IASA San Diego ITARC Next Month

IASA's San Diego ITARC (IT Architecture Regional Conference) is coming October 15th and 16th, and I look forward to attending both days.  I'm especially happy to see an architecture event come to San Diego, my other options generally being San Francisco and Chicago – not very convenient.

Plus, what a deal!  ITARC registration costs no more than airfare to a typical conference.

San Diego ITARC's speaker lineup, including IBM's (and IASA's own) Scott Ambler, looks great; and its sessions schedule looks good too. I can hardly wait!

Wait for 802.11n?

Over the last couple months, I encountered several articles that advised waiting to adopt 802.11n. One addressed large enterprises and another addressed small businesses. Others addressed whoever would read, though.

While large enterprises and small businesses face difficulties that may warrant waiting (lots of distributed resources and limited resources respectively), the increasingly common wisdom that everyone should wait on 802.11n perplexes me. I've been happily using 802.11n since January; and my Cat-6 cables are out of sight unless I want Gigabit Ethernet for something particularly intensive. I just consistently enjoy a 130+ Mbps link with no wires. Fast Ethernet is done on my network.

Interoperability issues? None. Downshifts to 802.11g speeds? Nope. Surely I use only one manufacturer's products then, right? No, I'm using a mix of a few random vendors' draft products. Try as I have, I just haven't been able to stub my toe on any of the concerns I've read. Frankly, as I near a year with 802.11n, I can't imagine going back to cables, 802.11g, or (Lord, help me!) 802.11b. ...would never know it from all that I've read since I took the plunge, though! 🙂

To large enterprises waiting on the sidelines, follow the progress of the few that are already playing. Network World's article on Morrisville State College's 900-AP rollout is a good place to start, and Morrisville isn't alone. However, to individuals and small businesses with the knowhow to configure anything 802.11 already, who are sick of cables to get decent mobile performance, who may already have an occasion to add wireless gear (a (couple) new notebook(s), a long-overdue broadband router - whatever), waiting on 802.11n doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Halo 3 Launch in Irvine, CA

One last thing before I head to bed.  I'm going to the Halo 3 launch in Irvine next Monday night and think it will be pretty cool.

I don't play video games much anymore (since I lost about a year of saved progress in Gladius on my Xbox), but Halo was incredible; and I have a friend who helped test Halo 3, which personalizes the game for me a bit.

Anyway, I'm excited to go and report what I see!

Portugese Grand Prix and AMA at Laguna Seca

For the first time in a while, I tuned in to a lot of racing on SPEED over a weekend. On Sunday I watched MotoGP at Estoril Circuit in Portugal and AMA Supersport and Superbike at Laguna Seca in Monterey, California. What a blast! 

MotoGP

Why MotoGP reportedly has marketing problems is beyond me, certainly judging by the Portugese Grand Prix. Sunday's race was fast (of course), twisty, and full of great sweeping camera views across drool-worthy elevation changes; it was competitive; and riders pushed the limits of their world-class equipment. I like watching drag and oval-track racing, but come on — and without the protections of a five- or six-point harness, a chassis, and a cage no less! Whatever the problem is, I don't think it's MotoGP's product.

Plus, this season boasts a classic underdog story. I don't particularly root for Valentino Rossi, but I was cheering for him at the top of my lungs when he won on Sunday. After his cursed 2006 season, he effectively entered 2007 with underdog status in my mind; and that's enough for this American. (Plus, go Yamaha!) 👏

Anyway, here are my limited impressions of Sunday's Portugese Grand Prix:

• Dani Pedrosa
• smooth inputs judging by his on-board camera – like he was yawning at 40 MPH, only nearer 200 MPH
  
• looks like he just uses his middle finger to brake – interesting because someone suggested middle-finger braking to me recently
  
• s~q~u~i~r~m~y bike during turn entry 😳

• Valentino Rossi
• dizzying at times to watch braking, aggressively lifting his rear tire (My Lord!)
  
• bike agile as heck through the chicanes (Yep. ...sounds like an R6.) 😁
  

AMA

...more to come regarding AMA Supersport and Superbike at Laguna Seca. ...must sleep. 🥱

NetBeans 6.0 Beta 1 Ready

If you haven't read the news elsewhere already,... 😊 ...NetBeans 6.0 Beta 1 is ready.

I had occasional difficulties using pre-beta milestones on Vista over the last couple several months, tinkering after-hours; but I'm generally impressed with NetBeans 6.0.

Beta 1 should have fewer remaining wrinkles to iron – and no more JDK changes.  The final release should be dreamy.

Blogstipation

Just living life offline in recent months – working, working on and riding my motorcycle, visiting with family, and corresponding with friends, I've been too busy to post. ...plenty to share but I haven't yet found the rhythm to post in harmony with everything else I'm doing. Oh, well. That's blogstipation I guess. :-)

Embrace GIMP

I recently found myself tinkering with graphics for various projects, and GIMP served me well as it has consistently for nearly 10 years, across numerous Windows and Linux versions.

Initial pass with GIMP's Crop Tool. Crop Tool options (left), cropping on the canvas (right). *

What surprises me is how many people remain unaware GIMP exists – and what a great tool it is. Of course, full-time graphics and photo professionals typically sidestep GIMP for Illustrator and Photoshop, just as I use Visual Studio instead of SharpDevelop for my .NET development; but for me, others whose work calls for occasional graphics hacking, and many hobbyists' needs, GIMP is a wonderful, free tool.

If you've never heard of it or used it, embrace GIMP!

* Screenshot courtesy of the GIMP team under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.