My flock still has a large Solaris 9 community within it. It's hard to believe its already time to start the long march to EOSL, but alas, the announcement is clear, as is the Solaris 9 Transition FAQ. The bell is ringing.
Looking back at other Solaris EOLs I seem to always recall thinking that revision had really grown long in the tooth, and the replacement OS was badly needed. In this case, Solaris 10 has a long list of what I consider "dreams come true" to make you want to upgrade. However, I have a lot of experience watching Solaris 9 boxes take some incredible abuse and keep ticking. In my mind, it may have fewer bells and whistles, but it really did its job well.
So let's raise a glass of Solaris and toast to the legacy of 5.9, and to the enterprise evolution that is 5.10 and OpenSolaris. Cheers!
Showing posts with label humor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label humor. Show all posts
Monday, June 29, 2009
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
#@$@#$# Spammers
Gotta love those spammers. I wish I could talk the way they write - it would be entertaining at a party to sound like one of the Cylon Hybrids. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume there at least a few Sci-fi fans out there reading a blog like this one.
The real purpose of this post is to apologetically announce that I've turned on comment moderation to keep everything clean after a long wave of spammers hit me. I'm not big on censoring, so rest assured that if you post a rational comment I will be happy to release it and continue encouraging dialog.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Google Blog Search - Algorithm Insanity?
This isn't really Solaris related as much as computer science related, but today I experienced a very strange behavior from the great Google. One of my hobbies is archery, and I live in the Rochester, NY area. So, I was searching blogs on Google with the following string: "rochester NY archery". Seems pretty benign, right? Apparently, it's more like looking for Dick's Sporting Goods at www.d_c_s.com.
The number one hit for Rochester, NY archery is: "Club Intoxicated Girls". Actually, almost all of them were blog spam hits. That's incredibly frustrating. It's also a bit surprising because in my experience the SPAM heuristics in Gmail are second to none. Interesting times we live in.
The number one hit for Rochester, NY archery is: "Club Intoxicated Girls". Actually, almost all of them were blog spam hits. That's incredibly frustrating. It's also a bit surprising because in my experience the SPAM heuristics in Gmail are second to none. Interesting times we live in.
Thursday, June 05, 2008
The Evolution of Email
Have you ever stopped to ask yourself what benefits have been derived by the evolution of email from the days of ASCII text to our modern world where Microsoft Word can act as the email editor?
Fortunately I don't need to ponder this question any longer. Today I received an email which simply would not have had the same impact back in the old days of low-tech correspondence.
The email started out with the following, which is a direct quote:
It looks pretty menacing in ASCII text, but thanks to Microsoft Exchange and its mind-blowing capabilities to allow more effective self-expression I was able to receive that motivational phrase in a 24-point underlined red font.
I have to admit, it's difficult to fully realize the gravity of the phrase without gratuitous aesthetic enhancement. Let's face it, it would take a PowerPoint attachment to more effectively intimidate me.
Fortunately I don't need to ponder this question any longer. Today I received an email which simply would not have had the same impact back in the old days of low-tech correspondence.
The email started out with the following, which is a direct quote:
Starting IMMEDIATELY - ZERO TOLERANCE for any and all non compliance of the following process!
...
It looks pretty menacing in ASCII text, but thanks to Microsoft Exchange and its mind-blowing capabilities to allow more effective self-expression I was able to receive that motivational phrase in a 24-point underlined red font.
I have to admit, it's difficult to fully realize the gravity of the phrase without gratuitous aesthetic enhancement. Let's face it, it would take a PowerPoint attachment to more effectively intimidate me.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Queuing Efficiency
On my way through the office door this morning I had an experience that I realized needs to be recorded so that I don't go on and rant about it in the future. This post will allow me instead to reference it, thus saving a vicious cycle of rehashing.
In addition to my career in systems engineering, and my small photography business I take martial arts classes. A few days ago I managed to pull a hamstring and sprain a toe on the opposite leg. Don't get me wrong - it's worth it. But these injuries are relevant to the story because they allow you to appreciate my inability to move quickly. I'm not limping, I'm just moving cautiously.
The weather was cold, and the sidewalks covered in treacherous ice. A bitter wind cut through me as I approached the building. Moving at a determined but non-rapid pace, I noticed someone about a mile (or three) front of me, presumably intending to enter the same doors. And then it happened.
