Low flow

They have posted a notice up in my apartment that next month they are going to replace all of the toilets, shower heads etc. in the building to "low flow" efficient models. First off, that really surprised me but it must be cost efficient to do that in the long run. Second, I am not looking forward to having to flush at least twice all the time. That's my experience at work.

After doing a quick search, it looks like old toilets used about 3.5 G vs the new ones that use 1.6 G (or less). At work they are 1 G (4 point something L) per flush. If on average you have to flush twice, then they are still saving water. *sigh*

I just wish that there were able to design and build toilets that flushed right the first time. I keep on imagining the engineering team and how they all this fake poop at their disposal and adding it to their "test toilets" in pipping bags like you ice a cake with. I wonder if they have a computer simulations too? Maybe this is like the early automotive industry and soon we will have better toilets like the ones in japan. Who knows. One thing that I do know is that this isn't a new issue and people who really care like Dave Barry have been "lifting the lid" on this issue for a while now.

I'll post again when the new fixtures have been installed and after some "field testing" to see if they suck, or more importantly flush.

Funny

A quote from a slashdot story that I just had to share:
"The UK is known for many things, great food, a wonderful climate and beautiful women." Well, clearly...

NL or NF (or NFL? hahaha...)

One thing that I have come across today is the fact the the ISO code for Newfoundland and Labrador has changed from NF to the more politically correct NL. Why iso codes have to be politically correct is dumb to me, but must be important to someone else. This problem has bitten me today and I'm still stinging... *sigh* Who knew ISO codes changed much?

Adventures with class loaders

One problem that we have been discussing around work I wanted to share with everyone else at of a point of interest.

Lets make an example: you are a group that is hosting lots of J2EE applications. Some you have control over the source, some you don't. A lot of these apps will use common jars like log4j.

There are two things that you can do now:
1) put all the jars in a common location on the server
2) have each app including the required jars they need

Both setups have advantages and disadvantages. If you go with #1 then you have a common place for jars but you run into headaches when App A needs log4j version 1 and App B needs log4j version 2. This also means that you have to make sure that the server setups are exactly the same or apps will blow up if you move them from one server to another. The applications are no longer as atomic. And every time you want to change a shared jar, you have to do a full regression on all the apps that use it. And then you may not find the bugs at all until a weird case comes to the surface.

So you go with option #2 and have each app include what they need. Things are good, the sky is blue, the birds are singing, the applications depend less on the server setup and don't conflict. Now, of course there is a hitch: static classes.

Both App A and App B use log4j. App A uses an old version that has a org.apache.log4j.Constants class that has 2 static members in it. App B uses a version with 3 static members in it. You test both apps on developer workstations and everything is great. You load them to the server where they are both in the same JVM and everything is melts down.

With the class loader it checks if a static class is already loaded. If it is, then it doesn't bother to load them again. This means you are stuck with whatever version gets loaded first. Both versions may be incompatible with each other. The applications are no longer so atomic.

What's the solution to this? I don't really know what you could do other than putting the apps into different JVM's, but I'm still thinking about it. ;-)

Note: I don't know if there is a log4j constants class like that... I was just making one up.

One of those weeks

This has been one of those weeks that it feels like I am trying to push water up a hill... *sigh* At least it's the end of the week. Sometimes it helps to read something funny.

Stuts 1.3 and EJB 3.0

If anyone is doing struts stuff out there, here's an interesting read about 1.3 and the "Chain of Command" and another thread about the new EJB 3.0 spec.

Family Doctors

The following is part of an email that was sent to me:

There are currently 1.2 million people in Ontario without a family doctor.
Patients are waiting forever for appointments to see specialist and for
diagnostic test. Canada's diagnostic equipment is so old, that some is
similar to that used in 3rd world countries.

The Ontario Medical Association is trying to bring attention to this matter.
We have set up a website www.supportourdocs.ca

On this website you will find information about the current problems and
also have the ability to send a letter to your local MPP, the Minister of
Health and Mr. McGuinty. You do not even need to write the letter. If you
click on the area and fill out your name, address, postal code and email
address and hit submit, a pre-written letter will pop up and you can send
it. If you do not know your MPP, you can find it out on the site as well.

It is easy. It is simple and it will help. We need to make the politicians
accountable.

Please help by doing this and by forwarding this email or one in your own
words if you prefer, to all appropriate persons in your address book.

Ontario's doctors are trying hard to look after you with limited resources
but it is getting harder all the time. We need your help.