EXOTERIC - Information Worth Sharing: ex·o·ter·ic
-adj
1. Not confined to an inner circle of disciples or initiates.
2. Comprehensible to or suited to the public; popular.
3. Of or relating to the outside; external.

Alicia, Marissa and I finally made it down to Cedar Creek Falls yesterday. The trailhead for this hike starts at the end of the road in our neighborhood. I've been wanting to hike down there for years, but just had never done it. The hike is fairly short at about 1.5 miles one way, but it is fairly steep in sections. The trail heads down about 1000 vertical feet into the San Diego River Valley. Then it crosses the river and goes up a small tributary where the waterfall is located.

The recent rains made sure that the falls were flowing nicely. The weather was mostly sunny and cool, which was perfect for hiking. There were at least 50 other people down there. A couple of brave people were swimming and jumping into the very cold water. I took a little side hike up an extremely steep trail to get to the top of the waterfall.

The hike back to the trailhead was steep, but not too bad of a climb. We saw lots of wildlife and flowers and took lots of photos which you can see here.

Day 2 of the Desert Dash started for me a little bit earlier than the previous day. The weather was heavy overcast and cooler than the day before. Looked like it might actually rain, but it didn't.

My riding partner Bruce from the previous day was only going to ride the first day, so I took off solo. This is not a problem, since multiple groups of riders all head out at different times, so you will end up seeing others on the trails if you have any problems. The SDAR sweep team also makes sure no one is left out on the trail broken down.

The first section of the ride headed over to the Pinyon Mountain area of Anza-Borrego. The trail heads up into the mountains where the infamous "Squeeze" and "Drop Off" are located. The trail is posted as one way through these two obstacles. The Squeeze is two large rocks barely wide enough for a jeep to pass through, and it also drops down over some smaller boulders.

Here is a photo of me going through the Squeeze.

After the Squeeze comes the dreaded Drop Off. It is a very steep, rutted and slippery incline that drops down at least 50 yards. Photos don't really do it justice. I was able to get down it without incident, then I parked the bike, got out the camera and waited for more riders to come through. Only saw one person out of over a dozen dump their bike over on it.

Once you are over the Drop Off, the trail heads down into another Wash, which eventually takes you through Split Mountain and north to Ocotillo Wells. I headed onto Old Kane Springs Rd, then crossed Hwy 78 and back over to Buttes Pass. There is really scenic canyon there and eventually the trail takes you over to another Drop Off. This one was not as difficult as the other one. I got down it OK and took some pictures. I was hoping for some other riders to come through, but no one did so I continued on.

The next section was an area that I was familiar with. From San Felipe Wash I picked up the Cut-Across Trail out to 5 Palms Oasis, then up to the Arroyo Salada campground. Next stop was Font's Point which is a very scenic overlook of the Borrego Badlands. I got out and took photos and there were several other riders there. From Font's Point the trail heads back to the S-22 Highway briefly, then into Inspiration Wash. This was the first time I had been down this section. It was very sandy and twisty. Probably the worst part of the days ride. The wash takes you up to Inspiration point which is yet another very scenic view of the west towards Borrego Springs. From there the trail goes down into another wash on the other side of the ridge and into some very large sand dunes. The GPS tracks kept me on course here because there was really no clear trail. I finally got out to the road near the Borrego Springs Airport and had only 2 miles to the first gas stop of the day when I ran out of fuel. I quickly switched to reserve and was able to continue. This was at 95 miles, and I filled up with 1.8 gallons.

The Borrego Springs Fire Department put on a BBQ lunch for the riders and took donations. Lunch was really good and they made over $1300 for their charities. The next section was a reverse of what we did on Saturday. Up Montezuma Grade to Culp Valley Road, down Jasper Trail to Grapevine Canyon and then on Hwy 78 to Banner.

The final section took us to Rodriguez Canyon, which parallels Oriflame Canyon, back behind the Cuyamaca Mountains. This section was very rocky and there were several gates you had to open/close to get through. I got back to the RV park by 3pm and was headed home by 4pm. I was pretty tired, but it was a great adventure doing this 2 day ride. Hopefully I'll be able to do more rides like this in the future.

Pictures of the event are here.

