Jason Schroeder's Blog

As an OpenSolaris on x64 user, and pdf consumer - I thank you for Adobe Acrobat Reader on my native desktop.

/jks 

Whew....

 

Boy, oh boy.  Big *thanks* to www.activetoys.com who came through in a pinch for a dad helping out Santa.  We got my two year old to go up and talk to the big guy last week (my four year old still won't... - sent a letter instead) and he asks for a 'digger', you know cool construction toys that can dig in the dirt/sand, etc.

 

Right up my alley.  No problem.  Find something that I think he will really like and scour the web.  (Ok, find something I like that doesn't actually require me to go to a real store...)  Well, found it at a fairly big name toy store (which I won't mention...) in stock, check shipping - yep, plenty of time before the big day.  Order, done.  Get a confirmation email.  Processing.  Day later another email.  In stock.  Day later another email.  In warehouse.  Day later another email.  Order canceled, sorry out of stock.  WTF.  Go to big toy store online web store.  In stock.  Big toy store online store sucks big time - won't use them again says r me.

 

Now, panic mode.  Crunch time now, on a weekend no less prior to the mass shipping rush for a hard to find (apparently) toy that I can now *not* live without ... (erm, make that something that I really think my two year old will like....).

 

Called a bunch of stores, no dice.  Found www.activetoys.com, have the 'digger' I want.  Online store says In Stock... hmm....  Order.  I email them expecting to need to get speedy shipping.  They call me on Sunday and say - don't worry, no problem.  I still worry.  A day later.  A day later.  Shipped, on it's way yesterday - early no less.

 

Thanks!

 

Happy Merry!

 

/jason

 

So, I had a comment from a good friend of mine who recently moved
companies and is quite knowledgeable on all things *nix (including
Solaris) are is busy implementing Solaris 10 (and deploying some T2000s
to boot).  His team was working on options to improve their alert
monitoring structure and were surprised to see that Solaris 10 moved to
using net-SNMP....



They were quite happy at the news - and a little surprised.  I
guess we all get used to 'the way things just are' and before you know
it Solaris goes and makes things better on ya!



Figured there may be others who haven't noticed this and would be interested.

http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/817-3000/6mikgnggv?a=view
http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/817-3155



/jason

Laughed so hard, milk nearly shot out my nose....

Reading through this CNet piece written by Stephen Shankland,
Bill Zeitler from IBM calls the T2000 "kind of freaky".  That is
just awesome, dude - totally tubular in a rad sort of way.

So... freaky how?

• freaky fast?


• freaky efficient?


• freaky in how little power it needs?


• freaky in its suitability for, you know, those niche applications
  like web servers, app servers, databases, ldap servers, mail servers,
  streaming video, anything needing SSL, anything Java?

Well, in my patch of the woods, these things are freakily being
deployed all over the place.  Been a lot of fun!  So what are
you waiting for?  Come on you know you are thinking it.

The Sun team from across North Carolina is getting together to support and Walk to D'feet ALS in Charlotte, NC on April 22nd.  A very important cause in its own right, but this go around has brought hightened awareness from the local Sun team.  Our very own Gary (aka Ruckus) and his family are battling ALS and we want to express our admiration and support in this fight.

We're working to organize the walkers and encourage donations to find a cure for and improve living with ALS as part of team Sun for Ruckus.

Keep up the fighting spirit Gary, you've got a lot of friends to battle with you from your extended Sun family!

My oldest boy felt he had something to say:


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<snip>

I couldn't have said it better myself ;-)

/jason   

Yum,

    The regional grocery store chain has yummy baby back ribs on sale this week - gotta pick some up and toss on the egg this weekend.  I have taken to a cooking method often described on this forum --

    After coating the ribs with yellow mustard and adding some fresh cracked black pepper and kosher salt, toss on the egg (temp about 225 ish, having added a few wood chunks of your choice) over a plate setter for indirect cooking.  Leave on for about 3 hours.  Take the ribs off and wrap the racks in aluminum foil.  Back on the egg for another two hours.  Take the yummy foil packets of goodness off the egg and unwrap.  Take the plate setter out from the egg and put the now unwrapped rib racks back on over direct heat for another 30 minutes to an hour - occasionally basting with your favorite sauce....  Yum.

