Are you going to exercise your right to vote?

We’re in the middle of the election period for the OpenSolaris Governing Board, and as of now, 63 core contributors have bothered to vote.`Stephen Hahn`_ has sent polite emails, and Gman has begged us all to think of the kittens.If you are eligible to vote in this poll, please get your ssh session to poll.opensolaris.org going and vote. This poll matters. Really matters.Don’t disenfranchise yourself by failing to vote.`Technorati`_ tags: topic:{Technorati}[OpenSolaris], topic:{Technorati}[OpenSolaris Governing Board], topic:{Technorati}[OGB], topic:{Technorati}[Vote], topic:{Technorati}[Enfranchise]




Experimenting with Macro – is this it?

We’re really lucky in our current abode to not only have a beautiful Frangipani tree, but to also have some Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia) flowers in the front yard. From time to time I wander out onto the porch and muck around with taking photos of them, working on exposure and aperture settings.I like to think that I’ve collected some macro shots in my Training Photos album: +----------------+ | Frangipane (1) | +================+ | .. image:: http://www.jmcpdotcom.com/gallery2/main.php/v/jmcp/Photo_Training/20070112_161410__MG_2221.jpg.html


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+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Frangipane (2) |
+----------------+

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Frangipane (2) |

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+----------------+
|

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.. image:: http://www.jmcpdotcom.com/gallery2/main.php/v/jmcp/Photo_Training/20070317_154123__MG_3064.jpg.html

 |

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+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Bird of Paradise (1) |
+----------------------+

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Bird of Paradise (1) |

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+----------------------+
|

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.. image:: http://www.jmcpdotcom.com/gallery2/main.php/v/jmcp/Photo_Training/20070316_174728__MG_2987_c.jpg.html

 |

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+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Bird of Paradise (2) |
+----------------------+

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+----------------------+
|

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.. image:: http://www.jmcpdotcom.com/gallery2/main.php/v/jmcp/Photo_Training/20070317_153710__MG_3052.jpg.html

 |

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What do you think? Are these photos truly macro or am I misunderstanding the definition? If you don’t think I’m getting the concept, please leave a comment so I can be enlightened.While I’m thinking about it, I discovered this evening that ImageMagick (a tool which I’ve been using for an awfully long time) can convert Adobe Photoshop PSD files directly to JPEGs. I’m using Photoshop because it has integrated support for the Canon RAW format and while The Gimp can make use of the DC-Raw utility…. it just doesn’t feel quite as seamless and easy to use. So, Adobe – if you’re listening to your customers – I would happily pay you the full retail price for Photoshop Creative Suite (2, 3 or later) if I could have it run natively on Solaris/x64. I doubt that I am the only person who would front up with the dough either.`Technorati`_ tags: topic:{Technorati}[Macro Photography], topic:{Technorati}[Canon], topic:{Technorati}[EOS 400D], topic:{Technorati}[Frangipani], topic:{Technorati}[Strelitzia]




Requirements – they’re not always expressed well

As part of my BEng(CSE) degree @ UTS, I’m doing some formal study in software engineering. I know, I know … it’s been a long time coming. At least there’s no coding required for this subject, so I can concentrate on that for work instead .. image:: /images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

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:-)

We got our first assignment late last week and have to translate a set of customer requirements into a Requirements Specification document. Which is all well and good except that some of them aren’t really expressed very well. I’m actually really glad to be doing this subject now, having spent time as a sysadmin, a troubleshooter, a systems architect and a kernel developer, because I can bring all those years of experience to bear in looking at the questions and assessing their suitability for inclusion in a formal requirements document.I do have to be careful that I don’t drown out my other group members with “I’ve seen that fail before, let’s not try it now” or similarly negative and smothering comments. It’s not just me doing this assignment and I do want to maximise the result we get for it. If I take over, though, the other guys won’t learn as much as they probably should. It’s going to be an interesting semester.







