Category Archives: Net Tools

Amazing! OpenDarwin bug progress

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Wow … I just recevied an e-mail from the bugzilla system for OpenDarwin … one of the OpenDarwin bugs
that I reported has been assigned!  This particular bug is related
to a real-time clock issue when running OpenDarwin within Virtual PC.

I’m actually happy to hear this since I have stopped experimenting with
OpenDarwin for a bit while some things like this get sorted out. 
If they get this one fixed, it will make many things work much
better.  On my installation right now, every second of computer
time is somehow being stretched to be ~45 seconds of real time … so
things run REAL slow on my OpenDarwin installation.

I’m looking forward to seeing what is done … I’d love to see this resolved!

The death of Meetup?

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When I first saw Meetup come on-line, I
thought it was really going to be an interesting medium for social get
togethers.  I started to use the free service, and felt that they
could really start some good momentum going, and leverage the various
locations for their revenue.  Well … they quickly were
overwhelmed by their own success.

What I found was that it was difficult to add new venues – locations –
to their system.  I started to make suggestions, however they were
not able to incorporate them.  Then they chose to start charging
for stuff … and then they wanted committments from “organizers” …

Bummer … IMHO, the whole thing kinda fell apart.

I got two e-mails today with the subjects “Last chance to save Salt
Lake Wi-Fi and Wireless Meetup Group”, and “Last chance to save Salt
Lake Slashdot Meetup Group” … broadcasting the lack of
interest.  It seems to me that someone is not modifying their
business plan to accomodate and cater to the potential clients.

Accelerating Change 2005

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I’ll be going to my friends conference – Accelerating Change 2005
– again this year.  John Smart
has again put together a great
line-up of speakers and it looks like it’s going to be drinking from a
fire hose … I’ll be working to blog the event as best as
possible.  The Acceleration Studies Foundation
is John’s contribution to the world, and to
exploring the rapidly evolving world that we live in.

If you read through the Conference Schedule
you can get a good idea of the caliber of speakers.  If you want
to listen to last years conference for examples, go visit
ITConversations and browse through the Accelerating Change 2004 Archives.

I missed last years conference, and have to admit that some of these
ITConversations from last year just blow me away … I can’t wait for
next week.

Virtualization Commoditization

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I don’t believe that most people really see what is coming with
Virtualization … at multiple levels.  This plan by Microsoft,
IMHO, is common sense … and something that the Linux crowd really
will have to wake up to.  And I do not believe that Xen is it yet … not without full support for Microsoft operating systems.  Qemu is another interesting project that I have been following … they are also continuing to make advances.

With this plan by Microsoft – which I again believe is a great move –
it sounds like they will be expanding what they offer with Virtual PC … something that I use on a daily basis.  Microsoft will now be able to say “Hey … run Linux … as an APPLICATION on Windows!” 
So the installed base of Windows customers *will* be able to experience
the best of both worlds … they will maybe take a look at Linux by
running it on Windows.  They won’t have to give up Windows …
they keep Windows and get Linux too!

From what I understand, the Linux efforts for Xen will eventually be
able to compete as the next generation of processors are made available
from Intel and AMD.  As this next generation of CPUs hit, not only
will we see this advance in virtualization but these same processors
are going to be adding the multi-core, and multi-threaded capabilities
which will even further multiply the ability to virtualize operating
systems, and higher-layer abstractions.

Virtualization is starting become more of a commodity at the “hardware
virtualization” level … and more and more applications are being
written to the LAMP abstraction … another form of
virtualization.  This is all moving rapidly up the stack. 
It’s fun to watch.

News.Com: Microsoft ‘hypervisor’ plan takes shape.
Bob Muglia, senior vice president in the Windows Server Division, said
at Microsoft’s Tech Ed conference here that the software will be “built
directly in Windows and will allow companies to virtualize multiple
operating systems. [Tomalak’s Realm]

Google Maps, cellular phones, and the adventure continues

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After reading Nat Friedmans post below, I had to start experimenting
with Google Maps.  This is too fun.  I’ve had several calls
with friends now, when their were driving someplace.  I quickly
ask them where they are, and start to zoom on Google maps … tracking
their travels as they are driving.  Too much.

As Nat describes his conversation, I have now had numerous like
it.  I called my friend Joe while on his vacation driving up the
coast of Oregon.  Once he told me he was at a drive through coffee
shop in Florence, OR I narrowed him down to this area.  As they drove north they told me they were crossing 35th street right here!

I talked with him about the golf course coming up on the left … it
was funny to hear his comments about the scenery and the various
buildings etc. that I could ask him about.  Funny … I can almost
see this as the next step for Google.  I joked with Phil Windley
and our CTO Roundtable group last week … it’s almost like my friend
Joe was getting live access to personal Google Maps … and I was
getting a virtual tour at the same time.

I’m thinking about my first Google Maps hack … I’ve got some ideas and can’t wait to play with it.

