Working from home

Since the country turned white the other week the advice that was trotted out was to avoid all unecessary travel. For me this meant that I didn't have to go into the office, but sadly didn't mean I got some extra days off. Internet access and a laptop means that in theory everything that can be done in the office can also be done at home.

This isn't always the case and there are definitely some things that are made more difficult working away from the office. First is the lack of people, normally I'd be sharing an office with another person and there is the rest of the team in adjacent offices ready to have a chat or discussion. Second is the type of work being done, if you're doing something that can just be done with minimal input from other people then being sat with few distractions can be very efficient but the opposite is true, if you require input from a number of people then distance will hamper your efforts. Finally is the timing, there's a natural rhythm to office life from when people arrive to when they leave an it's very easy to stick within this rhythm. Outside it you need to ensure that you're working at the right times and more importantly finishing at the right time so you don't overwork yourself.

Fortunately the weather has gone back to the British norm (cold and wet) so it's ok to go driving back into work. Hopefully we'll have learnt a bit from the enforced remote working so when it next happens we aren't impacted quite so badly. How the rest of the country copes, well we'll just have to wait and see.

Driving Karma

I like driving, always have done. Ever since I had my licence and got used to doing longer journeys I've often found I can relax by hitting the road with something good to listen to and possibly a particular direction in mind.

Part of my enjoyment of driving, particularly good country roads, is to drive them at the limit. Not speeding, not dangerously, but if there's a decent straight bit of tarmac, with the occasional interesting bend then I want to be at the limit and it can at times be a bit frustrating when stuck behind someone going significantly slower than that.

Strangely I don't enjoy my morning commute all that much. Yes it's country roads which are interesting to drive so I guess it might be a case of familiarity breeds contempt but I actually believe it's because I get stuck behind a slow driver more days than not.

Today however was very different, on the way in the roads were clear and I felt like I had the road to myself and mentioned this to my colleagues at work. I may even have suggested that my thoughts to all the other drivers in Hampshire to get out of my way had finally worked and that karma might come back to bite me.

Turns out I may well have been right. About an hour before I would normally consider leaving an email arrived which indicated my normal route home was closed. Fair enough, I'll take the motorway, it'll just mean working slightly later than normal to avoid the worst of the jams. Then it turned out that the motorway was jammed due to a broken down lorry. This meant that my smooth journey in was going to be complemented with a slow, queue laden journey home.

Fortunately it was as bad as it could have been, but certainly wasn't as interesting, and the motorway definitely crawled in places. Looking back on both journeys I don't think that they're going to necessarily change how I view driving on the road, especially my commute, but perhaps I'll be just a little less smug if it's a good run in.

A post about work

I don't often talk about my job in any great detail, mostly because I get the impression it wouldn't be that interesting for anyone that isn't in the trade, and because I can get away with saying I work in computing, or that I work for IBM.

There have been several changes in what I do in the 6 years I been working there full time but I've stuck with the same team because it's always provided a challenge, whether that's going to Poughkeepsie for a month to write a book, or being put in charge of a group of people and told to produce something by the deadline.

The latest 'opportunity' (which I'm sure is management speak for more work) to be sent my way is to act as a design architect for one of the systems we use. From a personal note, this is very cool, the sort of role I've wanted since I started, and without sounding too bigheaded I think it's a job I can do well.

However there is scope to get things horribly wrong. While I may be in charge of the direction things take, I can't micromanage every little detail of the work, nor can I reject something because it isn't exactly how I'd have done it myself.

After a week in the role I've a list of requirements and plenty of ideas, just need to sort out how and when they get done. Good times.

Don't ignore the support acts

I enjoy going to gigs every so often and aside from the fun of watching a band you like play live I'm a big fan of the support or warm up acts. It's a tough job playing while the venue is most likely still filling up and a lot of people will be at the bar.

Last night I went and saw Nine Inch Nails at the O2 in London and had a perfect example of what I'm talking about. The big names on the tour weren't due on till over an hour after the doors opened and so Mew were playing to a still forming crowd and a packed bar.

Turns out that they are a fantastic band with a different sound and incredible vocal harmonies. It's a shame that they didn't have the full crowd to play to and that we missed the beginning of the set however a quick download from iTunes later and I can get to know the music a bit better.

So next time you're at a gig, make sure to check out the support act(s) as you may well be surprised at what you hear.

Protecting our Internet Access

So the European parliament has got it into its head that it should be fine for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to limit our access to websites on the internet based on whatever package we've purchased from them.

