Well, okay, I never interviewed him myself, though he did visit my high school and gave a talk there about a year after I graduated, though. That was shortly before news broke that Sun was looking to be acquired.
Regardless, The Register seems to have a pretty fair article from an interview with the co-founder and former CEO of Sun Microsystems. It's worth a read if you ever got know what Sun was for anything other than "they made Java."
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Articles on Medicine (May 2011): Beyond Diagnostics
Just two this time.
- Are patients just interesting cases, or are they people capable of emotion?
- People talk about treating the root cause of a problem and not just its symptoms. Social causes should not be forgotten, either.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Sun Ray Multimedia Enhancements for Native Sessions
...are coming! Because most Sun Ray customers are Windows users, most of the development effort has been directed at improving the experience for Windows users. To that end, not much work has been done in terms of improving video watchability on native sessions (UNIX or Linux sessions not through VDI). However, about a month ago, two YouTube videos were referenced on the SunRay-Users public mailing list, which Oracle employees then confirmed as demonstrating features to come in a future version of Sun Ray Software. What I see from the video appears to be fairly smooth HD video playback, even over an SSH-tunneled X session initiated from a Sun Ray server! Hopefully the improvements help with Flash as well, given the explosion in popularity of YouTube and other Flash video players on the web.
Here are the links to the videos, which were posted by Wim Coekaerts, the Senior VP of Linux and Virtualization at Oracle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fgf8wGD24g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_WTlvLyQoM
Here are the links to the videos, which were posted by Wim Coekaerts, the Senior VP of Linux and Virtualization at Oracle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fgf8wGD24g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_WTlvLyQoM
Monday, March 14, 2011
Comcast Customer Support and Internet Speeds
Comcast is notorious for its poor customer support. My experience with them has not been totally inconsistent with most of the terrible things I've heard. Back when I initially tried to get internet service ordered, one customer service agent at the Baltimore service center even went as far as to say that another agent (via Comcast online chat, who asked me to visit the service center to verify my identity) lied to me about being able to pick up a self-install kit. Whether or not I should have been able to is besides the point; I think it's quite something if Comcast calls itself a liar just because an agent made a mistake in what they thought was possible. In general, I've found that things one customer service agent tells me may no longer apply with the next agent. The level of consistency, or rather lack thereof, can get to be extremely frustrating.
About a month or two after my Comcast service was initially connected, I noticed that the sustained download speed I was getting was inconsistent with the tier I signed up for. I signed into the Comcast online chat support service, explained that I believed the modem was not receiving the configuration file for my level of service, and had the issue resolved very quickly.
More recently, I signed up for a promotion for a higher tier of internet service. Between about 5-6 customer support agents including a supervisor, none were able to get the correct modem configuration file sent. Most of them claimed that the issue had been fixed and I had to wait 24 hours for the change to take effect. In one of these cases, waiting 24 hours resulted in my modem returning to the Comcast walled garden (unregistered modem). When I attempted to go through the first time registration process, I was told by the online system that no service tier was on my account number. Fortunately, phone support was able to restore my previous tier of service fairly quickly.
After about the 6th agent in trying to get the correct tier of service, and a callback to my voicemail saying that no internet billing codes were on my account, some neuron in my brain fired reminding me that Comcast had a Twitter account which was staffed by an effective support team. I did some quick research online to gauge others' experiences, and decided to give it a try. I e-mailed the address listed on the Twitter page since I don't use Twitter, and within 15 minutes of my request I received a reply saying that the issue was fixed. I checked and indeed it was fixed! So if you are a Comcast user, I highly encourage you to use Comcast's Twitter support team, whether by Twitter or e-mail.
In Comcast's defense, however, if you are using wireless and feel that your internet is very slow, and you are living in an apartment complex, try a wired connection first. It is very likely that your speed is low due to interference from neighbors' WiFi. Most people only have wireless routers and laptop wireless cards that operate in the 2.4 GHz frequency range, in which there are only 3 non-overlapping WiFi channels. In my building, I can see more than 30 access points of varying signal strength from where my laptop sits. That means all of these 30 cause interference to some degree in the 2.4 GHz range, and that doesn't include interference from microwaves, portable phones, and Bluetooth devices which also operate in the 2.4 GHz radio band. My solution was to get a dual band wireless router, which includes the ability to operate in the 5 GHz frequency band in addition to 2.4 GHz. Although 5 GHz does not penetrate walls and bend around obstacles as well as 2.4 GHz does, it has many more non-overlapping channels (20). Not being able to penetrate obstacles as well can also become advantageous if everyone had a 5 GHz-capable router since the degree of interference from neighbors would also be reduced. Dual band wireless routers are more expensive, which is probably why most people don't have them, and will also require that your laptop have a wireless card that can talk 5 GHz. Generally, if the wireless card says it can connect to 802.11a networks, it can do 5 GHz. 802.11n can be either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz, so if you have a card that says it can connect to b/g/n, that's likely to mean only 2.4 GHz, and a 5 GHz wireless router will not help you. Over a 5 GHz connection, my laptop can get the same speeds to the internet as a wired connection can (30 Mbps downstream, 6 Mbps upstream), but over 2.4 GHz, speeds are much slower (about 4 Mbps downstream, 5 Mbps upstream).
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Censored!
...by China's censorship policies.
Although I am an ABC (American-born Chinese), I am taking Chinese classes. At home, I learned to speak the Shanghai dialect of Chinese, and passively picked up some ability to listen to basic conversations in Mandarin Chinese, but I never learned to speak it, or to read or write it. I started taking classes in high school when they were introduced during my sophomore year. In any event, for the current Chinese class I am taking, one of the recurring assignments is to write a blog entry on a weekly basis. Our professor chose blog.sina.com.cn as the blog host. Part of that assignment is to also read and comment on three of the other blog entries posted by classmates.
One of the entries my classmate posted asked for advice in finding off-campus housing. My first attempt to comment said something similar to:
今年学生政府推出了校外房评比网站，应该对你很有帮助：http://www.jhusga.com/ochd/
[Translated: This year, the student government launched an off-campus housing comparison website, which should be helpful for you. Here is the link: http://www.jhusga.com/ochd/]
When I noticed that this comment had disappeared, I posted a new one:
好像我的评论被和谐了。。。。反正，你可以去看http://www.jhusga.com/ochd/
[Translated: It seems that my earlier comment got censored (using a term that means harmonize, but is popularly used by bloggers to mean "censored by the government in the name of harmony"), in any case, you should check out http://www.jhusga.com/ochd/.]
