friends birthdays; went on core induction; beerfest; got ill (not related to the beerfest... some kinda food poisoning... terrible); went to see Avril Lavigne in concernt (awesome concert); got well; learnt spring framework fundermentals (1.2 is nice, i wonder when IntelliJ will have IDE support for Spring).

I'm not going to go into detail since i've been so busy since my last post but:

1. I highly recommend the battle tours and Hluhlue.

2. Core and System induction are the companies plan on introducing you to the companies products and the companies backend system. This arms you with information you need to know where to start (massive systems).

3. Spring gives me a happy feeling (just like Java 5.0 and Hibernate). I fear the beans.xml file might explode in size for large applications and become opaque to the inner mind.

4. Really miss seeing the rest of the family and my new nephew. It all started off with a spectacular dinner at the Oyster Box watching a gold moon rise on the ocean, slighly obscured by a lighthouse with a pool. (had to be there). Hluhlu was great, got to see the most massive elephant but no cats. It all ended when hyenas rocked up at a braai (it was the last day/night, we left the next morning).

Happy to be writing again. Dont think i have time for the next 2 weeks but after that everything should be good. I'm working late right now. Lots to understand and do. Its nice to be able to work late (shoot me now).

-Tim

2005-03-23T12:57:00.000+02:00

When designing systems or preparing presenations its important to understand your documents.

Vague documents occur when trying to put too much information into a single document that does not directly aid the purpose of the document. That information may confuse the reader as the document drifts from one topic to another. Such information should be put in a different document. When presenting some point of view and producing some presentation, its important to back your results with strong sources.

Its better to build up many sets of correct and consise documents that are easy to update when information changes or becomes available. Furthermore, different types of documents may depend on (and source) information from numerous documents without confusing the scope and purpose of the document.

Consider what happens when putting together an technical integration manual. The manual should source information from various internal technical notes and apis. Any new information should be updated and corrected in the technical notes, not the technical manual. It is typical to have technical writer compose the manual from specifications and notes. The techical writer is not typically the authority to create the source material. When the manual contains original material, the documentation style is either (a) the manual is the specification, or (b) the manual is dependant on source material, source material should be updated or source material is unique to the manual, or (c) there is no source material.

A problem with many source documents is being able to find the documents and having someone review changes to the document. Google Desktop Search is an example of an effective way to find what you're looking for while MS Sharepoint Portal Server provides both reasonable search functionallity and document process control (i forget the correct terminology). Unfortunately MS SPS is cost prohibitive for smaller businesses.

Either way, documentation is costly to create so its important to be effective in its creation and use.

---

Reliable + Cheap = Lots of preparation and documentation (not fast)
Cheap + Fast = Little preparation and documentation (lets go live)
Fast + Reliable = Someone else did the documentation and are charging for it.

---

The scope of this is again possibly too large and vague in itself. Am i trying to jot down my thoughts... or am I trying to put together a javaworld.com article.

2005-03-21T16:03:00.000+02:00

Pick Two

(a) Reliable
(b) Cheap
(c) Fast

2005-03-17T19:34:00.000+02:00

An XML namespace is not a URL, its a URI. If it looks like a URL (http://mycompany.com/food/thought), it should resolve to an RDDL instead of 404 not found. If it is not a URL it should be a URN (urn:mycompany.com:food/thought).

O'Reily on RDDL has a good document to get you into the headspace.

www.rddl.org has the RDDL specification.

Since a URL is tied to a companies web deployment, i'd structure the URIs such that they dont collide with web content. The webserver should map the final part of the namespace to an RDDL file.

http://<site>/uri/<unique-part>/<version>

namespace URL: http://frogs.com/uri/food/flying-things/1.0

site: frogs.com
unique-part: food/flying-things
version: 1.0

One thing... security. I dont want to let the rest of the world know my internal protocols and schemas. This could be enforced by a secure site (internal.site.com) or protected areas on the site.

2005-03-15T20:47:00.000+02:00

I keep on reading about SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) and how its some sort of silver bullet. I then read as many critics about how (1) SOA is actually just stateless RPC (2) over Web Services; (3) its no silver bullet - cannot do X, Y, Z; (4) it already exists in many companies using different protocols; etc, etc, etc.

