The way I see it, the reason IBM is acting like this is because they refuse to open source their own major programs (like DB2 and AIX).
So they can't say "Sun is doing a good job at open-sourcing their own software" because then they'd be asked "so why aren't you doing the same?" - and because nobody likes to admit a competitor is doing a good job.
Not really much "meat" here. The proof is in the pudding as they say - but there's no benchmarks here. Just some minor talk about how things should compare.
I don't agree with the basic premise of the article at all - but I've also written equivalent programs in C and more modern languages and compared the performance.
How well does the film handle the science? Admirably, I thought. It is remarkably up to date, with reference to some of the very latest research. Discussion of recent changes in Antarctica and Greenland are expertly laid out. He also does a very good job in talking about the relationship between sea surface temperature and hurricane intensity. As one might expect, he uses the Katrina disaster to underscore the point that climate change may have serious impacts on society, but he doesn't highlight the connection any more than is appropriate.
Eric Steig is an isotope geochemist at the University of Washington in Seattle. His primary research interest is use of ice core records to document climate variability in the past. He also works on the geological history of ice sheets, on ice sheet dynamics, on statistical climate analysis, and on atmospheric chemistry.
I dunno if this is the best thing to post, but it does discuss some of the problems with bridges and a proposed solution. Note, at the time it was called "Rbridges" but was since renamed Trill.
ietf.org has a lot of presentations on Trill/Rbridges...
Among other things, he talks about how he tried to avoid being CEO of Sun in the first place. His first attempt at a replacement (Ed Zander) failed too.
Kinda missleading
on
Sun Grid DOS'd
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
The way the summary is written, you'd think that actual site was down or something. But the website and grid itself was fine - it was just the free example (running on separate hardware) that got busy. (I dunno how busy - I accessed it yesterday and it was fine at the time).
Xbox 360 is going nowhere fast in Japan. Worse than original Xbox actually. Latest weekly sales available (*) show just 1288 units being sold (estimated) - even the Game Cube is still selling more. Of course, there's still the rest of the world, but one of Microsoft's objectives with Xbox 360 was to succeed in Japan. Looks to be a distant dream right now.
The article talks about accessing a particular OS function (local operating system user registry) which requires MD5s. Is that really so interesting that it needs to be posted here? Seems like a lot of people would assume the title suggests all security in Java is based on MD5.
Someone modded the parent "funny" but it's actually perfectly serious.
In a Japanese game show (or similar question/answer situation), if the questioner gives you an "X" for your reply (generally accompanied by a negative sounding "bzzt"), that means you got the answer wrong. While "O" means you got it right (generally accompanied by a happy sounding "ding dong").
This shows up in manga and anime as well.
That being said, the Xbox 360 is going to suffer in Japan from a lack of compelling games, much more so than in the US.
Xbox 360 games are likely to get more detail and more complex over time, so being limited to 9GB per disk is going to become more and more of a problem.
Anyone want to bet Microsoft do an "updated" Xbox with higher capacity DVD and other tweaks...?
Meanwhile, PS3 developers get to use a whole Blu-Ray disc...
Postgres for Solaris will be included with every copy of Solaris 10, with full support available from Sun
Support for Solaris 10 and Postgres will be less expensive than support for Postgres and standard commercial Linux offerings.
Many of many customers enterprise database needs can now be served with free and open source databases.
The open source database is only one component of Sun's open source strategy that aims to provide customers with breakthrough new technologies based on open standards.
Sun will provide feature-specific optimizations, such as DTrace providers, service manifests and Solaris Containers capabilities, enabling Postgres for Solaris to take advantage of key Solaris 10 technologies.
Enhancements in Postgres for Solaris will be contributed to the PostgreSQL open source community.
Zend Technologies, Inc., the PHP company and creator of products and services supporting the development, deployment and management of PHP-based applications, today announced Marc Andreessen and Gaurav Dhillon as the newest members of the Zend board of directors.
Little "full disclosure" for everyone.
PS There's more to Java on webservers than J2EE. There's also multiple Open Source versions of J2EE.
Why exactly does this get a special mention? It's not like Sun makes lots of money (directly) off J2EE app servers - IBM WebSphere and BEA are the ones who would feel the most pain if average prices fell a lot.
In addition, cheap/free J2EE servers have been around for a while. I think JBoss got proper J2EE certification recently too...
Sun also has an Open Source J2EE server - GlassFish.
The source code to Sun's JVM is available - it comes with the JDK as standard in fact. There are some license restrictions that mean it isn't Open Source (tm) compatible though. The main restrictions AFAIK are the compatability requirements - essentially, "thou shalt not embrace and extend" (with products anyway - you can mess around if you want with it internally).
And the economic incentive for every cog in the system to keep a permanent record of every single individual item is...?
