I’ve occasionally been frustrated by the output of ‘ps -ef’ not showing the full command line for the processes. Well, it turns out that the solution is as simple as piping the output to a file – i.e. ‘ps -ef > ps.txt’ – now I can easily see the FULL command line for my java processes.

I bought a new WIFI router this week. My old one was getting flaky, and for some reason I’ve always had trouble with some of the url shorteners such as bit.ly and t.co – they just couldn’t be resolved. So I bought a basic Netgear WNR1000 which satisfied all of my criteria. One of the things I like most is that it has a switch to turn off the wireless when I don’t need it. This helps with security as well as saving power.

I’ve almost finished porting my latest application to AppEngine (Python). Lucky its a small application! I’m constantly being reminded that its useful to have skills in a lightweight technology to bootstrap and test ideas quickly. If that idea takes off, then there is always the option to re-write in a more heavy weight enterprise way. Using different languages and technologies can also be refreshing and stimulating, but it does take time.

This post is on the money. Humorous and accurate. I’ve seen this all before.

There is a very interesting podcast on the software patent situation at NPR Planet Money.

I’m in a bind! I’m ready to launch a new app (Grails based), but my VPS with 768MB memory can’t handle it (its running vsconsole already, and apache, mysql etc). Unfortunately I can’t add more memory until next month! They are out of stock!! I signed up for CloudFoundry.com (still in BETA), but it I haven’t been able to find out how to use my own domain, or how to extract the data when/if I need to. I could easily port it to AppEngine (Python). It’s a small app so it wouldn’t be much effort but I’d rather spend the effort on new features!

I am currently working on a JSF2 application at work, and I mostly use Firefox during the development process because I use SeleniumIDE as a development/productivity tool to quickly log in as different users and drive the browser to a certain point. Imagine my surprise when I found out that something didn’t work in IE8. I could see IE reporting a JavaScript error, but the details were useless. Even with the developer tools in IE, I couldn’t identify what or where the error was. This page didn’t have any JavaScript written by me – its all the JSF generated code. All I could do is use the process of elimination and trial and error to rearrange the page and subtlety change code  until it worked. Its hard to believe that IE is still in this state, especially when faced with the competition from Chrome (built in developer tools) and Firefox (add-on FireBug for developer tools).

I’m using VMWare Fusion on my MacBook AIR to run an Ubuntu server for testing purposes. I’ve set the network to NAT so I can SSH to it and administer it. I’ve shared folders on the MacBook host with the Ubuntu guest (available in /mnt/hgfs/). Now all I need to do is set up the software so I can perform the tests I need.

A friend pointed out this article to me which says in summary:

“No matter how much you try, you can’t stop people from sticking beans up their nose.”

Its well worth reading, especially if you continually see crazy things happening at work, and need a way to deal with it.

In a similar fashion, I’ve also stumbled across a couple of comics which happen to describe (too accurately) most of the real world: OneFTE.com and PhD Comics. And lets not forget Dilbert. At least we can laugh about it.

I’ve been having trouble with my MythTV install. I’ve installed 2 tuner cards (one is a single tuner, the other dual) and when I reboot they seem to be randomly assigned to /dev/dvb/adapterX – I finally started looking into it, and found this reference which has helped me permanently assign the first card – which should be consistent across reboots. However, I’ve still got to set up the second card, and test properly.

An article (from 2007!) pointing out how Ron Jefferies failed to build a sudoko solver using TDD sparked a very interesting conversation in which we debated the usefulness of tests. It also sparked an interesting tangent, because it appears that most people think the second D in TDD stands for design (it actually stands for DEVELOPMENT). It also seems to be thought that if you do TDD you don’t need to do any application design (a feeling that maybe Ron Jefferies sudoko posts perhaps promoted). I certainly prefer to work on a project where the high level design is mapped out and everyone understands (for example, mapping out the subsystems and how they interact). I like tests and I will continue to write them – I believe it improves the design of my CLASS, test-first where appropriate, but I’ll admit that its not always easy. It takes a bit of skill to write good tests, but I think developing this skill helps improve your production code as well. Its a state of mind, and spirit+passion is important.

