Spring Source Tools Suite and grails support

This plugin for eclipse is supposed to provide groovy and grails support.
It seems if I install the IDE Core first all by itself, it will install, but this seems painful and perilous.

eclipse update fails

When trying to use the release update site:
SpringSource STS - http://www.springsource.com/update/e3.5
fails with


Cannot complete the install because one or more required items could not be found.
  Software being installed: SpringSource Tool Suite (required) 2.3.0.200912171331-RELEASE (com.springsource.sts.feature.group 2.3.0.200912171331-RELEASE)
  Missing requirement: SpringSource Tool Suite (required) 2.3.0.200912171331-RELEASE (com.springsource.sts.feature.group 2.3.0.200912171331-RELEASE) requires 'org.eclipse.mylyn.jira.ui [3.3.0,4.0.0)' but it could not be found


When tryhing to use themilestone update site
Springsource STS Milestone - http://www.springsource.com/milestone/e3.5


Cannot complete the install because one or more required items could not be found.
  Software being installed: SpringSource Tool Suite (required) 2.2.0.200910161543-RC2 (com.springsource.sts.feature.group 2.2.0.200910161543-RC2)
  Missing requirement: SpringSource Tool Suite (required) 2.2.0.200910161543-RC2 (com.springsource.sts.feature.group 2.2.0.200910161543-RC2) requires 'org.eclipse.mylyn.jira_feature.feature.group [3.3.0,3.4.0)' but it could not be found

AK Trip Day 2: Monday June 15

The fishing trip rocked, but it's day 3 and I have to feed and rally the boys. I'll write about the day 2 fishing trip later.

Below is a start...

Spent the morning writing blog for day one and researching fishing outfits. We decided to hit the little Susitna for Kings, but I needed a fishing license, provision and be at the boat ramp at the little Susitna by Noon-That's about 100 miles away and I was herding cats.


I had been on the phone 3 or 4 times in the morning with Alaska Susitna Charters, to solidify plans. Lauri on the other end was relating how Greg had been on the river for days with clients and would kill for a huge cup of coffee and could I please bring him one. The way she talked I was imagining this guy falling asleep at the orrs.

I threw everything into my motherload backpack and we rallied, which means me yelling and herding them into the car. The drive to Wasilla was beautiful and of course Luka fell asleep. I woke him, we all went into Fred Meyer, got the fishing licence + king salmon tag and provisioned (chips, soda pop and a cooler) ($20 license + $10 king salmon tag, $3 cooler, soda, chips, bread). We stopped at Carl's Jr. for some vile fast food and headed down the Knik Goose Bay rode to the landing.

The drive from Wasilla was longer than I figured and the boys nearly heard me say a bad word a couple times when I started wondering if I'd missed a turn or something on the long gravel Point Mackenzie road. I remembered that I needed to buy a coffee for the Greg the guide and luckily there was a roadhouse with fresh coffee.

We found the obvious boat launch fee area, ,paid the $5 parking, parked and coffe in hand, went looking for our guide. I started asking around for Alaska Susitna Charters and it wasn't long before someone said "Hey is that coffee for me? You must be my new best friend!"

That's when I knew it was going to be a good day.

AK Trip: Day 1-Sunday June 14

Saturday was frantic packing but we made it with no problems. I spent $360 on Eagle creek packing organizers, but hope to make good use of it.

We got delayed out of denver and I was worried about making the connection in Salt lake but mad it with no problems. SPent a ton of money on munchies in the SL airport ($7 on sandwich, $8 on pizza, 12 on ice cream) but kept us occupied. The trip to AK was good, ,since we all mostly slept, uncomfortably.

We arrived in Anch and Alice was there to greet us. The boys were in good sprits and Luka ran to hug Aunt alice. We got our bags and loaded into dad's monstrous Ford excursion for the trip to his condo.

We were up will about 2 or 3 (still daylight) but slept well and were up by 6:AM anyway. (curses Luka!) We spent the morning getting settled and then walked from Dad's condo (13th and eagle) to Holy Family Cathedral and The Captain Cook. On the way we stopped at a tourist trap and I bought Aidan a nice fleece with an Alaska logo. ($20)

As i walked up to HFC a guy saw me and said "Hi Ed Young" which really took me back. He was Tim Walsh, who is an old friend of my dad's.

