Brought back from the living dead by Oracle

I've been in these beautiful buildings all week, working with Oracle on the Sun transition. Having your company bought and then sitting around waiting and not knowing what was going on was a bit like being a member of the living dead, so it's nice to be actually working again.

I just ordered a new TV as the iMac we have been using as a TV for the past four years has now finally died. Happily, not having any way to watch TV at the moment has meant we have avoided all the TV shows about Michael Jackson's death. Was odd to have the radio shows play "Thriller" as a tribute to him, that odd voiceover in the middle about "rotting corpses" just as Michael Jackson had become one, not sure if that was lapse in taste by anyone.

Still, nice to feel I'm not one of the professional living dead for a while.

Becoming dangerously obsessed with Open Source whilst the Sun sets (my first blog post written entirely in Opensource)

Well an awful lot has happened since I last posted here. Having worked full time since the age of 19, some 23 years ago, I'm currently in a period of my working life that I think I'll look back on as one of the strangest.

Whilst I was away in Scotland in April, the company I have worked for since 2001, Sun Microsystems, was bought by Oracle. Being one of a team of people who handled procurement work on behalf of Sun, and procurement by it's very nature, being an activity that requires a certain amount of forward planning by the business you are buying on behalf of, the lengthy period of nothingness that is the result of needing to get SEC approvals for the merger, have the shareholders vote, blah, bah, blah, means that there are quite a few people at Sun with very little to do.
So, it's with some degree of irony that, whilst the foremost corporate exponent of open source software makes it's way into IT heaven (if there is an IT heaven then I'm sure Sun will enjoy meeting Silicon Graphics, Apollo Computer and DEC there, "what took you so long to get here?" I'm sure they will say. It was probably all that money we made in the tech bubble that delayed us, but I digress) I am spending my downtime learning as much about open source software as I can.

It all started with me coming across an article online whilst I was searching around for news about Sun's acquisition. I wish I'd kept a copy of the article as it could rightly said to be one of the few articles I read on line that genuinely changed my life, in one way or another. The author was an IT buyer for schools in the US and he was a long time Mac advocate. But he was bemoaning the fact that there was such a large price premium to be paid for Apple laptops. The example he used was that the cheapest he could by Apple were $800 second hand Macbooks and he said he could get little Acer notebooks for around $320 and load Ubuntu Linux on them and they did the same job.

Certainly it made a ton of sense for the IT buyer for a school to go for the Acers instead of the Macbooks, but it did get me thinking. My main machine is a Macbook Pro, it cost $3300, OK these little Acer notebooks are not as highly specified as the Macbook Pro, but can Apple really justify charging 10X the cost of Acer?

Intrigued and with a lot of time on my hands, and with a few Amazon vouchers we got as wedding presents, I bought the little Acer the author of the article had mentioned.


One thing that seemed immediately strange, was that Amazon do ship Acers like the one above, running only Linux - but those machines are slightly under specified, they ship with only 8 gig of flash memory. The machine I bought was their regular X86 Windows machine with a 120 gig hard drive. Of course, the first thing I did when I got it was figure out how to partition the hard drive and load Linux. It seems very difficult to buy X86 PCs without an Windows pre-installed.


I must confess I had been put off Linux for a long time and had not used it in years. Sun, in one of it's many bursts of enthusiasm to change the world without much thought of how it would make money (which admittedly was why so many of us employees loved Sun, but also is why it is where it is today), brought out a complete Linux based desktop package. In one of our many strokes of marketing genius, we called this the "Java Desktop System". It would have been much more appropriate to call it the "Sun Linux Desktop System", but we were in love with over using the word "Java". There was actually pretty much no Java in this, it was all Linux.

In fact the overuse of the term "Java" is sighted in a really interesting piece as one of the "Top 10 reasons why Sun failed". The article was, and again this is another reason why Sun was such a great and different place to work, posted in an "official" employee blog, but was taken down by Sun in the new atmosphere of pre-Oracle caution. Some of it has survived though and it has been reprinted in a number of blogs, like Food-ological's here.

