Pardon the Dust

Please excuse the broken links around the blog and my site in general currently. I’m in the midst of migrating everything to a new server, as well as upgrading some things like Gallery (from 2 to 3). If you see something broken, feel free to email me, otherwise I’ll hopefully get around to it when I can :)

Mu

ec2-download-bundle issues

I’m trying to download a bundle I recently uploaded to the S3 bucket I created, but am getting some fun/interesting errors from $EC2_HOME/lib/ec2/commons/curl.rb:

Curl without verbose enabled:

./download-bundle.sh (this is a simple script I created to make sure variables are set and such)
Downloading manifest osol-2009.6.manifest.xml from srepetsk to /mnt/downloaded/osol-2009.6.manifest.xml ...
Failed to download "osol-2009.6.manifest.xml": Curl.Error(77): error setting certificate verify locations:
CAfile: /etc/curl/curlCA
CApath: none.
ERROR: Failed to download "osol-2009.6.manifest.xml": Curl.Error(77): error setting certificate verify locations:
CAfile: /etc/curl/curlCA
CApath: none.

Curl with verbose enabled:

./download-bundle.sh
Downloading manifest osol-2009.6.manifest.xml from srepetsk to /mnt/downloaded/osol-2009.6.manifest.xml ...
Failed to download "osol-2009.6.manifest.xml": undefined method `<<' for nil:NilClass
ERROR: Failed to download "osol-2009.6.manifest.xml": undefined method `<<' for nil:NilClass

Trying to download the bundle to an OpenSolaris 2009.06 64-bit instance created not long ago. Has anybody else had experience with this kind of thing? I’m passing ec2-download-bundle what I think are all the options it needs:

ec2-download-bundle -b $MANIFEST_PATH -a $EC2_KEYID -s $EC2_KEY -k $PRIVKEY  -p $MANIFEST_PREFIX -d /mnt/downloaded

The thing I’m most unsure about is whether the –k parmaeter is correct, since that’s what it seems to be complaining about the most. The CA file (which the *.pem file should accomplish) that it’s looking for should be passed in from the –k parameter I’d think, but I’m wondering if this is a bug in the ec2 commands? or if I’m just doing something wrong. I’m still trying a couple things, but this has got me puzzled at the moment.

debian-main

Another ZFS departure

Another ZFS departure

Jeff Bonwick is leaving Oracle.This is a huge event, because Jeff has been one of the main innovators in operating system technology during his tenure at Sun. While you may know him best for ZFS, he's also the inventor of the slab allocator, which revolutionized memory management when it was created. (And now, pretty much every modern system uses some variation of the slab allocator.)And he's not just an Oracle VP. Jeff has made integrations into Solaris' ZFS code base on an ongoing basis. This is a guy that has led with actual actions and innovation, backed by code, rather than some boffin who's risen to management and no longer contributes. At some level, he's the model for the kind of technologist I aspire to be.With so many innovators leaving (and yes, there are other key players in flight), its going to be very interesting to see how Oracle is able to continue to be a thought leader in the OS technology that they've acquired.One the one hand, its really a shame to see to much of the heart and soul of the Solaris engineer core slowly disintegrating.On the other hand, I think illumos may be the place where Solaris innovation happens, more so than at Oracle, even sooner than I previously expected.

[Planet Illumos]

Sun RPC Licensing Change

I never imagine I’d be linking to a LiveJournal article ever, but today seems to be an outlier.

The long, sordid tale of Sun RPC, abbreviated somewhat, to protect the guily and the irresponsible.

