In case you’re interested, here’s a brief teaser for what I’m working on at the moment.You’re probably aware that I’ve been working on Sun’s Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) support since November 2006 along with my fellow team members in Melbourne and Beijing. You can read the flag-day message or grab a copy of snv_66 which includes the post-flagday sundries (cough!).We’ve now picked up phase-II of this project, one part of which is implementing the SAS Serial Management Protocol (smp). I’m sketching out a design for a userland interface to an smp driver so that we can write userland applications to actually make use of the seriously cool functionality which the spec provides for in Serial Attached SCSI-2 (SAS-2).Having worked in the Fibre Channel area for a while and knowing FC fabric reasonably well, it is very interesting to see how the two protocols are both similar and different when it comes to configuration management. Fibre Channel has the “fabric” concept whereby the devices you see are part of zones. SAS has the Domain concept and also has zones. The zoning doesn’t appear to be as well developed as for FC at this point, probably because SAS is still newish to the market and I don’t think there have been as many manufacturers for hbas, arrays and jbods enter the market. I expect that to change in the next few years, and I’m really excited at being able to get into the area at almost the ground level.

Yesterday morning codercat was picked up by the pet transfer couriers. She’s going to be boarded in Castle Hill for the next few days before being flown up on the 5th.Went up to Gordon for a kinda farewell barbecue lunch with the folks there who I’ve worked with since 1999. It was a really relaxed thing – about a dozen of us and some steak … what more could a bloke want! It’s definitely not goodbye, merely au revoir – especially since we’ll still see each other via IM and emails.On the way back from the office in the afternoon I went around to CC’s to pick up the boxes and family heirloom foam sofa that they’ve been storing for us in their cellar for the last 2 and a bit years.This morning between 0700 and 0730 the packer mob will be arriving to pack all our stuff, and tomorrow sometime the movers will be arriving to uplift all our boxes and furniture into a container which goes on the train up to Brisbane.EEEEEEEEEEEEKKK!!After I got home I managed to get the electricity connection scheduled, changed addresses with the banks we deal with, our health insurance and our tax agent, all within a really short period. It was so much easier to do this time than I remember it being. No doubt something will crop up to remind me of how tedious this whole process can be!We’re handing back the keys to this place on Saturday, and will then meander north, taking the drive in easy stages. We’re expecting to be very tired and completely knackered by the time we take possession next Tuesday arvo. The furniture will arrive on the Wednesday, codercat on Thursday and then we can start our lives again.My vanity domain www.jmcp.homeunix.com will be down for a week or more until we get our new connection organised. Which is a shame, but I’ll be able to work out of Sun’s Brisbane office until we’re all set up.So It’s All Good(tm).At least, I hope so!Next post will be from Brisbane.

Just heard back from our solicitor – the other party has agreed to the proposal that we sent them last week, so we’ve got immediate vacant possession. Our buyer’s agent will pick up the keys for us and we’ll meet her next Tuesday to step over the threshold.Now I can go and get our utility requirements organised (phone, adsl, electricity, water etc) as well as other things. We won’t be able to get the pool fence installed until settlement, but (fingers crossed) that should happen by the end of July.The other thing we can now enjoy -as planned- is Spoonboy’s graduation at UQ.Our juggernaut is continuing, and I am relieved that it’s not going to trample us underfoot.

Just picked up the car from the mechanics. The problem we had with the traction control turned out to be the ABS module and not the wiring as we had feared. Total cost was $875 rather than well over $2000.Yay for GM’s car designers. Not.Now if we could just get something sensible happening with the house I’d be a darned sight less stressed.

Just got a call from our mechanics to let me know that our car will be spending another two days in the auto-electrician’s workshop while they wait for the miniscule little F!#@!#$%^!#$%!!#$!#%!%ng part that they need to arrive from Holden.Still haven’t heard back about the vacant possession proposal that we made to the vendor either.Not happy right now, quite stressed… at least my work is going well. J’s work, otoh ….Sigh.

Saw this link in #opensolaris on freenode:How To Criticize Computer Scientists, or, Avoiding Ineffective Deprecation And Making Insults More Pointed.Hilarious, and just the sort of intelligent humour that I’ve missed out on lately.I’m more on the experimentalist side of the concept.I wonder which side mws, ahl, bmc, eschrock and OGB Overlord Keith would lean towards.

South Africa’s Springboks defeated Australia’s Wallabies by 3 points (22 : 19). The final nails in the coffin were two long-range drop goals from young-un Frans Steyn put paid to the valiant defence which the Wallabies spent most of the second half performing.I’m disappointed (though not surprised) that they lost, but at least they played a lot better than in just about every single match last year!`Technorati`_ tags: topic:{Technorati}[Wallabies], topic:{Technorati}[Springboks], topic:{Technorati}[Rugby Union], topic:{Technorati}[Tri-Nations], topic:{Technorati}[Newslands Stadium], topic:{Technorati}[Frans Steyn]

We’ve got ourselves a 100% offset account to handle all the mortgage repayments etc. In our internet banking environment this shows up as a cheque account. Lo and behold! Today a chequebook turned up. We haven’t had one of these in about 8 years and have really not missed the cheque facility at all.

Evidence for the prosecution: `OMGWTF Finalist #10: FerronCalc`_. I reckon Keith would agree.

It feels like I’ve spent all bloody day on the phone, with our buyer’s agent, our solicitor, Greg…. Settlement didn’t happen, the hickup which we were advised of late yesterday turned into a roadblock and now we’re waiting to see what happens. Our solicitor and the Bank did the needful from our side (all our ducks were in a row), but there are some legislative requirements which the seller has to meet before settlement can be completed.It’s been a very stressful day. Coming off one of those tossing + turning nights where neither of us slept very much made it that much worse.At least I managed to get some meeting minutes written.