My Garmin has failed to read my heart rate for a few weeks now (probably longer as I actually rarely look at the trace once downloaded). Rather than replace the battery again, I thought I’d use the spare strap that Garmin sent me last time they replaced my watch. Although I knew the transmission between strap and watch was coded, what I hadn’t realised was that the pairing was a one off process and the watch thereafter remembered which strap it should be talking to. Fortunately it’s a simple matter (once you’ve consulted the manual) to select Settings > General > Accessories from the main menu and then, for the heart monitor, select Restart Scan. And voila, I once again have a heart beat. I’ve even added the heart rate back on to the main display of my watch so maybe I’ll actually start looking at it!
Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
Heart still beating
Monday, November 17th, 2008Rails update
Saturday, November 15th, 2008It’s that time of year where I get my online orienteering system out of mothballs ready for the next JOK Chasing Sprint. My first task was to update the application to the latest Rails 2.1.2 which proved to be harder than I had anticipated. I’m used to working with enterprise software where it’s a given that you can’t break users’ existing applications.
XP upgrade install under VMware
Friday, October 31st, 2008I’m currently in the process of moving everything from my loan Thinkpad to my shiny new T61p. I thought that I’d try and make a cleaner divide between work related and personal applications by putting the latter in a VMware image. Having just disposed of an old desktop machine at home, I had a spare Windows XP Pro licence to use for the purpose. Unfortunately, I have an upgrade CD and when it came to the point in the installation where it asked for the old Windows media it refused to recognise the Windows 98 CD I had. I started to get suspicious when a Windows NT CD also didn’t work. After searching around the forums I bit I eventually discovered that the installer doesn’t realise that you’ve swapped over the CD. The secret is to take the original CD out, hit Enter, and then when it prompts you again, put the new CD in.
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Day off
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
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New WebSphere blogs
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008There has been a recent push to get more of the WebSphere development team out in to the blogosphere in the run up to the release of V7 of the Application Server. The standard form seems to be to advertise new blogs on the WebSphere Community Blog. So far there is one covering WebSphere and Java Persistence, and likely to be of particular interest to readers of this blog, one on WebSphere and Messaging. Note that the latter doesn’t cover WebSphere MQ (see this blog if that’s your area of interest) but rather the default messaging provider in WebSphere Application Server. Expect to see lots of good material on some of the new features and make the most of the chance to interact with the development team. Whilst on the subject of new blogs, if DataPower is your bag then you can read all about a forthcoming book from some of my ex-ISSW colleagues here.
Disappearing remote desktop connection bar
Friday, September 19th, 2008Whilst still awaiting my replacement laptop I’ve been working in a VMware image on a spare blade server accessed via Remote Desktop. The idea being that when my laptop finally turns up I can just continue using the image there. For some reason the connection bar at the top of my remote desktop session keeps vanishing. I don’t mean that it’s just hidden – no amount of mouse wiggling can make it reappear. Fortunately, with the aid of a list of keyboard shortcuts, I can now toggle between full screen and windowed modes and hence escape a session.
Messaging Engine Startup Problems
Thursday, September 11th, 2008Another heads up for some Service Integration Bus education. On 17 September there is a free webcast entitled Messaging Engine Startup Problems given by Level 2 service and followed by a Q&A session. You can see a list of all the upcoming webcasts or, to receive information about events such as this, along with information about publications and support issues, sign up at My Support.
Update: the replay for this webcast is now available.
Changing jobs
Saturday, September 6th, 2008No – I’m not about to leave IBM but, after nearly four years in IBM Software Services for WebSphere it’s time to hang up my travelling bag and, as in all good resignation speeches, spend some more time with my family. I’ve really enjoyed the chance to work closely with customers on some very interesting projects during that time and in many different countries (let’s see, from the top: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, UK, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and the US). I have also had the opportunity to work with some very talented and knowledgeable IBMers. I can’t really claim to have enjoyed the travelling – one business hotel looks much like another after a while – but for some reason customers insist of the consultant coming to them rather than vice-versa! The real killer though is not knowing where you’re going to be next week or perhaps even tomorrow.
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