Author: alistairl

December now, so what’s been happening in the land of AlistairL

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December already, and a few weeks since my last post, so here is a catchup. Things have been pretty busy for me, with a fair amount of travel chucked in.

I’ve been in Yorkshire for a visit or two, holding a follow up workshop for a report I submitted with the rest of a team looking at a web development project. It was great to work with the talented team at the client, although they’d had some challenges, they seemed to relish the opportunity to discuss their ideas and collborate a bit on what could be done. They were itching to get in there and make some changes, which we all have to hold rein on when we are keeping management in the loop.

I switched laptops just before my last visit, which caught me out a little when I heard with a few hours notice that I had to travel to Yorkshire. The really funky thing was my first go with personal area networks in Windows XP Pro. Me and my colleague had the same type of laptop, and with a good 10 minutes at the beginning of the day we were all paired up in Bluetooth, got TCP/IP running and a shared folder to collaborate. This made the rest of the day’s efforts in compiling our final report so much easier. Although Word 2003 doesn’t approach the levels of collaboration possible in Excel, having a shared file we could hand to each other in relay fashion was great. It was painless for a new bit of technology I’d never ever used before. And of course it also has built in WiFi, which was useful for popping on a local access point, firing up the vpn to the office and emailing our draft report to the company we were subcontracted to for proofing and checking.

I’ve also been in Glasgow, which although not as far was for Commerce Server 2002 and helping a team get up to speed. They were new to Commerce, but experienced in .NET  and Content Mangement Server. Spreading my visits over a few weeks was a bit twisty for my brain (which country am I in :)) but again a top team to work with. We had our inevitable hiccoughs and the lead up to my last visit was a bit challenging for them, but we unblocked the issues and it was encouraging to see how close they had got in problem solving. I’ve been there myself with Commerce in the past, the learning curve has a few cliffs in it.

Really good to get my teeth into .NET internet sites, both for the start of an online Commerce expedition, the other a huge online servicing system with massive throughput. Internet stuff for both, and top people in both organisations too even though one was Private sector and the other Public.

Commerce Server 2002 Starter Site

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After my secondment as a Business Analyst, I’ve had a couple of jobs that have been a delight – both to do with Microsoft Platform Websites. The first was to review a ground up implementation of an online channel of a mainframe application, the other is a short knowledge transfer using Commerce Server 2002. I’ve worked on similar jobs before – when a suite of software is bought and it takes a while to use all of the features.

In this case it was an MSIB 2.5 implementation and after it went in Microsoft Content Management Server got all of the attention. Of course, since then Sharepoint Portal Server has come to the fore (for a number of good reasons) and Windows Server 2003 is the server of choice. To remind me of the details, and to “feel the pain” I’ve been building a Commerce Server 2002 platform over the last few days. I decided to add it in to the domain I built earlier to pass my Windows 2000 Admin exam, as the client in question is running on Windows 2000 kit.

My goodness, how long has it taken. I’d hoped to clear this in a couple of days, and here I am still building the thing four days later. The slowest part was the prerequisites and for me this is my first lesson learned. I’m clearly a bit rusty when it comes to my toolkit, and I need to get my cds and dvds together with my platform servers and applications. Downloading Visual Studio over the vpn took over 12 hours, not quite broadband in my book. And I made one or two mistakes in the Virtual Machine config, again totally mucking up the disk sizing and making it too small to get things like service packs on properly. Although installs of server applications can be diverted to a second drive, the primary volume needs to be big enough for service pack deployment and crash dump handling.

Although the time taken has been a bit of added stress before my client visit on Monday, it has been excellent reminder training for me.

Where is the advanced riding?

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Ah well, it came to a bit of an abrupt end. When I joined up towards the end of the season there was a risk that I’d miss the window of opportunity this year. As it was, the runs stopped at the beginning of November. As I’ve read elsewhere, the advanced biking training tends to run with BST. The weather gets unpredictable from October onwards and the risks to the Observers themselves tips the balance.

I’m a bit disappointed I didn’t get the test in this year, next year is a bit trickier to organise, but I’ve enjoyed what I’ve learned and plan to get on with it. All being well I’ll have it done before the summer, with enough of BST in 2007 to go.

In the meantime I’ve found myself watching my observations and what I notice when I travel in other cars and buses, so I’m still learning.

All over the map

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In the last three weeks I’ve worked for different parts of the same financial services group, in Edinburgh, in Dublin and in Halifax. It has been interesting to see the similarities from the sector, but also differences due to history and business practices in the locality.

I’ve also been to Leeds Bradford Airport for the first time, and been introduced to Halifax, Leeds and Bradford the towns.

It has been a bit of a whistle stop, but some fascinating looks at scalable .net web architecture. And had the opportunity to work with one of my fellow colleagues from down South. He has a Lotus Elise, so I can now say I’ve travelled in one and know the technique for fitting my 6 foot 5 frame of ahem weight through the passenger door and into the seat. All i can say is that it involves winding the window down.

Will it blend

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I don’t fly for a year, then I’m in Dublin for a day one week, and Halifax for a few days the next. And I’ll be in Halifax for four days and London for one next week!

