Thursday, July 16, 2009

Little River Hit With Water Main Break

This entry has been migrated from my Sun Microsystems blog. Srepetsk.net is the only blog of mine that is being updated at the current time.

Little River Hit With Water Main Break
Little River Turnpike in Northern Virginia turned into a little river today – literally. A water main break was reported, and two eastbound and one westbound lane are now closed in order to work on the problem. First River Road, now Little River Turnpike, what’s next?
[127.0.0.1 blogs.sun.com/skr]

Links, 2009-07-15

This entry has been migrated from my Sun Microsystems blog. Srepetsk.net is the only blog of mine that is being updated at the current time.

Links, 2009-07-15

Future clouds for Sun Ray in WA schools – Having administered Sun Rays at my high school, I can see where they’re coming from as far as the multimedia perspective goes. As far as general administration, I found it fairly simple

IBM Power servers most reliable in new survey

Opinion: Windows 7, FUD and slow news days

Using Windows Previous Versions to access ZFS Snapshots – a nice blog entry talking about ZFS and Windows integration. Looks promising :)

Indian tiger park 'has no tigers'

Price of Habit Chokes US Smoker – this was a very humorous article, showing that computers and/or human errors still occur in this computer-laden digital world :)

[127.0.0.1 blogs.sun.com/skr]

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Links, 2009-07-14

This entry has been migrated from my Sun Microsystems blog. Srepetsk.net is the only blog of mine that is being updated at the current time.

Links, 2009-07-14

Web site brings 40-year-old Apollo 11 NASA mission to life

"Is Oracle getting ready to kill OpenSolaris?" FUD

C.I.A. Had Plan to Assassinate Qaeda Leaders

Windows Could Be Kool Again? – Ben Rockwood? Saying windows could be cool? *gasp* No way! :)

U.K., not North Korea, source of DDOS attacks, researcher says

[127.0.0.1 blogs.sun.com/skr]

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Links, 2009-07-13

This entry has been migrated from my Sun Microsystems blog. Srepetsk.net is the only blog of mine that is being updated at the current time.

Links, 2009-07-13

'Secure' Wyse thin clients vulnerable to remote exploit bugs – interesting article, but doesn’t actually say much of anything factual

Frentic Pace, Packed Agenda Put West Wing Staffers Through Wringer

Iran's Invisible Nicaragua Embassy

UK Afghan mission support 'rises' – see next two articles, there seems to be a bit of a contradiction here…?

XKCD 609: Tab Explosion

Approval by a Blogger May Please a Sponsor

Image Gallery: Office 2010 Technical Preview

D.C. Students Make Gains in Reading, Math – This is good to see, but we can only hope that it becomes a trend and keeps continuing

US budget deficit at $1 trillion

[127.0.0.1 blogs.sun.com/skr]

Monday, July 13, 2009

Links, 2009-07-12

This entry has been migrated from my Sun Microsystems blog. Srepetsk.net is the only blog of mine that is being updated at the current time.

Links, 2009-07-12

Outlook Separation Anxiety Holds Back Google Apps – I’m interested to see how this turns out in the long run. Personally, I really like integration with Outlook or Thunderbird, and the way Google’s IMAP is set up means a few of the folders don’t get mapped correctly. I’m also actually a fan of Outlook Web Access. There are so few integrated solutions on the market that can do the job well. Supporting the system may be an issue, but I’ve heard fewer complaints about Exchange 2007

Olympic hopeful opens NZ brothel – I found this an amusing link to include here

Robotic Glider Set To Break Autonomous Flight Records – There are many technical obstacles that would need to be dealt with before using these wide-spread, but it’s good to see progress, especially from young college students

Texting Teen Falls Down Open NYC Manhole – No explanation needed

The Legacy of Colorism Reflects Wounds of Racism That Are More Than Skin-Deep – Interesting discussion about racism/colorism in the modern world

[127.0.0.1 blogs.sun.com/skr]

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Links, 2009-07-11

This entry has been migrated from my Sun Microsystems blog. Srepetsk.net is the only blog of mine that is being updated at the current time.