That also disappeared. I e-mailed my professor and we both thought the first was removed because of the word "government", but I tested a bit more and it turns out it was because of the link! If I paste only the link, the comment gets deleted. If I change the comment to say "Google for JHU OCHD" instead of providing the direct link, the comment stays.
Apparently any link that goes to a "foreign" website is considered worthy of censorship, at least on Sina's blog platform.
Although I am an ABC (American-born Chinese), I am taking Chinese classes. At home, I learned to speak the Shanghai dialect of Chinese, and passively picked up some ability to listen to basic conversations in Mandarin Chinese, but I never learned to speak it, or to read or write it. I started taking classes in high school when they were introduced during my sophomore year. In any event, for the current Chinese class I am taking, one of the recurring assignments is to write a blog entry on a weekly basis. Our professor chose blog.sina.com.cn as the blog host. Part of that assignment is to also read and comment on three of the other blog entries posted by classmates.
One of the entries my classmate posted asked for advice in finding off-campus housing. My first attempt to comment said something similar to:
今年学生政府推出了校外房评比网站，应该对你很有帮助：http://www.jhusga.com/ochd/
[Translated: This year, the student government launched an off-campus housing comparison website, which should be helpful for you. Here is the link: http://www.jhusga.com/ochd/]
When I noticed that this comment had disappeared, I posted a new one:
好像我的评论被和谐了。。。。反正，你可以去看http://www.jhusga.com/ochd/
[Translated: It seems that my earlier comment got censored (using a term that means harmonize, but is popularly used by bloggers to mean "censored by the government in the name of harmony"), in any case, you should check out http://www.jhusga.com/ochd/.]
That also disappeared. I e-mailed my professor and we both thought the first was removed because of the word "government", but I tested a bit more and it turns out it was because of the link! If I paste only the link, the comment gets deleted. If I change the comment to say "Google for JHU OCHD" instead of providing the direct link, the comment stays.
Apparently any link that goes to a "foreign" website is considered worthy of censorship, at least on Sina's blog platform.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Doctors and IT
Well, first of all, this blog is not dead. It has just...undergone a period of deep hibernation. Unfortunately I don't think I'll ever be able to keep up with it as much as I used to, but I'll still try to post here more often than I have in the past few months.
Today, I read an interesting article intersecting technology and medicine: U.S. patients trust docs, but not e-health records, survey shows
As someone who is on the road to a medical career, it's certainly encouraging to hear that most people trust their physicians. But as a technologist, it's also worrisome to hear that patients don't always trust electronic health records, and that the lack of trust can be justified. On the one hand, a doctor's job is to be a doctor, not to worry about computer and network security, which is the job of an IT specialist. On the other hand, digital security is a real problem that every computer user has to worry about to some degree. I don't know if most doctors are aware of IT security best practices, but it is more likely that most doctors can't afford to hire an IT team to run systems and security, nor do they have the time to learn and deal with it themselves. As much as EHRs have their benefits, I can see how they become a burden as it takes considerably more technical know-how to maintain than a filing cabinet; correspondingly, hiring someone to maintain an EHR system is more costly than hiring someone to maintain a filing cabinet.
It seems that computer security is becoming increasingly important in the healthcare industry with the push for switching to EHRs. The simplest solution would probably just be to isolate EHR computers from the internet, but that runs counter to the collaborative ability to share EHRs between health organizations. As a result, doctors will probably need to have a higher level of security awareness than the average home user, simply because the stakes (i.e. protected health information as defined by HIPAA) are much higher. While I by no means claim to understand how EHR systems are being deployed, my guess is that, like other enterprise software, the software is developed and deployed by a software company that maintains an active support and maintenance contract with the medical practice. If that's the case, then perhaps those companies should include services to maintain a network where there is otherwise no dedicated IT infrastructure or staff, and at least provide minimal training materials to doctors and their staff so that the digital security issues that have plagued other industries ("Big Company loses SSNs and credit card numbers of 1 million customers due to network breach") do not now begin to affect medical practices. One way or another though, it would seem that, in general, doctors need to gain a better understanding of computer security than they have now, for the good of their patients.
Today, I read an interesting article intersecting technology and medicine: U.S. patients trust docs, but not e-health records, survey shows
As someone who is on the road to a medical career, it's certainly encouraging to hear that most people trust their physicians. But as a technologist, it's also worrisome to hear that patients don't always trust electronic health records, and that the lack of trust can be justified. On the one hand, a doctor's job is to be a doctor, not to worry about computer and network security, which is the job of an IT specialist. On the other hand, digital security is a real problem that every computer user has to worry about to some degree. I don't know if most doctors are aware of IT security best practices, but it is more likely that most doctors can't afford to hire an IT team to run systems and security, nor do they have the time to learn and deal with it themselves. As much as EHRs have their benefits, I can see how they become a burden as it takes considerably more technical know-how to maintain than a filing cabinet; correspondingly, hiring someone to maintain an EHR system is more costly than hiring someone to maintain a filing cabinet.
It seems that computer security is becoming increasingly important in the healthcare industry with the push for switching to EHRs. The simplest solution would probably just be to isolate EHR computers from the internet, but that runs counter to the collaborative ability to share EHRs between health organizations. As a result, doctors will probably need to have a higher level of security awareness than the average home user, simply because the stakes (i.e. protected health information as defined by HIPAA) are much higher. While I by no means claim to understand how EHR systems are being deployed, my guess is that, like other enterprise software, the software is developed and deployed by a software company that maintains an active support and maintenance contract with the medical practice. If that's the case, then perhaps those companies should include services to maintain a network where there is otherwise no dedicated IT infrastructure or staff, and at least provide minimal training materials to doctors and their staff so that the digital security issues that have plagued other industries ("Big Company loses SSNs and credit card numbers of 1 million customers due to network breach") do not now begin to affect medical practices. One way or another though, it would seem that, in general, doctors need to gain a better understanding of computer security than they have now, for the good of their patients.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Aramark, What’s Your Game?