There is a large group of dual sport riders here in San Diego. The San Diego Adventure Riders puts on an organized ride every year called the Desert Dash. The last couple of years I have always had some sort of conflict, but this year I was finally able to do it. The event is staged at the Butterfield Ranch RV resort in the Anza-Borrego desert area. I sent in my entry form and made reservations at the RV resort for the weekend. I was able to get one of the other SDAR members to haul my motorcycle out there and back for the weekend. Otherwise, I would have had to pull our big 20 foot trailer just to get the bike out there. Fortunately, this person lives about 2 streets over from my house.

The riders in this event must have a dual sport (dirt/street) motorcycle, since most of the route is on dirt roads and washes in the State Park. You have to have a street legal vehicle to be on the park roads.

I headed out Friday evening in the RV and got down to the RV park an hour later. Found a nice spot, got hooked up, retrieved my bike, and then was able to relax a while before registration. The registration was supposed to be from 6-9pm, but it was delayed until 8pm due to the main guy being stuck in traffic or something. While we were waiting in the lounge, I got my GPS loaded with the tracks for Saturday and Sunday. I had never used the tracks feature of the GPS before, but after figuring it out, it works great. Just keep the little arrow on the little track line. It saved me from getting lost a couple of times! We also were given a roll chart with mileage and directions, and also a set of maps. The roll chart was also a new experience, but it was very helpful in letting you know when turns and intersections were approaching. You just had to remember to reset your trip odometer at various points.

Saturday I got up early and had already made some arrangements to ride with a couple of other guys. We took off at 7:45am and headed over to Oriflame Canyon. This is a remote canyon just east of the Cuyamaca mountains and it drops you off in Banner. My riding partner (another guy named Bruce) and I waited for our other riders, but after about 30 minutes we decided to press on without them. This turned out to be a good call. They were new riders and had some big BMW's that were not well suited for these dirt roads. They ended up bailing out early in the day and stuck to the street for the way back.

From Banner, we headed east on Hwy 78, then went up Grapevine Canyon to the Jasper Trail and then down Montezuma Grade to Borrego Springs for our first gas stop. It was about 48 miles in this first section and I topped off the tank with less than a gallon. The next stage headed out of Borrego Springs past the airport and around the county landfill into some very sandy washes that eventually connect with San Felipe Wash. I was having some real issues in the sand. It was extremely hard to get the bike to turn and to get traction. We left San Felipe Wash and took the Buttes Pass trail over to Goat Trail. This was my first time on Goat Trail, which was really a fun trail. We reconnected with Hwy 78 and headed to the Blu In for another gas stop. I didn't bother filling up here, since we had only gone about 25 miles.

The next section was a real long one. We rejoined San Felipe Wash going southeast, then to the Pole Line Road and out to Superstition Mountain. We braved more deep sand at Superstition, then crossed the Bombing Range towards Plaster City. Got to see the Blue Angels out practicing from their winter headquarters at El Centro NAS. By this time it was nearing 1:30pm and we were very hungry. The lunch stop was down in Ocotillo by the I-8 freeway. Getting there from Plaster City was probably the hardest section of the day. Really deep sandy terrain. The tracks we followed took us through a culvert under the freeway. You had to pop up a small concrete spillway, then duck your head as you ride into a small tunnel that was barely 5 feet tall. Once on the other side of the freeway I stopped and waited for the other Bruce, but he was gone! I took off solo and headed over to the next gas stop at Ocotillo. I had gone 77 miles from Borrego Springs. I got over to the lunch stop and found the other Bruce there waiting for me. He took a wrong turn, but knew where he needed to end up for lunch.

The final section of the day was from Ocotillo out on the Evan Hewes Hwy, then along a dirt road next to the railroad tracks. We then headed north to Canyon Sin Nombre. This was a really beautiful canyon section. Then we head up the old 1849 Overland Stagecoach trail on Vallecitos Wash, and finally back onto paved road to the RV park. We did 166 miles in just under 9 hours. Probably 95% on dirt and sand. I was sore and tired, to say the least.

I took a shower to clean off the dirt and dust, then headed over to the Clubhouse for a BBQ dinner. After dinner they had a raffle with a ton of stuff. Everyone there got something. I got a set of tire irons.

Pictures of the event are here.