Links, 2009-07-11

NPR Podcast: Tour of SuperNAP Datacenter

Bletchley Park WWII Staff Finally Recognized

[127.0.0.1 blogs.sun.com/skr]

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Sun Ray Silliness

Meta-comment: I have no idea where the four pictures referenced in this blog have ended up. Ah well.

This entry has been migrated from my Sun Microsystems blog. Srepetsk.net is the only blog of mine that is being updated at the current time.

Sun Ray Silliness

I’ve been meaning to post these for a while so we could submit a service request about it, but the XScreenSaver software in Solaris occasionally messes up the text on the unlock screen, including changing the text’s size and/or font. Here are two examples of the strange behavior:

DSCF7732 DSCF7733

Another behavior that I noticed that I’ve only seen once is green lines appearing on the screen of the Sun Ray. Note that the Sun Ray is currently running Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) software, which is why it looks like a Windows desktop:

DSCF7843 DSCF7844

Update 2009-07-11, 1628: The two images on the bottom are most likely caused due to interference from the KVM that the ray was using at the time; the model of KVM being used had a history of poor quality.

[127.0.0.1 blogs.sun.com/skr]

Sun Ray Soft Client

This entry has been migrated from my Sun Microsystems blog. Srepetsk.net is the only blog of mine that is being updated at the current time.

Sun Ray Soft Client

I downloaded the Sun Ray soft client last night, and I have to say it looks pretty darned neat. The setup I have is sort of unusual, but the program adapts well. I’m running Windows 7 – a supported platform for the soft client – on my laptop, and have it’s VGA output connected up to my Sun Ray 270, which is connected to the Sun Ray servers at TJHSST. I have the soft client running on my laptop’s secondary monitor, and I can just use the “Source” button on the 270 to switch between the two inputs.

From what I can tell, there’s only a slightly noticeable difference between speed on the soft client and the native firmware. I haven’t tried any hard-core video playing like William has, but it seems like it would be more than satisfactory for most of computer users. One thing I’ve noticed when using it on the secondary output is that it doesn’t use the bottom 10-20% of the monitor for the login screen. Once you login it rescales to use the full monitor, but that’s only a minor complaint.

Can’t wait for SRS 5 EA2!

Check out this link for more information on Sun Ray, Sun Ray Server 5, and the Soft Client solution

[127.0.0.1 blogs.sun.com/skr]

Moving Blogs

At the current time I’m not updating this blog! My posts are being updated on my blog on Sun Microsystem’s blog site, which you can get to from here

Search Engines Find the Darndest Things

This entry has been migrated from my Sun Microsystems blog. Srepetsk.net is the only blog of mine that is being updated at the current time.

Search Engines Find the Darndest Things

A friend of mine (William) was playing with Google one of the other days, and managed to find a partially-used jewel of mine. It appears that in 10th grade I attempted to start a blog, which I subsequently failed to update after two posts. Check it out here (if you dare). While I use this blog provided by Sun, I'll probably switch back to the Blogspot one, at least until I find something better or more professional looking. It's possible I'll just abandon it and instead use my website, but we'll decide that when it gets to that point.

[127.0.0.1 blogs.sun.com/skr]

Friday, July 10, 2009

New Director Nominated for USGS

This entry has been migrated from my Sun Microsystems blog. Srepetsk.net is the only blog of mine that is being updated at the current time.

New Director Nominated for USGS

I was sent an article from the San Jose Mercury News about President Obama appointing a new director for the US Geological Survey (USGS) where I spent some time working last summer and the one before.

Link to the article

If confirmed, this seems like good news for the USGS, which as the article points out, has had a director in controversy about reviewing scientific research by political appointees.

[127.0.0.1 blogs.sun.com/skr]

News for the Day

This entry has been migrated from my Sun Microsystems blog. Srepetsk.net is the only blog of mine that is being updated at the current time.