Enough of that for the time being, if you’ve ever wondered if an item around the house can be put through a blender then check Will It Blend.

ActiveSync through USB to my Orange SPV M600

alistairl

Now that I’m off the Business Analysis engagement, I’m in the process of getting my technical kit back up to scratch. With the option of avoiding GRPS for synchronisation, I’ve been trying to sync through USB to my desktop. Past experience with previous Microsoft Smart Phones means that I always synchronise straight to the Microsoft Exchange Server, whether or not I’m on some wireless network (WiFi or GRPS).

The new version synchronises Tasks too, which is great for todo lists and the Getting Things Done methods.

I’d had all sorts of hassle sychronising through USB, and worked through the various options of different USB ports, pulling out all of the other USB devices, opening desktop firewall ports and even trying the Beta version 2.5 of ActiveSync. The problem I appeared to have was that the device would appear to drop off the connection, even though it was still there and charging. Checking the web and knowledgebase seemed to suggest this was a usb / driver issue. I even borrowed a bluetooth dongle from a colleague to give it a go. It would sync once or twice, then drop off, then power up or otherwise. Up and down, with no apparent pattern. It even appeared that having usb, bluetooth and wifi on the M600 on at the same time would help USB, but then it stopped again.

I opened up the requisite ports in Windows Firewall, but it didn’t cure the intermittant stuff. I dug deep and found the problem – another firewall lurking in the desktop antivirus. I switched that one off, leaving windows firewall on, and it has been fine since. The device will still drop the connection from time to time, but this appears a deliberate when you do a soft switch off.

Bike Serviced this week

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My first year of ownership of the R1100RS comes to an end, and I’ve got the old machine serviced again by George in Queensferry. Turned out my sticky brake caliper was nothing of the sort, and was actually a sticky brake lever pivot. The way to check? Spin the wheel and move the lever!

Unfortunately the allen bolt head has been mangled in a previous attempt, and the casting can be at risk if you give the bolt removal a good shot, so the miracle WD40 has done the job, and I have my instructions for where to spray a liberal supply to keep it unstuck.

Sixth, Seventh, Eighth Ride to Advanced

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I’ve been a bit remiss in keeping these up to date, my last post spoke about the EDAM Miss Laidlaw trophy which was a break in the standard proceedings, as was today’s ride which was also connected to the Miss Laidlaw trophy.

There are two trophies on offer for the annual award, which are held for a year after the competition. As I mentioned when I posted about the original trophy day it starts with a test paper and slow riding work with cones. The trophies are split between full members (who have passed the IAM motorcycle test) and associates (who are working up to the IAM Motorcycle test), and as I learned in a phone call a couple of Fridays ago, I was one of the top associates in the first part. What then follows is an assessment of my road riding by one of the observers, and I guess then that the combined results come together to give a winner. The full members get the “priviledge” of a police rider taking them out for their assessed run!

So I was out for my ride at half ten this morning, with Simon who is the observer who got to take out the associates. We rode a loop which included a bit of town riding, dual carriageway, country and town again. We had speed limits of 30, 40, 60 and 70, traffic lights, roundabouts, and also a bit of aftermath of muck spreading on a road to Penicuik. One thing about bikes is that because you are outside under your helmet, you get the full effect of smells. Isn’t the countryside wonderful!

We stopped back at the Dreghorn Little Chef and ran through the ride, with my usual habits coming out, I can be a bit on the slow side and can sometimes lock on to the front instead of looking around to benefit more from the side view. I could observe the distance better and make use of what I see. All bits I need to work on, and a good steady ride apart from a bit of madness at the end where I went for it in front of a Volvo on the bypass. A bit too much haste there!

The sixth ride a couple of weeks ago was with another observer, Stuart. We did a bit of town work and some slow riding, which was quite interesting. The slow riding practice included a bit of stop / start routine, which is all to do with stopping and moving off safely. This involves covering brakes and checking all around, while generally avoiding toppling over. The slow riding included riding along while Stuart walked at different speeds, and then riding round in circles clockwise and anticlockwise in ever decreasing circles while trying to keep the bike upright instead of leaning. Another good week, with one or two pointers and lots of practice to go.

The seventh week involved Bob the Senior Observer and Dave the trainee observer, and catching up with the weekly Roadcraft and Highway Code questions which I should have been filling out. Part of Observing is having various local routes up your sleeve that include features that will test the candidates abilities to handle different situations, while keeping the run at a manageable length to stop and debrief a couple of times and keep the overall time within limits of just under two hours. Bob illustrated one of his nasty (ish) routes that challenge cornering ability, both with a twisty A road with lots of chevrons etc, and also a wee twisty B road which really tests you. Needless to say I found them quite a challenge and it gave me plenty to work on, I need to get smoother with my cornering and make the best use of observation to get the best out of my cornering. The run also showed up one or two inadequacies in my slow riding which tends to be used at junctions. I’d taken a long weekend to do some riding, so managed to get out about three or four days running to practice.

All in all I know I need to work on a number of areas, but you always do in motorcycling, and I don’t think I’m too bad for someone who has effectively been riding for just under a year. I’ve had a good few weeks and I’ve got stuff to work on during my commute to work.