Real work

Just finished creating a new reporting option to the Vipss Quanta Client software for doing hierarchical client statements.

Ah the joys of financial software... The thrilling number crunching, the endless paperwork and of course the everpresent glossy stare of the customers who can't see the seven miracles you just pulled off because the font is the wrong shade of black??

Yep, I can see some of you shaking your heads - and I don't think it's because you've seen the wrong shade of black before.

Because I like to share, here's a couple shots of what I just did:


Kicking it off... Yes, that's 100% Java


Summary page - generated PDF via iText


Hierarchy chart (more PDF) followed by reams of details on subsequent pages.

I've already heard rumblings that more reporting features are wanted. So looks like it's back into the reports tomorrow as well. Once I put this to bed though, it's on to MultipassNode in jME, so watch this space!

Cruise pics finally

Last month my wife and I went on a cruise in the Southern Caribbean (Aaron stayed with my parents, thankfully!) We took Royal Caribbean, Adventure of the Seas and really enjoyed ourselves. Our ports of call were San Juan, Puerto Rico; Oranjestad, Aruba; Willemstad, Curacao; Philipsburg, St. Maarten; and Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas. Of all these ports, I'd rank Aruba the worst and St Thomas the best by far. Aruba was dirty, smelly and pretty much a big tourist trap (at least the city we were in.) St. Thomas in contrast was clean, friendly, and felt more like a tropical island.

While out there we tried parasailing (definitely recommended,) scuba diving in Trunk Bay St Johns (gorgeous), visited museums and tried out a 90 minute highwire treetop obstacle course (awesome!)

Here's a few pics from the trip, enjoy!


Jeni and Josh on deck


One of the few nice places on Aruba


Jeni at Curucao


We ate way too much on this cruise!


Josh enjoying the trees in St. Marteen


Jeni showing off


Jeni looking beautiful as always


Trunk bay, St. Johns - our favorite spot


Parasailing is fun!

jME v0.9

Well, it finally happened this week. jME version 0.9 is out with drastic improvements to memory requirements as well as other bug fixes and performance enhancements. Much of my silence this month has been due to heavy work on getting those changes in.

See the official announcement here.

Try out some great demonstrations of jME here.