Friday Jul 30, 2004
The Sun blog redirect site appears to be inaccessible from Ireland at the moment so I'll try writing this blog offline. One recent blog complained about the dearth of good blogging tools and a comment suggested OpenOffice. A full featured word processor might be overkill, but what the heck I'll try blogging in StarOffice 7 and see how pretty its XHTML export is. Hmm, it looks kind of weird, not as pretty as plain text but I'm going to publish it anyway, for the sake of science. I'd forgotten that StarOffice now has the option to save a document as simplified docbook xml. That could be useful someday.
Wow!
O.K. maybe it sounds like I'm trying to hype something again, but I really am enjoying having a 2 CPU Sun Fire V20z all to myself! Actually there are a couple of users logged in but they don't appear to be be doing much. Give me a couple of 2.1GHz 64 bit CPUs each with 1M level 2 cache add a few gigs of RAM and I won't even touch the 6 gigs of SCSI swap space, unless I'm editing 32000X16777 images for a GNOME Jumbotron theme or working on my daughter's 8960X6720 photo mosaic. How long would a 90 degree clockwise rotate of this image take? How about a 5 pixel IIR gaussian blur or a bicubic scale down to a 500X375 web sized image? About this long:
Yes, my wife and I do take a lot of photos! Who came up with this 4095Mb limit anyway? Was it the same person who came up with the limits of 1.99G, 504Mb, 640kb, 64k... In any case you won't run into many limits with this box and it's really snappy and not too pricy. Unfortunately, we don't have room for a rack in our living room so if I were in the market for a new computer, I'd probably buy one of these slick new Sun Java workstations instead. My wife did notice that the V20z is quite a bit faster than any machine we've ever used and my daughter was most impressed by da's keyboards, monitors and swivel chair, but it would be difficult to convince them of the absolute necessity at the moment. So Scott, can I have one of these for iWork? Does it come in a laptop?
Fun Image Processing and Mosaic applications
Duncan asked me what program I used to create
this photo mosaic. I used an excellent free application called
MacOSaix Thanks Knarf! MacOSaix sorted through about 5000 photos on our 400mhz pismo powerbook. I don't remember how many hours it took, but I started it one evening and my wife was still watching the computational tetris the next afternoon. Poor little powerbook, if only I could run the mosaic building application on this V20z!
Well it turns out that there is an alternative mosaic sourceforge project called
Jimage-mosaic Jimage-mosaic is written in Java so you should be able to run it under Linux, Solaris, Windows or MacOSX. I should be able to run it on the V20z if I have time before I have to return it :-(
Another favorite scientific and medical image processing utility is
ImageJ ImageJ is also written in Java and I've successfully run it on MacOS, Solaris, Windows and Linux.
Last but not least in my 2D imaging pallete is a free open source multiplatform imaging and retouching program called
The Gimp. This was included as the image editor in Sun's Java Desktop. Videographers and cell animators would appreciate a branch off the Gimp project called
CinePaint. Along with the usual gimp/Photoshop features, CinePaint has up to 32 bits of color
per channel! (up to 128-bits RGBA) A frame manager (with an onionskin overlay feature for cell animation!), motion picture file formats and a flipbook player.
Friday Jul 30, 2004
I'm helping out with a project which makes heavy use of rsync and I'm starting to discover its usefulness elsewhere. I wonder if the GNOME team have considered putting a nice GUI front end on rsync so that it is as easy to use as Microsoft's briefcase? CVS or Webdav would probably be even better for the sort of document management I need. Nautilus already supports webdav via gnome-vfs, but would it be useful if a future version of JDS had something like this under every file menu:
New
Open
Close
Save
Save As
Synchronize {Hostname | Hostname:path}
Undo {move back in document history}
Redo {move forward in document history}
View Document history
Synchronize could grab content from the associated document at the IP address and try to automatically merge it with the current document, but it would be more useful if it presented the changes in something like an xdiff window so the user could select the changes they want.
Undo and Redo are pretty simple concepts, but to make them ubiquitous would require something at the gnome-vfs or base filesystem level. Digital's VMS had file versioning built into the filesystem at least 10 years ago so there isn't anything new here. If I'm totally wrong or offbase here, let me know. I'm open to suggestions.
