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Pool coping project underway
Today I officially got the pool project underway, after 6 weeks or so of procrastination. After a week of foul weather, I finally got a decent day, so I took off work and rented the concrete saw. It did the job quite nicely, and quickly enough that I only needed a 4-hour rental. It took…
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The paradox of pool solar covers
We have a solar cover for our pool. It’s essentially a big, plastic sheet of bubble-wrap that sits on the pool surface. To remove it, we crank it onto a big reel — it’s pretty much a necessity to have a reel for these things, particularly with a large pool like ours. After 5 seasons…
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Revisiting legacy myUMBC session management
Now that we’ve entered the brave new world of SSN remediation, it’s time to think about taking another step with myUMBC: We should stop using HP-ID as the primary key for legacy session management, and use UMBC Campus ID instead. Here’s why… All of our web proxy channels which use the old portal as a…
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Oracle SQL Developer
I’ve just discovered Oracle SQL Developer, and it looks like it’s going to really make my life easier. I’ve been using an old, crusty version of SQL Navigator for my SQL visualization needs, and it’s always worked, but I’ve never been crazy about it. For one, the UI is very klunky — the mouse wheel…
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myUMBC redesign coming along
What’s this… a rare work-related entry on a weekend?? Well, it is the weekend, but I’m hacking on the portal anyhow, to get ready for our relaunch this August. It’s coming along marvelously, thanks mainly to Collier, but I’ve been busy with it too. The relaunch will include: A complete redesign of the front end…
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Pool coping project — getting started
Time to get started on the pool repair project.. better late than never I suppose. I’ve blocked off this coming Thursday to rent a concrete saw and cut back the expansion joint. Also, I’ve been thinking a lot more about what to use to mortar the coping stones in place. Terry Tamminen’s excellent book, The…
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SSN Remediation is here
Woo-hoo! SSN Remediation happened over the past weekend, and we’re back up and running. I really think this is going to be a big win over the long term. On the myUMBC side of things, there wasn’t much I needed to do. Just update my code in two places (one on the uPortal side, and…
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Finally got in the pool
Better late than never, we took our first swim of the season today. It’s nice to finally be using the pool, because it makes the hassle of maintaining it seem more worthwhile. It’s not quite worth all the effort and expense IMHO, but still, it is nice to be able to hop in the pool…
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Student Parking Registration
I should have seen the writing on the wall 5 years ago.. I’m busy fixing the online Student Parking Registration app, which has been sorta broken ever since the uPortal launch. Student Parking is a unique application. It’s the only app we have here that: Communicates directly with the HP3000 mainframe via TCP sockets, and…
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Out with GUIDs.. in with Campus IDs
OK, policy decision for our up-and-coming launch of uPortal 2.5.. I’m going to stop using the LDAP GUID as the uPortal ‘unique username’, and use the new UMBC Campus ID instead. Background: Every uPortal user gets an entry in uPortal’s user table, UP_USER. This table contains (among other things) a numeric ID for primary key,…