Kevan's Place: Don't blame me... I was born awesome!

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Whew!  Repeat anyone?  What?  You thought moving to the bay area would make me a Warriors fan?  I like me some winners...  GO LAKERS!!!

A deer.  In the middle of the street.  In Redwood City.

That's what you see at 3am.  Battling insomnia (again...life's hard sometimes... go figure) and decided to take a walk around the block.  I turned the corner and there it was, a deer just hanging out in the middle of the street.  Very cool.

Ere I go try to tire myself out playing more Tiger Woods 10 for Wii, an apology for the utter lack of posts in the last few months.  Been struggling with some stuff, the least of which is incorporating XsltSE into Fuji, not a trivial task as it turns out.  I'll try to do better.  Ciao.

Hectic.  Look it up, see what I look like.  Friday night at the end of a loooong week, drowning out the rain with 311... thought I'd share since I've not posted in some time...

Everything is a choice

Go ahead raise your voice

Might as well forgive yourself

That means more than someone else

Set you free break the shell

To your demons farewell

I tell you don't dwell

Thank you, Mr.s Hexum and Martinez.

A quick post to let my reader know that XsltSE now offers basic fault handling transformation capabilities. When a transformation process does an Invoke to an operation that defines a wsdl:fault, that invocation can then return with a fault message.  The new feature of which I speak is the ability to apply a Transform activity against the fault message before returning it to the consumer of the transformation process.

There's more details on how to configure your transformmap on the Tranform Fault Handling wiki, but normal fault handling is determined by the operation implemented by the transformation process.  If the implemented operation is one-way or two-way with no wsdl:fault definition, then the fault message is set as the error detail property on the message exchange (MEx), which is sent back on the NMR with a status of ERROR.  However, if a wsdl:fault is defined on the implemented operation, then the fault is propagated back to the consumer (i.e. the invoker of the implemented operation a.k.a. transformation process).  If a Transform activity is configured for the received fault, the fault message will be transformed accordingly regardless of whether it's sent back as an MEx property or Fault.  Try it out and post any questions to the OpenESB Users Forum.  Ciao!

I spent about 90 minutes on a call Friday before last talking to a new CDK user with lots of questions.  Good questions... about JBI in general, Component Toolkit, exchange patterns, the OJC build system... all the factors that must be considered when developing a JBI component.  But this post isn't so much about how CDK simplifies these things but rather an analogy that will maybe help how JBI works and where a component fits in.  I will acknowledge up front that while my analogies always make sense to me, my track record with others is... well, let's go with "hit and miss" (because "crappy" would be less glorifying... and more accurate).

You're at work and your boss tells you to run some errands in your Hyper-Text Teal Porsche (which basically means you're color-blind and ruined a nice car by writing on it...moving on).  You have a package of expense reports and an address, not to all the places you're going but rather to where you start.  Your tacky car is clean (as in recently SOAPed) and you head out to your starting point: the Binding Center.  When you arrive, the BC folks find your car offensive and decree you must be normalized before you can continue on your way.  The address you're given is in JBI City, which means you'll need a factory-fresh hover car (including navigation system) to run your errands (can't drive foreign cars in JBI City...only hover cars).  The BC folks enter the address into the navigation system and send you to the NMR highway via the Delivery Channel onramp.

Did I mention the hover cars have auto-pilot?  Once you're buckled in, the hover car gets on the highway and makes a beeline for the offramp you need.  Since you're running business errands, you exit the NMR highway at the offramp for the BPEL Service Emporium.  Upon arrival, you park and head to the Processing Center to find out which group handles expense reports.  You're directed to a Business Processing Activities room, where you're greeted by the Receiving Activity coordinator, who tells you you're first activity is to copy some important values from your expense report to another ledger.  Next, you need to enter the expense report into another system, one that you don't know how to use because all the data fields use different names than the corresponding fields in your report.  Fortunately, this BP room has hover car rentals available (as each hover car's navigational system only knows how to get one place and back) to take you and your expense reports somewhere that translates them into the right format.  Some translations are done in house, but others are sent to the XSLT Service Emporium, which is your next stop.  After checking out your hover rental, you're back on the highway and soon getting off at the XSLT Delivery Channel offramp.  One translation later and you're back on the highway, stopping by the BPEL Service Emporium to pick up your original hover car (the loaner from the Binding Center).  

