I am disappointed with the pictures I got from the eclipse. Low ISO for noise begets a longer exposure which proves that the universe isn't standing still. Oh well maybe next time I'll be home and take a bit more time to get it right.

Recently some complaints have surfaced about keyboard access to form elements in Firefox 2 in OS X. I don't see the problem.

I have Full keyboard access for "All Controls" set in System Preferences -> Keyboard & Mouse -> Keyboard Shortcuts

I have "Enable Access for assistive devices" set in System Preferences -> Universal Access (although I don't think this is related, IIRC it is for some other programs that I use)

Since a video is the easiest way I can think of to show this, here you go:

If anyone happens to know what configuration changes you might need to make to get this working please feel free to let me know. I don't recall making changes other than the above.

I shot this video/screencast demo thing nine or ten months ago. The audio from the datacenter was terrible. I have been sitting on it and some voice overs that I wasn't pleased with for about 4 months. Today I decided that it was time finally get it published, did another voice over and while it isn't perfect its good enough.

This video was inspired by CSI: Munich I watched it and thought, wait I have an x4500!

Link to ZFS Device Shuffle on Mediacast

Here instead we will try an object embedded quicktime found at Bye Bye Embed, the video above is being served from the all new and improved http://mediacast.sun.com

Edit: I have uploaded an amplified version, it appears that unless you are using good isolation earbuds or have relatively good quality speakers you can't really hear the audio portion. The trial copy of "Sound Studio" I downloaded did a wonderful job of letting me amplify the audio. The audio and video are the same, only the link has changed (It does not appear possible to replace the original content )

While I was at it we just released a new version of mediacast.sun.com (I could never get my login to the old one working). For some reason smugmug is taking 23MB of video and reprocessing it to 94MB. I can download that in about 3 minutes but the size is ridiculous. (No wonder my wife said it took forever to play)

(This is the smugmug video, I still like the interface it just isn't quite doing it for me otherwise)

 Edit: A bit of clarity I should go to bed at 02:30 instead of messing with my blog

Edit: SmugMug fixed the encoding issue a long time ago

The next time you disable the compatibility override and want it back...because you really want the XYZ plugin and you value it over stability or possibly usability.

about:config -> add boolean "extensions.checkCompatibility" false and restart

(This is really a note to myself)

While we were in China we spent some time on the Great Wall at Mutianyu. In the gallery there is a "You are Here" mark on the

map. We hiked (or more like climbed) from that point to the end (the 20) and back. You can see un-restored wall at the end.

(FYI: Courtney took the large picture above)

I ordered/donated an OLPC XO-1 as part of the Give One Get One program
these are the pictures that ThinGuy scolded me for not posting a month ago.

These pictures are from un-boxing the OLPC and booting it for the first time. I have enjoyed using it. The keyboard is a little small for adult hands (this is not a surprise or a criticism). The trans-reflective screen is impressively clear, the backlit screen is a little hard to read for small text (at least for me).

The packaging is sparse but solid, my favorite part of the whole delivery presentation is the warnings page, particularly "Not for use by Infants."

All in all I am glad I donated.

The whole gallery

Checking to see if Ecto 3.0b20 can download this entry before I say anything about it in mail. I thought it was working now, but it might only be updates to entries that it already knows about.

Edit: It worked.

Edit: It also picked up the edit (and I expect, will pick this one up as well) but if I keep updating to say this this post will get really old really fast

My younger sister just sent out a link to the BroadwayWorld.com article Movers & Shakers: 46 Artists of the 2007 Baltimore Theatre by James Howard she is listed as a part of the "The Masters Class of 2007".

Just as there are "new faces" every year, so too are there familiar names and faces that have been sharing their expertise and love for theatre with local audiences for years. Here, in alphabetical order, are the 10 men and 10 women who really distinguished themselves onstage or behind the scenes this year, even surpassing their already monumental achievements.

...

