Getting PHP 5.2 to work with Tomcat 6.0

Read this blog entry first
http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/running-php-5x-on-windows-using-tomcat-4x-or-5x/

Download Tomcat 6.0
Download PHP version 5.2.6 - Zip Distribution (the windows installer doesn't work properly)
Add the php directory and extension directory to the system path
Add the 2 environment variables noted in the blog referred above
Copy the php.ini file from php.ini.recommended
change the doc_root to reference the apache tomcat webapps directory
Add the extension php_java.dll
Copy php5servlet.jar to the tom/lib folder
Copy the fun app to tomcat/webapps
Copy the 2 dlls to the php_home folder
Remember to restart tomcat if it was already running

Steve Jobs on Death

If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there.

J. K. Rowling on Imagination

Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation ... it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.

Randy Pausch - Positivity Epitomized

Experience is something you get when you don't get what you wanted.
Brick walls are there for a reason : to prove how badly you want something.

Subprime Slime

Are we still living in the USA, the role-model of a capitalist society. What happened to the invisible hand of the free market. We are actually discussing options where the government would come in and bailout all those 1-3 million people that are supposed to lose their homes.

Now I am not a heartless SOB but bailing people out for making bad decisions only perpetuates the problem. Not resolve it. Now comes regulation: Spend an hour with a mortgage counselor before you get a mortgage. There is a productivity hit to an already long an tenuous process. If we really want to educate, lets fix primary education where you learn the concept of simple and compound interest cause that is about the only math you need to know in order to get a mortgage along with the alacrity to read the fine print.

Consider the alternative, if the government bails folks out where is the cash coming from. All those honest taxpayers that have been paying higher taxes since they aren’t using their homes as a tax shield. Of course they could by print more money so the value of the dollar keeps going down and results in higher rates of inflation.

Americans have been living beyond their means for a few years and the hen is coming home to roost. Folks making $30000 were buying $300000 houses. Whatever happened to living within your means. I belive that everyone deserves a good life but expectations on what constitutes a good life have become whacked over the last 5 years. Everyone thinks an SUV and a McMansion are the twenty first century equivalent of a chevy and a ranch. The government already has a bailout clause for those that have been living beyond their means, it is called bankruptcy protection. Use it!

Just as folks were eager to accept the easy credit, now its time to pay for those excesses. Let the market work it out just as it did with the dot com bust and keep GW out of it. He has done enough damage already.

Warren Buffet on Hype Cycles

There are 3 I's in every cycle. The "innovator" that's the first I. After the innovator comes the "imitator" And after the imitator comes the "idiot" that makes way for the innovator again

Roadmaps

The most basic roadmap answers the 4 canonical questions

• Why
• What
• How
• When

I also found another good snippet from the following post

It outlines in a little more detail the key components of a roadmap document especially as it relates to an Information Technology applications roadmap.

• Purpose of this Document - why write the doc
• Stakeholder Chart - whose needs are being met with the solution
• Signoff Chart - timestamp and id of person who signs off.
• High Level Platform Capabilities - the solution capabilities demanded by the business
• Business Drivers for the Capabilities - the list of business programs or business teams that will use the system
• Capability Demand - which business are asking for which capabilities. An interesting grid.
• Technical Interdependencies - what other systems rely on this solution. What other systems does this solution rely on?
• Enterprise Architecture Concerns - what agreements have been made with EA to get alignment of the solution to EA standards.
• Architectural Context - one or more diagrams showing how the solution platform will evolve over time.
• Methodology - how this document and concensus was created. What meetings were held. Who was in the room. (it matters)
• Roadmap schedule - what timelines everything thinks are reasonable for delivering the needs to different business customers
• System Quality Attributes - what quality attributes will be stressed in each of the iterations.
• Alternatives considered - what alternatives to this roadmap were considered and why this one was chosen.
• Roadmap Risks - what could go wrong and who is assigned to watch for it
  Platform Historical Narrative - previous decisions and narrative so that we can always answer the question: how did we ever get in a bind like this?

Change is good!

Sometimes change management means just that, changing management.

The Age of Turbulence

Capitalism will never fail because Socialism will always be there to bail it out. - Ralph Nader