I spent Valentine's Day evening with my son at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium for the AMA Supercross event. This was my birthday gift from the family. We headed down there from home around 2pm and stopped first for some fast food. We found a good parking spot at the stadium, but had to pay $15! Ouch.

The pits were open until 6pm, so we had a couple of hours to wander around and take in all of the various displays and things going on. We got in free to the pits with a couple of Monster Energy drink cans. Otherwise it was $10 each! Alex bought a T-shirt and we took our time checking everything out. We ran into a couple of our friends from Ramona. Alex's friend Jason from Boy Scouts and school was there to take his induction oath for the Air Force as a new recruit. The AF is one of the Supercross sponsors and the swearing in ceremony was down on the track right after the National Anthem was sung.

We had good seats and were down low near the track. Real close to where we were 2 years ago when we attended. The track layout was different, and the start was on the other side of the stadium from where we were seated. The weather earlier in the week predicted rain, but we had clear skies during the event, although it was pretty cold out.

The event starts out with several qualifying heat races for both the 250 (Lites class) and the regular 450 motorcycles. The second heat race for the 450's had the 2 favorites, James Stewart and Chad Reed. Stewart got the holeshot and was gone. It was pretty much the same story for the main race. Stewart was able to get around Reed on the first lap and he was extending his lead by several seconds a lap until the end. On the back section of the track by where we were sitting, Stewart was going more or less flat across some tabletop jumps, where everyone else was making a traditional jump. This gave him a lot more speed into the flat track portion by the starting line and as a result he picked up time on everyone else. Unless Stewart crashes, no one can beat him. It is pretty amazing to see someone like him be so much better than the rest of the field, and these other guys comprise the best in the USA.

I put together a gallery of pictures here.

Another new version of the XCP Firmware for SPARC Enterprise M3000/M4000/M5000/M8000/M9000 Servers is now available for download on the Sun Download Center.

XCP 1081 is a sustaining maintenance release to XCP 1080. It provides enhancements and additional functionality to restoreconfig, snapshot, COD, BUI, FMA and security. It contains fixes for the following Change Requests:

• 6743842 password requires [user] argument
• 6754508 scfSystemPowerLED value on OPL-MIB is not correct.
• 6675409 If COD license was increased during DR operation, CPU might become
• 6767417 Simple Diagnostic Engine files do not include SPARC64-VII entries
• 6754071 The error message should be re-phrased when '-f' option of 'restoreconfig' used in 'normal' mode.
• 6754066 'restoreconfig' CLI usage output in Service/Escalation mode should include '-f' option.
• 6732712 fmtopo -V shows wrong information for ddc_b on FF.
• 6742457 Case insensitive string to change audit log limit to "unLImited" in BUI is failing.
• 6755986 BUI: Session Errr on Add Audit Policy and SNMP popup screens after Reset button clicked with IE6/7
• 6764855 Attempt to clone a user with already existing username results in "Internal Server Error" in BUI.
• 6747279 BUI logarchiving page's 'Recent Error Messages' should not be an editable text box
• 6749980 SNMP-Enable/Disable pop-up window doesn't give user chance to re-do if missed the required field.
• 6635059 multiple failed login attempts to the XSCF should lockout the account
• 6769868 Add fault rule for IOUA i2c failures
• 6759468 'setdumphost' doesn't succeed in service mode.
• 6759987 Running 'showdumphost' in service mode clears dumphost setting set in escalation
• 6757776 Snapshot collects only partial SunMC data due to a permission problem
• 6759532 snapshot should take a log for the iptables information along with the fix of INCF3-080711-001
• 6762110 Add "showloginlockout" to snapshot
• 6772968 snapshot should collect a 'showroute -a -n' output
• 6601940 clearfault needs better description when FRU belongs to an active domain.
• 6644971 clearfru prints incorrect message when it cannot clear a fault
• 6773750 SNMP power management
• 6711260 man pages for new CLIs (setloginlock, showloginlock) should be added
• 6635059 multiple failed login attempts to the XSCF should lockout the account
• 6716495 times() function may not be used appropriately.
• 6743183 OPL SC FMA DE fails to report expected ereport, fault-event in response to the power failure event.
• 6668290 snmpd downed due to libumem issue.
• 6644091 core.ce-warn should not subscribed by domain.
• 6775856 BUI: Implement temporary fix for browser caches
• 6744839 FJ side code fix for SSH to XSCFU via DSCP should be customer controllable
• 6635040 SSH to XSCFU via DSCP should be customer controllable
• 6776532 login failure messages are always displayed on SCF console
• 6743341 ping/telnet connection can be established to XSCF-LAN#0 I/F by using DSCP ip address
• 6788348 OPL-SP-MIB.mib contains duplicate OIDs
• 6635040 SSH to XSCFU via DSCP should be customer controllable

Detailed product notes are available for the M3000, M4000/M5000 and M8000/M9000.

