• XPages are based on Sun’s Java Server Faces (JSF) technology, which is quite popular and innovative.
• Domino Designer 8.5 mimics Microsoft’s Visual Studio in many ways.  You can edit XPage source and/or design, just like in MS Visual Studio.  In face, the new features of Designer 8.5 are almost identical to that of MS Visual Studio that MS developers should feel right at home i.e. a low learning curve
• You will need to increase the amount of RAM that you have on your computer to use Domino Designer 8.5, because it consumes about 1/2 Gb of RAM (heap)
• The “DDE” (Domino Designer in Eclipse) is the new perspective that is used for Notes apps being developed in Eclipse
• Searching in Designer 8.5 is much easier now, because it uses Eclipse’s search engine
• You can compare previous versions of XPages to your current version by using the History, to correct any mistakes or look at differences in files
• XPages provides a complete separation of the data from the user interface
• Domino Documents and Views are only used as data sources and do not control the user interface in XPages.
• CSS style classes are a better approach to design, and embraced in Xpages
• The best book for learning XPages is “Mastering XPages” by Martin Donnelly, Mark Wallace and Tony McGuckin
• There is very good AJAX support for Xpages, particularly in new features such as Type ahead and partial page refresh
• Themes are also complimentary to CSS style sheets, only application wide rather than page wide in XPages
• Designer 8.5 allows you to reuse any Java libraries you may have, and is friendly with JDBC code and XML.
• XPages solutions are browser-based
• To learn XPages, you should start by choosing an application that is smaller in scale
• Xpages are built for controls, so one should spend time learning about the different types of controls, their properties, and how to use them.
• There are several categories of controls:
• Display controls: label, image, computed
• Container controls: data table, include page, panel, repeat, section, tabbed panel, table, view
• Custom controls: (specific controls that you make based on display/container controls and other parts)
• Lotusscript is NOT an option in Xpages
• Almost everything in XPages will have a style tag
• CSS styling should be done at the BEGINNING of a project, not at the end.  So should the creation of Documents and Views as data sources for XPages.
• OpenNTF is a great website for getting code that others have already developed, and it may save you considerable time and energy if you find code there to use in your own projects rather than writing it yourself.  Other great sites include the developerWorks wikis and the LotusUserGroup blog.
• You can switch between the DDE perspective and other (i.e. Java) perspectives with Domino Designer 8.5 (which is essentially Eclipse under the hood).
• The following Domino design elements support XPage development: Views, Forms, Script Libraries, Image Resources, Style Sheets, Themes
• You can either create a new Domino application (.nsf file), or edit an existing Domino application, to add new Xpages
• If you are creating a new application from scratch, then create the Forms and Views first, because XPages requires a data source
• Xpages can NOT  be previewed from templates (.ntf).
• Views and Forms can be best thought of as “schemas” of sorts for Xpage designs
• “Computed for Display” fields do not transfer over to Xpage data sources at all.
• You have custom settings for reporting errors and timeouts
• The default Theme for Notes is “WebStandard”
• In documents, XPage controls are bound to the fields defined in the documents form design.
• Columns defined in the view are available in the View control in the View control on the XPage; Columns defined in a View are available in the View control of the Xpage
• Relational Database Management Systems are only available at present via JDBC; XML data can also be parsed/transformed and displayed.
• Don use fields that “Compute with Form” for Form fields that will be displayed in an XPage, it won’t work or will be buggy.
• While you can use multiple views in an Xpage as a data source, it is recommended to keep it to about 6 maximum before performance degradation gets noticeable.
• There are generally two programming scopes in Xpages:  page-wide (global on the XPage), and control-wide.  For example, view controls can have their own scope and may not be global.
• Radio buttons and checkboxes come through from Documents to Xpages as “Edit boxes”
• For developing CRUD type applications, you don’t need a separate “Create”, “Read”, “Edit” and “Delete” Xpage… one XPage can contain all types.
• The skills needed to develop good XPages are:
• XML
• HTML
• CSS
• Javascript
• Java
• Experts say that it will take between 3-6 months to get up to speed with using XPages productively
• Xpages is very control-centric: you edit the control’s functions and properties within each control’s self-contained code, properties, events etc.
• The old Dojo Rich text editor has been replaced with the popular CKEditor rich text editor.
• There are now separate “radio button group” and “checkbox group” controls in XPages
• Best practice is to use a label control rather than static text in a field on an XPage, so that Themes/styles and localization can be easily configured
• Tabbed panels are useful for conserving space and reducing scrolling and server round-trips, but remember that Field data on unselected tabs is NOT  submitted with the document
• You can look in the AllProperties tab in “Properties” to find any property on an XPage, if you can’t find it anywhere else.
• Validation can be done with client-side or server-side javascript
• You can have individual error controls or consolidated error controls displayed in a “Display Errors” control
• Client-side and Server-side validation can be mixed, but this is not recommended… focus on using one or the other
• You can add “NavigationRules” to an Xpage to guide users better.  For example, if a user clicks the same link 2 or 3 times, you can add a Navigation Rule that takes the user to a different screen or action.
• You can add Javascript for different CRUD modes, eg. For editing or creating new records
• In Xpages, the 20/80 rule applies:  you will use 20% of the controls 80% of the time during development
• View controls in XPages have Pages added to them, which are great for saving the user from having to scroll down and up a lot
• Everytime you see the diamond next to a property, that means that the property is can be computable/programmable for that component
• Best practice for naming XPages is to use CamelCase
• Controls are often nested within other controls.  For example, View controls contain Column Controls, which in turn contain Header Controls etc.
• Best practice for changing a view that a view control references is to change the view and then delete the view control, and then recreate the view control, so that automated code is recreated from scratch again based on the new view changes.
• You can display custom HTML in view columns
• You can add “Simple Actions”, checkboxes, and buttons to view controls in XPages.  You can add multiple “Simple Actions” to a single XPage control, and mix them with custom Server/Client side javascript
• One drawback is that a Categorised View won’t allow documents in it to be deleted by the button that uses the “Delete Selected Documents” setting in XPages, which is a bug
