1000

1000 gigabytes (1 terabyte), 1000 chinups, 1000 push ups. Those are the topics for today.

Sorelle

... is the name of our favourite cafe in Chucktown. This will be blog central for the next hour or so.

It is relaxing to sit in this contemporary space. At first glance it may seem a cold, unwelcoming environment. The varnished concrete floors, Karim Rashid inspired decor, monocolor abstract paintings on large 6x6 canvases, huge double paned glass windows, and 24' ceilings exposing the olive grey metal superstructure would support this.

PechaKucha

Today was a day of PechaKucha. Follow the link, if you wish, for more information.

Thoughts? meh ... It is certainly a good forum for learning more about colleagues at work. It gets you up in front of the group, and ... hey ... it's something different.

'Nuff said.

It is a Friday in Boston. I slogged over to work through the narrow streets of Charlestown this morning. We are spending a couple of days at the condo in Boston to take in some Bruins games, and I have an all day meeting today, so it all works out.

Also got a chance to visit my new neighbours condo. A former colleague from work (now having moved on to greener pastures) has moved into our building. He is excited about his new digs (his girlfriend as well) and has lots of reno ideas. Not that it needs it, but it is always nice to put your own stamp on your place.

Moving on to a new project

Since starting this blog, I have been assigned to a project which (as I try to remain diplomatic) has been a bit unsatisfying. Enough said about that - time to look to the future.

And what better way to celebrate than to take in the morning January sun at the town landing.

The ink is drying (if that metaphor can be used in this digital age) on the contract as I prepare to embark. Each project brings new challenges, and I look forward to applying the knowledge I gained from previous project challenges to solve new ones.

Before I leave, let me make note of a couple of things.

WSDL and ObjectProxy

This was a vexing problem that quite a few Flex developers have encountered, and it continues with Flex 4.

Here is the issue: You have a service method that is intended to return an collection of typed objects:

myService.getCars():Cars[]

If, as expected, a collection of 'Cars' is returned, you will see in Flex an array of typed objects. Now this assumes that you have generated all the valueObjects from the wsdl into your Flex project. If you don't know what I am talking, about see: Import WSDL into Flash Builder 4

The service above will return a collection of cars upon the getCars() call. You will undoubtedly code to expect this collection. But what happens if only one car is returned? No problem, you will get a collection with one typed object.

NOT!

The response will contain one 'Car' object, and it will not be in a collection.

And to make matters worse, that 'Car' will be wrapped in the Flex 'ObjectProxy' class, which will evaluate to 'null' if you try to inspect it's values.

There are two paths the follow here:

1) Create an object by importing mx.utils.object_proxy;

var obj:Object = resultEvent.result.object_proxy::object;

Now you will be able to inspect the properties of the object. However that object is not typed, and what you really want is a collection of 'Car' objects.

2) The best approach is to add the following line to the imported services. Again, refer to the link above, because this assumes you have correctly imported the wsdl.

You will note that importing a service will generate two classes, for example with the 'Car' object:

(a) CarManagerService.as

(b) _Super_CarManagerService.as

Inside the CarManagerService you will see the constructor:

function CarManagerService()

{

super();

}

Add the following snippet (import the Operation class):

function ConfigurationComponentManagerImplService()

{

super();

for each (var operation:Operation in operations)

{

operation.forcePartArrays = true;

}

}

Now, even if only one object is returned, it will be available in a collection AND it will be typed correctly.

Nor'easter non-event

There is really not too much to report today, from a meteorological standpoint. I don't want to jinx myself, but this morning we woke up to a couple of inches of slush instead of wind blown drifts

of snow. But it may not be over yet.

Pictured here is a view of the cloudy sky looking out past Ropes Beach in Cotuit towards Sampson's Island and beyond into Nantucket Sound. In the foreground, the 'Thermopylae' - an oyster rig - harbors in the shallow bay in the company of a few skiffs.

Word is that eastern Mass out towards 495 received up to 2' of snow. That should keep them busy digging for awhile! Here on the Cape, although the wind whipped up slightly, and denser flurries fell for a short while, it wasn't even worth shoveling the end of the driveway.

A non-event at best. Right up there with Hurricane Earl.

The calm before the Nor'easter

"A powerful storm barreling up the Atlantic could drop as much as 17 inches of snow on Southern New England beginning sometime after midnight tonight." - so sayest the Boston Globe.

Where did the verb 'barreling' come from as it relates to a storm? I can imagine 18th century wharf workers unloading a ship load of barrels down a plank, and having one get loose on them. That would likely create a powerful storm of activity, depending upon the contents.

Getting back to the storm, when we get up tomorrow morning we will likely be greeted by a blizzard in progress. I think we are prepared for it. We have food, wood, candles, gas for cooking. Hopefully the power doesn't go out - but I wouldn't count on it.

There is a palpable sense of anticipation as the Cape prepares for another winter blast. It's always difficult to predict which side of the severity scale a Nor'ester on the Cape will fall. Will it be a Hurricane Earl - a total non event? Or a Cape Cod blizzard of 2005, where Mashpee received an astounding 40 inches on Jan 23.

The road was just getting in good shape for cycling again! I was looking forward to some riding this weekend, but I think we will get the snow shoes out instead.

I have been diligently using my new rollers in the basement this winter season. Jan and I are planning to spend a couple of weeks down in Vero Beach this Feb, and meet up with Jack, Fred, Bob and Steve. They will likely be in top cycling shape, and raring to brutalize me. Hopefully my indoor training will keep them from tearing the meat off my bones!

A form is finished, and painting is started

I regret having to resort to previous posts for title inspiration, but I saw an opportunity to highlight some symmetry, and I took it.

My blog, my rules.

I finally finished the form based workflow process that will start the ball slowly rolling for my promotion. This painful bureaucratic procedure makes the gradual removal of a bandage seem pleasurable.

Their company, their rules.

I offset this dreary task of self promotion by initiating another painting. I have no idea where I am going with this one. I am again using plywood as the substrate, this time laying down a thick layer of white gloss enamel as the base. Before slopping on the white, I dapped gobs of green acrylic on the plywood before spreading the enamel. This produced an interesting effect, with diffuse strands of green running through the jade background.

I crisscrossed the painting with painters tape to create a hash of squares, then sprayed on some matte black to get to the point pictured on the left. I have no idea what I am trying to achieve here, just in case you think there is some unknown brilliance guiding my thoughts. Jan is recommending that I stop right where I am. I think I might take her advice on this one. There are a couple places to touch up, then I might just leave it alone.