Think about how Sky and Virgin Media work today, there are different packages you can purchase which give you different channels you are allowed to view. Without the right package you can't watch Premiership matches or the latest movies.

While this is ok for television, the internet is a completely different beast though. New sites are being opened up all the time and once they're in a search engine like Google it should be possible for anyone to find them and use it. However if this goes through and their site isn't part of your ISPs package they're not going to get your custom.

Now I really like the way when I need something slighly different than what you get on the high street they are often a few sites which can provide this and get it mailed out the next day. I don't want my internet compartmentalized based on what I'm prepared to pay a company that supports the physical wire to my house.

If you agree that this plan just has bad written all over it then head on over to http://www.blackouteurope.eu and follow their advice for lobbying your MEPs to vote against the bill next month.

Random Things

I've been tagged enough times on Facebook with this latest fad so thought I'd do my response here and make it a bit more accessible. So without further ado, 25 random things about me.

1. I spent my first 15 years growing up on the Isle of Wight, this explains a lot about me.
2. I'd never been on a plane till I was 23.
3. Both times I have been to the United States it has been for business.
4. I get addicted to TV series very easily, so much so that I now avoid certain new programs to avoid adding to the list.
5. If I had the time and the talent I would have loved to be a full time musician.
6. I'd love to own a 2-seater coupe, but am worried I wouldn't fit in it, or it wouldn't be big enough to carry all the stuff I need.
7. I'm qualified to work as a door supervisor at a pub or club.
8. I have never been stopped by the police whilst driving.
9. Over the years I've played concerts at Canterbury Cathedral, Birmingham NIA and Royal Festival Hall.
10. I've worked for IBM for nearly 5 and a half years
11. A good night in will generally involve: pizza, beer or wine and a movie
12. I have never seen Titanic. I can't see the point when I know the end.
13. I never read the end of a book first.
14. I can't grow a proper beard anymore otherwise the gray hairs show.
15. When Go-Karting I have more fun going round corners sideways than driving the track "properly".
16. I get very annoyed by people who pull out in front of me and then proceed to drive slowly causing me to brake.
17. I'd like to cook more, but find it difficult when it's just for me and at the end of a long day.
18. Sometimes it scares me when I can work out how to fix a problem in code without actually looking at the code.
19. After one disastrous night drinking cider it would be 9 years before I drank it again.
20. Bad computing references in films may cause me to shout at the screen (but never in the cinema).
21. I would love to visit Canada at some point or drive down the east coast of America.
22. I don't make the most of living on the edge of the New Forest.
23. Very silly jokes will nearly always make me laugh, especially the one about the bee in the cake shop.
24. This blog post has taken me three days to write.
25. I've never enjoyed dance clubs and would much prefer a decent pint in a quiet pub.

So there we go, 25 random things about me.

New Blog

After the tech related post that I put up yesterday it was commented that some of the usual readers may not actually be as interested as me in that sort of thing.

This is very understandable so I've setup a new blog which will be the new home for any of the tech related stuff I decide to post out on t'interweb.

I will now return you to your randomly scheduled updates.

Running JBoss5 with Eclipse3.4

This is the first of the techy type stuff I mentioned in a previous blog post, and details the steps I went through to get the latest Eclipse download working with the latest JBoss download.

1. Download the JEE development version of Eclipse and unzip to a local directory.
2. Download the latest version of JBoss and unzip to a local directory. Ensure there are no spaces in the path to this directory.
3. Download and install the latest maintenance build for the Web Tools Project (WTP). This is required for support with JBoss5 otherwise you may hit errors later on.
4. Start the Eclipse workbench
5. Open the JEE perspective (if not already open)
6. In the servers tab, right click and select New->Server
7. Choose JBoss5 from the list
   
8. Click 'Next >' and on the next panel enter the location of the JBoss installation you unzipped in step 2. If you get an error saying that mail.jar can't be found then the latest version of WTP hasn't been installed correctly.
   
   
9. Click 'Finish' and the server will appear in the Servers tab.

From here you can start the server which will launch it and send the output to the console. If you get Exceptions being thrown then the first thing to check is whether the JBoss location contains spaces in the path.

If the start takes longer than the configured time allowed then double clicking on the server will open the configuration page which will allow you to increase the startup timeout to a value which allows the server to start within that time.

From here everything should be setup ready to develop applications and deploy them to the server.

Have fun.

Playing with Tech

One of the things I always liked about being at University was the opportunity to play with new technologies. Whether it was programming languages, operating systems or seeing what was coming up on the horizon.