Anyway, JDS was a cool idea, very Scott McNealy, take Microsoft on, head on with a complete functioning, opensource operating system with all the basic apps you would need, and not a trace of Microsoft product used in it. Unfortunately, like a lot of ideas at Sun, it was, way ahead of it's time and didn't really work. In fact it was released far to early in the evolution of Linux. Some apps were very flaky and there were so few drivers for it, using it was a very limiting experience.

I got a Sun provided laptop around 2004 and it was a dual boot JDS / Windows machine. Having been driven crazy by Windows 98, by 2003 I was a confirmed Microsoft hater, and my main machine at home was a Powermac. I was using a very old Fujitsu Pentuim 2 Win 98 machine for Sun work, so the thought of ditching Microsoft for work too appealed to me.

However even the sight of the above screen shot makes me shiver to see JDS again. I remember the frustration of trying an average of eight times a morning to get the inbuilt Linux VPN client to connect. Worse, when traveling on business I realized that JDS was only really capable of boring old work. There was no way you could stream a movie, use iTunes, etc, etc. So most of us Sun people sheepishly started to boot to Windows again and JDS died a slow and sad death. I can't remember when we stopped providing dual boot JDS / Windows machines internally, but it was a long time ago. I managed to break the original hard drive of my JDS laptop and it came back from the Toshiba repair people in San Jose with only Windows on it. I felt rather guilty for a while, thought - oh well.

I think I had first come across Ubuntu when I was reading a Wikipedia article about the "one laptop per child" project. It seemed like Linux had done a lot of growing up since 2004, but I didn't really have time to check it out then.

Having spent the last two or so weeks using it I must say now that I am a convert. I quickly got frustrated by the size of the Acer. It is a nice little machine for traveling (the review on Amazon that really sold the machine to me was the guy who said you could use it in economy class on a plane, even when the person in front had reclined their seat, having been left with a useless Macbook Pro on a flight numerous times, this really appealed to me), but was no use for all day use. So having tried Ubuntu out on two other old X86 laptops I had lying around and got them (mostly to work), I took the plunge and, with some trepidation, installed it to dual boot on my Macbook Pro.

There always seems to be just one thing in an installation of Ubuntu which does not quite work, and of course it is the old Achilles heel of Linux - drivers. The wireless card is not working on the Macbook, but I'm working on it....

I spent a few days googling "Ubuntu eqivalent of Dreamweaver..." etc. and quickly found out, with a bit of work, I could do practically everything I already did on the Mac, on Linux instead.

The best thing about Linux I think, apart from the fact most of the software is free, is that there is this wonderful sense of community around the software. If you have you have any problem, you just need to google it, or post it to one of the 1000's of forums that exist.


My favorite discovery so far is the fact that there seems to be loads of music creation and recording packages, and even a podcast to tell you how to use it! It's like having two mates with you helping you use the software.

Anyway, I'm sure there is much to learn and discover, but I think this is time well spent, as there now seems to be a viable alternative to Windows that is now Mac (not that I'm anti Apple now, I'm just getting anti the prices they charge, it seemed to be a good time to break my Mac habit).

I even managed to put up the statement: "Kirkcaldybands.com is now maintained and hosted entirely on free open source software" at www.kirkcaldybands.com. Now that's progress!

ps I am also learning about "creative commons", so I should really acknowledge some of the sources of the images above. The "apple dollar" was made by Flickr User "Scott_Free and the pic of the digital editing software is, of course, a screen shot of "Ardour".

Sad Halloween

I can't really understand quite why Halloween is such a big deal here in the US. When we were in a Diner in San Francisco on September 30 they were already putting up the Halloween decorations. Wells Fargo (local bank) was full of fake plastic spiders and scary signs, "Fear here", etc. Actually I think that Banks are scary enough just now without the fake spiders.

The above display has been outside the house next door for about a month, but we just found out that someone has stolen all the figures, which I think is sad. I was just saying that it was nice that this area is so safe that the people that lived in the house felt able to leave the figures outside their house - sad.

I'd think the ghost made out of a sheet is still there down the road.

A short love note to the Claremont Diner

This place is great and, even better, you can walk to it from our house. The people there are always super friendly, it is cheap and the food is very nice. It has all the good things that a traditional American diner should have, without all the artificial 50's pretensions that most 'Frisco diners have.