I fear that many miss the point and get confused between the architects point of view and the sales-man's/advocate point of view.

The sales man wants to sell an idea because he's either wants to make a profit by providing a consulting service; or is some sort of idealistic fanatic.

The architect/researcher's point of view is that the SOA concept has been identified as a real and worthwhile enterprise pattern. The discussion and research around SOA is focused on increasing the total understanding around how to apply the concept to the enterprise, what the implications and limitations are and how to cleanly implement the pattern across a large enterprise. Two points to consider - (a) It is better to have a well understood enterprise architecture whose implications and limitations are well researched than having an architecture arise without control and without understanding its limitations, (b) SOA is mostly applicable to a subset of problems.

Now sometimes ...

the advocate/fanatics miss point (b) - so they advocate SOA everywhere.
the critics dont understand (b) - so they dont see the value of the pattern.
the architects dont understand (b) - so they try to apply the pattern to every problem.

...

2005-03-11T10:45:00.000+02:00

My house got hit by lightening last night... Happiness and burnt wires. For some reason it was only the circuit with the house lights... and the house alarm. (I have a house alarm?)

It became apparent that there was a house alarm when it started going off at 4am in the morning. This poses 3 questions... Where is it, Why is it going off, and How do I turn it off. After a short amount of time it became apparent that the pin-code was not known so it was not possible to electronically disable the sirens/speakers. These were physically disabled. Next up... the buzzers in each circuit board hidden in cupboards and other wonderful places. Removing those circuit boards solved that problem.

Great stuff. 6 hours sleep and a headache. Now to hope that the next door neighbour doesnt try to evict us.

2005-03-08T10:25:00.000+02:00

A summary of an enterprise SOA architecture - The Rings of the Enterprise [link]

Ring Zero: WS/RMI/.NET Remoting, Java/C#, business logic + processes, databases, no security
Ring One: Messaging middleware, business system, application security, secure sockets
Ring Two: B2B collaboration, security is a big issue, firewalls, encrypted comms
Ring Three: The world, unsafe

Since Ring Zero has no security, I would expect a business process to be implemented to ensure that staff are unable to interfere with the live system / ring zero. In the simpest of applications, this would imply that a developer doesnot imbed some sort of backdoor or "feature". The security process would be code review. In a larger enterprise system it would be complete network isolation of ring zero allowing only ring zero and ring one to communicate. A deployment process that ensures only certain individuals have access to the live system and a QA review and testing process independant of the developers.

2005-03-07T15:34:00.000+02:00

When using IEEE Software Engineering Process, you will find yourself overwhelmed with how many different templates and processes are defined. Realise that a single person is not supposed to create all the different IEEE documents and you will not typically find someone who is an expert in all the related fields. The IEEE is not suited for companies where architect == deverloper == tester == etc.

The roles of architect, developer, tester, etc will typically author their various documents and when those roles are correctly performed, an individual will typically never have to compose all of those documents. The author of the various documents should try to stick as close as possible to what is needed by document (as defined by the particular IEEE standard). When all documents are not authored, you will find a need to place some 'important' information inside a document because it has no appropropriate place.

Stick to the process and put that information in the correct document, as opposed to forcing it into some inappropriate document - otherwise your documents will become vague. The documentation may also require particular diagrams as an aid in the discussion. Dont try to put additional diagrams that will be (or are) duplicated by another part of the documentation process.

The whole IEEE Software Engineering Process might seem heavy until you stop duplicating information that has been documented or will be documented. In addition, the correct stakeholders should drive the correct parts of the process so that roles do not overlap.

2005-03-04T12:45:00.000+02:00

The problem with investing great amounts of time in UML, before you need to discuss a particular topic, is that there are many different views of the same system. Unless you're talking to another coder, a class diagram will not aid in discussing business logic. There are typically quite a few representations of the same system and based upon your discussion only one of those is of any use. Composing these diagrams can be highly time consuming for small projects at the risk of not completing the small project at all. For larger projects its probably impossible to diagram every aspect unless you employ the use of design recovery companies.