Once I started working full time, there was still some of that with learning a new product and the technologies it employed. However as time has moved on there's been less of this kind of learning required and I've been working on other things that haven't required quite so much technical knowledge.

This year I'm hoping to get back to some more technical stuff. To that end I've picked up a new PC and am currently learning some C#, which may seem strange for a Linux/Mac/Java fan, but professional considerations need to be taken along with personal feelings about business practices.

We shall see what comes out of all this, I already have a design for one application I want to write so I may use this blog as a place to write up anything I find or to rant about things that don't go so well.

Alongside this I've started using a Twitter account I created ages ago and never got round to using. The more followers the merrier, just be prepared for the random outpourings.

Feeling very sleepy

The weekend, a time to relax and chill out after a week in the office.

Well that should be the plan, however when you're holding the call out phone (or at least have it diverted to you) there's always that risk that you'll need to look at some kind of customer problem. Well that happened last night :(

Having decided to not stay up watching TV and be good about getting some sleep the phone went off. Two hours later I got to bed, but it's tricky to sleep when there's a chance you'll have to get up again. At 6am I did need to get up again but fortunately not for as long.

Fortunately it doesn't look like this one is going to reoccur this weekend and I'm really hoping that nothing else comes up.

Everything just be cool OK!

Never too late to learn

One of the great parts of post Christmas TV are the Royal Institution Christmas lectures. Something I generally always want to watch and generally over the years have missed the majority of the week long series. This year they're all based on computing, and currently looking at how microprocessors work and are made.

Having worked in computing for the past 5 years and done a degree in Software engineering there is still a huge amount of detail related to the hardware that I would have to admit to being sketchy on. I know enough to be dangerous and am fairly happy to muck about with the innards of a modern PC, but it's still nice to sit here of an evening learning how they make things and where the current limitations lie.

Tomorrow's on Human Computer Interaction will be worth a watch as well...

First day in the office

There are certain things that happen whenever you start a new job, so having them happen when you've been working for a company for 5 years is a bit surreal. I'm currently the owner of a new ID badge for the site and have a new office (albeit temporary) for the work we're here for over the next few weeks.

Plans are being made and the work looks to be a lot of fun even though there appears to be a lot of it, and once I get over the jet lag things should be a lot smoother. Also driving is getting easier, at least now I go to the correct side of the car to get in and I don't feel quite so nervous about going around the place.

Englishman in New York (State)

At 5am on a dark autumnal morning the taxi arrived that would take me up to Heathrow ready for the trip out to New York. Having done all this before there weren't quite so many nerves with having to do the whole travelling thing and only having to do one flight made things a lot more straight forward.

The flight itself was fine, watched lots of films and ate what was claimed to be breakfast and lunch (actually the pizza wasn't too bad). Upon arrival made it through immigration with no problems, mentioning that you work for IBM still has a couple of advantages. Heading into the arrivals lounge Zippe and Debbie were there to say hello (and have a chat and a coffee) before they had to head out to someone sunnier and I had to pick up the hire car.

Having already driven in the states on a previous trip being on the wrong side of the car and not having to change gear didn't really phase me. Having been forced to hire the smallest class, I was expecting something I might struggle to fit in, however the Honda Accord feels bigger than my normal car. Being on the wrong side of the road wasn't a problem due to driving on major roads and them being in effect motorways (albeit with a slightly slower speed limit). Cruise control is my favourite toy when in the states, press a couple of buttons and all you've got to do is point the car in the right direction.

The drive itself was quite pretty, ignoring the rain and after a quick tour around the town having missed the turning for the hotel (there are houses with white picket fences) I got all checked into a quite frankly huge suite which will be home for the next four weeks (photos below). A very nice goody bag was presented on arrival and the bottle of wine will most likely come in very handy as the project goes on.

America for a month

After some last minute decisions work have allowed me to go out to Poughkeepsie, NY for 4 weeks to write a technical book based around the product I work on. This is very cool as it's something I've been wanting to do for a while plus has the advantage of allowing me to work in another country.

I fly out on Saturday morning, land at JFK airport, and once I've had some lunch/tea/whatever it is by that time it'll be time to drive up to the hotel that will be home for the four weeks I'm out there. The driving shouldn't be a problem given my holiday jaunts around Orlando last year (another work related trip) though the distance is a bit greater. I'm also hoping to see a bit more of New York city than just JFK airport.

Expect touristy type updates here, plus possibly one or two pictures.