• The AJAX option of “Partial Refresh” allows only parts of the XPage to be refreshed, saving a lot of “Back Button” type problems by not having to load the entire page all over again
• Since view performance impacts database performance, you can use the same view by multiple XPage view controls simply by selecting the view as the shared source amongst the controls
• Can add different link types, eg. HTML
• You can switch to the Java perspective to view your Notes XPages application to see the project files as Java project files.  You can add code in the faces-config.xml file (similar to java web apps) for various reasons eg. Detecting words
• Best practice suggests you should use the new XPage Global Objects to store data between pages.  These Global Objects are:
• requestScope (per action)
• viewScope (per page)
• sessionScope (per each user’s session)
• applicationScope (for each application execution)
• If you are already experienced in Lotus Notes development, you can view Custom Controls as the “Subforms of Xpages”
• Anything you could do on a subform you can do in a custom control.  Custom Controls can also contain other custom controls, and they improve the speed of development and application performance.  They are also reusable amongst other Xpages.
• It is better to use client side logic when developing for mobile devices; you can do a partial refresh and dynamically generate stuff.
• A useful web development tool for picking colours in Firefox is “Colourzilla”
• All of the style properties are in the AllProperties tab under “Properties”.
• The XULRunner browser renders/interprets the XPages code
• Don’t use IDs  as selectors for XPage rendering, use CSS classes as selectors.
• DOJO and JQuery are the two best javascript libraries to use in XPages.  IBM favours DOJO and makes it work well with XPages, but the majority of web developers use JQuery, which also works.
• Issue with jQuery is that Designer 8.5 treats colons as illegal characters, so IDs with colons need to be renamed.
• Xpage rendering happens like this:  The DOM tree is formatted and presented to the user by the web browser.  There are tools in various web browsers (for example, Firebug in Firefox) that help show this DOM tree.
• Style sheets are good for making sites that need compliance eg. Government websites.
• Single style sheets give better performance to XPages over multiple style sheets
• Copy and paste is a useful habit to get into with Xpages. You will often find yourself copying and pasting from source code more often than not.
• An innovative way to easily apply all of your styles and resources to multiple pages is to contain these styles and resources in a single custom control, then add that control to each XPage.  The browser will pick up the styles and resources and apply them to the whole DOM.
• When you specify resources in XML on an XPage, the order is important for rendering and makes a difference… i.e. If conflicts occur, the last occurrence of  the conflicting item gets applied, eg. Styles
• Themes help keep the look and feel of an application the same, eg. Same button fonts and colours, backgrounds etc.
• HTML outlining and the “AllProperties” tab makes XML editing very easy in Designer 8.5.
• As a best practice, when creating CSS you should avoid using CSS frameworks that rely on ID CSS selectors.
• Why do Xpages use Javascript?  Answer:
• Better layouts
• Dynamic tooltips
• Pagination/ pager controls
• Character and data manipulation
• Replication/ repetitive UI components
• Form/ checkbox restyling
• AJAX
• Interactive stuff
• Animations
• … more
• Composite components didn’t really get off the ground, so XPages is the next best thing
• Best practice, as always in programming, is to comment a lot in Javascript
• You can get controls in an XPage through using the javascript command getClientID(“controlName”) .  This will call any server-side code or library.
• Javascript was favoured by IBM for Xpages because of its reusability
• Xpages come automatically configured with Dojo javascript libraries:  Dojo Base, and Dojo XSP
• Data that can be returned back from AJAX calls in Xpages includes text, JSON and XML.
• All @Formulae commands have been re-written in Javascript
• You can write your own Javascript in the “Script Panel” in Xpages, an effective XML editor.  You can also debug the javascript and step through it as you would a normal debugger.
• Best practices for writing Javascript:
• Always use the var keyword!
• Always terminate lines of code with a semi-colon!
• When returning a value, always use the return keyword!
• The best website for learning Javascript is one by the famous Yahoo programmer Douglas Crockford, author of “Javascript: the Good parts”.
• Can use CTRL + space to guess keywords in all code editors
• Another drawback is that there is no debugger for server-side Javascript: you will have to use log files for debugging SSJS.  You could alternatively create a link or a button that takes users to the error if and when it happens in your app.
• To code in Notes, you must follow the Notes object hierarchy i.e.
• NotesSession, NotesDatabase, NotesDocument, NotesView, NotesItem, NotesAgent…
• Agents are still there
• Xpages are actually compiled into Java when saved!
• To write javascript code using the Dojo library, follow these steps:
• 1. Load the Dojo library with your Xpage
• 2. Require all necessary Dojo modules
• 3. Hook up Dojo event listeners to Dojo objects
• 4. Make the Dojo event listeners actually do something
• 5. Tell Dojo to parse every Dojo object and connect everything after the page has finally been loaded
• XPages freaks out and crashes if it has to parse more than 56k or so of jQuery javascript, for some odd reason
• Repeat controls are awesome.  You can add custom controls into repeat controls to show your own unique control lists
• Examples of using repeat controls:
• HTML table generation
• Display documents and related documents
• Display search results
• Etc.
• You can import Java packages into your Xpages app and use them
• Eclipse lets you create your own perspective, you are not restricted to using the Domino Designer for Eclipse perspective only
• Writing managed beans in Java is a good idea, because it allows you do add a lot more functionally to a page, and increases performance substantially
• In javascript, you can tell when a method runs by looking at its source:
• If it contains a ‘$’ in its name, it is loaded only once on initial page load
• If it contains a “#” in its name, it is dynamic, and loads every time the page loads
• A useful java library for creating Java spreadsheets from XPages is Apache POI
• Web services within Lotus Notes are ok.  They’re not amazing.
• Xpages allows for language localization.
• Server-side javascript has access to the complete version of the Java core API, meaning that it can parse XML and XSLT by using javax.xml.*
• A handy DOJO tool is the Dojo Datagrid:  it uses XML of JSON as a data source.  It is very flexible and sortable.
• You can add custom filters to view controls, particularly those that are categorized
• The idea behind basing everything Xpages on Java is that, if it is Java, then it is extensible and inheritable.
• For developing mobile applications using Xpages, you can download “Mobile Tools” from OpenNTF.
• The XPages Extensibility API allows you to develop additional custom controls for Xpages using Java.