The boys and I walked into the church and downstairs, but there was nothing going on in the basement. I was hoping for a pancake breakfast!

We walked to the Cook and found dad. Luka was a wild animal and couldn't be restrained from jumping on the couch in the sitting area so I took them to walk arund and go up and down the elevators. Finally we talked to Alice and did some car shuffling. I ended up with Dad's kia (license plate: EYOUNG) and we went to breakfast. $(15)

The Luka machine was out of control so I decied to take them hiking and burn off energy. We got our gear from the condo and headed up to Flattop parking lot. On the way we stopped at John and Angel Woodberry's place but John wasn't home.

When we arrived we discovered that Luka had fallen asleep, but woke up with Aidan's help. I went to pay the parking fee for a day ($5/day) but paid for two days since I had only a $10. Hopefully we can use the second day soon.

We all packed up and started up the trail. Luka was groggy and wanted me to carry him (!). I carried him up the first flight of stairs (stairs?) and then let him walk. He was slow and groggy for the first 30 minutes or so, but he got going after a while.

Aidan was a little mountaineer and was cranking up ahead of us, but waited as necessary. He and I called and responded using the little whistles on our backpacks! Cool.

I took pictures along the way (hope they turn out) and we summited with no problems. The top is flat (hence the name) and we ran all over the place checking out the little rock forts people have built.

We stopped to have a snack where you can see Powerline pass and peaks 2 and 3. They were shrouded in clouds and it was cool looking. We took more picts ran around some more and started down.

Aidan was ahead and looked very sure footed. Luka was a little more hesitant and I had to help him on the sketchy upper part.

Once we got further down, there are now woodedn steps built into the mountain side (south side) and we had fun jumping down them. As we got down where it's less steep Luka wanted to race and we all ran on the trail. It was huge fun.

Alice had called on the trail and we met them at the parking lot. Dad, Alice and Uncle Mike were there and we all walked around the Anchorage view and took pictures. Luka and Aidan took turns being in time out.

We then headed down to tour the old neighborhood (Stonybrook drive) but the house on the hill is hidden by huge amounts of foliage. We drove to the lake and went to the park.

The kids played on the equipment, but Luka peed his pants and we had to go home. (Note to self: bring spare clothes for him) Not a problem since we were ready to head home anyway.

At Dad's condo we did laundry, luka peed his pants again (!) and Dad and I decied to go eat. (Country Kitchen ($32) Never again. The kids were totally unruly and it made me mad and sad that they did not mind or behave. No desert for them!

We drove down 5th ave to Eldeberry park and then around bootlegger's cove. Very nice areay and it made me misty eyed especially when we drove past the old house, now with a huge mansion on premises.

We then went to "Valley of the Moon Park" for the kids to play and play they did!! It was so fun watching them play together, having real brotherly fun! They played a game where they grabbed handfulls of gravel and ran up the play thing, then let the gravel go down the slide and then slid down after it. They did that endlessly and it was pure joy to watch! Luka peed his pants again (just a little) because he was having so much fun did not want to stop. I managed to get him to the woods to finish up his pee.

While they played, Alice and Mike and I talked about stuff. Dad was off walking around the park.

We went home after an hour or more of play. The kids need a bath!

At home we got in our jammies, did laundry, scrubbed the tub and I decided there would be no bath tonight because it was pretty grimy. One more clean in the AM and we'll be bathready.

Alice called while we did our evening routine and offered to get us stuff from Fred Meyer before they headed over. I said cleaning and laundry stuff ($28). The boys watched DVD all the while.

Bill Emmert stopped by and we had a nice visit. We'll try to meet again during our trip.

The boys fell asleep watching Tom and Jerry, both snuggled in the sleeping bag (very cute). They had a very long day, and will sleep well. They climbed a mountain and played their hearts out.

Dad and Alice and I decided that we'd spend Monday morning doing fishing research and then the evening go to Palmer to visit Alices friend who has a farm.

It's nearly midnight and still light out! Better hit the hay...

