Top 10 at Blackfield

June 21st, 2007

369I was slightly concerned that I might be pushing my luck doing three runs in a week (on successive days) but my luck held out at the Blackfield RR10 last night! I have mixed feelings about the course: it’s got some good undulations and I always fair well when tree roots come in to play but you are enclosed by hedges for much of the route so don’t get much of a feel for the distance, or the relative position of other runners. In an unusual tactic for me, I started off at an easier pace and picked off runners on the way round. I slipped past the Southampton runner pictured here but unfortunately couldn’t hold off the Romsey competitor I’d just overtaken in a sprint for the line. Still, my finishing position continues to improve with an eighth place this week.

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WebSphere proxy server

June 19th, 2007

I tend to consider myself more of an application architect than an infrastructure expert when it comes to WebSphere Application Server and this is exemplified by my total lack of knowledge about WebSphere’s proxy server. Although shipped as part of WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment I have to confess to only having a rather fuzzy idea about its capabilities. It was therefore good to read Erik Burckart’s column reviewing the capabilities of the product and discussing where and when it may be used.

Posted in WebSphere Application Server | 4 Comments »

WebSphere and Oracle RAC

June 19th, 2007

The question of Oracle RAC support for WebSphere Application Server has come up with a number of customers I’ve worked with and Soloman Barghouthi has always had the answers. So, when teamed up with my ISSW colleague Deb Banerjee and WBI Chief Architect Eric Herness, this developerWorks article has to be the definitive statement of using Oracle RAC with WebSphere Process Server.

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Score at RVCP

June 19th, 2007

366SOC was hosting a schools event at Royal Victoria Country Park yesterday afternoon and the courses were left out for others to use them in the evening. Christine took Emma around the yellow in her pram whilst I did the score event. Punching (and map copying technique) was all important as it took me just 29 minutes to get round the 23 controls. The two loop format worked well as it meant you got a reasonable run without resorting to controls in the far-flung recesses of the area. The country park also has sufficient features to mean you still have to keep your wits about you.

Posted in Orienteering | 4 Comments »

Real-time Java

June 19th, 2007

Having plugged my mentor’s musings it seems only fair that I do the same for my mentee, Andrew Hall. Andrew currently works in the Java 5.0 service team but in a previous role in test he became intimately acquainted with the WebSphere Real Time product. I mentioned the Metronome Garbage Collector following Gerry Cuomo’s demo at the WebSphere Service Technical Conference. You can read all about it (along with much more) in the developerWorks article to which Andrew has contributed.

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Man of leisure

June 18th, 2007

Today marks the start of two months of leave for me. (No, before you ask, IBM aren’t quite that generous. It’s a mixture of vacation and unpaid parental leave.) It will be a chance for me to spend some time with Emma and Christine and hopefully get enough sleep to avoid turning in to a zombie. (Maybe they’ll even be a little bit of time left over to start on that list of jobs longer than my arm!) I haven’t had this long off work since… well… since I started work, so it’s a bit of a scary prospect. I’m still debating what’s the right approach to my work e-mail. I can’t ignore it completely as a) there are likely to be some notes on the work/non-work boundary that I’ll want to see and b) I couldn’t face catching up on a two month backlog when I return. However, I also know that I could easily get sucked in to doing too much. For now I’m going to settle for ignoring the internal newsgroups and forums and logging in every few days to delete the circulars and forward on the questions to my colleagues who’ve graciously agreed to cover for me.

Posted in Family, Work | 3 Comments »

South Downs Marathon

June 17th, 2007

363Christine’s mum and brother were competing in the Salomon South Downs Marathon yesterday. The course follows the South Downs Way from near Arundel, west to Queen Elizabeth Country Park. As we drove over to meet them at the finish it was absolutely tipping it down with rain. As the downpour began to ease we ventured out of the car just in time to see Sue come in to the finish field. She seemed completely unaware though that her son, who had last been spotted eight minutes down at the 20 mile stage, was sprinting up the run-in behind her. You can watch the action unfold on Flickr. Both finished in a very creditable time of around 4:25. I’m glad to say I had the sense to turn down the entry I was offered on Friday night. I’m sure I would have made the distance but I’m tired enough at the moment!

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Emma the orienteer

June 15th, 2007

Emma completed her royal tour of our typical weekly outdoor activities by attending her first orienteering event yesterday – SOC’s evening event at Shawford Down. Spurning the white course, Emma went straight for the yellow although admittedly leg propulsion was provided by her Dad and navigation by her Mum. As with the RR10 and Tuesday night run, Emma obviously considered the occasion so exciting that she slept through it all, only waking to test out her lungs on the way home. Many thanks to Andrew Nash for planning.

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