I smelt Peter’s workstation before I saw it.

The soft scent of plant life intermingled with the office air conditioning. I knew I was close.

Peter was at his desk, hands on chin, eyes transfixed on a computer screen soaked in Java code. The smell was coming from numerous pot plants scattered around his desk, his floor and PC.

I coughed and his eyes twisted with his head. His hand not moving from his chin. I smiled, he stared.

“Hi, Peter”, I said, “we talked on the phone yesterday”.

Peter was wearing an orange tee-shirt emblazoned with a message about ending whaling. His hair was cropped into a pig tale and his eyes were framed by a set of round glasses. I noticed a small pot cradled by his knees, its captive plant seemingly close to God.

“Sure”, he said. “Have a seat”.

He moved the plant carefully to the floor and grabbed a visitors chair which was covered with pot plants. He moved each one to the floor and brushed the seat. I sat slowly, sensing the grey dirt beneath my navy blue pants.

“So tell me, have you worked out the cause of the over payment.?”

“Nope”, he replied, his fingers travelled back to the keyboard.

Peter’s job was commission system support. He looked after a system which was responsible for the calculation of hundreds of thousands of commission payments for agents and sales representatives across the country.

It is a critical system, it is also a terrible failure.

Peter is the third IT support person in 6 months.

As I sat watching Peter I could still remember the taste of the wine and cheese from the commission system launch party and the sounds of back slapping from the smug executives.

The commission system was promoted as a major success. Delivered within time and budget. It was described as the reason why our organisation had devoted itself to the Agile mantra. It was all the things that Agile promised.

It was a promise around giving users what they wanted, about building a system with them and not against them. It was about building great software and not documentation. The developers loved it. The executives grew rich from it.

Everyone else suffered from it.

Peter looked at me and said, ” I think the problem is in the rules engine, I have spent the last three weeks documenting it.”. He clicked on the screen and a series of diagrams appeared.

Peter clicked through screen after screen. Endless diagrams, endless connections, endless notes.

“You did all this yourself.?” I asked.

“Yes”, he replied, “Commissions was an agile project, no documentation, just code and Javadoc you can not understand.”. Peter smiled and continued to click.

“Why did the project team build its own rules engine.?” I asked.

Peter looked at me, his eyes blank, “Commissions was an agile project”, he said, “That means no memories and very fragile”.

I left Peter that day wondering if anyone cares about software maintenance any more.

Software lives much longer than its development cycle. When we create it we should care about its long future and make sure it can be understood by all those who will be part of its story. We should do this for Peter’s sake and for the many like him.

The conventional wisdom was that when America caught a cold, Australia caught pneumonia.
The global financial crisis has exposed that connection has ended. America has caught pneumonia and Australia has a runny nose.

Australia’s economic health is tied to China, India and Indonesia. ( a country which is continually ignored by most commentators in Australia).

The Indonesia economy is growing rapidly. It will become an important economic partner for Australia.

I have another prediction. Australia will become a significant world energy exporter within a decade ( maybe earlier – by signicant I mean in the top three).

Gas and Uranium will be the most important energy commodities over the next 10 years. Australia holds 40% of the world’s uranium and its gas reserves will eventually begin to rival the reserves found in the middle east.

I think this will have a dark side. I suspect China will dislike this situtation and I predict troubles ahead. The challenge for Australia will be to build economic, political and miltary ties with India and Indonesia as a means to counter the Chinese grumblings.

The standard JDK that comes from Sun does not allow key sizes greater than 128 bits. Longer keys improve encryption strength, hence if your country allows the installation of longer encryption keys then you can download the JDK updates from Sun.

The current Sun download page has a link at the bottom which says : “Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files 6″.

If you click on this click you will see a zip file which contains some JAR files which are updates to the standard JDK files.

Follow the README instructions in this file.

This is always a dangerous thing to do – make predicitions. But I thought I would have some fun and see whether my few readers share similar feelings.

1) Pakistan will either completely fall to the Taliban or become a broken state.

