tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83476382011-12-28T17:37:49.685ZA blog about my life, thoughts and work. This blog will consist of programming, philosophy, politics, poetry and anything else that I want to talk about.Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.comBlogger1411100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-91008026275486687012011-09-08T08:02:00.001+01:002011-09-08T08:02:34.175+01:00

On my current project we're building an asynchronous message based system with various outputs, in particular a file for consumption by a mainframe. On a number of occasions tests have been written that assert that something has not happened. When you're testing synchronous processes this is a perfectly reasonable assertion to make, when the process returns all the work will be done. For

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-89473959847934472442011-04-04T08:14:00.003+01:002011-04-04T09:01:03.587+01:00

I have been having a long discussion with Craig Taverner over an issue that I think that I have identified in the Neo4J spatial codebase with particular reference to the OSM code. Unfortunately I have completely failed to communicate the issue that I have perceived. Craig has variously believed that the issue is in my code or my misperception of the Neo4J spatial unit test code.The actual issue

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-21674424617985330202011-03-31T09:58:00.004+01:002011-03-31T10:15:14.838+01:00

Well even 6GB of heap space isn't enough to fully import and re-index the British Isles Open Street Map Data set. I'm thinking that there will have to be some work on memory management somewhere. First thing I'm going to need to do is profile the import and work out where the memory is being used (I'm assuming it isn't a memory leak per se). Basically I want to determine whether it is because of

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-51008189298544145072011-03-24T08:14:00.002Z2011-03-24T08:55:35.284Z

Successes and failures...I managed to shepherd the import all the way through to import completion with 4096 MB of memory but unfortunately fell short when it came to the re-indexing. As I commented on my post I upped the memory to 6144 MB and restarted and it has again successfully imported and has been re-indexing overnight without falling over. I'm waiting to see how this goes.During the past

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-10764389070251890772011-03-21T10:10:00.004Z2011-03-21T12:01:16.259Z

I know, I know. Overly ambitious and all that.While we've been working on Presynt we've been having fun and games with Geo Data; both for Local Search and Reverse Geo lookups. We've also got a number of ambitious new Geo features planned for future versions that needs needs some form of Geo store.So with that in mind I started playing with Neo4J Spatial and the Open Street Map data set.It's been

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-68741864418837377052010-10-12T09:19:00.006+01:002010-10-12T10:08:32.399+01:00

I've been lifelong comic reader, starting with Peanuts, Giles and Thelwell but then graduating to the delights of The Far Side, Calvin and Hobbes and Bloom County. In many ways they were as influential to me as all the conventional books I read as among their humour was much wisdom.With such strong early influences it's little wonder that I've kept on reading cartoons though I've transferred my

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-83751302247855491082010-09-28T11:54:00.002+01:002010-09-28T12:03:15.983+01:00

Short update this one.I've been doing some simple animations replacing one image with another every 5 seconds using the SVG SMIL animation framework. I'm using the 'defs' element to define a number of image elements that will not be immediately rendered. I then use an 'use' element to refer to the first element in the sequence before using the 'animate' element to alter the 'xlink:href' attribute

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-25140901109401450482010-09-20T17:41:00.004+01:002010-09-20T18:27:16.766+01:00

While working on Cazcade with Neil, Dan C., Jon et al I'm also working on my own little project - DiarWise. It's still pretty stealth so I'm not going to discuss it in detail on an open forum but I think that now is a good time to discuss some of the technology that I've been using.For DiarWise I've been looking at a much more rich UI experience highly interactive and completely resolution

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-73606645234810284152010-09-15T23:22:00.002+01:002010-09-16T01:02:55.392+01:00

This is a blog post that's been very long overdue, but I finally acknowledged that I really need to capture my experiences after a chat with an old friend at Twitter (shameless name drop...).I first came across Behaviour Driven Development thanks to Mauro Talevi, my first hire on the team that I set up at HSBC back in 2008. He's a major contributor on the JBehave project that is one of the major

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-61400635339044264532010-09-12T18:04:00.003+01:002010-09-12T18:29:56.807+01:00

I'm a long time Facebook and LinkedIn user but as part of my involvement in developing Cazcade I've had to get my feet wet with Twitter.I've been running FlipBoard for a while and I've found an outlet for sharing what I find on it by adding my Twitter account. I've now joined my blog to my Twitter account by using TwitterFeed and this post will test the whole process.Twittering is very addictive

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-68362524200548796392010-08-29T08:15:00.000+01:002011-03-21T12:01:23.975Z

I greatly enjoy a number of the Kinks songs, they were a brilliant group that created a number of classics that still resonate today.One thing that always makes me stop and wonder is how many people believe firmly that they know the gender of Lola.To me it seems that they have missed the brilliance of the lyrical ambiguity. The lines that really seem to be misunderstood are: "But I know what I am

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-54202733758423772182010-07-05T12:07:00.000+01:002011-03-21T12:01:31.914Z

Faced a rather unique problem... I got two iPhones in my package rather than the one I expected. The nice young customer service rep nearly fell off her seat when I called and told her about it. The first time they had heard of that happening.I think that I slightly restored her faith in humanity as she thought that no one would have called up and would have just stayed quiet about it. She asked

