I was reading an entry on slashdot about a inexpensive ZFS nas, and saw a comment that had some great links:

• ZFS w/flaky hardware (scary): blogs.sun.com/elowe/entry/zfs_saves_the_day_ta [sun.com]
• Self Healing with ZFS: http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/zfs/demos/selfheal/ [opensolaris.org]
• 100 Mirrored Filesystems in 5 minutes: http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/zfs/demos/basics/ [opensolaris.org]

And, for more than you wanted to know about ZFS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS [wikipedia.org]

Looks like ZFS is really the future of storage, sun has a great thing going. I noticed we have a spec for it: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/zfs-filesystem

Back on topic, now that I have a dual core machine, something has become a real issue for me: the global interpreter lock. Last time I researched it, it wasn’t a big deal because I only had one processor. Now I want to leverage these processors, but unfortunately I am only left with pseudo threads. I believe jython actually implements threading using java threads. Anyone have clever solutions around this besides running jython?

sh, not all people outside Germany take that stance. I personally am sick of free speech being invaded by every possible person who gets offended. The bottom line is, you can’t please everyone, and things get taken to a level where we can talk of nothing.

You guys know, if you find his blog offensive, nobody is forcing your eyes open to read it. How hard is that, really? Do you need me to program a firefox plugin, or can you exercise the due diligence yourself to not read a blog that bothers you? I am going to give you guys the benefit of the doubt, and say the latter is true.

Dual head configuration etc
I think in Gutsy Ubuntu will have the new Xrandr that should make dual head configuration a snap. One thing I notice myself doing when I install a new monitor is instantly googling for “horizontal sync” and “vertical refresh”. I am not quite sure what the plans are for the configuration applet, but (and I hope this idea is already being thought about and I am just behind on things) maybe a database of monitors and their settings (hsync, vrefresh, native resolution and dpms) would be nice to have in an “add a monitor” type database?

If anyone has any plans for this etc, or can verify there are no plans for this, drop me a line. I searched the wiki but didn’t see exactly what I was looking for, and I imagine this would be the first place we could start by listing monitor name, model, type, resolution (lcd only), vrefresh, hsync, and dpms, build up a database there and then just run a script over it and put it into a pygtk selector.

Dell D620 Laptop using Feisty Fawn 32-bit report

• Visuals: Works with 1440×900 native resolution works after installing 915resolution package
• Docking station works
• Hibernate works
• Dual head works. Dual head also works with 3d desktop using AIGLX (one caveat: the maximum texture size, which is a hardware limitation, is 2048×2048. This means the second head must be configured above or below so I can fit the screen in that. This would be the same on any 3d desktop supported operation system though, not just linux)
• Suspend works
• Wireless works after installing bcm43xx-fwcutter package
• Audio works
• Touchpad and blue knob on keyboard work
• All usb ports etc work
• Both processors work, and so does cpu scaling for battery life
• DVD / CDRW works

It is really cool to see Linux work so well out of the box on this system. My coworkers are amazed at how functional my trihead setup is (using laptop lcd, lcd hooked up to docking station, and a third workstation using synergy), and working with almost no effort this well reflects very nice for linux.

No need for ndiswrapper to get wireless working. Ubuntu should autodetect the bcm43xx module.

Get the firmware
For this card to run, we need to install the firmware. This is done using: sudo apt-get install bcm43xx-fwcutter

After which, either reload the module, reboot, or wait a bit and it should work just fine.

Windows, Linux, Apple, whoever
This is not just about Linux users. Everyone can benefit from ATI releasing information about their cards. You bought it, so why do you need to deal with bad drivers when there are a ton of people out there that can make them better?

Better drivers
Most gamers do not even use stock ati drivers, and instead use omega drivers. Why? Because they do a better job, and let us use the hardware we paid for. ATI, because of NDA’s, won’t let a developer release code that will support their r500 cards (http://airlied.livejournal.com/43520.html). How does that help anyone?

No deceptions
http://techreport.com/etc/2001q4/radeon-q3/index.x?pg=1
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2003May/bga20030527020153.htm
Sound familiar? Cheating in drivers to get better performance. Maybe these are the trade secrets that prevent open drivers? There is no way to answer this unless AMD actually lets us in on the hardware specs.

How it works
Everyone, Windows users and Linux users, need to unite and make ATI release specifications to their cards. Contact them. Make a difference.

Back against the wall
AMD is not doing so well financially. I suggest everyone take this time, and not buy any AMD products until we can actually use our video hardware. AMD needs us to survive, and in turn can really contribute to the community. Contact them. Let them know we are not buying their products until they give us hardware specs.

It’s no secret
The flagship ATI product isn’t getting good reviews. Intel is bringing the pressure. AMD has a chance to turn this around, and let us get the performance out of their cards. If AMD continues to not share it’s hardware specs, there is nothing we can do to help them. If they do release the hardware specs, they will get a bunch of free publicity, and can expect the entire enthusiast community to support them.

Put up
So here is your chance AMD. Prove that you are committed to giving consumers a great product.

“AMD will soon deliver open graphics drivers, said Henri Richard just a few minutes ago, and the audience at the opening keynote of the Red Hat Summit broke into applause and cheers. Richard, AMD’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, promised: “I’m here to commit to you that it’s going to get done.” He also promised that AMD is “going to be very proactive in changing way we interface with the Linux community.”” — From Enterprise Linux Log

I believe the above news story is just an incorrect understanding of what Henry said, but it would be nice. I think it is much more credible to trust Blizzard’s report on it: “The ATI marketing guy on stage (Henri Richard) at the Red Hat Summit just committed to fixing the ATI problems with open source. To paraphrase “most people are worried about what they will lose…IP, etc…we’re worried about what we can win.” They know it’s a problem and they are committed to fixing it.”

And the best news, either way, is that AMD *is* listening. After my Dear AMD blog post, they took the time to have a conversation with me, and seem like they sincerely want to make a top notch driver.

Apple,

Open OS X licensing to allow it to run in a virtual machine. Every other major OS allows for this. While Microsoft seems to be the whipping boy, even they have versions that allow Windows to run in a VM.

Why

• OS X already runs in VMs
• People with purchasing power will want to evaluate software before purchasing hardware for deployment
• System administrators can’t easily recommend systems which they can’t have a VM handy to use
• Nothing to lose*

* — I am sure the Apple fanboys will come along, and leave a comment like “Well they sell the system and operating system bundled to ensure quality drivers etc”, or something along those lines. That is great, but a VM will have the same drivers for anyone using it regardless of hardware, so nothing like that is an issue. The enterprise world is going Virtualized, and if you want to be a real contender, you need to start here. Apple may be happy selling iphones and ipods, but with recently movements in open standards, people are not as tied to Windows as they once were, and this gives every OS a chance to steal some market share.

Redhat is releasing “Liberation” fonts. This is a good step forward, can’t wait for phase 2. Of course, maybe Redhat is just making better horses, and should reinvent font technology (using Shadowman’s great vision).