While excessive time to compose a correct and complete model of design does not constitute a failure of UML (dont ask me to develop and formalise such a large diagram), I do think that UML is necessary. If you cannot communicate correctly, on at least a small scale, then you're at a disadvantage. There are many diagramming methodologies of which a professional should understand and use at least one modelling system correctly. That is: the ability to use the correct diagram to quickly sketch the interactions being discussed instead of using the incorrect diagram and forcing information into the diagram.

A UML Tutorial [Link]

2005-02-28T14:02:00.000+02:00

Isnt it amazing how some of the decisions that take 1 second can be the hardest to make. Those decisions either preserve the status quo, or allow you to move forward. You can try to avoid situations that require you to choose but at some point you are plainly confronted. Certain questions must be answered. Its amazing how many reasons you can come up with to either avoid or delay. Being comfortable is a nice feeling.

Ying Yang

2005-02-28T12:37:00.000+02:00

Cellphone radiation level charts
Old SAR Chart

I'm always concerned about this one. I remember my face getting quite hot when I used my 3210, something I'm always wary of (would prefer to use my cell as little as possible). According to the above links, my old 3210 [1.14] was lower than my T610 [1.21]. This worries me slighly because I dont seem to notice the T610 until after a lenghty conversation (5-10 minutes). Is it being deflected? or have I been conditioned/climatised.

Worrying.

On a side note, the Apple Center in the Nelson Mandela Square stocks the Mini Mac. I am impressed. I just need to wait until they get those internal bluetooth modules... and then it's mine!

I've got to go back and spend some more time there. I dont know how well it supports sending and receiving faxes. I'm keen to move my mom over to a Mini Mac but i'm worried about a whole lot of adjustment issues and lack of support. Anyone have any experience with this? What is the MTBF for MacOSX?

2005-01-12T13:06:00.000+02:00

OH MY HAT!!!

[link]

I'm gonna buy a Mini Mac. Factory optionals are Internal Bluetooth, Wireless Ethernet and a DVD Writer... and you get MacOS X. I'd definately get 512mb RAM with it instead of 256mb RAM that comes default.

The only dissapointment is that it takes about 6 months (i'm guessing) for it to be available worldwide.

Seriously, the Mini Mac is the first computer that i've seen that solves every single issue with todays computing. Its small, its quiet, it does everything I need, its not an eyesore. Internal bluetooth is a brilliant idea. If I could buy it today I would.

On the software side of things, its comes with everything I need except MS Office (but you can buy that). I hardly play many games anymore so computer games arnt an issue.

2005-01-12T11:00:00.000+02:00

Went to watch my first soccer game the other day.... Kaiser Chiefs vs Santos at the FNB Stadium Soweto (Soccer City). Great event, had a blast on a vuvulezu (sp?). 5 of us went to see the stadium and the crowed. The stadium looks smaller than it is... supposdly it holds 80,000 people... looks more like 40,000. An intresting crowed with a lot of reefer being smoked at that match.

Between the vuvulezus, the car hooter (dont know how they got that in the stadium) and the school bell.... (yes, a school bell... the one you shake, not the electric one) the idea is to make AS MUCH noise as possible when the ref makes dodgy decisions. Let him know your disgust. Other than that, I was impressed at the synchronisation of the different parts of the crowed with certain tunes and songs they were orchestrating. Very wierd... It seemed as though one chap (on his vuvulezu (fog horn)) would start some tune, then everyone would alternate at a different pitch. Very odd. Had to be there.

2004-12-26T01:04:00.000+02:00

Merry Christmas!!

2004-12-15T13:13:00.000+02:00

The top 20 IT mistakes to avoid

20 Rules of Software Engineering

Fundermental Rules of Software Engineering

Software Engineering Facts

2004-12-08T19:23:00.000+02:00

Service Oriented Architecture - Headspace

The above link details about SOA and what it really means. It seems focused on the enterprise or business. I'm certain that SOA is not exclusively limited to the limited domain of problems that he clearly identifies, except if one sticks to the principles he briefs and sticks to the approaches he recommends, I am certain that you wouldnt come across unnecessary hurdles.

