JBoss web server - logging

By default, the Tomcat request logging seems to be switched off. To turn it on, do the following.
JBoss 4 has Tomcat deployed as a service inside Tomcat, called jbossweb-tomcat55.sar. This can be found in the server/default/deploy directory.
In the root of jbossweb-tomcat55.sar is a server.xml file: you need to activate (uncomment) the valve which does the access logging in order to see the HTTP requests in the appropriate .log file in the log directory.
The relevant valve in server.xml looks something like:

<Valve className="org.apache.catalina.valves.FastCommonAccessLogValve"
    prefix="localhost_access_log." suffix=".log"
    pattern="common" directory="${jboss.server.home.dir}/log" 
    resolveHosts="false" />

Tour de France

(Haven't done any blogging for a while as I've been in the process of moving to France, and I haven't had the time.)
Guillaume Prébois, a journalist with Le Monde, is planning to cycle the entire Tour de France route, as part of a controlled experiment to see if someone can really maintain the hours and distance demanded of the riders in the real Tour, without recourse to "certain substances". He will be doing the route (I have read - but not confirmed!) one day before the real stage goes through, and his blood etc. will be constantly monitored and the results published. He says that he really expects to find himself utterly exhausted, contrasting with other Tour riders who apparently can still do a coherent media interview immediately after a feat of extreme endurance such as a stage of the tour should be. He says that there used to be "exhaustion", but not so much any more - why?
I noticed a piece about this on Le Journal de la Santé on France 5, but other information seems a bit thin on the ground (doesn't he have a website for this adventure??). I found a bit of second-hand info here, but not much else.
So for any Tunbridge Wells-based readers out there, Guillaume Prébois will presumably be coming through your neck of the woods on Saturday 7 July - and I wish him lots of luck since the roads will not have been cleared for him, so he'll be running the gauntlet of 4x4s and chav-mobiles that normally plague the town.
Are there any journalists out there who could take this up and perhaps interview him en route through Kent? I don't know where he's planning to stop... or if no journalists, at least somebody could chalk encouraging words for him on the road somewhere. Chapeau!

Write Dumb Code

I really enjoyed this article by Brian Goetz of Sun Microsystems, in which amongst other things he exhorts developers to "write dumb code" - in the sense of code which is straightforward, clean and follows obvious principles. I wholeheartedly agree with this.
There are two main reasons why code gets overcomplicated. The first is that in a way it's "easier" to code up a solution for a specific case, and then try to widen the solution to fit other conditions. What tends to happen here is that you end up building in lots of options and special code to cater for different things, which complicates and clouds the original aim. This is where refactoring is important. Refactoring is not a luxury - time needs to be allowed to do it properly.
The second reason is the programmer kudos that comes from complex solutions. I'm looking at a problem at the moment where there are layers of object caching and refreshing options in a situation where it's probably not even needed: the database does its own caching, so why reinvent the wheel?

This guy should've been promoted, not fired!

But perhaps he wouldn't have wanted to be. This is a great video though. If only all sales support telephone people were like this, the world would be a lot more interesting place...

PC vs Mac

Have you seen these Apple ads featuring Mitchell and Webb of radio and TV fame? Quite funny ads but somehow for me they end up backfiring - in the sense that they make me prefer the PC. They are supposed to make you think that Macs are just cool, relaxed and very competent, whereas the PC is nerdy and riddled with conflicts and problems. But I must admit I end up preferring the PC. The Mac just seems smug, but the PC, for all its problems, is somehow lovable. The ad is based on a wrong idea anyway: that the Mac is somehow for the home (ignoring all the offices - especially in media/creative businesses) which are full of Macs (I think people who consider themselves creative like to insist on one to prove their credentials!), and the PC is for the office - ignoring most computer-equipped homes which have Windows PCs.
So I was sort of thinking about changing to a Mac (I like the idea of running Unix under a beautifully slick user interface), so headed over to the Apple UK site - but then these ads put me off. Sorry Apple! This whole problem is brilliantly discussed by Charlie Brooker in this Guardian article.
Also check out the US versions of the same ads (same premise, different actors), they are quite funny too. The PC character looks a little bit more, shall we say, Gates-like...

Politics Schmolitics

I tried the Politics test at OKCupid - and here are my results. In their graphic mockup, it puts me right on top of Hilary Clinton, which is actually somewhere I wouldn't mind being...