Once upon a time (1984), Sun created an RPC implementation for Unix, with the intent of implementing RFC 707 (High-level framework for network-based resource sharing). Now, in those days, a good way to ensure that people used code that you wrote was to upload it to usenet, and in 1985, Sun did that. (Google has one of the posts archived here: Sun RPC part 8 of 10)

Keep in mind the following: the first formal definition of free software was published by the FSF in February 1986, so there were technically no "free software" licenses when Sun RPC was written. For that era, the licensing of Sun RPC was remarkably permissive, it said:

/*
* Sun RPC is a product of Sun Microsystems, Inc. and is provided for
* unrestricted use provided that this legend is included on all tape
* media and as a part of the software program in whole or part. Users
* may copy or modify Sun RPC without charge, but are not authorized
* to license or distribute it to anyone else except as part of a product or
* program developed by the user.
*
* SUN RPC IS PROVIDED AS IS WITH NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND INCLUDING THE
* WARRANTIES OF DESIGN, MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
* PURPOSE, OR ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING, USAGE OR TRADE PRACTICE.
*
* Sun RPC is provided with no support and without any obligation on the
* part of Sun Microsystems, Inc. to assist in its use, correction,
* modification or enhancement.
*
* SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC. SHALL HAVE NO LIABILITY WITH RESPECT TO THE
* INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHTS, TRADE SECRETS OR ANY PATENTS BY SUN RPC
* OR ANY PART THEREOF.
*
* In no event will Sun Microsystems, Inc. be liable for any lost revenue
* or profits or other special, indirect and consequential damages, even if
* Sun has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
*
* Sun Microsystems, Inc.
* 2550 Garcia Avenue
* Mountain View, California 94043
*/

People wanted to be able to support RPC, so this code was used all over the place. Notably, it is a core component of how NFS works on Unix (and since Linux is Unix-y, there too). Over time, this code was ported to Linux, and added, most notably, to glibc, all along, inheriting the same license Sun wrote for it in 1984.

The problem is that this license is clearly non-free, it places restrictions on distribution. Now, Debian has known about this concern for a while now, since 2002, to be precise, as you can see here: Debian Bug 181493 

Fedora caught this when we first started doing serious license audits, circa 2005.

[Keep Reading]

Atheros AR8131 Support Under OpenSolaris?

I recently bought parts to create an on-the-cheap storage server for myself, which will hopefully do things like web serving, DNS, lots and lots of file storage, and much more. Due to the benefits of OpenSolaris (zones, ZFS, crossbow networking, etc.) I decided to use it for my base system. However, due to the end of life of OpenSolaris through Oracle, I shifted elsewhere to Nexenta 3, which builds on OpenSolaris (snv_134) to be a command-line-driven ZFS storage server – exactly what I need.

My server is built around my MSI 785GM-P45 mATX Motherboard and AMD Athlon II X4 620 Processor. Per Murphy’s Law, the network driver on the motherboard – the Atheros AR8131 chipset – is not included in OpenSolaris or built by anyone (as of this writing). The closest on the Internet is a set of directions to build the driver for the AR8121 chipset, available here; I used version 2.6.5. Using the AR8121 directions, a semi-working driver for OpenSolaris is able to be built by modifying the adddrv.sh file and adding the line ‘set DEVLIST = ($DEVLIST '"pci1969,1063"') ‘ under the current DEVLIST items, as this is what the network adapter identifies itself as. Using this slight modification, I was able to get the driver added and the module listed (`modinfo|grep atge`). However, even though I can bring the interface up and assign an IP and everything shows that it works, dmesg shows a different story with warnings constantly being thrown:

Aug 23 19:27:48 washington atge: [ID 397352 kern.warning] WARNING: atge0: gem_tx_timeout: tx timeout: tx_active: 0[0] 3[3] (+3), intr 0[0], tx_softq: 3[3] 3[3] (+0), tx_free: 3[3] 64[0] (+61), tx_desc: 0[0] 3[3] (+3), intr: 2[2] (+2),
Aug 23 19:57:43 washington atge: [ID 397352 kern.warning] WARNING: atge0: gem_tx_timeout: tx timeout: tx_active: 0[0] 3[3] (+3), intr 0[0], tx_softq: 3[3] 3[3] (+0), tx_free: 3[3] 64[0] (+61), tx_desc: 0[0] 3[3] (+3), intr: 2[2] (+2),
Aug 23 19:57:47 washington atge: [ID 397352 kern.warning] WARNING: atge0: gem_tx_timeout: tx timeout: tx_active: 0[0] 2[2] (+2), intr 0[0], tx_softq: 2[2] 2[2] (+0), tx_free: 2[2] 64[0] (+62), tx_desc: 0[0] 2[2] (+2), intr: 2[2] (+2),
Aug 23 19:57:55 washington atge: [ID 397352 kern.warning] WARNING: atge0: gem_tx_timeout: tx timeout: tx_active: 0[0] 1[1] (+1), intr 0[0], tx_softq: 1[1] 1[1] (+0), tx_free: 1[1] 64[0] (+63), tx_desc: 0[0] 1[1] (+1), intr: 0[0] (+0),

