Cool Quote

Every great work, every great accomplishment, has been brought into manifestation through holding to the vision, and often just before the big achievement, comes apparent failure and discouragement.

Sun's technologies: New perceptions/trends

Some good writeups on the changing perceptions & positioning of Sun's technologies.

http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/archives/001247.html

http://www.redmonk.com/sogrady/archives/001251.html

Mining at Kudremukh:Why the SC should stand firm

It was quite disheartening to see the Karnataka Bar Association appeal to the SC to reconsider its decision on the KIOCL in Kudremukh. The landmark judgment of the SC that asked the KIOCL to close operations - based on the evidence of immense environmental damage caused to Kudremukh’s pristine rainforests by KIOCL’s operations - promises to be an example in eco conservation. Yes, I can only imagine the plight of the 20,000 individuals who have been displaced as a result. But remember, it’s the KIOCL’s responsibility to find them a suitable alternative. After all, it was the most profitable government owned mining undertaking in the country. It’s time for the cash-rich government to now find alternative employment for its employees. I hope the CM Mr.Dharam Singh succeeds in his endeavor. But, at no cost should the mines be allowed to reopen and cause any further damage to the environment. Just to refresh one’s memory:
1) The Kudremukh range is home to three rivers – Bhadra being one of them.

2) The reclusive Lion tailed macaque, whose numbers are fast dwindling, is found primarily in the Bhagavathi range of Kudremukh.
3) The KIOCL, since its inception has damaged hectares of virgin rainforests of this range and believes that creating rose gardens or eucalyptus groves amounts to “reforestation”.
4) Tons of iron ore sludge was leaked into the forests due to the company’s oversight.
5) All rivers starting at Kudremukh are now witnessing increased levels of contamination in various forms. – Check this PDF.

Speaking of point 2 above, one might ask, “Why does preserving any animal species assume such importance? We just need enough green cover, right?” – Wrong.

There is such a thing as ecological balance, wherein the flora and fauna are equally important to each other’s (symbiotic) existence. Take out one from this feedback loop and the other vanishes. And if the forests vanish, so do the rains (remember, the ocean currents are not the only ones that bring us rainfall) and the rivers that are fed by them. With that ends our source of water, energy and the climate control that the Western Ghats are - which brings me to the point of our flawed understanding of “Human rights”: as much as the 20,000 in Kudremukh have a right to 2 square meals a day, future generations have a right to clean air, water and food – which only a balanced ecosystem can guarantee us for centuries to come (I’m just quoting from articles (this and this) by Bittu Sahgal – and he should know?). So, it’s imperative that we do our bit (for our own good) to preserve what is a basic necessity for a flourishing civilization (and economy). When you see a greedy businessman plotting to wipe out our future in the name of “development”, stand up in whatever way you can against such a force. Express your opinion through the media that matter, lend your voice to the few frail voices that now dare to oppose the “development” cartel and lend your spare time for a worthy cause. Don’t expect someone to lead you by the finger and answer questions for you like “Where do I start?”

If we have the will to stand up & be counted, intend to lend a meaning to our self-centered lives, and amount to something, we will find the means to achieve a worthy goal. Merely saying, "I love nature" or "I'm an avid trekker" amounts to zilch. What have you given back to the forests that have played host to yourinnumerable treks all these years? So, start now, write about it in your blog, write to people who you think can have a significant influence on decisions in future, persuade people, contribute through your time (or money - one can subacribe to magazines like sanctuary wherein the subscription fee will be used for the field work of these organizations).

(Meanwhile, our cities choke on their own excesses… that’s another story, another blog)

AIX > Solaris? ROFL!

This one makes for a real good holiday time joke -

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Murphy/?p=491∂=rss&tag=feed&subj=zdblog

Technorati tags: Sun, Solaris, IBM
AIX
HP

Pet peeves at work

Some things I have no patience for in a work environment (more relevant to the indian scenario):

Type 1]"I'm taking a break => so must you"

This is the number one kind of pest in the Indian corporate setup that you can come across. People who keep peering at their screens for hours at end, finally decide they need a break. So, what do they do? Barge into someone else' cubicle, nose around, pass comments in general, play the fool and expect the other person to reciprocate. Remember, that person has no work except to entertain this moron.

Type 2] "What's he doing to get an edge over me?"

This kind of a pest has NO RESPECT WHATSOEVER FOR ANYONE'S PRIVACY. Has to keep peeping into everyone's screen, finding out what great tech article the other guy is reading (& getting an edge over this moron?Who cares? ) They constantly have this insecurity that they're losing the edge & the other guy is going one up over this loser. So, whether you're writing code ("it's our product's code that he's keying in - i have a right to see it too"), reading an article ("this guy refuses to waste time on orkut like i do. Doesn't he have a life?") or composing a mail("ah, finally"), he must look into your screen. My response is generally one of these:

1)That's none of your business sucker.
2)You call yourself a professional?
3)"Etiquette" - ever heard of it?
4)"Self respect" - not heard of this either?
5)I'll tell you when you're allowed to play sherlock & look over my shoulder.
6)Do your own thing
7)Spending a year in the industry doesn't make you "experienced". It takes mental maturity to understand how a professional work environment functions. This isn't your college. Time to grow up/
8)(And if push comes to shove..) Go fly a kite.