This firmware update is recommended for all customers.

If you haven't checked out BigAdmin lately you should. It has a bunch of great information for System's Administrators. I've just done a massive update to the Firmware Release History page.

The big change to the page is the addition of all of the Sun X86/X64 based servers firmware information. Sun releases unique firmware and drivers for each of the Intel and AMD processor based systems. There are updated BIOS and Service Processor firmware images included, along with various other software drivers available to download from the Software Download Center.

I've also added the Patch ID information for the recently released System Firmware 6.7.x and 7.2.x minor releases. The 7.2.x release is the real news. It updates the ILOM component to a new 3.0 release. ILOM 3.0 is enhanced with many new features and functions that were not available in ILOM 2.x, including improved security, improved usability, and easier integration into your data center environment.

Here are some of the new features in ILOM 3.0:
General Functionality

• DNS support
• Timezone support
• Configuration backup and restore
• Restore to factory defaults
• Enhanced LDAP and LDAP/SSL support
• Power management capabilities
• Ability to generate new SSH keys
• ipmiTool cli access to Service Processor from domain without Ethernet connection
• Automatic firmware update from Domain

Scalability and Usability

• User-configurable filtering of hardware monitoring information in CLI and web interface
• Use host name to access other services by name, such as LDAP, Active Directory, LDAP/SSL

Security

• More granular user roles
• Predefined root and default accounts
• User SSH key authentication
• Ability to disable the network management port when you are using only the serial port
• Ability to disable individual services, such as IPMI, SSH, and KVMS, so that the port is closed

Serviceability

• Data collection utility to diagnose system problems

To learn more about ILOM 3.0 see these documents:
Sun Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM) 3.0 Concepts Guide
Sun Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM) 3.0 Getting Started Guide
You can also search on docs.sun.com for the ILOM 3.0 Supplement for your particular type of Sun server.

I've lived in Southern California all of my life. The Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade has been on my list of local things to experience for a long time. This year we finally got a chance to go and see the parade. We headed up to my in-laws house New Year's Eve and spent the night. They live about 30 minutes away from Pasadena. My sister-in-law, Lisa works as a registrar at the Norton Simon Museum, which is right on the corner of Orange Grove Boulevard and Colorado Boulevard. She was able to get us free tickets and VIP parking at the museum. We sat in the front row right across from the KTLA TV broadcast booth. If you are going to watch the parade, this is the way to do it!

We arrived at around 7am and really didn't get stuck in too much traffic on the way in. Our VIP parking pass got us through a couple of road blocks quickly. The streets were packed with people before the parade started. It took multiple passes by the police on motorcycles to clear out the parade route. The parade officially started at 8am, but the first 15 minutes is an opening show that takes place just around the corner from where we were located. Once the parade started it is a steady stream of equestrians, marching bands and floats. I took lots of pictures. About an hour into the parade the B-2 Bomber made a flyover.

After the parade ended, it took us about an hour to fight our way through the traffic back on to the freeway. We headed back to my in-laws house and watched USC beat Penn State in the Rose Bowl game. Go Trojans! A great way to start off 2009.

Back to work after a nice 2 weeks off for the year end holidays. Since I've been neglectful of this blog I'll bring you up to date. Right before the break we had to take our dog Rocket to the vet. He had been drinking water constantly (and peeing everywhere). He was diagnosed with canine diabetes. We had a rough weekend while we tried to decide what to do with him. Our hectic lifestyle is not very conducive to twice daily insulin injections and regular blood sugar checks. We tearfully put him down on Monday 12/22/08. He was almost 10 years old and we bought him from a neighbor who breeds Bichon Frises', so we had him from when he was weaned.

Rocket with Alex.

Marissa and Rocket.