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-5959031052132085132010-06-30T19:01:00.003+01:002011-03-21T12:01:31.914Z

On Monday I took my life into my hands and went on a track day at Bedford Autodrome with EasyTrack.co.uk.I had a blast! The track was ideal for a novice and my car (an Audi TT RS) proved more than capable. I had asked for a session with an instructor and I got a great guy named Steve. In the end I took a second session in the afternoon. As a result I went from being slowest on the track to not

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-59564850930656840682010-06-27T09:11:00.003+01:002011-03-21T12:01:52.671Z

Well, here I am at my favourite cafe for breakfast with my iPad. I'm trying the whole blogging from my iPad thing with an app called BlogPress.It's really interesting to see how modern integrated technology is making it feasible to do things that would have been awkward if not impossible a few years ago. The opportunities in this space are endless.The excitement about the potential for location

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-61528153953646195032010-06-17T12:28:00.003+01:002011-03-21T12:02:02.980Z

There seems to be two extreme camps here and no middle ground.I, as usual, agree with neither extreme.The simple fact is that my preferred approach is to design classes that meet the original intent of object orientation. That the class is fully usable after construction.That is not to say that I believe that Constructor injection is the one, true way. Rather, I believe that all mandatory

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-48330904248618929852010-03-19T07:08:00.004Z2011-03-21T12:02:11.444Z

What are the problems and limitations of modern 3D? I'm not going to claim any particular expertise in this subject past a decent familiarity with 3D computer graphics. However I do think that there are a couple of key points that are passing people by in the recent excitement about 3D cinema. The pedant in me wants to go on record ;-).The main thing that is not being said is that the 3D we are

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-84219473177674005472010-02-10T17:41:00.004Z2010-06-17T13:41:35.671+01:00

At work we're currently looking for a new Business Analyst and it has given me pause to review my thoughts on Business Analysis. I originally trained as an Analyst/Programmer and have during the course of my career had cause to do rather a lot of Business and Systems Analysis even though you will not find a huge amount about it on my CV.I started off using Entity Relationship Diagrams as an

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-47644882539751158992009-11-03T07:11:00.003Z2011-03-21T12:02:11.445Z

Normally I'm shy about my poetry but I think I can be brave enough to share 3 lines and 17 syllables.Talking to my Project Manager last night, I said that a particularly gnarly problem would probably be solved by about 3 lines of code, but which 3 lines of code? He laughed and said that was going to be a piece of software haiku. He went to a neighbouring desk tossing out a line that he would like

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-85869172918018328632009-10-26T10:11:00.003Z2009-10-28T10:13:58.174Z

Nope - I'm not referring to multiples of a James Bond Film - I'm referring instead to a family tradition.My mother has for as long as I can remember given an 'Octopussy' to the young children of family and friends. An Octopussy is a friendly octopus crocheted out of wool:To start the body:Make a chain of 6 or 7 stitches and then form a circle using whatever colour wool you have to hand..Using

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-82042134470782987412009-10-13T07:24:00.011+01:002009-10-26T10:32:36.505Z

I've done a fair amount of learning since I last posted. OpenCL stopped being just a specification and now has a concrete implementation.I upgraded my MacBook to Snow Leopard and got access to a fairly solid implementation. I say 'fairly' because it exhibits a few interesting quirks... I can pretty reliably get it to throw memory access errors even when I am doing nothing exotic. More about this

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-26677698595991191752009-05-07T07:21:00.004+01:002009-10-26T10:32:36.505Z

I've worked in a number of organisations over the years. These organisations were many and varied but one pattern seemed to be repeated without fail.The cycle of centralisation and de-centralisation.This seems to be a very disruptive and expensive cycle.. The time and effort wasted on reorganising must detract from the company bottom line. I've spent some time trying to work out why this cycle

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-8617153380118227432009-04-14T10:28:00.002+01:002009-10-26T10:32:43.290Z

I just thought that I would share with the world a little bit of my family history. I am a descendent of Samuel Boote (1844-1921) a reasonably well known Argentine photographer. One of our cousins kindly loaned me a copy of the genealogy tracing the descendents of Samuel's grandfather, also Samuel Boote (1788-1854). I've scanned the pages as images and felt that it would be a good idea to make

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-29020913073054151842009-02-10T07:09:00.003Z2009-02-10T18:23:14.768Z

My current project has undergone an highly protracted round of interviews due in part to the hiring freeze that for some strange reason started in September.This was my first set of interviews where I used pair programming as part of the interview process.It was extremely effective. We used a highly simplified 'story' to test the candidate's design and coding skills. The story defined an

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-37910723336762782672008-12-12T07:05:00.002Z2008-12-12T07:34:36.982Z

The project that I'm on is being run as a pure Scrum project. I'm still forming my thoughts, but I think it's still worth sharing my first impressions.I'm something of a reactionary old architect; I still instinctively like to design a lot up front. I'm fully aware that design still has a part to play in Scrum, but I do feel better with more up-front thought about the problems.I've been surprised

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-92072998742500846642008-12-09T06:58:00.002Z2008-12-09T07:18:36.304Z

