A few days ago I blogged about Zen Presentation skills.

Here is a GREAT example of it in action. About 15 mins long. I really encourage you all to watch it. Good content too

While we're not strictly a XP dev shop, we occasionally do a bit of pairs programming to nut out difficult problems or when we are doing performance optimisation. Because we now have offices in Dunedin and Wellington this may need to be done remotely. Over the last couple of days I have spent quite a bit of time working on some SQL optimisation with our SQL Server guy and frankly, the remote approach is just about better than really being there. We've ben using Skype for voice and MSN Messenger 8 Remote Assistance to allow me to view and control his desktop. It really is rather good.

We could probably use MSN for voice instead, but, we didn't find the quality quite as good as Skype.

I reckon this is about the ultimate approach to pairs proigramming. It affords each dev their own machine and you also get yor own personal space- I remeber at a previous employer ho much I disliked helping one colleague who would just spend the whole time noisily chewing gum in your ear.

I'm not sure if MSN Assistance is firewall capable yet- we have an ISA Server in both WLG and DUD and a VPN tunnel means that it appears we are on the same network (thanks WIC and FX for the fast backbone). But frankly it makes the whole concept of pair programming just about doable from a logistical point of view.

I've just listened to Adam Cogan on Dot Net Rocks.

Adam talks about his cool rule enforcement applications for VS.Net and SQL.

You also get to find out that he takes his whole team (30 odd people) to a beach house once a year and they all get up and go for runs @ 6:30am..... Now there is an idea! It's a great DNR episode and it gives some great insight into why Adam is able to run such a tight development ship.

Listening on some new headphones that I just got. I find my Sennheiser HD25 muffs a bit uncomfortable for use at the office so I got some cheapish ($120 vs $600 for HD25) Sennheiser phones- HD465. They are open ear designs- i.e. they just sit as flat pads on your ears so REALLY comfortable.

Well. For the last few months I've pretty much fallen off the face of the Earth blogging wise. A few reasons:

1. We've been working really hard.
   We've been polishing off some product development which means that we've had to work hard on both the product and ensuring that we remain profitable and able to pay the bills.
2. I've shifted to Wellington
   So we've now opened a Wellington Office. Will post some piccies soon. This has meant some reasonable time spent geting stuff organised. Yesterday we got the ISA boxes at each end talking to each other. It's really cool so I now have a Dunedin IP subnet and a Wellington IP subnet and we can route between them over a L2TP over IPSec tunnel. Means I am getting 15ms pings from WLG to DUD- it really is just like being there.
3. I've been putting in some good gym time
   Been doing a lot of Spinning at the Gym which is really kicking the BF% down. Have paired back the weights for the last wee while but I'm going to kick it back up again soon.
4. MTBing.
   I'm back riding a mountain bike quite a bit again. Riding to work most days too. Got a nice 2nd hand Specialized Epic Pro on eBay that I picked up in Vancouver last month.

I'll blog a bit more detail on some of these things over the next wee while. But anyway- going to make a real effort to blog more 'cos I've been slack.

OH! And if you haven't already noticed I tend to majorly over use hyphens- not sure why- I just do. I've found someone elase who does too! I'm reading Robert Fisk's book on the Middle East at the moment- he apostrophises too... will post a detailed review on the book once I've finished. It is heavy going but very interesting.

A blog tyhat I had not come across before floated through my inbox this morning. A good post comparing the Zen style of Apple with the somewhat noisy style of MSFT. It's a good post- design and hipness has never been a strong point for MS.

http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/2005/11/the_zen_estheti.html

Anyway. A good blog if you are a regular presenter (or are trending toward becoming one...)

Windows Communication Foundation and Windows Workflow Foundation now have Go Live licenses.

Beta 2 of WF was released to the public today and it's got some great changes.

Make sure that you head to http://www.windowsworkflow.net/ to pick it up.