This bit of fun gets repeated about every 5 seconds while the interface is activated, and stops when unplumbed. Hopefully this might be fixed in the next version(s) of Masayuki’s driver, which I would love to have support the AR8131 chipset :D

RIT Welcomes Students Back to School Aug. 30

RIT Welcomes Students Back to School Aug. 30

Rochester Institute of Technology is preparing to welcome back returning students to campus on Aug. 30. Beginning at 8 a.m., approximately 414 students are expected to move in to the newly constructed Global Village complex, the campus’ $54.5 million residential and commercial space.
Global Village residences feature 70 suites and aims...

[RIT News Releases]

Arlington Diocese Workcamp

It’s that time of year again! This weekend marks the beginning of the first of two weeks of workcamp put on by the Arlington Diocese.

Here’s a quick description of what workcamp is:

WorkCamp is a week-long intentional Christian community for high-school aged youth. We begin each day with the celebration of Mass before going to work sites where we serve those in need by making their homes safer, warmer, and drier. The evening program consists of Christian entertainment, songs, and speakers. A reconciliation service is always a part of the week and Eucharistic adoration is frequently the way we close the day.

It’s basically a week of fun, hard work, and getting to know some awesome individuals. While personally as a member of St. Mark’s I haven’t been to the Diocesan workcamp before, I’m already more than ready for it to begin and prepared to have a fantastic time during the week. We (volunteers) will be arriving at the location tomorrow morning and getting it all set up for the students graciously giving up a week of their summer to help those in need!

It should be a fantastic week, and perhaps I’ll even update the blog during the week – who knows.

Chest and Upper Leg Workout

So there comes a time when one feels he/she is too skinny and skeleton-like, and should do something about it. I’ve decided that now’s a good time to start building a little muscle since we’re still at the beginning of the summer, and so I don’t feel like any other person could just snap my arms in half (or something like that; I’d have to actually have that happen). While stretching many muscles may require the need of a machine with weights, I’m attempting to create a workout for myself that doesn’t require any so that I could get exercise in anywhere without needing to bring anything along. I’m still experimenting with what I’m going to be focusing on and how I’m going to be getting the “burn”, but here’s what I have so far:

• 3 sets of 5 full push-ups, holding down 5 seconds on the last one of each set
• 4 sets of 5 full sit-ups, holding 5 seconds on the last of each set
• 3 sets of 5 full push-ups, holding down 5 seconds on the last one of each set
• 2 sets of lunges, holding for 5 seconds down on each one with your knee an inch or two off the floor
• 3 sets of 5 full push-ups, holding down 5 seconds on the last one of each set
• 2 sets of 15 kneeling side kicks
• 3 sets of 5 full push-ups, holding down 5 seconds on the last one of each set

You can tell I’m focusing on arms mostly for these, as that’s what I need most work on. This is designed to be challenging for me currently, but I’ll tweak and add things to it as time goes along and some of the exercises become easier.

Fairfax County School Board Adopts FY 2011 Approved Budget

Fairfax County School Board Adopts FY 2011 Approved Budget

The Fairfax County School Board has adopted the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) FY 2011 approved budget of $2.2 billion, which establishes new fees for athletic participation and for Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) tests; eliminates more than 200 positions, nearly half of which are from central office support; freezes all employee salaries for the second consecutive year; and creates a three-year priority schools pilot program that designates 30 schools to receive special staff support and financial support to help improve student achievement. 

[FCPS News Releases]

At Least They Didn't Include iFart...

This blog post is for week 5 of RIT’s Human Communication course.