As part of my recent contract with I've been working on a project that is likely to have a large rulebase requiring frequent change. As a result we've decided to use a rules engine to manage them. We won't necessarily be allowing real time changes to rules, but we may well allow some changes between releases.Jess was selected as it is already used within the organisation. It's not open source but

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-64756992028339866682008-12-08T17:32:00.005Z2008-12-08T18:04:15.358Z

In this weather one's mind turns to good sustaining food so here I present a couple of favourite recipes for this kind of weather. One is a proper recipe, the other is an out and out cheat...The first recipe is derived from a baked mushroom recipe that I first saw on 'The Victorian Kitchen' cooked by Ruth Mott. Her recipe was simply Portobello mushrooms baked with butter salt and pepper for about

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-58396744314369869252008-12-02T08:28:00.002Z2008-12-02T08:45:39.609Z

This is a question that I nowadays find myself asking very frequently; of myself and of my end clients. It's an important question as it frames the scope of the piece of work. The very technical versions of this question ('What percent Disaster Recovery do we need?' or 'What percent up time do we want to guaranteer?') tend to cause non-technical people to boggle and not come up with any useful

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-76258573218128410522008-11-26T07:45:00.004Z2008-12-02T08:45:46.803Z

Last night Henry, Neil and Dimple joined me to watch the newest feature length Futurama: Bender's Game.We all had similarly mixed feelings about it: We laughed at various points during the episode but on balance felt that it was not vintage Futurama.Afterwards we looked on IMDB and saw a mix of reviews that reflected our thoughts. The review that best expressed my feelings was by 'howTVshouldbe'.

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-84756389132644702842008-09-22T07:03:00.006+01:002008-09-22T07:22:08.390+01:00

I've been thinking a little about patterns recently as a result of having to interview far too many people in the past week. I've been asking them to tell me about patterns and their relationships.It's been interesting hearing people talk about the 'evil Singleton' pattern, get muddled over the Factory pattern and refer to the Pool pattern.The thing that these patterns all have in common is that

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-37174516977726813542008-08-29T08:19:00.002+01:002008-08-29T08:30:05.580+01:00

Hello, my name is Robert and I am a recovering motormouth...Spare a thought for those of use who are born with verbal diarrhea, we have to work very hard not to monopolize any conversation and are typically very uncomfortable with silence.My whole family seem to be motormouths, some recovering like me, other just keep talking. My father was famous in the family, he was late in learning to talk

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-44914851849938485482008-08-26T16:47:00.002+01:002008-09-22T07:22:08.391+01:00

One of the hardest things to design in distributed systems is the transactional behaviour.I am perpetually surprised at the naivety with which people approach this set of problems. There does not seem to be any formalism to approaching this kind of design. What I do is deliberately take as step back and design the 'transactional architecture':Identify parts of the architecture that may

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-56140964314790323452008-08-03T07:26:00.002+01:002008-08-03T07:40:45.678+01:00

The biggest problem with modern food production is that it is entirely dependent on oil. We've already seen food costs rise as a direct response to rising oil prices.Many farmers have profitably moved their food production over to organic methods, I wonder how long it will be before we see certified carbon-neutral foods on our supermarket shelves?I'd certainly be happy to pay a premium initially

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-72942371832853103282008-07-30T15:06:00.002+01:002008-08-03T07:40:56.227+01:00

I've been thinking a little about the documentation of a system.I think that there are two sorts:DescriptiveTransformativeDescriptive documentation describes a system at a given state of time.Transformative documentation describes the transformation of a system as a result of change.Transformative documentation is only maintained for the duration of the change and is thereafter left as a record

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-39167508918783118482008-07-21T17:08:00.004+01:002008-08-03T07:40:56.228+01:00

I've been working on defining development processes for NHSBT and have been discussing useful forms of prototypes.The way I see it there are two main classifications:User Interface PrototypeTechnology PrototypeOne typically prototypes to communicate concepts to a user or to prove a technology.I tend to use two types of User Interface Prototype:WireframeGhost TownA wireframe prototype is used in

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-86526838854702732332008-07-17T07:59:00.002+01:002008-07-17T08:06:01.986+01:00

I've been working and thinking about my encrypted zip framework and in the process of refactoring and abstracting I find myself teetering on the brink of creating a grand unified storage framework for Java, where one defines 'entries' and those can be stored to filesystem, database, zip file, etc.I think that a Grand Unified Storage Framework would not be a bad thing as I have long been

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-15536385635091368042008-07-16T16:10:00.002+01:002008-07-16T16:21:31.979+01:00

Well I've taken the plunge and have got mobile broadband from T-Mobile.I'm still trying to work out how to get access the the wireless hotspots as I need to send a text using my SIM card to get a username and password.I think that I'm just going to have to stick the SIM card in my normal phone, send the text and see what happens.I've been working on the Encrypted Zip on the train to and from work

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-3381167991056162092008-06-30T21:19:00.002+01:002008-06-30T21:34:35.833+01:00

I'm a big fan of the implementations of OutputStreams in Java - a very good example of the decorator pattern. It is great to be able to add capabilities by simple composition.I'm using various OutputStream implementations to create an API to encrypt files within a Zip file. Unfortunately there are some maddening inconsistencies.The one that is giving me the biggest headache is the fact that the

