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Got a new computer at the weekend so running WinXP. Still manages to crash at least once a day . Also can’t get Jack’s Lego software to work — wish we had bought an Apple now — MICRSOFT are WANKERS!

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Got a big data migration problem fixed to day — works fine if you clear all the data out before the load .

Making some progress on the design of my requirements tool, plus a better appreciation of design patterns and UML.

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Got chatting to Graham last night after many years — nice to catch up on what is happening in his life. Even got a picture of him and his boyfriend (never meet him), good to see him looking so happy.

Mind you the bastard gets to go to good pubs with decent ale, I’m fed up with shitty Australia beer. Even the really good ones (e.g. Coopers) lack character

Customer problems to sort out today so early start. Could do with another hours sleep . Have a stinking cold (thanks kids), Jack has a nasty ankle sprain — although it seems a little better this morning and he is off to school.

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Been thinking about my requirements management tool. The problem has been about architecture. I need something that will version each requirement and support the maintainance of arbitrary links between requirements (plus other entities such as projects etc.)

The need to maintain complex links would seem to argue the use of a relational database, but the need for versions points to a version repository such as Subversion with embedded html links, this implies webdav or Delta-V server perhaps.

Problems with this
1) If I use an RDBMS then I risk locking users into a single product such Postgresql
2) There are no Delta-V servers yet

It occurs to me that I could give users the choice by hiding the implementation detail behind a design pattern. I could initially do this using Postgresql and then provide alternative implementations if required (I can simulate versions of requirements in a DBMS)

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Uh.. Lisa has given me a cold so not feeling special. Wanna goto bed

Reminded why UNIX server daemons need to run as suid root. They need to run as the UNIX user on who’s behalf they are running the service. Obvious really

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Back from Sydney — piece of cake. Just follow the instructions.

Knackered from early start.

Now have a customer with UNIX security issus

Also getting telephone demands for support from home — the sound card is not working. Better fo and try and sort it!

Steve’s leaving so beers tomorrow! And house hunting in the morning

What I add to Windows that helps make it better

I have recenlty had to rebuid my machine from scratch and this is what I feel the need to install.

• Win2k Pro — Have to use a Windows OS , and this is the most stable and usable since Dos 2.10
• Acrobat Reader
• Gsview
• JAVA SDK
• MiKTeX
• MS Office
• PVCS Dimensions
• Argosoft Mail server for demo of email features in Dimensions
• Trillian Message client
• Mozilla
• Cygwin
• Vim
• EMACS (not really needed)
• Redmon print port redirector and Ghostscript (Gives me a free PDF Writer)
• Activestate Perl
• Lotus Organiser (I payed $$ for that)
• Poseiden CE UML tool

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A shit! 6:30 am flight to Sydney in the morning so a 5:20 taxi

Jack brought home a box of fundraising choclate so I’m sitting at my desk making myself sick on the grounds that choclate is “brain food”

79912884

A shit! 6:30 am flight to Sydney in the morning so a 5:20 taxi

Jack brought home a box of fundraising choclate so I’m sitting at my desk making myself sick on the grounds that choclate is “brain food”

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Someone just sent me this. It’s funny baby

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Another day. Need to get up and at ‘em but I just feel like going back to bed. Things to do:

• Sort out customer training requirments
• Prepare for trip to Sydney
• Get expaneses done!
• Find out about rental situation
• Write report for last week
• Report time

Ahh — the glammer of the consulting life

The kids seem better this morning, but I guess Jack will still stay home and Marilyn has loads of houses to go and look at . Did I mention we are looking for a new house! What a nightmare….

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At last got GnuPG 1.0.7 to compile under Cygwin and it even seems to work — but arhhhhh, I can’t get the damm thing to work with Mozilla Enigmail,, which is where I need to be. (Mozilla is now ready for prime time — it has a spell checker!!)

Must get some sleep and put trash out and get kids on loo for late night pee

Good night!

Mid Week notes

Both the kids are sick, Lisa with a cold and Jack with a dodgy tummy (or possibly a virus) so Marilyn will have them hone tomorrow.

Off to Sydney on Thus morning for a few hours. Customer needs help compiling a DLL to work with Dimensions. Should a laugh.

I have also started a Free software project on Sourceforge for Software Engineering Requirments (it’s called RequireFreedom in a pathetic attempt to continue with cute project names!). Not a lot of activity so far as you can see.

As part of this I am also trying to get to grips with UML and OO design Patterns. This is proving hard to do from books

How to fix a busted Oracle Table index?

Run the following OracleALTER TABLE

DISABLE CONSTRAINT ;
ALTER TABLE ENABLE CONSTRAINT USING INDEX
storage (initial 100K
next 100K
maxextents 99
minextents 1
pctincrease 0);/* Use what numbers and names make sense */