Naquada

I just love Michelle so much… very few people would have gone to that much trouble to get me (and convince me not to buy one on a whim!) something I really wanted..

..thank you sweetheart

Happy Chirstmas

xx

iPhone

This has to be one of the best mashups I’ve seen for a while. Gavin Brock has created a KML file that links google earth to the OS map site, basically allowing you to overlay the Ordnance Survey Maps onto your current google earth view.

Google Earth is great, and I’ve already worked out nice methods using GPSBabel+ on the mac to create routes on GoogleEarth and export them to my Garmin 60CSX handheld GPS.

During the summer when we were walking around the thames path, I traced out the route on GoogleEarth, exported it to a KML/XML file, and used GPSBabel to convert it to a format the Garmin could understand.

Recently we’ve been walking the The Test Way, A 44 mile long-distance walking route takes you from a dramatic start, high on the chalk downs at Inkpen, following much of the course of the River Test to Eling where its tidal waters flow into Southampton Water at Romsey.

Because I dont have The Test Way on OS maps, or in a form I can directly use on the Garmin, I was wondering how I could trace out the route from the description of the walks on an OS map and get the route into the GPS to follow.

A quick hunt and Gavins KML seems to be the answer. The KML itself is very easy to install, basically pull it down from his website and load it into Google Earth. Turn it on or off depending on if you need the OS view, and it will automatically update the view when GoogleEarth is idle and not zooming.

It’s obviously not a substitute for the real OS maps you’d take on a walk, but it’s a good option for helping to plan up a route for a walk, given that things like public footpaths, pubs (pubs are very important on walks!!). It does however also remind me that I probably should post up a tutorial on how to get the route off GoogleEarth and onto the Garmin, as it took me a few go’s to get it right.

I also probably should do the reverse and put the Test Way route up as KML’s or similar for other people to use if they want to do the walk (this may involve walking the first leg again to get the GPS track). Still, back on the subject of the actual OS Map/Google Earth KML integration. The really nice thing about how this works is that the OS maps show the most relevant map type for the level your currently at.

The 60 mile up view shows the miniscale view of the OS maps, as you progressively zoom into google earth, the KML network link refreshes and displays the most suitable scale of the OS map. right down the the higher views that show topography, foot paths, right of ways and the like. This higher detail view is just perfect for mapping out the paths and routes for walk.

This is a great addon for Google Earth, and I’ve had hours of geeky inspired fun zooming round the UK looking at all the OS map levels, turning them on and off and comparing them to the underlying Google Earth views.. So far it looks solid, stable, and quick..

OS, Ordnance Survey, OS Maps, KML, The Test Way, Google Earth, GPS, GARMIN, GPS Tracks

I took my IBM 665: Architectural Design of SOA Solutions exam yesterday, and thankfully passed, I’d taken the same test previously and managed to fail by a single question, which was quite gutting to be honest, but second time round, with a bit more preparation. I managed to sail through and get a good mark.

Which basically means that I’m now an IBM Certified SOA Solution Designer. This fits in well with my role as part of the SOA Virtual Team within FSS at IBM.

The test itself consists of five sections with about 59 multiple-choice questions.
Section 1 covers knowledge of applied SOA; Applying SOA principles to solution design, positioning the SOA benefits with respect to business and IT strategy, determining the role that technology standards play when implementing an SOA, applying the IBM SOA Reference Architecture and leveraging the IBM SOA Foundation and applying proper design guidelines for an SOA architecture.

Section 2 deals with SOA Assessment and Analysis; Capturing and assessing business issues and drivers, IT/technical issues and drivers, performing functional area assessments to assure readiness for SOA (people, processes and technology), assessing the current IT systems from an SOA perspective, identifying functional requirements which address business issues and drivers, identifying nonfunctional requirements and how they relate to services and creating an SOA architecture (solution outline) utilising existing reference architectures.

Section 3 is all about SOA Design; Determining services and tasks based on business process model, applying appropriate standards to SOA design, articulating architectural/design decisions, determining the approach to legacy transformation in the SOA solution, designing the service integration environment, incorporating IBM SOA Foundation products into the design as appropriate, applying appropriate SOA design patterns to solve customer problems, designing a service definition to address functional requirements, and designing a service component to address nonfunctional requirements.

Section 4 is SOA Implementation; Guide and review security implementation, guide and review implementation of integration patterns, guide and review services enablement for legacy applications, guide and review quality assurance5. Guide and review the application of IBM SOA products/tools, and guide and review the information management implementation.

The last section, Section 5 deals with SOA Deployment and Management; Guide and review the service management implementation, the business/IT policy management, business Process Management, operations management and analyze and refine service integration for optimization and reuse.

The rose wasn’t part of the test, Michelle gave it to me last night when I got home, as a Well Done for finally getting through the test, which was a wonderful end to a hard day.

Certification, IBM, SOA, SolutionDesigner