About four to five years ago, Sodexho was the food service provider at Johns Hopkins University. Sodexho predated my time at JHU, but those that were here at the time reported the food being of poor quality. One even described a "freshman negative 15." In addition, unrelated to Hopkins, Sodexho also managed a number of prisons, which drew the ire of many students who objected to paying a company that also ran prisons. Given the circumstances, the University was pressured into changing foodservice providers. They selected Aramark. Students that were here at the time reported a noticeable increase in the quality of food.
Although Aramark may have improved the food, there have been questions regarding Aramark’s treatment of its employees recently. There are rumors (and by which I mean that I did not hear this firsthand) the staff were treated much better by Sodexho and that Aramark had been paying below minimum wage, but that no one dared to complain for fear of being fired. After all, a job that pays less is still better than no job at all. It would appear, in part, that these conditions existed due to a conflict that resulted in Aramark employees at Hopkins being without a union to represent them for about a year or two (see JHU Newsletter: Workers vote, now have representative union). Other “rumors” aside, the same reference from the Newsletter cites that Aramark had been scheduling employees one to two hours below the minimum necessary to qualify as a full-time employee in order to avoid providing benefits such as health insurance and paid leave. How does Aramark get away with this sort of thing? In another article by the Newsletter back in April of this year (A Buffet of Choices), Hopkins was described as being in a contract with Aramark that prevents them from intervening in employee issues. In addition, because the term of the contract is multi-year, Aramark is really only motivated to perform well when it is time to renew.
Most students may not notice or care about how employees are treated as long as the food is good, but even students are affected by Aramark's practices, year after year. I acknowledge that some of these decisions may have been made by JHU Housing and Dining, some by Aramark, and some collaborative, but the issue remains regardless of who points a finger at who. One thing that has been noticed consistently is the annually increasing cost of a meal plan to those required to hold one. Not only that, dining dollars are never worth getting since there is a roughly 30% premium when converting cash to dining dollars in the initial plan. Some cite the lack of tax when using dining dollars, but let’s do the math: tax is about 5%, and 5% is much less than 30%, isn’t it? Plus if you use a rewards credit card, like what I use, then you can actually get a percentage of what you spend on food back. Dining dollars: 130%, credit card: 95%. And herein lies the problem: that meal plans are mandatory. If dining dollars and cash had a one-to-one conversion, then I wouldn’t have as much of a complaint. But that students are required to pay a 30% premium...what’s up with that? Officially it is to cover the staff and facility costs of running the dining hall. Why does that not apply to people paying with non-mandatory means (i.e. cash, credit, JCash), then? And maybe if dining services were increased year-to-year the complaint would also be less significant. But it just ain't so. Examples of what I mean (as of this semester, Fall 2010):
The second Newsletter article mentioned above proposes a possible solution: to allow competition between foodservice companies on campus. I can see why this type of situation could be difficult though, since it is less attractive to foodservice companies between lack of economy of scale and having profits reduced due to competition. The University may also be worried about higher costs. However, given what we’ve seen between Sodexho and Aramark, maybe it’s time to give the proposal a try, in some form or other. Something should be done; the status quo is not acceptable. Even if employees have a union, that a company would be willing to act in the way Aramark did in the absence of one is extremely unethical, and the way that money is effectively extorted from students when tuition is already $30,000 a year just adds insult to injury. As a bonus, while food quality is usually adequate, it could definitely be much better and would more than likely improve under a competitive system.
UPDATE 10/12/2010 9:19 PM:
It appears that Aramark has brought back stuffed pastas at Nolan's as of today or yesterday! Hooray!
UPDATE 10/19/2010 9:16 PM:
Hold your horses...last week there was tortellini on Tuesday, and there was definitely tortellini this Monday, but there wasn't any last Wednesday through Friday. I'm not sure if there was tortellini any other day this week so far, but it's not quite the same as it used to be. For one, each plate is only allowed to have 16 pieces of tortellini, instead of a big scoop like it used to be (this was a LOT of tortellini). The tortellini also seems smaller than it used to be.
Another thing I forgot to point out originally is that take-out boxes are now smaller, or at least the compartments in it for sides are. This really only affects the home station, but is still annoying. Also, the pans used to cook pasta at the pasta station are also smaller, as if trying to imply that portion sizes should shrink accordingly.
Although Aramark may have improved the food, there have been questions regarding Aramark’s treatment of its employees recently. There are rumors (and by which I mean that I did not hear this firsthand) the staff were treated much better by Sodexho and that Aramark had been paying below minimum wage, but that no one dared to complain for fear of being fired. After all, a job that pays less is still better than no job at all. It would appear, in part, that these conditions existed due to a conflict that resulted in Aramark employees at Hopkins being without a union to represent them for about a year or two (see JHU Newsletter: Workers vote, now have representative union). Other “rumors” aside, the same reference from the Newsletter cites that Aramark had been scheduling employees one to two hours below the minimum necessary to qualify as a full-time employee in order to avoid providing benefits such as health insurance and paid leave. How does Aramark get away with this sort of thing? In another article by the Newsletter back in April of this year (A Buffet of Choices), Hopkins was described as being in a contract with Aramark that prevents them from intervening in employee issues. In addition, because the term of the contract is multi-year, Aramark is really only motivated to perform well when it is time to renew.
Most students may not notice or care about how employees are treated as long as the food is good, but even students are affected by Aramark's practices, year after year. I acknowledge that some of these decisions may have been made by JHU Housing and Dining, some by Aramark, and some collaborative, but the issue remains regardless of who points a finger at who. One thing that has been noticed consistently is the annually increasing cost of a meal plan to those required to hold one. Not only that, dining dollars are never worth getting since there is a roughly 30% premium when converting cash to dining dollars in the initial plan. Some cite the lack of tax when using dining dollars, but let’s do the math: tax is about 5%, and 5% is much less than 30%, isn’t it? Plus if you use a rewards credit card, like what I use, then you can actually get a percentage of what you spend on food back. Dining dollars: 130%, credit card: 95%. And herein lies the problem: that meal plans are mandatory. If dining dollars and cash had a one-to-one conversion, then I wouldn’t have as much of a complaint. But that students are required to pay a 30% premium...what’s up with that? Officially it is to cover the staff and facility costs of running the dining hall. Why does that not apply to people paying with non-mandatory means (i.e. cash, credit, JCash), then? And maybe if dining services were increased year-to-year the complaint would also be less significant. But it just ain't so. Examples of what I mean (as of this semester, Fall 2010):
- Cheese-stuffed ravioli and tortellini used to be available at the made-to-order pasta station at Nolan’s in previous semesters. Multiple staff have reported that, this semester, management prohibits staff from taking the pasta out of the freezers to make them for students. If anyone has an explanation, I’d love to hear it.
