I think one of the most disturbing things one hears from a Mac user is the following:

"I've had a Macintosh now for a total of 35 days, and I'm really excited to be part of the Mac community."

At which point did there start a concept of 'a Mac community' and also, at what point did it suddenly become some sort of achievement to join 'the Mac community' - or am I just confused? it does seem to me like some sort of rally cry for the desperately lonely, pathetic and underachieving to think that an over priced plastic appliance defines their life.

Vermillion Build 91 has been released ( link ) - there are no known issues (thats not to say that there are no problems). Remember the follow the instructions in reference to disabling services or otherwise the installation will fail.

I've installed it on SXCE B89 (Solaris Express Community Edition Build 89), and it is 100% perfect. Rocket fast and stable. I love how snappy everything is. I hope that GNOME 2.22.x coupled with B92 power improvements, will make the experience even better :)

Power management on OpenSolaris can be found on the following ( link )

I haven't forgotten about my promise to post more (in particular to post about configuring my new T61P). I've got a post or two in process that I'm tidying up that documents all of that. I should have them up 'soon'. In the meantime I thought I'd post how I enabled CPU power management on my Lenovo T61P running Indiana since it took me a little bit to actually find out how to do so. This will also work on Solaris Express Developer Edition as well as Solaris Express Community Edition versions of OpenSolaris as long as you're running build 70 or higher.

Power Management for OpenSolaris is being developed by the Tesla project. This is to utilize Intel's Enhanced SpeedStep technology in their line of processors which allows the Operating Systems to scale the processor speed depending on system load or other user defined policies. Which has the nice side effect of using less power (good for laptops when disconnected from a power source) and generating less heat (good for not scorching one's body parts when using aforementioned laptops). Thanks to you can now manage some Intel cpu's operating frequency. And it's dreadfully easy (as long as your cpu supports it, see the flag-day referenced above which outlines how to check if your cpu is supported) to enable.

Modify /etc/power.conf and add the following entries:

cpupm enable
cpu-threshold 15s

After that, just run /usr/sbin/pmconfig as root (or with rootly powers via pfexec in the case of Indiana) and in 15 seconds you should see that your cpu frequency will drop. You can get a lot of useful information from the cpu_info kstat (/usr/bin/kstat cpu_info). In particular the current_clock_hz and supported_frequencies_hz. In my case, the processor in the T61P has a max frequency of 2.4Ghz. With cpupm enabled the processor cores run at 800Mhz when the machine is idle. Pretty great stuff :-)

Now all I need is solid S3 (suspend to ram) support (which is also under development) and OpenSolaris on a laptop will just about rival Mac OS X (at least for the things I care about).

Sometimes I say something, and look back and realise it's one of those things I must record:

"You'll never hear the outrage from the so-called 'moderate Muslims' because they simply don't exist. The moderate Muslim is like the peaceful NAZI, the the tolerant KKK member and the obese super model - they don't exist. They're a creation of the media to suit their politically correct agenda. They would rather sweeten things up than plonk the cold hard facts on the table and tell the public "deal with this mess"." - Matthew Gardiner :)

OpenSolaris and ThinkPad T61p Review:

OK, I first have to start off this post by apologising for how long it has taken me to finally get this review of OpenSolaris/Thinkpad t61p up on here (I'm reviewing both at the same time since basically it'll end up covering it anyway). What happened is during this period of time, everything installed perfectly, except the sound - the sound which is accomplished through OpenSound, but unfortunately, due to the default input sound being up too high, it caused a high pitched squeal. Instead of writing a review then, I decided to wait till I got the issue sorted out - so when I did upload the review, it included the solution to the problem so that any other people interested in it, knows what they're in for and what they need to work around (in terms of gotchas).

Anyway, here is the specifications:

Lenovo Thinkpad t61p 6457-C74: T8300(2.4GHz), 2GB RAM, 160GB 7200rpm HD, 15.4in 1680x1050 LCD, 256MB nVIDIA Quadro FX 570M, CDRW/DVDRW, Intel 802.11agn, Bluetooth, Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, FPR, Intel Turbo Memory, 6c Li-Ion, WinVista Home Basic 32bit

Basically its one of those wonderful top to bottom Intel machines. None of this mish-mash of junk from the lowest vendor possible for the OEM to save a few bucks (but make running alternative operating systems next to impossible) - so its a machine that run anything one wishes to throw at it.

The build quality of the machine is really sturdy. This is one of the things I made sure of when I purchased this. Unlike other laptops, it has a built in 'roll cage' (the video is on the Lenovo website), and sure, it adds a little more weight to the laptop, but I'd sooner have something built like a tank and built to last than something flimsy simply to save a few grams. Like most other laptops these days (except the MacBook I've noticed), there are air vents at the bottom, so its advised to use it on a flat surface so that these vents are not blocked from sucking in air - or otherwise you'll find bad things might happened (over heating etc).