I found this comic online a few days ago and thought I’d share it:

Being in a Human Communication class, this made perfect sense to put on my blog (even though I only found it through StumbleUpon). As you can probably tell, it plays off of the connectedness that many people feel must be present in order to rationally communicate with others. Through the use of social media sites and technology, we have become more “connected” with each other on a certain level that hasn’t been seen in the past. The depth of the interactions we have online, however, seems to be quite different. Many people on Facebook, Twitter, etc. share the type of information shown in the comic and may feel they have an intimate bond with others they talk to online. Does this really mean we’re great friends with those people though? Sharing these types of extraneous physical ideas is a much different beast than sharing actual personal feelings, which is viewed more as what people did in the past. Is there a paradigm shift happening here in the way and manners people communicate? It certainly is happening as far as platform – phone, email, letters, etc. – is concerned.

Communication in Work Environments

This blog post is for week 4 of RIT’s Human Communication course.

As I have found out even more extensively these past couple weeks, communication in workplace environments is just as important as with those you live with. I recently started working in a customer-service IT environment, where our team receives tickets about computer and network problems that clients are experiencing. Communication is one of the most important things to be able to do (after fixing computers), since the tickets that we receive have already gone through a third party. Once we receive them, an analysis and break-down of the contents must be done in order to procure any questions or comments which we may have about the user’s problem(s). After that, a prompt response to the client would be in order, to see if we would be able to help over the phone, which would require clear verbal communication in order for the person on the other end of the line to understand the technical support person.

Communication between co-workers and clients is very different in some of these respects. When talking to the user with the computer problems, the communication (most likely) has to be very formal and easy to follow, as one may be issuing directions over the phone for the other person. However, when communicating with co-workers you can be relaxed, say things on your mind, and in general be more laid-back than with the person you’re helping. It’s important to customer service representatives to be able to differentiate between these two times, and make the right decisions for the language to use in the situation. Delays and hiccups in this process can create strain and stress, and ultimately costs the organization money.

Reference:
http://www.nextlevel-consulting.com/articles/management/article06.html

New Sun Ray Licensing Scheme

This is a re-posting of an email a colleague of mine sent, expressing his dismay over the new licensing scheme Oracle seems to have adopted for the Sun Ray product line:

If this blog post is correct and I'm reading it correctly:

By "simplifying" licensing, Oracle just made it minimally no different and maximally much more expensive by moving to the same model Microsoft uses for Terminal Services licensing.  I've often shared that one of the benefits of the Sun Rays is the ability to deploy many DTUs but only size as many servers and buy as many licenses as would be needed for concurrent usage, versus the expensive Microsoft model of per user or device, but it seems I can't completely do that anymore!  Yes you can still size for concurrent usage, but you have to pay for unused DTUs.  I liked the 1 license per concurrent user model.  We have 200ish Sun Rays for potentially 2000 users but have not observed more than 50 concurrent users.  All Sun Rays are used at some point or other during the day; that's the nature of a deployment in an educational institution.  Under the old scheme we only needed 50 licenses, whereas under the new scheme we would have to opt for 200 device licenses or 2000 user licenses.  As it were, we acquired each Sun Ray with its own license so that we could have max utilization without worrying about going over our license count, but that was before we knew how low actual concurrent usage would be.  We were subsequently planning to allow SDAC usage and possibly acquire additional hardware Sun Rays without purchasing additional licenses until we hit 200 concurrent users, but based on the above blog post it sounds like we would need to purchase additional "device" licenses because SDACs count as devices independent of hardware Sun Rays.  From another perspective, if we purchase no additional licenses, for each SDAC we deploy, we would have to undeploy a physical Sun Ray.

Thanks Oracle (sarcastic).  You can take that as customer feedback on a public forum.  Please don't continue to take away my reasons for being an unpaid advocate of Sun products (see http://wyang0.blogspot.com/2010/03/long-term-investment-or-solaris-is.html for my thoughts on the changes to Solaris licensing).

I hope someone can tell me that at least the existing licenses we have are valid under the old terms and only new licenses are subject to the new "simple" licensing scheme?

As a sidenote, I find it ironic that it was called "simpler" in the blog post, yet the blogger apparently needed some help to understand it first.