Our other dog, Dakota, has been really missing his little buddy.

The latest version of SNMP 1.6 has been released. It adds support for the new Sun Enterprise T5440 server, Sun Blade T6340 Server Module and Sun Fire USRBRDT 5240 Uniboard. It also has some significant performance improvements over the previous 1.5.x releases.

This is a free download and is recommended for all applicable platforms. The Release Notes have more information.

Had a wonderful time in Hawaii! It is so nice there. We had wonderful warm and dry weather. We did a lot of sightseeing. We got to our hotel late Friday night and then spent Saturday just hanging out at the beach. The Kaanapali Beach Hotel was holding their annual hula festival for children called Hula O Na Keiki. Arts and crafts, live music and dancing all day long. We did some snorkeling over at Black Rock and got to see lots of fish and a sea turtle. In the late afternoon we headed down to Lahaina and walked around the shops there. We ended up at the Pioneer Inn bar for Mai Tai's and watched USC beat Cal. Then out to dinner and back to the hotel for an early bedtime.

Sunday we had to get up at 5am to catch the dive boat we took over to Molokini Crater. I did 2 dives and Christine snorkeled. The water is amazingly clear at Molokini. Visibility is over 150 feet. Got to see lots of interesting and rare fish, along with Garden Eels and Sea Turtles.

Pyramid Butterflyfish

Garden Eels

"The Aquarium" had fish everywhere

Green Sea Turtle

Monday we headed over to Hana on the wet side of the island. The road to Hana is very twisty and there are some 65+ one lane bridges. It took us almost 3 hours to drive out there and it rained most of the way. At Hana we had lunch and then visited the small church where Charles Lindbergh is buried. We also walked around the Oheo Pools and stopped at several waterfalls along the way. The weather improved on the way back, so we saw lots of sunshine and several rainbows.

Upper Oheo Pools

Lower Oheo Pools

Tuesday we drove up to Haleakala. The weather up there was cool at over 10,000 feet, but the views were amazing. We could see the Big Island to the south. The top of the volcano was very desolate.
Haleakala Crater

At the summit

On the way back to Kaanapali we stopped and visited the Iao Valley.

Iao Needle

Wednesday we packed up and did some final shopping on the way to the airport. Our flight got back into LAX late and then we had a 2 hour drive home. I'm ready to start planning another trip to Hawaii!

Celebrated my 20th wedding anniversary yesterday. Hard to believe 20 years has gone by so quickly. Christine and I are heading off to Maui tomorrow to celebrate. I haven't been to Maui before and the last time we were in Hawaii was 16 years ago. I'm really looking forward to this vacation! Catching a bit of sun and surf, along with some scuba diving and sightseeing for 5 days will be nice.

I've been listening to more and more podcasts on my good old iPod mini during my daily runs. I ran across The Competitors Radio Show and have really been impressed with their weekly shows. Lots of good interviews with a wide variety of endurance athletes. I just got done listening to their interviews with David Walsh, who talks about his writings on the doping scandals in cycling. Quite eye opening stuff on the doping culture. Also some very inspiring stories of challenged athletes. In these days of endlessly depressing economic and political news, these podcasts have become quite a respite during my runs and commute times.

The other podcasts I've been regularly listening to are Science Friday from NPR, and Car Talk with Tom and Ray.

Anyone have any other suggestions for good podcasts?

The new Solaris 10 Applications Library is now live on BigAdmin.

This is a new one stop shop and portal to locate and download Solaris 10 applications by name or vendor.

If you're a Sun partner, you can publish your application data yourself, instead of having to wait for us to do it. And you can toss in some white papers, documentation, or other content to help your customers set up and deploy your product.

Give it a try!

It's true, I'm now a candidate. My campaign is officially getting news coverage on the internet.

Click here for the story.

I've been working with the BigAdmin web site to provide information about the various Sun Management Center platform add-on and SNMP releases. BigAdmin is a tremendous resource for Sun System Admins.

The result is a set of web pages on called the Systems Management Release Hub.

It is a complete new tab on the Patching Center page that is full of information that compliments the System Firmware Release Hub and the Solaris Patching pages.

Check it out. Hopefully this will help customers better understand how to keep their Sun systems running the latest and greatest versions of SunMC and SNMP.