The keyboard is simply wonderful; having experienced the HP, the Toshiba and MacBook keyboard, I have to admit it, the first time I used it, I fell in love. It is one of those things which make the Thinkpad stand out from the rest. When the laptop keyboard is as comfortable to use as a desktop one, then you've made some good design decisions. The responsiveness, the layout of the keys, the option of two difference cursor controls makes life a lot easier. I do have to admit that the location of the escape key is something one has to get used to - given I use vi quite often.

When closed it has a smooth minimalist appearance. Its good to see that Lenovo has stuck with the simple black appearance with the basic embossed logo in the corner; no need for big flashy fanfare or ornate logo's that light up. From the outside, once closed, it feels robust - that you can pick it up and hold it in on the side and not hear an unsettling creaking noise. The screen properly latches rather than just hanging there in a flimsy manner which gives me more confidence about the longevity of the machine.

I booted up the computer, downloaded and burnt the latest BIOS update for my laptop; just as a side note to those people interested in using this as a Windows computer - it is relatively crapware free. When I mean relatively, I still think that the wide variety of things they bundle are unnecessary. Take the wireless widget, is it really necessary to install yet another wireless manager when the built in Windows Vista one would do the job quite nicely? I mean, sure, add applications where Windows doesn't provide them, but don't simply provide them because the Windows one doesn't include 'branding'.

Anyway, once the update was installed I created a rescue disk set (just in case I need Windows for some strange reason), I booted up the Hitachi disk storage tool cd and cleared the whole disk. After it was cleared and disk verified to be kosher, I then booted up the system again with the OpenSolaris B87 (SXCE b87) - I selected option 4 (the console based installation) and went through the usual steps. I don't want to bore you with the details because basically the whole installation routine is pretty similar to Windows NT4 (blue screen, progress bar etc). All I can say is that the installation was very fast and successful.

On the first boot up I logged in as root and setup nwam:

svcadm disable svc:/network/physical:default
svcadm enable svc:/network/physical:nwam

I was requested for my WPA password for my wireless setup, I entered it and successfully joined the network. I opened up the browser only to find I couldn't visit websites. I then opened up the terminal, I could ping IP addresses but not host names, so I decided to check out nsswitch; just as I suspected, there was no dns file files where hosts are. I added that to the file, saved, exited. I then topped and restarted nwam:

svcadm disable svc:/network/physical:nwam
svcadm enable svc:/network/physical:nwam

I made a connection to my wireless router and then was able to surf the internet - and at a pretty descent speed. As a side issue, maybe its me, but I've always found the TCP/IP alot better on *NIX's than on Windows in terms of host resolving, downloading etc. For those wondering, yes, I did report the fault ( link ).

I setup a user account with the role being primary administrator (where by I use pfexec to elevate my privilages when I need to). I then installed OpenSound - on excution of the ossdetect script I was confronted with an extremely high pitched squeal which, after much google'ing, found it was due to feedback from the microphone. I spent a good several days finding a solution till I narrowed it down to hard setting the default volume of the input devices to 0 - thus subsquently solved the problem of the feedback. The modified compiled version of opensound can be downloaded via here ( link ) which works perfectly and avoids the nasty squeal.

The DPI wasn't properly detected by the Nvidia driver, so I created an xorg.conf file and added the following to the Monitor section:

Option "DPI" "96x96"

which gave me the correct size fonts and so forth.

From there I downloaded the StarOffice 10 update which is available through SunSolve. For some reason when one goes patchadd, it complains about certain packages not being installed, you will need to manually delete those updates bundled with the Staroffice 8 update 10, and the install will work nicely.

Firefox that is bundled with Solaris is dated (2.0.12), so one can download and install the latest (2.0.14) and it is a matter of editing firefox.desktop and redirect it to the new firefox installation.

Regarding software, although there is SFE extra's, it does require compiling - being that I am lazy, I decided to download what I needed off this site ( link ) at the bottom of the page there is a large tarball of around 180mb, a couple of the files are out dated, but can easily be solved by downloading them from the links, for example, the latest on the page is MPlayer 1.0Rc2 but in the tarball, MPlayer 1.0RC1 is bundled.

The default fonts are ok, but they could be better; msfonts can be downloaded ( link ) I downloaded and unzipped them, then copied the two directories ( fonts and vista) to:

/usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts

then added the following to my xorg.conf file:

FontPath "/usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/fonts/"
FontPath "/usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/vista/"

In the section labelled 'files'. Once done, I enabled subpixel font hinting in the appearance, changed the interface fonts to the improved fonts called DejaVu which are derived from Bitstream Vera 1.10.

