0xfeedface Tech musings and rants

Overall, Sun xVM is easy to configure and run. Setting up a virtual machine on a headless VirtualBox installation takes a lot of thought. Setting up a VM with xVM takes a single command with virt-install. In OpenSolaris Build 133, you will be able to have the VM automatically start upon booting up the host OS. I'm very glad I switched from VirtualBox to xVM. xVM appears to be stable and fast.

I have only to gripes about xVM. First, my server has only 4GB RAM installed. xVM limits my host OS to 2GB memory. Since ZFS loves to use all available memory when it's not needed by other applications, I notice that ZFS performance has degraded slightly. Second, xVM uses VNC for remote controlling VMs. VNC is an antiquated, insecure, and inefficient protocol. I prefer the RDP VirtualBox offers over xVM's VNC.

From an administrative perspective, xVM beats VirtualBox hands-down. When combined with ZFS snapshots, xVM offers a complete solution I am looking for in a VM server. xVM has a lot of potential, especially when mixed with other OpenSolaris technologies like Crossbow.

In the end, xVM wins over VirtualBox for server environments.

I've been using VirtualBox on my NAS for a while now. The problem is that it's hard to administer on a headless server. There's so many commands you have to do in a specific order to just create a new VM. I'm going to be installing xVM on my NAS. I'm going to see how xVM runs compared to VirtualBox and how easy it is to administer on a headless server. I can hopefully get it done this weekend. I'll give a report when I've made the switch.

I've hit my first goal of the year. I paid off my car today. I'm waiting for the new title to come in the mail. I'm way freaking stoked. My car is now officially mine. I can use it and abuse it as I please. Now to save for two weeks to get the Nexus One as a celebration present. I recently watched a video that Phil did on his YouTube channel called Like Totally Awesome about the Nexus One and I am so freaking excited. I might start doing Android development once I get it. Looks like Android 2.1 not only is a serious competitor to iPhone OS, but it might have surpassed it in features and functionality.

Hulu is an online service which allows people to view their favorite TV shows and movies. I love the service Hulu provides. I don't have TV service at home and Hulu enables me to watch shows like The Office, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, and The Colbert Report. However, around two to three weeks ago, Hulu stopped working for me. I run OpenSolaris almost exclusively at home. Hulu hasn't worked for 64bit Linux and UNIX users for the past two to three weeks. There is a thread (opens in new window) on Hulu's support forums with over 3,000 views and 150 or more replies by some of Hulu's most dedicated viewers running 64bit Linux/UNIX. Hulu has not responded to those that have commented in that thread. Hulu is simply ignoring not only the problem, but its most intelligent users.

As Linux/UNIX users, we have the ability and willingness to help Hulu debug and potentially fix the problem free-of-charge. If Hulu would acknowledge us, I would definitely help them solve the problem. However, since Hulu is ignoring us, I move that we boycott Hulu until action is taken by them. I'm grateful for the service Hulu has provided me; however, ignoring dedicated customers is not a good business practice.

Please join me in boycotting Hulu until they fix the problem.

Around a month or two ago, I decided to halt all hobbyist programming. I do enough programming at work. I've been doing hobbyist C programming for around eight to nine years. Lately, I've been getting really sick and tired of programming. Programming used to be exciting and challenging. Now it's dull and boring. Instantiate this variable, write this loop, code that conditional statement. Maybe I'm bored of programming because I've spent these last eight or so years writing in C or C-based languages.

However, two days ago, I decided that the most efficient way for a hacking community with which I associate to have IRC statistics is to write an IRC bot. I already had code for an IRC bot lying around from a few years ago. I decided to pick up the old code and, since I don't comment hobbyist code, figure out how to write plugins for my IRC bot of old. I've really enjoyed working with this bot. Picking up this old project has rekindled the dwindling flame. I'm excited to finish this project.

For those who are interested, you can view the source at http://svn.retoros.org/retoros/lattbot/trunk. I'm not really looking for help on the project, nor is it ever going to be officially released. But if you'd like to help, I'd gladly accept it. There's definitely areas that need to be cleaned up.

I just registered hackerparty.org. I plan on using it to plan the Hack3r Defcon party this year. The site isn't set up just yet.

Over the years, I've collected some texts, free ebooks, and random PDFs. I'm going to start posting them in the Texts area. Hopefully they'll be of use to someone.

The Nexus One launched today. Around a year ago, I decided I wouldn't buy anything over $400 (except for stuff like essential car repairs) until my car loan was fully paid off. At the current rate I'm paying off my car (around $800/month (no, that is definitely NOT the minimum payment)), I should finish paying my car off in five weeks. I've decided to bump that $800/month up to $1500/month and pay it off in three weeks. In order to do that, I will have to work eight hours of overtime per week. At the end of the three weeks, I should have not only my car paid off, but also enough money in savings (specifically, in the "fun" category) to buy a Nexus One. Meaning, in three weeks, I will be out of debt AND holding a new, expensive toy in my hand in celebration. I'm totally stoked!

The great year of 2009 has passed. In it, we saw many challenges and many breakthroughs. I'm excited for 2010 and the experiences it will offer. Some of the things coming in 2010 I'm excited for (in no particular order): ZFS encryption, the Nexus One, my car to be fully paid off, Defcon, and T-Mobile HSPA.

Once my car is paid off, and if it's released, I'm definitely getting a Nexus One.

I went to Washington state over the Christmas holidays. I decided to install OpenSolaris b129 prior to the trip. It installed just fine and I got mplayer and fluendo dvd player working well. However, I decided to install mplayer from the sunfreepacks.com site. Not a good decision. Yesterday, my laptop refused to fully boot. I could get to a command-line interface with / mounted. However, no other filesystems would mount. After some tips from the nice people at freenode/#opensolaris, I was able to backup all my precious data and install OpenSolaris b130. The freenode crew also taught me how to use OpenSolaris's SFE. I'm now compiling mplayer from source using SFE and will do the same with VLC. I fly back home tomorrow and will be excited to see if mplayer (and especially VLC) works.