Bear in mind that even with store loyalty cards and such (which enable companies to track every product they buy at the store), a lot of the data is simply discarded already since it costs so much and is of so little benefit.
To get a useful cross-company database still requires agreed-upon standards... requiring a big virtual database, effectively.
The author points out there's some tools and run-time environment features you could use to help secure C/C++ binaries. Nothing new there. Then based on some FUD and hand-waving arguments he predicts that with all these extra bits that C can be made more secure than standard Java.
The thing is though, C is still insecure as standard, while Java is still secure by design (and has shown to be in practice). Not that there's an idiot proof general purpose programing language/environment out there - being "secure by design" doesn't make something 100% secure.
Seriously, if companies or government agencies were thinking of tracking every piece of good sold, companies that supply the computer hardware/software for all that would be deleriously happy... and the bill would be insane. Just imagine tracking every single good sold every year in just the US - that's like 1 trillion items per year. That's one insane database you're talking about.
Putting readers at store entrances isn't going to be very reliable either. For a start, RFID on clothes isn't going to work very well I think - current tags are pretty big and even if they're shrunk a lot they won't be invisible and wouldn't necessarily survive daily wear and tear. Then there's simply the technical problem of handling multiple people coming in/out of a shop at the same time. RFID vendors are having enough trouble getting RFID to work reliably on the outside of containers coming down a conveyor belt. Putting RFID on each seperate good (instead of just the containers today) is some way away, last I heard.
Besides, if you're THAT worried... you can always pay with cash. And keep all your trash inside until handing it directly over to the bin men. Oh, and don't carry a mobile phone or similarly networked device when you go out. And don't drive a car/similar since the license plate can be read and tracked.
Google will pay Sun for the privalige of having the Google bar as an optional download with Sun's JVMs. And Google will buy more Sun servers, though details of that are apparantly coming later. Google will also help spread the word on JVMs and OpenOffice.org. Sun will be buying AdWords. There certainly seems to be more coming, but how much and how significant is impossible to say currently.
OOo 1.1.5 can save OpenDocument format files (but not read).
StarOffice 8 (based on OO 2.0) has been released (non beta).
Apparantly KOffice has full support in non-beta etc, though I haven't checked.
On the issue of patents, Sun also did a clear announcement today on the issue of patents that Sun might/does have that could related to the standard (since it's based on work by OOo via Sun, naturally they do have patents): See this blog entry by Simon Phipps (Sun's Open Source Ombudsman) for more info. It's a blanket promise, irrevocable, global, not time-limited, reciprocal...
The first one is the basic announcement. The second one announces Sun making available the 1,600 patents for Solaris available to the community.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - January 25, 2005 - Sun Microsystems, Inc. [NASDAQ: SUNW] today announced the largest single release of patent innovations into the open source community by any organization to date, marking a significant shift in the way Sun positions its intellectual property portfolio. By giving open source developers free access to Sun OpenSolaris related patents under the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL), the company is fostering open innovation and establishing a leadership role in the framework of a patent commons that will be recognized across the globe.
"As the largest business contributor to the open source community, Sun has always been an ardent believer in open standards and the open source process going back to the inception of this company," said Scott McNealy, Chairman and CEO, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "The release of more than 1,600 patents associated with the Solaris OS far eclipses any other vendor's contribution. Today represents a huge milestone for Sun, for the community, for developers and for customers."
Sun's goal in offering access to these patents is to help facilitate innovation and help users get new open source products and technologies to market faster without having to obtain patent licenses from Sun. The new approach underscores Sun's belief that license agreements for software are not as significant as the company who stands behind its products. Sun is also addressing current issues and increased scrutiny in U.S. and international patent law which has increasingly granted overly broad patents on abstract processes.
In removing the emphasis on intellectual-property rights as an inhibitor to innovation, Sun is leveling the playing field in key emerging markets and helping to revive an innovation system that is straining under a record number of patent filings globally. More markets are looking for ways to monetize their knowledge economy and patents are becoming the profit center. With growing attention on locking up intellectual property in countries like China - which has seen a five-fold increase in the number of patent filings from 1991 to 2001 - Sun is ensuring that software will be available to open source developers and that progress continues unabated.
"By gaining access to these Solaris OS patents, participants in the open-source community now have a tremendous opportunity to build unique and innovative technologies for a wide range of markets," said Stacey Quandt, Senior Business Analyst, Open Source Practice Leader, Robert Frances Group. "An IP contribution of this magnitude has the potential to deliver exceptional value to developers and strengthens the overall open source community."
Addressing the patent system that is under siege, Sun's pledge of open access reduces the quagmire for developers who previously had to walk through a minefield to avoid infringement and enables them to confidently produce derivative works without fear of reprisal or patent claims.