    One of the Weber cookbooks has a great hoisin based sauce that was quite tasty on pork ribs.  If you are not into drumming up your own sauces and such - I have been tremendously happy with many of the recepies found on their site and in their books.

/jason

Ok - so here is the plan:

My day to day work connectivity
       -currently Toshiba M2 with JavaDS on linux
       -phase 1 - move to IBM 600e with JavaDS on Solaris 10
       -phase 2 - move to combination of SunRay@Home and something like the Treo

    *Connectivity to work email, internal browser apps, creating documentation and the like is simply overkill for the M2
    *I'd love to jump straight to phase 2, but alas - my @Home rollout won't come my way for a few months - plus I need to look @ my Treo vs. other options a little closer before making a decision on what to get
    *This may seem like a simple shift, but there is some cultural change here for me as well.  I am guilty of keeping my emails forever - and keeping local copies of nearly every document / reference / article, etc.  Hugely problematic for backups, organization, security, accessability, etc.  If I lose my laptop today - I've lost a great deal - plus I still can't find what I need....  So, as part of this phase 1 and in prep for a true phase 2, I am focusing on keeping my concentration of data server based.  In addition a greater focus on 'organized links' to reference docs instead of the actual docs.  To get me back to the mobile work person I should be - I have to remove this laptop dependency and use the laptop for what it really is... simply one of many devices I can use to access my centrally stored information and data.

Cell phone
        -current wonderful but dated Kyocera
        -move to something like the Treo mentioned above
        -let my wife use the Kyocera for a home plan (and get rid of her other not to be mentioned really crappy cell phone)

Software demo sandbox
       -The newly freed M2 now is available for a much more robust demo / development / POC / crash and burn sandbox for my work.

Home PC
        -current Dell 600
        -move to the Mac mini
        -make the Dell a Solaris 10 box with SunRay software.

    *My wife is not so happy with this idea, but I really think this is the right thing for us at this point in time.  What Apple has put together for a *nix/BSD home user system to me is simply amazing.  From ease of use and digital photography editing to Safari parental control stuff - I am going to have to talk my wife into this....  But I may just have to go and get one and let her yell at me for a few days till she decides it really was a good idea... ;-)
    *I'm toying with the idea of getting a couple of SunRay DTUs, and putting the soon to be freed Dell to work.  If I bump up the memory a bit, I'm curious how this guy will do presenting a couple of extra browser, VNC to the new Mac mini (one user session @ a time restriction)... points in the house.  Could be interesting.

/jason

How cool is this?

/jason

I have been wowfully amis about keeping my mobile work / home use technology up to date and I am near a tipping point of simply being inefficient.  So, time to start a change.  But change from what to what?  Let me give you my profile to start.

We are a family of four with two boys ages 3 and 1.  My wife has her own 'job exclusive' laptop for vpn access into her work and uses our old home pc basically for browsing, email and does some digital picture type stuff.  My 3 year old is just starting to get into some of the 'educational' computer games but will quickly expand his investigation of this digital era we are in.  As for me, I use our home pc sparingly for browsing and keeping some financial stuff.  From a work perspective, I would classify as a typical Sun mobile person.  Our Sun field office is simply a drop in center - really just for a mailstop, so while I don't often travel outside the immediate area, I spend a great deal of time bouncing between a 'home office/toy room/guest room', working at various customer sites, car travel between customers, etc, etc.