An important note about renting hover cars: always send a thank you note.  Always.  Either you're done using it or something was wrong with the car and you need to notify the rental center about the error.  Back to the analogy...  You've gotten your expense reports translated, you've returned to the BPEL Service Emporium, and you've sent your thank you note for the translation.  Pick up your original hover car and get back on the NMR highway because you need to get back to work.  Finally, you're back at the Binding Center, where you send your thank you note and grab your teal Porsche on the way back to the office.

So............could you tell I was describing a BPEL process, exposed via HTTP, with an Invoke to XsltSE throw in?  Were you able to follow at all?  Resounding silence is not the response for which I was looking... 

Here's how it breaks down:

Crappy Analogy	Actual JBI Meaning
Bossing telling you to run errands in your teal Porsche	A message is sent over the HTTP protocol
You and a package of expense reports	The message and its data payload
Starting address	The WSDL service port's SOAP address
Car is clean	Message is formatted using SOAP
Binding Center	HTTP Binding Component
Offensive car is normalized	Message payload is extracted from protocol-specific format and inserted into JBI message exchange
Hover cars	Message exchanges
Navigation system	JBI runtime resolves addresses to determine correct component destination
No foreign cars in JBI City	Only message exchanges travel the NMR
BC folks enter the address	The message exchange is addressed with a "consumer" endpoint
To the NMR highway via the DeliveryChannel onramp	All message exchanges are sent to the NMR via the DeliveryChannel and its send() methods.
Auto-pilot feature	The component need not steer the message exchange to its destination; handled by JBI runtime
The offramp	The DeliveryChannel of the destination component via the accept() method.
BPEL Service Emporium	BPEL Service Engine
Processing Center	NMR-listening threads coordinate with a ServiceUnitManager to determine the correct business process to handle the message.
Business Processing Activities room	The BPEL process instance.
Receiving Activity coordinator	A BPEL Receive activity.
Copying expense reports	A BPEL Assign activity.
Hover car rentals	A BPEL Invoke activity, which creates a new/distinct message exchange for each trip between components.
Navigation is to one address and back	The message exchange from HTTPBC to BPELSE cannot be used to send data from BPELSE to XsltSE.
Translations done in house	The doXslTransform() extension function in BPEL.
XSLT Service Emporium	Xslt Service Engine
Translation services	XsltSE Transform activities
Picking up original hover loaner	Once invoke to XsltSE is complete, send reply back in original message exchange (the one from HTTPBC to BPELSE).
Sending thank you notes	Every message exchange must be completed with a Status response.  See the Understanding Exchange Patterns wiki for more details.
Back at the Binding Center	The original message exchange returns via the NMR to HTTPBC, where the payload is denormalized.
Leaving in teal Porsche	The response is sent back on the protocol on which the request was received.

Be sure to check out the CDK Concepts wiki for more details on the concepts crammed into this analogy. Thanks for reading!

I've been sitting on this for a while now... didn't want to undermine the vicarious grieving going on due to some recent posts.  But a little over a month ago, we donated some money to the Milo Foundation.  You know how PBS gives t-shirts and little tote bags if you donate a certain amount?  Well, Milo gave us these:

Please meet Luke...

... and Leia

They're both a little over four months old; Luke is a Border Collie/Kelpie/McNab mix and we were told Leia is Border Collie/Terrier, but we're pretty sure she's mostly terrier. They're rambunctious darlings and have been a welcome addition to our home. Here are a couple more gratuitous puppy shots, sleeping and cuddling, before I bore you with a confusing JBI analogy. (Seriously, I actually still work here...)

Ever heard the phrase: "Things happen in threes"?  Well, unfortunately, I have some evidence to offer the numerologists out there.  First, there was Woody.  Then, Monkey.  Now, we've lost Shasta, a beautiful Lab, who at almost 15 was practically ancient.  While Woody was a bit of a PITA, Shasta was a sweetheart.  She had a good run and I feel bad that I can't do her justice because I'm just too wrung out when it comes to writing these posts.  The pic below will have to speak for itself for now; I'll leave it to the rest of the family to eulogize her properly in the comments.  Bye Shazzy. 