Karina Ferry (The Mineola Twins, Angels in America: Perestroika, The Great American Trailer Park Musical): My first brush with Karina Ferry was when she replaced another actress in a production of And Then There Were None. She was so good, that both she and the other actress were named Outstanding Actress for the same role last year. She continued her excellent work this year in The Mineola Twins, in a supporting role, but nothing prepared me for her next two performances. First, she gave a gutsy, all-out performance as the drug-addled Harper in Angels in America: Perestroika at Spotlighters, then dazzled us at the same venue with her best trailer trash shtick in The Great American Trailer Park Musical. Ms. Ferry has been on the Baltimore scene for some time, but this year she took her skills to a whole new level.

My sister doesn't read this blog but I think that it is cool even though I won't remember to tell her that in person.

Getting the pictures out early this year. A few more from today that I haven't imported yet. I'll probably post those in march :)

Except for the possible negative of driving more traffic over to Mrs. Skrocki further cementing her in the list of hot bloggers at Sun. Her Putting 1st things 1st post is apropos of the season and the prevalent view at Sun.

With the exception of lugging my laptop along incase something breaks (I am on call) I am avoiding thoughts of work as much as possible.

All my previous thoughts about poking about in CAC or changing/updating my blog theme are on hold, now back to watching last nights hockey game and working on China pictures, possibly going to see Sweeney Todd before dinner with @cdash's mother later tonight.

On a totally shocking note, Opera on the XO-1 works great with smugmug.com! I was guessing that it would choke on high volume picture sites. I was able to take these pictures, browse to my smugmug page and upload them. Java isn't working as a plugin so I had to use the old browser POST method.



Having proven I was able to blog from the OLPC XO-1 I have moved back to using ecto for normal blogging. Trying to add images and links by hand is just not what I want to be doing at the moment.

Give 1 Get 1 is still going, it isn't too late to donate one for yourself.

I am sitting here in my office writing this entry on my OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) XO-1. It arrived last night.

my first impressions:
The packaging is sparse but sturdy, Two bits of paper with a note and the saftey warnings (no babies is first on the list). I am guessing that this isn't humor but I am entertained.

The keyboard has a nice feel for a membrane type keyboard, the keys have a slight depression which makes them fairly easy to feel. It is a little small for my hands (a good thing given the target market).I tried an external keyboard and mouse (they worked as I was expecting) but I have revirted to the built in.

I have had some issues with the stock browser in terms of speed and compatabiliy. It also seems that downoloads from the browser disapear (I am probably missing something simple). Installing Opera does the trick for me. It brings back tabs! Image rendering is more consistent and reliable and I can choose a download location. Vital sites such as this blog, the full twitter web interface and google reader all work and appear correct. Sites of importance such as the managed operations portal also work.

Wireless support is quite good, at least as sensitive as my full size devices, with the exception of WPA support (comming soon), in the end I backed down the security stance of of my APs and turned on MAC filtering.


Remaining issues: paste, Copy seems to work, I can drag from the frame and paste into applications. Why can't I paste text into the terminal?


I am sure that many of you are now asking the same question...but will it run solaris? I think the answer is probably not. Atleast not with a gui.

Still others are likely wondering, will it run the super beta punchin for linux. To that I am thinking no, but man that would be sweet!

The Celtic Solstice Five Miler was a good race. I was initially concerned about the projected cold weather, weather.com indicated 34F feels like 20F, late the night before the race the projected temperatures were 23F feels like 0F. Courtney and I got on the road at 6:50 (aiming for 6:30) I was concerned about getting to the race with enough time to pick up my bib, chip and warm up.

The drive took about 1:15 and Courtney dropped me off near the south west corner of Druid Lake, when I got out of the car it was DAMN cold. Even wearing two pairs of tights one thermal, insulated shell pants, cold weather top, a running top, a mesh backed vest, light running gloves, a mid weight shell jacket and some lobster claw gloves and a hat with a polar tech band; I was still cold. I ended up not using the gortex booties having located a pair of smartwool biking socks (perfect!).

I have never been to Druid Hill Park however I knew there was a shuttle bus to the start. I saw a pickup and headed over at a light jog to try and get warmed up a bit. Missed the first bus, got picked up and then we all wondered why we took the shuttle, it wasn't much of a ride. After we were dropped of I walk/jogged down the hill to the start to pick up my number plate and chip.