(The above notes are taken from “XPages Bootcamp for Domino Developers”, a training session conducted by the View, and presented by Russell Maher (RGM Consulting, Inc.) and Paul T. Calhoun (Group Business Software).  Thanks guys!)

I have begun looking into creating Java applications based on the Spring application framework, notably with the well-known package SpringSource Tool Suite (STS).  The STS package contains its own version of Eclipse, along with Spring .jar files and dependencies that work with Eclipse, so that you don’t have to rip your hair out updating your existing version of Eclipse to use all of the exciting features of Spring (as I did this past weekend!).

One thing that I was not so clear about after I installed STS was the differences between different project types when creating a new project (File -> New -> Project), seeing as how I a bit of a Java newbie:

Some of the projects from the menus above in STS are not so intuitive to the STS newbie.  So I decided to write up this post to help myself and anyone reading this to understand what each project type is about, since it was not that easy to find this information on the web at first search.  Most information is heavily lifted from Wikipedia!:

JPA Project: A JPA project is a Java Persistence API project, which is a replacement for the much criticized EJB 2.0 and 2.1 entity beans. Such projects are used for developing lightweight persistent objects provided by open-source frameworks or Data Access Objects instead of entity beans (since entity beans wre too heavyweight and complicated).  JPA projects use the javax.persistence package, Java Persistence Query Language (JPQL), and object/relational metadata to their work.  Hibernate and Open Source Version TopLink Essentials have become implementations of the Java Persistence API.

