So I've been doing a bit of work with XMLHttpRequest lately to do dynamic updates on web application pages behind the scenes and type-ahead drop downs. I thought this was a great example and I've made some modifications for better IE support (z-order with drop downs on the page, deal with IE caching GET requests, and some minor interaction bugs). Pretty cool stuff really. I'll post those updates soon.

I just got done reading this bit by Attila Szegedi (seen on the ADVANCED-JAVA list) about some obscure Java memory leaks and how he found them in his app. Amazing! Moral of the story, beware of Jakarta commons-logging holding onto references to classes in applications that reload them, sun.net.www.http.KeepAliveCache for HTTP 1.1 connections doing the same, and an unbelievable insight into ThreadLocal. Wow.

The BEA User's Group went really well last night, and I thought the other panelists at least had a lot to offer :)

A few of the resources we discussed in terms of their usefulness in resolving production problems:

• A collection of known JVM options, primarily for Solaris.
  
• A good article detailing what some of the (hidden) debug params are for Weblogic Server.
• The WLShell scripting tool for WebLogic.
• The AspectJ framework for WebLogic.
  

Just a heads up that I will be on a panel tonight at the Delaware Vally BEA User's Group talking about WebLogic and using it in production environments. I'll be talking with Ken Wilson, from the Application Architecture and Planning group at Towers Perrin, and Bob Savino who is the Director of Web Systems Architecture and Engineering at ICG Commerce. I've talked with them on the phone and they sound like great guys with a ton of interesting experience. More details at the BUG website.

Congratulations to the Red Sox and all their fans. We've been waiting for this for years.

So the Red Sox amazingly came back from 3 games down and finished it off against the Yankees last night. It was like Christmas in October. I went to my first baseball game at Fenway Park with my dad when I was 5 and came home with a poster of Carl Yastrzemski.

I think the Tyler Kepner at the New York Time said it best today. How long have you been holding onto a paragraph like this?

It was actually happening. The nerd was kissing the homecoming queen. Paper was beating scissors; scissors were beating rock. Charlie Brown was kicking the football. The Red Sox were beating the Yankees for the American League pennant.

Go Sox!!!