William Yang

Perhaps this will be marketable for them for broader markets, but places like TJHSST and many education environments will be squeezed to find an extra reason to use Sun Rays over other desktop alternatives due to licensing.

Remembering April Fools Day 2010

No one day can be a “perfect” day, where everything can be made into a joke and laughed off. As we celebrate this April Fools day with Google and Johns Hopkins University receiving new names and other pranks happening, we also must remember those who helped get us where we are now. Ed Roberts, one of these unknown pioneers, passed away from pneumonia today. While he may be relatively unknown, his impact on the digital world is still being felt. “Ed Roberts was the founder of MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) and inventor of the Altair 8800, widely credited as the world’s first personal computer. It was featured on the cover of Popular Electronics in 1975, when Paul Allen and Bill Gates contacted Roberts and offered to write software for the machine. Gates and Allen worked with MITS in Albuquerque, NM, and started Microsoft. In 1977, Roberts sold MITS and retired to Georgia where he studied medicine and became a small-town doctor.” [1]

After Gates and Allen had written software for the Intel 8008 microprocessor, they contacted Roberts in order to run a BASIC interpreter. “On July 22, 1975 MITS signed a contract for the Altair BASIC with Bill Gates and Paul Allen. They received $3000 at signing and a royalty for each copy of BASIC sold with a cap of $180,000.” [2] While Gates and Allen were given a meager start, they were on their way to creating the largest software company in US history to this day. This stepping stone of joining both software and hardware has helped bring us to where we are now – palm-sized computer devices you can carry anywhere with performance doubling every other year, and with which you can communicate with anyone around the world. For this we remember where we came from, and are grateful.

Emergency Communication and Preparedness

This blog post is for week 3 of RIT’s Human Communication course.

As was widely reported on local Rochester news and to the school body on March 17th, a '”[possibly] armed individual [came] on campus”, and directions were given to recipients of the RIT Alert system:

Armed Intruder R.I.T. Alert! Take Cover. Posssible Armed suicidal person on campus. Go into nearest room. Lock or barricade the door. Follow instructions from authorities.

After the initial message was sent out via email and text message, students and others wishing to receive information about what happened went to the RIT website, which links to a page specifically for providing information during emergencies. However, to the dismay of those wanting this information, the page was useless, as no information had been posted. Nothing would be posted on that website until an hour or two after the event was over, in fact. During the time of the “armed intruder alert”, the school would only send out messages via the RIT Alert system, which presented problems of its own: the warning message would be sent out more than once to some people, and others wouldn’t get it at all. Some reports say that a subset of individuals received the messages, but were delayed for an hour or two. The system seems to have overloaded with the amount of traffic that was required to send out all of the messages, and so many were left in the dark.

After discovering the relative lack of information from RIT, many students turned to social networking websites, like Twitter and Facebook, in order to gather information about the current events. Through these mediums, students were able to communicate to others closer to where the events were occurring, and perhaps were able to gather more information. Some of this information was false or untrue, though. Part way through the events, a rumor surfaced starting on Twitter that there were ambulances and two dead people over by the Colony Manor apartments. While there may have been ambulances, the poster of the message on Twitter later apologized for the misinformation in order to dispel his prior statement. The power of these social media websites meant that simply making a clarification wasn’t enough; by the time the update was posted, the rumor had spread to a large number of students who were still awake at the hour, and was not immediately stopped.

The events of the 17th highlight the power of social networking sites and show the speed that news can travel when an important event has occurred. RIT has said they will be reviewing their protocols for mass notification, and will be taking steps to better inform the community, which would be much appreciated.

Integral Techniques to Keeping Interest

This is my blog post for Human Communication, week 2

Over the past few years I have been an avid listener of podcasts, especially regarding technology – Microsoft, Apple, Google, and other technology news that comes up week-to-week. The art of communication within podcasts and online audio is accentuated, as the listener is only focusing with one sense – the ears. With this limited scope of attention, the people speaking on the audio have no way to convey body motions or visual queues, so the only real way to convey motion is through the voice. The problem with this is when you’re attempting to listen to a person who is either tired and bored, or just has a monotone voice and isn’t interesting. I find myself tuning the audio out, and concentrating on the other three things I might be working on. 10 minutes later I’ll remember I was listening to something, and have absolutely no idea what happened during that last 10 minutes. The voice that doesn’t carry any emotion doesn’t have the qualities that would portray integral techniques of human communication in order to keep someone listening.