Enterprise Application Project (EAR Project): Enterprise application projects contain references to the resources needed for enterprise applications and can contain a combination of Web modules, JAR files, connector modules, EJB modules, and application client modules. An enterprise application project is deployed in the form of an EAR file, and is therefore sometimes referred to as an EAR project. The modules in an enterprise application project are mapped to other J2EE projects. The mapping information is stored in metadata files within the enterprise application project. The metadata files are used for exporting the project to an EAR file and for running the project on the server. (http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wsadhelp/v5r1m2/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.etools.j2eeapp.doc%2Ftopics%2Ftjear.html)

Dynamic Web Project: Unlike static web projects, dynamic web projects enable you to create resources such as JavaServer Pages and servlets.  A new or existing Enterprise Application project (EAR Project) must be associated with your new Web project to facilitate deployment.

EJB Project (Enterprise JavaBeans Project): EJB is an architecture for setting up program components, written in the Java programming language, that run in the server parts of a computer network and use the client/server model.  It is roughly equivalent to Microsoft’s COM (Component Object Model) architecture, but can be deployed across all major operations systems, not just Windows (http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/Enterprise-JavaBeans).  Used to organise the resources contained in the EJB module.  An EJB module is used to assemble one or more enterprise beans into a single deployable unit.  It is deployed ina standard Java archive (JAR) file.

Connector Project: A connector is a J2EE standard extension mechanism for containers to provide connectivity to enterprise information systems (EISs).  A connector is specific to an EIS and consists of a resource adapter and application development tools.  A resource adapter is a system-level software driver that is used by an EJB container or an application client to connect to an EIS (http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wasinfo/v6r0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.etools.j2ee.doc/topics/tjrar.html).

Application Client Project:  a project that contains the resources needed for application client modules. An application client module is used to contain a full-function client Java™ application (non Web-based) that connects to and uses the J2EE resources defined in your server (http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wsadhelp/v5r1m2/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.etools.j2eeapp.doc%2Ftopics%2Fcjappcliproj.html).  I am guessing that the equivalent of such a project in Visual Studio might be a Windows Form project.

Static Web Project: A static, content-based web application that contains no dynamic elements such as JSP files or servlets.

Web Application Project: A project that contains content for either Static Web Projects and/or Dynamic Web Projects, along with XML deployment descriptors and other web resources.  End users view the web applications as web sites from a URL.

Servlet: Servlets are server-side Java programs that use the Sun Microsystems Java Servlet API and its associated classes and methods.  They extend the functionality of a Web server by generating dynamic content and responding to Web client requests.  Servlets are commonly used to enable businesses to connect databases to the Web.

Session Bean (EJB 3.x): Contrary to JPA Entities, which represent persistent data maintained in a database, a Session Bean implements a business task and is hosted by an EJB container.  A session bean performs operations, such as calculations or database access, for the client. Although a session bean can be transactional, it is not recoverable should a system crash occur. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Session_Beans)

Message-Driven Bean: Message Driven Beans are business objects whose execution is triggered by messages instead of by method calls. The Message Driven Bean is used among others to provide a high level ease-of-use abstraction for the lower level JMS (Java Message Service) specification. It may subscribe to JMS message queues or message topics, which are typically injected into the bean. They were added in EJB to allow event-driven processing. Unlike session beans, an MDB does not have a client view (Local/Remote/No-interface), i. e. clients can not look-up an MDB instance. It just listens for any incoming message on, for example, a JMS queue or topic and processes them automatically.

Groovy Project: Groovy is an agile and dynamic language for the Java Virtual Machine, which builds upon the strengths of Java but has additional power features inspired by languages like Python, Ruby and Smalltalk.  There is almost a zero learning curve to Groovy. (http://groovy.codehaus.org/)

General: General Java project (has the least amount of pre-configurations for abstraction).

AspectJ:  AspectJ is a seamless aspect-oriented extension to the Java programming language.  It is easy to learn and use, and enables clean modularization of crosscutting concerns, such as error checking and handling, syncrhonization, context-sensitive behavior, performance optimizations, monitoring and logging, debugging support, and multi-object protocols. (http://www.eclipse.org/aspectj/)

CVS: Concurrent Versions System – get a project from CVS, is what is really meant here.

Eclipse Modeling Framework: EMF is a modeling framwork and code generation facility for building tools and other applications based on a  structured data model.  From a model specification described in XMI, EMF provides tools and runtime support to produce a set of Java classes for the model, along with a set of adapter classes that enable viewing and command-based editing of the model, and a basic editor. (http://www.eclipse.org/modeling/emf/)

EclipseRT: eclipse.org runtime projects.

Google: A Google Web Application development Kit and API project.