Monday Jul 26, 2004
Our little girl squealed with delight Sunday morning when she discovered that she could walk without holding onto mommy, daddy, the furniture or her little push cart.
Monday Jul 26, 2004
I helped a friend fix up a sailboat he purchased from a racer in Donegal. We replaced broken parts, checked for leaks, slapped 6 layers of tar paint on the keel and 2 layers of anti-fouling bottom paint. We were anxious to take it out Friday but we learned that it is only possible to get in and out of Malahide estuary within 3 hours either side of high tide. So we waited until Saturday when small craft advisories indicated winds up to force 7 (near gale.) Fortunately "Another whiskey" was equipped with a roller furling jib. 1/3 of a jib was plenty enough to get us up near the Howth Yacht Club racers at Ireland's eye and then out to Lambay. A 15kw wind turbine stood as the only obvious reminder of post 19th century civilization on the green island of cattle, wallabees and birds. We managed to log about 20 miles without ever hoisting a mainsail. It took much longer to get back home because wind and tide were against us. The current out of Malahide inlet runs over 3 knots and was harnessed to power tidal mills more than 350 years ago. Ireland's wind energy potential is also enormous. Wind potential has been estimated at more than 500% of Ireland's electricity consumption. A few entrepreneurs have decided to take advantage of this. Unfortunately U.S. political momentum, subsidies and environmental loopholes are currently weighted in favor of fossil fuels. A century from now maybe Chicago will be known as the big smoke and Dublin will become the windy city!
Wednesday Jul 21, 2004
Stephen Hawking is presenting a paper here in Dublin this week which appears to contradict his earlier theory (and bet) that information is ultimately destroyed in a black hole. I have supporting experimental evidence which I will present later. I only understand about half what I know about quantum physics, but I always found it interesting that energy, mass and information were related. Quantum mirroring is, as Einstein described, "spooky", but apparently real enough to use in practical encryption devices. The only thing I can glean from Hawking's abstract is that in the "simplified" math used in his earlier papers the event horizon exists from some frame of reference, but in the real space it never really catches up with itself. Pretty cool eh?
Experimental Evidence
Shortly after I posted last night's rant about Write Only Memory, my posting disappeared into the aether. Roller appears to have a timezone bug which couldn't handle the fact that it was after midnight here, but before midnight where the server lives. Roller couldn't handle articles being updated before they are created so the article disappeared. When time caught up with itself, it reappeared. This experimental evidence shows either that information* is indestructable or that bugs are very persistant. Somewhat related is the fact that several airline web pages offered flights on February 30th, 2004 but not on March 1st, 2004. Didn't we all go over this date related code a couple of years ago?
*The term "information" here is used very loosely. Any actual information in this article was immediately archived on
Signetics Write Only Memory The remainder of the article is simply a special case of the output of the infinitemonkeys.sh script:
#!/bin/sh
cat /dev/random | strings | grep "For being ignorant to whom it goes I writ at random, very doubtfully"
(don't try this on a thin client)
Wednesday Jul 21, 2004
My second digital 8 camcorder stopped working last week. This just days before my daughter plans to take her first steps. I now have two camcorders which record but are unable to play. Write only memory. This focused my attention on a problem that has bothered me for a while. 
How do I maintain electronic images, movies and documents in a form that will be viewable when my daughter is old enough to enjoy them? The image (left) of this young political pundit stayed in one popular consumer format (Kodachrome slide) for 25 years. But in the last 10 years I've had to convert it from NTSC Betamax to Amiga IFF/ILBM to TIFF to JPEG, in order to view it on the latest consumer device. Government archivists and businesses face a similar problem on a much larger scale. Many important documents, images and videos are unknowingly archived in closed formats which depend on a particular vendor supply chain of licenses, software and hardware. Fortunately it is possible to convert between digital standards. For text documents we have multiplatform tools such as StarOffice and OpenOffice.org to convert between incompatible formats and an open (pkzip compressed XML) standard. For images we have gimp and an open-source multimedia library called gstreamer provides a good base for a universal multimedia translator.
