July 30, 2007
Tomcat 5.5 on Ubuntu 7.04 broken by default
We just got bitten by this, so beware: if you're trying to get Tomcat working on Ubuntu, beware: there's a bug that prevents it writing to the catalina.out log file. See the ubuntu bug and the upstream debian bug. The workaround is to zap the catalina.out pipe and replace it with a real file.Technorati Tags: apache, linux, ubuntu, sourcesense
July 27, 2007
The jungle
In the spirit of Tim Bray, here's a Friday photo of what's going on in my garden at the moment. The recent travel and rains have made any kind of gardening nigh on impossible, but the trade-off is a huge stock of blackberries and some amazing-smelling honeysuckle. I can live with that! The local wildlife seems to enjoy it too - a dragonfly was going mad in the garden this morning, and the bees are making quite a noise.
Technorati Tags: photography, gardening
Oxford Geek Nights
On Wednesday I attended Oxford Geek Night 3, as I was curious to see how it compared to Apache events and to the recent BBC/Yahoo Hackday. I have to say I was seriously impressed. There was an excellent turnout, a great feeling to the event, and some fantastic talks. I particularly enjoyed hearing Matt Biddulph and Matthew Somerville, who I've known of virtually for a long time but never managed to meet in real life. The organisation of the event was superb (hey, free beer from Google, what more do you need?) and the musician at the start set a great social tone for the whole night.
It's definitely inspired me to see if we could do something similar on this side of London - perhaps Cambridge would be an obvious choice?
Update: oh, one other thing I forgot to mention - the venue had a fon hotspot, which is the first time I've been able to take advantage of free roaming wifi. I managed to grab email and read some news between the talks and conversations. Oh, and all from the N95, too.
Technorati Tags: community, computing, hackday, geeknight, travel
Travel update
So, since getting back from Brussels it's been an insane time, clocking up a few thousand miles racing round the country. This morning I have a few minutes to catch a breath, so it's time to catch up on a few blog posts that have been sitting in my 'drafts' folder. Apart from those posts, here's what I've been doing...
At the start of last week I went up to York to attend the Institutional Web Managers' Workshop, where I ran a session on "Sustainable Services: Solidity based on Openness?" with fellow Apache guy and OSS Watch Service Manager, Ross Gardler. The session seemed to be well-received with some very lively discussion, and hopefully Ross or I will get some time to write it up in the coming weeks. I think perhaps the thing I heard that I thought was most interesting was that fashion is a major part of sustainability: sure, Facebook is doing well now, but will it still be cool next year?
From York, I aquaplaned over to Lincoln to spend some days with a customer that is using Apache Cocoon to deliver some interesting services. It was a scary experience as during the consultancy I wasn't allowed any electronic equipment - no phone, no laptop - so I had to do everything from memory. Definitely a challenge, and it's amazing what you can cram into your brain given enough caffeine and a couple of hours swatting up every morning over breakfast in a hotel.
I was also pleasantly surprised by Lincoln itself ... I got the chance to look around the historic part, including the cathedral and the castle, and it was picturesque as well as having some great restaurants. Well worth a visit, if you're in the area.
This week I've been to London (see previous post about the BCS) and Oxford for the Oxford Geek Night (see next post!); this afternoon it's back to London for the weekend. I then get a full week in Norwich, before the travel starts up again ...
Technorati Tags: apache, cocoon, iwmw, opensource, sustainability, sourcesense, travel
Feathercast
Back in June, I was paid the immense honour of being invited to become an Apache Software Foundation member. Shortly afterwards, David Reid asked if I would do an interview for FeatherCast, the unofficial podcast on all things Apache. I momentarily forgot how horrible I sound when recorded, and so I agreed. Well, it's now out - Episode 33: New Members. And yes, I know I spoke too fast! Good to hear Emmanuel too, who is infamous for giving me a horrible hangover for my flight back from Apachecon last year.Technorati Tags: apache, asf, community, opensource, cocoon
Licence proliferation part two
Following on from hearing about the event, on Tuesday I went along to the BCS Open Source Specialist Group to find out about a possible UK-specific open source licence. There wasn't a huge turnout, and somewhat curiously no-one at the BCS seemed particularly willing to stand up and be counted as one of the proposers of this absurd idea.
Alex Hudson (dude, where's your RSS/Atom feed?) gave an excellent report from the meeting on the fsfe-uk / affs mailing list, so I won't repeat what he said. Suffice to say that almost everyone would prefer the BCS offered more education on the issue of licences rather than yet another licence. Perhaps they could even work with organisations such as OSS Watch, who have created some excellent resources on licensing in the past.
Technorati Tags: licences, opensource, asl, gpl, sourcesense
Bank charges
One of the most prominent "consumers fight back" stories of recent months has been over high street banks charging their customers excessive penalty fees, and a growing number of people taking them to court to recover those fees.
Since my personal bank account is mostly ignored and usually in quite some disarray, this story was of particular interest to me. I read through the guidance on moneysavingexpert.com, and on 2nd April I started the process of trying to claw back some of the money the bank has taken from me over the last six years. After all, understanding and help is what you need when building a small business, not raids on your account.
