These Things Matter To Me

The sys admin del.icio.us tag for the day is: loadbalance.
http://del.icio.us/tag/loadbalance

I keep bumping up against small differences between Linux distros, and it kind of drives me a crazy. For example, I’m spoiled by service in the Redhat distros. You can query the status of any service in /etc/init.d.

# service syslog statussyslogd (pid 2106) is running...klogd (pid 2110) is running...# service httpd statushttpd (pid 26830 26829 26828 26827 26826) is running...#

You can’t do that in the Novell distros of Linux (NLD, SLES, SUSE Pro) that I’ve seen…
Until now! I came across this handy script on Novell’s site, that’ll let you to enjoy the service experience.

#!/bin/bash#/usr/sbin/service

if [ $USER != "root" ]thenecho "Must be in a root login shell to run $0"exitfi

if [ $# -lt 2 ]thenecho "Usage: $0  service_name  stop/start/restart/status"exitfi

set -e/etc/init.d/$1 $2

Tim O’Reilly’s talks, keynotes, and interviews have long been available for free on the amazing I.T. Conversations website (along with Paul Graham, Lawrence Lessig, and lot of other interesting people). But I’m starting to discover that oreillynet.com also hosts a lot of podcasts as well. Distributing the Future seems to be a brand new podcast (only two episodes so far) about technology, science, and culture. So far it’s featured Make hacker Phil Torrone, serial entrepreneur Marc Hedlund, Tim, and lots of other O’Reilly regulars. They also have a “beta” O’Reilly Network Podcast feed, that seems to aggregate podcasts from all over the oreillynet.com site. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find a top-level html equivalent. I’ll update if I find one.

There’s an open source desktop conference, the Open Source Desktop Workshops, in San Diego in a couple weeks. It seems to focus more on the development and customization side. That’s really cool, because most open source desktop talks these days seem to be variations on:
“Linux on the desktop- is it ready?”
The OSDW looks a little KDE-centric. (That’s OK, some of my best friends use KDE!) In any case, I hope it’s well-blogged, documented, and screencast-ed. The price is extremely reasonable, $50. If you’re in the area… ( via the always excellent, osnews.com)

To all you people checking out this site, using Konqueror. Keep fighting the good fight!

While we’re talkin’ Microsoft, some good Microsoft links that have been floating around lately:

Mini-Microsoft (Anonymous Microsoft employee, no holds barred! Critical, but fair.) (from waxy.org)
MSDN’s Channel9 (This is site is probably “duh” for MS-savvy people. But I didn’t even know it existed. Developer videocasts, marketing stuff, and lots of interesting free education. I like it.)
Business Week MS-centered podcast (mp3. About Microsoft’s complicated identity, and blogging employees!)
The best interview with Bill Gates I’ve ever heard or read. (mp3. Or transcript. I’ve never heard the enthusiastic part of him before. Excited without being defensive. Talks about the emerging, transparent relationship between consumers and companies a little in the beginning. Listen closely. And lots of talk about RSS.)

Technorati, IceRocket tags: microsoft, business, operating system, rss

(video-cam grab from the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference, via Inside Microsoft.)

No big deal, but I’m going to talk about Microsoft. Microsoft is one of the most analyzed, critiqued, lauded, discussed, picked-apart things on the entire planet. And I know nothing I say here will add any new insights. In fact, the best I can hope for is “accurate, but not new,” and even worse, everything I spit out here could be wrong. But I know some people reading this think about other things, so this is just between us. That, and I wanted an excuse to link to the Bill Gates/ Napolean Dynomite video (which goes back and forth between being available and being taken down on different sites, so go find it on p2p).
Even though I’m a Linux and UNIX system administrator, Microsoft definitely touches my world. In a way, Microsoft touches everybody’s world. But for real, at the very least, the way people support, market, and develop non-Microsoft products is often a reaction to the way Microsoft handles stuff.
But lately, so much of what I’ve been excited about seems to not be post-Microsoft, but more like extra-Microsoft. Context-sensitive advertising, insane blog/ publishing growth, AJAX, RSS, Ruby, Wikis… sure, all this stuff may have been invented in some Microsoft research lab for all I know (and I do know at least two of these things have close MS ties), but my point is, Microsoft doesn’t seem to be at all in control of how these are distributed and used, or exemplifying their usage. Does that mean Microsoft is failing, or doesn’t have lots of other successful businesses? Not really. Ideally, no single entity, even a successful entity, controls much of anything. But there’s still something interesting going on, and this status may be uncomfortable for Microsoft.