Wow.  I've already ranted about how craptastic the BCS is.  Now we come to find that AP voters are dyslexic.  Who puts Utah ahead of Southern Cal?  Really?  Undefeated means THAT much?  Behold the power houses defeated by Utah this season:

• UNLV
• Utah State
• Air Force
  
• Weber State 
• Wyoming
• New Mexico
• San Diego State

You're speechless with awe, huh?  Whereas USC went almost unscathed through a Pac-10 conference that went undefeated in their bowl games this year.  The coaches got it right; you know the guys who actually follow college football.  Pete Carrol said it best:

"I don't think you know who the best team is," Carroll said late Thursday night. "You just know which team got the most votes."

You suck, AP voters.  I mean it.

As the title states, this has not been a good year for pets in our family.  The move went smoothly, xmas was spent at 5000+ feet surrounded by snow and family, one final trip to LA to pack up the rest of our crap... all went as well as could be expected.  Unfortunately, coming home on New Year's Eve to find my sweet baby kitten, Monkey, had passed was how 2008 ended.  She was 11, not too old for a cat, but she had some developmental issues and was never as hearty as most felines.  But she was far and away the sweetest cat I've ever known.  I could go on and on, but sobbing quietly at one's office doesn't generally promote the career, so I'll post a picture of her (left, black/white) curled up with her brother.  For the record, I didn't pose them like this; she was a snuggle cat.  Bye sweet girl, I miss you.

I should be packing right now.  I'm moving tomorrow, relocating to the Santa Clara office.  Just so we're clear, not leaving Sun.  Love Sun.  But my personal life leads me to norCal.

So why do you care that I'm moving?  You don't; why would you?  (Go ahead and say it out loud... you don't care... totally helps your career growth when coworkers hear you talking to yourself...)  But seeing as how I've linked a time or two to articles that reinforce my belief in the basic goodness of humanity, I am compelled to acknowledge and thank the gentlemen at Sonrise Hoops.  To fully express my gratitude, I must subject you to a little history.  When I was a senior in high school ('93), a friend took me to a small gym in Burbank, CA, owned by local Emmanual Church (I'd link, but their website not be working...), that ran an open hoops night on Mondays.  Much friendlier than your typical park game, I was quickly a regular.  A few months in, I learned that another group ran Tuesday and Thursday mornings... at 6am.  Uh huh... 6.  As in 0600.  They called it Sonrise Hoops.

Well, in spite of having the hops of a parapelegic turtle, I love me some hoops.  And at the time, I was young enough to run Monday night and again the next morning.   Thus began a 15 year span of waking up at 5:15am twice a week to go ball.  It's not an overstatement to say it has been as much of a basketball "career" as I'll ever have.  When I started, I was the rookie surrounded by veterans: Mark, Ron, Pete, Jim, MJ, and so many others.  And I grew, as a player and as a person.  Run by Emmanual's faithful, specifically the man after whom I hope to model the rest of my hoops shelf life, Mark, Sonrise Hoops differentiates itself by emphasizing fellowship equally with the sport.  Typically an introvert, this became not only a great place to play but also a chance to make friends with some quality people.  

As the years passed, some moved while others retired.  New players would trickle in to make sure we had at least 3-on-3 (most of the time).  Always Mark, like clockwork sweeping the floors and putting English on his layups that made them impossible to block.  I distinctly remember improving my game over the years just to get to the point where I could guard him, definitely a milestone in my so-called career.  There are so many to mention, but some merit explicit mention: Dave T.  Would that I could have in some small measure the joi de vivre that emanates from that man.  One of my saddest days, not just in the scope of Sonrise but in my life, was when he moved to Florida.  Wasn't the same for months without him shrieking an apology after ruining yet anohter one of my assists.  To be clear, I say that with absolute affection and, literally this morning, we were discussing how far Dave's game evolved (at 6'5", he was a center... by the time he left, he was making the occasional three).  I wasn't the only one who became a better player at Sonrise Hoops...

More years went by, I became the cagey veteran: slowly losing a half-step at a time but loving the game enough to know (usually) where I needed to be to play effectively.  A new crowd of regulars developed: "Big" Dave, who took over for Mark, as immovable as an oak with unstoppable post moves.  Daniel... I've never played with a better scorer; his hot streaks from 4-pt range would put guys like Eddie House to shame.  "Shooter" Dave, with perfect form on a flawless shot and always in the right place.  Ed and his three-point runners, Rick with 16-footers from the high elbow, Dan with his ankle-rending double pumps... great guys with whom to play but more importantly great guys to know.