I got my stuff and decided after getting moving that really what I was wearing (under the shell and pants) was going to be enough. I ditched them with my bag at the bag check and headed to the scrum of people waiting for the race to get under way. On my way to the start I saw Emily and turned back with her to get her bib and chip.

At this point running a bit late the tables had been setup for food and there was a little delay on the bib and some trouble finding her chip. As we were setting out for the starting line the last of the scrum started moving and had cleared through the start when we got there. We were hurried on through at around 5min after the clock started with the back of the field about half way across the bridge and caught up just before the starting hill.

A quarter of the way up the hill Emily sent me on ahead knowing that we were on a different pace, almost immediately after that Courtney was standing on the side cheering us on.

The rest of the race: I liked the course, it was indeed rolling hills, I was keeping an eye on my HR, aiming to keep it generally below 175 (I averaged 171 for the duration). The course was well marked, as advertised there were a few potholes and puddles nothing that caused any issues that I saw, it did have its narrow moments and aside from a little squeezing and difficulty passing it also wasn't bad. Around (or possibly at) mile 1 someone was calling the time, I was at ~9.5 (my watch) and feeling good, I missed mile two. A quick sip of water at the turn around (2.65) was welcome and three came quickly after. The middle of three was a little bit of a struggle with a twinge in my side, between 3.2 - 3.6, by four I was feeling better and started accelerating to the finish. It certainly didn't hurt that the last mile is mostly down hill but the kick took me up into the red and final sprint over the bridge and across the line drove my heart rate to a gasping 191bpm.

Took a seat for a minute to take off my chip and went out to cheer Emily across the line. Emily came across the line just about seven minutes later and on my way back to meet her I ran into Courtney who had been sitting looking for us to cross the line. We went to the tent to get a drink, a bite of food and collect my bag. The results were posted quite quickly, but the page with Emily's times wasn't up by the time we left. Unfortunately it appears that putting my warm clothes back on I managed to drop my sunglasses (Rudy Project Kerosene w/prescription insert in a black Rudy case).

On the way home we stopped to pick up my sister Karina and take her to breakfast at my Aunt Jean's. Learned that my younger sister Karina has been running and caught a hard time for not telling her we were going to be running. We stopped in at Jean's to see my Mother, my Aunt Mary and Uncle Bob and chat for a bit. A few cups of coffee, a snack, some fruit and few hours later we hit the road for home. Now we are chilling on the couch watching hockey with Courtney and the cats.

Lessons Learned:

• One of these days, try to get nearer the front, say maybe near the pace you are intending to run. (It might be interesting to try a run where I didn't start out weaving around passing people, not that this tends to go too long)
• Trust your previous experience, I was worried about the cold but what I selected was just about perfect (once I got moving).
• Really do get to the race earlier, this worked but, I didn't really need the rush right before the beginning.
• I need more practice on hills. Watching HR for climbing is working but descent isn't comfortable/smooth.

The Race site, currently disabled probably due to bandwidth (nice).

The Washington Running Report take on the race, indicating that it has grown too big and the next year it will be capped at 2500 entries.

Preliminary results: 1902 Finishers

Pl Name HomeTown XAG Club GunTime
1. Berdan, David Baltimore, MD M26 25:28.20
1348. Ferry, Shawn Leesburg, VA M31 51:00.20
1672. Ferry, Emily Columbia, MD F24 57:44.90

ChipPl Name ChipTime

1. Berdan, David 25:28.00
1177. Ferry, Shawn 46:44.00
1611. Ferry, Emily 53:26.95

In the end the temperature was around 33F. My pace was ~09:21/mi

Edit: Fixed some typos and editing issues, should have gotten a proof reader for posting while tired.

Taking my cue from ThinGuy, only no one has been asking me for my recipes :)

This meal was prepared in the office kitchen, using only minimal tools and supplies.