The people who run the place must be old radio fans, and the shelves of the Diner are full of vintage radios, makes me miss my four or five old radios that are back in my storage locker in Edinburgh.



Even better, they have a model train that runs around your head when you are eating - great!

And it's next door to this areas only decent pub, the Graduate. Free popcorn, a decent jukebox and Blue Moon on draft- does it get any better than this?

Bang

I had to get into Sun's office in Menlo Park on Tuesday, I'm glad it was not Wednesday instead. This area of Interstate 880 is just down the road from where we live, a car swerved into a tanker and the tanker fell over and blew up. Amazingly, the tanker driver was able to walk away and no one was hurt.


Unfortunately the road was closed most of the day, causing traffic chaos in the area.


Of course, the press was there delivering the news.


Thankfully, due to Sun's work form home programme, I was able to sit in my little home office and let the rest of the Bay Area's workforce sit in the traffic.

Farewell old friend, but I remember our good times together

When I first arrived in the USA in May 2005, the only computing device I had at the time was a Sun owned Toshiba Win XP laptop. Having been heartbroken at needing to sell my 18 month old Powermac when I left the UK, I quickly bought two new Macs, an iMac for putting in my new living room to watch movies and listen to music (also later functioned as a recording studio) and an eMac for work.

I'd always thought of laptops previously as being machines that you used when you traveled, so I didn't think much of needing my own laptop at first. But I soon discovered that the combination of a laptop plus wireless internet (which I had for the first time when I moved to the USA) was a pretty useful combination and made the myriad of things you could do with computers all the more interesting, if you were not chained to one part of the house on a desktop. So this Sun Toshiba began to get used more and more in my new house.

Sadly though, after suffering a series of bumps and bashes, it's hard drive failed in the Summer of 2005.

Having already bought two Macs, it seemed profligate to go and buy another, but the laptop was simply now too useful to live without, so I went off to the Apple Store to buy another - this time an iBook.

This became my most used computer for around two and half years, before it got replaced with an Intel Macbook Pro in November 2007. I think, although this is a difficult statement, that this machine may have been my favorite technology purchase ever. It was super reliable, rugged and was lugged around so many places that I have lost track, but the places include - at least five trips over the Atlantic to the UK, Atlanta GA twice, India twice and so many times up and down the SF Peninsula, that I have lost count. I even forgave it's keyboard for partially failing, it was worth it for the comic value of me not realising for weeks that it's "3" key was broken, so I was busy typing out erroneous numbers as anything with a "3" in it got missed out.

However, having sat about since the Macbook Pro's purchase, and as I'm undergoing a programme just now of turning excess possessions into money, I reluctantly decided last weekend it was time for the iBook to go. It managed to sell around 12 hours after being posted to Craigslist, which I thought was pretty good, particularly as for most of those 12 hours it was the night!

But of course, being a boy, I always feel a tinge of sadness when a piece of technology I bonded with so much goes, so I began to think about how many pictures the iBook ended up in (accidentally or deliberately), and I ended up with quite a gallery of good times with the iBook!

Molly the Dog watches David Jackson with Van Der Graaf Generator in Friokheim Scotland, October 2005.

Downloading pictures whilst camping near Aviemore Scotland, July 2006. I had invested in a gadget that allowed me to re-charge the batteries whilst driving and with my spare battery and the large battery life of the iBook, I was able to enjoy my sister's DVDs of most of Series 2 of the new Doctor Who whilst under canvas. A truly bizarre experience and watching those episodes again takes me right back to Aviemore in '06.

Writing my very first blog entry in my home office in San Jose, March 1997.

Hotel room in Chennai India in July 2007.

Hotel room in Bangalore India in August 2007.

Working away on my website, www.kirkcaldybands.com in Fair Oaks Street San Francisco on Labor Day 1997.

Working from home (kind of) using the garage's WIFI whilst waiting for my car to be serviced in Sunnyvale in October 2007.

The iBook's last long trip, over to Scotland then a stop off where it was pictured here, in my hotel room in Atlanta Ga in October 2007.