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-35704579175790334482008-04-01T20:27:00.001+01:002008-06-30T21:19:24.074+01:00

Been a bit busy of late, landing a role as the Enterprise Architect for NHSBT. As usual I intend to work myself out of the role, but for now my day is filled with learning a whole new business domain and fleshing out my skills with a few new ones.I'm having to pinch myself, realising that Enterprise Architect is only one step down from board level. My self-belief and arrogance will really be put

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-25258559879298014502008-02-26T19:18:00.002Z2008-02-26T19:34:44.036Z

That's it. The End...I'm really glad that I got this out and shared it. This is the final part of the tale as I have it."The Standard", June 10th., 1881The Corrientes Murder-With much pleasure I make room for the following papers, which speak for themselves. We shall be only too glad to lend our poor aid to the object expressed in Mr. Budge's letter and receive subscriptions to help so merited a

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-25861659085332755912008-02-21T20:03:00.003Z2008-02-26T19:34:57.779Z

News of the murderers."The Standard", May 28th., 1881The Murder in Corrientes-Naranjito, May 23rd., 1881To the Editor of "The Standard"Dear Sir,I am happy to inform you that the last of the murderers of Macdonald and Guthrie passed up, well secured in the train to-day to Monte Caseros; he had the watch and ring of Macdonald, and also the recado of Guthrie, so that now the whole thing will come

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-10884154045629599582008-02-03T10:39:00.001Z2008-02-21T20:26:26.907Z

A slightly shorter update this time - The response from the Governor of Corrientes and a Mr. McCorquodale gives some details on the murderers.Buenos Aires "Standard", April 26th, 1881The Naranjito Murder-With much pleasure we publish the following telegram from the Governor of Corrientes to the President of the Republic, in reply to the President's message sent the moment His Excellency

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-5250942642969318512008-01-24T11:56:00.000Z2008-01-24T12:04:59.376Z

Quick little post to share the results of a day's worth of wasted effort. I was creating a tracer bullet prototype of a web application for a customer and was configuring the security using an LDAP server (Apache Directory Server and Apache Directory Studio - a very good combo). Having configured the LDAP server I set up form based security and pointed a browser at the web application. I first

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-8754545097615980062008-01-22T21:03:00.001Z2008-02-21T20:26:13.774Z

One of the murderers is caught in a very long piece.The Corrientes Murder-One Assassin Caught.-One of the best proofs of the generally improved state of affairs in this country, is the very decided action taken by the authorities in the case of the murder of the two Scotch farmers at Naranjito, Corrientes.The very day the news reached this city, and the matter was brought to the attention of the

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-46921726120662964482008-01-13T11:33:00.001Z2008-02-21T20:17:07.154Z

With this posting it is revealed that Corrientes is in fact the province where the murders occurred so I've retitled the posts to date. I believe that this confusion is due to the high rate of immigration and settlement leading to some difficulties in administrating the country.From the Buenos Aires Standard, April 21st, 1881.The Murder of Messrs. Macdonald & GuthriePresident Roca received

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-58343104352559991022007-12-30T19:32:00.001Z2008-02-21T20:16:50.576Z

From the 'Buenos Aires Standard' April 20th 1881.Abolition of Capital PunishmentWith much pleasure we state that the announcement in one of the city papers of the intention of President Roca to propose to Congress the Abolition of Capital Punishment is utterly incorrect, and we are fully authorised to say that the President, so far from being in favour of any such measure, views with regret that

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-15945144814137005942007-12-28T09:53:00.001Z2008-02-21T20:16:36.708Z

Part two: I'm not sure who G.E. is.Such a dreadful affair has happened near Monte Caseros, Macdonald and Guthrie, both of Salto, who had taken an Estancia in Corrientes have both been brutally murdered by a band of four assassins, whilst preparing to accommodate two of them. Macdonald lately went home to take his children there.Full details have not yet reached us, they have been buried in Monte

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-74392963053622315272007-12-26T11:56:00.001Z2008-02-21T20:16:19.282Z

A little while ago my mother handed me a sheaf of typewritten papers detailing in rather horrifying detail the murder of my great, great grandfather in 1881.I thought that I would share this in an episodic format. Offering it as an interesting piece of family history and as a fascinating period piece.From the 'Buenos Aires Standard' April 19th, 1881.Terrible Murder in Entre RiosTwo Scotchmen

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-7882846893112067592007-12-17T22:06:00.000Z2007-12-28T09:53:25.211Z

If you're at all concerned about the protection of your personal data you should consider signing the following online petition. Following the progressive release of stories about the extreme indifference to digital electronic privacy, this petition seeks to introduce a little more accountability.Petition to: require all organisations notify customers immediately of any personal data security

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-87351978839229649082007-11-28T06:40:00.000Z2007-12-05T17:40:09.677Z

I've just had a very pleasant week in Denmark and Sweden.The reason for the journey was Magnus' wedding to the lovely Helene in Kiaby, Sweden. I'll post a full entry on the wedding once I've had a chance to sort out the pictures. For now I'll just talk a little bit about my impressions of the countries that I've visited.Denmark Part 1I left England on the ferry between Harwich and Esbjerg in