Video is more difficult
But video presents unique problems. Transcoding is very time consuming and the numerous digital multimedia physical standards tend to have a short shelf life. Consumer digital 8 seems unlikely to survive as long as Betamax. Lossier small form factor standards seem poised to take the spotlight from MiniDV. Some are even predicting that DVDs will be replaced soon which would make them far more ephemeral than VHS or laserdisc. The interesting thing about this prediction is that it would require considerable investment in internet infrastructure, storage and servers. I wonder what company might benefit from that?
Once you've solved the physical media storage issue by keeping your videos in a fast, secure, persistant, magical "futurenet", you still have the issue of standards. Video is usually wrapped in a container such as Quicktime[tm] or Windows Media Framework[tm] and compressed with various coder decoder (codec) standards. These standards tend to be privately licensed and are seldom available on every platform. There is no obvious way to play certain Intel Indeo[tm] coded videos on recent Apple[tm] computers and it is difficult to find licensed Cinepak[tm] or Windows Media[tm] players for GNU/linux. Current DVD video standards require "analog hole" copy protection schemes such as Macrovision[tm] which is difficult to implement securly across the dozens of video cards that GNU/linux supports. And if the preliminary standard for next generation DVDs is accepted, all DVD-HD capable players will include the cost of a Microsoft[tm] codec license, extending the monopoly into yet another realm.
Pirates or Paranoia?
Digital multimedia allows lossless reproduction and provides the opportunity to bridge divergent international video standards NTSC, PAL, SECAM... but this accentuates the problem of piracy. So copy protection, royalties, taxes and laws were designed and region codes reintroduced an artificial technical barrier to cultural exchange. Such measures are understandable, but by focusing on large content suppliers they may be overlooking some consumer needs. When the owner of a DVD collection moves to a different region does he forfeit the right to view his DVDs? If I create multimedia content in a particular format, does the content still belong to me? Will I be able to legally transcode it without loss to the next format du jour? Will I be able to play it on the operating system and hardware of my choice or record it to VHS for the grandparents? I don't know. The current U.S. political climate appears to favor overturning the Betamax case court ruling which legalized VCRs. Technology companies such as Sun expressed concern over this legislation but few lawmakers understand the significant barriers to technical innovation such shortsighted laws are creating. Would JXTA be considered illegal peer to peer technology? What about the linux/unix `cp` and `mkisofs` commands? When my camcorders return from the repair shop I hope to capture a few favorite clips in an open standard such as theora just in case.
Saturday Jul 10, 2004
A company was piloting cable broadband in this Irish village when I first moved here in 2001. Three years later it finally became generally available and last night I signed on to broadband (ADSL) for the first time. I'm using the same provider as Calum and I'm quite happy with the service so far. I do need to check the advertised rate on uploads, though getting 56k through this house's tangle of phone jacks and splitters was already a miracle.
Friends in Oshkosh Wisconsin have been listening to Ireland's FM2 via broadband for years, so I decided to try Wisconsin Public Radio's live audio feed and found this link about differing perspectives on one nation's history. I also wondered if the Green Bay Packers had any live webcasts. A few years ago I was only able to listen to the celebration of German reunification over a scratchy shortwave radio. Now news and broadcasts are easily available from anywhere in the world, even Lake Woebegone or weirder places.
See if you can guess where these headlines are from:
- FEMA Disaster Recovery Center open in Berlin
- Wanted: army of migrants to keep the Tiger purring
- City struggles with smoke ban enforcement
- Poteen seized
- Justice Minister warns smoking ban flouters could loose(sic) their licence
- Refugees offer up opportunity to experience an immigrant experience
- Probe likely as Garda hit by bottle at hurling match
- Restaurants want to stop `buffet abuses' before they happen
- Famed astronomer in dump site shock
- It's a drag: each fag can cost 3,000
Friday Jul 09, 2004
I previously mentioned a Linux Insider magazine article entitled Sun's bum rap on Open-Source. While at GUADEC, I read a linux magazine article which gave another company credit for work that was done by Sun. An open-source advocate at GUADEC also referred to this GNOME developers conference as "a linux conference." This got me wondering whether people understand that the open-source movement is not limited to linux. For example, I use the GNOME desktop on four machines:
- Solaris 9[tm] on an Ultra-Enterprise SunRay[tm] server
- Solaris 10 express on an X86 desktop
- Yellowdog linux on a Powerbook G3
- Java Desktop System 2.0 on an X86 laptop
If I had installed the same version of GNOME, the same themes and the same applications on all of these platforms, most people wouldn't be able to tell them apart. But only the last two would be considered linux by most definitions and few are aware that linux runs on non x86 hardware such as SPARC and PowerPC. This brought me to another very simple (non controversal ;-) question.