Make sure that you also grab the Hands on Labs from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=5DF74E3B-FB51-4A94-A11D-DFF70288A8BB&displaylang=en

These give worked examples of almost all the key functionality in Windows Workflow Foundation. The team @ Kognition have spent the last month or so re-working and re-building these labs for Beta2.

My favourite of the labs is #10. We provide a fully worked example showing how to

1. Host the WF Designer in your own application
2. Set properties on your workflow activites at design time- including showing you how easy it is to do activity binding in your own designer.
3. Save and compile the workflows
4. Run the workflow

My dad got me a Grillslinger for Xmas.

I was SOOOOO excited..... used a fair few times already.

I know one person who REALLY needs one of these to go with his new setup.

Well.... I had high hopes... but unfortunatly ViewTrip is HOPELESS...

When you download to your calendar (using some shitty 3rd party app rather than plain old vCal entries) it does everything in a single timezone.

Thus I am flying SFO-YVR before I even start on my WLG-AKL-SFO leg of the journey. What a HEAP of SHIT.

The useless inert nothing who devised this shitty implementation would be fired on the spot from my software org. I mean that's just hopeless.... how hard would it be to do this properly with plain old vCal entries.

Sheesh!

Looks like Rod is travelling shortly too.

I'm off to TechReady2 in the US (a big MSFT internal conference) to present on Windows Workflow Foundation. Leaving Friday. Spending a few extra days there... may go skiing if the weather is great and I'm not feeling too poor!

Anyway, I was about to fill in my Iteinerary into Outlook- which is a royal PITA and started my usual bleet about how airlines should send me vCal entries for all my flights and shit. Then I remembered that my friendly travel agent (Toby Mann @ Edinburgh Way FLight Center in Dunedin who is FANTASTIC) had sent me some details about this thing called ViewTrip. It turns out that Rod was thinking exactly the same thing at the same time....

ViewTrip talks directly to Galileo which is a big trave agent booking system and contans all your itinerary information along with the ability to d/l to your calendar. Marvelous!

See a sample here it includes rental cars and hotels and all that crap.... VERY cool!

From the FAQ:

11.  What information is transferred from the ViewTrip itinerary to my electronic calendar?

Confirmed air segments will transfer as appointments into your calendar. Car and Hotel segments will transfer as events into your calendar. These appointments and events can be opened for further reservation segment details.

I needed a good pad to stay at in Christchurch last week and found a place called Livingspace. It looks like it’s designed primarily as long term student accommodation but they leave some of the studio rooms available for general hotel type use. It’s really central in Lichfield St. It’s actually built in an old building that used to be the flat of a friend of mine in Christchurch. Brought back some crazy memories of weekend Chch benders.

Has the cheapest hotel broadband I have ever seen. Cost me $2.68 for two nights worth of my usual work. Had CNN. No Gym but they assured me one is coming.

Hope we’ll see more of these sorts of places cropping up. At $85 per night it was perfect for my needs.

Been spending a decent chunk of time doing gym cardio recently and I’ve come to a conclusion for cardio equipment manufacturers.

Where you have a machine with variable resistance, say 0 to 20, the default when you jump on the machine should be 10, not 0. Seem to be so many people at the gym who think that doing 120rpm for 20mins at level 0 on the stationary bike constitutes a workout.

I stayed in Richmond Sat and Sun night before presenting at the Nelson .NET Users Group today. I stayed at the Destiny Motel and it did a pretty good job of meeting my essential home away from home requirements. It had CNN, Broadband and…. 50m down the road BJs Gym. I got a couple of sessions in, Upper body on Sunday (which kicked ass) and Lower Body this morning (which was a bit average- wasn’t feeling all that on game). But anyway. BJs was a great wee gym. Good free weights and machines. Cardio room was OK- gear was a bit old and all tended to be pro-sumer grade stuff which 100kg+ers like me tend to feel like they’re gonna break.

The staff @ BJs were really friendly, other gym bunnies were pleasant. I even met another whitewater kayaker (Rieds Farm T Shirt gave it away) who I was sure I recognised but I think it was recognition from a canoe polo tournament rather than slalom.