2004-12-06T10:57:00.000+02:00

How Far the Mighty Have Fallen
Opec may look at trading oil in euro
Economic War Against the World

The U.S. national debt is 7 trillion dollars, 13 trillion if you add State, municipal and consumer debt and 18 trillion if the Bush economic 'plan' is fully enacted. The entirety of the third world's debt is just about two trillion dollars.

Oil is traded in dollars. Instead of converting between say ZAR and USD or EURO and USD, accumulating monetary exchange fees, money sits inside US banks in USD to be transfered to/from oil companies as oil changes hands. If Opec decides to change there preferred currency from USD to EURO, money moves out of US banks into foreign banks. This is compounded by the fact that any major run on the US currency will cause foreign countries to move their treasuries holdings from USD to some foreign currency. Taiwan (approx $57 billion of Treasuries), Japan (approx $740 billion of Treasuries).

Another point of intrest is how an economic war plays out.

2004-11-08T16:17:00.000+02:00

Some intresting notes from comp.java.* documented and sorted on the following site.
Java Glossary

Java Gotchas

2004-10-29T17:10:00.000+02:00

The Economist describes it as it is - America's next president [link].

2004-10-28T16:51:00.000+02:00

Went to see Diamonds and Dust last night. An amazing musical covering south african music from the 1940s till modern times. A great performance only emphasises the hidden jewels that are african music.

The Barnyard Theatre

2004-09-27T15:38:00.000+02:00

A great long weekend in the Drakensburg. Completely relaxed, ready for a great week and a long push towards December.

Absinthe... evil stuff. I found a good article [link] on Absinthe and an informative faq [link].

2004-09-23T14:04:00.000+02:00

Won my first game of chess today.

An amazing defeat of Gumpifoo on Red Hot Pawn [link]. My user name is trix1234 not tim12s. (I entered the wrong email address for authorisation, so I couldnt complete the signup). If you want a game, give me an invite... but I warn you, I make about 3-5 moves a day, gotta work, gotta work.

Next up, the defeat of Septic Fly that scourge that is trying to invade my kingdom.

2004-09-22T12:35:00.000+02:00

Well done to Richard, Chris and Patrick who won this last friday.

We played 3 games of poker (winner takes all) with a double blind for every player that leaves the game.

Game 1 was exclusively Texas Holden (won by Richard).
Game 2 was dealers choice amongst Texas, Omaha and 5 card draw (won by Chris).
Game 3 was again dealers choice amongst Texas, Omaha and 5 card draw (won by Patric).

A few unbelievable hands made for some intresting losses.

If I'm also correct, in the last game I didnt win a single hand... but otherwise, some good chinese food, a few good hands and a great evening. I seem to be on this hectic loosing streak so i'm going to have to sort that out.

Whens the next poker evening?

Im keen to play a game of Omaha Hi Lo and 5 card draw (dealer chooses) and then in another game, Texas Holden and 5 card stud (dealer chooses) with the same number of chips as we played on this weekend.

gtg

2004-09-17T16:18:00.000+02:00

I have someones Queen.

2004-09-16T12:11:00.000+02:00

Got any Red Hot Pawn [link] lately?

Its quite a good chess site. Chess, unlike GO, is an easy game that can be played quickly over a cup of coffee or one move at a time, one per day. I prefer GO as there is more stragegy involved. Or at least, the strategy is less dense and flows more naturally between grand conflict (the board) and smaller battles (ko fights) to battlefield victories (capture) but a lost war (game over, you LOSE).

Okay... maybe I shouldnt emphasise the LOSE bit... GO is a chinese game mastered by the japanese and eventually, after hundreds of years, the chinese have gotten reasonably good at it.

The South African GO Association [link]. They... (we) meet every tuesday (i've been absent for quite some time now) in Melville on 4th street at some coffee shop from about 8pm till 12pm.

Once you've got your mind wrapped around GO it becomes the game of choice... but maybe a bit too long to play at work over the day. 1 move an hour and you wouldnt even be near to finishing.

2004-08-23T10:01:00.000+02:00

So you've got hiccups...

1. Try drinking water backwards.
2. A large spoon of peanut butter.
3. 1 or 2 shots of Tabasco...

The Tabasco hurts... but the pain is worth it after 2 days of hiccups.

