Month: January 2007

Composite UI Application Block and Commonwealth bank

alistairl

Working through my ARCast collection, I’ve just listened to a couple of ARCasts that are really relevant to the project I am working on.

My project, for the Corporate Banking division of a leading UK Bank, is being architected smart client style using the Composite UI Application block. It turns out that work at Commonwealth Bank on their SmartClient CommSee project had a major input to this application block.

The ARCasts describes some of the really helpful background of both fitting this type of application into a Bank, how to get developers engaged, how long it takes, is reuse really possible!

I’m going to have to listen to them again, unlike ARCasts in general there are a series of about six of these, and a lot of information. The sound is low quality for Ron Jacobs, but information rich!

The art of motorcycle maintenance

alistairl

I’m signed up for a spannering course for motorbikes, having monitored Learn Direct Scotland for the last year, and narrowly missing one course which was cancelled due to lack of interest.

I start the “Know Your Motorcycle” course at Borders College in, wait for it, Galashiels, on Monday. It runs for 10 weeks and the finish will coincide quite nicely with the advanced riding lessons coming in again. It is a bit far away, but is the typically excellent price provided by such establishments.

I’ve also made enquiries about first aid courses, and the local St Andrews Ambulance seem to do quite a few in the local area. I think I’ll wait on that though, want to keep time for MCP exams.

Five things you don’t know about me

alistairl

Ok Kev, I now respond:

  1. I started off my working career at the age of 16 in a Chartered Accountantancy practice in Glenrothes, with the aim of becoming a certified accountant. I got as far as passing my entrance exam (HNC in Accounting), but balked at the idea of doing 3 years to get ACCA.
  2. I left a full time job in a steady career to start a switch to IT by studying for an HND in Computing, but got waylayed by the chap running the course for HND Applicable Mathematics with computing who looked at my 8 O’Grades and 5 Highers and signed me up to his course.
  3. I didn’t get a Degree because I was skint paying for my car and wanted a job, so with my HND in Applicable Mathematics with computing in hand, I got a job with an IT company in Glenrothes instead of articulating to Dundee University like the other three guys in my class to get a Degree. And then got a bit of a fright when they bought an IT company in Livingston and told me my job had moved, and by the way, I should really move too.
  4. I have two teenage kids, a boy who is 18, and a girl who is 16. They came as a package when I married Rona just under 10 years ago, they were a bit younger then, but so was I. They are all top people, and amongst other things have inherited my wit, (lol – no luck people ;)).
  5. I can waggle my ears.

The truck count

alistairl

Not rhyming slang, but the figure that indicates the number of people you can lose on a project before it fails due to loss of knowledge. I.e. how many trucks can wipe out individual team members before we stop.

I resychronised my zen nano at the weekend and about three months worth of ARCast came across – my podcast download sync had been working away happily in the background, downloading them into my sync playlist and – bang! – no space on my wee mp3 player.

Ron Jacobs was talking to Dr. Neil Roodyn about just enough architecture, focussing on high value business requirements, breaking team silos, I liked this one.