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-75076860386319082102007-11-02T10:52:00.000Z2007-11-28T08:28:49.779Z

One of my recipes that my sister has wanted for ages.The ingredient list is per person and can be scaled up appropriately.Chicken Breast1/2 pint of milk50g Corn Flour (Corn Starch in the US)Seasonings1 tsp. Paprika - Smoked for preference.1 pinch Salt1/2 tsp Dried garlic powder.Alternatively use Schwartz Season All - 1 1/2 tsp.1/2 lemonGood quality vegetable oil (sunflower or avocado are good)

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-45201625428317725712007-10-04T11:41:00.000+01:002007-11-28T08:28:29.728Z

Well, my time off has given me back my leisure time and I have been pursuing a number of projects. All of which will be blogged here some time soon. The first and simplest one is a new combination of flavours that I have found that works really, really well.Fennel SeedSzechuan PepperGarlic (smoked if available)Avocado OilLime JuiceIt work brilliantly well either as a marinade for fish, poultry or

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-81938849013304098222007-07-31T14:35:00.001+01:002007-11-28T08:28:10.485Z

Well, my car arrived last Friday and in between the fun of running it in I've taken the time to take a couple of photos...

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-49584717883461443042007-07-11T16:58:00.000+01:002007-10-04T11:41:06.001+01:00

The answer is a very and extremely definite - no.There have been many learned and wise discussions on this topic. Some people believing that it is an art and other people people believing that it is engineering. I vociferously straddle the fence and state clearly that we are all artisans. We, like the medieval cathedral builders, partake equally of art and science to build our towering

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-74961043694108695792007-06-29T15:30:00.000+01:002007-06-29T15:33:39.519+01:00

I decided to cook up some leg of lamb the other day and inspired by the way that hams are made I did a two part cooking process: Poaching the lamb before roasting it.I poached the leg of lamb for about 2 hours in a liquor made up of:Enough lamb and vegetable stock to cover the leg.2 cloves of garlic, crushed.A cup of good quality red wine vinegarA bouquet garni, made up of thyme, bay, marjoram

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-86736270650354091022007-06-27T08:13:00.000+01:002007-06-27T08:24:40.405+01:00

Well, it's been a while since I blogged; and there's been a good reason since I had nothing worthwhile to say.I've now got two things that I want to talk about; one is technical and the other is about cooking.On to the technical. I'll blog the cooking in another entry.Just recently at work I had cause to revisit an old technique that I hadn't used in years and I thought that it would be worth

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-48890676444357372542007-04-18T14:04:00.000+01:002007-04-18T15:35:28.588+01:00

Every few years I come across a company where some managers come up with the idea of a 'software factory'. The thinking is that mass production techniques and their economies of scale could bring some major cost savings.Let us look in detail at the mass production of cars. Immediately a vision of a production line comes to mind. Cars being bolted together from thousands of mass produced pieces

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-54053538620164193582007-03-27T11:53:00.000+01:002007-03-27T11:59:50.032+01:00

My Boothby grandfather was an interesting man aside from his exotic pets he was a bit of an inventor. He came up with all kind of things, mainly aeronautic despite being a naval man.His one invention that has directly impacted my life was the 'Boothby Fogcutter'. Described as a 'catch-up drink', he invented it so that when he arrived at parties late where everyone was several drinks merrier, he

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-30293823318407594732007-03-23T09:03:00.000Z2007-03-23T11:39:58.601Z

When I lived in Ireland one of the great pleasures in life was to adjourn to a local chippy called Caffola's and devour a beatifully cooked smoked cod and chips. The cod was only lightly smoked, more to give flavour than preserve and added a delightful high note to a wonderful dish. It was a truly great way to prepare for an evening out at Rocky's followed by Badger Brown's.I've always loved

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1173858902037995132007-03-14T08:54:00.000Z2007-03-23T10:15:17.033Z

I've been working recently with a temporal database and have gone back over my blog as a result to see what I've written on the subject.All that I've written so far is a simple diatribe on temporal modelling.I think that it is about time that I share a hard won lesson about working with temporal databases in multi-user environments: It is alarming how frequently concurrency can be messed up. The

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1169216879520405992007-01-19T14:26:00.000Z2007-03-23T11:21:21.380Z

A couple of weekends ago I finally bit the bullet and put the deposit down on a new car - an Audi TT. I went with the 3.2 litre quattro in Ibis White with a Mineral Grey interior. The salesman (the third that I had dealt with - the other two had left the industry soon after I saw them) was quite enthusiastic as he had been trying to convince his boss that the TT in white would make a nice show

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1168524629872751372007-01-11T14:09:00.000Z2007-03-23T10:15:17.033Z

I've long held that in software design and development that the only wrong way of solving a problem is one that does not work. I do however believe that some ways of solving problems are better than others.In various entries I've talked about the ways I approach trying to arrive at better solutions, some of them were quite abstract. Most of them are ways of evaluating whether one solution is

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1168006475776125722007-01-05T14:13:00.000Z2007-03-23T11:21:21.378Z

