Starting a Second Life

September 9th, 2006

I finally succumbed and signed up for Second Life this evening. I have resisted to-date on the basis that I have more than enough to do in this life without trying to run a second one in parallel. However, I’m interested in whether such virtual worlds can enhance collaborative working in a distributed team. So, if you bump in to Tom Wright at the IBM meeting next Tuesday, say hello!

Pacing the Test Way

September 9th, 2006

160It was the Test Way relay today and, unlike previous years, I’d had no last minute callup for the men’s team. Instead, I was acting as ‘minder’ for Nala McRobert on the Stockbridge to Mottisfont leg for the Southampton Running Club women’s team. I have to confess that I found it extremely difficult to keep a constant pace for Nala, not helped by meeting a group of eight or so horses travelling in the same direction! Still, with a great finish Nala put in a very respectable time of just over 42 minutes.

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PlusNet lose database connectivity

September 7th, 2006

Anyone trying to access this site yesterday will have just received an error message about lack of database connectivity. Fortunately, some twelve hours later, PlusNet have managed to restore database access and, on this occasion, without losing any data. Memo to self: backup tonight and increase urgency of search for new host.

BookCrossing

September 7th, 2006

Chris blogged about BookCrossing which provides the ability to leave a book in a public place to be read by others and then to track it’s progress. If I leave one of Christine’s books at Heathrow every time I pass through then perhaps in a year or two her small library will actually fit on the bookcases!

Wet wedding

September 4th, 2006

150We headed up to Harrogate this weekend for the wedding of Janine Hensman and Jason Inman. They were really unlucky with the weather as it contrived to rain on and off for almost the entire weekend with a strong wind making matters worse. The venue was the ironically named Sun Pavilion which, on the odd occasion when the sun did shine was filled with light through the stained glass roof. Fortunately part of the colonnaded walkway looking out over the beautiful Valley Gardens has a roof so the photos could still be taken outside, although keeping the Janine’s dress in check proved difficult.

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Bus delays at Heathrow

September 1st, 2006

My return flight from Zurich landed bang on time despite delays going through security. Unfortunately a shortage of bus drivers then meant that I then had to wait half an hour whilst a single bus repeatedly made the fifteen minute round-trip to the Terminal 4 building!

Beach Tour in Bern

September 1st, 2006

The stand that appeared in Bundesplatz on Wednesday night (viewable from my hotel room) was eventually filled with sand and turns out to be the venue for a round of the Coop Beachtour. It seems to have brought the sunshine with it and I spent an enjoyable hour last night watching the men’s final. Beach volleyball certainly knows how to create an atmosphere but the rallys are a little short to sustain my interest.

Sadly, despite not having to go to the customer today, I’ve moved my flight forward so won’t be able to stay and watch the women’s event! Christine had also taken my DSLR back home with her so you’ll have to make do with the official photos.

Supported J2SE JMS client

August 31st, 2006

I’ve previously mentioned the “Client for JMS on J2SE with IBM WebSphere Application Server” on alphaWorks which enables Java clients running in a non-J2EE environment to access destinations on a service integration bus defined in a WebSphere Application Server (or Process Server, ESB or XD) cell. This client has now graduated to a fully supported version. There is now a small install process to take you through the license agreement but you still end up with a JAR file that weighs in at only 2MB. If you also need to suport retrieval of JMS resources from JNDI then that adds around another 0.5MB.