Well *That* Didn't Work Out So Well

You may recall my recent blog post about Windows 7 being surprisingly usable.

Well, I have to recant here.

I used Windows 7 for about a week and half. While it *worked*, it was a pleasure to use. But after three BSODs in just that week and half, I have abandoned it. I'm now running Ubuntu. (Why not OpenSolaris? Because I need the ability to host VMware and Skype, and I can't do that natively on OpenSolaris -- yet.)

Sure, I could have called up support -- but Microsoft support is provided by my computer manufacturer, and I didn't feel like spending 3 hours on the phone dealing with tech support while they tried to triage my problem. In the end, it was simply faster and easier for me to reinstall with Linux, even allowing for the time it took to download the media.

Sure, the problem might have been my virtualization software, or maybe it was a shoddy audio driver, or maybe it was brokenness in my graphics driver, or maybe it was the 3rd party antivirus software (which begs the question-- why doesn't Microsoft ship with builtin malware protection -- you'd think given all the heat that they've taken over this that they would have figured out that they *need* a solution here that doesn't involve 3rd parties...)

The "automatic solution finder" that Windows 7 ships was completely unhelpful, it didn't find any links. Google was not much help either... with everything to buggy hardware, drivers, and even overtemp problems being cited as root causes.

I'm sure that tech support would have had me running around in circles trying to solve the IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL blue screen. (I'm guessing, from my kernel expertise, that this is probably an assertion fault somewhere that an IRQ level is set unexpectedly high or low -- exactly the kind of problem I know how to fix in Solaris.) Probably plugging and unplugging hardware, unloading and reinstalling drivers and maybe other software, and generally burning an unmentionable amount of my precious time. Especially given that the hardware tech support I'd have been routed to was unlikely to have any real software clue (which is where I think this problem was most likely located.)

Again, faster and simpler to just dump the busted OS, and load something else.

And, with Linux (or any other FOSS), I have at least a fighting chance of trying to debug the problem myself. Sure, my kernel-fu is substantially higher than average joe home user, so my leanings are more towards something I can troubleshoot myself. But, I will say this, so far I've not had a panic ("oops" in Linux parlance) yet in the past four days that I've been running Ubuntu LTS 10.04 (even though I'm running the "not recommended for general desktop use" 64-bit edition.)

Microsoft, if you see this post, I hope you'll learn something from this.

Last Day

So, today's my last day as a Sun^WOracle employee.

While I'm excited to be starting at Nexenta, I want to reiterate what I've already said, which is that I've really enjoyed working with the great folks at S'noracle, and that they made this decision to leave quite difficult. Its been quite a ride over the years, and its been fun and exciting. Thanks everyone!

Of course, my old e-mail address(es) at Oracle won't reach me after about noon today.

To reach me for matters pertaining to OpenSolaris, gdamore@opensolaris.org will continue to work. For matters pertaining to my new employer, Nexenta, you can use garrett@nexenta.com. My personal e-mail address of garrett@damore.org remains unchanged. Now please standby while I go reinforce the spam filters...

New Computer

As part of the process of changing employers, I needed to get a new computer for the new job (and return the old desktop to Oracle.)

I wound up picking this one... I didn't seem to be able to build it any cheaper (as of the date of this post) myself. And guess what... someone goofed! Instead of the 3 GHz Core i7 950, it came with a 3.2 GHz Core i7 960. Bonus! (Other goofs relative to the ad: the system has 9 GB -- but that's spelled out in the details, comes with a black aluminum chassis, and ships with a cheap logitech keyboard.)

I'm still using the stock load of Windows 7, and I'm both surprised (and maybe a bit embarrassed) to admit that the Windows environment (especially when replacing IE with Chrome) is actually quite nice -- fast and usable. Maybe running this environment (and running OpenSolaris in a VM) might not be so bad after all! (Ok, I'll go find some soap to wash my mouth out for blaspheming....) If I do this, besides being able to use Skype for work, I'll be able to use my Phoenix RC flight simulator without having to resort to borrowing the wife's computer...

Engines arrived for Squat yesterday

The Squat is a 4" diameter short high power rocket with a 54mm engine mount. My engines, 54mm hardware (including the higher end Aeropack retainer), and 38 mm adapter arrived from What's Up Hobbies yesterday. Timothy's going to fly it at the LDRS mass launch on a G67 redline -- this will be his first reloadable engine. Later that day I'll fly it on an I140 skidmark, which represents both my first 54mm engine, and my first Caeseroni engine.

Timothy and I put the rocket together last night; I must say, the higher end metal hardware and thicker fins on this rocket are definitely a step up even from the LOC IV I flew previously on my Level 1 flight (go to about 1:30 in the video link -- I haven't figured out how to edit the video file yet).

I also received the propellant for the J350W, which I'll be flying in my LOC IV as part of my Level 2 certification attempt. OpenRocket says the LOC IV will be approaching 700 mph with this particular engine! Guess I will be glassing the fins on it to help strengthen them for transonic speeds. (I'm open to alternative suggestions from the experts, as well.)

LDRS is going to be fun, indeed!

Greener pastures

I've recently made a major decision -- I'll be leaving Oracle. My last day as an Oracle employee will be on May 21, 2010. Leaving such a great group of people at Sun will be difficult indeed.

However, I hope to be able to continue as a significant contributor to the OpenSolaris community, as I'll be joining the team at Nexenta. At Nexenta, my responsibility will be to lead a group of engineers working on the OpenSolaris kernel. As such, I'm excited that I'll be able to continue to work on finest operating system kernel on the planet, and I look forward to further collaboration with some of the best software engineers on the planet.

My first day at Nexenta will be on May 24, 2010.

Going up to SF bay area

Its been a while since I've been to the Bay Area. I'm going up for two days, which is a shade longer than I usually go for. Part of the reason is to make sure I meet with folks in the Bay Area that I otherwise don't see. I'll be up Thursday and Friday April 29 and 30 -- and I expect I'll be at MPK most of that time. Anyone who wants to chat, please let me know.

audiocmihd driver (Asus Xonar cards)

Some people have been asking me about this driver. (Asus Xonar cards are fairly high-end high definition cards using the CMI 8788 chip.)

I've finally gotten the code reasonably cleaned up, and converted to my interrupt free audio framework.

I'll probably start a case to get this integrated into late b137, or b138. Mostly its just running a bunch of tests at this point.

One problem I have is that I only have Xonar DX1 cards. (PCI.)

If someone is able to help me qualify the driver with build 137 (or a nightly build) of ON, please let me know. The more I can get this driver tested, the sooner I can get it integrated into OpenSolaris.