Wednesday, August 24, 2005

PSP System Update 2.00 is here!

I'm not usually into games, but I was recently given a Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP). Those things are damned impressive: even more so now that System Update 2.00 is finally here!

As well as the usual bug fixes, SU2.00 contains several new features, most notably a web browser. Before now, the only way to get onto the web friom a PSP (assuming one hadn't installed the Japanese 2.00 System Update) was to buy a copy of Wipeout Pure (which, incidentally, is a great game), and use a connection that used a specific DNS server.

As well as playing games, the PSP can be used to watch movies, listen to music, and look at photos. A very versatile little machine! Now, how to port OpenSolaris to it...?

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Sun opens Open Source Office

According to this article at El Reg, Sun has opened an Open Source Office to coordinate its open source activities. The OSO is chaired by fellow-CABber, Simon Phipps. Given that Sun has stated their desire (and intention) to open source all of their software eventually, I'd say Simon and the OSO have their work cut out for them!

Hey Simon, if you need someone to come on an international jolly trip with you, you know my email address. :-)

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Nice Solaris article in El Reg

The Register's Thomas Greene has a written a nice, balenced article about and OpenSolaris. Overall I think it's a good article, although there are one or two minor points to nit pick (the biggest of which is the usual one about the CDDL being incompatible with the GPL; the latter is incompatible with the former, not vice versa).

The article correctly points out that although Solaris is already a great and powerful operating system, we (i.e., the Solaris community) need to address areas such as device support and ease of use.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Sun engineers win InfoWorld's 2005 Innovators Award

According to a Sun press release, InfoWorld's 2005 Innovators Award was presented to Sun engineers Bryan Cantrill, Stephen Hahn, Adam Leventhal, Cynthia McGuire, Andy Rudoff, and Mike Shapirom recently. Way to go, guys!

I'm sure I speak for the entire (Open)Solaris community when I say that I'm honoured to be associated with you and your accomplishments...

Friday, August 05, 2005

Having a blast at OSCON

The OpenSolaris CAB had a need to get together with the Development Process Team, Marketing, and each other. After some consideration, and, to give credit where it is due, fellow CAB member Al Hopper's suggestion, it was decided that OSCON would be the ideal venue for the meetings.

I arrived in Portland, Oregan, on Manday August 1st, and made my way to our hotel (Portland's light rail system, the MAX, is great BTW). After hooking up with Casper Dik, Simon Phipps, and a few others, we went out for dinner. (As an aside, I think Claire and Sara and co are addicted to seafood!)

On Tuesday morning we had a CAB-only meeting, which lasted will into Bryan and Keith's DTrace tutorial. Incidentally, Tuesday was also mine and Jenny's wedding anniversary, so although we were apart, my thoughts were with her and Judge. The tutorial was great--lots of people asking interesting questions--and went on later than planned. Al and I had dinner in a nice Thai restaurant, whose name I can't remember, alas. There was a party held at the Sun hospitality suite, but I was too tired to attend.

On Wednesday I went to Jonathan Schwartz's keynote interview. I met him and a few other guys from Sun outside the hall, so we chatted for a few minutes. Jonathan's interview went well I thought, despite some sideways swipes made by some Linux guy before hand. The rest of the day was taken up by our (the CAB) meeting with the Development Process guys: very long, but very productive. After dinner we went to the OpenSolaris BOF, led by Bryan, Keith, and Liane. We were kicked out of the BOF room at about 23:00, so we went to the party at the Sun suite (again). It was at this party that Bryan and Wez cooked up their PHP DTrace probe stuff.

Thursday started with an 08:30 meeting with OpenSolaris marketing, where (amongst other things) the CAB members were presented with a very nice gift as a thank you for our work. After lunch we went to Bryan's presentation (called DTrace: Opening the Kimono), at which he showcased the results of the previous evening's PHP DTrace probe collaberation. When word of this spreads, I wouldn't be surprised to see SOlaris becoming the PHP developer's platform of choice. Bryan's presentation was, as always, funny, informative, and presented at a breakneck pace (I'm sure that guy talks at a million miles an hour!). In fact, when he's on a roll, Bryan talks (and types) so fast, I think several people in the room actually got whiplash! :-)

On Friday, it was time to pack and go home. I'm actually writing this sitting on the floor of the convention centre: it's the first real dowtime I've had this week, so time to catch up on some email and blogging!

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

A room full of Ferraris

This is my second day at OSCON, although I've spent most of my time in meetings with the OpenSolaris CAB and Development Process Team. Right now I'm in a meeting between the CAB and Dev Proc Team; it's been a long, hard slog, but important for the Open Solaris project. But the thing I find most amusing is that in this room there are at least five Acer Ferrari laptops. Most of them are Ferrari 3400s, but Casper Dik is here with is fancy new Ferrari 4000.

You can read about his progress with running (Open)Solaris on it in his blog, but from what I see, his work is coming along nicely.