- Levering Leaves, the made-to-order salad station, used to charge a fixed price for any number of toppings. As of this semester, the old price applies only up to 5 toppings, with an additional charge for any toppings over 5.
- The omelet station at Nolan’s has been relegated to the 9pm-12am time block only. In the past, omelets could be ordered from 5pm-9pm, if not also during 9pm-12am. This was done to increase the amount of people that could be simultaneously served by the pasta station. However, an equivalent effect could be achieved by improving the workflow at a smaller pasta station rather than reducing options.
The second Newsletter article mentioned above proposes a possible solution: to allow competition between foodservice companies on campus. I can see why this type of situation could be difficult though, since it is less attractive to foodservice companies between lack of economy of scale and having profits reduced due to competition. The University may also be worried about higher costs. However, given what we’ve seen between Sodexho and Aramark, maybe it’s time to give the proposal a try, in some form or other. Something should be done; the status quo is not acceptable. Even if employees have a union, that a company would be willing to act in the way Aramark did in the absence of one is extremely unethical, and the way that money is effectively extorted from students when tuition is already $30,000 a year just adds insult to injury. As a bonus, while food quality is usually adequate, it could definitely be much better and would more than likely improve under a competitive system.
UPDATE 10/12/2010 9:19 PM:
It appears that Aramark has brought back stuffed pastas at Nolan's as of today or yesterday! Hooray!
UPDATE 10/19/2010 9:16 PM:
Hold your horses...last week there was tortellini on Tuesday, and there was definitely tortellini this Monday, but there wasn't any last Wednesday through Friday. I'm not sure if there was tortellini any other day this week so far, but it's not quite the same as it used to be. For one, each plate is only allowed to have 16 pieces of tortellini, instead of a big scoop like it used to be (this was a LOT of tortellini). The tortellini also seems smaller than it used to be.
Another thing I forgot to point out originally is that take-out boxes are now smaller, or at least the compartments in it for sides are. This really only affects the home station, but is still annoying. Also, the pans used to cook pasta at the pasta station are also smaller, as if trying to imply that portion sizes should shrink accordingly.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Articles on Medicine (Oct 2010)
Well it's been awhile since I posted anything here, but I'll try to get back into writing some stuff. For now, I'll catch up sharing some interesting articles I read over the summer.
- Advances in biomedical instrumentation enable a portable mini-lab.
- Live in a city? Take some time to get away to a more natural environment.
- Trade some study time for exercise.
- There is lots and lots of medical waste, thanks to the popularization of disposable supplies. Many hospitals are now seeking to reduce that quantity.
- Scientists are good at science, but medical doctors need to be better at more than just science.
- Hospice care and discussions about end-of-life plans are not "death panels." If you haven't discussed this issue with your family at all, don't wait until it is too late. (This is a long, in-depth article, but is a good read nonetheless.)
Friday, August 13, 2010
The Future of OpenSolaris
The clouds of uncertainty over OpenSolaris under Oracle have parted, but while what we see behind them was perhaps expected, it is certainly still disappointing. I've included the original sources below, but here are the key sentences (emphasis added) from the internal Oracle memo regarding OpenSolaris:
It remains unclear how OpenSolaris as a community will transform, but it certainly doesn't look that good.
References (from the osol-discuss mailing list):
Leaked internal memo
Confirmation from Oracle employee
- We will distribute updates to approved CDDL or other open source-licensed code following full releases of our enterprise Solaris operating system. In this manner, new technology innovations will show up in our releases before anywhere else. We will no longer distribute source code for the entirety of the Solaris operating system in real-time while it is developed, on a nightly basis.
- We will have a Solaris 11 binary distribution, called Solaris 11 Express, that will have a free developer RTU license, and an optional support plan. Solaris 11 Express will debut by the end of this calendar year, and we will issue updates to it, leading to the full release of Solaris 11 in 2011.
- All of Oracle's efforts on binary distributions of Solaris technology will be focused on Solaris 11. We will not release any other binary distributions, such as nightly or bi-weekly builds of Solaris binaries, or an OpenSolaris 2010.05 or later distribution. We will determine a simple, cost-effective means of getting enterprise users of prior OpenSolaris binary releases to migrate to S11 Express.
It remains unclear how OpenSolaris as a community will transform, but it certainly doesn't look that good.
References (from the osol-discuss mailing list):
Leaked internal memo
Confirmation from Oracle employee
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Where Am I on the Subway?
On Shanghai's very new Metro Line 10, there's a nifty little information panel located above all the railcar doors. Since pictures are worth a thousand words, I figured I'd make this post a couple thousand words shorter and post a video (watch in 720p/HD for best clarity; I apologize for the shakiness). While watching, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- Which station did I just leave?
- Which station am I approaching?
- Approximately how far am I between the last and next stations?
- Which direction is the train moving?
- Which branch of the line is this train traveling on? (although at the time of recording, only one branch had been built)
Sunday, July 4, 2010
FreeRange Reader
RIP mDigger...sort of. Just a year after I adopted mDigger Reader as a replacement for AvantGo to keep up with news and RSS on my Windows Mobile PDA, mDigger decided to drop support for Windows Mobile, shifting their focus solely to Apple's iPhone and iPad platforms.
Once again, forced to hunt for alternatives, I first investigated Viigo. However, that was recently purchased by RIM, the company behind Blackberry, so they've killed all non-Blackberry platform support for the app.
Many other programs out there either required purchasing and/or did not download more than an RSS feed itself, which often doesn't include a full article in the case of news. However, I happened upon FreeRange Reader. This program gives the option to configure a feed to download the full story page for each headline when updated. It effectively downloads the normal verison of the wepage but reformats it for better reading on a mobile device.