2004-08-18T14:35:00.000+02:00

After a bit of a games discussion...

Games I regret not having played,

1. Syndicate
2. Sam and Max
3. Day of the Tentacle
4. Dungeon Keeper
5. Diablo

Games I regret not having finished,

1. Wolf 3d
2. Alone in the Dark

Maybe regret is too strong a word... "would have liked to" might be more appropriate.

2004-08-18T09:10:00.000+02:00

Some very intresting reads regarding science fiction and related topics.

Is Science Fiction about to go Blind?

The Singularity by Vernor Vinge

Matrioshka Brains by Robert J. Bradbury

2004-08-06T15:03:00.000+02:00

Been playing around with RELAX NG XML Schemas (as opposed to W3C XML Schema Definitions). RELAX NG is a practical solution to the problems that are not solved by XSDs. RELAX NG is an OASIS standard being put forward for ISO standardisation and as such, there are many implementations. Point 3 and 4 below are intresting reads regarding XML+XSD schemas and the various issues with XSD.

(1) RELAX NG Compact Syntax Tutorial
(2) RELAX NG - Refinement of values
xsd:integer { minInclusive="5" maxExclusive="10" }
xsd:string { minLength="4" maxLength="17" }
xsd:string { pattern="[A-Z]\d[A-Z]\s+\d[A-Z]\d" }

(3) RELAX NG better than W3C XML Schemas
(4) RELAX NG vs W3C XML Schema
(5) RELAX NG Jing ANT

2004-07-15T21:08:00.000+02:00

Time to shell out alot of money for a new PC. August 2.

2004-07-05T15:39:00.000+02:00

I just got my LAKS Memory 128mb watch back (link). Myself and a friend bought one a couple of months back.

The USB connector degraded with general use. It was interesting and convincing that there are issues with the way the tension during the connection of the watch to a computer. For both watches the quality of the USB cable degraded to prevent the USB function. The failure of both watches occurred within a couple of weeks of each other and about 8 months of general use (which can only show a common flaw).

Given that it failed, I can only say that the service provided by LAKS was unquestioning and impressive. I recommend them as a company. They gave us both a new watch and I can only hope that its functionality won’t degrade as it did before. The watch’s connectors do look as though they have been improved upon.

I must say that its usefulness is indescribable and I would recommend it to anyone that works with computers. You'd typically not have a memory stick available when you need it... with a memory watch you've always got disk storage available. I've did away with the FDD about 5 years ago. The only hassles I’ve had have been during a clean operating system install. Until recently I used to have a 4x/8x non bootable SCSI CDROM drive. With the internet available everywhere... Email has always been preferable to 1.44 FDD... but once in a while there is a 20mb file or a whole lot of 'stuff' that needs to be moved. While a rewritable CD is accommodating, it is still a bit too large to carry around (I’m lazy and not willing to put up with the hassle.)

2004-07-05T14:53:00.000+02:00

A great weekend at the Durban July (link). A 6 hour trip to Durban, dinner with friends, some stories (which I wont be mentioning here) and a mellow sunday morning on the beach watching the Gunston 500.

There were quite a few blazing honies about - its always impressive to see everyone dressing up for a day of horse racing... Comparing it to the Met, which is a larger event, the Durban July has a lot more class and character. I ended down loosing quite a bit on the horses but made back my losses on the 10th race. I used to be able to read a race guide quite easily... I felt blinded with all the statistics and numbers. Quite uncomfortable. I would recommend getting your hands on one of those books before the race day. Its never pleasant having to rush your decisions before placing your bets.

We stayed at the Blue Waters Hotel which is along the beach front next to the Sun Coast Casino and Vecca Matta. It proved, once again, to be a great hotel to stay. Its in walking distance to quite a few points of intrest. We were about 20 strong and having breakfast with friends and a view over the ocean is a pleasant change to the buzz of JHB.

I can only recommend to those that havnt been to find the time to get out of JHB for a weekend and enjoy their time in Durbs.

2004-06-10T15:47:00.000+02:00

A few notable things have happend in the last two weeks.