Response to and thoughts on an article on trickle down economics, and my take on the Shock Doctrine

A friend came over for dinner one night and as is inevitable, we talked politics. He mentioned an article he'd read recently and later sent me a link to it.
In response to a link to this article:
http://www.fee.org/PUBLICATIONS/THE-FREEMAN/article.asp?aid=479

I wrote this:

Frank,

It was great seeing you too. Those two boys are total studs just like the old man!

...of course I'm talking about my boys...

Thanks for bringing all that food over when we invited you to dinner! I guess that means when we come to FLA we have to bring dinner.

And thanks for indulging with me in all that political rant, and for forwarding that article. It was a good time. Easy to get me going on that stuff these day's I'll admit.

That's an old article. I'd never heard of "Olson's Law of Groups" but it was very compelling. Also interesting to read about Milton Friedman's observation that interest groups desire government regulation as long as they are the one's doing the regulating, and it always leads to higher prices. Just look at the medical and pharmaceutical industries for solid proof of this. This would seem to be an argument against regulation, but there's no discussion about the corruption that is inevitable without effective oversight, because that would erode the idea of pure market magic.

The part about future based programs like jobs training and public education being a failure because the poor live only "in the present" was ridiculously simplistic, and extremely chauvinistic. It nearly blew the whole article even if it wasn't merely a 28 year old validation of pure market driven and unregulated trickle down economics.

I agree in principle that market based solutions are superior to government dependent ones, but I'm skeptical that without effective oversight, market based solutions will benefit anyone other than the few who construct their "iron triangle". One only has to witness the recurring deregulated financial industry collapses and subsequent bailouts to see who's benefiting and who's paying for all the pure market driven solution fuckups. Do I even need to mention how energy industry deregulation resulted in Enron's collapse? Did the energy industry suffer?

Any more I believe inn fact that they are not fuckups at all. It is by design that these unregulated markets fail and are bailed out by the taxpayers. They wrote the laws for their own industry, and are in effect playing the bankruptcy game, for which they are held unaccountable, because they have constructed their "Iron Triangle". Government exists to be ridiculed and gamed, and the taxpayers are to be played as suckers.

Beyond the well exampled market driven solutions that benefit from the "Iron Triangle" effect of self regulating (read no oversight) industries, there is a much more dangerous derivative economic theory that is being realized. It is much worse than being simply corrupt.

What's going on now is that there are entire industries that benefit from government failure and in fact are motivated to make sure that government does fail so they can jump in and provide their "market solution". This solution doesn't solve anything, in fact it insures that the failure is perpetuated and enlarged so that they can continue to profit from it. Witness the military industry, and what has become the "Disaster Capitalism Complex". The economic theories of Milton Friedman are central, and provide the adherents with a kind of intellectualization and validation for many of the economic and geo-political policies of late. In fact, even if the policies fail, they use the failure as evidence of success. Totally Orwellian, Dude.

This is the premise of the book I mentioned during our rant session. It's called "The Shock Doctrine", and it's just as truthfull and well documented as it is dark and apocalyptic. Everything I've written above is my own take (rant) on it all, so I urge you to read it, or as I did, listen to the audio book, rather than listen to me. Unfortunately, I know that with two kids, a job and graduate school, reality will get in the way of you're getting to read it.

So, anyway, thanks for the visit. I hope we can see Jen next time,and I wish you well in grad school and career stuff.

Hang looose, baby

Triple Bypass 2008

Rode the Triple Bypass today. 120 miles, 3 Mountain passes over 11,000 feet. Very tired. Too tired to give details. Stay tuned.

That was all I had energy for the evening after I finally got home about 10:PM. I got home, cracked open a beer and risked falling asleep in the tub for an hour or so.

Everything went pretty well on the ride, except that I never saw any of the guys I was supposed to ride with, until the finish. That's because I started before they did, and then when I got to the first rest stop at the top of Squaw Pass, I waited and watched for 45 minutes for them. It turns out that they all blew through that one and kept going. There was no cell phone coverage up there so I had no idea. After that I was far behind the rest of the day.

No matter though. The weather was perfect all day. The ride up Squaw Pass was was chilly, but calm. My toes were cold the whole way up.