FreeRange Reader seems to be what I will be using for now...I don't know how long this run will last, as it seems development has stopped since the company was purchased by Handmark. The version for Windows Mobile was last updated in 2007, and the version for Blackberry was last updated in 2008. Compared to mDigger, FreeRange doesn't have as extensive of a catalog of feeds, but since you can configure it to download full stories for any feed you find, there is a nice flexibility there (mDigger required the developers to create an mClip for any feed that didn't include a full story; this did yield better formatting than what I get with FreeRange though). The feed configuration is online, which is also handy.
Some gotchas with FreeRange:
Once again, forced to hunt for alternatives, I first investigated Viigo. However, that was recently purchased by RIM, the company behind Blackberry, so they've killed all non-Blackberry platform support for the app.
Many other programs out there either required purchasing and/or did not download more than an RSS feed itself, which often doesn't include a full article in the case of news. However, I happened upon FreeRange Reader. This program gives the option to configure a feed to download the full story page for each headline when updated. It effectively downloads the normal verison of the wepage but reformats it for better reading on a mobile device.
FreeRange Reader seems to be what I will be using for now...I don't know how long this run will last, as it seems development has stopped since the company was purchased by Handmark. The version for Windows Mobile was last updated in 2007, and the version for Blackberry was last updated in 2008. Compared to mDigger, FreeRange doesn't have as extensive of a catalog of feeds, but since you can configure it to download full stories for any feed you find, there is a nice flexibility there (mDigger required the developers to create an mClip for any feed that didn't include a full story; this did yield better formatting than what I get with FreeRange though). The feed configuration is online, which is also handy.
Some gotchas with FreeRange:
- Each feed that only has headlines instead of full stories needs to be individually told to download the full story. This configuration can only be done from the mobile device and not from the web configuration.
- It works on VGA devices (like my Dell Axim x51v), mostly. Fonts show up larger than they should and are not as crisp as they could be.
- Scrollbars don't show up in some parts of the configuration where they should. Of note is the "screen font" configuration page. I use size 6 to get a reasonable font size, but I had to use the directional pad while in the drop-down to select it, as it is hidden by default.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Oracle Virtual Desktop Client 2.0
(The new version of Sun Desktop Access Client 1.0.)
The new version of the software Sun Ray client hasn't yet been released, but some details on its features have been leaking out. Although the original source is no longer available, search engine cached pages have preserved the content.
For those that just want it short and sweet, here is what's notable:
The new version of the software Sun Ray client hasn't yet been released, but some details on its features have been leaking out. Although the original source is no longer available, search engine cached pages have preserved the content.
For those that just want it short and sweet, here is what's notable:
- Support for Mac OS X
- Audio recording, in so far as it was already supported on a hardware Sun Ray
- IPv6 support
- Smart card support
- Serial port or USB-to-serial port passthrough (Windows only)
- Multiple connection profiles
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Clean Up C:\Windows\Installer
If you have a Windows computer that's been around for awhile, you may have noticed that your free disk space has gotten kind of low, lower than you would expect. WinDirStat is a great little utility to figure out where that space is going. If you use that program, you might discover that C:\Windows\Installer is really big. Sometimes that directory is not as clean as it should be because of various failed program installations or unclean uninstalls.
Use the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility to safely get rid of the unneeded cruft. Download the installer here. Once installed, open up a command prompt and type:
In one case that I saw, 7 GB was reduced down to about 1.5 GB.
I do not recommend using the other utility included with the installer unless told to do so elsewhere. This is the utility that you will see a new entry for in the Programs menu and is not a command line program. Its purpose is not related to the one this post is written about.
If you see an error message like:
don't worry about it. The program has finished cleaning up all it can. If you're bothered by it and know your way around the Windows Registry, you'll find the GUID listed somewhere under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData. If you're sure it refers to something you've uninstalled already, go ahead and delete the key, run 'msizap G!' again and you shouldn't see the error message anymore.
(Note: I am aware this information is already available online elsewhere in some for or other, but I found it to be somewhat scattered and confusing.)
Use the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility to safely get rid of the unneeded cruft. Download the installer here. Once installed, open up a command prompt and type:
cd "\Program Files\Windows Installer Clean Up\"
msizap G!
In one case that I saw, 7 GB was reduced down to about 1.5 GB.
I do not recommend using the other utility included with the installer unless told to do so elsewhere. This is the utility that you will see a new entry for in the Programs menu and is not a command line program. Its purpose is not related to the one this post is written about.
If you see an error message like:
MsiZapInfo: Performing operations for user S-1-5-21-.....
Removing orphaned cached files.
Error opening 9040110900063D11......\InstallProperties subkey of Products key for S-1-5-18 user. Error: 2.
FAILED to clear all data.
don't worry about it. The program has finished cleaning up all it can. If you're bothered by it and know your way around the Windows Registry, you'll find the GUID listed somewhere under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData. If you're sure it refers to something you've uninstalled already, go ahead and delete the key, run 'msizap G!' again and you shouldn't see the error message anymore.
(Note: I am aware this information is already available online elsewhere in some for or other, but I found it to be somewhat scattered and confusing.)
Friday, May 21, 2010
Microsoft and Thin Clients: Revised
A couple months ago, Microsoft revised their Virtual Enterprise Centralized Desktop (VECD) licensing scheme, which is used for Windows on thin client deployments. I first mentioned VECD in this earlier blog post, but one of the changes has since made VECD more affordable. For starters, there is no longer an additional cost for Software Assurance users. Non-SA users also have a slightly lower cost per device. See this Computerworld article for the full story.
(I did actually see the article in March, I just didn't get a chance to write about it until now.)
UPDATE 3/17/2011:
After a closer look, the new VECD, known as Windows VDA (Virtual Desktop Access) is not as good as I thought it originally was. In fact, it's much worse, or just as bad. The fee for SA users is waived only when the client device accessing the VDI infrastructure is covered by SA, which means a full Windows-installed computer that's also under SA. Other client devices, which would include any specialized thin client device, must have a $100/year/device Windows VDA license to legally access a VDI infrastructure with Windows VMs in it. Ouch.