When talking about business “competition,” people sometimes work under the assumption that everybody is playing the same game. People talk about Microsoft “beating” Netscape, or Apple “beating” Microsoft. Those are ok constructs, because at the time those observations were made, all parties involved were working with similar approaches to the production and sale of software. But right now, Microsoft has a different kind of problem- their competitors are playing totally different games! The emerging open source software industry is totally manipulating the way Microsoft talks about their software. While there’s no doubt “free” software can push Microsofts pricing around, what’s equally interesting is how Microsoft is feeling pressure to open up their process, roadmaps, and code.
The other game being played is with hosted applications. Google, Yahoo, and even smaller companies like 37signals are finding that people are pretty open to letting a new tool become a big part of their computing life, with hosted applications. I wouldn’t say these companies are beating Microsoft. They’ve wandered over to a different playing field!
So… Why do I even bring this up? This week, Microsoft announced a giant reorg. Some observations:

(from Jeremy’s Blog)
For a long time, Microsoft has focused on shipping boxed software. The most obvious change here is that MSN will be brought into the core group. Can a company that had focused on shipping boxed software morph like this and still succeed? There is going to be some huge internal struggles here, that’s for sure. We may see the company polarized in a way we never have before. Some within Microsoft clearly get it, but others don’t. How much the ones who don’t will resist this change remains to be seen. One thing is clear though – Microsoft has seen what companies like Google and Yahoo! are doing and they want in.
*****
(from Searchblog)
For all those watching the AOL/MSN/Google M&A game, Microsoft’s recent reorg, covered here (NYT), is worth noting. The company is creating three divisions, and the one I find critical is what is called “Platform Products and Services”. This division combines Windows and MSN, and that is an important shift – the two are increasingly interdependent. Applications like Office are now in a separate division, as are Entertainment and Devices.

Technorati, IceRocket tags: microsoft, business, operating system, open source, google, linux

(Photo grabbed from the excellent Portland architecture and design history blog, Stumptown Confidential.)

OK. Some stuff going on in Portland/ Oregon…

• The Unwire Portland project is totally moving forward. Last week they announced an RFP for businesses to provide wireless Internet to the whole city of Portland. (Lots of props go to the personal telco project for already providing so many great public hotspots, and increasing wireless awareness and literacy in the first place.) Let’s hope Portland can keep all of these awesome options active! What the heck is the Unwire Portland project? The best explanation I’ve seen is on kmikeym’s blog.
• Kernel.org joined Mozilla and Drupal in the OSL at OSU in Corvallis, Oregon.
• GOSCON 2005 is coming up, in downtown Portland. It focuses on open source in the public sector. Looking at the agenda, much of it seems to cover open source issues that surround any application of open source software, including business.

Yes they did. Sun flew a dorky banner over Dell headquarters. So… Sun’s NC05Q3 event last week was kind of a big deal. At least to Sun. They announced their cheap (well, Sun cheap) servers that objective 3rd parties seem to be responding positively to, and they showed an “edgey” anti-Dell campaign. But what I globbed on to was the live chat with Jonathan Schwartz and co (Transcript. Warning, it’s a pdf.)., that included some discussion about the direction of Sun workstations. It’s sometimes tough to find stuff about workstations at events like this, so I’ve extracted all the workstation and desktop out of the chat. ( I’ve included some non-workstation tidbits where relevant. )

(For other transcripts, videos, and podcasts from the Sun Network Computing 05Q3 event, check out the event’s website.)

