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A different thing in a real OS.

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Through the weekend I believed that I had managed to screw up my OpenSolaris installation. So serious was my suspicion I was planning to erase the disk and reinstall the entire system. The sound system that I’d manage to get working wasn’t, the ZFS snapshot system kept failing into maintenance mode and the NetBeans IDE that I installed disappeared. Perhaps living in a windows world tainted me but in my ignorance, I recognized my lack of understanding and started Googling.

Sometimes panic can instill reason, and so with some illustrations and illumination from the OpenSolaris.org site, I discovered that the issue was the multiple packages that I had been downloading. The ZFS file system had been doing boot snapshots and I was rebooting into one of many boot ‘pools’ that were ‘confusing’ the system, when I was shown the tool for selecting the correct boot environment, and deleting the others, everything became stable. The sound works, the tools were there and it all works.

One note, the ZFS file system in OpenSolaris will surprise you, it takes a ‘snapshot’ of the ‘partitions’ you choose, and performs a type of backup journal of all the files there. Given that, the file manager, using a slide bar, allows you to ‘time slide’ the directory through the entire snapshot history to display the changes that have happened. Very interesting, but it takes a bit of getting used to. I have ‘time machine‘ on my Mac, though I have not used it, so I suspect this behaves in a similar fashion.

There was one issue, of course created by myself, in and effort to get video on the system I purchased a Logitech 3500 video class webcam with built-in Mike. And while the Ekiga VoIP and video conferencing application could detect and use the video from the camera, the built-in mike would kill the sound system. So I’m operating without the camera, hoping for a bugfix.

The conclusion, more or less, is that the fixes I perform, did not require a drastic rebuild and the loss of my work. Only some understanding, and some learning on my part. Learning about how a real OS operates, and protects itself. Something toy OS’s from the past have made us all believe don’t exist.

Time to learn that something old, is new again.

Windows 7 bait and switch

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A few years ago there was a declaration that due to continuing delays with Vista, that Microsoft would ‘totally rewrite’ the code to complete the task and finalize it’s release. We now know that these ‘rewrites’ never made it into the Vista we see today, and are now part of the Windows 7 kit. We know this by common sense, we know that Microsoft could never have reached a Windows 7 beta in under a year when in fact it’s taken about 4 years to develop this beta.

Now all the paid Windows Pundits are raving about the Windows 7 beta and how much better, secure and fast this is, to any other Windows release. Almost the exact same song and dance that was paraded out for Vista. Does anyone ever learn that marketing does not make software better? I’m sure that Microsoft is aware that if they get this wrong again, corporate 500 companies, same ones that are skipping the Vista release, the ones that keep them in business, will be seeking more alternative desktop operating systems. They have already been tripped up by the emergence of the netbook running Linux, or worse, Windows XP. They are literally being hamstrung by their own base. This could be the end of Microsoft dominance in the office workspace.

A sheep in Wolfs (Windows) dressings

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If I were managing Microsoft, I’d announce a new Operating System (OS) and prepare copies to hand out of Windows 7 “pre-betas” at PDC, WinHEC which consists of a slightly re-skinned Vista OS which no one wanted when it was called Vista.

And you know, no one will notice, or care that 99.9% of of the new OS is just the same as the old OS and relabeling it will make all the difference in the world!

One more foolish Palm move

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if this rumor is true that Palm’s Treo Pro in the wild, probably not fake. Then Palm has got to be the most foolish company in the world. Just when they are promising a new OS, a Linux cum Android like platform, they should announce yet another Windows based Phone, makes the company management come off all unfocused and wishy-washy in the vision department. How foolish can you be? Bring out the new OS, dammit, even in beta format. Get on with it Palm!

Apple’s iPhone is closing the door on the future

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After hearing about how the iPhone can phone home and kill apps? I knew that my choice to purchase a Palm T/X was the correct one. But this is even more a vindication of my choice of the Nokia 6300 to act as the modem for both my MacBook and Palm T/X when Apple pulls posted iPhone modem app Apple won’t even allow you to use all the abilities of something You Own! just because they made it. DRM be dammed, being slaved to Apple is even worse. And just when Apple was beginning to increase marketshare, Job’s paranoia is making Apple into another Microsoft.