In May, after receiving the last 6 years' worth of statements from the bank and itemising my excess charges, I sent a demand for £1729 + interest to NatWest. Within a few days I got a letter back saying they'd received my request, and would respond in 90 days.
Yesterday I heard on the news that the Office of Fair Trading and the banks were going to court to decide whether the excess charges were legal or not, and my heart sank. If the courts ruled it was legal, I'd stand no chance of recovering the money.
This morning, a thick parcel hit my doormat, and when I opened it, I found hefty leaflets from my bank: "Personal Banking Terms and Conditions", "A guide to Personal Current Account fees and interest", and "Customer complaints". Uh-oh. Too timely. And then I read through the cover letter. The first page said:
We explain all of our terms and conditions including our fees and charges at account opening [...] we do not agree with the basis of your complaint [...] we believe that these charges are fair, reasonable and transparent.
At this point I was feeling pretty annoyed and depressed, but I persevered and started reading the second page:
However, [...] as a gesture of goodwill [...], in this instance we are prepared to offer the amount of £1729 paid direct to your account.
Hurrah! So it was definitely worth pursuing the bank, though it looks like I got through just in the nick of time.
Technorati Tags: finance, banks
July 22, 2007
July 20, 2007
Licence proliferation
Please don't.
Technorati Tags: opensource, licences
July 9, 2007
Five and counting
So I'm on location for Sourcesense, working on some HippoCMS deployments for Belgian clients. Belgium is an interesting country, with some really tough multilingual challenges (with at least three official languages, it really takes content management to another level).
Anyway - today was definitely a brain melt day. I've decided I am now incoherent in no less than five languages.
For the last week I've been consistently trying to speak French, with the occasional bit of German thrown in for good measure, and with an altogether too confusing switch back to English for a brief return to London on Friday. Except on Saturday, when a couple of waiters and waitresses in Bruges tried their Flemish and Dutch kung-fu on me, forcing me from croissants to bitterballen in less than 30 seconds (ahoy there, cultural stereotypes!)
And then this evening, I went to a fantastic Italian restaurant called Aglio e Olio, following the recommendations from the food and wine blog (a lucky find via google). Unfortunately, just as the blog forewarned, the staff were very Italian, spoke mostly French, and really struggled with English. It was worth battling through, as the food was wonderful and the atmosphere very relaxing. However, I remained frustrated that I just couldn't make the switch over to my (broken) Italian. I put it down to tiredness.
It did serve to bring home to me how smart the people I work with are when they flawlessly switch between languages. It (almost) makes me feel humble ;-)
Previously: Taking flight, dining out, island mentality.
p.s. Yes, it's quiet around here. Yes, it's likely to stay that way. I seem to have misplaced the 36-hour day. A brief look at dopplr will show you I have a packed schedule with only one free weekend through until end of August at the earliest. Methinks September should be renamed "HOLIDAY".
Technorati Tags: belgium, blogging, brussels, culture, dining, food, languages, sourcesense, travel
July 2, 2007
Damn spam
Some spammer is using @andrewsavory.com in their From: lines, prompting an influx of 2000+ spam bounces to my mailbox in the last three hours. Especially delightful since I'm on GPRS/3G during the day. So if you're trying to reach me: please expect delays of 24 hours or more.Technorati Tags: computing, mobile, email
July 1, 2007
Eurostar Leisure Select
Here, for a change, is a happy story about travel.
I've got somewhat sick of airports over the last few months and years of jetsetting, so to get to Brussels I decided to take the Eurostar instead of flying. It's not quite as quick - primarily because of the slow train from Norwich to London, and the slack that needs to be built in to cope with delays on that route and getting across London to Waterloo. But the experience once I got on the Eurostar more than compensates for it.
I'd been on Eurostar before with the budget tickets, and the experience was quite average. This time, rather than go for the absolute cheapest economy ticket, I opted for Leisure Select, which gets me at-seat dining and more importantly, a power socket for the laptop. The food was more than acceptable, and came with what appears to be an unlimited supply of wine (I felt obliged to do extensive testing to try and establish the limits, all in the name of research). The seats are comfortable and spacious, and the service is great.
The overall price is still comparable with flying - or even slightly cheaper, depending on your flight route. And there's no need to fight with 100ml bottles, as the farcical security theatre has not yet reached Eurostar. Queues at security were short, and I was able to practically sprint through passport control.
If I were to ask for one improvement, it would be wifi - but really that's just being overly fussy, as with great food and wine, it's an excellent opportunity for some much-needed relaxation.
Technorati Tags: europe, transport, travel
Mapster
Right, if the online mapping sites won't play ball, I'll find another way ... (I rotated it in Quicktime, but stupid youtube is ignoring that. Please turn your monitor sideways.)
Technorati Tags: gis, gps, maps, mobile, nokia, n95, travel
Chunnel
Right then, I'm off to Brussels. See you from the other side.Technorati Tags: europe, sourcesense, travel, work