SpringSource dmServer Training

After following the CoreSpring training course a couple weeks ago, I'm back in the training room this week for a follow up training on the SpringSource dmServer. This training is being given by the same company, and indeed, even the same trainer. Nonetheless, there are a few practical differences - this time we're based in in an old Herenhuis in the city centre of Amsterdam, a far cry from the tower blocks of Sloterdijk two weeks ago. Amongst the 8 course participants I am the exception to the all the rules - both the only girl, and the only non-native Dutch speaker. As a result, the trainer was able to give the presentations in Dutch - such an unusual occurrence for him that he occasionally forgot and lapsed back into English.

Like the previous course, this was a good mixture of theory and practice - beginning with introductions to OSGi and the dmServer, and then on the second day going into greater details in how to develop OSGi-enabled applications for the dmServer. Whilst the dmServer is still fairly young, and there are some important improvements & extensions planned for the upcoming releases, it looks like an interesting product to keep an eye on, especially given our own experiences at trying to deploy OSGi-enabled applications within the office without any additional tooling or application support.

RSCM North West Europe

Amongst cat chaos, open university assignments, and of course, work, I've been busy over the last couple of months with another project - building a new website for the Royal School of Church Music in North West Europe.

After much discussion, and some pauses in the process along the way, I've just uploaded the new site, at http://www.rscm-nw-europe.net/.

The new site has been built using a content management system - Joomla 1.5 - which allows the contributors to update the site without having to worry about all the technical details. It's been an interesting learning process - dabbling a little in PHP and CSS, which are not technologies that I use on a day to day basis.

Bamboo Graphics Tablet

I bought myself graphics tablet a month or so ago, but due to other commitments, I hadn't got much further than installing it.

Since my latest OU assignment involves writing an illustrated essay, I've been trying it out this weekend, and am slowly getting the hang of using it (although I do still surprise myself by sending the cursor to unexpected places when I have the mouse in one hand, and the pen in the other).

Here is my first drawing, created using Inkscape.

Toodledo

Being frequently frustrated by the fact that jobs for my personal todo list pop in to my mind at work, and that work items occur to me at home, I've been searching for a more convenient method of capturing them than my current solution of scraps of paper, most of which end up screwed up in the bin before I ever take action on them.

The solution, I hope, is a web-based tool called Toodledo, which, in addition to providing a nice web interface, has an iPhone app (meaning I can check and update my list from my iPod in bed!), a Firefox plugin (making it easy to quickly add tasks at work, without logging into the toodledo site) and the possibility to export to iCal and Google Calendar, amongst others.

I've bee using it for a couple weeks now, and so far I'm finding it very useful. Whilst my list of tasks is still growing, I have at least managed to complete a few as well.

(If you want to try it, using this link will indicate that I have referred you)