The job isn’t finished yet, until all of Apache and MySQL and PostgreSQL and PHP and Python and and Ruby and Rails are in the package, all optimized for Solaris, all stuffed with DTrace probes, and all with developer and production support available. It won’t be long.

God bless Sun. This will make scaling our application much, much easier.

ongoing · AMP R Us : DTrace in AMP stack

Cool Stack is a collection of some of the most commonly used open source applications optimized for the Sun Solaris OS platform. By using these binaries you will enjoy the best levels of performance from your system, while also reducing your time-to-service.
Cool Stack features

Cool Stack includes several Sun Solaris OS packages, so you can install just the ones you need. Some of the applications in Cool Stack already ship with Sun Solaris OS 10, but these are either older versions and/or not built with full optimization. Cool Stack is built using Sun Studio (TM) 11 Compiler using the -xO4 option (SPARC version) and gcc with -O4 (x86 version) for high levels of optimization. This results in anywhere between 30-200% performance improvement (depending on workload/application) over standard binaries.
Cool Stack contents

The following sections provide more details on each of these packages.

* CSQamp. This package includes Apache HTTP Server 2.0.58, MySQL 5.0.22 and PHP 5.1.4 built to work together. Apache httpd is built with MPM pre-fork and modules to support PHP, SSL and Perl. PHP has support for MySQL. Note, to work with PHP, MySQL included in this package is a 32-bit version for client-side use only. For the database server, install the CSQmysql package which is a 64-bit version, allowing the use of larger caches to deliver improved performance for large databases. Note that the CSQamp package will work with the CSQmysql database server.
* CSQmysql. This package includes a 64bit version of MySQL 5.0.22 and is built with innodb. See the README file in /usr/local/mysql for details.
* CSQperl. This package includes Perl 5.8.8. Note that Solaris 10 ships with the same version of Perl. However, CSQperl is compiled with optimization and the Sun Studio 11 compiler and will provide better performance. To use this version of perl, rather than the default one, include /usr/local/bin in your PATH before /usr/bin.
* CSQphp. This package provides a FastCGI version of PHP 5.1.4 and installs in /usr/local/php5_fastcgi. This PHP is meant for use via FastCGI from a web server other than Apache. This package should not be confused with the version of PHP in CSQamp - that version installs in /usr/local/php5 and is only for use with Apache HTTP Server.
* CSQsquid. This package includes Squid 2.5.STABLE14 Web Proxy Cache. Squid is a single-threaded application and as such does not scale well on SMP platforms. You may need to run multiple instances to achieve scalability.
* CSQtomcat. This package includes Apache Tomcat 5.5.17 which is a pure Java application. It is provided for convenience as it is no different from the one on tomcat.apache.org.

Apache, MySQL, Perl, optimized for Sun/Solaris: cooltools: Cool Tools at OpenSPARC T1

Good info on how to compile DBD::mysql on Solaris 10.

How to compile DBD::mysql on Solaris 10 Perl

Come and learn about a recent Sun innovation - the Sun Blackbox. We'll host the OpenSolaris Meeting and have informational presentations on the Blackbox and the Sun technologies that are available with the Blackbox.

We will also be showing a tour of the actual Blackbox in the parking lot so you are able to see and hear about the details of the inner workings of the Blackbox. When:
2/20/2007 Agenda:
6:30 PM To 8:30 PM Pizza, Refreshments, Presentation & Tour of Project Blackbox
Where:
Sun Microsystems, Braves Conf. Room
3655 North Point Parkway
Suite 600
Alpharetta, GA
30005

I admit to being a sucker for Sun. But this is cool. They're gonna tour the shipping container data center things.

Sun Microsystems Project Blackbox Atlanta Tour

Configuring MySQL to Use With Service Management Facility (SMF)

How to setup MySQL as a service in Solaris 10.

BigAdmin - Submitted Tech Tip: Configuring MySQL to Use With Service Management Facility (SMF)

However, any XSUB-based (.xs) modules require recompilation and reinstallation.

When you use Solaris 10, you must execute the following command as root to get ANYTHING from CPAN to build:

perl -MCPAN -e 'force install("Scalar::Util")'

Otherwise there is no .XS support, and you are so screwed.

