The trailer for Australia made it look rubbish. So that, combined with the fact that it's had quite a few poor reviews (even the Australians thought it was mediocre), when I was told that we were planning to go and see it in the cinema, I was a little skeptical.
I shouldn't have been. It was superb.
Yes, it was long. Yes, it was a bit indulgent. But I thought it was interesting, it kept me interested throughout and with its beautiful cinematography and sound, it really does remind you of why the cinema will always be superior to sitting watching a movie at home. It also made me want to visit Australia... maybe that was one of the goals of the movie!
Baz Luhrmann's movies have struck a cord with me in the past, I loved Romeo and Juliet, I liked Moulin Rouge (HATED Sweaty Ballroom though). So I was expecting it to be hugely stylised to the same extent as his older movies, but I think he realised that it wouldn't have worked. So you can spot his watermarks on the film, but it's not too much.
A lot of people think that Australia could have been an hour shorter - but I disagree. I can't understand why people have such low tolerance for long movies. They whine when it's too short, they whine when it's too long. Crikey!
Hugh Jackman: Good, but a face like a bag of pig's arses. Nicole Kidman: Always the same. But it worked, and the little aboriginal kid was brilliant.
Needless to say, I disagree with the Canberra Times and it's a faux five to them for their review. It's a good movie, and I've already recommended Australia to my Mum.
Oracle BPM: A Big Pointless Mess?
When suggesting the use of an out of the box BPM product, most developers I know would object.
I've heard a few horror stories about Oracle BPM (previously known as Aqualogic BPM, and Fuego before that) which almost completely deterred me from trying it out.
In January 2008 I attended a training course on this technology, and left unconvinced. I couldn't figure out what situation could arise where this technology would make a good fit, considering its drawbacks (slightly ugly UI appearance, seemingly complicated acronyms, clunky and buggy developer IDE).
A few months passed, and I didn't hear much about BPM. Then I started work on a project which had a really tight timescale. It involved many different people who were all in different roles, and it had to link into a Sybase database to persist data and allow for full reporting and outgoing feeds.
I don't claim to be a Java expert (I'm anything but), so I needed something that'd do some of the work for me and save me plugging away at Java, JSP and CSS files, plus all the basic groundwork you need to do just to get a web application off the ground. Then someone took a deep breath, braced themselves for abuse and suggested 'Fuego'.
At first, I was completely opposed to using Fuego (which I quicly learned had been bought by Aqualogic, then in turn bought by Oracle). But I downloaded the Studio software and dug out the training manuals I had been given in the course in January.
It didn't take long to get up to speed with it, and with the new Eclipse based IDE, Oracle BPM became a little more convincing as the solution I was looking for. Given than I needed to develop something in a few weeks which managed user roles, complicated state transitions and persistence to Sybase, I decided to give it a go.
Two months down the line, the project has been deployed for user testing, we have a fully featured Sybase database which does almost everything we needed it to do, the user interface is ready (though a little clunky) and it handles roles and the necessary state transitions with ease. So far, the feedback from the customer has been excellent, and I'm now convinced that Oracle BPM is a worthy solution.
Though it needs some serious work in places. For example:
Unless you want to use it solely for workflow, with your own UI bolted on. In that case, leave well alone: there are better solutions out there.
I've heard a few horror stories about Oracle BPM (previously known as Aqualogic BPM, and Fuego before that) which almost completely deterred me from trying it out.
In January 2008 I attended a training course on this technology, and left unconvinced. I couldn't figure out what situation could arise where this technology would make a good fit, considering its drawbacks (slightly ugly UI appearance, seemingly complicated acronyms, clunky and buggy developer IDE).
A few months passed, and I didn't hear much about BPM. Then I started work on a project which had a really tight timescale. It involved many different people who were all in different roles, and it had to link into a Sybase database to persist data and allow for full reporting and outgoing feeds.
I don't claim to be a Java expert (I'm anything but), so I needed something that'd do some of the work for me and save me plugging away at Java, JSP and CSS files, plus all the basic groundwork you need to do just to get a web application off the ground. Then someone took a deep breath, braced themselves for abuse and suggested 'Fuego'.
At first, I was completely opposed to using Fuego (which I quicly learned had been bought by Aqualogic, then in turn bought by Oracle). But I downloaded the Studio software and dug out the training manuals I had been given in the course in January.
It didn't take long to get up to speed with it, and with the new Eclipse based IDE, Oracle BPM became a little more convincing as the solution I was looking for. Given than I needed to develop something in a few weeks which managed user roles, complicated state transitions and persistence to Sybase, I decided to give it a go.
Two months down the line, the project has been deployed for user testing, we have a fully featured Sybase database which does almost everything we needed it to do, the user interface is ready (though a little clunky) and it handles roles and the necessary state transitions with ease. So far, the feedback from the customer has been excellent, and I'm now convinced that Oracle BPM is a worthy solution.
Though it needs some serious work in places. For example:
- The Eclipse based IDE is full of annoying little bugs. Nothing which stops you working or causes you to lose work, just irritiating things like not being able to change the font on more than one Presentation control at once.