Grails: is an open source web application framework which uses the Groovy programming language (which is in turn based on the Java platform). It is intended to be a high-productivity framework by following the “coding by convention” paradigm, providing a stand-alone development environment and hiding much of the configuration detail from the developer.  Re-uses proven Java technologies such as Hibernate and Spring under a simple, consistent interface (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grails_%28framework%29)

Maven: A project for project management and build automation.  Maven serves a similar purpose to the Apache Ant tool, but it is based on different concepts and works in a profoundly different manner. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_Maven)

PyDev: A development and debugging environment for Python programming in Eclipse.

Spring: an open source application framework for the Java platform.  The core features of the Spring Framework can be used by any Java application, but there are extensions for building web applications on top of the Java EE platform. Although the Spring Framework does not impose any specific programming model, it has become popular in the Java community as an alternative to, replacement for, or even addition to the Enterprise JavaBean (EJB) model. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Framework)

SpringSource dm Server: aka the Virgo project – an open source, OSGi-based Java application server developed by SPringSource.  Such projects support the deployment of OSGi bundles and unmodified Java web applications as well as OSGi-influenced Shared Libraries WARs and Shared Services WARs.   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpringSource_dm_Server)  I have no idea what this means and therefore have decided to avoid creating projects of this type!

I’ve just finished reading Joel Spolsky’s book, “The Best Software Writing I”, and I have to say, I am really impressed and enlightened by both Joel and his guest authors’ insights into the software development world.  It is refreshing to get such a modern and detailed opinion of today’s software industry. All of the authors dig into a lot of common misconceptions and stereotypes of software developers and the development environment and really blows away the myths that permeate throughout many programming shops.  I used to work for a few software firms that bought into these myths in some form or another, so the book was a bit of a laugh when I found myself agreeing to several comments and thinking to myself, “Yep, I’ve been there before!”  The points in particular that make me pump my fist in the air and shout a resounding “YESSS!” to because someone finally “gets it” are these:

• Extreme programming is a fad that won’t work, because rather than making two programmers do separate and vital functions for the development team (eg. writing code, creating tests or documentation), it means that two programmers now have the freedom to pick their own tasks at will, allowing other vital tasks to be neglected and suffer the effects of sub-optimisation (the effect where one process suffers because another is optimised moreso).
• Loud work environments are a bane for good development efforts.  You cannot concentrate in a loud environment, no matter how many preachers of “open floor environment” tell you otherwise.  Libraries are full of smart people, because smart people like quiet places where they can easily access a lot of information.  A software development environment is no different.
• Python rocks.  I’ve become a devout Python programmer and it is awesome!  It can be used as a scripting language, a “prototype” language, and much more.  And it is really, really easy to learn if you have the basics of programming down already.
• Incentives in the software industry do not work.  Managers need to find better motivators than money to keep programmers delivering quality code.
• Social software development where it is at, because people enjoy talking to each other, and creating environments where people can do this easily and readily introduces value.
• Social software development is harder than traditional software development, because technical and social issues are melded together in the former.  Groups often have a small set of core tenets, beliefs, or interests that are beyond criticism, because they are the things that hold the group together (known as “Bion’s patterns” – patterns that bring groups together).  It is these shared values that the underlying software must account for, which introduces a new political overhead to the development process.  You have to put additional effort into rewarding valuable users and prohibiting abusive users.
• Not every organisation needs a Sales Guy.  In fact, users are often insulted when sales people try to convince them to buy new software.  You have to “move your software closer to the customer” but not force them to consume it… let them choose it.  Development shops should work on improving their products and making customers happy, rather than trying to influence outsiders without having detailed knowledge of their needs and wants.
• Develop “out loud” and acknowledge competition.  Release software early to clients and encourage their feedback.  Act on their feedback.
• Provide a place for community feedback and discussion, and give that feedback and discussion!
• Don’t overprice your product.
• When hiring developers, get help from females.  Software development is a male-dominated area, and women have a good “nose” for picking good employees.
• The very worst manager is one that feels threatened by his team.  These types of managers only staff people that do not “threaten” or challenge the manager.
• Hire developers, not programmers (see below).

My favourite quote from the book is exactly the type of statement I’ve been looking for someone like Eric Sink to write publicly:

A programmer is someone who does nothing but code new features and [if you're lucky] fix bugs.  They don’t write specs.  They don’t write automated test cases.  They don’t help keep the automated build system up-to-date.  They don’t help customers work out tough problems.  They don’t help write documentation.  They don’t help with testing.  They don’t even read code.  All they do is write new code.  In a small ISV, you don’t want any of these people in your company.

Well said.