Once at the top, I refueled and used the bathroom, walked around, waited and refueled some more. Finally I got ready to head down "The Dark Side" of Squaw pass. For this I put on all my wind protection: Wind shell, hand and toe shells. I already had on my next to skin silk layer (the one I should have had on the Mt Evans trip) The one item I was missing was the balaclava, that JB had with him, and that I we had arranged for me to get from him when we hooked up at the first rest stop. I decided not to put on the leg warmers, and it turns out I was ok without them.

The ride down The Dark Side of Squaw Pass is cold, and long. Many people complained that after Squaw Pass, their toes and hands were frozen until they got to Loveland pass some 40 miles later. I think I was well prepared, and the cold air didn't penetrate too much as I blasted down the 10 or 15 mile descent.

At the bottom (Idaho Springs) I pealed off and after trying to make phone calls to my buddies, I got going. The section from Idaho Springs climbs gently on the access road that runs parallel to I70 through Dumont to GeorgeTown where the next rest stop was.

Once again, I lingered at the rest stop and refueled, used the bathroom and sunscreened up. About here I got a call from JB who was pulling into Loveland, the next aid station about 20 miles up.

I got going again and continued the steady climb up to Loveland. This section of the ride takes you along I70 (part of it you actually have to ride on the highway). Just as I was about to get onto the highway section, my sister Alice called and we talked for a few minutes. "Oh, ya, you said you were doing a bike ride or something. Is that this weekend?"

A bike ride indeed.




The ride along the highway sucked and occasionally huge trucks would pass by and scare the crap out of me. It seemed like each mile was getting longer now. I got a call from Jim Pefanis who was at Loveland now. I told him I'd haul ass and get there ASAP.

When I finally pulled into Loveland I gave Jim an call, and when he answered, it was obvious that he was riding up the steeps. Between gasps, he said, he'd seem me, down the road.

Since I had missed him again, I wasn't in any big hurry, and so I lingered at the Loveland rest stop. Here there was live music, ham and turkey sandwiches and a table covered with nasty mustard and mayo bottles. Most were empty, and all were crusted over and vile. I found a Grey Poupon, banged it on the table and managed to get a squirt onto my ham and Wonderbread lunch. I can't complain. They did a good job of having plenty of energy food there, and the watermelon was awesome.

It was at this rest stop that I applied some kind of a salve to my crotch. The label identified it as some scary sounding medical name, but the first aid guy (discretely) recommended it. At first I was alarmed when it felt kind of like that "icy hot" stuff and I thought I had made a big mistake. It turns out that whatever that stuff works pretty well for saddle sore. Nuff said.

Next: Loveland Pass, painfully steep. Vail Pass, painfully long.

Mt Evans Hail Storm From Hell

The Triple Bypass is next weekend and a few of us decided we needed a challenge to see if our training had paid off. We decided to ride to the top of Mt. Evans from Evergreen, Colorado. Evergeen is about 7000 feet, Mt Evan's is 14, 277 feet so It's about 35 miles of climbing at altitude and then the same distance again in descent.

Jim Pefanis and I met John Bissert and two of his friends at Bergan Park. We started up the mountain at 7:AM and rode the first leg of the trip up Squaw pass to Echo Lake (11,140ft) . As we rode everyone commented on how perfect the day was and how nice and cool it was.

JB and his buddy Warren rode up a bit faster than we did so we agreed to meet up later. Jim and I rode up to Echo Lake and took a long rest and refilled our water bottles. Echo Lake is the entrance to to the 14 mile road up to Mt. Evans, and there's a $3/per person fee to use the road.

At Echo Lake, we started up the road to Mt. Evans. Jim decided that he would stop after a couple miles and turn around to head down. I couldn't blame him since we all were riding the Triple Bypass in 6 days, and a ride like this so close to the event, was not necessarily a good training strategy. Also, since the weather up around Mt. Evan's had been dark and cloudy all morning, a storm seemed pretty likely.

Jim took off down and I kept riding up the mountain. The air gets pretty cold the higher you go, and I stopped to put on my jacket and head band. As I headed toward the summit, I could see lightning occasionally, and started hearing thunder. A light rain started to fall, but I felt pretty well protected.