(1) I wrote Business Management 101 and 102 through UNISA. (June 3)

I must say that the courses were mind expanding. The amount of general knowledge received about the business world is well worth the course and I would say that there are fewer courses that have as big a WoW factor than Business Management 1. (Macro Economics 1 comes in a close 3rd).

(2) Two of my friends got married this last weekend (June 5).

Their wedding was in the Natal Midlands at a small cottage. Lovely place for a wedding and I'm really happy for them - a perfect couple. It was quite pleasant to be at a wedding where most of the guests slept over at the cottage/hotel with most having breakfast in the morning. We all ended up with Cactaii which, after alot of effort, I eventually got back to JHB.

Sunday lead to a drive along the Midland Meander, lunch at Gunters (a great german cottage, and some great photos), numerous pancakes at the Pancake Place, some shoes and a pleasant drive. I can say that as a tourist route its going to do quite well during the 2010 soccer world cup.

2004-05-28T17:57:00.001+02:00

The only good fanatic is a book fanatic.

2004-05-28T15:32:00.000+02:00

Virtues of a good Software Developer

1. Laziness
2. Impatience
3. Hubris

Do it right the first time (lazy)
Let the computer do the work (impatience)
Do the best job you can (Hubris)

Bring together a good developer and a good set of tools...

to Quote

2004-05-26T16:08:00.000+02:00

Charles de Gaulle airport (2004),
"There was more dust falling from the ceiling, particles of cement, more dirt. We pointed it out on several occasions," the cleaner said.

Boeing (along time ago),
Some fresh engineering grad, one of the top guys in his class, gets to Boeing for his first job. He gets told to watch a hose for 3 weeks and count the number of drops of liquid and preasure of a particular pipe connection. Eventually he complains to his manager that he's got a menial job and, after 6 years of study he'd expect something a bit more challenging. And whats the story about the leaking pipe?

"Well, if that leak fluctuates wildly, its signs that something is wrong and it could blow the building apart" - Manager

Even the most menial of workers are important.
Even if you dont understand it, the most menial of jobs can be critical.
If you're an engineer, never disregard a complaint because you think it'll never happen or because the person complaining is 'clueless' about engineering.

2004-05-25T14:00:00.000+02:00

Know thyself,

Political Test
Personality Disorder Test
Inferno Test
Tickle: A whole lot of tests

2004-05-18T15:33:00.000+02:00

Java vs .NET

Why not both. Why must one be exclusive? This exclusivity is a perception of Microsoft's practices to hunt and kill, as opposed to compete as sportsmen, but compete nevertheless.

I agree that the advances in .NET and the WoW factor that some .NET evangilisers try to dazzel me are an insult to the Java developers intelligence, that doesnt mean that .NET is bad for ALL developers.

DOTNET is the best thing since Windows 2000 and Java. VB, ATL, COM and a whole lot of bad voodoo must make way. Developing software does not have to be a dark art. The easier it is to validate the integrity of the application the better. Software is a business investment after all.

What Microsoft has going for itself is that its a onestop shop. SUN should do the same with regards to consolidating 3rd party projects to make them look like a onestop shop. JMX is a beginning but its a long way from providing a single management console provided with the J2SE runtime to manage running services, systems and remote services. J2EE is too heavy in my opinion.

2004-05-18T14:20:00.000+02:00

Hibernate is great but good documentation (clear, simple, effective and authorative) on the hibernate website is lacking.

Simple Hibernate

Software - Capability Maturity Model (CMM)

Below are some links that provide a simple overview of what CMM tries to achieve and how processes can be put in place to achieve the goals set forth by CMM. I give XP as an example however many other processes from different methodologies could cover CMM. The important thing to note, and I disagree with strict level-by-level advancement of CMM, is that the field of QA in software comes down to 'best practices' that must be introduced by the managers of a company to act as a hedge against the risk of anarchy and cancelled projects. Their job is to reduce risk in the company by ensuring that we always travel forward. The obvious risk to chaotic companies is that while there may be significant short term gains to rapid delivery, there may be painfull costs in the longrun.