As podcasts have started evolving to include video, new problems may occur due to positioning of the camera, facial expressions, and a combination of other variables. On one of the latest video podcasts I’ve been watching, the camera for one of the two hosts is pointed at an odd angle up at his face, which only makes wrinkles and “pockets” under the eyes even more visible. The lack of facial movement or reaction to other things being said add to the dreariness of the show, and makes the listener/watcher have less interest in the show. I would think that camera positioning, “awakeness”, and emotion are just some of the things needed in order to make a successful audio or video presentation.

Human Communication, Post for Week 1

I can’t say I’ve truly introduced myself on here, so after almost a year and a half of having this website, here goes. My name is Stephen Repetski, and I’m currently a student in the 0535-480-72 Human Communication class. This is my first year at RIT, and I am majoring in Applied Networking and Systems Administration, a subset of the Networking, Security, and Systems Administration department in the GCCIS college. I don’t currently have an on-campus job, but have worked at the US Geological Survey and Sun Microsystems Federal during summers between school years. I don’t have a set focus on what I want to be after school, but some possibilities include being a Systems Engineer, or Network/Systems Administrator. I hope to minor in Russian, as well.

My reason for taking this class is primarily to fulfill the Human Communication requirement for my major, but also to hopefully learn how I can use types of communication to my advantage in the future for interactions with coworkers, friends, customers, and others. There were several classes to choose from, and this seemed like it would be an interesting fit. I have had many opportunities to use the types of communication talked about during class, but hope to improve the way I approach such messages in order to convey ideas in a more meaningful way and fashion.

Link for 3 March 2010

Bob Ryan Says Goodbye [nbcwashington.com] – Goodbye and good luck! We will truly miss you, Bob

Links for 29 February 2010

• Combat Generation: Drone operators climb on winds of change in the Air Force [washingtonpost.com] – Are console and computer gamers our next Air Force?
• D.C. hospital fires 11 nurses, 5 staffers for snowstorm absences [washingtonpost.com]
• Animal Watch: 'Stuck' dog is really floating on air now [washingtonpost.com]
• How We Hate NBC’s Olympics Coverage: A Statistical Breakdown [techcrunch.com]
• In Surgery, a Tangled Tumor Meets Its Match [nytimes.com] – really cool article about a life-saving surgery that delves into the operation and the outcome

Link for 25 February 2010

• Philip K. Howard: Four ways to fix a broken legal system [ted.com]

Links for 23 February 2010

• Devotion to Duty [xkcd.com] – now one of my all-time favorite XKCDs for the Sysadmin profession :)
• Va. House, Senate pass competing budgets to close deficit [washingtonpost.com]
• Metro Fare Increases Coming Down the Pipe [dcist.com]
• Obama Health Plan Costs $950 Billion Over 10 Years [wsj.com]
• US 'closes in on Google hackers' [bbc.co.uk]
• Photo of the Day: February 22, 2010 - Bad News Peep [dcist.com]
• Lower Pervian School District vs. Mike and Ikes [reason.com]
• Moscow Mayor Promises a Winter Without Snow [time.com] vs. Russian capital Moscow covered by record 63cm snowfall [bbc.co.uk]

Links for 15 February 2010

• Steven Spielberg admits he didn't want to do Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
• In Marjah Buildup, a Telling Day's Delay
• Snow paralysis has cost D.C. area too much

Links for 13 February 2010

Hrm…some of my links from the 11th were definitely from before then, and I’m not quite sure where they came from. Ah well, so’s life.

• NBC Olympics – official website for the 2010 Olympics, which start(ed) Friday the 12th!
• Live Updates from the Opening Ceremony
• Pay-go redux: Can Obama rein in federal spending?
• Trouble in Space Station Construction
• Canada Redefines Itself in Olympic Opening Ceremony
• Nato hails major Afghan operation – interesting article detailing Operation Moshtarak in Afghanistan.