Time for another family history blog entry. Today I want to tell some stories about Albert the mongoose.Albert was ridiculously tame, he was a particular pet of my father's who had a poachers pocket sewn into many of his coats so that Albert could travel with him. Often, when my father was having a chat with an acquaintance or talking to a shopkeeper, the conversation would grind to a sudden,

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1166606496556848872006-12-20T08:50:00.000Z2007-03-23T11:40:34.811Z

Much of my programming is informed by my mother's career as a linguist.She grew up part of an Anglo-Scots family in Argentina and is fluent in both Spanish and English. From an early age she worked hard to expose me to a range of languages through friends. Not just European languages but also any others (including Nepalese, Urdu and others from an old Gurkha officer).At school I was made to study

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1166100983055341112006-12-14T12:47:00.000Z2007-03-23T10:15:17.034Z

One of my pet peeves is the Quantum Boolean anti-pattern.'What the heck is that?' I hear you cry!Well it is where some bright spark defines an element or attribute as boolean (true or false) but it may or may not be present (minOccurs="0").What then happens is that you never get to see false. Either the element or attribute is present and set to true or it is absent and you have to guess that it

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1165583414952666122006-12-08T12:39:00.000Z2007-03-23T11:21:21.377Z

After some positive responses to the family anecdotes about Dulce de Leche, I though that I might share another one.My father's family certainly accumulated a fair share of these anecdotes. My grandfather kept some quite interesting pets: George an Indian Rock Python and his old friend Albert the Mongoose.Albert and George were good friends despite their natural instincts. Many was the time that

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1165391874901865742006-12-06T07:53:00.000Z2007-03-23T10:15:17.034Z

In my day to day job I work with a number of secure systems. A number of them are entirely internal, but the others are customer facing. There are also certain operational procedures which are instigated at a customer's behest (the customer phones up and asks - I've been taken to task for my sesquipedalian posts...).The problem comes when the customer is asked to provide identification. The

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1164383510423693712006-11-24T15:47:00.000Z2007-03-23T11:19:44.860Z

I think that it's time for another culinary discussion.I love gravy. To me gravy is one of the great culinary delights and adds immeasurably to the right dishes.The trouble is that I hate all instant gravies and have never felt that gravy recipes that did not involve the juices from roasting were really gravy.In the end I resolved to come up with a way of making a good 'mock' gravy. It turns out

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1163782786105142272006-11-17T16:57:00.000Z2007-03-23T10:15:17.035Z

I've been writing concurrent code in Java for some years now and like to believe that I've learnt a few things in the process.In Java all objects have a mutex and monitor associated with them and so any object can be used to provide concurrency control and signalling. Java allows code to synchronize on any objects to which it has access, this includes the object declaring the code. In fact Java

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1162547625714696982006-11-03T08:32:00.000Z2007-03-23T10:15:17.035Z

When I'm architecting enterprise systems I often get that response when I talk about my preferred alternative to using 2 phase commits and XA.Idempotence is not a particularly difficult concept. I define it as a behaviour that has the same outcome on the second, third, fourth etc. time of trying as it had on the first.A lot of things in our day to day life are idempotent. Say you are going to the

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1162459006533057822006-11-02T09:08:00.000Z2007-03-23T11:21:21.380Z

A lot has happened to me in the past month. My cousin James came to visit, I faced eviction due to my landlord's non-payment of mortgage, I moved to a lovely new place in a converted chapel, I went speed dating and have spent an awful lot of time trying to get broadband into my new place so that I can work from home.This morning I had a good breakthrough with JOGL - working out how to initiate an

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1159286431865877242006-09-26T16:58:00.000+01:002007-03-23T11:21:21.379Z

I currently drive an X-reg Ford Puma and am now looking for a replacement. I've really enjoyed the Puma, it handles well, has nice pick up and as a 2+2 can carry 4 people over moderate distances. It has swallowed enough camping gear to take me and a friend to music festivals and has regularly slogged around the M25.However the time has come to think about something else as the Puma is getting

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1158310218297239082006-09-15T09:09:00.000+01:002007-03-23T11:19:44.860Z

Despite my grandparents living in Argentina, my mother was born in Uruguay as they did not want her to be conscripted if she were a boy. As I understand it the Argentines are not always well liked in South America so my mother is often quite firm on the fact that she was born Uruguayan.Despite largely growing up in England I was exposed to a fair chunk of another culture for which I will always

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1158170144129434822006-09-13T18:33:00.000+01:002007-03-23T10:15:17.036Z

This entry is dedicated to Hardev who came up and ever so politely reminded me that it has been some weeks since my last one.I've been accumulating topics and do have a few things that I want to talk about so here is one.A classic refrain in the IT business is 'future proofing', a dangerous and terrible thing. All too often I have sat through requirements and design meetings where people sit and

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1154282590184011712006-07-30T18:41:00.000+01:002007-03-23T10:15:17.036Z

I was pleasantly surprised the other day to hear from Ian Hannaford. He wanted to benefit from what little wisdom I could muster. We had a good chat about his new role (thrown in the deep end as usual) and generally had a good old chat. Ian boosted my ego by telling me that he had directed other people to my blog (Hi other people!) and we gossipped about old friends and talked techie.In the