Once everything installed I have now a rock solid mobile *NIX workstation. Apart from a few hick ups along the way, one has to acknowledge that OpenSolaris is, however, still work in progress. Although I would consider using OpenSolaris 2008.5, the problem is that the build which it relies on, B86, has a nasty bug which causes performance issues for those laptops with 4965 based wireless cards - although I could download the latest driver (1.1), I'd sooner not messy up a distribution with my own modifications - I mean, if one is going to use a distribution, the purpose is to avoid that kind of thing (which makes me confused as to why they haven't released it as an update yet as part of the 2008.5 distribution given the, what I'd call severity of the issue).

Just as a side note, about the only thing that really lets OpenSolaris down, in my eyes, is the lack of NWAM being more complete in terms of its graphical user interface. Right now it is very much work in progress, but in terms of feedback to the end user over signal strength, the connection progress, scanning for networks and so forth; Phase 1 has a lot in store for the end user - I just hope it makes it out the door soon - because going by what is on paper, it definitely beats what I've seen that is available in Ubuntu and Fedora.

If you're an aucklander and wondering where your rates (and tax dollars) are being wasted, look no further than the latest member of the PC bandwagon - "Diversity Fund"; your guess is as good as mine when I hear this like of junket doing the rounds in NZ. Anyway, here is the article:

AKL: 'Overwhelming' need for LGBT Centre

An Auckland City Council scoping study has confirmed an 'overwhelming' need for an LGBT Centre in central Auckland, says a researcher employed to investigate whether such a centre would be of use to the local community.

At yesterday evening's Auckland City Council LGBT Partnerships Committee meeting, researcher Jenny Rankine said the feedback she received from 124 completed surveys at February's Big Gay Out, along with twenty in-depth interviews, indicated there was a demand for an LGBT social and support space which is "not based around alcohol or sex".

Central Auckland has been shown to have the highest concentration of LGBT in New Zealand, and current drop-in centres – such as the Rainbow Youth centre and OUTline's headquarters downtown on Anzac Avenue – provided only specifically-targeted services or were inconveniently located, the study showed.

Young people, marginalised groups like Takataapui, and people on low incomes would particularly benefit from an LGBT centre, noted Rankine.

The study will be published next month, with an event to be held in Ponsonby Library on 5 June.

Dear god. This is the prime example of extreme wastage. Is it the sole cause of rates increase? no - I'll never make such a stupid claim. What I am pointing out is how as a result of local government over reaching when it comes to what their role within society actually is. When they keep expanding, it isn't about 'helping', it is about faceless paper shufflers in the 'halls of power' justifying their oxygen allowance. If these faceless paper shufflers aren't creating crisis and other things to justify their jobs - then shock horror, people might actually start wondering why so many of them are being employed. Perish the thought if some of these services could be delivered through non-profit organisations and people simply getting together voluntarily to improve the community - without the need for local government intervention.

We have created a society where by people think that only the government can deliver, we've created a society whose individuals have become so pussy whipped when it comes to taking responsibility for their actions - little wonder we see the type of criminality and high-school drop out rates we do? is it any surprised when we ultimately look at society through an objective lens and realise that a good portion of what we actually see is merely a byproduct of some small but key social policy decisions we have made in the past.

Dear god, my faith in humanity just keeps slipping further - case in point: my bag with my laptop and so forth got nicked, I have a copy of Office 2008 that I no longer require or need. I decide to sell it through trade me ( link ). Part of the auction process is the ability to ask quesitons to the seller to confirm things. I am asked the following questions:

"Does it come with the box? Cheers."

What part of "Microsoft Office 2008 Student and Teacher Edition, unopened, brand new" don't you understand?

"Please enter a pic, so I may see that which you are selling. Plus, how much to post to the capital, and can you write a receipt? Thanks."

Now, I don't mind being asked questions - what I do mind is people asking *STUPID* questions, this takes the top; it clearly says that shipping is *FREE* anywhere in New Zealand (as well as allowing the buyer to pick up). If you need a picture, secondly, you're obviously too stupid to own and operate a computer. Its Office 2008 - it is a yellow box with Office 2008 on it!

This, I'm sorry, is a microcosm of our society and the stupidity that seems to have infected it - people failing to read text in front of them. I've seen it when I used to work on a help desk - people not reading what is actually on their screen; unavoidable text that is like the proverbial elephant in the lounge room.

Nine Inch Nails have released their album free of charge:

http://theslip.nin.com/


For those into alternative/industrial like music, it is a pretty good album - not everyone's cup of tea, but I guess there are all sorts out there when it comes to Music :-)