News for the Day
The Washington Post is running an article in tomorrow’s paper about the F-22 development for the Air Force through Lockheed Martin and other contractors. While it’s mostly an article that has people pointing fingers at other parties, it has some interesting stats on the costs of the plane, and the types of problems going on behind the scenes. Catch the article here, before tomorrow’s paper:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/09/AR2009070903020.html

[127.0.0.1 blogs.sun.com/skr]

Thursday, July 9, 2009

VirtualBox 3.0

This entry has been migrated from my Sun Microsystems blog. Srepetsk.net is the only blog of mine that is being updated at the current time.

VirtualBox 3.0

Computerworld published a review about VirtualBox 3.0 earlier today – check it out here

On another note, there’s a piece of interesting news out of Oracle. A datacenter they were planning on building in Utah (and had already started working on) is now on hold. Speculation says this has to do with the purchase of Sun Microsystems, who has a datacenter in Colorado. This article is more speculation and less information, but it does bring up an interesting point.

Here at Sun, my focus has shifted away from cloud computing more to some of the current projects that are going on here in the lab. On top of some of the every-day things that you would get to do in a lab/server room – i.e. cut & crimp cables, rack mount switches, servers, etc. – the lab has a certain focus about getting some of the newest hardware available, which is a great plus :) I’ve been benchmarking one of these products, and some of the numbers are fairly fantastic compared to what I’ve had to experiment with before coming here to Sun.

Not only is there the capability of getting awesome new hardware, there’s some hardware in here to suit practically everybody. Due to support and availability, there’s usually at least one or two of most of Sun’s products in the lab, dating back for a few years.

After two and a half weeks, it’s been a really great, fun, hectic, but informational experience to be able to work with the people and equipment here. I couldn’t imagine a more fun summer (although I could see a more relaxed one)!

[127.0.0.1 blogs.sun.com/skr]

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Small (?) But Effective Botnets

This entry has been migrated from my Sun Microsystems blog. Srepetsk.net is the only blog of mine that is being updated at the current time.

Small (?) But Effective Botnets
Computerworld is running an interesting article about DDoS attacks against “relatively low-profile government Web sites” being attacked by a 30,000-60,000-computer botnet. They corrected themselves from their original article yesterday, which said the FTC website had only been offline since mid-Monday, although the problem originated on Friday or Saturday – I had been alerted by a source that the website was down before Computerworld picked it up, otherwise I wouldn’t have been aware (see the ‘low-profile’ part). I was relatively surprised there was very little on social networking sites that the websites were down, but this was probably for a reason.
The article is available here – Online Attack Hits US Government Web Sites; www.computerworld.com

[127.0.0.1 blogs.sun.com/skr]

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Lost, But Now Found

This entry has been migrated from my Sun Microsystems blog. Srepetsk.net is the only blog of mine that is being updated at the current time.

Lost, But Now Found

It’s really nice to see stories like this one in the news these days. It seems everything is about bad or tragic events, so when a story about something good happening comes along, it makes it all that more heart warming. CNN has a story up today about a lost wallet being found after more than 27 years:
“NEW YORK (CNN)  -- Nearly 27 years ago, amid a crowd of people in Central Park, Ruth Bendik's wallet was stolen. The culprit is still at large, but the wallet has been found -- in the hollow trunk of a cherry tree.”
Click here to follow the rest of the story

[127.0.0.1 blogs.sun.com/skr]

Monday, July 6, 2009

DTV Transition Setting In

This entry has been migrated from my Sun Microsystems blog. Srepetsk.net is the only blog of mine that is being updated at the current time.

DTV Transition Setting In

Well the transition to Digital TV is setting at the Repetski household now. I got a chance to surf the channels today after the men’s Wimbledon championships, and I found myself somewhat confused. For some background knowledge, we don’t have have a set-top box; the coax cable from the wall goes directly into our TV, unlike most Cox customers. We really don’t watch TV enough to care about getting some of the higher channels, only the expanded basic – which is still about 200 channels, according to our TV. It detected 78 analog stations and 99 digital ones.