(I did actually see the article in March, I just didn't get a chance to write about it until now.)
UPDATE 3/17/2011:
After a closer look, the new VECD, known as Windows VDA (Virtual Desktop Access) is not as good as I thought it originally was. In fact, it's much worse, or just as bad. The fee for SA users is waived only when the client device accessing the VDI infrastructure is covered by SA, which means a full Windows-installed computer that's also under SA. Other client devices, which would include any specialized thin client device, must have a $100/year/device Windows VDA license to legally access a VDI infrastructure with Windows VMs in it. Ouch.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The Oracle Business Model
For those not in the know, "Oracle" here refers not to a divine intermediary but a company that has traditionally focused on providing database products and services for the computer industry. Most people have heard of Sun Microsystems because of Java but comparatively few people know what Oracle is. Recently Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems.
Sun wasn't very profitable for its stockholders, but they were named one of the top places to work in IT by Computerworld. They were also a very open company in comparison to many in the IT industry.
In a recent CNN interview with Scott McNealy, co-founder and chairman of the board of Sun until it was acquired, Scott had this to say about Larry Ellison, Oracle's CEO:
OpenOffice, the free productivity suite that competes with Microsoft Office was formerly sponsored by Sun. As a result, it is now also in the hands of Oracle. Naturally, OpenOffice prefers ODF (Open Document Format) for saving files over Microsoft's office formats. In order to allow Microsoft Office users to use ODF files, Sun developed a free plugin that could be easily installed. Although Microsoft Office 2007 has begun to add native support for ODF, it only supports up to ODF 1.0 so far, while the plugin enables up to ODF 1.2. In addition, there are still a significant number of Office 2003 deployments that only have the option of the ODF plugin.
Oracle now charges $90 for this plugin. While the current newest version of the plugin is 3.2, 3.1 is still available for free from Softpedia. I would highly recommend downloading the installer and keeping a copy because it may not be available online forever.
While Computerworld speculates that this may drive some companies that want to use ODF with Microsoft Office to purchase the plugin, I think it is more likely they will just be pushed to switch to the Office native formats as there is no additional cost to open those documents in either Microsoft Office or OpenOffice.
Sun wasn't very profitable for its stockholders, but they were named one of the top places to work in IT by Computerworld. They were also a very open company in comparison to many in the IT industry.
In a recent CNN interview with Scott McNealy, co-founder and chairman of the board of Sun until it was acquired, Scott had this to say about Larry Ellison, Oracle's CEO:
He’s a great capitalist, but not all into that sharing thing and all the rest of it. You have to give the guy credit; he has found a way to extract every dollar he can from customers from every product he offers. He is very impressive, and there are very few who have lasted as long as he has.
OpenOffice, the free productivity suite that competes with Microsoft Office was formerly sponsored by Sun. As a result, it is now also in the hands of Oracle. Naturally, OpenOffice prefers ODF (Open Document Format) for saving files over Microsoft's office formats. In order to allow Microsoft Office users to use ODF files, Sun developed a free plugin that could be easily installed. Although Microsoft Office 2007 has begun to add native support for ODF, it only supports up to ODF 1.0 so far, while the plugin enables up to ODF 1.2. In addition, there are still a significant number of Office 2003 deployments that only have the option of the ODF plugin.
Oracle now charges $90 for this plugin. While the current newest version of the plugin is 3.2, 3.1 is still available for free from Softpedia. I would highly recommend downloading the installer and keeping a copy because it may not be available online forever.
While Computerworld speculates that this may drive some companies that want to use ODF with Microsoft Office to purchase the plugin, I think it is more likely they will just be pushed to switch to the Office native formats as there is no additional cost to open those documents in either Microsoft Office or OpenOffice.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Security and Blackboard
...the online course management system Blackboard, not the one that instructors literally write on. Apparently it's insecure enough that a 9-year-old student in my K-12 school district was able to grant himself administrative privileges, according to this article in the Washington Post. I'd be interested in knowing what was actually exploited, but since the software is developed under a closed source model, I doubt the general public will find out the details of the problem, even if it is fixed.
See my previous extended write-up on Blackboard here.
See my previous extended write-up on Blackboard here.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Long Term Investment (or Solaris is Dying)
If you know me, you might be surprised to see me write "Solaris is Dying." Well, unfortunately I suspect that may be the case. Oracle seems to be making good on its promises to make its Sun acquisition profitable, but in the long run something is going to give.
Two things have recently happened that have made me think that Solaris may not be around in the next 10-20 years, as the next generation or two of computer engineers enters the workforce:
1. Solaris isn't so free anymore.
2. Changes to the scope of Sun Education programs.
While there may not be any DRM (yet) to enforce the non-free-ness of Solaris, the fact that the license only permits legal use of Solaris for 90 days without a support contract or other paid license and that security patches are no longer available to non-paying customers severely restricts access to all non-enterprise customers. If it doesn’t restrict access, it at least strongly discourages anyone who had an interest in trying out Solaris.
A Bit of History
Back in the old days (before Solaris 10’s 2005 release), Solaris had a separate paid license. Intel/x86 support was a joke and it pretty much only ran on SPARC, but since it shipped preinstalled on Sun systems which were the lion’s share of SPARC systems in the world, it was practically free if you had the hardware. All patches were free. When Solaris 10 came out, Sun changed the scheme. Solaris 10 would be free for anyone to download and use, and only support would cost extra. Work on decent x86 support also began in earnest. Patches, however, were restricted. They were no longer 100% free; only security and hardware patches would remain available to non-paying customers. Solaris update releases (also free), however, would include all the other patches, so if you needed the other bug fix or enhancement patches but did not have a support contract, you could just wait a few months for the next update release.
In addition to the Solaris side of things, Sun hardware was prevalent at many universities in the 1980s and 1990s, exposing students to Sun technology. The dates might be a little skewed as that was way before my time as a college student, but from what I've heard from others that were around then, that was roughly the era of Sun workstations. In any event, during that era people didn't have cell phones and students didn't have personal computers in their rooms, and the PC didn't really even take off in households until the early to mid-90s. Today most educational institutions run primarily Windows and Linux, and if Sun hardware or Solaris is present, it is very often as part of a legacy installation.
