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Aug
27
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Hmm, haven't blogged for a while.; but was moved to write some kind words for a really decent bloke I've had the honor to meet a couple of times - Jeffrey Walker, President of Atlassian.
I had the misfortune of watching my Father lose the battle to cancer 5 years ago (non-Hodgkins Lymphoma) and my wife's Mother 5 years before that (Brain Tumor). In fact it was very likely that my father lost the battle against the treatment rather than the lymphoma itself.
Being strong enough to take the treatment seems to be a big part of the battle - Jeffrey Walker has the right attitude. Cancer beating super-hero. Good luck Jeffrey and live strong.
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Aug
12
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Our relocation to Cary, North Carolina is finally complete. Our furniture finally arrived last Thursday and we've been unpacking boxes ever since - and will probably be unpacking for a few weeks to come.
The move wasn't without it's stressful moments; first we closed 4 days late because my bank in the UK couldn't provide a piece of paper in exactly the right form for my lender in the US; then when we finally got that there was confusion over the new closing date - at one point we actually had the keys in our hand only to be told we'd have to give them back and wait over the weekend to close.
Then there was the delayed arrival of our furniture from California - we we're misled repeatedly by the moving company; on the date our stuff was supposed to arrive in NC, it turns out it was still sitting in a warehouse in San Jose (where it had been for 10 days). When the truck finally did arrive there was no local labor to unload it so the driver, Jo and I made a start - on the hottest day of the year (104 + humidity). I did a bit of research on the moving industry - some of the stories are pretty shocking. My advice to anyone trusting their possessions with one of these companies is to do a bit of research before hand - there are some good resources online - MovingScam maintains a blacklist, the FMCSA maintain statistics on all carriers so you can get a feel for their track record - look specifically for fines for overcharging, etc.
Anyway, so far so good - the kids are settling in and making friends already - we've hopefully seen the worst of the summer heat; once the house is sorted we're going to start exploring - a trip to the Outer Banks looks pretty appealing.
At some point I'll make my way over to Sun's Cary office (which is cycling distance) and I understand (from Dave) there's a monthly Sun lunch in Raleigh - if anyone in the area wants to meet up for drop me a line.
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Jul
20
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After almost six years in Northern California; early next week, me, my wife, two kids and two cats will be relocating to Cary, North Carolina. The decision was a tough one to make. It takes a lot to draw anyone away from the perfect climate, stunning natural beauty and the friends we've made here in the Bay Area - the insane property prices and less than stellar school system finally did it though.
We've been researching the move out of the Bay Area for about a year - we looked at a couple of options - including moving back to the UK (but everyone we know in the UK managed to talk us out of that) and relocating to Austin. We finally decided on North Carolina for a number of reasons - firstly it gets us a little closer to the UK; second it has really good public school system and last but not least the size and quality of the property we can afford (compared to the Bay Area) was absolutely jaw dropping.
So about month ago we took a
little vacation to North Carolina; 15 viewings later; we bought a
little fixer-upper 
in the leafy burbs of Cary and if everything goes
according to plan we'll get the keys next Wednesday.
Making a
move of this magnitude shouldn't be underestimated. When we moved from
the UK to the US, we had the help of relocation company; this time
we're on our own. Fortunately my wife seems to have everything under
control and has managed to handle the logistics while keeping two kids
(out of school) under control. It also really helps having some friends
in North Carolina to help out - so a big thanks to the Grays and the Adams.
Anyway - I'll be off-line for the next week or so; hopefully when I return I'll be able to report an uneventful move.
It will be interesting to see how we get on with the "thick air" in North Carolina - apparently, if we can survive August we should be OK
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Jul
10
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If you care about performance - and a lot of people who run IT operations do - Sun just pushed the envelope again on performance for its open source app server (essentially GlassFish). Not only does this remain the only OpenSource submission, it also demonstrates better performance than all other competitors (for a single CPU deployment).
Achieving world class performance takes time and energy - what we're seeing is the cumulation of many years hard work - laying the foundations for a fast, high throughput platform that the entire Sun stack can benefit from.
It's also a great demonstration of what is achievable if you are a systems company like Sun - understanding the hardware, the OS, the virtual machine and the applications that run on it - gives Sun a real edge.
Update
Eduardo and Scott have more details and the all important SPEC standard disclaimer.
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Jun
20
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We got to San Jose airport in plenty of time for our 8.55am to Dallas (on route to Raleigh, NC) yesterday morning - extra time is essential if you're traveling with young kids. We were pleased that we got our bags checked quickly but were shocked to find the security line in terminal A stretching out of the terminal and into the parking lot - a *long* way into the parking lot (that is badly broken). Queuing for 45 minutes with two kids is not going to be fun. Missing flight - even less fun.
Then I thought to ask the FlyClear reps. if I can take my family through with me and was told I could take two kids under twelve but not my wife. Hmm, tough one - take the kids and avoid the queue but risk not being on the same plane as my wife. In the end we decided I'd take the kids and Jo would have to push and shove as best she could. To cut a long story short - we all got to the front of the security line and were through in under five minutes. I was very impressed with the service - and will probably write them a nice letter (not something I'm moved to do very often).