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1153291044430133272006-07-19T07:28:00.000+01:002007-03-23T10:15:17.036Z

Well I've started tinkering with the GPGPU concept that I mentioned in an earlier post. I've landed on JOGL as it seems to provide me with all the basic functionality that I am going to need and is reasonably cross-platform.I need to be able to bind a texture (representing an input array of data) into a buffer against which I will run a shader program (the function that I want to perform on the

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1152044632476955232006-07-04T21:06:00.000+01:002007-03-23T11:19:44.861Z

I was visiting with some friends the other day, enjoying a very pleasant evening catching up. As I was just heading out the door to go home and cook myself supper, Henry jokingly asked me whether there was anything that he could do with some apples that he had in front of him for his own supper. In short order we had determined that there was some bacon in the fridge and in front of the bemused

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1150724590971838672006-06-19T14:42:00.000+01:002007-03-23T10:15:17.037Z

I first started thinking about facets after reading an article on java.net nearly two years ago.I kind of liked the idea that object can gain attributes and behaviours and indeed gain and lose types through it's life cycle.In normal OO practices where an object is defined having all the types that it is ever going to have (A String is an Object and a CharArray and that is all it will ever be).

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1150018798595078132006-06-11T10:16:00.000+01:002007-03-23T11:21:43.933Z

I never fail to be irritated by short-sighted stupidity.I live in the South of England and have been watching all the green spaces where I live being relentlessly developed. I often feel that in order to eliminate the North-South divide, the government is trying to get the entire population to live in the South. Every few months there seems to be a new diktat that several thousand new homes be

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1149061284183809302006-05-31T08:07:00.000+01:002007-03-23T10:15:17.037Z

Two posts in as many days - a brand new record for me.I talked a little while ago about the future of programming being parallel / multi-core: Good Threaded Code.Trawling through the one of my favourite web sites I came upon this piece: The Register: Deconstructing databases with Jim Gray. The title is a little misleading, as Mr. Gray actually spends more time talking about the use of GPUs for

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1149002321890146992006-05-30T15:51:00.000+01:002007-03-23T10:15:17.038Z

My friend Neil and I have been discussing this pattern for some time. I finally came up with a couple of sober yet pithy names for it as to date we've been calling it the 'Talking Stick Pattern'. This pattern is intended to be used primarily in clustered applications though there is nothing to prevent it being used elsewhere.The singleton pattern is well known and various attempts have been made

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1148189983446469232006-05-21T06:12:00.000+01:002007-03-23T11:40:44.571Z

This is an huge question, but one which has a simple answer.I believe that all political parties in Britain are about running for re-election and running the country is a side issue.This has not always been the case, but the temptation to run for election is one of the great weaknesses of democracy. It is much harder to get re-elected by doing a good job of running the country than by standing

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1148015522956767452006-05-19T05:37:00.000+01:002007-03-23T11:21:43.934Z

I had a very pleasant lunch yesterday with two Voca colleagues, Roger and Peter. As my lunches tend to always go, we ended up discussing a number of interesting topics, this lunch steered entirely clear of technology.We discussed counselling, consciousness, upbringing and education. I told Roger and Peter in my typical bombastic manner about a very interesting piece of research I read recently in

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1147338241054843362006-05-11T09:37:00.000+01:002007-03-23T11:38:37.829Z

When I first started driving I had an old MGB Roadster (known as Summer). It was a spartan driving experience the height of luxury being a heater that had only two settings off and BURN YOU TO DEATH!My driving was probably at its best when I drove Summer, I kept my temper better, drove more defensively and was generally more considerate.When I started racking up the motorway miles I got a new car

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1143626161609524652006-03-29T10:43:00.000+01:002007-03-23T11:39:32.861Z

I've been watching the various manoeuverings going on in parliament to change various aspects of the balance between the legal system and the political system in this country.When misgivings are raised, the politicians always seem to justify their actions on two bases:It is necessary because the current system is unwieldy/expensive.Don't you trust us/me?The real questions that should be asked of

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1142501532524563422006-03-16T09:30:00.000Z2007-03-23T11:37:33.054Z

Carrying on a JDBC motif from my previous entry, I want to talk about the use of try...finally blocks in managing resources.All too often I see null-checking used in finally blocks because this kind of construct is used:Connection conn = null;try{ conn = ds.getConnection(); //do some work with the connection. ...}catch(SQLException sqle){ LOG.error(sqle);}finally{ if(conn!=null)

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1141993974875495972006-03-10T12:20:00.000Z2007-03-23T11:37:33.054Z

A little while ago I was talking about how many connection pools do not properly satisfy the JDBC specifications (Here.). Many home rolled connection pools do not close the resources associated with a connection before returning it to the pool.I finally pulled my finger out and decided to have a look for a connection pool that behaved properly. Having pulled the source code for a number of

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1140697656171023882006-02-23T11:36:00.000Z2007-03-23T11:41:34.293Z

I've been reading a very interesting book these past few days, Julian Jaynes' "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind".I've often thought about how we came to be as we are and read upon the subject, this book presents the best theory that I have yet seen.According to the theory, consciousness is a late comer to the party.Humanity's evolution of speech and reason did