I currently have an old pre-paid phone. I use an iPod touch to listen to podcasts/music and play the odd game. It would be nice to shiny new Android smart phone so I could do this all on one device. So, looking around I was stunned to see so many phones running Android 2.1 and 2.2!! It seems like there are not many 2.3 devices out there. If I did get a new phone, I’d want to tether my laptop – so the minimum Android would be 2.2. I spend $150 p/y on my pre-paid phone, and theres another $150 p/y if I use my prepaid 3G broadband modem for internet access on the go. So the Garmin A50 on a $19 plan looks competitive but there is no indication of the Android version. I think that’s done on purpose to make it hard to compare and to generally frustrate customers . The next feasible ones would be on the $29 plan if they ran 2.3 but alas: LG Optimus (unknown version) and Samsung Galaxy S (2.1). Sigh, too hard. Anyone know why these phones are crippled with old software?

Know of any companies in Sydney that engage in REAL agile projects – properly? Let me know, I’m interested!

I had a javascript drop-down menu that youtube video interferred with – when the menu dropped down, the youtube object covered it! I found the answer here - http://geekswithblogs.net/steveclements/archive/2007/03/03/107839.aspx – where the solution is simple:

Add nested element to object tag:

• <param name=”wmode” value=”transparent”/>

And attribute to embed tag:

• wmode=”transparent”

Spending too much time travelling to and from work makes me appreciate the idea of telecommuting. I’ve noticed that Canonical (Ubuntu) advertises home based jobs, but all companies I know are strongly against it – and although they don’t advertise the fact, it is an unspoken policy. Right now, I probably don’t have the best home for accommodating telecommunting, but I did come across the OfficePod the other day – a brilliant idea, your office in your back yard!

The first thing that springs to mind is that telecommuting wouldn’t fit into an agile environment – and I definitely want to work on agile projects as opposed to the alternative. But, I am dismayed by the low number of positions on the market that are truly agile – most of them are using the buzz words, but IMHO failing to embrace the spirit and implement properly:

• meetings where you can’t sit down (failing to appreciate the real goals of standups)
• builds every 2 weeks (iterations – but without prioritizing, user stories and customer representatives – just ‘time to do a build!’)
• test team completely separate (throw it over the wall to them and wait for the defects to come back – have a read of this)
• development team using junit but writing the wrong tests (brittle, don’t add value, and eventually just ignored

So, if I’m not going to work on a project where close personal collaboration is going to happen, why not telecommute? Or at least travel to a very close serviced office – and let technology take care of the collaboration (video conference like they do in the movies etc). Perhaps that would alleviate some of the strain on the transport infrastructure!

Interesting web sites:

• Find commercial linux applications – http://lin-app.com/
• Full circle magazine – Independent Ubuntu community – http://fullcirclemagazine.org/
• Webkit (html renderer) in native applications – http://live.gnome.org/SeedKit
• CLICompanion – get comfortable with the command line – http://okiebuntu.homelinux.com/okwiki/clicompanion
• Find out if Linux supports your hardware:
  • http://www.linuxcompatible.org/compatlist3.html
  • http://www.linux-drivers.org/network.html

Bugs encountered:

• Unable to shut the application server down (jvm stays alive) when using spring task:scheduled-tasks – https://jira.springframework.org/browse/SPR-6901
• gvfsd-metadata consuming CPU and IO – http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1421580

I’ve noticed a bunch of websites that just don’t pay any attention to detail. Little things:

• banking sites that don’t remember your settings (i.e. for exporting statements) and you have to set them every time you export, for every account
• log forms you fill it to register, and when you fail validation (like getting the CAPTCHA wrong), some parts of your form are now blank and you have to fill them in again (or you get to the bottom where they ask you to accept the terms and conditions, and when you view them it navigates away from the form you are on)
• paying for things online is still very difficult! It took me almost an hour to pay for an extension I bought the other day – very confusing paypal process, which I haven’t fully researched to know what is going on

Maybe these are symptoms of trying to do too much – and never doing anything very well? The banking site in question never seems to change, so perhaps they just aren’t in a position where they can make small incremental improvements? Still on the big bang approach? The Minimum Feature Set is an interesting concept.

