Friday October 06, 2006

Things are hopping in OpenSPARC Land.

As you may know, Sun released the T1 processor design under GNU open source license earlier this year. This is the full design of our latest 32-thread, multicore SPARC CPU--the same CPU that is used in our new Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers.

What you may not know is that Ubuntu Linux has been available for Sun's T1-based T1000 and T2000 systems since May, and at least 800 sites are running Ubuntu on SPARC systems. In addition, now that support for the T1 has made it back into the mainline Linux kernel (2.6.17), Gentoo has recently begun offering a distribution that supports these T1-based systems.

On top of all the technical news, a Community Advisory Board has been formed to guide the OpenSPARC community's efforts. It has five members, two of whom are from Sun. Details on the CAB and other OpenSPARC developments are summarized in this recent Sun press release. My favorite quote from the press release: "Since its introduction last March, there have been over 3,500 OpenSPARC T1 hardware downloads..." Hardware downloads! Beam me up, Scotty.

In addition, an online article in the new Zealand edition of Computerworld ponders the relevance and value of open source hardware efforts. Worth a read if you are wondering what impact open hardware projects like OpenSPARC might have in the future.

Thursday October 05, 2006

Sandy Hook is at the northern tip of New Jersey's shore, on the southern reaches of New York Harbor. It is home to the Sandy Hook Lighthouse (built 1764), historic Fort Hancock, an active Homeland Security installation, and several other organizations. It's also a great place to see birds that are migrating on the Atlantic Flyway. And it's very pretty.

Sandy Hook, New Jersey (looking north)


Sandy Hook, New Jersey (looking down)

Wednesday October 04, 2006

In 1946, George Orwell wrote a wonderful essay on writing called Politics and the English Language [PDF]. He believed the English language "becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our languages makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts."

The essay starts with five examples of bad writing and then continues with a "catalogue of swindles and perversions" modern writers typically use to avoid good prose construction. While the skewering is both funny and instructive, Orwell does also offer some concrete advice on good writing.

For example, he suggests writers ask themselves the following questions for every sentence they write:

1. What am I trying to say?
2. What words will express it?
3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?
4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?
5. Could I have put it more shortly?
6. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?

I laughed with delight at Orwell's use of language in this essay--he's a master. But more important, he rubbed my face in some of my own bad writing habits and for that I'm grateful.

If you enjoy a good read and would appreciate some concrete tips on how to improve your own writing, sit down with a nice cup of tea and read this essay. Highly recommended for engineers, bloggers, emailers, and anyone who cares about good writing.

The essay is widely available online. This PDF version is free of OCR errors.

Tuesday October 03, 2006

The Fall 2006 MIT Press Bookstore Loading Dock Sale is coming! For those in the Boston area (or just visiting), this is always a fun event and an excellent chance to find good books at great prices.

Sun is a member of the MIT Industrial Liaison Program, so if you are a Sun employee and you shop in the bookstore (rather than the loading dock out back), show your ID for a discount (25%, I believe) on MIT Press titles.

Here is the full text of the Loading Dock Sale announcement:

---------------------------------------
The Fall 2006
MIT PRESS BOOKSTORE LOADING DOCK SALE
---------------------------------------
DAY:	Saturday & Sunday
DATE:	October 21 & 22
TIME:	10:00am to 7:00pm
ROOM:	MIT E38, 292 Main Street, Cambridge
MAP:	http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?selection=E38

"a feeding frenzy for the brain"

On October 21st & 22nd The MIT Press Bookstore will hold its 
legendary Loading Dock Sale. Literally *tons* of books will be on 
sale at drastically reduced prices--up to 90% off their original 
retail price. Can't come in the morning? Don't worry--new items will 
be added throughout the course of this two day extravaganza. Come 
enjoy snacks, balloons, prizes...and most importantly...

HUGE SAVINGS on:
MIT Press overstock
damaged books (minor scratches and dings)
out-of-print MIT Press books
journals & magazines
other publishers' overstock
plus much more...

For parking or event information call 253-5249, email books@mit.edu, 
or check http://web.mit.edu/bookstore/www/events/

Please pass this message along to friends.

Eric Sharakan, of Sun's Platform Software Group, has started a blog. Eric works on SPARC virtualization technology and promises to share both high-level technical information and nitty-gritty detail about his work.

His break-the-ice, first blog entry solves the Howard Stern mystery raised in my recent article ("Why Blog?") and includes pointers to some very funny photos.

Eric blogs at Virtuality.

Monday October 02, 2006

Give an engineer a problem and he will find a solution. Give a very good engineer a problem that he cares a lot about, and he will find a very creative solution.

When one of our most technically adept groups of field engineers learned there was a one-drink limit at a social event held during their recent training event, they found a creative solution. Shown below.