Which brings me to today, specifically this morning, my Sonrise Hoops "retirement".  (See?  Me moving IS relevant.  And you didn't care...)  First, Mark stopped by.  He retired well over a year ago, but he made a point to stop in and say goodbye.  Right there, my day is made.  My career starts and ends with Mark.  Totally good with that.  But then I got a card.  Signed by everyone: check.  Hallmark, not a chance.  "Shooter Dave" is an amazing artist and so I got not one but two fantastic drawings capturing just how lame I look with a headband.  (When I find a scanner, I'll post them.)  So many little moments, made more poignant as they were the last with this group (for a while, until I visit), made this morning one of the finest of my life.  There's no exaggeration there and I lack sufficient eloquence to properly express what this morning meant to me.

Farewell, gentlemen, and thank you.  For 15 years of quality balling, thank you.  For 15 years of welcoming the token heathen and tolerating his temper and (hopefully) sporadic vulgarity, thank you.  For 15 years of having a reason to wake up at the crack of dawn, thank you.  (Ok, maybe not so much that part... Sonset Hoops?  Anyone?)  For 15 years of making me a better player and a better person, thank you.  I might have shown up for the hoops, but I looked forward to coming for the fellowship.  

(P.S. - Highlight between the dashes for invaluable hints on how to guard the guys I mentioned... because I'm a giver.)
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• "Big" Dave - don't let him get the ball 


• "Shooter" Dave - don't let him get the ball


• Ed - don't let him get the ball


• Dan - don't let him get the ball


• Rick - don't let him get the ball


• Daniel - slash his tires so he can't get to the gym... he MAY be out of range from his driveway...

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This post serves two purposes: 1) to direct you to the most awesome thing ever; and 2) draw your attention to Basketbawful, a great blog I only recently discovered and manages to combine what I love most about TrueHoop and The Sports Guy.  That's high praise round these parts.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

A quick (and again, long overdue....apologies) post to let my hypothetical reader know that the Saxon bug has been fixed and Xslt 2.0 support is available in XsltSE and BPELSE.  That's it...nothing earth shattering.  Just choose "XSLT_2_0" for the TransformEngine configuration property in either engine when you install it.  Auf wiedersehen.

I'm not a political person.  I align with one party, but I'm VERY hesitant to bring politics into this blog.  Let it be a clear indicator how strongly I feel about a certain topic that I bend that unwritten rule and post an excerpt from a great interview with Charles Barkley from Yahoo's Ball Don't Lie blog:

Barkley: I love [politics]. Like, I'm really disturbed about the gay marriage thing. Because I think gay people should get married, cause it's their own business. I was disturbed at the amount of black people who voted for that [amendment that would limit their rights]. Because as a black man, I think you've got to be against any form of discrimination. I do. I'm against any form of discrimination, and I think especially as a black person, who has seen a lot of racial [stuff] in my day, for us to jump on the bandwagon in some form of discrimination, it bothers me.

Thank you, Charles. 

Stunned.  Never thought the Suns would trade Raja.  As in ever.  New coach, new emphasis on defense, and they trade their best defensive player left for a former run-n-gun JRich.  Yes, Phoenix needs scoring but wow.  Then I read the Yahoo article.  This may end up being fantastic for Phoenix... point by point:

• JRich to Phx - This is a wash for the Suns, trading defense for offense.  Fine.  Goes against your new mantra, but I choose to be only mildly offended at your hypocrisy.
• Bell to Charlotte - Ouch.  Who scores for you now?  Who takes the big shots at end of games?  Okafor?  Wallace is more likely to be injured or traded... For a team that was already losing, you just knocked 10 points or so off your starting lineup's scoring.  But hey, you have Larry Brown as your coach... that's some devastation and financial ruin to which you can look forward...
• Diaw to Charlotte - If he hated Porter's style, Frenchie's gonna L-O-V-E.... LOVE.... Larry Brown.  Twenty bucks says croissant sales jump 20% in Charlotte over the rest of the season...
• Sean Singletary to Charlotte - Don't care... won't be in the league much longer.
• Jared Dudley to Phx - This is where it gets interesting... Dudley's good.  Not great, but solid good.  As in future 6th Man winner good (please deign to remember you heard it here first).
• 2nd rounder to Phx - This is overvaluing Diaw... good for the Suns, not so much for the 'Cats.  Consider it the cherry on top of a suck-it-Charlotte sundae...