As I rode on, I passed some people and got passed by a few others. I was soon at the 6 mile marker and moving pretty fast, but it was also getting pretty cold now and the light rain had increased to a drizzle. I stopped to put on my new REI silk shirt and discovered that it was actually new REI silk long underwear bottoms! I stood there and stared at them stunned, and then stuffed them back in my jersey while muttering something to myself about how if I died of hypothermia, I'd deserve it for being such an idiot.

The lightning and thunder was getting closer and more frequent, and the traffic coming down was seeming more and more urgent. I continued on, but soon decided to just ride to the next mile marker and then turn around.

I got to the 8 mile mark, was stopping to turn around and just then saw JB on his way down. I yelled and he stopped. I told him I was heading down and we agreed to meet at the Echo Lake store. By this time the rain had turned into small hail and the lightning and thunder was pretty alarming. I put on my waterproof mits and got going down.



I passed a couple who were riding pretty slowly. The road at this section was extremely exposed and the ride down has some really unnerving views. The side of the road is basically a cliff, and someone on a bike, about 4 or 5 feet from the road edge would be in some serious hurt if a gust of wind happened to blast them off the edge. The girl was very scared and was asking her friend if they should stop. He answered "Not here! Keep going!".

I passed them by and just about then the hail turned from small mushy pellets into hard icy projectiles. Soon the size of them increased to about the size of large (frozen) grapes, and it turned from a little scary and annoying into an extremely painful and dangerous bombardment. The balls of ice were penetrating the holes in my helmet and were painfully pummeling my arms, shoulders and face.

This was now the worst hail storm I'd ever experienced and I was on a mountain side with no cover, and with lightning and thunder crashing all around. I headed for a spot on the mountain side that was most leeward and tried to protect myself from the painful hail. I managed to get my head and shoulders protected but my legs and back continued to get pounded by the increasingly large and intense balls of ice. I wondered if I was dooming myself to a lightning strike by cowering against the rock to avoid hail damage.

While I cowered, my head was covered but I could watch as the hail violently pummeled and bounced off the road. It accumulated rapidly, and what was a gleaming wet road in a green and rocky mountain side, was now completely white. I watched as my bike slowly began to be covered by the accumulating hail.

As I wondered how long I'd have to endure the bombardment, a ranger truck drove by, stopped, and then backed up quickly. My bike was pretty hard to see now, and I thought it was going to drive over it, but the driver managed to park right next to it. I jumped up and a second later was inside the truck, thanking the ranger for stopping. Inside the truck the hail was unbelievably loud, and we sat for awhile before deciding to turn around and head down. I jumped back out into the bombardment, and put my bike in the back of the truck.



Jockying the ranger truck back and forth to turn around would have been pretty scary any time, but in the hail, with thunder and lightning crashing all around it was absolutely terrifying. I buckled up and hung on white knuckled as the ranger (Harry) managed it with little trouble, and we were on our way down.

I felt unbelievably lucky that the ranger had stopped for me. As we headed down, the hail started to slow, but it was now several inches deep on the road. Nothing with only two wheels could drive in these conditions.

On our way down we passed a lot of motorcycles and a few bikers who had taken cover in the many tourists cars that had also been caught in the storm. It seemed like everyone who had cars was helping out the imperiled bikers.

Harry dropped me off at the Echo Lake store, I enthusiastically thanked her, got my bike out of the back of the ranger truck, and went in. Soon the Echo Lake gift store was packed with travelers trying to get out of the rain. When JB, Warren and Brian showed up, we traded stories of our experience/rescue and watched the rain outside. It wasn't slowing down. Eventually we decided to brave the rain ("Hey, it's only rain!") and head down.

It was a long, wet, cold, nerve racking ride from Echo Lake back down to Evergreen, but after the Hailstorm from Hell, it seemed downright pleasant.

HighGrade, Conifer, Aspen Park, Marshdale, S Turkey Creek Loop

I escaped from work a little early and started up Deer Creek from Wads about 4:45pm.

I rode up Deer Creek then HighGrade to Conifer, Aspen Park, and then turned right (East) onto N Turkey Creek at Marshdale. At Twin Forks where N Turkey Creek goes under 285 I took a right up S. Turkey Creek and then Closed the loop back onto Deer Creek at the Fire Station.

40 miles, About 3 hours. 5500 ft to 8500 or so.