Lately I've been spending a lot of time documenting formal processes at work. I am *really* excited about this. We have been given the opportunity to make big changes that will get everyone working the same way in all areas of development. For example, today I was working on a Subversion Processes document that explains how to lay our your repository, branching systems, best practices, and a step-by-step guide with screenshots on how to handle every conceivable scenario using Tortoise SVN. Right now everyone uses subversion a bit differently and this is causing challenges. Getting everyone working the same way will improve our productivity.

I also have to write a document on using CollabNet Enterprise Edition so that we all use it properly and consistently. Right now we have an other issue tracking system that is used in a different way by almost every programmer. Some have mastered it, some don't really get what kinds of things should be a ticket and which shouldn't, and some don't use it at all. Hopefully this will make it crystal clear and we can all benefit from what CollabNet has to offer.

JavaOne is coming up very soon (May 8-11) and today I received an email informing me that I need to use their online scheduling tool to decide which semniars I will be attending on each of the days. The other day I had a dream that I arrived at the conference and realized that I didn't have a plan. I didn't know which seminars were available, where they were, when they started, etc... it was awful. The dream ended with me in a cafeteria eyeing up at massive piles of giant pankakes and a mountain of eggs done the way I like them.

The shower in my basement apartment is leaking a bit and I've got potential new tenants calling to come for a viewing. Grandpa is coming over Saturday morning to have a look. He thinks we're going to be ripping it down and putting tiles up the wall. I hope it doesn't come to that. It's not the money, it's the time and effort. I've learned that I really do not enjoy home improvement.

I'm 100 pages away from finishing reading the first part of my Solaris 10 book. After I finish, I'll spend a couple of weeks practicing on my Solaris box and doing the practice exams before taking the test. Then I'll have to read an other 200 pages for the second exam. If I pass both, I will be a Sun Certified Solaris Administrator. This is the first book I've read almost entirely in front of my keyboard so I can try out everything. I've found that my nearly 10 years of Linux experience (on and off over the years) has made a big difference. Working in Solaris isn't as difficult as I thought it would be.

After I pass both exams I will have covered everything I need to know about how to set up almost every aspect of my home network. I won't have an excuse to not get my home network servers finalized anymore. I bought those dam servers almost a year ago! Next I'll buy a Sun Ray 2 thin client, and attach it to my 52" tv in the living room using a DVI cable. I'll have a performant Solaris 10 graphical desktop in my living room on a big screen :) I'm not going to do it just for fun, I see value in Sun Ray clients and want to get experience configuring the server and managing it. They are pretty cheap, $250 US each.

Today I received an email from Marco. He and his employer will be in Toronto in a couple weeks. Their company is merging with a similar company in Toronto and they need to align their IT? Marco said he could get me a job managing a small team of developers if I'd be willing to move to London England and work in an office with a close view of Big Ben :/ What an offer. I let him know how greatful I am for this opportunity but I had to turn it down. I am loyal to IJWS, almost 9 years now. I like the long term job security of IJWS. Also I prefer writing software to managing. That will probably change as I get older but not right now. This is the third job offer I've turned down in the last year. Crazy eh?! I'm not even looking for a job, it's through people I know.