Q: Any plans on making a cheap SPARC desktop like the Ultra20?
Jonathan Schwartz (A): Stay tuned.
…
Q: Adobe and RealNetworks are on-board with JDS for Linux and Solaris/SPARC, are they on-board for Solaris/x64?
Jonathan Schwartz (A): Not yet, but they’re on the way. Make sure you let them know you want them aboard
…
Q: Please, please, please can you give us a dual core Ultra 20?
David Lawler (A): It’s coming – stay tuned.
…
Q: What are the plans to support Solaris on laptops, things like power mgmt., suspend/hibernate, wifi, cardbus. Do you plan support for laptop type things in Solaris?
Chris Ratcliffe (A): We currently support over 180 laptops with Solaris 10 and actually have a number of these technologies
running (in fact some of them are running on the system I’m using now). We hope to release them soon.
…
Q: Will Solaris support all the other x86 processors excluding Opteron (eg. xeon, celeron, athlon 64, pentium m?)
Chris Ratcliffe (A): Yes, it already does.
…
Q: Does sun have any intentions of getting more desktop users on solaris (opensolaris?)
Chris Ratcliffe (A): With the extensive x86 platform support in Solaris 10 and Sun’s x64 workstation products, we are seeing an increasing number of desktop users already on Solaris 10. In addition, there are a number of projects currently underway both internally at Sun and within the OpenSolaris community that will be very attractive to desktop customers.
…
Q: I shared the experience among others that it’s taking too long to purchase a low end workstation/server or even a Solaris support contract. Do you realize the problem and are you working on it?
Robbie Turner (A): I assume you are referring to buying through the Sun Store. Sun’s low end systems and Solaris Service Plans are offered through the Sun Store. We have taken feedback from customers on their experiences ordering through the Sun Store and have an effort underway to improve the customer experience on the Sun Store.
…
Q: How do you support a galaxy server if a customer choose Linux as operating system ?
Robbie Turner (A): If you’re running Red Hat and/or SUSE Linux OS, opt for a Sun Software Service Plan for the Linux OS. This plan provides two levels of support – standard and premium – to help your IT deployments stay reliable and secure 24×7. Combine the Linux OS support with a Sun Hardware Service Plan for complete system coverage. For more on what the Sun Software Service Plan for Linux provides, go to: sun.com/service/support/software/Linux/index.html
..
Q: is sun developing home user hardware configurations for laptops
Ravi Pendekanti (A): We already have SPARC based laptops on our price list today
…
Q: DO you like Nvida better then ATI?
Herb Hinstorff (A): They both make great products and we support them both.

Q: How serious does Sun take supporting x86 laptops, eg. power mgmt, wifi drivers, cardbus etc?
Herb Hinstorff (A): We already support over 183 laptops with Solaris 10 and are in the process of releasing some new features that will specifically address power management, wifi support etc.

Q: Why is the roadmap of the Sunray 2 slipping? We hoped it would be available this year but it looks like it will arrive in 2006? The Sunray is great please don’t let others catch up!
Herb Hinstorff (A): We haven’t announced any next-generation Sun Ray roadmap. We certainly have exciting plans in both the client hardware and software area to further enhance the technology. Stay tuned!

Q: when will you announce the StarOffice 8
Iyer Venkatesan (A): Soon!

Q: Will Tarantella products become integrated with Sun Rays, or maintain their own product line?
Kevin Strohmeyer (A): The Sun Secure Global Desktop (Formally Tarantella) will remain its own product line. Sun Ray thin clients may access applications published through the Sun Secure Global Desktop.

Q: What clients do Tarantella support?
Kevin Strohmeyer (A): The Tarantella product has been announced as a Sun product called the Sun Secure Global Desktop Software. Any device with a Java enabled Web Browser can access applications through the Sun Secure Global Desktop. This includes PC’s, Laptops, Macs, thin clients, Sun Ray thin clients, PDA’s, tablets, and public kiosks.

Q: I thing Openoffice is going great but it seems that it is in a little slow development phase. You gave the base code for OOo, also for Netbeans and now making the same for opensolaris. The same problem may certainly can arise for it. Have you got plans to speed up the process of their developments or is this a strategy of you?
Iyer Venkatesan (A): Thanks. We’re definitely proud of our efforts around OpenOffice.org. OO.o 2.0 will be available shortly. We want to do everything we can to speed up the process and grow the community. However because it’s a community-led development process, this is not a strategy by Sun for OO.o or other open source projects.