Radically reducing risks associated with using and developing open source software, Sun is firmly standing behind our products and the worldwide development community. Armed with access to Solaris OS platform intellectual property, OpenSolaris developers and customers alike no longer need patent protection or indemnity from Sun's and other participants in the OpenSolaris community for use of Solaris-based technologies under the CDDL and OpenSolaris community process.
By releasing the OpenSolaris OS platform under the CDDL, the open source community will immediately gain access to 1,600 active Sun patents for all aspects of operating system technologies that encompass features ranging from kernel tech
Bryan Cantrill, one of the DTrace developers wrote this blog entry as a general introduction to the source code layout and also to DTrace. This post by Adam Leventhal goes into some more detail.
According to this blog (the entry dated 15:43), those in the pilot program (more than 100 developers out side of Sun) have today gotten access to the entire Solaris source base, and have already built their own version - screen shot.
Slashdot Mirror
The way I see it, the reason IBM is acting like this is because they refuse to open source their own major programs (like DB2 and AIX).
_ on_mac_os_x_ on_macos_x_at
So they can't say "Sun is doing a good job at open-sourcing their own software" because then they'd be asked "so why aren't you doing the same?" - and because nobody likes to admit a competitor is doing a good job.
So we get these mealy-mouthed attacks instead.
Given that DTrace has been integrated into MacOS X into Leopard:
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/bmc?entry=dtrace
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/mws?entry=dtrace
and that it's also being worked on for FreeBSD, isn't that proof enough?
Not really much "meat" here. The proof is in the pudding as they say - but there's no benchmarks here. Just some minor talk about how things should compare.
I don't agree with the basic premise of the article at all - but I've also written equivalent programs in C and more modern languages and compared the performance.
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2006 /06/national-academies-synthesis-report/
There's lots more in the actual article.
And this is the guy who wrote the above entry:
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/200
Radia Perlman presentation PDF:
http://www.postel.org/rbridge/infocom04-talk.pdf
I dunno if this is the best thing to post, but it does discuss some of the problems with bridges and a proposed solution. Note, at the time it was called "Rbridges" but was since renamed Trill.
ietf.org has a lot of presentations on Trill/Rbridges...
Or, if you'd like some freshly minted Scott:x it_interview/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/25/mcnealy_e
Among other things, he talks about how he tried to avoid being CEO of Sun in the first place. His first attempt at a replacement (Ed Zander) failed too.
The way the summary is written, you'd think that actual site was down or something. But the website and grid itself was fine - it was just the free example (running on separate hardware) that got busy. (I dunno how busy - I accessed it yesterday and it was fine at the time).
l
. html
I dunno, Slashdot could have reported on something more meaningful - like Sun GPL'ing their latest processor. You can download it here:
http://opensparc-t1.sunsource.net/download_hw.htm
There's a decent write-up here:
http://www.itjungle.com/breaking/bn032106-story01
Manufacturing fab not included...
Xbox 360 is going nowhere fast in Japan. Worse than original Xbox actually. Latest weekly sales available (*) show just 1288 units being sold (estimated) - even the Game Cube is still selling more. Of course, there's still the rest of the world, but one of Microsoft's objectives with Xbox 360 was to succeed in Japan. Looks to be a distant dream right now.
(*) See bottom of: http://www.m-create.com/jpn/s_ranking.html
The article talks about accessing a particular OS function (local operating system user registry) which requires MD5s. Is that really so interesting that it needs to be posted here? Seems like a lot of people would assume the title suggests all security in Java is based on MD5.
e curity/AES/AES_v1.html
It's not.
For example, if you're interested in using AES in Java, here's an article from 2003:
http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/S
Someone modded the parent "funny" but it's actually perfectly serious.
In a Japanese game show (or similar question/answer situation), if the questioner gives you an "X" for your reply (generally accompanied by a negative sounding "bzzt"), that means you got the answer wrong. While "O" means you got it right (generally accompanied by a happy sounding "ding dong").
This shows up in manga and anime as well.
That being said, the Xbox 360 is going to suffer in Japan from a lack of compelling games, much more so than in the US.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4517362.stm
Xbox 360 games are likely to get more detail and more complex over time, so being limited to 9GB per disk is going to become more and more of a problem.
Anyone want to bet Microsoft do an "updated" Xbox with higher capacity DVD and other tweaks...?