Inventory:
    Wife work laptop
    My laptop from Sun (Toshiba M2 - nice) + an old personal laptop that I bought referb years ago (IBM Thinkpad 600e)
    Home PC - Dell 600e
    My work cell phone - Kyocera QCP 3035

My issues:
    -Our home Dell runs Windows 98 - and I refuse to upgrade....  <alarm, alarm>  Yeah, I know... so while I do take some elementary firewall precautions on our home network, and run current anti-virus/spyware - this keeps me up at night.
    -I rarely use the Dell, (not because of Windows) but because it lives in a makeshift closet/office/craft/junk room under the stairs that my wife loves....
    -My boys are going to quickly expand their use and need for technology
    -I want to enable better safeguards and limits to their technology use (parental control browsers /IM, etc, etc)
    -My wife enjoys working with digital pictures and movies, but is limited by what we currently have by the way of software to make this troublefree and easy
    -My work life revolves around the Toshiba laptop - in a bad, bad dependent way
    -I work from many customer sites on a temporary basis - and often don't have authentication through the customer proxies to access web, email, etc.  So, while I am at the customer, I am often cut off from the 'heartbeat' of Sun (Sun is _such_ an email driven company).  So, I spend my evenings catching up on email and mailling lists, etc, etc.
    -In my job, I tend to do a lot of proof of concepts and demos.  More often than not, those POC and demo requests today are for Solaris 10 and Solaris based software (go figure).  My core Toshiba laptop happily runs Java Desktop on linux.  I have been very happy with this, but this means that I use my Thinkpad (which has been running Solaris on Intel for 5 years) for these Solaris requests.  Using the Thinkpad for zones/dtrace/smf and the like is a piece of cake - a little more problematic for the 366mhz cpu to run Identity Manager....
    -Since I am so dependent on my primary laptop - I am very hesitent to toss on new alpha/beta stuff, change configs, experiment, etc - so my older laptop is my crash and burn / reload whatever bits I want sandbox.
    -I LOVE my cell phone.  This darn Kyocera with Verizon is simply the absolute best phone combination I have ever had.  I regularly go up and down ELEVATORS in many customer sites shielded for datacenters - and I have never dropped a call.  It's funny to watch the other people with me in the elevator just waiting for my call to get disconnected - never happens (of course that is mixed with some amount of pissedoffness that I am being very rude and talking on a cell in a multi-occupant, confined space...).  The problem is that by today's standards, this thing is obsolete - no email, very small screen, very early cut of browser based activity.

So, there you have it.  But I do have a plan to get me and our family back up to speed.  More on that next time.

/jason
   

I have been working on a deployment of what has to date been generically termed 'Concept Center.'  Modeled after Sun's hugely successful iForce Centers, the idea is to provide an environment that can supplement a customer's existing development, proof of concept and testing compute resources in a self sustaining, flexible and build repeatable fashion all the while targeting increased overall utilization of some of the most sorely underused equipment out there in corporate customer land ... the development and lab equipment.

This has really been interesting for me.  It has given me the chance to build out something new and try out some previously unfamiliar (to me) software.  Good learning experience and a chance to put it all together in my own 'editorial view' of how it could be done. 

So, I put this together.  The idea is pretty simple.  Take a hodgepodge of gear, put some tools and processes in place to automate the 'checkout', 'provisioning', 'access' and 'reclaim' steps to offer this previously underutilized equipment to a greater audience for things like:

    -Short to medium term development
    -Proof of concept incubation
    -Scalability testing
    -Application certification
    -Test to function
    -Code porting

So, a sample workflow example:

    -Browse the Concept Center Portal
    -Check the Calendar for available resources
    -Select resource profiles (OS version, application stack, identities requiring access)
    -Map the requested profile to the requested target resource and provision the system from available pool
    -Add requested Identities and grant access
    -Provision application stack
    -Use to hearts content
    -Rinse
    -Repeat

All through a browser, sitting anywhere on the network.  As add ons, this environment enables access to desktop services, load generation services, flash archive store and retrieval, etc, etc.  Working on providing a grid and some expanded storage capabilties.  Fun project.

/jason

With my current role at Sun, I spend most of my days with two specific Sun customers in my city.  However, as is often the case in this industry - I have many IT friends, previous customers, etc who find themselves moving cross companies to other positions.