So when I was surfing the channels, I noticed decimal places in many of the TV stations. For me, I still remember our old TV predating widely-used remotes with the dial that had a total of 32-some channels, so this was quite a change.

So now I have to re-do the TV station guide I made for my family – my brother really likes lists and my parents find it more convenient in that form – which sets me up to watch plenty of TV. Because of course it would be too convenient for Cox to publish the TV listings for those without set-top boxes. So here I go, publishing them for myself and for others who may find themselves in the same situation. It’s far from being complete at this point, but I’ll update it as I get more of the information.

Cox Communications – Fairfax, Virginia – TV Channel Listings

Channel    Station
2        Telefutura
3        Jewelry TV
4        Home Shopping Network (HSN)
4.1        NBC HD
4.2        NBC
4.3        NBC - Universal Sports
5.1        FOX
7.1        WJLA
7.2        WJLA - WTOP
7.3        WJLA - RTV
8        ABC News
9.1        WUSA - CBS
9.2        WUSA - CBS
12      
14        Telemundo
15        WPXW - Ion Television
15.1        WPXW - Ion Television
16      
17        TBS
18        GMU - TV
19        NVCC - TV
20        My 20
20.1        My 20
21
22.1        WMPT - PBS
26.3        WETA - Kids
31        WGN
32.1        WHUT
34        NBC
35        FOX
37        WJLA
39        CBS
41        C-SPAN
42.1      
42.810  
42.830
42.837    WEBR - Fairfax Radio
43      
57

[127.0.0.1 blogs.oracle.com/skr]

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Another Old Internet Service Bites the Dust

This entry has been migrated from my Sun Microsystems blog. Srepetsk.net is the only blog of mine that is being updated at the current time.

Another Old Internet Service Bites the Dust

I seem to be too young to remember it, but CompuServe, a dial-up internet service provider, is closing this week.

http://paperpc.blogspot.com/2009/06/compuserve-classic-so-long-old-friend.html

‘No, your monitor won't blank out, your Internet connection won't stall and your PC won't crash, but a major event is about to ripple across the Internet today: CompuServe Classic is closing.

After 30 years the plug will be pulled on what was once the finest online service on the globe. (CompuServe 2000, a newer iteration of CompuServe will continue.)

And the saddest part is that it ends not with a bang, but with a whimper. Ask anyone about CompuServe today and the response will probably be "Are they still around?"’

There seem to be many comments about this on Slashdot, from many perspectives. I personally had no experience with them, but it’s always sad to hear an early Internet company closing it’s doors, whether their service was wanted or not.

[127.0.0.1 blogs.sun.com/skr]

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Fourth of July Weekend

This entry has been migrated from my Sun blog. Srepetsk.net is the only blog of mine that is being updated at the current time.

Fourth of July Weekend

Well I’ll be celebrating the 4th of July with some friends tomorrow.  I’ve noticed that as time gets closer to the holiday, as well as it being the end of the quarter/FY, fewer and fewer people are in the office. It’s actually really nice, because it’s very quiet these days – less people to distract you :)

Also, installed a 10gig fiber switch today, extracted a few SAS cards from one server and put them in another for some testing. Overall a quiet day, but good for the “to-do” list.

[127.0.0.1 blogs.sun.com/skr]

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

New VA Driving Rules

This entry has been migrated from my Sun blog. Srepetsk.net is the only blog of mine that is being updated at the current time.

New VA Driving Rules

Good news (in my opinion) for driving in Virginia – texting and reading email is now illegal for all drivers, not just us under 18. Frankly I wish they’d make talking on a cell phone illegal – it’s just another distraction that can lead to a crash. A total of 879 laws were enacted in the Virginia General Assembly’s 45-day meeting, most of which come into effect today.

Here’s the Washington Post article detailing the subject:

Prohibition On Texting By Drivers Starts in Va.

[127.0.0.1 blogs.sun.com/skr]