You are a Social Liberal (65% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (23% permissive) You are best described as a: Democrat Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

So Long Longplayer

So Longplayer, the old record shop in Grosvenor Road, Tunbridge Wells, has finally gone. A victim, presumably, of the gradual decline in high street record sales in favour of internet retailers and downloads. In its place is the scaffolding that Anke mentions in his blog post. With its neighbour, Camden Classics, it used to be a nice place to escape from the standard-issue high street shops all around it. Longplayer with a great range of music and some surprising obscurities to be found, Camden Classics to get a range of classical music, some of it pretty cheaply...
I used to go in both of them quite a lot, for a browse - although less and less over the years. Partly due to generally buying stuff from Amazon/iTunes, but mainly due to buying less and less music as I get older. I think my last purchase there was Daft Punk - Musique 1993-2005, the CD+DVD, which I was surprised to find there, but then the place is, or was, full of surprises.

My heavy music-buying phase at Longplayer was I suppose the early nineties. We didn't live in Tunbridge Wells then, but visited people who do, and I used to buy stuff like The Orb, Aphex Twin, and other weird electronic stuff, which I still listen to, not to mention a whole load of utter crap that I no longer listen to!

Do other people out there have fond memories of music purchased there? I know Bluebear does...

memcached

memcached seems well worth using for highly-dynamic webapps which do a lot of database access. There's a brilliant Ajax-based travel portal called Kayak which uses it, for one. Also it looks like a good fit for things implemented using JavaSpaces...?

Even wife doesn't read blog

The blogging habits of Tunbridge Wells resident Paul Milner were at the centre of a family argument last weekend. It transpired that not even his wife was familiar with Mr. Milner's recent blog posts.
"I was gobsmacked" said Mr Milner. "You might have thought that a blog would at least be read by the writer's spouse. But no."
The revelation came about due to a chance discussion on Sunday. An opinion held by Mr Milner and discussed on his blog was met with some surprise by his spouse. Amongst protestations of ignorance, the unsettling facts came to light: despite over 15 years of marriage, Mr Milner's blog had never actually been perused by his wife.
"Isn't it part of the sacred vows of marriage to read your partner's weblog?" commented Mr Milner. "Well if not it should be. How else am I supposed to drop subtle hints about my birthday?" he added.
Mr Milner plans to make a five foot high enlarged and laminated copy of future blog posts and affix them in front of his wife's mirror, where she is sure to see them almost immediately.

Charles Web Debugger

This is very useful... lets you see what's going on between your web client and server - handy enough for investigating traditional HTTP request/response-type interactions, even better for AJAX where you've got data flitting back and forth the whole time...

Boden catalogue

Y'know, something worries me about this photo on page 102 of the Boden Spring 2007 catalogue. Can't quite figure out what it is...

Tour de France

The Tour de France route for Sunday 8th July is now available. The riders will go through Southborough and Tunbridge Wells, then out towards Pembury. Should be interesting to see - perhaps a good vantage point would be just north of Soutborough Common, and watch them coming up that bastard of a hill from Tonbridge...

Cultural Learnings

Spent last week in Erding, Bavaria - where we used to live. Thanks Chris, Emily, Katina and Ellie for putting us up / putting up with us! Key cultural learnings are as follows:

1. When making a Chinese stir-fry, the tofu and vegetables should be cut into sharp shapes, i.e. triangles. The peppers should be cut on the slant to give a wedge-shape, rather than the squared-off lumps that I tend to do. This is presumably important for the overall feng shui of the meal... Tofu is also better fried in plenty of oil for plenty of time: I have been chronically undercooking it. Must get some of that Teriyaki sauce as well, which when mixed up with garlic, ginger, etc. makes a much better flavour than just dousing it with soy sauce.

2. If you find yourself tempted to have a drink at the pool bar at Therme Erding, don't order a half litre of Weissbier. Stick to something that combines better with swimming.

3. The restaurant in the Schöner Turm is very nice, and they do an interesting mixture of Bavarian and Thai food (if you can imagine that), but they do have a tendency to close the kitchen early if you take 4 excitable young ladies who rampage through about 6 plates of bread, steal further supplies from surrounding tables, and pretend to be aliens by balancing knives on their foreheads.

4. Gluehwein at the local Christmas market is now served in a cup shaped like a little boot. Not sure if this is progress or not. I tend to think not. But I definitely prefer the little Erding market to the enormously crowded one in Munich itself.

5. If you pack your suitcase full of Lebkuchen, Weihnachtsschokolade and other goodies for the trip home, and then entrust it to the tender mercies of British Airways baggage handlers, don't expect them to remain uncrushed.

6. Don't waste time vaguely pondering how nice it would be to get the hell out of South-East England for another few years in this pleasant corner of Europe...

Probably Poppy...

by Judy