I came across a blog post about Performance Punishing via twitter this week. I’ve seen this at every place I’ve worked! If you highlight issues, identify work needed, present problems, you are always expected to work on it yourself – you found it, you fix it! One thing I like about Agile is the way it fosters teamwork, and team ownership of all aspects of the project. This spreads the load, results in less ‘heroism’ and obviously creates a better environment.

The Ubuntu Stackexchange Question and Answer site is now available to the public! Check it out for some useful Ubuntu information.

Bugs encountered:

• Joomla 1.5 password reset token issue caused by some themes – http://docs.joomla.org/Confirm_password_in_1.5.16
• I’ve found several Joomla extensions rely on their own javascript – but for some reason my theme isn’t including them. I’ve just manually updated the html template in the theme to link to the javascript for now.

Bing has finally updated its index! See http://www.bing.com/search?q=exmount.com and http://www.bing.com/search?q=pmw-ex3+shoulder+mount – it must be at least a month behind Google and Yahoo, but it gets there.

Looking for some icons? Check out the fantastic work available @ webtoolkit4.me – there are some really good icon sets.

I’m always trying to find better ways of doing things and find incredible resistance to even the simplest of improvements – things that I would consider no-brainers end up subjected to business cases and long winded “evaluations of all the options”. Well, the Pragmatic Programmers have released a book that might be exactly what I need:

Driving Technical Change

“Finding cool languages, tools, or development techniques is easy—new ones are popping up every day. Convincing co-workers to adopt them is the hard part. The problem is political, and in political fights, logic doesn’t win for logic’s sake. Hard evidence of a superior solution is not enough. But that reality can be tough for programmers to overcome.”

Myself and a co-worker have a keen interest in developing our agile skills, and would also like to infect the rest of the team with our enthusiasm. So, we’ve held our first of what we hope to be regular lunch-time (couldn’t possibly use company time for skills improvement) brown bag sessions – the first being “A practical application of TDD”. It mostly went well, but as always people got distracted from the primary goal (TDD) by other secondary topics such as requirements. I’ve tried exactly this type of thing before, but never had an audience that is particularly interested. Lets see how well it works this time.

The next session we have planned is to watch awesome Kent Beck in his TDD screencasts. Perhaps we should have started with this one, instead of  trying to introduce a practical application myself. I found a review of the screen casts here: http://odoe.net/blog/?p=87 – Big thanks to Kent Beck for JUnit, Extreme Programming, Test Driven Development and more.

I also have to give a shout out to Area51! This is awesome – a place where you can propose, commit, and beta test a version of StackOverflow aimed at a niche market – and not necessarily programming related. You can propose a topic, and when enough people have committed to ensure it will thrive, it will be available for public beta – where we can all participate. Current topics include cooking, photography, maths etc. StackOverflow made Q&A much better than the norm, and having a place where the Q&A can branch out cover other topics is fantastic. I like the way these guys think – even the way they enable new sites/topics is different.

I’ve installed WorldCommunityGrid on my media center, which is on 24*7 – may as well use that spare CPU time for good! I’ve been watching my ranking slowly get better, starting over 300,000 and now after 21 days of run time I’m ranked (by points) in the mid 200,000s. Along comes a friend of mine and in a very short time he’s already broken through under 200,000! He has a quad core CPU (mine is a dual core), and I’m assuming thats the reason.

