that’s whacked

my beagles are so lazy…

Thursday, Aug 31. 2006  –  Category: OpenSolaris

….but at least they’re starting to be friends and cozy up together… even if it is just napping butt to butt

multi-proto…

Thursday, Aug 31. 2006  –  Category: OpenSolaris

/me pines for danek’s multi-proto work…

so close…

Event:            putback-to
Parent workspace: /ws/onnv-gate
                  (elpaso:/ws/onnv-gate)
Child workspace:  /space/builds/dduvall/6455242
                  (elpaso:/space/builds/dduvall/6455242)
User:             dduvall

Comment: 6455242 nightly should be able to preserve all proto areas from a single build. 6460124 nightly -X doesn't properly copy the IHV proto area 6463720 more realmode build cleanup

Files: update: usr/src/pkgdefs/SUNWpcmci/prototype_com update: usr/src/tools/env/developer.sh update: usr/src/tools/env/gatekeeper.sh update: usr/src/tools/protocmp/protodir.c update: usr/src/tools/scripts/bldenv.sh update: usr/src/tools/scripts/makebfu.sh update: usr/src/tools/scripts/nightly.1 update: usr/src/tools/scripts/nightly.sh

Examined files: 8

Contents Summary: 8 update

and yet so far…

Event:            putback-to
Parent workspace: /ws/onnv-gate
                  (elpaso:/ws/onnv-gate)
Child workspace:  /space/builds/dduvall/backout-6455242
                  (elpaso:/space/builds/dduvall/backout-6455242)
User:             dduvall

Comment: backout 6455242/6460124/6463720/6455242: needs more work

Files: update: usr/src/pkgdefs/SUNWpcmci/prototype_com update: usr/src/tools/env/developer.sh update: usr/src/tools/env/gatekeeper.sh update: usr/src/tools/protocmp/protodir.c update: usr/src/tools/scripts/bldenv.sh update: usr/src/tools/scripts/checkpaths.sh update: usr/src/tools/scripts/makebfu.sh update: usr/src/tools/scripts/nightly.1 update: usr/src/tools/scripts/nightly.sh

Examined files: 9

Contents Summary: 9 update

Tiananmen Square Massacre – Google Video

Thursday, Aug 31. 2006  –  Category: Movies&TV

Tiananmen Square Massacre – Google Video

the music may be a little sensationalist – but it makes for a powerful video.

where do i want to go today?

Friday, Aug 25. 2006  –  Category: Musings, OpenSolaris

lame spin on microsoft’s slogan… and i’m sure it’s never been done before.

anyway. it’s that time of year where focals and goals assessment, etc. etc. have come around; so i’ve spent a lot of time thinking about where i want to go today, and defining my goals for my next year at Sun.

where do i want to go today naturally causes me to wonder where do i want to be a year from now, 5 years from now, and 10 years from now. okay, i’m young. i should probably be wondering where i want to be 20 years from now.

my first thought is that i want to be doing something influential… and no, accidentally taking down the opensolaris.org web server, or screwing up build deliveries doesn’t count. i think at some point i’d like to get back to doing work with distributed and parallel systems – but i’m still feeling a wee bit burned out from my grad school/thesis days.

in the meantime, i’ve started working with the kernel performance group, specifically jonathan, eric, and sasha. if they sound familiar, it’s because i used to be their test guy. i figure i learned a lot with them, they’re nice guys – and hey, they bring chocolate to their meetings. karyn has kindly allowed me to have some time to work with them and hone my kernel development skills… so i hope to start blogging some more on the cool project work i’ve started on now.

so i’ve solved the short-term problem of what do i want to do today, and at least for the next couple of months: i want to be a better kernel hacker. technical skills never hurt anybody, neh?

but where do i want to be long-term? one good thing about being at Sun and being surrounded by brilliant people is that i’ve no shortage of people to look up to. certainly my collection of mentors, and tech leads i’ve come to know personally have been great. the question is… how do i get from here to there… or there… or there?

i’ve turned down a couple of job opportunities recently… and the people who have asked me why inevitably turn their eyes up when i say i love my job. but i challenge you to show me a job where i can sharpen my kernel hacking skills, while giving me a chance to work in the open source community. i love the fact that i get to evangelise, talk to people, interact with the community, and “be outside.”