CMM Overview
ExtremeProgramming and SW-CMM

CMM is not the holy grail for business managers. There is more than one paradigm to manage development. A company whose managers are at least knowledgable that they can implement processes to protect their investment is better of than the company lead by blind managers.

Against SW-CMM
Software Productivity Research

System Security Engineering - Capability Maturity Model (SSE-CMM)

Security is a whole different ballgame but it's got to be evaluated somewhere. Understanding the all the issues before development is at least one benifit. People have encountered the problem of ensuring that they have not missed some glaring problem, why reinvent the wheel. The biggest problem with security, for small companies at least, is the expensive cost in time that it takes to achieve certification. That doesnt mean as a professional developer one should not know how to evaluate the risks, threats and justify their security solutions regarding how they'll minimise the risks and threats.

Common Criteria
SSE-CMM.org

2004-05-17T10:49:00.000+02:00

The World Cup Soccer 2010 comes to South Africa at a crucial time in its development. Many development projects will be fast-tracked and can only improve and unite the country behind a common goal.

2004-05-10T11:14:00.000+02:00

Thinking about what a newly hired developer should work through upon joining a company,

1. Company Products
2. Company Support Knowledge Base
3. Employed Project documentation (requirements, specification, source control)
4. Developer Processes (release notes, testing procedure, release procedure)
5. Professional Basics (see April 08, 2004 below)

(Some additional links)
5.1. http://ootips.org/ - great site
5.2. http://www.agiledata.org/ - some good essays
5.4. http://www.objectfaq.com/oofaq2/ - a bit dirty
5.5. http://javaalmanac.com - useful, wish it were maintained more regularly

The biggest company problem I've seen is when both management and developers have a knowledge gap on development and how to develop. Sad. Communication is a no brainer and it should be management that protects their investment in their staff. Hiring someone without any formally planned introduction with effective objectives and saying 'go code' is terrible.

Making sure that all developers are at the same level of communication is very important. Having one guru who doesnt see eye to eye with the rest of the team is a recipe for disaster. Is it up to management to ensure all developers have knowledge of the same concepts? Yes, but this also rests on the developers themselves. How can you call yourself a professional if you're not fully abrest of the concepts and correctness of your profession.

2004-04-28T16:05:00.000+02:00

Audigy 2 + 5.1 Home Cinema Theater System + Digital Out + Any 5.1 game = Madness

(and lets not talk about a 4-pole miniplug).

PCM 2/0, the bane of my life. I want PCM 3/2. Is it too much to ask?

I've found a mono-miniplug splitter to connect my Audigy 2 ZS 'digital out' to Digital Coaxial. I cant resort to using 5.1 analog out because my rca-db converter only has TOS, Coax and L/R input.

HL2 and DooM]I[ is nearly out. (sad aint it).

2004-04-15T13:06:00.000+02:00

Yesterday we voted. Some people didnt - ignorance and apathy. If you're not going to vote, you might as well give up your liberties as someone someday will take them without you consent (dictatorship).

Ignorance, Apathy and Selfishness

I've always wondered about the US electortial college. I think its a great idea. What I dont like is the fact that everyone always votes along party lines. If someone doesnt vote the party line, they get booted out of government. You would hope that the individuals that make up a government have morals and apply them appropriately.

2004-04-08T11:48:00.000+02:00

The wonders of Software Engineering is akin to alchemy and artistry - at least for the few professionals who don't try to become professional software engineers instead of software professionals. Alchemy is a profession with hidden secret formulas while artistry requires an artist. If you're not an artist, don't try. If you don't have the formulae or cannot figure it out, you're in the dark.

Some useful resources for prospective professional software engineer/developer.

1. Know your fundermentals
OO Tips - Developer Strategy, Patterns, Methodologies and Technical topics

2. Understand your professional environment and and what it means to practice your profession effectively
Fundermental Rules (and Principals) of Software Engineering

3. Communicate effectively
UML 2.0 samples with decent explanations

4. Know where your profession communicates thoughts and ideas
C2 Wiki - Portland Pattern Repository

5. Know your tools and your development language
LANGUAGE REFERENCE LINK GOES HERE

6. Know where fellow professionals communicate implementation questions
SUN Java Developer Forums
Java Developer USENET
C# Developer USENET

7. Be Professional

Personal notes:

Beware of 'Death by UML'. UML is a means to communicate not a means to an implementation.