Type 3] Hypocrisy

The same pest who has admirable qualities 1] & 2] also talks of how the Indian IT industry "isnt't professional enough compared to that in the US of A " - look who's talking.

The bottom line -you need to mature dear, and mature fast. Poke your nose into other' biz only when you're asked to. Don't impose your schedule, your mood & your state of mind on others. Do your own thing. If your feeling bored, go to the rooftop,get some fresh air or even better, fly away from there. But learn to be professional, for christ sakes. This isn't your damn college!! Get the message, yes?

The Niagara thunders down in full force

The enormity of Niagara's processing capability & it's power efficiency are simply overwhelming every other system in it's class built to date. The amount of buzz it's deservingly generated is quite amazing, to say the least. And HP, as usual, has shown it's class by resorting to FUD. Alan Hargreaves has responded fittingly. Some more information on the niagara boxes & the records that they've been setting. btw, Sun's open sourcing the design & validation code for the UltraSparc T1 (Niagara). More links:

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1896866,00.asp

http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/dagastine?entry=ultrasparc_t1_screams_running_java

http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/jclingan?entry=simply_refreshing

Technorati tags: Sun, Sparc, Ultrasparc
Niagara
HP

Capturing Screenshots in GNOME on Solaris

Ever tried capturing a screen shot of a menu in an UI application on GNOME? Notice how the menu gets de-selected (or loses focus & disappears) as soon as you hit the print-screen button. The way to get around this is to use the gnome-panel-screenshot command at the console with the --delay= option. This switch makes the screen capture occur automatically after the specified delay, by which time you can "prepare" your application UI for the screen shot.

Technorati tags: Solaris, GNOME, JDS

22 Dell Boxes = 2 Galaxies

That's right. A former dell shop just replaced 22 of it's servers with 2 four core galaxy boxes.

Technorati tags: Sun, Galaxy,Dell

Created a new technorati profile

This is my profile. Go fetch!

"Titanic" Itanium

Itanium's "titanic" characteristic - of going down in cold waters - is becoming more obvious by the day.
Sun responds .

Technorati tags: Sun, Itanium,HP

netbeans 5.0:What's cooking?

Charles ditzel writes about some cool new additions to netbeans 5.0

Fleeing temptation..

"Those who flee temptation generally leave a forwarding address."
- Lane Olinghouse

Brilliant quote, isn't it? :-)

Meeting Geoff Arnold

This is why i just love working at Sun. If you swear by distributed computing, could you ask for anything more than a meeting with one of the Jini Engineers? That's right, I got to meet Geoff Arnold. I mustered enough courage to ask him about decentralized discovery in Jini and querying/aggregating partial results in a distributed computing system (like project neuromancer). He was in Bangalore to talk the JBI folks, and set aside some time for a talk on "the future of distributed computing". Need i say that it was nothing short of enlightening and inspiring? And does someone have to tell me that I'm working at exactly the right place? :-)

Correction: I had previously (erroneously) stated that Geoff Arnold was one of the *original* Jini team members. (See the comments.)
Sorry about the gaffe, Geoff. :-)

Update: Geoff Arnold has since moved to Amazon

Cool quotes

Found these on my (custom) google home page -

The only thing that sustains one through life is the consciousness of the immense inferiority of everybody else, and this is a feeling that I have always cultivated.
- Oscar Wilde

My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.
- Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.

Preserving health by too severe a rule is a worrisome malady.
- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

The best car safety device is a rear-view mirror with a cop in it.
- Dudley Moore

Town hall with John Fowler

Just came back from a town meeting with John Fowler at the cafeteria. Man, does he speak fast. He probably provides a stiff competition to Bryan Cantrill in speed of speech. And he really is earning is salary - every cent of it. The fact that he's an Engineer-turned-manager showed up on several occasions when he answered technical questions in the Q&A with great ease (including a rebuttal to HP's claims on cache pollution in the Niagara). He must've been a good engineer. But is he a good orator ! He had the audience in a trance during the whole session, treating us to delightful technical tidbits, interesting stats, marketing theories and an amusing old story on how he first me Andy Bechtolsheim.
Sun is in good hands - you can be sure of that.

The Sun cares for Planet Earth

Some environment friendly initiatives by Sun highlighted here

Java trivia

Brilliant piece of Java trivia
I could figure out the answer (wink wink). Could you?

Feel the power (outage) of Dell

Good analysis of power consumption by Dell machines.

A verse very relevant to me

Found the complete text of Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" here:

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Linux trademarked

I hope this isn't a rumour.
Cry, my dear zealots on slashdot :-)