Commando challenge 2009 – Great muddy fun!

great muddy fun

The fridge monkey's in the lake

After last years good times at the commando challenge, this year I decided to step up and lead a rag tag bunch of renegade solders of fortune through the famous mud, tunnels and lakes (and back). Team fridge monkeys go go go! As you can see from the photo everyone regretted it instantly! ;)   but after we got covered head to toe in mud the regrets disappeared.  It’s not often in adult life that you totally let go and mud wrestle and get completely covered head to toe in mud. Another thing that really works in the team element, in fact teams only so you get great camaraderie between teams to clean running towards the mud bath and muddied running staggering back.

I definitely recommend the 10k marine challenge over the standard marine challenge as you’ll be nice and hot when you get to the assault course and the muddy cold water is actually quite refreshing [at first].

Best of all it’s for a good cause! Team “fridge monkeys” managed to raise £280 for the Devonshire Air Ambulance and British Legion. Thanks to friends and family who donated and the team for the blood, sweat and tears. More photos here

If anyone reading this is thinking of doing it, I’d recommend it to all and fitness wise I’d say in my *expert opinion if you’re ok running a flat 10K you’ll be fine to run the marine commando challenge.

See you next year?

For more info click here

For more info click logo

*expert – I’ve done it twice, so use the word expert loosely.

After last years good times at the commando challenge, this year I decided to step up and lead a rag tag bunch of renegade solders of fortune through the famous mud, tunnels and lakes (and back). Team fridge monkeys go go go! As you can see from the photo everyone regretted it instantly! ;)   but after we got covered head to toe in mud the regrets disappeared.  It’s not often in adult life that you totally let go and mud wrestle and get completely covered head to toe in mud. Another thing that really works in the team element, in fact teams only so you get great camaraderie between teams to clean running towards the mud bath and muddied running staggering back.

I definitely recommend the 10k marine challenge over the standard marine challenge as you’ll be nice and hot when you get to the assault course and the muddy cold water is actually quite refreshing [at first].

Best of all it’s for a good cause! Team “fridge monkeys” managed to raise £280 for the Devonshire Air Ambulance and British Legion. Thanks to friends and family who donated and the team for the blood, sweat and tears.

If anyone reading this is thinking of doing it, I’d recommend it to all and fitness wise I’d say in my *expert opinion if you’re ok running a flat 10K you’ll be fine to run the marine commando challenge.

See you next year?

Moving CVS repository

Recently had to move CVS repository to a new server, while I’m no CVS expert but in the land of the blind! Yadda, yadda, yadda… so down to me. A couple of googles later and with a sesnse of impending soom I did the following:

1. Stop the CVS service and Lock Service

2. Copy CVS Repo folder(s) to the new server

3. Install CVS on the new server – did full installation

4. Replicate the settings of the old server.

5. Add the folder as Repo location

I was able to add the repo location ok, but couldn’t connect :( and when I tried adding a new folder to the repo I got the following error:

cvs init: connect to 127.0.0.1(127.0.0.1):2403 failed: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it. cvs [init aborted]: Couldn’t connect to lock server

So the server couldn’t connect to it’s own lockserver? Hmm… maybe the LockServer service wasn’t running or firewall interference? I checked both of these but all good. I thought let’s try stopping the lock server service, that worked! which is weird and the error seemed to say wasn’t running. Anywho I tried the telnet command again and got the CVSLock 2.0 Ready message so all seemed ok :)

TIP: When on the server, you can check the lock server using telnet try doing a “telnet localhost 2403″ and see what you get.  It should respond with “CVSLock 2.0 Ready” if it’s working properly.

Note: I should say I was moving both new and old server were Windows 2003, the versions of CVSNT were the same and the new server had the same name as the old one.

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Useful UML Visio Templates

Stummbled accross these Visio templates quite useful! and free

The UML stencil for Microsoft Visio supports all symbols of the UML 2.2, specified in OMG UML Superstructure Specification, formal/2009-02-02, as well as all previous versions, UML 2.1, UML 2.0, UML 1.5, UML 1.4, UML 1.3 and UML 1.1.

http://www.softwarestencils.com/uml/index.html#Visio2003

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Barclays fraud line 08000158601

[update] – Spoken to barclays and they confirmed this is an offical number it’s just not listed anywhere – helpful! – if in don’t call the regular customer services number.

Just got a call from person claiming to be Barclays, wanting to confirm some recent transactions on my card.  I was suspicions so asked how I could proves she was from Barclays, maybe she could tell me the 1st line of address or year of birth, but all they could say was call back on 0800 015 8601. Which is similar to a Barclays number if you check the Barclays contact us page but it’s not actually listed. So be aware this in a ID theift  SCAM!

See this thread too.

my hero!

my Hero

my Hero

Just a quickie blog post… my new HTC hero arrived today, yay!

Blown away by how within a few minutes of tapping in my google id I fully sync’d was contacts, calender, and email.

It’s my first touch screen and in portrait mode found the tapping a text message a little awkward. Landscape mode is fine.

Got it from Mobile Phones Direct – who supply the phones unlocked. They do some decent deals on 12m contract + free car kit. Plus in white which isn’t  avail on the network i’m on, Nice!