So although my old friend was getting a little slow with all the software I was running on it, it never did this! Having bought a new Macbook Pro, I then persuaded my employers to buy me an identical machine for traveling purposes, but it did this and needed to go to Mac hospital. It's taking me rather longer to bond with my Macbook pro.

The DMV and the myth of American Efficiency

DMV stands for Department of Motor Vehicles. It is the place where you have to go to do your driving test, and renew your license. For some reason, your license does not last very long here and time has flown since October 2005 when I passed my driving test here, so I had to go to renew my license as it ran out on October 1st 2008. Getting my license in the first place was very difficult and frustrating as the State of California seems to be trying to set some kind of record by running the most badly run and inefficient organisation you could imagine.

I spent way more time in Oakland DMV than I'd have liked today. The only good thing is that it is walkable from my house, and is actually quite a nice building - shame I didn't get a photo of it and no one else on Flickr seems to have one.

What is on Flickr is quite funny - a tribute to the way the internet manages to publicise problems and issues with society. My own experience was frustrating again. Admittedly I realised too late that my license had already expired. I managed to make 4 different appointments on line, seems there is a way to make appointments on their website but not way to cancel them.

Having not got the paperwork for my renewal, I called to get it, but after struggling for ages with the voice activated phone system they have, I found out that it would take around two weeks for them to send the paperwork to me. Having not got the paperwork, I had to fill it in there and then and didn't know I needed to provide my social security number to renew the license. You would think that they would still have it from last time, but I had to provide it again. Having not memorised my US Social Security number (I can reel off my UK one from the top of my head as I have had it since 1984) I had to go back home and get it. Unbelievably, the DMV person I was dealing with said that she could put in my application for a new licence, but "it would just be rejected" - eh? Maybe the better advice would be to tell me how to do it properly? Or send the renewal notice to me so I wouldn't get there and have to find out what infofrmation I needed to provide there and then.


So having no more appointments left that day, I had to go back and get the Social number and then wait around for around an hour. The second DMV lady I spoke to was even worse, now telling me I needed to provide her with "birth documentation" (whatever that means) as my renewal notice went to my old address. How this happened when I changed my address on their website when I first moved here I have no idea. I had not clue what birth documentation meant, I thought she meant birth certificate - one of the hallmarks of dealing with the State of California is that none of their people seem trained or skilled in communication. It actually seemed to mean also my passport and as I had my green card with me I was out of jail this time.

I then had to join yet another queue and have my photo taken again, seems they can't just re-use the photo from 2005. Having been initially told to join the wrong queue (there are many queues in the DMV) I wasted more time trying to get this done, only to find that I had to sit a 10 question driving theory test to renew the license - this I didn't expect!


I managed to pass this with only 2 questions wrong, which is pretty good for someone who has only used a tank and a half of fuel since July, and one of the ones I got wrong I had managed to change from the right to the wrong answer as I had second thoughts about it.

So, whilst all striving to keep hold of our jobs in a terrible economy, the State of California managed to burn up my entire afternoon by, not sending the renewal notice to the right address, even though I gave them the right address 5 months ago, not being able to send out the renewal paperwork in less than ten working days, not explaining what personal information was needed up front to renew a license, not the explaining that yet more personal information may later be required and having a generally slow, inefficient and badly run system.


In Europe most people think the USA is a model of efficiency. The problem here seems to be that there is so much resistance to public spending in the US (listen to the presidential debates and it seems that no one will ever be able to make a positive case for taxation), that all public services seem to be run as cheap as possible. However, having hired the people that work there at the lowest pay they can get away with, the net result is a system that wastes everyones time. Wouldn't it be a bit of an investment in US efficiency to make this place better run, so ordinary workers like me wouldn't waste an entire afternoon trying to renew a license? Wouldn't a bit more money spent here benefit the whole economy as the DMV could stop wasting so much of everyone's time? Seems logical to me, it must be easier to renew a driving license in Romania.


So having got my new license now, and the picture on it is a classic as I was so pissed off when it was taken, I have found out this new one does not last three years like the old, it only lasts until my 43rd birthday in December of next year. Do I really have to go through all this again in 2009? Come on California, get your act together.