I find it strange that developer PCs never seem to get updated unless someone new joins the team – and they only get a new computer if one doesn’t exist already. I’ve never worked anywhere where they’ve had a policy to update developer machines regularly. I think I’d have a policy of updating them every 12 to 18 months if it was up to me. The older machines can filter down to less power users, or perhaps the developer PCs could be rented. I would love a clean machine with a clean OS every 18 months, and I can have all of my required software set up in less than half an hour so a policy like this would be a huge productivity gain. We could have the latest hardware, so we wouldn’t wait so long for builds and IDE’s to do their thing:

And a word to IT Managers – don’t treat EVERYONE in the organisation as having the same requirements – give power users power machines. I could also go on to question WHY I’m forced to use Windows when every platform I ever deploy to is UNIX. But I’ll save that for later.

I hit several bugs this week:

I’ve been involved in launching a new website at http://www.exmount.com/ – built using Joomla! So I’ve been interested in doing some SEO – If I search Google and Yahoo for “pmw-ex3 shoulder mount” it appears within the first 2 pages. But Bing still hasn’t updated its index – it still has the “parked domain” page from when the domain was registered. Its been a couple of weeks now, it’ll be interesting to see when Bing does finally update.

I found some great reading on:

• SSD – http://www.anandtech.com/show/2738/8
• Virtualization – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/hypervisor_performance.pdf

I really like OMG! Ubuntu! – I think it is a very well put together site, and shows off just how much you can do with a Blogger.com blog.

New Releases:

• Groovy-Eclipse 2.0.2

I finally got a new battery for my laptop – it only took 3 weeks rather than the estimated 6, so finally I’m back online – on the train. It’s barely doing the job though, a new battery barely gets me to and from work – I obviously need to work closer to home! I’m running Ubuntu, Netbeans, Grails, and sometimes a 3G internet connection – so I guess it is working hard for what is sometimes more than a 2 hour round trip!

It will be interesting to see how the new battery lasts. I’m also thinking about getting a new laptop at the end of the year – my current laptop is over 2 years old, so technology wise it’s out of date. The DELL Adamo looks interesting, with a SSD disk – I’d love to see how much difference that makes, otherwise I’d probably get an Inspiron 13z – I’m mainly interested in the smaller lighter models since I’m so mobile. Its nice to see laptops coming without DVD drives now – who needs them?

I found an interesting whitepaper on Agile Testing. It describes how different the testing role is in an Agile environment. Worth reading, but as always you never get the full picture from one source, so also check out StickyMinds, InfoQ and Pragmatic Programmers.

We’ve been having interesting debates at work about how to move forward towards being more Agile. I’m on a Scrum project at the moment and I am a lot happier now that the project management is sorted out, but we need to get better at our development practices. It seems so hard though, convincing others to buy into things that seem so reasonable – so much harder than it should be. And if the others aren’t motivated how do you make progress by yourself? I’ve tried just doing it with the hope that it will motivate the others, but they just don’t get excited about it like I do. I’ve got things to learn here, so if you have any advice or strategies please feel free to comment.

I’ve recently made updates to my grails plugins to ensure they work on Grails 1.3. I hadn’t touched them for a while, so it took a bit of effort. I haven’t had the opportunity to use Grails much lately, so I had to catch up on changes. One issue I have is that its impossible to know if anyone is actually using these plugins, and therefore are they worth maintaining?

I recently stumbled across AgileRecord.com - The Magazine for Agile Developers and Agile Testers. This is a downloadable PDF magazine, I think it only requires registration. Very interesting read, I recommend checking it out.

Another awesome read is “Scrum and XP from the Trenches” - http://www.infoq.com/minibooks/scrum-xp-from-the-trenches – This describes how one team implemented agile and is a fantastic source of information.

I’ve been playing with Joomla lately, and I’m liking it so far. There is a bit of a learning curve, because it has a different paradigm than Wordpress – while Wordpress is very focussed on blogging, Joomla is more generic and takes a bit of getting used to. Hopefully it will prove to be flexible enough to meet my needs.

I was creating some images with GIMP, and I had an issue where the text I was adding was very chunky – it looked terrible. I googled around and found the answer here http://www.gimphelp.org/tutorials/basic_text_tool.shtml – switching the image mode to RGB fixed everything.

Recent Releases

• Netbeans 6.9