The DaxMindMapper Reloaded

Well .. I couldn’t make it .. which was a real shame but there’s other things in life apart from climbing .. apparently

So instead, I’m doing the problems by myself when I have time.

Today I managed to go and completed problems A-E (the kids routes - I used them as warm up routes) and then adult problems 1 and 4 .. all Flash for max points. I had a go at route 2 but failed (see note below). 3 looked terrifying so I didn’t even try it .. the footholds looked fine but the first three handholds are nasty pieces of work.

If I’d been at the comp I’d have watched others completing the route before attempting any of them (cheating I know) and I reckon I’d probably have done route 2 as it seemed to be a case of “just” knowing which footholds to use on the first move.

The scores where posted up for the people that actually did the comp and it was nice to see that I wouldn’t have been last and that’s without even looking at any of the other routes.

Bloody good overview of .NET 2.0 configuration management including custom config handlers

This article goes into quite a bit of depth on custom configuration handlers but is still a worthwhile read as a general overview on configuration management in the .NET v2 framework.

BTW The link above is to a particularly pertinent post.

Simple Javascript Object Dump Function

I reckon just about every web developer out there has written, searched and used at least two or three versions of this kind of function .. so here’s one for my own reference so I don’t have to go hunting for it ever again.

var MAX_DUMP_DEPTH = 10;

if (typeof child == "object")
{
output += dumpObj(child, item, indent, depth + 1);
}
else
{
output += indent + item + ": " + child + "\n";
}
}
return output;
}
else
{
return obj;
}
}
</unable></maximum>

Go get a life!

Due to the number of spam blogs I’ve disabled anonymous blog comments.

Security .. one of my favourite subjects.

How do you handle application authentication (they are who they say they are) and authorisation (they can do what their requesting to do)?

Single Sign-On - A Developer’s Introduction To Active Directory Federation Services

I’m always looking for ways to improve the testing of my code but I don’t really give myself the time to do it properly (I read a few books and I try a few free software tools but that’s about it).

It would be a refreshing change to walk into a client’s development shop that has the test tools already setup but that hasnt happened yet.

So it’s nice to find work that someone else has already done and published on the web that matches up with the test ideas I’d have liked to have investigated but have never gotten round to doing:

Using Excel for Test Data

Whilst in Spain I had a few spare hours to kill with some of the other guys and we had a go slacklining at the The Orange House.

Bloody frustrating to start with, you keep falling off, but eventually I managed to get the hang of it.

Finally got back into training .. after putting it off for 2.5 weeks after getting back from Spain, I’ve finally got off my arse and done something. Just a lunchtime run up a nearby hill but it’s a start.

Wohoo!

.. cos I’m listening to The Cult all over again.

Yeah!

García dos is a 2 star 6a+ route in Sella, Costa Blanca, Southern Spain

I led this route in Spain last month and it’s probably the high light of my climbing career to date. I always tend to be a bit hard on myself when it comes to success (always finding ways I could improve, tending to over analyse) but this was a perfect 10. I’m still on a high some three weeks later.

The start was easy enough but quickly became quite technical for my feet. I can still see the small, rounded, side pull I’d just used for my right hand and thinking “Jeez, I’ve got to use that small vertical hold for my next foot hold using just body tension to make it stick .. here goes”.

After getting past that and onto easier holds I have a photo in my mind; of looking up and seeing the route moving straight up for another 6-7 metres and then on through an overhanging section. I thought “Jeez, if it’s this technical down here, what’s it going to be like up there in the overhanging section?” A quick mental slap, a sort of what-the-hell-do-you-think-your-thinking!Snap-out-it! kind of thing, and a bit of positive attitude thinking “If I’m going to abb off this route and loss some gear I may as well do it higher up” and I was climbing again.

Fortunately the climbing became easier as I moved into the overhanging section as the holds became more definite and apart from some faffing about up near the lower off I was over the difficult stuff.

But something had changed in me after I’d climbed this route. I’d climbed something that I didn’t think I could climb. I’d managed to just believe in my own abilities to get me through and it had worked. It showed me just how much I’d progressed in the last year and a half.

To use a really geeky quote from Morpheus in The Matrix “.., sooner or later you’re going to realize, just as I did, there’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”

Sure with enough training and experience anyone can climb routes that they would have found “impossible” before and I realised that. But then knowing something and believing something are two different things .. and with climbing belief and mental strength is a pretty big part of the whole equation.

If you don’t see what I mean then a good example is:

If you had to walk across a plank that’s 20cm wide and 3m long and lying on the grass in your back garden you’d find it a piece of cake. You could probably hop, skip and jump across it without a thought.

Try doing the same thing 1km up in the air and its a different kettle of fish. But what’s really changed? Its still technically the same challenge and you know you can do it a 100 times and not fall off but .. could you do it?

The only thing stopping you would be a lack of belief in yourself*

* Okay, okay .. that and the fact that you’d be hard pushed to come up with a good reason why you’d want to cross a bloody plank 1km up in the air but you see what I mean.