Links for 11 February 2010

• Sniper's imprint, faded, remains indelible – interesting article about the DC area snipers, one of whom was executed last evening.
• Please tell me why I should care about Sun?
• What I Couldn't Say

Links for 9 February 2010

• Boeing 747-8 Information
• Reading Report: The Road to Serfdom
• Endeavour to deliver Space Station 'a room with a view'
• U.S. Enlists Ex-Foes for Afghan Army
• Some early comments about Power7
• Boeing’s New 747-8 Continues a Jumbo Tradition

Links for 7 February 2010

• With tears but no trouble, Washington sends Tai Shan to China
• A look at the new AeroTrain system at Dulles Airport
• White House articulating a case for ending the filibuster permanently
• Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology

Links for 5 February 2010

• World's Largest Data Collector Teams Up With Word's Largest Data Collector [technology]
• Credit Where It's...Don't [humor, technology]
• O'Reilly and Stewart Interview [politics, humor]
• Haiti Earthquake: Who's Given What? [information, economy, earthquake, haiti]

RIT Course Planning Schedule

As a service to other RIT students and myself, I’ve created a 4-year course planning schedule which I’m using to plot out my 4 years here at RIT until graduation. It can be easily extended to include a 5th year if you so choose. Each year is a different sheet in the Excel file, and I’ve included a “Pre-Y1” sheet for credits received before entering RIT. The main sheet is a high-level overview of the total year courses, and lists the abbreviations for each type of course – i.e. E for Free Elective. Please feel free to download and use this for your own purposes, and you are more than welcome to leave comments here for future versions!

RIT 4-Year Planning Schedule.xlsx

So Long, Sun

I’ve only been involved with Sun for the past two or three years, but it’s been great while it lasted. The employees are excellent, the software fantastic, and the opportunities for fun more than can be imagined. I vaguely knew the Sun name before I started high school, but my involvement in the Sysadmin program at TJ brought me to working for Sun for a summer, and has given me extreme joy, especially when our AEG proposal was accepted, and through all the great employees I met and became friends with. Scott McNealy presented at TJ in the spring of this year, and is in my mind one of the most respected capitalists in Silicon Valley due to the way he ran Sun, and the motivations behind their moves. The company will be truly missed, and I hope that Oracle and all Sun employees keep a light burning for the passion and work that the Sun name meant for everyone. Best of luck everyone, and have a great new adventure at Oracle!

McNealy's Bittersweet Memo Bids Good-Bye to Sun - “Kick butt and have fun.”

The Register: Scott McNealy Signs Off in Style

After first learning the Sun deal had completed, the following image was created:

Thanks to James Gosling for the above images, and have a great new adventure. The future looks bright.

Toblerone Bear

Marker drawing by Joe Kern

Official Toblerone logo

The image on the left is a drawing my roommate created a few days ago, and the picture on the right is the official logo/image on the Toblerone bars.

Went to bed yesterday at around midnight, and was woken up around 2 in the morning. Stayed up until about 4:30 since my other three roommates were still up (no reason why), and so we were just chatting and joking around for quite a bit. Got up later at 8 for my discrete math class and Freshman Year Enrichment ii, and then had my fun 8 hour lull until Russian in the evening. Only have one more week until course registration for the spring, so it feels like the year is going by quicker than it really is (today’s weather also helped the lie!).

As far as my TJ involvement is concerned, I reopened a case having to do with Dulles, and sent in some more diagnostic information to the engineer assigned to the case, so hopefully we’ll get a resolution fairly soon.

Rochester Friday in January

I took this picture yesterday, and found it sort of represents the whole season and school quarter here at RIT during the winter. The contrast between the dark on the bottom and the brighter top half symbolize the coldness, dreariness and sort of “slowness” of the length of the winter season and academic quarter, but sooner or later it will be over, and the temperatures will warm up and it’ll be spring. I also liked it for the lack of people, and the pureness of the natural surroundings that we’re blessed with here. Meanwhile, the snow is a nice symbol of the weather that will hang around for months to come. This snow fell over a week ago, and it is only now starting to finally disappear.