- The documentation is nothing short of horrific. It looks like it was done as an afterthought by someone who was drunk after the post-release party.
- There aren't enough options for customising the UI in the WorkSpace if you use a shared instance for Production deployments.
Unless you want to use it solely for workflow, with your own UI bolted on. In that case, leave well alone: there are better solutions out there.
Baptism of Blog: First Post
I could not figure out why ordinary people would write blogs. Unless you have an extremely cool job, expertise in some very interesting field or were hysterically funny, it seemed odd that people would waste time writing blogs in the vain hope that others would stumble upon it, find it interesting and heap praise and respect on the author.
There are probably many other people who think along those lines, and maybe they're right. They might say that writing about yourself is conceited, self obsessed and a waste of time. And up until recently, I would have agreed.
But I couldn't sleep the other night and was wandering in and out of a semi-conscious state, and ended up thinking about how close we are to the beginning of 2009. It brought back a feeling of shock that I had when we were beginning 2008, and a realisation that no matter how you look at it, time does fly. A year may pass, and aside from a few key events you may not remember much specific detail on what you did in that time. So I thought the same thought I've thought every year around this time: "I should get a diary".
Somewhere to record what I was working on, somewhere to write what I did that was of significance (to me). But then I realised that as an I.T boy, I have pretty much lost the ability to write coherently. I cannot join up my writing like an adult, I have to print in huge capital letters and it takes ages.
On the other hand, I can type quickly and I have access to the Internet for most of my day. Often I'll be watching TV and find myself picking up the laptop and aimlessly wandering around websites, so hopefully I can make use of that time to write something down which might be interesting to me in the future.
That, combined with the guaranteed loss of any diary I'd use, led me to start the debate in my mind about blogging and its ups and downs
But I realised that the in my opinion, the key is whether or not you care if people read your blog. I personally am not fussed either way. Writing a blog is a selfish way for me to focus on what I've been doing and thinking about, and if others choose to read it, then so be it. I hate the 'Look at me I'm so awesome I've got a sweaty face and I like this kind of music and girls are awesome!' stuff on Bebo etc, hopefully a blog is a bit lower-key.
Of course, there are a few interesting blogs out there by interesting people, with huge groups of avid readers and that's just marvellous.
So, without an extremely cool job, an industry leading expertise or a naturally hilarious personality, in a truly 'New Year's Resolution' way I hope that I can post fairly regularly and that I can build up a place I can come back to to remind myself of what has happened and the views I've taken on what's been going on around me. I'll write it as if I'm talking to the reader, but that doesn't mean I expect that there will be any readers.
And if anyone who does stumble across this blog doesn't find it interesting, I recommend using the 'Greatest Website' link on the right and then clicking on Random Article - then hopefully something that does interest you will appear.
Goal: Justify my blog writing. Result: Self approved success!
There are probably many other people who think along those lines, and maybe they're right. They might say that writing about yourself is conceited, self obsessed and a waste of time. And up until recently, I would have agreed.
But I couldn't sleep the other night and was wandering in and out of a semi-conscious state, and ended up thinking about how close we are to the beginning of 2009. It brought back a feeling of shock that I had when we were beginning 2008, and a realisation that no matter how you look at it, time does fly. A year may pass, and aside from a few key events you may not remember much specific detail on what you did in that time. So I thought the same thought I've thought every year around this time: "I should get a diary".
Somewhere to record what I was working on, somewhere to write what I did that was of significance (to me). But then I realised that as an I.T boy, I have pretty much lost the ability to write coherently. I cannot join up my writing like an adult, I have to print in huge capital letters and it takes ages.
On the other hand, I can type quickly and I have access to the Internet for most of my day. Often I'll be watching TV and find myself picking up the laptop and aimlessly wandering around websites, so hopefully I can make use of that time to write something down which might be interesting to me in the future.
That, combined with the guaranteed loss of any diary I'd use, led me to start the debate in my mind about blogging and its ups and downs
But I realised that the in my opinion, the key is whether or not you care if people read your blog. I personally am not fussed either way. Writing a blog is a selfish way for me to focus on what I've been doing and thinking about, and if others choose to read it, then so be it. I hate the 'Look at me I'm so awesome I've got a sweaty face and I like this kind of music and girls are awesome!' stuff on Bebo etc, hopefully a blog is a bit lower-key.
Of course, there are a few interesting blogs out there by interesting people, with huge groups of avid readers and that's just marvellous.
So, without an extremely cool job, an industry leading expertise or a naturally hilarious personality, in a truly 'New Year's Resolution' way I hope that I can post fairly regularly and that I can build up a place I can come back to to remind myself of what has happened and the views I've taken on what's been going on around me. I'll write it as if I'm talking to the reader, but that doesn't mean I expect that there will be any readers.
And if anyone who does stumble across this blog doesn't find it interesting, I recommend using the 'Greatest Website' link on the right and then clicking on Random Article - then hopefully something that does interest you will appear.
Goal: Justify my blog writing. Result: Self approved success!
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