Clone Wars and X Files…

It was a bank holiday weekend in the UK, so I went to the Cinema a couple of times. I had already seen Hellboy II: The Golden Army in the week, so my choices were a little limited…

Start Wars: The Clone Wars: I was expecting this to be really bad, but it was actually OK. There is a lot going on and it looks really good. The biggest flaw in the film is it doesn’t really target any specific audience. It contains to much violence for young kids, but the “My Little Pony” moments will annoy adults. I don’t think I will ever watch the film again, but if it’s on TV or in a bargain bin at your local store, you might want to give it a go…

The X Files: I Want to Believe: I kinda liked the first couple of series of the X Files, then the formula started to bore me and I fell by the wayside. The film has been out in the UK for a few weeks and there are very few show times now, so it was sort-of accidental that I saw this film. I was actually quite pleasantly surprised. It’s less about “things that go bump in the night”, and more of a conventional thriller. If you are wanting aliens and UFOs, this isn’t the film for you. It’s basically a long, good quality, TV episode. That sounds quite damning, but it’s not meant to be. Compared to some of the drivel I watch at the cinema, this makes a nice change. More of a DVD/TV film, but a reasonable way to pass 104 minutes. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

VMware ESX and Oracle RAC…

It looks like those possible VMware ESX articles I mentioned yesterday are now on the VIOPS site.

If you’re interested in the enterprise VMware kit it’s worth taking a look at the site. New stuff is being added all the time. I think it’s official launch is at vmworld2008 in about 3 weeks.

I’ve also added an overview article for the ESX Server installation to my website.

Cheers

Tim…

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

I’ve been waiting for Hellboy II: The Golden Army for quite a while and it didn’t dissapoint. I like the characters, it looks good and above all it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Like the first film, it’s not without its faults, but overall I thought it was cool. After some of the recent film dissapointments, I was really thinking this might go down the toilet also. Thankfully it didn’t.

The trailer for Max Payne looked interesting. I also enjoyed the trailer for the film Pineapple Express. The film itself doesn’t look that good, but the soundtrack features Paper Planes by M.I.A. I think they only used it because it has the sound of gun shots in the chorus. That kinda misses the point of the song, but never mind. Very cool track.

I came out of the cinema and had a message from my Mom. She couldn’t get on the internet. I had to ring her up and talk her through restarting her ADSL router. Hi Mom. That’s one more reader for my blog. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Flights, OpenWorld, VMware and stuff…

I realize I’ve been a little quiet of late, but life has been really busy and something had to give…

Flights for my conference dates are now sorted. Big thanks to Victoria, LaShon and Sylia. I better get on the case and book my hotels. The plan is:

Birmingham > Frankfurt > San Francisco > Auckland > Perth > Sydney > Gold Coast > Auckland > LAX > Frankfurt > Home

Just looking at it is giving me the fear. That’s some serious air time. I’m way to fat to fly coach at the moment. I better lose some weight and get some anti-DVT support socks… 🙂

I’ve still got to sort out my talks for the conferences. It’s all stuff I’ve been teaching recently, so the material isn’t the problem. The hard thing is trying to compress something that takes me 3.5 hours to teach into 45 minutes without sounding like a list of bullet points.

Recently, I’ve been doing some work with VMware ESX Server. I may have something coming out on the VMware VIOPS site soon. I’ll post again if that works out. By the way, big thanks to the VMware guys (Steve, Tushar and Chris) for hooking me up with the software. I’ve been wanting to play with this stuff for a long time. I was going to start using the free ESXi stuff, but I’ve now got the pukka gear… 🙂

The OCP stuff has hit the back burner for the moment. I was aiming to take the exam this week, but that’s not going to happen now. I’ve got pretty much all of the notes sorted, but I’ve not had time to learn them. Maybe I’ll get time before OpenWorld, or even at OpenWorld…

Cheers

Tim…

Oracle ACE Office Hours in the OTN Lounge…

There are going to be even more ways to meet Oracle ACEs at this years OpenWorld. The OTN Lounge is going to have some time slots where you can meet and chat with Oracle ACEs about any subject you want. See here:

Some Oracle heavyweights have already signed up for the sessions. If you’re and ACE, sign up. It’ll be fun.

Of course the most important thing is that people turn up with questions. Don’t be shy… 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor…

I read some pretty damning reviews of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008), so my expectations were very low. This was a good thing because I came out thinking it was OK. I really do mean OK, not great or even good. Just OK.

The film takes itself far too seriously. There is some humour, but it falls a bit flat and it is few and far between. There is far to much sentimental stuff. I don’t see the point in this type of film. I’m not looking for insight into family issues. I just want mindless action/fun from a Mummy film.

The camera work was shocking. Either the camera man was drunk, or he had been to the “Shakey camera makes things look exciting” school of cinematography. That combined with the really quick cuts made me feel like I was going to have a seizure at times. 🙂

There were some good points. For one, I think I may be in love with Michelle Yeoh. She just keeps getting better with age. 🙂 Also, I want my own Yeti… 🙂

I came out of the film reminded of Indiana Jones 4. Another good franchise that’s lost its way…

Cheers

Tim…

Oracle AS… WebLogic… What?

I knew Oracle had bought BEA, so I knew they had acquired the WebLogic stuff, but I can’t remember reading that they had practically scrapped their own Application Servers in favor of it. The last I read about it was this:

Yet a quick visit to the Oracle websites makes it look pretty clear that WebLogic is the platform of choice:

I’m sure quite a few people with a vested interest in the original Oracle middle tier will feel a bit annoyed by this…

So all these years I’ve been listening to Oracle tell me their App Servers are the best, then they scrap it overnight…

Have I been snoozing and missed something? Am I mistaken? Am I confused?

Probably all three…

Cheers

Tim…

Update: I’ve just done some more Googling and it looks like the writing has been on the cards for a while, so it looks like I’ve been snoozing and missed it… 🙂

I guess next I’ll find out Oracle have bought Teradata and the database is now called Oracle Teradata 12g… 🙂