The Australian Government has embraced the idea of carbon trading tightly with both arms, and released a white paper in December 2008 that states how the government is going to reduce carbon pollution by 15% (of year 2000 levels) by the year 2020, and a 60% reduction by 2050, using a carbon pollution reduction scheme.  The execution of this scheme, however, requires a 1000+ page document to be understood, just so that Aussie businesses and the government can even begin to get the ball rolling!  It is not overly complex, but in my opinion it is going to take time to successfully understand, set up and implement.  There will be those who will find ways to exploit the system, as always, and undoubtedly there will be victims.

As an accounting student, I think the notion of adding carbon trading to my skill set is exciting.  “Green Accounting” or “Green Auditing” have become recent new professions that merge environmentalism and sustainability with accounting practices.  However, the notion of walking into a company and auditing their production facilities for carbon pollution and deliver bad news of illegal levels of emissions to struggling business owners during these times of recession may be a bit difficult for someone like myself to do, personally.  I suppose you take the bad with the good in this case, and focus on the future.

Those involved with tourism and hospitality would no doubt be supporters of the carbon trading initiative, since their respective industries and profits depend on the existance of the natural wonders around them.  As a resident of the Cairns region, global warming would have huge catastrophic effects on both the residents and the industry here.  Can we imagine if the Great Barrier Reef no longer existed in 5-10 years?  Or if our houses were washed away by flash floods similar to those seen by the recent cyclone Ellie?  Perhaps we need to start planning ahead to avoid negative consequences that may result from carbon pollution and global warming right now.

The white paper produced by the government has the following main sections (divided into two downloadable volumes), which I will link to future articles as I write them after my readings:

1. The Policy Context
2. The Need for Action
3. Shaping a Global Solution
4. National Emissions Trajectory and Target
5. A Framework for the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme
6. Coverage
7. Reporting and Compliance
8. Carbon Markets
9. Auctioning of Australian Carbon Pollution Credits
10. Setting Scheme Emissions Caps
11. Linking the Scheme to International Markets
12. Assistance to Emissions-Intensive Trade-Exposed Industries
13. Assistance to Strongly Affected Communities
14. Tax and Accounting Issues
15. Transitional Issues
16. Governance Arrangements and Implementation
17. Household Assistance Measures
18. Climate Change Action Fund
19. Comlementary Measures

As mentioned, I will be reading the paper and commenting on each section over the next few weeks, time permitting.  Comments are welcome, as discussion and feedback can only help everyone’s understanding on this new behemoth of a topic.

My reasons for contemplating electric car conversion is due to several factors.  Firstly, electric cars are much cheaper.  You completely eliminate gas bills, pay as little as $1 per week to recharge for up to 200 miles of driving distance, while also receiving tax refunds in some countries.  In the USA, the IRS gives generous tax credits to EV owners.  Not only are EVs cheaper, but they are less of a headache to maintain.  Finally, EVs don’t emit heat and pollution like gas cars do, helping to reduce global warming.

There are many resources available on the internet that can be useful; however some of these are very technical, and seem in some cases to cater to those with Master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering or equivalent technical abilities.  Others, like Peter Millward’s “Electricity4Gas” and Convert-2-EV seem to focus on teaching beginners like myself on how to convert gas cars to electric with simple instructions.  At present I am still undecided as to which of the two publication packages to buy – both are around AUS$80 – so until my decision is made I will continue doing a little more research.

There exist Electric Car Conversion Kits for popular models of cars that are ideal for conversion…  these include for example the Geo Metro and older Ford and Porshe models.  However these tend to be pricey.  The cheaper Ford Electric Conversion Kits can run from anywhere starting at $6,000 upwards in price.  There are also generic kits for various car makes and models out there as well, but the cost of these kits can definitely be a barrier to most.

If I get more into building my own EV, and I get the time and resources to do so, then I will post more follow ups to this entry.  For the moment, I’m belieiving the hype.

Why on earth am I writing this? Because I was trying to do a “Copy Database” in SQL Server 2005 Management Studio for the past hour, and kept getting permissions errors from my web host when using SMO. So in case I forget (likely), I wanted to write some steps for myself. It’s late and I’m too lazy to paste pictures. Just use your imagination on this one:

HOW TO DO IT:

1. Open SQL Server 2005 Management Studio, and Connect to the database that you will transferring from
2. Create a new database to copy to
3. Right-Click on the database you will be copying, select “Tasks” -> “Export Data”
4. Choose all tables and follow the prompts to Export the data and tables from the original database to the newly created db
5. After the export finishes (will take a few minutes, most likely) check to make sure all tables, views, stored procs etc have been installed
6. Right-click the original copy database, select “Tasks”->”Generate Scripts”
7. Follow the prompts, choose to generate the script into a query for ease
8. Copy the generated script to your clipboard
9. Select the new database, open a new query, and paste the generated script into this query.  The query will be run on the new database.
10. Run the new script.  There will be errors, because the script will not be able to replace existing tables.  We are only running the script to install objects that don’t hold data, such as views and stored procedures.
11. Check to ensure all the original tables, views, stored procs etc are now in the new database
12. Close all scripts, don’t save unless you really want to
13. Feel good about yourself

Well that’s it. I hope you learned a lot in those few seconds of reading my rather ad-hoc instructions. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to try and tip toe over my roommates dogs and get a cup of joe.