Google Maps API?

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I love this, in this day and age that a API for the Internet is not written to comply with standards. This message below is unacceptable!


But I’ll place the blame on aaireland.ie As you can see this is a Safari Browser error message, but I am betting that the AA Roadwatch folks have coded this web page for IE only usage. BAD! BAD! BAD! But further accusing Google for causing this incompatibility should net them a rebuke from Google.

Small favors

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Well, that day came on monday night, the call telling me my Dad passed away, the only small favor I managed was that my preparations of my mobile communications has worked out as planned. The Nokia 6300 on Vodafone.ie linked up with the AT&T network in Chicago and using the Palm T/X, I managed to connect to the Edge network on the Nokia to check flight changes, I also checked my email from my MacBook through the 6300 as well without having to pay for WiFi in the Airport. And when I had to make some phone number changes on the phone, the three (Palm/Mac/Nokia) synced up and shared the changes. Almost like they were made by the came company, standards, who knew, I suppose that’s why I don’t use Microsoft products. The only down side, the boss in Dublin knows my phone number, so if the shit hits the fan, I’m still on call.

Microsoft legacy

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Microsoft will NEVER be free from the support requirements of Windows XP, you know why? Take a look at the photo I took today;

If they can’t get VAR’s from using ancient Windows NT 4.0, they will never be rid of Windows XP 😉

And if Microsoft wanted anyone else to buy Windows Vista, they shouldn’t have invoked The Osborne Effect when they started talking about Windows 7 There isn’t a major corporation that will install Vista now, not when Win-7 is right behind, which is more suited to a corporate deployment timeline.

Apple Leopard platform phase-out

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This last 10.4.9 release of Mac OS-X has me again wondering about what platform’s will be set for end-of-life when Leopard is released. I’ve made the assumption that my old 500MHz G3 iBook would be on that list, with Tiger being the end of the road. But with my old iMac G4 the glaring problem is not the CPU but the lack of support for USB 2.1. If I were making that determination I think that any G4 with out USB 2.1 hardware would be the cut off point. This would put a hardship on me as then both my computers would need upgrading, or that it would save me the expense of buying yet another release of Mac OS-X. In any case both my machines are getting a bit long in the tooth. But I’m not too worried, my investment was a good one as both of these were ordered in January 2001 making them both 6 years old. I wonder how many PC owners have held out as long?

Long live the Tiger!

Vista’s new lemmings

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Having seen the underoverwhelming advertising for Windows Vista, and hearing that as a result, PC sales have skyrocketed (a whole 5% represents a very low sky or a very short rocket). I felt compelled to repost an old favorite, Lemmings, one of the better Apple Ads. And it left me wondering if the surge in PC sales was to buy PC’s before they were loaded with Vista so that people could retain compatibility, and not become yet another victim of Microsoft Beta-2 testing. We did, as we just replaced the wife’s Sony laptop with new HP loaded with XP-Pro. We have tried Vista and determined that it is, really, just an XP service pack, and also required retraining as there was little that remained familiar in the interfaces. So the question arises, if you have to retrain, why not switch. So without further ado, Lemmings;



The one great reason to avoid Zune

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In this article hyping Five Reasons Why The Microsoft Zune May Succeed , they give the one greatest reason not to ever buy a Zune

… but the next generation Zune will be even better. Why? Because Microsoft is developing that one entirely in-house. As we saw from just about every product they’ve put out, the second or third iteration is when they get things right. By half-skipping over the painful first-gen by using Toshiba, Microsoft may just shortcut their way into a great player.

The trick here is that if people find that the “Painful” first generation is painful, and that the real Zune isn’t for one or two more generations. Then no one will buy the first generation Zune, there will be no Zune community (one of the other points) and Zune will fail.

It took MS two years to get to windows 3.11, it too 3 years for MS to get to XP service pack 2. And second and third generation Zune is at least that far in the future.

The easy recomendation here is, save your money, or buy something else (an iPod comes to mind). Save yourself the ‘pain’ of being a MS Beta tester for Zune.