I’m running for OpenSolaris Governing Board (OGB) membership

I have accepted Josh’s nomination for the OpenSolaris Governing Board elections.I’m following GMan’s well-thought out format to give you a better idea of who I am and what I would like to do if elected to the OGB: +-------+---------------------------+ | Name: | James C. McPherson (jmcp) | +=======+===========================+ | Affiliation: | Sun Microsystems (7 years+) | +--------------+-----------------------------+ | Email: | James.McPherson@Sun.COM | +--------+-------------------------+ | | jmcp@Sun.COM | +--+--------------+ | | James.C.McPherson@gmail.com | +--+-----------------------------+ | IMnick: | jmcp@irc.freenode.net | +---------+-----------------------+ | Blog: | `http://www.jmcpdotcom.com/blog`_ | +-------+-------------------------------------+

Docutils System Messages

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NFSMAPID_DOMAIN must be set, otherwise badness ensues

Ok, so here is another entry in the “what did you forget to do this time?” ledger.When I setup my crossbow zone yesterday, I forgot one teensy bit of config information that cost me most of last night and … while futzing around trying to fix it … caused http://www.jmcpdotcom.com to go offline.The config option, of course, is to set NFSMAPID_DOMAIN to an actual domain name in /etc/default/nfs. Just setting a value in /etc/defaultdomain or running /usr/bin/domainname won’t actually suffice.Once I’d set a value in my crossbow and webserver domains to match my global zone, and restarted the various nfs client services, everything was good again.Along the way, though, I discovered sharemgr(1M) … who on earth let the sharemgr share ... syntax through PSARC?`Technorati`_ tags: topic:{Technorati}[NFS v4] topic:{Technorati}[OpenSolaris] topic:{Technorati}[Solaris] topic:{Technorati}[crossbow] topic:{Technorati}[NFSMAPID_DOMAIN] topic:{Technorati}[/etc/default/nfs] topic:{Technorati}[defaultdomain]




Gee that was easy!

I LU’d to snv_57 last week, mainly because I wanted to get my hands dirty with the Crossbow zone exclusive-IP feature. Oh, and I also wanted to make use of the input methods and Simplified Chinese locale — most of my team are based in Beijing, so it’s really nice to be able to see characters rather than those damned awful boxes I’ve complained about^W^W mentioned before.Right! So I wandered over to the Crossbow pages, found the Docs page and then Erik Nordmark’s SVOSUG presentation which gave me all the details I needed:

1. zoneadm -z knockout create
2. set ip-type=exclusive
3. add net
4. set physical=nge1
5. end
6. {add my usual inherited pkg dirs}
7. commit
8. zoneadm -z knockout install
9. cat > /zones/knockout/root/etc/sysidcfg
network_interface=nge1
{ hostname=knockout
default_route=192.168.1.1
ip_address=192.168.1.35
netmask=255.255.255.0
protocol_ipv6=no
}
10. zoneadm -z knockout boot

I don’t think it could be any simpler. Now to add my usual customisations, copy a hunk of data across from the laptop and a certain package that Dan McDonald is responsible for and I’ll be able to turn off my laptop for a while.







How annoying … cam and crank angle sensors fritzed

Back in 2000 we acquired a new Holden Vectra JS-II (automatic) via a novated lease. All has been fine with it until late last year when we noticed that there was an issue with the traction control coming on at inconvenient times, and one day (when the rain was, of course, bucketing down) it just refused to start at all. The NRMA bloke reckoned it was the alternator since there was absolutely no charge in the battery, and when he was jump starting the car there was a completely insufficient trickle charge heading to the battery.So … $560 for a reconditioned alternator and we figured we’d be ok.Not so.The traction control has still been coming on randomly (the workaround, incidentally, is to take the shift out of Drive and into 3rd before putting it back in drive), so I booked it in with our mechanics to get it looked at for yesterday.Last Friday I was coming back from the office and the engine management system warning light came on and stayed on. There’s a big scary warning message in the car’s handbook about this, so I didn’t drive it again until yesterday morning when I took it to the mechanic. The damn thing stalled on me and had a bit of a rough idle.It turns out that the cam and crank angle sensors are r00ted. The mechanics had to get a specialist from Holden involved to determine what the computer was telling them, since all the published materials they had said that the particular combination of information from the computer system was bogus.Guess where those sensors are inside the engine bay? Yes, you in the back row?That’s right, behind the timing belt! Ouch!In order to fix this properly, the mechanics are going to replace the timing belt, the timing belt tensioners and both sensors… and then they’re going to get a specialist out from Holden to come and re-certify the computer system innards.Expected cost starts at around AUD1200 … which is a most unwanted Spring Festival present.This morning I spent a few minutes using Google to see whether this has happened to others and of course, it has. The “IAC Valve” or Idle Air Control Valve also shows up as being a problem. Fortunately for me and J, our mechanics are not only on the ball, they’re thorough and reliable as well. So when I rang up to tell them what I’d found they told me that they’d done their homework too and had all of this info in hand to address.Could take a few days though, so it’ll be taxis if we need to get anywhere by car. .. image:: /images/smilies/icon_sad.gif

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:-(