What is linux?
The Purist definition
The
computing-dictionary starts with:
Linux - ("Linus Unix") /li'nuks/ (but see below) An implementation of the Unix kernel originally written from scratch with no proprietary code. This is the definition that GNU experts such as
Richard Stallman might subscribe to. However, it is not universally accepted. There is also:
The trademark definition
dictionary.reference.com gives:
Lin·ux A trademark for an open-source version of the UNIX operating system.
The purist definition says Linux is a kernel, and the trademark definintion says it's an operating system. Is there a difference between a kernel and an operating system? Yes, the kernel provides only the most basic core services for using your computer's hardware. If your computer hardware is the engine, the kernel is the gearbox. The kernel is a crucial component, but a computer with just a kernel is about as useful as an engine with just a gearbox. The operating system uses kernel services to provides other services which allow applications to run. There is a third definition of linux, which I would call:
The folk definition
This definition includes the kernel, the OS libraries, the GNU applications and the non-GNU applications... It includes everything that comes on the CD or in the box with a {some brand} logo such as
Sun Java Desktop System Just as the vast majority of people celebrated the millenium one year early, conventional wisdom confuses GNU/linux with Linus' kernel and the Linux trademark. It also equates linux with open-source and can't always disinguish free beer from free speech. (
Side note: both linux and Solaris are already free as in beer, however, Guinness is far from free here in Ireland.)
Finally there is:
The buzzword definition
Maybe you know a pointy-haired boss who strives to deploy {latest buzzword} on everything from bathroom fixtures to garden gnomes. When all you have is a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail! Linux kernel expert Alan Cox was quoted by linux user magazine as saying,
'We want people to adopt Linux not because Linux is a buzzword but because it genuinely solves their problems.'
So depending on who you are, your definition of linux probably includes one or more of the following:
- Linus Torvald's Kernel
- GNU Operating system and libraries (libgnome, gnome-vfs, gdk, gtk...)
- Open source applications (Nautilus, Mozilla, OpenOffice.org...)
- Other Applications and libraries (StarOffice, Qt, Java...)
What does this have to do with Sun? Well it turns out that Sun contributes to, interoperates with and sells products which include every layer of this stack. When people truly understand the technology behind the buzzwords, I think they will find that linux and Solaris compete in a few markets, but complement each other in many more.
That was just one opinion on a very simple question. I'll let others answer such imponderables such as
why is it called the Java Desktop System? ,how do you pronounce 'linux' and
how do you pronounce GNOME?
Thursday Jul 08, 2004
Danese Cooper provided a good overview of blogging while she was in Ireland yesterday. I hope this is the start of a growing trend to empower employees to informally communicate with and help customers. I certainly don't want to sound like a marketeer, but I think Sun has some underhyped, underappreciated products which are difficult to explain but very very cool. I'm reminded of the time I shared a demo booth with a supercomputer company and heard "Can it run DOS?" questions all day long. Perhaps by explaining Sun technology, I can help someone find a use for a product that our marketing guys haven't thought of yet. I'd also like to counter what linux insider magazine calls Sun's Bum Rap on Open-Source
Blog peeves and filetype limitations As Ghee mentioned, this blogspace intentionally restricts the file types I can post, and anyone posting comments will notice the limitations of the comment engine (no HTML?!) So, if you're looking for software, I can only point you to what you already know and a few other places I'm aware of:
If anyone has suggestions for Sun related software sites, please let me know.