Q: When will sunrays be available as laptops?
Herb Hinstorff (A): Tadpole, a subsidiary of General Dynamics, sells laptops based on Sun Ray technology today.

Q: I love what you’ve done with the Ultra 20 workstation. How have sales been? Are there additional plans on the board for an expanded range of workstations?
Herb Hinstorff (A): Can’t comment on sales. We will be expanding the range of workstations over time.

Q: Someone previously was discussing Acer Ferrari laptops. Will there be a mobile solution from DELL coinciding with McLaren Mercedes?
Herb Hinstorff (A): Not sure. From what we hear, the problem is that it requires a radiator larger than the one in the McLaren.

Q: When will Microsoft make it easier to convert StarOffice documents? That is my main issue with using StarOffice.
Iyer Venkatesan (A): Can’t really speak for them. However StarOffice 8, which will be available shortly, uses the OASIS-standard OpenDocument file format which has been endorsed by a number of organizations, including the European Union and the state of Massachusetts. As more and more companies adopt this standard, the easier it will be to exchange files. StarOffice 8 offers tremendous improvements in being able to import and export MS Office files.

Q: Are there any plans to implement DirectX Technology like support in home user hardware?
Herb Hinstorff (A): Sun workstations and servers that support Windows support the DirectX technology today.

Q: Will you compete with Citrix?
Kevin Strohmeyer (A): No

Q: How have the Ultra 3 mobile workstation systems been received by customers and will there be a x64 based counterpart competitive with the Acer Ferrari?
John Herb Hinstorff (A): The mobile workstations have been well received. We aren’t able to discuss potential future product plans here.

Q: Folks, I know this session is mostly x64-related but, can anyone comment on Global Desktop (Tarentella) and its implication for deploying desktops for large enterprises?
Kevin Strohmeyer (A): Reduce cost complexity, improve security, and provide greater mobility. The Sun Secure Global Desktop Software allows user facing applications running on Windows Terminal Services, Mainframe, AS400, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX or Linux to be published to any user in the enterprise using any device with a Java Enabled Web Browser. Uncoupling applications from device dependencies allows for rapid deployment of new applications, updates, and patches. In addition, the Sun Secure Global Desktop three tier architecture allows for secure remote access.. greatly simplifying the support of mobile or at-home employees,
and even allowing for secure access for business partners…

Q: Will Sun offer a thin client?
Herb Hinstorff (A): Sun offers the Sun Ray thin client today. It is ideal in situations where security and low client administration costs are important.
…
Q: There was a news that Sun intends to open source all its software.Is that true? Also Java was to be open sourced as well. Any
new information on that?
Jim McHugh (A): Sun is currently evaluating its entire portfolio to determine the appropriate open source actions. Sun has already open sourced Solaris. Check out opensolaris.org for information on this project. Sun has also open sourced its
implementation of the JEE application server. Information can be found at glassfish.org.

Technorati Tags: sun, solaris, amd, linux, marketing, desktop, workstation, open source

And everybody is a user. Almost every single day, a customer teaches me something about UNIX, Linux, software, and computers in general. (Today was an object lesson in Webmin acls. True story.) Sysadmins get schooled, too…

As a sysadmin, I don’t want to just fix problems and maintain systems. I want to enable people to play, create, solve, and invent. But I’m a lil uncomfortable with the term user education. I want somethin’ more dialogical, less curriculum. (Not to get all Paulo Friere, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. But oops, I just did.)

Maybe we can call the practice of giving information to users, information sharing? Two-way, information sharing. Givin’ and takin’. Sometimes I.T. folks get a little uncomfortable with giving users too much power and information. Sometimes I hear system administrators worry that too much information will enable users to create chaos in an environment. But I don’t see how information on how to use those tools they already have can be a bad thing. And wait. Let’s back up. Has there ever been an instance in the history of humanity where it was cool for anybody in a position of authority to suggest that it’d be better that other people didn’t have access to certain kinds of information? Do I need to go there, people? I just did.