Meanwhile, PS3 developers get to use a whole Blu-Ray disc...
http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/presskits/nov30/ j sp
f lash.20051130.1.html
http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/what_you_get.
http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2005-11/sun
http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/news/111705.j
More about Postgres specifically:
http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/postgres.jsp
Man pages and a PDF slide show convering of the more interesting points:
o _ufs_performance_comparison
s trating_zfs_self_healing
s aves_the_day_ta
s _from_a_ras_point
s _that_it
a ge_zfs_from_your_browser
s _the_benchmark
_ boot
http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/zfs/docs/
(ZFS itself has just two commands btw)
Some basic UFS vs ZFS benchmarks:
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/roch?entry=zfs_t
(I guess we'll have to wait and see if ZFS can beat UFS on all benchmarks by the time it ships with Solaris proper)
Party trick - silently recovering forced data corruption:
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/timc?entry=demon
A user example of how ZFS's built-in error detection and correction can find hardware errors:
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/elowe?entry=zfs_
Some background on RAS in file-systems:
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/relling?entry=zf
ZFS vs Veritas for simplicity:
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/timf?entry=zfs_i
You can config ZFS from a browser too if you want:
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/talley?entry=man
How to trash your OSs with benchmarks:
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/bill?entry=zfs_v
Can't yet be used as the boot file-system, but it's being worked on:
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/tabriz?entry=zfs
Little "full disclosure" for everyone.
PS There's more to Java on webservers than J2EE. There's also multiple Open Source versions of J2EE.
Why exactly does this get a special mention? It's not like Sun makes lots of money (directly) off J2EE app servers - IBM WebSphere and BEA are the ones who would feel the most pain if average prices fell a lot.
In addition, cheap/free J2EE servers have been around for a while. I think JBoss got proper J2EE certification recently too...
Sun also has an Open Source J2EE server - GlassFish.
The source code to Sun's JVM is available - it comes with the JDK as standard in fact. There are some license restrictions that mean it isn't Open Source (tm) compatible though. The main restrictions AFAIK are the compatability requirements - essentially, "thou shalt not embrace and extend" (with products anyway - you can mess around if you want with it internally).
And the economic incentive for every cog in the system to keep a permanent record of every single individual item is...?
Bear in mind that even with store loyalty cards and such (which enable companies to track every product they buy at the store), a lot of the data is simply discarded already since it costs so much and is of so little benefit.
To get a useful cross-company database still requires agreed-upon standards... requiring a big virtual database, effectively.
The author points out there's some tools and run-time environment features you could use to help secure C/C++ binaries. Nothing new there. Then based on some FUD and hand-waving arguments he predicts that with all these extra bits that C can be made more secure than standard Java.
The thing is though, C is still insecure as standard, while Java is still secure by design (and has shown to be in practice). Not that there's an idiot proof general purpose programing language/environment out there - being "secure by design" doesn't make something 100% secure.
Seriously, if companies or government agencies were thinking of tracking every piece of good sold, companies that supply the computer hardware/software for all that would be deleriously happy... and the bill would be insane. Just imagine tracking every single good sold every year in just the US - that's like 1 trillion items per year. That's one insane database you're talking about.
Putting readers at store entrances isn't going to be very reliable either. For a start, RFID on clothes isn't going to work very well I think - current tags are pretty big and even if they're shrunk a lot they won't be invisible and wouldn't necessarily survive daily wear and tear. Then there's simply the technical problem of handling multiple people coming in/out of a shop at the same time. RFID vendors are having enough trouble getting RFID to work reliably on the outside of containers coming down a conveyor belt. Putting RFID on each seperate good (instead of just the containers today) is some way away, last I heard.
Besides, if you're THAT worried... you can always pay with cash. And keep all your trash inside until handing it directly over to the bin men. Oh, and don't carry a mobile phone or similarly networked device when you go out. And don't drive a car/similar since the license plate can be read and tracked.
Google will pay Sun for the privalige of having the Google bar as an optional download with Sun's JVMs. And Google will buy more Sun servers, though details of that are apparantly coming later. Google will also help spread the word on JVMs and OpenOffice.org. Sun will be buying AdWords. There certainly seems to be more coming, but how much and how significant is impossible to say currently.
Here's a good write-up of the event in Stephen O'Grady's RedMonk blog.
Jonathan Schwartz also has some comments in his latest blog entry
On the issue of patents, Sun also did a clear announcement today on the issue of patents that Sun might/does have that could related to the standard (since it's based on work by OOo via Sun, naturally they do have patents): See this blog entry by Simon Phipps (Sun's Open Source Ombudsman) for more info. It's a blanket promise, irrevocable, global, not time-limited, reciprocal...
Bryan Cantrill, one of the DTrace developers wrote this blog entry as a general introduction to the source code layout and also to DTrace. This post by Adam Leventhal goes into some more detail.
82678 lines of C were made public. No registration, no click through license before download. The OpenSolaris FAQ is pretty good btw, and there's also a roadmap page.
According to this blog (the entry dated 15:43), those in the pilot program (more than 100 developers out side of Sun) have today gotten access to the entire Solaris source base, and have already built their own version - screen shot.