What Happened?
Here's my theory: the PC happened. And I don't mean PC as in PC vs. Mac, I mean PC as in Personal Computer.
With the PC came an increased accessibility to computers by the ordinary citizen. Microsoft came in with DOS and then Windows. IBM made an attempt at OSes with OS/2. And there was Linux, the closest thing to UNIX that could run on a PC. UNIX was still king in enterprises, but that would change eventually. The first computer that many people were exposed to was no longer a Sun or other UNIX workstation in college, it was a PC at the local electronics shop or at home. People got comfortable with Windows and Linux before UNIX systems ever came within reach, and before long, all three OSes could boast comparable features, at least comparable enough that the average computer user would not realize any significant difference.
The PC generation then entered the workforce knowing Windows and Linux, but not UNIX. There are two options for this new workforce: learn something new, or push what they are already comfortable with. Guess what happened?
The Old IBM Integrated Systems Strategy
Oracle says it wants to repeat the successful IBM strategy of integrated systems that put IBM in the “no one gets fired for buying IBM” position in the 70s and 80s, but I have to wonder if they considered why the IBM strategy was not sustainable. Sure, UNIX systems became more suitable for many environments than the original mainframe model, while IBM stuck with the mainframe, but I think it also had to do with accessibility. UNIX systems were smaller than the mainframe, and therefore more accessible to smaller companies. The PC, driven by the x86 processor architecture, was affordable by someone as “lowly” as the home user. UNIX replaced the mainframe, and then x86 replaced UNIX architectures. Each successor was cheaper to acquire than the previous as well, but I attribute that more to economy of scale due to the level of accessibility. Of course mainframes and UNIX remain around today, but in a significantly smaller capacity than they once existed. Of the UNIXes still here, Solaris seems to be the biggest in terms of widespread use. At least, besides my level of exposure to it, it seems the fact that when applications have support for Windows, Linux, Mac, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, with support for AIX and HP-UX having been pulled many years before Solaris support was pulled would suggest Solaris as being more prevalent. (Matlab recently pulled support for Solaris/SPARC. Mathematica still supports Solaris but recently dropped support for other UNIX operating systems.) And I think that's related to Solaris having had a significant presence in educational institutions for quite some time.
Oracle has cut off Solaris from the hobbyist. The hobbyist will no longer even have an opportunity to know Solaris. And when the hobbyist becomes a college or graduate level professional, they will report to work not knowing Solaris. The market will shift away from Solaris as people choose to stick with what they are comfortable with. Just as Oracle seems to be focused on short-term profits, corporations in the future will be similarly focused, and using the existing knowledge base of the pool of potential hires is often much more cost-effective (in the short run) than training them on a new system which the employees have no existing experience with.
The Last Straw
Okay, so no hobbyist. But educational institutions? As far as I can tell, the Sun Academic Excellence Grant and Sun Education Essentials hardware deep discount programs have both been discontinued under Oracle, with mumblings that even the standard education discount may be significantly reduced or even eliminated. Why wouldn't they be? They aren't exactly programs that make an obvious profit. But by killing those two programs, accessibility to and interest in Sun technologies is significantly reduced at the university level. As I mentioned earlier, college and graduate students won't know about Sun or Solaris when entering the workforce. Maybe Sun didn’t know how to market its products or was unable to develop a profitable roadmap, but I think it at least got one thing right, and that was investing in the future by increasing accessibility to Solaris and promoting its technologies at education institutions.
Is Oracle trying to kill Solaris? Maybe it is. If so, it's certainly done a good job without making it blatantly obvious. It will be a slow death. Maybe something will happen in the OpenSolaris realm to keep the goodness of Solaris alive. Or maybe I'm all wrong and everything will turn out fine. But considering that Solaris already has a limited presence in the minds of students today, further restricting access to Solaris will not help that. And it is certainly the students today that will be the technical employees and business leaders of tomorrow.
Food For Thought
Keywords: oracle, sun, solaris, unix, linux
Two things have recently happened that have made me think that Solaris may not be around in the next 10-20 years, as the next generation or two of computer engineers enters the workforce:
1. Solaris isn't so free anymore.
2. Changes to the scope of Sun Education programs.
While there may not be any DRM (yet) to enforce the non-free-ness of Solaris, the fact that the license only permits legal use of Solaris for 90 days without a support contract or other paid license and that security patches are no longer available to non-paying customers severely restricts access to all non-enterprise customers. If it doesn’t restrict access, it at least strongly discourages anyone who had an interest in trying out Solaris.
A Bit of History
Back in the old days (before Solaris 10’s 2005 release), Solaris had a separate paid license. Intel/x86 support was a joke and it pretty much only ran on SPARC, but since it shipped preinstalled on Sun systems which were the lion’s share of SPARC systems in the world, it was practically free if you had the hardware. All patches were free. When Solaris 10 came out, Sun changed the scheme. Solaris 10 would be free for anyone to download and use, and only support would cost extra. Work on decent x86 support also began in earnest. Patches, however, were restricted. They were no longer 100% free; only security and hardware patches would remain available to non-paying customers. Solaris update releases (also free), however, would include all the other patches, so if you needed the other bug fix or enhancement patches but did not have a support contract, you could just wait a few months for the next update release.
In addition to the Solaris side of things, Sun hardware was prevalent at many universities in the 1980s and 1990s, exposing students to Sun technology. The dates might be a little skewed as that was way before my time as a college student, but from what I've heard from others that were around then, that was roughly the era of Sun workstations. In any event, during that era people didn't have cell phones and students didn't have personal computers in their rooms, and the PC didn't really even take off in households until the early to mid-90s. Today most educational institutions run primarily Windows and Linux, and if Sun hardware or Solaris is present, it is very often as part of a legacy installation.
What Happened?
Here's my theory: the PC happened. And I don't mean PC as in PC vs. Mac, I mean PC as in Personal Computer.
With the PC came an increased accessibility to computers by the ordinary citizen. Microsoft came in with DOS and then Windows. IBM made an attempt at OSes with OS/2. And there was Linux, the closest thing to UNIX that could run on a PC. UNIX was still king in enterprises, but that would change eventually. The first computer that many people were exposed to was no longer a Sun or other UNIX workstation in college, it was a PC at the local electronics shop or at home. People got comfortable with Windows and Linux before UNIX systems ever came within reach, and before long, all three OSes could boast comparable features, at least comparable enough that the average computer user would not realize any significant difference.