Friday Jul 02, 2004
This was only my second GUADEC and the first time I've presented there. Here are a few highlights:
Owen Taylor's "The future of rendering in GNOME" talk explained why GNOME rendering seems complex and confusing. Because it is complex and confusing. Rendering can take several paths to the frame buffer depending on whether you are rendering a character, an icon or an image. Adding a Cairo layer won't necessarily reduce the number of paths, but it should make it possible to eventually remove or replace them without breaking things.
Cleanup was also the topic of Jonathan Blandford & Anders Carlsson's talk on "The future of libgnome and libgnomeui." I'm looking forward to a gHelloWorld that won't have to load every library from Alexandria to Zanzibar!
Zaheer Abbas Merali's talk on gstreamer was interesting. Multimedia playback is currently a weakness in GNOME, but the gstreamer API appears to be very well designed. I wonder if anyone has written a graphical gstreamer interface similar to VisiQuest (previously known as Khoros) I wrote some extensions and customizations to Khoros in a previous job and found the user interface quite good for connecting data streams to filters and output devices. A kind of graphical software bus.
Speaking of "buses", Kristiansand bus stops had LED displays and (GPS?) devices indicating exactly when a bus would arrive. By contrast in Dublin if you're lucky you find a torn schedule sticker which indicates when a bus theoretically left the first stop. No schedules were posted at the Dublin airport and some stops post schedules for routes which no longer exist. Well designed bike paths and the more gentle way of driving also made this a less harrowing place for bicycling or walking. Come on Ireland and U.S.A., Norway is winning the race to a sustainable future!
My talk went reasonably well, though the large hall echo was disorienting. Public speaking isn't my best talent and I'm sure I made mistakes. Please feel free to correct me here.
Miguel's talk on C# wasn't quite what I expected. I need to research C#, .NET and Mono elsewhere. Whenever I see a C# program I get a feeling of deja vous and a craving for coffee. Where have I seen a programming language like that before?
The panel discussion on "Defining open standards" touched topics close to my interests. Why is public information ever stored in single vendor privately licensed formats? Here is one example from the U.S. army. When I visited the U.S. Library of Congress I viewed copies of Gutenburg's bible, Jefferson books and Lincoln's speeches and... an array of information kiosks all displaying blue screens of death. I don't think this is a good sign. I'll devote a future blog specifically to this topic. Some people were confused by Bruce Perens' comment about a "west coast company" attempting to push an XML document standard with proprietary extensions on the E.U. I don't think he was talking about Sun and the openoffice.org/StarOffice XML document format. There are quite a few companies on the west coast, one very well known one.
Two other talks were relevant to things Sun is doing. Kathy Fernandes' customers encounter some of the same issues that our usability and accessibility engineers are addressing. I never would have thought about night vision GNOME or the difficulty in using a mouse aboard a storm-tossed ship.
The Linux Terminal Server Project is just now encountering some of the issues we found when we deployed GNOME on a SunRay thin client environment. Its good to see that changes Sun was able to get accepted into the community will benefit others.
The skerries, lakes and woods surrounding Kristiansand reminded me of Door County Wisconsin and the northwoods lakes where I spent many summers growing up. But Kristiansand is less commercial and more beautiful with higher hills and bluer skies. The people were very helpful and friendly. One local man bought beers for 10 GNOME engineers because he saw one with a linux T-shirt and he loved linux! Is this valhalla? I don't know but the amusement park/zoo in Kristiansand is more family friendly than any I'd ever seen. A boardwalk at treetop level gives an overview of a nordic forest where elk, wolves and deer roam. You can even go in with the monkeys. A wave pool, luge, log water ride, baby buggies, canoes, paddleboats, rowboats and two full sized pirate ships are available at no extra charge. Wally's dream is alive in Norway! Here is our little GNOME enthusiest at the zoo, telling her daddy to put down his camera and continue to row row row the boat:
GNOME's energy and direction may change as governments and corporations adopt it and the founders grow older. But I came back with quite a positive outlook on the future of GNOME and a very positive view of the people of Norway.
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