Living in the future. #

….

Later in the drive, we called Joe on the speakerphone and he gave us an aerial tour of the region using Google’s satellite maps. It went like this:

Joe: There’s a golf course on your right.
Us: Cool.
Joe: Huh, what’s that strange building coming up on your left?
Us: It’s a Marriott.
Joe: Oh. Cool.

…

[nat friedman]

New HP tc4200!

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I finally got my new Tablet PC at work … a brand new HP tc4200! 
Once I have completed getting it all configured, updated, and all of my
software installed I might even be able to use it … maybe in a few
days.  I have to admit that I like the form factor, and the
extended travel battery adds just the right amount of tilt to the unit
when sitting on a desk.

We have been far too busy here at Agilix Labs for me to spend non-stop
time on getting it ready … but I keep spinning up new tasks on it
while doing other work.  I’m thinking that I might take it home in
the next day or two and see what I can wrap up there.

As we are now thoroughly into our beta testing of GoBinder 2006, and
our new release of Backpack, I also want to get going on developing
some plug-ins for our new architecture.  I have to get Visual
Studio installed on this new machine, and then see what I can start to
experiment with.  I know that many people have started to ask
about the beta, and the SDK … please go and check out our new support
forums as http://forums.agilix.com … and if you want to get on the
potential beta list, send an e-mail to:  beta2006 at agilix.com

Apache -> Tomcat -> Java still too complex

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On another note, I once again installed a copy of XPlanner on one of
my Linux boxes.  XPlanner is a very cool XP/Agile project manager
that allows a team to create user stories and plan development
iterations.  I really like the tool, and am looking forward to the
next version.

To install XPlanner, I had to install Java, along with Ant, then build
XPlanner.  The version of Ant on my FC2 box was too old, and so
then I had to upgrade Ant.  Then build XPlanner.  Then
install Tomcat, and deploy XPlanner within Tomcat.  Then go and
get mod_jk to connect Apache to Tomcat.  Then configure
mod_jk.  Then configure Apache.

All in all … this whole process is still far too complex, and is
overly complicated.  I fully understand the “power” and
“flexibility” that many people will claim … but it is just too hard
for the simple tasks of getting things working.

This is one place that I believe that Open Source falls down. 
This entire suite is a very incomplete solution due to the manual labor
required to install and configure.  It’s just not a “complete” nor
“polished” solution … IMHO.

Fedora Core 4 … and Up2Date still sucks

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I haven’t posted for a bit … too busy with work, play, and
family.  I did get a chance to install Fedora Core 4 though, and
is was a good experience.  I actually did an upgrade of a Fedora
Core 2 box, since that is what most of my servers are running now.

I wanted to see just how hard it might be to bring them all up to
date.  I had tried to do upgrades to Fedora Core 3, but that
failed completely.  There were far too many packages broken when I
tried to do this.  I’ll do some more work with Fedora Core 4 and
see if this might be my next platform to move to.

One thing that I have to comment on is that Red Hat and Fedora still
have a LOT to lern from Microsoft and Windows Update.  Since doing
this upgrade I have tried numerous times to get the server up to date
using the free Up2Date application.  And it fails 90% of the
time.  I fully understand this is free … and uses distributed
servers across the globe … but it still fails.  The packages
begin to download and inevitably there will be one that simply stops
during the download … and it never recovers.  I have left it for
hours, and nothing … just stuck sitting there.  What a piece of
crap.  Anyone that understands network programming has to account
for these types of failures and deal with them gracefully. 
Up2Date still isn’t completely baked …

Anyhow … we’ll see how things go besides that.  I really wanted
to get to Fedora Core 4 so that I could install and get some PHP5
applications working.  I have had to run them on Windows up till
now.  I’ll see if I can get things working by this weekend.

Longhorn Beta 1 installation update …

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Well … hours later … I almost have it working!  I was able to
get Beta 1 of Longhorn – Windows Vista – installed in Virtual PC. 
I just added the VPC Additions to get my video driver working. 
I’m going to shut down and save the image … it appears to be good
enough to have a decent installation to work with.

I’ll probably check it out further and play with it over the weekend as I have some time …

Installing Longhorn Beta 1 – Windows Vista

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I downloaded the Beta 1 of Longhorn – Windows Vista – and am installing
it today.  I want to get an idea of what Microsoft has created,
and how things are coming together.  It’s funny … I don’t recall
the same for Windows XP, but this really feels like the Beta of Windows
2000 … so much hype and uproar about the whole thing.

What is funny to me is that it seems that the Linux community it giving
Microsoft and Longhorn/Windows Vista the most airplay!  They talk
about it constantly, they compare their features to it, they continue
to frame it as the “thing to beat!”

I’m installing it in Virtual PC as usual … this is now my preferred
platform for all testing, etc.  We’ll see how it goes … so far
the install is just chugging along.