They decided to take it upon themselves to hold the door open. At this point they almost need a telescope or radar to even know I'm planning to go through the same door, but yet they stood there holding it open while the arctic air flooded the entry to our building.
Here's the deal people... If someone behind you stands a chance of having the door slam in their face, then you hold it open. If they are carrying a heavy load and don't have arms free, you can wait until they get close to open the door for them. If it's more than five steps, you move along. Let's stop the self-gratifying good deed of holding a door open just to see if the recipient of your good will will start to jog because they feel guilty you are letting all that cold air into the building. If they have enough room to jog they probably don't need you to hold the door.
In addition to my career in systems engineering, and my small photography business I take martial arts classes. A few days ago I managed to pull a hamstring and sprain a toe on the opposite leg. Don't get me wrong - it's worth it. But these injuries are relevant to the story because they allow you to appreciate my inability to move quickly. I'm not limping, I'm just moving cautiously.
The weather was cold, and the sidewalks covered in treacherous ice. A bitter wind cut through me as I approached the building. Moving at a determined but non-rapid pace, I noticed someone about a mile (or three) front of me, presumably intending to enter the same doors. And then it happened.
They decided to take it upon themselves to hold the door open. At this point they almost need a telescope or radar to even know I'm planning to go through the same door, but yet they stood there holding it open while the arctic air flooded the entry to our building.
Here's the deal people... If someone behind you stands a chance of having the door slam in their face, then you hold it open. If they are carrying a heavy load and don't have arms free, you can wait until they get close to open the door for them. If it's more than five steps, you move along. Let's stop the self-gratifying good deed of holding a door open just to see if the recipient of your good will will start to jog because they feel guilty you are letting all that cold air into the building. If they have enough room to jog they probably don't need you to hold the door.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
On Proper Use of English
While my mind was entering a virtual screen-saver (yes, oddly enough my mind seems to run a GUI over its CLI interface) I overheard a conversation in the next cubicle. A project manager said, "...and then we give it to the engineers for solutioning". I started to think about how often I'd heard that expression and quickly realized the count was quite high.
Shortly after that exciting revelation (much more exciting than the status bar I watched during an in-progress installation) I recalled another expression I'm finding has become prevalent on our site: The act of "dialoguing". I'm not completely sure of the spelling of this colloquialism, but I'm hearing it all the time.
If I'm understanding them correctly, my job as an engineer entails dialoguing with customers to gain requirements which I can use in the solutioning process. Ain't that it?
From the Merriam Webster Dictionary, we learn that "solution" is actually a noun. Just to remove any ambiguity from my position on this matter, let me also state that a noun in this scenario cannot moonlight as a verb and still retain its dignity.
Continuing on our lexical journey, the MW Dictionary also has an entry for dialogue. It's simply amazing to find such an artifact considering how few people have been able to study this elusive part of speech. But, in the interest of open sharing of knowledge I'd like to share what it contains. Dialog is also a noun. Amazing!
Having solved this perplexing grammar mystery I can now return to designing a solution to the problem of how to virtualize our Directory Service. I hope you've enjoyed this dialogue.
Shortly after that exciting revelation (much more exciting than the status bar I watched during an in-progress installation) I recalled another expression I'm finding has become prevalent on our site: The act of "dialoguing". I'm not completely sure of the spelling of this colloquialism, but I'm hearing it all the time.
If I'm understanding them correctly, my job as an engineer entails dialoguing with customers to gain requirements which I can use in the solutioning process. Ain't that it?
From the Merriam Webster Dictionary, we learn that "solution" is actually a noun. Just to remove any ambiguity from my position on this matter, let me also state that a noun in this scenario cannot moonlight as a verb and still retain its dignity.
Continuing on our lexical journey, the MW Dictionary also has an entry for dialogue. It's simply amazing to find such an artifact considering how few people have been able to study this elusive part of speech. But, in the interest of open sharing of knowledge I'd like to share what it contains. Dialog is also a noun. Amazing!
Having solved this perplexing grammar mystery I can now return to designing a solution to the problem of how to virtualize our Directory Service. I hope you've enjoyed this dialogue.
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