Required Ingredients:



Lean Cuisine Chicken Primavera
Red (cayenne) pepper

Preparation:

1. Set toaster oven to Bake at ~450
2. 1. Place baking rack on the top rail
      
3. Prepare Garlic Toast
   
4. 1. Remove a roll from the bag, split and place on clean surface
   2. Lightly coat top of roll with ICBINB
   3. Apply Garlic Salt to taste
   4. Apply Italian Spice Blend to Taste
   5. Place prepared toast in toaster oven
5. Chicken Primavera
6. 1. Remove from box
   2. Place in microwave
   3. heat until hot (we used 8:30 for two)
7. Brown/Toast the Toast
   
8. 1. At ~2:00 remaining on the microwave
      
   2. Switch the toaster oven to broil
   3. Observe closely to prevent burning
      
      
9. Enjoy!
   

I add ground red (cayenne) pepper to my Chicken


Notes:
The found "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" expired Feb 13 '07. If you can't find this vintage feel free to use whatever edible grease you can find. Butter or butter flavor recommended.

The random spices smell like an Italian blend. They have been allowed to mellow and blend on the office kitchen table for at least a month.

All times are approximate, a pre-heated toaster oven would clearly require less time.

What happens when you disconnect the drive on the fly?
(e.g. set up a tripping hazard for your cat)

You get this message
What happens when you do the same thing to a ZFS pool? This is no different
than what you get on Solaris, except it is on my Mac Book Pro.

  pool: p1
   state: DEGRADED
  status: One or more devices could not be opened.  Sufficient replicas exist for
      the pool to continue functioning in a degraded state.
  action: Attach the missing device and online it using 'zpool online'.
     see: http://www.sun.com/msg/ZFS-8000-D3
   scrub: scrub completed with 0 errors on Sat Dec  8 01:44:00 2007
  config:
 
      NAME         STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
      p1           DEGRADED     0     0     0
        mirror     DEGRADED     0     0     0
          disk7s1  UNAVAIL      0   114     0  cannot open
          disk0s3  ONLINE       0     0     0

Fortunately for me, my system keeps merrily chugging along.

Unfortunately (sort of) and this is much more of an issue on my Mac than on
any other system I am adding and removing devices much more frequently.

When I last connected the external disk and imported the pool I had 6
more "disks" visible to the system (really a usb thumb drive) another FW
device and a few SW RAID devices. This caused my nice portable external
FW disk to appear as disk7.

  diskutil list             
  /dev/disk0
     #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
     0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *149.1 Gi   disk0
     1:                        EFI                         200.0 Mi   disk0s1
     2:                  Apple_HFS noroute                 88.9 Gi    disk0s2
     3:                  Apple_HFS                         57.0 Gi    disk0s3
     4:                  Apple_HFS noroute_2_1_2           2.6 Gi     disk0s4
  /dev/disk1
     #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
     0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *55.9 Gi    disk1
     1:                  Apple_HFS                         55.9 Gi    disk1s1 

 

The difference between the zpool status and diskutil list output
is the device configured for the pool is disk7s1 not the currently visible
disk1s1.

I don't know how to recover from this situation live. If the device has not
renumbered you just zpool online p1 disk7s1 to reconnect on a different
device number I export and import the pool again.

To state that another way, I don't know how to effectively do:
zpool online p1 <old disk location> <new disk location>
similar to
zpool replace p1 <old disk location> <new disk location>
(the replace, even with -f, failed telling me that <new disk> was busy)

I have just requested a pre-release tarball that is reported to fix some bugs
in the current beta. We will see how it goes.

Other Observations:

Once you load the RW kext, it appears that anyone can do anything to the ZFS pools
and filesystems. On my single user system this is OK. I am the only user and guest
accounts are disabled. e.g. Initiate a scrub as a non-admin guest account or create a
snpashot as nobody (sudo -u nobody zfs snapshot p1/Music@nobody)

You CANNOT download music from the iTunes store in the current beta. you get a
permission error. I can however add music from local files.

 

Edit: Cleaned up the block quotes a bit, still not really rendering as one might hope.