How to use perl on Solaris 10 : docs.sun.com: System Administration Guide: Network Services

I was recently asked how to extract a single file from a Solaris flash archive and, funnily enough it had never occured to me that it might come in handy some day. The procedure is super easy.
First we split the flash archive into one file for each section, the file we’re interested in is called archive. If you don’t know the path and name of the file you want then list the cpio archive and grep for it. The last step is to do the actual extract, or copy in as it’s called in cpio speak.
# flar split myflasharchive.flar
# ls
archive identification predeployment summary
cookie postdeployment reboot
# cpio -it < archive | grep somefile
export/ldap/adduser.ldif
# cpio -ivdm export/ldap/adduser.ldif < archive
export/home/lasseoe/adduser.ldif

If the archive has been compressed then do;

mv archive archive.Z
uncompress archive.Z

Woot.

Extracting a single file from a FLAR: Solaris Webstart

In fairness to Dude… he may be right. When Wilford and I launch Avanoo in a

month or so, it might not be as sweet as we (and a growing number of alpha users) think it is.

But I didn’t write this article to disprove Dude Yamaha… Only time and a cool-as-hell product can do that!

Rather, I wrote it to warn you about people like Dude – people who
have achieved success through inheritance, luck, or yesterday’s toolkit
– who then seek to put down those who don’t share their ideas…

Don't let anti-Dude get you down.

Don’t Be a Dude Yamaha: A Gripping Story of Life and Death in Silicon Valley | The News is NowPublic.com

With the help of a tip by Darren Dunham, I found the right way to boot an SVM mirrored system in single user mode (GRUB's default Failsafe configuration ignores mirrors during boot, and there's apparently no way to mount a mirror).

When GRUB menu appears, hit 'e'
Select the 'kernel ...' line
Add 'kernel/unix -sv' to the end of it, so it reads:
kernel /platform/i86pc/multiboot kernel/unix -sv
Hit 'b' to boot.

It should boot into single user mode (with mirrored / slice mounted, etc).

Journal of toby (759)

Flowcharts and the Law

I've found that effective use of charts in communicating the law tend to be focused on process, rather than actual code. For instance, there is an excellent flowchart by the Bureau of Justice Statistics that maps out the process of the American Criminal Justice System. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/flowchart.htm

As to teaching the law, Ian Iredale has done some interesting work on this using .RTF (Rich Text Format) flowcharts with hyperlinks. He has some examples from Australian law, including the Law of Contract, Intellectual Property, Tax Equations, and the Legal Paradigm at http:// www.murdoch.edu.au/elaw/issues/v9n3/iredale93nf.html

-- Russell Jurney (email), September 11, 2005

There seem to be two ways of looking at the law (and many other topics, for that matter).

One way of looking at it is as a continuing evolutionary process. So for example, to understand the laws around airline safety and immigration in the United States, you have to put it in the context of the security situation around that time - terrorism, reform of the intelligence services, and so on -. Landmark udicial decisions are also likely to have a big influence on current practice and on the code itself.

This is a great way to look at things if you work in social policy, or if you need to have a broad understanding of the legal situation without understanding the nitty-gritty. However, it won't tell you much about what you should do if you actually want to engage with the law - it's not a 'how-to' manual.

The other way of looking at it is in terms of an understanding of how it actually functions on a daily basis - what form you should fill in, what sort of action you should take, what appeals are open to you, and so on.

This is a good way to look at things if your purpose is to be directly engaged in operating the system, because it will guide you as to what your next action should be in most cases.

Of course, a really good specialist will know the system both ways. They know the context, but they also know the specifics of how to work the system. By combining these two types of knowledge, they will find innovative ways of using (and possibly abusing) the system.

Showing the 'bridge' between these two types of knowledge is the most challenging and interesting issue.

-- Antoin O Lachtnain (email), September 11, 2005

I think the key to briding the gap between these two kinds of knowledge is to get lawyers working on systems that base themselves on a visual representation of process that is sufficiently plastic to allow the expression of alternate strategies, the embedding of expert knowledge, etc. In time, through annotation, a system representing both kinds of knowledge will be born.

Ask E.T.: Teaching Legislation