Peace

Reasons Why Shan Will Always Love San Francisco

• San Francisco welcomes people who do not fit into mainstream society with open arms. She always has, and always will. You can never be too extreme for San Francisco, because there is always someone more extreme than you just around the corner.
• It’s very multicultural, to the point of absurdity. You can travel to most of the world just by visiting different suburbs of San Francisco. Russian Hill, Chinatown, Little Italy, Oakland, Berkeley, the Mission. My fondest memories will be learning about Chinese, Indian and even Brazilian cultures from the friends that I made there.
• If you have a new idea, you will get support for it in San Francisco. It is entrepreneur heaven. People there embrace new ideologies as if they were gold. Ideas are what San Fran famously produces. Look at the iPod: Made in China, DESIGNED in California.
• Lots of jobs there for tech people. As a computer science graduate in Arizona, I got my first job with Vertigo Software in Point Richmond, in the Bay Area. Those guys were a crew of elite programmers that were kind enough to give a guy with an average GPA a break. And once I arrived there, the breaks didn’t stop coming. Even if I were to move back to the Bay Area some day, I know that I won’t have trouble finding a good job in San Fran.
• There is an air of ethics there that transcends religion, politics and even sex. You just don’t make life hard for people that are different than you, that seems to be the unspoken rule.
• Lots, I mean lots, of organized activities. The main activity being long distance running. If you are a marathon runner, then move to the Bay Area. It seems like every week there is a race with hundreds of participants somewhere in the Bay.

There are a lot of problems in San Fran. Let’s not ignore the fact that SF has the highest rate of AIDs and homelessness in the USA, as well as earthquakes, gangs, environmental pollution, and insane housing costs. But if you use your brain and think outside the box, life there can be quite enjoyable.

Just don’t buy a house there at the moment. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, research “sub-prime mortgages” .

What is a DotNetNuke module? It’s a feature that you add to a DotNetNuke site; for example, FAQ is a module you drop into your DNN site once its installed on the site correctly. Similarly, shopping carts, blogs and surveys are also built-in modules that come with DNN 4 when you install the site on a web host.

But what happens if you want to create your own module? Good question. That’s what I’m about to find out from Michael Washington’s tutorial:

http://www.adefwebserver.com/dotnetnukehelp/LinqTutorial/LinqTutorial2.htm

The tutorial also gives you hands on experience with LINQ, for anyone (like myself) that doesn’t have much exposure to the technology.  Here are the basic steps for creating DotNetNuke 4 Modules with LINQ:

1. Setup Your Project
2. Create Tables
3. Setup the Module
4. Create LINQ to SQL Class
5. Create the Module
6. Create the Code-Behind
   1. Code-Behind for LINQ Datasource Control
   2. Code-Behind for Add My Listing Link
   3. Code-Behind for the Gridview (if any)
   4. Add additional Methods to the Code-Behind
7. Create the Module Definition

Reasons for getting an MBA:

1. Money: Apparently you will be making on average $10k-30k more than my counterparts with undergrad degrees, and this is not counting the fact that you may be working in IT. Experience in the world of information technology pays off in itself, but having a master’s degree in business earns an even fatter paycheck for IT professionals (1).
2. Career Advancement: an MBA is still important to reach senior management ranks within most companies(2).
3. Self-Improvement: Leadership skills, managment skills, networking skills… even if you choose the non-profit world, the possibilities of being a big dog in your field seem more real than without education in these areas.
4. Networking: I haven’t even started the MBA program yet, and already people seem to be hooking me up with business opportunities and contacts after learning that I am doing an MBA. Just meeting people and telling them what are you doing opens doors for you, it’s remarkable.
   