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1138739314727960062006-01-31T20:08:00.000Z2007-03-23T11:39:32.862Z

I've been giving some thought of late to how groups of people are run, not just at a team level but at an organisational or even a national level.I've been trying to draw lessons from out politicians past and present. Not many of the lessons have been how to do it well...One of the major things that have come out of this thought is the dynamic tension between change and stability. Notice the

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1129727106436075222005-12-19T16:48:00.000Z2007-03-23T11:37:33.054Z

I've recently upgraded my main x86 development machine. After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing I decided on an AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor. It has become increasingly clear that the wave of the future is multi-processor / multi-core. Intel and AMD are both talking about 8 core processors before the end of the decade, Sun have just release their Niagara core, Microsoft/IBM are using a 3 core Power PC

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1129816813255613522005-10-20T14:57:00.000+01:002007-03-23T11:38:37.829Z

Poor Neil, another day in the Voca offices and another day trying to get Meeraj's approval for a code change.

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1124575949714329422005-08-20T22:00:00.000+01:002005-08-20T23:12:29.766+01:00

I was sat with Neil Ellis one lunchtime last week, we were discussing how and where mass-production techniques could be applied to software.I explained to Neil why I belived that this couldn't be done.I feel that the point of mass-production is to reduce the cost of producing copies of a prototype.In car manufacturing, for example, even the simplest of prototypes for the cheapest of cars cost

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1122817116868273712005-07-31T12:59:00.000+01:002007-03-23T11:37:33.054Z

I've been holding off on this entry for some time. I wanted to wait until I left the place where I was using it so that I could feel able to be completely honest.I'll be giving an user's eye view of it both from the perspectives of an architect and a developer, I'll talk about designing using it and developing with the artifacts. I've been using OptimalJ 3.2 which is a relatively old version,

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1121802118618936342005-07-19T20:33:00.000+01:002007-03-23T11:37:33.055Z

I was talking to some friends this lunchtime, explaining IOC containers and what dependency injection could mean for them.A though came to me. What if IOC containers could also inject dependencies when objects were deserialized? Objects could behave completely differently across tiers. Say an object has a dependency on a persistence interface. On the middle tier the object would get stored to the

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1120893466310083942005-07-09T08:07:00.000+01:002007-03-23T11:41:34.293Z

I'm sure that the women in my life will give me a lot of grief for this entry, but here goes...I'm a contentedly childish man, I like my toys, I like cartoons; generally I like having the time to play from time to time. When I have to be I can be as adult as necessary, dealing with difficult things in personal or professional life.What I have noticed over the years is a certain undercurrent in

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1120113393525837092005-06-30T07:29:00.000+01:002007-03-23T11:37:33.055Z

Yesterday, I spent a couple of hours trying to work out why we were getting an UnsatisfiedLinkError on the OCI8 libraries when we were running the 9.2 JDBC OCI drivers against an Oracle 9.2 database on Windows Server 2003.After a lot of head scratching it turned out that the application's ojdbc14.jar and the OCI libraries were mutually incompatible despite appearing to be for the same point

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1119506624905428842005-06-23T07:03:00.000+01:002007-03-23T11:37:33.055Z

Whenever I design web applications there are a number of steps that I go through in order to achieve decent performance. Most of these you will all know about, however there is one thing that I do that does not seem to be well recorded in any book or online article.Most of you will already have thought about static and dynamic content, in a java web application that will probably mean that there

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1116826923274988052005-05-23T06:33:00.000+01:002007-03-23T11:37:33.055Z

On the project that I am on at the moment, we are following an increasingly familiar pattern. A primarily relational database with one or two XML fields. The XML fields store either data that requires an extremely flexible structure or data that is very object-oriented.I was wondering whether this signals the need for a new kind of database. Relational databases answer many challenges bu not

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1112119642180996562005-03-29T18:44:00.000+01:002007-03-23T11:37:33.055Z

Finally it looks like we might be getting something that I have always dreamed of.http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Programming/mvm/I (among many others) have long wanted a way to reliably use a JVM as a true Virtual Machine. To be able to run multiple applications with only the overhead of starting one runtime. It should speed up Swing applications and make ridiculous java startup

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1110957479277173682005-03-16T06:53:00.000Z2007-03-23T11:41:34.294Z

Sorry about the length of time between posts, but I've spent an awful lot of time thinking about this post.Recently I've been aware that several of my friends and acquaintances fall into one of two camps. One camp is the believers who feel that the theory of evolution is an argument used by others to attack the notion that God exists. The other camp is the sceptic who believes that the theory of

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347638.post-1109663762727326802005-03-01T07:33:00.000Z2007-03-23T11:37:33.056Z

Another popular misconception is around SQL and JDBC. I find that an awful lot of database specific SQL get written and a lot of it occurs for no good reason.I would suggest that you go and read the 'Scalar Functions' section in the JDBC specification and then review all your SQL. I think that you will find a lot of the database specific SQL could be rolled up into generic SQL if you used these

Robert Boothbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504207507405859169noreply@blogger.com0