I. love. Mustangs.

There were a lot of Mustangs at Wintersun this year, including multiple in the dark green featured in Bullitt and a Mustang Mach 1.

I’ve included a few of the better photos below.

Previously:
- Wintersun 2008
- Wintersun 2008 - Rat Rods

While immaculate restorations and shining chromed customs are all well and good, nothing says “bad-arse” better than a Rat Rod. There were two fantastic examples of the style at Wintersun this year, and although I managed to get better pictures of the first rod it was the second that was my favourite.

Previously:
- Wintersun 2008

If there’s one thing I love more than long weekends, it’s classic cars. It just so happens that it’s possible to combine the two with the Wintersun festival, a rock and roll nostalgia event held at Coolangatta. Part of the festival is a classic car show exclusively for pre-1974 vehicles.

From rat rods to hot rods, from Mustangs to Bel Airs, this show had a fantastic collection of privately owned vehicles on display. Rachel and I went down to check it out and took about a hundred photos in the process, which I plan to share in a few themed posts.

First though, I’ll share our favourite vehicles of the day.

First up is Rachel’s favourite, a beautiful custom 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air.

My favourite was a Mustang, of course. Here’s me next to a 1967 Mustang Mach 1.

IBM has just released a supported integration between Tivoli Access Manager for eBusiness and JBoss Application Server.

IBM Tivoli Access Manager JBoss Integration Adapter
Abstract
This integration solution enables integration between IBM Tivoli Access Manager for eBusiness and JBoss Application Server.

Download Description
This package contains an implemenation of IBM Tivoli Access Manager for eBusiness runtime for Java which is suitable for JBoss environments. It also contains documentation and sample applications for this Java runtime. The package also provides a Single Sign On solution for JBoss application server.

Link

The integration is free of charge for existing TAM customers, and supported through the normal channels.

My recent home theatre buying binge left me completely devoid of space in the tiny Ikea TV stand I’ve been using for the past couple of years.  So short of space that I was relegated to setting my new Onkyo 605 on the floor!

I decided to build a new stand for my TV and home theatre gear based on the TNT Flexy design.  A friend of mine built a similar stand a few years ago, and the minimalist industrial design really appealed to my tastes.

The finished product consists of a primary centre section that’s 1175 mm wide and two wing sections that are 450 mm wide each.  I decided to make the side sections removable so that if I move into a new house with less room I can take them off and be left with a stand that is the same size as my TV.  As it is currently, the wing sections hold my two front speakers.

The unit is three shelves high, and 600 mm deep.  600 mm is slightly too deep, but the alternative was current down each piece of MDF to the same size.  Given my lack of experience with power tools I’m certain I wouldn’t have been able to get a nice finish doing this, so I left the panels at the 600 mm size they came from Bunnings.

The total cost for the materials used was around AU$200, which is pretty reasonable for it’s size.  Everything was bought from Bunnings at Molendinar on the Gold Coast.

Here’s the cost breakdown:

Other Flexy Builds:

• Flexy Table +
• TNT FleXy Table: DIY audiophile rack
• Rack and Roll
• Flexy Component Rack

An article I co-wrote with Neil Readshaw has gone live on the IBM developerWorks site.

Using SAML security tokens with Microsoft Web Services Enhancements
A standards-based approach enabled by Tivoli Federated Identity Manager

Microsoft® Web Services Enhancements (WSE) is a framework for developing secure, interoperable Web services for the Microsoft .NET platform. WSE supports standard security token types such as Username, Kerberos and X.509 certificate tokens. One widely used security token type not supported by WSE is the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML). This article will demonstrate an architecture and implementation capable of integrating WSE and SAML using Tivoli® Federated Identity Manager (TFIM).

Check it out here.

Less than 24 hours after Google App Engine went live, an application has been written that allows you to use your Google Account to log into any site via OpenID. Uncreatively called OpenID Provider, it also presents you with a nice log of recent OpenID requests.

This is a fantastic example of how opening your infrastructure can provide benefit to the entire community.

Six months later and Mr McNamara from Australian Property Monitors is at it again.  In a short piece titled “Rents in Australian cities will soar in the next four years” he once again singles out Gen Y as the cause of rising rents.

APM general manager Michael McNamara said rental supply was tight as a drum.

“As Gen Y leaves home and strong migration patterns take effect, our construction sector struggles to keep up the supply of well-located, affordable property to accommodate a growing population of renters,” he said.

Of course people are moving out of home, but to somehow come to the conclusion that because someone born post-1980 rather than pre-1980 will somehow impact the rental market more is simply ridiculous. There’s not some backlog of youngsters living at home that are all suddenly going to move out at once!

(source) (previously)

James McGovern recently linked to Anil Saldhana’s summary of IDTrust 2008 with the following comment.

It feels as if the RSA Conference will be repeating the Oasis XACML interoperability challenge already conducted by The Burton Group. I wonder why Hal Lockhart and others couldn’t come up with something that shows more thought leadership? How about demonstrating XACML interoperability with non-security products such as BPM and ECM?

I don’t know where James got the impression that the RSA Interop will be a repeat of the Burton Interop. The scenario is much more in-depth. Instead of the XACML TC inventing a simple scenario, the US Department of Veteran’s Affairs is the primary scenario driver. The scenario covers using XACML to protect confidential patient data, and the associated controls around emergency over-rides.

Anil’s written a quick overview, and the IDTrust presentations by IBM’s Tony Nadalin and Axiomatic’s Andreas Sjöholm give a more in-depth overview.

I personally think the scenario is interesting, in-depth, and demonstrates the flexibility that XACML can provide in a complex domain.

Update: Anil has also responded to James’ comment.

An article in The Age today, titled “Lightning internet on way“, makes the dubious claim that the Australian Goverment’s subsidy of a fiber-to-the-node network will allow connections of 100 times faster than what is currently available.

Sounds good, right?

Not so much when they consider “what is currently available” to be 256 kbits.

But by deploying VDSL, (also known as Very High Speed DSL) technology, Senator Conroy said the new network would be able to carry up to 25 megabits per second.

Most broadband users currently receive only 256 kilobits per second — 100 times less capacity than 25 megabits — using ADSL technology.

Seeing as ADSL2+ has a theoretical maximum of 24 megabits, I think what they meant to say is “no faster than what is currently available.”