Anyway. If you’re staying or living in Richmond it’s a convenient gym. Off to Bodyworks in Wellington tomorrow.

*This post was written a while ago... just posting it now.

So I’m travelling from Picton to Wellington at the moment. Schedules meant that the best option was to sail on the MV Santa Regina with Bluebridge. I can’t remember if I ever blogged about my ‘Freaks and Geeks’ HNL-YVR Redeye with Air Canada, the one where all the cabin crew were 60+ and they ran out of seatbelt extenders (due to too many fat Americn passengers), but anyway, this is the maritime equivalent! No that’s a bit harsh but it is certainly arguable that cheap air travel has altered the average demographic of the ferries. It’s actually not that bad a boat and the Disney movies, Modern Day Cinderella and Freaky Friday with the hot wee chick off Mean Girls, help to pass the time.

The boat is full of passengers of the fury kind and they make the whole boat stink- they parked a whole load of stock trailers straight under the dining room… I guess most of the fury critters are headed for North Island farms (god knows why we interisland bloody livestock) although I think some will also be destined for Aro Valley and West Auckland and at least one looks set to get straight off the ferry and take himself and his blanket to Cuba Mall.

Anyway. What a bitchy post. It’s actually not at all bad. The schedule time was really convenient. It was well priced and it’s comfortable enough- great to see some competition on the route. I’ll be sure to consider the Bluebridge when I head back to the Coast for some boating later this year.

It's funny how you really only start to vlue something if you might lose it. So it is with the Awesome Gorge section of the Kaituna River. OP Energy want to build YATLHS (Yet Another Tiny Little Hydro Scheme) on it. It's not in the guide book and from experience the first place people are going to look for some indiction that it's actually run is in Google. So.It is run. Herewith my section notes in the style of Graham Charles' great New Zealand Whitewater book.

Class: III
Level: As per the Okere Falls section
Gauge: Gates on Lake Rotoiti outflow
Length: About 2km
Gradient: Not Sure
Time: 25mins
Put In: Continue on from Kaituna Play Hole or Putn below Trout Pool Falls
Take Out: Sharp Left Hand Bend. Orange Spray Paint on River Right. Take out River Right. DO NOT MISS THIS TAKE OUT!
Shuttle: Walk back over farm tracks- see hot tip.
Character: A bit oike what would happen if they trippled the flow, halved the width and added 100m high gorge walls to a theme park water ride. A mixture of meandering bends and continuous roller coaste ride class III whitewater. Awesome Scenery and character- hence the name.
Hot Tip: Take a seak kayak ortage trolley to wheel your boats back along the portage.

The Aweome Gorge section of the Kaituna  is one of the most unique pieces of whitewater that I've paddled in New Zealand. It is wilderness paddling little more than 30 minutes from Rotorua. It is like a rollercoaster ride through lush native bush and a deep and narrow gorge. It's not difficult wite water, but, gie that Gnarly Gorge (a place you really don't want to go) is just around the corner from the take out you DO NOT wnt to go swimming in Awesome Gorge.

It starts out from the Trout Pool falls as a meandering arm stram and then slowly picks up pace through a few class one riffle rapids. Then the river backs off again before slowly pickng up pace as the gorge begins to narrow. The gorge narrows, the corners becme tighter and everything starts to push along and then suddenly the gorge tightens righ up and you're into a section of about 300m of continuous Class III white water. There are no real eddies to speak of and it's a great place to take paddling tourists without giving them too mch background. By the bottom their eyes are just wide open.

Once you exit the fast paced section you will roud a couple of corners before the rar of Awesome Gorge falls beckons. This is a drop of about 3 meter that is very similar in nature to the top drop of the Powerhouse rapid. Run it just off river left with a big boof.

A couple more corners and you are at the take out. Look for the bright orange paint. You do not want to miss this take ou.

So I'm in WLG today doing a mixure of work and meetings. Currently squatting in a Pay and Display Carpark sitting on CafeNet. What a fantastic service!