While the recent miltitary offensive in the Swat Valley has pushed back the Taliban, it is only a temporary victory. The Taliban will return. The state that we know as Pakistan today will either completely disappear or will be broken into several parts, some containing Taliban influence, others containing what remains of the current state.

2) The US will bounce along the bottom for some time.

The US will not recover quickly. It will bounce along the economic bottom for some time ( maybe years). Unemployment will be stubborn, staying at about 10% or more for a considerable period of time.

3) Australia will economically out perform every single advanced Western country.

Australia with its vast natural resources and its geograhic location that is close to China and India will experience a economic growth rate that exceeds all other advanced Western countries. This will largely go unnoticed by the rest of the world. While the growth will not be spectaclar, it will be enough to keep unemployment to a level that is less than 8%.

4) Iraq will eventually become stable amd prosperous

Iraq will emerge as a democratic and stable country. Its success will bring about a historical revision in the Bush era. Many will think Bush’s policies were correct.

It occurred 5 years ago on a train platform under a blue sky and a blazing sun.

I was waiting for my morning commuter train to save me from the heat and the boredom.

I felt a hand touch my shoulder.

The hand was connected to Tom Wilson. A former work colleague and casual friend. Tom is likable. His thin and sometimes pale features hide a warm personality and optimistic beliefs.

“Well I have made it, I am a millionaire”, he said with a beaming smile and a waving hand gesture.

My reaction was puzzled. Even for Tom this was a big statement.

“Win the lotto”, I joked.

“No, I just finalised the purchase of my 5th house, the new tenants move into tomorrow”.

“You mean you owe a million dollars”, I replied while placing a soothing hand on his shoulder and breaking a weak smile.

“This is good debt”, he said.

He moved away from my grasp and pulled out a blue paperback book from his backpack. The book’s pages were frayed at the edges and some chapters had been marked with yellow sticky notes. This book was loved.

Tom held the book in front of me while he read out the title. It was a self help book concerning investing in property.

“This book has changed my life”, he said as he turned the book and looked at the cover. His eyes portraying romantic love.

Tom returned my gaze. His smile faded as he read my doubt.

“Good debt is where someone else pays for it”, he said.

“My tenants and the Government via the tax system will pay off my debt.”

“Bad debt is where you have to pay”, he said while pointing at my chest, his face laced with conviction.

I sensed his strong belief and I decided to relax to avoid a simple disagreement.

“Seems you might be on a winner”, I said weakly. My eyes looking at the book and avoiding his gaze.

He handed the book to me and placed his hand back into his bag.

Another book emerged, this time with a bright red cover and a picture of a man walking up a stock market graph as if it was a giant ladder.

“More good debt?”, I asked while Tom held the book in front me.

“Yes. But I think this is even better. The book has graphs which show that the stock market over the long term has a better return than property,” he said while flicking through the pages searching for that elusive bookmark.

“How do you mange to get all of this money from the bank.?”, I asked.

The question caused Tom to stop page flicking and look at me.

“The banks are smart”, he said confidently.

“They know this is a sure fire way to make more money. Stocks increase in value, property prices increase. My wealth increases and so does theirs.”

Tom moved closer to me, holding the property book to my chest.

“Here, have a read of this book over the weekend, you will be convinced this is a winner. Everyone is doing it.”

I knew Tom was right about that.

I had other friends whose recent excuse for not attending a weekend barbecue was not wanting to miss out on a great house auction in our neighbourhood.

Our short conversation was interrupted by the train thundering on to the platform.

I held on to the property book and Tom returned the stock market book back to his bag.

Tom’s eyes reconnected with mine, I sensed he wanted me to understand.

“Don’t miss out on this”, he said

“There is money everywhere at moment and anyone can make it”.

Tom moved off quickly to join the pushing passengers. I just held my place and looked at the book.

Good debt and bad debt, I thought. Makes sense. But something tugged away at my conviction. A doubt I could not remove nor explain.

I read the book that weekend and returned it to Tom by posting it in the mail. I was avoiding his questions and disappointment because my lingering doubt hadn’t formed into a argument.

I just “felt” this was wrong.

Like many casual friends Tom faded from my life. He left his job to concentrate on investing and his circle of friends became those interested in property and stocks. I sensed many of them didn’t catch trains.