The primadona may think he's good but a good team of average but competent developers will acomplish alot more than the primadona who can acomplish complex tasks. Teamwork is crucial. The primadona should still be paid appropriately as he'd typically provide good advice and technical support to the other developers. This alternative is the primadona who upsets and distrupts the workplace either through the taking of liberties, because he can, or through the ignorance of others business needs.

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After living with a couple of accountants this year I can say that Software Engineering should not be a university degree as per BscEng but rather a professional association. Certification should follow that of the typical Chartered Accountant. For 3 years after leaving university with a 3 year degree Bsc (hons) or Bsc in Infomatics (something appropriate) the prospective developer should work professionally at a similar level to articles (but earn a bit more due to technical differences).

The prospective developer should then,
1. obtain certification in at least one area of practice such as J2ee certification or MCSD
2. pass an examination on at least the 7 points above
3. pass a examination set by universities based on the currently identified field of software engineering
4. complete 3 years of business practice

The content of the exams (2 and 3) should directly relate to the profesionalism, design, planning, communication and conceptual ability of the prospective developer. Technical proficiency should be certified through (1). (4) provides a baseline in what is expected from businesses. I've definately found that what you study at university through a Bsc (hons) while technically challenging is different to your competance as a professional developer. Only after 3 years could I say I am competant enough as a business professional.

Thinking along the lines of what it takes to become a Chartered Accountant should be the similar path to becoming a software engineer. After this point in time I believe a developer would have enough of a technical and professional basis for a further masters in software engineering specialising in say development of software for nuclear technology, safety devices, etc. Before that point I believe a Bsc masters would be of theoretical relivance.

-Tim

2004-04-05T15:39:00.000+02:00

Great play by Google.

Step 1: Announce a "product" on April Fool's day. Get a bit of publicity over the "humor".
Step 2: Its not a joke. Everyone spends a day or two thinking about it.
Step 3: Everyone releases another news broadcast that its not a joke.

Good product advertisement strategy.

Seriously, which reasonably well read internet user doesnt know about Gmail and its 1000mb of email storage for free at this point in time. While there may be a few of you fellow geeks that are actually doing alot of work instead of reading slashdot, TheReg and TheInq, there are quite a few more vocal readers (Magazine, Newspaper and other editors, etc) who are fully aware by now.

2004-04-02T16:55:00.000+02:00

Why is it that some jokes are better read than spoken? Where are the websites with jokes better spoken than read? Alot of the spoken jokes are typically 7 to 15yrs "Knock Knock" jokes, or R-18 and simple.

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Been playing around with JUnit, Ant and IDEA 4.0. Seen the light, blinded, no turning back.

2004-03-18T17:58:00.000+02:00

Many are better read than written. Barring standup comedy, which is more an art form than a collection of jokes, few are better spoken than read.

2004-03-09T12:27:00.001+02:00

10 unanswered questions (LINK) lay before string theorists. Their solution in terms of String Theory can only help to further understand the fundamental workings of String Theory.

There are obviously more unanswered questions in many different fields. Mathematics has its own set of problems(LINK).

As long as there are fundamental questions to be asked, the foundations will be in jeopardy as a single unexplained flaw or paradox could be a serious flaw in a theory.

2004-03-04T14:51:00.001+02:00

Polo 1.9 TDI or Fiat Stilo 1.6. Difficult choice. The VW may be too conventional, the Stilo slightly more creative. The Polo has cruise control, great for long distance trips to Durban and JHB. Still to test drive both (this saturday). Still uncertain whether I should go for it or not. Will decide after my car Fiat UNO (Fire) 1994 (165,000km+) comes back from the service shop. Am I being too compulsive? A car isnt really an investment.

2004-03-04T14:51:00.000+02:00

My first attempts at blogging went horribly wrong. I didnt think I could speak my mind as easily and as often as I would have liked to yet my intrest has turned me towards blogging once more. I think the main reason I'm trying this again is because its listed as one of the services Google provides. Very shallow. I dont know long how this will last...