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Using Commons-Logging 1.1 with Log4j on WebSphere 6.0

Log4j does seem to work out of the box with Websphere 6 so I cobbled together some tips and advice from the web and wrote this mini guide. It was a couple of years but hopefully be useful to someone.

WebSphere uses commons-logging and so it’s in the root classloader. In addition, WebSphere 6.0 ships a commons-logging.properties with the following properties set:

org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory=org.apache.commons.logging.impl.LogFactoryImpl

org.apache.commons.logging.Log=org.apache.commons.logging.impl.Jdk14Logger
Therefore by default the application will use JDK logging and not log4j. The solution is to ensure that the right classloader mode is set and the application has an appropriate commons-logging.properties and use the official released version 1.1 of commons-loggin api:

Set application classloader mode as PARENT_LAST. This can be changed in eclispes EAR file deployment descriptor menu. This tells websphere to load the parent files last giving the application files priority. (the parent being the websphere root)

Also, create a new commons-logging.properties to the application classpath with the following entries:

priority=1
org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory=org.apache.commons.logging.impl.LogFactoryImpl
The priority flag was introduced in Commons Logging 1.1 to allow an ordering based on priority. To ensure that an application’s commons-logging.properties will take precedence over WebSphere’s file, a priority of greater that 0.0 must be set.  I changed mine to 5 (just to be sure ;) ).

So basically the  commons-logging.properties overrides the one packaged in websphere and returns it to the default logging system which is log4j.

NOTE: You also have to replace the commons-logging-api.jar that comes supplied with websphere, because IBM use the API and which doesn’t contain the log4j logger implementation. :(

Replace

<Rational Instal DIR>\Rational\SDP\6.0\runtimes\base_v6\lib\commons-logging-api.jar
With the commons-logging-api.jar downloaded from http://jakarta.apache.org/site/downloads/downloads_commons-logging.cgi

You should also import include it in your go to project properties, java build path and import external jar. Ensure it’s imported above the websphere runtime library otherwise it’ll read the other one first. You can change the order of the imports in project prop > java build path > order and export.

LOG4J Config
To configure log4j you’ll need to create a log4j.propertuies file or a log4j.xml file. This can be located in the application classpath (same level as the ‘com’ directory). Ideally this should be located outside of the EAR/WAR file, where it can be easily editing whilst the application is running without the need to redeploy.

Note: When you build the project both log4j.properties and commons-logging.properties should be copied to the WebContent>Web-Inf>Classes

Checklist:

  • Created commons-logging.properties and log4j.properties in java classpath.
  • Change application classloader mode as PARENT_LAST
  • Import the commons-logging 1.1 jar file
  • Ensure imported jar in imported before Websphere runtime
  • Clean, Build and redeploy (also restart websphere)

More info:
http://wiki.apache.org/jakarta-commons/Logging/FrequentlyAskedQuestions
http://www.webagesolutions.com/knowledgebase/waskb/waskb004/index.html
http://www.mobilefish.com/developer/log4j/log4j_quickguide_examples.html

Book Review – Beginning Java EE 6 Platform with GlassFish 3


Book Review – Beginning Java EE 6 Platform with GlassFish 3: From Novice to Professional

Good for beginners.

This is a ideal book for someone starting Java Enterprise Edition (JEE), but also useful for those who want a brief overview of the ne features. It focuses on the changes in version 6 with examples in Glassfish. It also mentioned some of the significant changes in 5 and gives a good high level overview of the JEE platform in general. It also explains things like persistence layer, and ORM.

I’d recommend it to someone who’s new(ish) to java and whats to see what JEE/J2EE is all about. It’s not good as a reference book (but then it’s not pretending to be one.)

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Sponsor me for the action100 cycle 2009

I’m cycling from Bristol to London on August 30th trying to raise money for Action Medical Research, a great charity that funds pioneering medical research.  For nearly 60 years it has been involved with numerous breakthroughs such as ultrasound in pregnancy, the polio vaccine and the hip replacement operation.

Please give what you can:  http://www.action.org.uk/sponsor/scottyab123

Big Thanks,  ;)

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Gotta question? ask Stackoverflow.com

I’ve been a avid user of stackoverflow.com since I first heard of it a year or so ago. For the uninitialted it’s a place to ask development and programming related questions. The commuity is good and the idea of offering rep and badges to help others is great. Rep aint a new concept by any means but the way the stackoverflow team have implemented this simple idea is brill.

The new(ish) kid on the block is serverfault.com, which is aimed at sysadmins. A cool thing is you can link and import you profile from stackoverflow.

Also lats time I was on there i noticed the flair widget which allows you to embed your profile pic/rep/badge in any webpage.

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Bath Skyline walk

Ruth and I did this walk sunday and really enjoyed it, easy to follow with signs on almost ever gate, style etc.  It’s slightly further than the 6 miles noted in the national trust blurrb, we found was nearer 10 miles. You can park at the university of Bath of free on a sunday, bonus!

Link:  bath skyline walk

“The Bath Skyline walk is six miles of way-marked trails, passing through hidden valleys, tranquil woodlands and a patchwork of meadows rich in wildlife. It’s perfect for picnics, kite flying and to escape from the city.”

Bath Skyline Walk PDF

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