Terry Porter, interviewed at halftime, is "very excited" and apparently didn't know the trade was going down.  Awe.  Some.  Kerr gets fired within two, maybe three, years.  Guaranteed... UNLESS... Phx gels with JRich who'll help Nash convince Porter to leave Shaq behind and they win it all.  Which is unlikely because the Lakers will not have to face a serious team with perimeter bigs in the playoffs and will be so amped after last year that I'm not terribly concerned.  So good job, Phoenix!  You finally beat Jordan.  Not on the court, where it matters, but it's a moral victory nonetheless.  Listen carefully for the sound of one hand clapping in appreciation.

Brazenly Cheerless Schlockfest.  I mean it.  Wow, am I disappointed with the BCS bowls this year.  Having resolved to blog more, with complete disregard for others' time, here's a breakdown of the craptastic bowl games to which we will not look forward:

• BCS Title Game: Oklahoma (1) vs. Florida (2) - To get it out of the way, I'm obligated to offer a "Go Sooners" on behalf of my girlfriend.  (Nobody's perfect.)  I confess it's without zeal for two reasons: 1) the Sooners have a recent bowl history of not so much choking as an inability to draw air into the lungs...oh...wait:  they lost to LSU ('04), USC ('05 (an AWESOME game!)), Boise State ('07, the Statue of Liberty play), and West Virginia ('08) in their last four BCS bowls; and 2) Florida's a better team.  I see Tebow shredding the Sooner D.  You heard it here first.  (She may not admit it, and will almost certainly smack me for writing it, but the gf knows I'm right (as does her family, if they're reading).)
• Rose Bowl: USC (5) vs. Penn State (8) - I'll allow the possibility that my Trojans mail in another half the way they did against Oregon State, but barring a miraculous performance by the Nittany Lions, USC reminds BCS voters again how dumb they be.  I'm all for the Rose Bowl tradition of Pac 10 vs. Big 10, except the Big 10 is habitually overrated (not as offensively as the bias in favor of the SEC, but still...).  More importantly, there were better match-ups available (see below).
• Orange Bowl: Virgina Tech (19) vs. Cincinnati (12) - Barely worth commenting, much less watching.  Unless you attended either school or know someone playing, are you watching this game?  The eighteenth replay of the Rose Parade will be more entertaining.  19 vs. 12?  Really?  No.  The correct answer is: Snore.  Thank you for playing.
• Sugar Bowl: Utah (6) vs. Alabama (4) - The one plus about this matchup is that I think Utah will win, which should reinforce two things: 1) Alabama has been overrated all year (Florida owes their shot at the championship to this); and 2) a stronger argument is made against the BCS crapfest: if a mid-conference school can take the previously top-ranked team, what might other BCS busters who repeatedly get overlooked do against these so-called major conference powers?  The second point is demonstrated perfectly by the aforementioned Statue of Liberty Fiesta Bowl where Boise State beat the Sooners in OT.
• Fiesta Bowl: Ohio State (10) vs. Texas (3) - Didn't we see this game last year?  Ok, it was a two and three years ago, respectively, but this is not the same Buckeye team whereas Texas has been rolling all year (with a nod to Texas Tech).  If the Buckeyes are still in it at halftime, you can color me stunned.

So, in my not-so-humble opinion, once again the BCS has managed to drop a [$2 bill] on college football.  Thank you gents!  Here's how the BCS should have played out (stipulating a Trojan bias and ignoring the BCS rankings):

• BCS Title Game: Florida vs. USC - Two best teams in the country, great matchups... this could be a fan-freaking-tastic game.
• Rose Bowl: Utah vs. Penn State - The Rose Bowl gets half its tradition, Utah gets psuedo-home field advantage, and we get to see what an undefeated team can do against a solid Penn State team.
• Orange Bowl: Texas Tech vs. Boise State - What's the over/under on this game?  100?  You wouldn't want to watch this game?!?
• Sugar Bowl: Texas vs. Alabama - Longhorn O vs. Alabumble D... c'mon!
• Fiesta Bowl: Ohio State vs. Oklahoma - Regardless of recent history, the Sooners still have one heck of a team and Ohio State is still clinging to its defensive identity... could be good.  And the Sooners would probably win, which makes the gf happy.  Everybody wins people!

No one listens, mind you.  A playoff would still be better, but I'm done venting now; as always, thank you for reading.