Back before the days of Eclipse, all of my software development was done using Emacs (in particular with the addition of the JDE) and it is still my desktop editor of choice when making even moderately complex changes to other types of file. It’s therefore nice to see that this editor hasn’t been forgotten with a new tutorial series launching on developerWorks. (Note: I’m not a complete Emacs bigot – I’ll use vi when forced to!)
Emacs tutorial
April 2nd, 2007Tooling for classifications
April 2nd, 2007A common question from users of WebSphere Service Registry and Repository is ‘what tooling should I use to generate the OWL and SACL files that represent classifications and lifecycles?’. SACL files can be generated with WebSphere Integration Developer but not everyone has this installed. In answer to this question, Ian Shore from the development team has written a developerWorks article providing a couple of utilities for generating OWL and SACL files from simple text files.
Southern Road Relays
April 1st, 2007I had been recruited as part of Southampton Running Club’s team for the Southern 12 Stage Road Relay. This meant an early start for the drive up to the Open University at Milton Keynes. I was down for leg 10 which then meant four hours of leisurely spectating in the sunshine before trying to gear myself up for the 5.3km course.
Antenatal class
March 31st, 2007We had our first antenatal class today. As I’m often away during the week we’d picked an NCT class taking place on two Saturday’s and just one weekday evening. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately depending on your point of view!) only two other couples have signed up so one of the Saturday sessions has been cancelled. As a consequence we covered everything from the first stage of labour through to changing nappies in the one day. (The contents of my doll’s nappy seemed to be particularly yellow and crumbly!) The instructor wasn’t nearly as biased as we had been led to expect from the NCT. What was a shame though is that, given that these classes are meant to be a chance to meet other couples in the same situation, the other two pairs are not particularly local.
Gaining my spurs
March 30th, 2007
Towards the end of last year I went to the GP as the occasional pain that I felt on the front of my left ankle when the toes were pushed up, for example by stepping on a log, had become more persistent. I was referred to the physio whose holistic approach undoubtedly saw my back and core stability improve but did little for my ankle. Yesterday I finally made it to a foot and ankle specialist at the Wessex Nuffield hospital (yes – the IBM medical insurance is paying!) via the X-ray department. After a brief description of the symptoms he took a look at the images and immediately diagnosed anterior impingement, better known as “footballer’s ankle”.
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Summer’s on its way
March 27th, 2007Spring has well and truly sprung and it feels like summer won’t be far behind. The change in the clocks at the weekend and some bright sunshine left me with no excuse not to cycle in to work yesterday. I don’t use those muscles very often and my legs ached after just a few miles. The sun was out again today for the first Tuesday night run of the year. As is tradition, this was from the Royal Oak, Fritham and involved visiting six of the nearby ponds. I’ve decided to post GPX files for these runs but don’t yet have a good way of displaying them. If your running Internet Explorer then you can view it on some MS Virtual Earth imagery and try and spot the ponds! You can always use GPSBabel if you want some other format.
Integrating DataPower with WebSphere MQ
March 26th, 2007Nepotism rules so here is a plug for an article by two of my close colleagues Peter Crocker and Ben Thompson on Integrating WebSphere DataPower SOA Appliances with WebSphere MQ.
5 plus 3 support
March 26th, 2007Having mentioned the impending end of service for WebSphere Application Server Version 5.1, it is probably only fair to note that, as of Version 6.0, there is a support policy change which will see support extended to five years from general availability (previously three years) with an option to purchase a further three years support (previously two years). Support for Version 6.1 will consequently run until at least June 2011.
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