Blowing the Whistle Peter Parsons' Weblog about Solaris, sport and anything else.

Fixture Day Has Come (and Gone)

Last Thursday saw the release of the football fixture list for next season. A bit of a mixed bag for Port Vale sees long away trips on the opening (at Southend United) and final (at Hartlepool United) days, home games on Boxing Day (Blackpool) and New Years Eve (Tranmere Rovers) and reasonably close away midweek fixtures (Barnsley and Nottm Forest).

Roll on August 6th...

( Jun 27 2005, 03:13:13 PM BST ) Permalink Comments [0]

Open Sourcing Coke and Ketchup

It's been a week now since the open sourcing of Solaris, and the comments I have seen posted are pretty favourable. The "it's vapourware" merchants have become vapourware themselves. The "they will never do it" merchants have been proved wrong, spectacularly. It's a good week to be a Solaris advocate.

In my early days at Sun, the internal workings of Solaris were commonly referred to as our "secret sauce", the things that made Solaris different from, and better than, other software platform (i.e. OS) offerings out there. Solaris was, and is, our differentiator.

Yet, now we are giving away our recipe for all to try.

It is interesting to compare the attitude towards making source code available against other "closed source" trade secrets. The ingredients list for Coca-Cola is very tightly guarded. Heinz do not tell anyone how they make their tomato ketchup. However, I don't see a movement out there for "open sourcing" Coca-Cola or Heinz Ketchup.

I'm sure that there are many people out there who would be interested in these other recipes. I see plenty of rival Colas and Ketchups on the shelves in the supermarket, and I am sure that the manufacturers of these rival products would love to have the recipes of the brand leaders and to be able to distribute their own "OpenCoke" or "OpenKetchup" recipes. Those who were so inclined could make their own implementations at home (just as with OpenSolaris).

Perhaps I'm on to something here... ( Jun 21 2005, 11:04:32 AM BST ) Permalink Comments [2]

Solaris 10 Wireless Update

Just about to close down my laptop after the first day running the latest build of the wireless driver (IPW2100) for my Toshiba Tecra M2. So far it seems much better behaved than the previous build. Excellent.

You'll all be able to get the source code for the driver here in the near future.

( Jun 14 2005, 05:12:53 PM BST ) Permalink Comments [2]

Something's Different

Check it out.

( Jun 14 2005, 03:59:18 PM BST ) Permalink Comments [0]

1st UK Open Solaris User Group Meeting

The first meeting is scheduled for Monday 20th June at 6pm.

See Ulf's B-log for details.

( Jun 14 2005, 02:25:43 PM BST ) Permalink Comments [0]

Swapping Keyboards

One of the benefits of working at Sun is the attitude towards flexible working.

Today I was able to work from home. I am able to access everything I need to do my job from my home setup. On days like today, when I need to wait in for a delivery, it is a real bonus to be able to do this.

Today I was waiting for delivery of a new keyboard. Not for one of my computers, but one of these, an electric piano.

Once I've finished what I need to do for tomorrow, I will be able to swap my Sun Type 6 keyboard for a slightly different one for a while.

( Jun 09 2005, 04:01:52 PM BST ) Permalink Comments [0]

Solaris 10 - Cheaper than Red Hat and SuSE (and VMware)

Not my opinion, but the opinion of The Burton Group.

Yesterday I sat in and listened to a telebriefing by the Burton Group on Solaris 10. I found it interesting to hear an independent analysis of how Solaris 10 compares to competing products such as Red Hat. It was pretty positive.

There were a couple of areas where Solaris 10 currently lags Red Hat. Hardware support was one, although the speaker expressed pleasant surprise at the level of hardware support in Solaris 10, being much better than he expected. ISV support was another, although this is growing all the time.

An important comment made by the speaker was that customers he talked to buy Red Hat because they want to run OSS such as Apache on commodity x86 hardware, not because they want to buy Linux. With Solaris 10 they can now run the same OSS applications on the same hardware, but with lower support costs from Sun.

He showed a couple of price comparison slides too. Solaris 10 support costs vs Red Hat Enterprise vs SuSE enterprise. Solaris 10 is way cheaper. There was also a comparison of Solaris 10 Containers vs VMware costs. Again, Solaris 10 comes out way ahead on price.

The price comparison data is just asking to be included in my Solaris 10 presentation. It's too compelling not to.

( Jun 09 2005, 11:58:52 AM BST ) Permalink Comments [2]

My Life Between Now and Next Easter

I received the availability form for refereeing in the National Volleyball League next season. I have to indicate when I am and am not available from next September through to next April by the end of the week.

Anyone got a crystal ball I can borrow?

( Jun 06 2005, 04:38:49 PM BST ) Permalink Comments [0]

If You Package It Right, It Feels Better

Yesterday I got to experience the difference that a setting makes to the feel of an event.

The match was played at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, a 16,000 seater venue which hosts international athletics meetings.

Apart from the championship games which are held in the Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield, it has been a while since I refereed in what I would consider a good spectator facility. Yesterday it definitely added a lot to the feel of the game as an event rather than just another fixture.

Credit to the London Olympians for a big move in the right direction for the sport. There weren't that many people watching yesterday, but with good facilities and an admissions policy which encourages kids to come along, it bodes well.

As a ref, I do not comment on performances on the field, but they do definitely deserve credit for their performance off it.

( Jun 06 2005, 04:23:57 PM BST ) Permalink Comments [0]

Summer Optimism

The off season is a time of optimism for football fans. It's the time of the season where most, if not all, are optimistic and the stage for next season starts to be constructed by the changes made to the playing squads.

Today, Port Vale signed two experienced midfielders. A positive move which should hopefully help us move higher up the table next season.

Only 22 days until the fixtures are released.

( Jun 01 2005, 04:28:22 PM BST ) Permalink Comments [0]

New UK Supercomputer Unveiled

The Register is reporting the unveiling of Nottingham University's New Supercomputer based on Sun's Opteron-based kit.

It's the most powerful system in any UK academic institution apparently.

Nice Toy.

( Jun 01 2005, 04:17:56 PM BST ) Permalink Comments [0]

Getting in the Zone

Normally I would expect to post something about "being in the zone" under a sports-related category.

Not today. Today, this is all about highlighting an article on bringing applications in to Solaris 10 Zones.

It was last millenium when I last did some serious coding, but the article is still worth reading for anyone who is, or will be, working with zones. Not only does it talk about what you can do in a zone, but, far more usefully, it talks about what you can't do.

Enjoy.

( Jun 01 2005, 10:35:51 AM BST ) Permalink Comments [0]