Working while traveling?   So, I've been referring to myself as a sort of Digital Gypsy for a few years now. Until this past year, this was not a completely accurate statement. I had a condo, home base, paid property taxes; what ever would constitute as "normal everyday American" typical living. Enter, moving onto the sailboat and just leaving the rented condo behind for someone else to worry about, and taking off! So how do you maintain enough stability, without loosing freedom? To maintain a place to receive paychecks, paper correspondence, and simply ensure that you have the things necessary to provide a prospective client that you're not a vagabond, get a mail service. We use St. Brendan's Isle mail service (http://sbimailservice.com) another service if you'd like to comparison shop, is Mail Forwarding Services in Oregon (http://www.mailforwardingservices.com). Having these services even if you have a permanent home address is wonderful for anyone wh...

Never Confuse Selling with Implementing I just heard these words said for the second time in as many weeks.I've recently been involved in my first sales / POC engagement, and it was an eye opener. I think we all have some responsibility to "sell" our product, skills, ideas, etc... No matter if we're the technical help, or the sales professionals. The issue as I've seen it comes in when a techical person is asked to perform in a sales capacity. Sales by nature, doesn't seem to focus on the technical aspect of anything outside the "FAB" talk. "FAB" "Features, Advantage, and Benefit" are usually decided upon by marketing and the talking points are well established. This is why it is probably a little easier to "Sell" an idea or product this way. As a technical resource, the only selling and marketing information we are privy too or care to study are the standard set of specs. Then we're off to try and figure the "t...

So you've been on a project for three weeks, and it becomes apparent that things are not going well. What should you do? As an implementation specialist, developer, or integrator do you have any more responsibility than to "just do your job"? Though some if not most projects are full of political motives and egos. Trying to point out flaws is almost never met with a welcoming attitude. You have perhaps a very few set of options, but options none the less; so, what are you to do? Plug along, and let the project manager blame you for being slow or ill prepared. This option does nothing for anyone involved, you look bad, your project manager is stressed, and the client is loosing faith all the way around. Point a finger, and highlight the flaws in the plan. This option will surely make your project manager defensive at best and down-right hostile at worst. In either case the client might get what they want, but depending on how highlight the flaws you might alienate your PM....

So you're going to upgrade your Actuate iServer implementation. After you read this, you might consider moving to the 'Cloud' with your deployment. Then again, it really isn't to difficult to do but you'll need to know how to apply version specific jar files and recompile. On the topic of moving your reporting enterprize to the 'Cloud' check this article, where Actuate's CEO talks about being architected to 'move from the warehouse to the cloud'. http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2273651/actuate-birt-open-source Now the secret to upgrading the iServer RSSE... Really it is a matter of first simply extracting your iServer installation and deploying the iServer. Then you will have a folder named /acrsse/. Here you'll find a few example Security Extensions. Pick the one that you have implemented for your custom RSSE, then pull all the bin/jars out and use those in your RSSE project. Compiling against those, and changing the version number in your conf...

If I've been asked once I've been asked a thousand times; "how long will it take to create / convert / build / etc... ?" So, how do you answer this question? For example each report request is like a custom implementation of a one-off design. Sure, a report request is rather limited by what a user is asking for. Sometimes it is a request that the user wants some information based on how some other information is reported. For example; "I'd like a report that looks like the Marketing and Sales Report, telling me how many inquiries my reps are answering per hour.? Sounds simple enough; basically locate the source of the data, do some simple math and use the template (or the Marketing and Sales Report as a template) to build the report. Ultimately you'll be asked "so, when do you think I'll have it?" What they want to hear is probably expressed in minutes or hours. And some tools and frameworks can make this happen ( BIRT Report Studio ) but yo...

So, I'm logging out to catch a flight. Code freeze is tomorrow, and code release is scheduled for next week. Why then, do some users wait until NOW to tell me about corrections and tweaks to reports? -- (...yes, a couple... even I am not perfect!) -- My answer; they just don't care until they're reminded of the code freeze and impending release. Procrastination at its finest! It's a good thing I am using something as flexible and easy to modify as the BIRT Reporting Application. Changing things like column header names, some data type formatting, even script logic on various report elements is not a big deal (most of the time). This reminds me, that it is always a good thing to take the responsibility as a developer, to create a 'sign-off' check list. Trouble is, I HATE lists! But worse than that, I REALLY HATE being late to the Airport! I think I'll create a check-list and post it here (later)... why not procrastinate? everyone else does!

In Canada again! Longterm assignments are good, but they do have their drawbacks. First and possibly the biggest drawback is the "boredom factor". Secondly, it seems to me (possibly related to boredom factor), they longer I go, the longer the weeks seem to get. Now that I have gotten that off my chest, this is not a bad assignment at all. I most certainly have had worse. The best assignments are usually a blend of three things; 1-Location, 2-interesting / cool people, and 3-technology of interest. There is nothing worse than being on an assignment where you can't stand the location, if for no other reason than the office is just plain crappy. But, even in a nice location, with very cool geographic and environmental surroundings if the people suck, the job sucks. And finally if the first two items on the list are okay, I can live with the technology being boring or sucky... at least for a little while.