Who are these people?

So after a silly prank phone call which caused 2 complaints after it was initially aired, a week later after the papers had got hold of it there are 30,000 complaints. The fallout is massive with resignations and suspensions and questions being asked in parliament. Ok, the phone calls weren't funny, and yes they probably shouldn't have been aired but this was a pre-recorded show and the producer decided it would be ok.

Fast forward to today, the new series of Top Gear starts with a feature on how hard it is to be a truck driver. Clarkson makes a couple of jokes based off some urban myths which weren't necessarily in the best of taste, but in the context of the program and the persona he projects not entirely unsurprising. As of this morning there were less than 200 complaints, by the end of the afternoon there were over 500 and people were calling for him to be sacked.

Now if you see something that is genuinely offensive you are well within your rights to complain, I don't want to take that away from people but I think you do need to have been there at the time of the incident to be truly offended. The fact that the number of complaints grows after the event seems to indicate that there are people who are just looking to complain because there's something to complain about, which of course begs the question why? Head outside and enjoy the wonderful countryside we have and think about all the huge things that are going on in the world that need to be fought against rather than some throw away joke from a motormouth television journalist.

It should also be mentioned that of the millions of people that watch Top Gear there have been only 500 complaints so in comparison there are a disproportionately larger group of people who watched the program and enjoyed it. Let's not forget these people (including me) who are likely to be lost in the moral outrage of the over vocal minority.

Things that you don't want to find out

The office lights go off at 7.28pm every night regardless of whether you're still in it or not.

Not been the best start to the week.

Are you kidding me Steve

I've got into using Macs over the last couple of years. I'm sat on my sofa using my Macbook whilst upstairs the Mac Mini is chugging away keeping track of my email and being available for when I need to sit at a desk.

I'm not a zealot on the things, but I have convinced at least one or two other people to use them mainly on the idea that they just work, which they do. Spending most of the day at work trying to get computers to do what we need them to do means I'm less keen to do the same at home when all I want to do is play a few games, read blogs and check out Facebook.

Recently I've noticed that the laptop isn't performing as well as the desktop, and figured it's down to having slightly less memory into the laptop. Ok, not a problem, perfectly possible to upgrade the parts so I toddle off to Apple store to see what the cost is.

Imagine my shock when I spot they're looking to charge £120 for the upgrade. Seemed a bit pricey so I checked out some other sites who offered the same kit for about a quarter of the price. Now I'm not sure how they can justify the mark up on it but needless to say I won't be buying it from them at that price.

It's the end of the world as we know it?

So it's been all over the news today, that CERN has fired up it's Large Hadron Collider and send a stream of particles all the way round. While this isn't the dangerous part, once they get two streams going in the opposite direction all sorts of interesting things might happen. Anti-matter, black holes, end of the world type stuff (or so the hype might have us believe).

So if you're at all concerned may I suggest the following website
http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/
which help waylay some concerns.

Everyone sing along now

So this came out a while back and yet again Joss Whedon delivered something brilliant and funny that has become a hit with the fans (including myself). Hopefully the download version will be available through iTunes over here soon but in the mean times the soundtrack has been made available and has pride of place on my iPod. I'm currently averaging one listen through a day and it still isn't losing the appeal.

If you missed it the first time, keep an eye out and try and catch it as soon as you can.

Well everyone else has done it...

Wait, what is this place, seems vaguely familiar, oh yeah a blog.

The bank holiday weekend has been and gone, and as with previous years I spent it stewarding at Greenbelt in Cheltenham. Working on the Support Team gives plenty of opportunities for doing many and varied things around the festival, from the fairly mundane of walking around a campsite or the village, to driving a golf buggy full of stewards or escorting people away from the beer tent.

This year did seem a lot quieter than previous years, but this wasn't necessarily a bad thing, wandering around there was plenty of time to chat with the greenbelters who were there for the festival (and get the occasional cup of tea, slice of cake) or the other stewarding teams who were looking after the venues or site.

There were some key highlights though, Squeak getting caught twice by Zippie and Merlin doing something unusual in the first hour of our last shift, encouraging Cola (one of the new members) to lick a sweet before giving it to Handbag (yes we all have weird names) and coming off the last shift and sitting around having a relaxed drink and chat.

Can't say I saw a huge amount of the festival but when you're sleeping till midday and then working till 3am there's only so much you can do whilst trying not to overdose on caffiene or sugar.

Regardless of what happened I'll be applying for next year, and wondering what random things we'll be getting involved with then.