So, being a Sun employee, I often get quite a few requests from all over the place on quick hit questions / how to / feature / etc, etc, etc....  It really struck me this morning when I was digging up some quick hit info for a previous customer->new company customer/friend of mine how much I have now come to depend on http://blogs.sun.com.  My entire email in response to his questions was constructed _completely_ of reference links to specific Sun Blog entries.

It is clear that I have become a very big fan of _reading_ Blogs ... have to work a bit on updating my own content!

/jason

Well, my oldest was not feeling well this morning, so he and I spent some time sitting on the couch in front of the TV (a rarity for us these days) just relaxing a bit.  As is the case for many kids his age, he is obsessed with everything Thomas and Friends.  You know, Thomas the Tank Engine....  He absolutely loves the wooden train sets (OK - I think they are pretty fun too....)

Wouldn't you know it, but UNC-TV had a Thomas marathon on this morning supporting their fund drive.  So, as I am sitting there reading the paper - my son wide eyed at the programming - the cutaway for the pledge drive came on. 

It took me a second (I was short a couple of cups of coffee at that point) and several doubletakes, but I finally caught on.  In perfect frame, right behind the nice lady standing next to the big yellow featherd Big Bird being created with all the new UNC-TV Kids member names - was...  yep - SunRays!  A big row of them, with smart cards even! 

How cool is that?  I have had more customer interest in SunRays in the past six months than I have in my entire five years at Sun.  POCs, presos, talks about integration, pilots - long distance SunRay implementations...  you name it.  Good stuff!

/jason

I live out on the east coast of the U.S.  My job with Sun doesn't have much travel involved, but when I do travel, I often find myself out west a couple of time zones away.  Now, I usually keep my wrist watch set to my home time zone, mostly because I have this wonderful cell phone that, as all cell phones do these days, updates it's own time based on by current location. 

Great.  Big deal.  What is the point of this blog entry anyway?

Well, as I spend a great deal of time out of my home office - at client sites, my cell phone is the only reliable way to reach me on a consistent basis - and the only change to catch me 'live'....   So, everyone calls my cell. 

See where I am going yet? 

So, since I mostly travel west - to an 'earlier' time zone, and everyone calls me on my cell phone - I never fail to get those wonderful phone calls blasting my $.05 ring tone of choice at the unearthly time between 4-5am.

Did I mention that I am not a morning person?

My email vacation message indicates my current travel status, as often my other voicemail greetings.  But, as I have said, most people just ring my cell - how are they supposed to know I am (or was) soundly sleeping?  Well, they don't (OK, maybe some of the sales reps I work with do...)   But, hey -- my CELL PHONE already knows what local time it is automatically!!!!  Ah, an opportunity.

Verizon - love your service, very happy.  How about offering me a service that notifies a caller what time it is where my cell phone (and me) happens to be located and suggests to leave a voice message without ringing - and kindly say "by the way your party is sleeping because it it 4am where he is you moron"- or continue the call if they (OK, the reps) really want to be funny or have some mocked up emergency?  If they chose to continue the call anyway - at least they were warned what kind of mood I will most likely be in if I actually answer the darn thing....

/jason

Well, the boss might not be doing Top Ten lists anymore, but I like them:

10> Snickerdoodles....  mmmmm - hot out of the oven.
9> Staying up late Christmas eve wrapping last minute presents watching as many hours of TBS's 24 hours of A Christmas Story as possible.
8> Picking out a real Christmas tree...
7> ...and putting the lights on.
6> An unexpected mid afternoon snowstorm
5> College football bowl games {sigh, going to miss the Cornhuskers this year though}
4> Fa La Latte from Caribou Coffee
3> A clear, cold night sky filled with stars
2> Getting my yearly Christmas tree ornament from my Aunt Bobby
1> Spending time with my family doing their favorite things this time of year...

Happy Holidays

/jason