If you travel through SJC frequently and don't like the queuing - you should take a look at FlyClear - so far - a very positive experience.
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Jun
18
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In between epic mountain bike rides, this weekend I spent some time re-visting facebook - I signed-up some time ago but never really looked at it. I've noticed a lot of Twitterers use it so I thought I'd give it a look and I'm glad I did - it's neat combination of applications very well executed - now I just need a network - if you want to hook up - here's my profile.
On to Dopplr which has been all the rage recently so I thought I'd give it a spin - thanks to everyone who sent me invites (Cote, Tim and Jiri) - my motivation was that I noticed it uses OpenID and I wanted to check something out. Well yes it does support OpenID - and it also deals with redirection - so I can use my blog URL to login just fine. Then I started looking at Dopplr - I also ran through this presentation - it's a very simple idea and very well executed - I think it is likely to catch on due to the viral nature of the underlying idea. Now I just need a travel budget so I can make use of it !
Oh and if you need a Dopplr invite - leave a comment and your mail address (which won't be visible, nor shared with anyone other than Dopplr) - first 8 comments get the invites.
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Jun
18
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I'm looking for a Doplr invite - will be grateful to anyone who can send one my way.
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Jun
16
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I came across a load of these "funnel webs" while mountain biking in Quicksliver CP this week. For reference, the diameter of the hole is about the size of US 25 cent coin.
Needless to say - I didn't go poking around to see who was home.
I'm pretty sure we don't get Funnel Web Spiders in the US and my wife thinks it's a Tarantula - any ideas who makes these funnel webs ?
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Jun
11
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The Sharples family is uprooting again this summer (the subject of future posts) and we've made an early start on packing. As well as saving the boxes from previous moves, I'm reducing the amount of packaging material we use by recycling* the almost undending supply of paper that hits our mailbox every day. The idea is that re-use is better than just recycling - though I guess it's not really re-use if no-one reads the junk mail in the first place. Still that's a bigger problem.
I never thought I'd hear myself say it but we actually could do with a bit more junk mail right now - we've used up our reserves - hopefully the mail man won't disappoint today.
I hope this post brings a little ray of sunshine to the direct mail industry - see it's not all the complete and utter waste of time and energy that everybody on the entire planet thinks it is.
* I get the kids to run it all through the shredder (Jack really enjoys
it) and use it to line the packing boxes we use for fragile stuff.; ideally what I'd like to do is run the shredder on solar and hang it next to the mail box so the mail man can directly deposit the obvious junk into the shredder
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Jun
11
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Software is a pretty unique trade (or engineering discipline) in that there's rarely a physical manifestation of your endeavors - showing your Mother a CD or Web Page isn't quite the same as walking her across a bridge or driving her in a car you helped design. Fortunately I have been involved in a number of projects where the software was used to control a physical thing - trains, satellites and have been lucky enough to be involved in some of the provisioning - the phase of the project where the software is controlling the train or device on a satellite - design meets real world. Fun times. But this really takes the prize - putting your project on a huge earthquake simulator and seeing how it stands up.
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Jun
6
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I already touched on a neat feature of OpenID - you can have a plain old web page URI act as a proxy / alias for your openid. Well now the Sun OpenID IdP is up and running, I can test the theory.
Per the FAQ, you need to add a couple of lines to your web page - in the case of a Roller template this needs to be close to the outside of the HTML; in my case that's in the _decorator template.
OK, let's try it. First over to LiveJournal :
Click, over to the Sun IdP :
I type in my credentials and ...
Yes I do, and I'm in :
Yeah - it works !!
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Jun
4
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This blog is taking a rest while I check out Twitter. I think I like the low time-investment that Twitter requires; real blogging takes time and subsequently I don't blog even 10% of what I think about.
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May
24
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Last night I went to see Seth Godin talk about his new book "The Dip" - I haven't read (heard) the book yet - it's in my queue and I'm looking forward to it (review to follow). I have read / heard all of his other books and generally like what Seth has to say and enjoy the way he delivers it.
If you are a Seth Godin fan and especially if you're a colleague working at Sun - I have 5 copies of the book to give away. The first 5 commenters to leave their email address (it won't be visible and won't be shared) get them.
NB. This isn't a competition and nothing to do with my Employer (Sun Microsystems) - these are books I own that I'm giving away and paying for the postage myself.
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May
21
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Eve Maler has the skinny on Sun's recent announcement to not assert any of its patents against anyone wanting to implement OpenID (1.1) technology. Technology that relies on the network effect require a zero-friction path to adoption - if other vendors follow suite - OpenID will be off to a good start.
I'm also amazed at the brevity of the full legal text - at first I thought I was missing a few pages - maybe this is a new benchmark.
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May
19
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I was just looking for stuff in the garage and came across my soccer (aka footie) cleats (aka footie boots) and realized I haven't played soccer (aka footie) for about six months (I injured my back so decided to take a rest). The funny thing is I don't have the overwhelming urge to get back on the field so I'm thinking that I may have officially retired - which is kind of sad - after playing pretty much non-stop for 30 years.
Depending on whether my kids take to the world's greatest game - I may start looking into coaching - I assume there's some kind of accreditation / course you have to take - it might be fun teaching the next generation of aspiring soccer stars.