5. More opportunities: A fellow undergrad student in the USA once told me that the more you study, the more you can “see” the world for what it really is. He added that getting an MBA is like moving up to a higher floor of a building and seeing more of the world below you (he probably wanted me to take this comment both literally as well as philosphically). I must agree with him – if you gain a general understanding of how businesses work and why they make the decisions that they do, then you can use this knowledge to help the business profit, rather than simply working hard in your assigned job and hoping that the business does well enough for you to get your $4k pay rise every year.
6. Fewer Hours Working: Think about it – you are a manager, and you are getting other people to do your work for you. If you have the management and personable skills necessary to get people to work for you, then you don’t have to do the work yourself! My managers have all told me that they work less than 40 hours per week. They are very talented individuals, however it is their influence and ability to communicate effectively with people, along with their understanding of the business that makes their lives easier, not, for example, how talented at programming they are.
7. Learn How to Start or Fine-Tune Your Own Business : This is perhaps a primary reason why many people pursue the MBA.
8. Greater Job Security: MBAs are in demand, regardless of what jealous people tell you.
9. Credibility: Especially among peers. Unfortunately there is that “part of the club” executive type feel, but it is useful for gaining respect.
   
10. Communication Skills: Effective communication is supposedly learnt through various projects and presentations in an MBA program (3).
11. Real-World Applications: MBA students can apply their studies to their work.

References:

(1) http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/512170/?sc=dwtr
(2) http://www.quintcareers.com/MBA_degree.html
(3) http://www.cio.com/article/122508/_Reasons_Why_You_Should_Get_an_MBA/3

I’ve never been a contractor in my life, but have been very interested in the prospect since I first heard of other people doing it. The dream of living on some remote tropical island while coding away (compare that to the life to Ian Fleming, who wrote most of the the James Bond novels in Jamaica!) has no doubt crossed my mind many times. However, there are some realities to doing contract work, as I’ve been finding out. Here are some of the major pointers to keep in mind as a software development contractor:

• Know what you are worth as a contractor. Remember that you aren’t getting your pay divvied up into medical insurance, flexible spending accounts or a retirement plan anymore if you were previously working as a full-time employee, so ask for a little more than you would as a full-time employee because you will now have to pay for these expenses yourself.
• Get everything in writing, and make sure they start paying you once they agree to hire you for your services. Know exactly how and when you’ll be paid before you start your work. Some companies just want to troll for information on how to plan a project, then lure contractors in with their requests for detailed quotes, only to shaft them once they learn how to do it themselves based on the quote! Keep your mouth shut on the details of how to do a project, that’s why they’re paying you!
• Read the contract thoroughly, and make sure you answer any questions that you have ahead of time so that you aren’t wasting time later wondering about it. If there are tasks involved that you think you can’t get done in the given time, make sure that you let the hiring company know about this. You have to begin what you start once you sign a contract, so make sure you are only agreeing to do things that you can actually do and are not being a cowboy.
• Come up with new ideas for more work. During every contract, always try and keep an eye on the next one. Identify areas of their business that could use custom developed solutions and present those ideas to those that hired you.
• Don’t fall into the rolling contract trap, where you are utilized as simply an extra resource to fix a temporarily permanent shortage. These types of contracts have seen perfectly good developers stay on Fortran projects for 15 years, and see them miss out on the opportunity to acquire new skills like .NET and Java as a result. Enough said!
• You typically have to supply your own tools. Remember that MSDN subscription that your former company let you play around with while you were employed as a full-time employee? Well now you have to pay for it, unless your contractee is generous and specifies that they want you to use their tools.
• You can sub-contract your work to other people if you can’t do it yourself, or if you are lazy, or have other projects and want to manage more work for others and move into a business analyst role.
• Use a consulting/contracting firm if you want peace of mind. These guys get paid to look for jobs for you. They will also take a good cut of your pay, but if its a good contract, then it shouldn’t matter too much. If you get the job done, then they will keep looking for work for you, and all you have to do is stay in touch with them. I personally prefer contracting firms like Robert Half Technology as opposed to looking for contract work myself, just because contracting firms are full time smoothers, and I am a full time programmer with less personable skills! Reality bites, but you can make comfortable compromise if you’re willing to.
• Remember that depending on the contract, you will be taxed as a contract worker and not as a company employee during the contract period, so take into account withholdings and manage your money like a regular human resources department would – put some into retirement, some into savings, some into a decent health plan, etc.

In Australia, you can get certain tax breaks provided you pass the “Results Test” or 80% of your business comes from more than 1 client.  The Results Test is simply answering “yes” to the three questions:

• Under your contract or arrangement, is the personal services income paid to achieve a specified result or outcome?
• Do you have to provide the tools or equipment necessary (if any) to do your work? (If no tools or equipment are required, answer YES.)
• Are you liable for rectifying defects in your work?

I can answer “yes” to these quesitons, and therefore am not affected by the New Business Tax System Act of 2000.  This gives me more items to make tax deductions on while doing business (see http://www.ato.gov.au/businesses/content.asp?doc=/content/15900.htm&page=13&H13)