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April 23, 2010
The time draweth nigh...
Graduation rapidly approaches.
June is like 5-6 weeks away.
I have every intention of graduating. I finished all my paperwork, paid all my fees. I reorganized my ducks into correct rows. Now it's time to finish my projects.
Project 1:
You know, I was actually up late last night pounding away on this. Debugging is the worst, cuz you can waste like an hour+ on something dumb and then yell and scream at your computer (even though you wrote the code...) and go to bed. Oh well, I made lots of progress, and even killed my first bad guy last night!
Project 2:
At this point, I no longer need this project to graduate, but have become so interested with it, that I can't help myself.
I am following this guide to setup an Oracle RAC (11g, OEL, iSCSCI SAN, ...)
Basically the project is to setup an Oracle Database on multiple computers, to provide high-availability (aka if either computer crashes everything is still up). The computers are called nodes, and they are joined together into a cluster. The cluster relies on a SAN (Storage Area Network - aka shared storage) provided via iSCSI (over the network).
The problem is that I'm doing it on a Mac Mini. There are some inherent issues:
- The nodes all run Linux - Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL) to be exact. Version 5.x does not really like the Mac Mini's USB ports, so you have to boot off the CD and hope it picks the USB port that the keyboard is plugged into. You CANNOT have a KVM plugged into the Mini during install, and you may have to try all 4 USB ports to get it to work.
- You cannot install OEL directly onto the Mac hardware. After months of testing, I found that the easiest way to succeed was to install the Mac OS, then install OEL on top of the Mac OS, deleting only the Linux partitions, and the MAC partition. This is a very weird process. Apparently the Mac Hardware needs the 200MB Fat partition to boot?
- The Mac Mini only has one (1) Gigabit Ethernet port. Oracle RAC nodes are required to have 2, so I'm using USB network adapters (successfully). Unfortunately I don't have very many, so the size of my RAC is limited.
People think I'm crazy to spend so much time and effort making these little Mini's do something useful, but I just love them. I have like 10+ on my desk, and I'm hoping for many more. I'd like to build a little cloud or something with them. Only time will tell.
Posted by ellism at 8:54 AM | Comments (0)
First impressions...
Well, the day has come at last.
The iPad has arrived.
We all knew it was coming. For some, it loomed like an ominous weekend to Aunt Betty's... For others, it was Christmas in July. Only time will tell.
So on Delivery-Day, we had one walk into the office. Adam and I got to touch it, play with it and stream some video. Interesting toy.
Here are my thoughts:
- Nice screen
- Good touch
- Plenty of capabilities
- Backwards compatible with the iTouch (who ever thought you'd hear the words backward and iTouch in the same sentence...
- Responsive
Any my other thoughts:
- Once you've held it for 5 minutes, you'll realize that iPad needs to go on a diet.
- EVERYTHING (literally) on the iPad is connected to or through iTunes. OK - that's not fair. I was able to turn it on without an iTunes account. But I think that was all...
- Propriety video-out (seriously Apple, you're killing us here) - AND it only exports video for "presentation-based" apps. Why?
- No Flash. Seriously? How I am supposed to entertain myself on addictinggames.com?
That's enough of my thoughts...
In the end, my only comment was "Shiny!". But seriously, we know Apple can deliver that. How about some web-standards? Interoperability compliance? And a stomach-rest for my aching wrists?
I don't know, man. I was looking at a Kindle - primarily cuz it could read to me. But to pay twice as much for color, wireless, apps, etc...
Will iPad give Kindle a run for it's money? Can Flash survive the next decade? Will Chiropractors around the world become mega-rich?
Find out next time on: this blog here.... at some point... I mean when I get around to it... or ... you know...
Posted by ellism at 8:38 AM | Comments (0)