Two weeks ago I saw the property book that Tom had given to me that day. It was buried within a sale bin in a bookstore. Across the front cover a sticker of “$5.00″ had been placed across the title.

Like his book, Tom didn’t make it either. A gun had decided his fate. The trigger pulled by his own hand. I was told he had nothing left when he died. A broken marriage and bankruptcy had taken it all.

I purchased the book and walked out of the store.

I tossed the book into the first rubbish bin I could find.

This copy was not going to take anyone else.

I have been playing around with the screen design for password safe. I personally like the concept of creating a design around a metaphor. The concept of a “safe” brings these visual ideas.

1) You OPEN and CLOSE a safe
2) You can see the contents as a group of things
3) You pick up items to view

This suggests some concepts around the screen design. The main page is divided into panels. The status panel has the OPEN and CLOSE buttons and a field which shows what state the safe is in.

The contents panel shows the items in the safe.

The panel at the bottom will eventually contain a read only text area which shows the contents of the particular item.

My software organisation, ReedmanIT, has begun developing a series of products which it intends to provide as demonstration products.

The first product will be a free Password Safe which will eventually be available for download. The product will be used for IT education as it will provide a platform to talk about the basic principles of system development.

Just recently began posting again at IT Tool Box. I am going through a terrible process at work at the moment – layoffs, or known in Australia as retrenchments.

Here is my post.

A rain soaked sky smacked against my umbrella. I was standing on a train station, waiting for my early morning commute.

Behind me were a tightly packed group of fellow travelers, each one holding on to a small patch of earth under a wooden roof.

I had decided to stand in the rain. A hundred pair of eyes peering out from under the roof convinced me of the futility of a challenge.

The wind began to increase causing the rain to blow sideways. I lowered my umbrella, turning it in the direction of the wind.

As it lowered I saw a dark figure standing close to me. Wrapped in a black raincoat, the figure’s face was shinning white.

I knew the figure. His name was Tom. Java programmer and a uncomfortable work colleague.

Tom and I had history. Nothing serious. Just two people who viewed software development from different ends of the lifecycle.

Tom’s eyes flickered with recognition when he saw me. His face expressionless.

“Hi”, I muttered, my voice barely creeping above the sound of the wind and rain.

A thin smile creased his face. I took this as his reply.

“How is the marketing project going.?”, I asked.

The smile was replaced with a stare. This wasn’t a question it was a challenge.

Everyone has a marketing project in their history. A crushing schedule, inept project management and a set of requirements that changed as soon as you had finished typing them.

However this project had something extra, it had Tom.

Tom’s Java skills were legendary. Tom created web frameworks, standards and endless new tools which the programmers shared. Tom created stuff, piles and piles of programming stuff.

But the customer wanted a system and this is where Tom missed the point.

I don’t blame Tom. In every Java project I have worked on I have found numerous Tom’s. They see the project as a vehicle for their creativity, the customer requirements just get in the way.

My umbrella curled outwards as a gust of wind channelled itself underneath my grip. Rain poured into the gap, I was soaked.

Tom smiled and sliently moved to a spot closer to the edge of the platform.

When the train arrived Tom turned to me and said “Marketing is going well, I just finished the new automated deployment tool. We can now deploy much faster”.

“Great”, I replied, as I huddled under the broken umbrella.
“But what about the project.?” I yelled as Tom stepped into the train carriage.

Before the doors closed, I saw Tom’s face, he didn’t care.

I like JavaDB.

It is simple, but powerful.

JavaDB supports an identity column. This column auto increments each time an insert is created. The increment is defined when the table is created.

This feature is useful for primary keys. Other databases use a similar sequencing concept.

This is an example of the identity column.

CREATE TABLE APPLICATION_TYPES
(
APPLICATION_TYPE_ID INTEGER NOT NULL GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY (START WITH 1, INCREMENT BY 1),
TYPE_OF_APPLICATION VARCHAR(50),
UNIQUE (APPLICATION_TYPE_ID)
)

Note you also need to identify the primary key as an index.