Apple gets it, kinda
Okay, I got an iPod Nano right before I left NetApp. I sucked in all of my music (and started garbage collection right away).
What really got to me though was that the iPod/iTunes combo does not support having a home machine, a laptop, and a work machine. I'd really like to have the same library on each and keep updated stats on all of them. I keep on returning to my AI roots and want to write some hack to determine if I like X, then I'll really like Y.
I found I couldn't do that - the iPod wanted to be married to one box and it was very monogamous. When I left NetApp, I left behind my desktop and my laptop. Sniff, I miss that laptop. But not the desktop (IBM Think Center), I don't miss it at all.
That also meant I didn't have day to day access to a box capable of running iTunes. So, rather than spend another day or two ripping my bought and paid for CDs, I backed my content off to an USB HD.
I just got my own laptop and I pulled my content onto it. I'm very happy to say that all of my stats were there and I was able to update the stats from the disconnected iPod.
I know the reason why Apple is doing this, it is digital rights management. But having an iPod is evil - I want to be able to add to it and keep track of stuff on it. And Apple has tied me to iTunes, which in turn has tied me to WinXP and OS X.
Okay, I could maybe learn to to like OS X, it does natively offer up a shell. I really would like it to run on Linux, FreeBSD, or best of all, OpenSolaris.
Anyway, I googled on DRM and Apple. I found the following: Convert from Apple iTunes Format. Have fun reading it.
Technorati Tag: iTunes iPod Music
Connectathon 2006
I just booked my stay out in Santa Clara for the Connectathon 2006 conference. It is more an interoperability testing event. In the past, we were in the bat cave, this huge event hall in which they dimmed the lights during the day and blasted them at night. Except when you are there, you can easily loose track of day and night.
I'll be in the Bay Area from Feb 26th until March 3rd. I'm going to skip the last day and fly back on that Friday. The first U9 soccer game of the season is on March 4th. I coach the team, the Phantoms, and I'm willing to miss the practices, not happy, but Cthon is but once a year. I am not willing to miss the game.
I'll be making a presentation on scaling NFS servers. It is amazing the types of design decisions which were made in the past, with perfectly valid criteria, that really hamper performance in today's markets. I've made past Cthon presentations:
Also, for an idea of what it looks like at a Connectathon, Citi has some pictures from past Bakeathons posted here.
In this one, you can clearly see the back of my head. You can see I've got two shuttle SS51Gs and a Dell Inspiron 8000. You can't see the Sony Vaio I had back then, but you can see that Saadia is using one.
And of course, in the very back, you can see the Sun employees slacking off. Bill is gossiping with Eric, who is clearly ready for a nap, and Jeff is pretending to work - he knows Beepy is taking pictures.
At one point, I used that picture at NetApp to point out how diligent I was when working. Within 10 minutes, it had been touched up by Chuck McMannis - as here:
All he asked for was a case of Dr. Pepper or out it went to my manager :->.
Technorati Tags: Sun NFSv4 Connectathon NetApp Network Appliance
Closed Design of the P7010D reveals utility of Open Source
Okay, the irony in what I'm about to write is that I am a systems developer and I do occasionally remove features from an OS. And my customers do complain.
Fujitsu has decided to remove from its Recovery Disk the ability to repartition the HD. With the P5020D, I could reboot that puppy into the Recovery Disk and select how large I wanted the root partition to be. With the new laptop, no such luck.
I think there are two possible reasons:
- Fujitsu thinks it knows better than its users. This argument falls along the line that we should do the best for 99% of our users, the ones who wouldn't need a second partition or even know what to do with one in the first place.
- Fujitsu is doing all it can to make it harder to load anything but WinXP on the laptops. If you consider that their official policy is that WinXP is the only supported OS, that they refused to help with getting a X11 video driver in play for the P5020D, and that dual-booting might account for the majority of cases of having multiple partitions, then this conspiracy theory makes sense.
Of course a real conspiracy theory would be that all of the PC makers are in cahoots with virus writers in an attempt to sell anti-spyware and virus scanner software. Think about it, you pay $$$ for a new PC. It comes with a 90 day free trial offer for a virus scanner. Eventually, you will get a virus or adware installed on your system - and unless you enjoy reinstalling XP from scratch, you buy a copy of some virus scanner. And now everyone wants you to also install a firewall on your PC as well.
Oh man, this is about to get good.
What is the ultimate tool in the battle against viruses? Open source OSes.
Think of it, if you load an OS that the masses are not running, then you are pretty much immune to a virus attack.
To combat open source, we have the x86 driver problems where new devices are released by the manufacturers to run on Windows variants, but not necessarily on open source OSes. So the virus scanner developers, aka open source kernel developers, have to work to reverse engineer device drivers for their new toys.
I can plop any old laptop down and Linux will run on it straight out of the box - no real tweaks necessary. From an user interaction viewpoint, Linux will be just as responsive and have just as many applications. I also won't have to plop down near as much cash on the software.
I can easily configure a firewall with the default install set. I can easily block spam.
Why then don't manufacturers cater to open source projects? Why refuse to release specs on chipsets, divulge information about found bugs, etc?
Follow the money - the OS used by the masses is the install base you want to support.
It isn't really a conspiracy - just a manifestation of good economics. But is this what is really best for a corporation?
Look at what Microsoft, hey I went this far without explicitly dragging them in, does with the Xbox. They take a loss on the hardware - COGS analysis shows that unless they are getting a really hefty volume discount, they lose money with every Xbox they sell. Do you think a venture capitalist would provide your startup with that business plan? No.
So, Microsoft makes its loot from selling the games for its consoles. After the success of the first generation console, Microsoft could easily go to a venture capitalist to get funding for the new Xbox360. Of course, they did not need to do so.
In a way, OpenSolaris is following this model - Sun is giving away the keys to the vault. It could take a loss on sales of Solaris. But, following the model, they plan to recoup that loss in the selling of services. They want to be like the utility service sectors - telephone, water, electricity, etc. Sometimes it isn't sexy selling services, but it can pay the bills and fund those sexy projects like ZFS and BrandZ.
Anyway, back to the P7010D and the ingenuity of people to not buy 3rd party software. If you are using a subcompact notebook from Fujitsu, you need to be aware of the Fujitsu P Series Forum over on leog.net.
There is a discussion over repartitioning the HD here. The best recipe involves an additional full retail version of WinXP (original post by Big Calhoun), and which I am going to modify at the end for clarity.
- Insert System Restore DVD and perform Hard Disk Delete
- Using a Windows XP disk (Full Retail Version), I access the Recovery Console.
- Next, I run FIXMBR - The HD Delete app overwrites the MBR.
- Then I use DISKPART to set my partitions.
- Reboot into the System Restore DVD and perform reimage 'C:' partition.
The first step is needed to keep the retail version from trying to play with the installed Fujitsu version. I added the last step because I wanted a stock install of Fujitsu's version with all of the correct drivers.
I like this solution because I already own a retail version of WinXP. I'd prefer that Fujitsu support a solution which did not entail me owning or purchasing additional software.
Technorati Tags: OpenSolaris Fujitsu Linux