i think that’s what appeals to me about someone like simon. he gets to set open source policy, and influence the direction of a massive behemoth while guiding it through this crazy open-source ecosphere. the fact that i love to travel doesn’t hurt either. would i love to have simon’s job? you bet. would i do it nearly as well? who knows. i would have to stop replying to flame-bait on opensolaris-discuss though. (yeah, you know what i’m talking about).

on the more technical side, i look at my tech lead, and that’s certainly something i aspire to do as well. it’s again, the ability to influence at a high level, a huge and challenging project while fighting the nay-sayers both inside and outside.

who knows. i notice my old mentor (old as in past tense, not old inferring anything about his age) posted something interesting about distributed systems work at Amazon. hrm…my old area of interest… my old mentor… (one of the most influential people in my career so far, i might add). intriguing.

so yes. long rambling blog. but that’s what happens when i finally get an hour of downtime to relax and catch up some thoughts that have been flying through my head for the past few weeks.

if you just skipped straight to end and didn’t read anything before this. well, in summary: i want simon, stephen, or geoff’s jobs. but don’t worry guys. it’s a long way off.

champs. league draw

Thursday, Aug 24. 2006  –  Category: Football

seriously, what are the odds that Chelsea would draw Barca for the 3rd year in a row. Liverpool and Arsenal got good draws. ManU got what should be a fun draw… Celtic & Benfica (they being the group that dumped us out last year).

on a random note, did you know Clint Dempsey has served 3 suspensions this year in MLS already? wow. somebody get that guy to the EPL already

char siu is officially ours

Sunday, Aug 20. 2006  –  Category: OpenSolaris

we’ve decided. he’s a keeper.

he kept peeing in one spot, so i moved his bed over that spot, sat him down, had a heart to heart talk and told him that i wouldn’t clean up his pee if he peed on his bed, and that it’d only be stinking his sleeping-spot up. i think he listened. he hasn’t peed in the house since.

the separation anxiety is still there… we’ve had some minor success with peanut butter and a kong toy – but nothing solid yet.

char siu

Monday, Aug 7. 2006  –  Category: Pets

one week into the “sleepover” and for the most part Char Siu is doing pretty well. he and Isis seem to have become friends. he’s not as affectionate as Isis, but he definitely seems to have bonded to Wendy and I.

two problems though: 1) the separation anxiety is bad. he HOWLS whenever we leave him at home. the rescue group and i both thought he would be okay with Isis at home with him, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. he definitely wants human contact. i’ve been trying to train him off it, but it’s been hard so far.

2) he pees. inside the house. often. supposedly he is housetrained, and for the most part he seems to do okay. but for some reason, he pees every now and then. and it wouldn’t be so bad if it were just on the carpet… but he always seems to go for our white (okay, now yellow) rice paper lamp. sigh.

anyway, we’ve just passed the halfway point in the two-week sleepover and Wendy and I will have to make the decision as to whether or not to keep him. it’s a pretty tough one. we love him already, he’s a great furball of fun and energy, and we can tell he’s enjoying his stay with us. and we’re definitely enjoying having two beagles around. giving him back to the rescue group would only compound his separation anxiety issues even more…

i’m 75% sure we’re going to keep him….

…if only because last night he decided his bed was too far away from me and he came over to my side of the bed, dragged my shorts over, and curled up on my shorts and promptly fell asleep.

ok go!

Monday, Aug 7. 2006  –  Category: Linkage, Movies&TV

thanks to timf for finding this.

ok go on treadmills

like tim, this totally brightened my day. i’m so going to work out like this from now on

weekend photos

Friday, Aug 4. 2006  –  Category: Food, Pets

i just uploaded some photos from this past weekend… namely wendy’s 30th birthday party, and photos of char siu

he’s a great beagle

a tough day at work today…

Thursday, Aug 3. 2006  –  Category: OpenSolaris, Sun

for anyone not following the news and blogs, today was a big RIF day at SUNW. thankfully, nobody immediately under my director was affected (OpenSolaris and JDS are still around!). i’ll still be your ON delivery monkey for now.

sadly, many other groups and many good people did not escape unscathed.

just wanted to wish everyone who got caught up in the RIF everyone good luck, and ‘bon chance’. i can’t imagine what it’s like to be RIF’d, and i’m truly sorry to see so many good people go. i realise and understand the business decisions behind it, but it’s still painful.

like alcohol on a wound, it’s good in the long run – but boy does it hurt in the “right here, right now”.

anyway, i’m rambling. to the people i had the good fortune to know, and to the many many more i never had the pleasure of working with: thanks for everything you’ve done for Sun.

cheers, steve