The PC generation then entered the workforce knowing Windows and Linux, but not UNIX. There are two options for this new workforce: learn something new, or push what they are already comfortable with. Guess what happened?
The Old IBM Integrated Systems Strategy
Oracle says it wants to repeat the successful IBM strategy of integrated systems that put IBM in the “no one gets fired for buying IBM” position in the 70s and 80s, but I have to wonder if they considered why the IBM strategy was not sustainable. Sure, UNIX systems became more suitable for many environments than the original mainframe model, while IBM stuck with the mainframe, but I think it also had to do with accessibility. UNIX systems were smaller than the mainframe, and therefore more accessible to smaller companies. The PC, driven by the x86 processor architecture, was affordable by someone as “lowly” as the home user. UNIX replaced the mainframe, and then x86 replaced UNIX architectures. Each successor was cheaper to acquire than the previous as well, but I attribute that more to economy of scale due to the level of accessibility. Of course mainframes and UNIX remain around today, but in a significantly smaller capacity than they once existed. Of the UNIXes still here, Solaris seems to be the biggest in terms of widespread use. At least, besides my level of exposure to it, it seems the fact that when applications have support for Windows, Linux, Mac, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, with support for AIX and HP-UX having been pulled many years before Solaris support was pulled would suggest Solaris as being more prevalent. (Matlab recently pulled support for Solaris/SPARC. Mathematica still supports Solaris but recently dropped support for other UNIX operating systems.) And I think that's related to Solaris having had a significant presence in educational institutions for quite some time.
Oracle has cut off Solaris from the hobbyist. The hobbyist will no longer even have an opportunity to know Solaris. And when the hobbyist becomes a college or graduate level professional, they will report to work not knowing Solaris. The market will shift away from Solaris as people choose to stick with what they are comfortable with. Just as Oracle seems to be focused on short-term profits, corporations in the future will be similarly focused, and using the existing knowledge base of the pool of potential hires is often much more cost-effective (in the short run) than training them on a new system which the employees have no existing experience with.
The Last Straw
Okay, so no hobbyist. But educational institutions? As far as I can tell, the Sun Academic Excellence Grant and Sun Education Essentials hardware deep discount programs have both been discontinued under Oracle, with mumblings that even the standard education discount may be significantly reduced or even eliminated. Why wouldn't they be? They aren't exactly programs that make an obvious profit. But by killing those two programs, accessibility to and interest in Sun technologies is significantly reduced at the university level. As I mentioned earlier, college and graduate students won't know about Sun or Solaris when entering the workforce. Maybe Sun didn’t know how to market its products or was unable to develop a profitable roadmap, but I think it at least got one thing right, and that was investing in the future by increasing accessibility to Solaris and promoting its technologies at education institutions.
Is Oracle trying to kill Solaris? Maybe it is. If so, it's certainly done a good job without making it blatantly obvious. It will be a slow death. Maybe something will happen in the OpenSolaris realm to keep the goodness of Solaris alive. Or maybe I'm all wrong and everything will turn out fine. But considering that Solaris already has a limited presence in the minds of students today, further restricting access to Solaris will not help that. And it is certainly the students today that will be the technical employees and business leaders of tomorrow.
Food For Thought
- Sun Microsystems was rated the #13 best place to work in IT by Computerworld in 2009. Oracle did not make the list.
- If you ask the average (or even above average) college student today, they’ve heard of Sun, if only by way of an introductory programming course in Java, but have never heard of Oracle.
Keywords: oracle, sun, solaris, unix, linux
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Broadband Networks and Google Fiber
An interesting read on Verizon, Comcast, and the new Google Fiber initiative, written from a Baltimore perspective.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Articles on Medicine (Mar 2010)
Really now?
Simulation-based training, something I'm a little familiar with from my Emergency First Responder training. And yes, it's not just the technical skills that are important. The teamwork and communication skills are often the harder ones to practice abstractly.
End of life, hard decisions
Doctors on Haiti: NYTimes, American Medical News
Simulation-based training, something I'm a little familiar with from my Emergency First Responder training. And yes, it's not just the technical skills that are important. The teamwork and communication skills are often the harder ones to practice abstractly.
End of life, hard decisions
Doctors on Haiti: NYTimes, American Medical News
Saturday, February 20, 2010
The Value of a Job
Ever think about the jobs that are really important to society? Ever consider that they are usually the lowest paying jobs?
Do you want to be a sanitation worker? Bus or cab driver? Security guard? Cashier? Probably not, but what would society do without them? Given, most people probably don't even want to take their own trash from the house to the curb if they don't have to, let alone pick up everyone else's.
The BBC recently published an interesting article where they assessed the value to society of some high-paying jobs and low-paying jobs.
At least in the United States, you could almost extend the thought to illegal immigrants. The common argument made to deport them is that they are here illegally and are taking up jobs that Americans would otherwise have. Well...is that really true? Yes, they are here illegally. But why would an employer hire an illegal resident and risk consequences if they could hire a legal resident? If you were an employer and couldn't find a legal resident, and now your business is suffering financially, are you more likely to want to shut down your business or perhaps be willing to overlook a potential hire's legal residency status? I'm not trying to be political here, just thought-provoking.
Do you want to be a sanitation worker? Bus or cab driver? Security guard? Cashier? Probably not, but what would society do without them? Given, most people probably don't even want to take their own trash from the house to the curb if they don't have to, let alone pick up everyone else's.
The BBC recently published an interesting article where they assessed the value to society of some high-paying jobs and low-paying jobs.
At least in the United States, you could almost extend the thought to illegal immigrants. The common argument made to deport them is that they are here illegally and are taking up jobs that Americans would otherwise have. Well...is that really true? Yes, they are here illegally. But why would an employer hire an illegal resident and risk consequences if they could hire a legal resident? If you were an employer and couldn't find a legal resident, and now your business is suffering financially, are you more likely to want to shut down your business or perhaps be willing to overlook a potential hire's legal residency status? I'm not trying to be political here, just thought-provoking.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
