Had some time to play around over the weekend with OpenSolaris 200805 release. It’s a huge, huge step forward. There’s still some rough edges, but so far they’ve all been things that seem fixable in a relatively short amount of time. One thing for people to be aware of is a bug in the current release that means that you can’t install in partitions of certain sizes or locations on a multi-OS disk.

Two different articles this week both struck the same set of nerves. “ROHS - More harm than good?" looks at the unforeseen side effects of the EU RoHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances) directive, especially as it applies to the use of lead in solder to manufacture computers. (Clarification: the 7% increase cited in energy usage applies to the solder applciation process, not to the computer itself as the article implies. The net effect on the computer is very small.

A couple of quick items of note from Environmental Leader over the last week. First, Thin Clients Trump PCs On Energy Consumption provides some real-world data on the energy advantages of thin client architectures. We’ve seen benefits in management overhead and security also, but more and more companies are exploring the energy benefits and getting results. I often find that people aren’t aware of our thin client SunRay products or virtual desktop offerings, but these savings are real, so check ‘em out if you haven’t already done so.

The Onion looks at biofuels…

Haven’t blogged a lot this year, but there’s been a good reason. In late December Jonathan called me and asked me to take the lead on the MySQL integration. You might be wondering why the VP of Eco Responsibility got tapped for this, but its not that surprising. When singular events occur in the company, such as the $1B purchase of an open source icon, we need to tap resources from all over to cover all of the work that’s required.

I had to laugh at this blog in Information Week titled “Going Green Merits Yellow Light”. I see this every once in awhile - people so caught up in the green aspects of a product that the “goodness” of the energy savings or lower impact spills over distorts their perspective. In this case the energy efficiency was somehow supposed to have made up for the fact that it was designed by a small company who apparently had some serious engineering (and, ultimately, business) issues.

Stuck in Toronto tonight in a snowstorm. Had 5 flights cancelled today - just couldn’t get home. It could be worse. Labatt’s Blue on tap, multiple hockey games on TV, and the top 10 plays of the day included 5 from hockey, a few from basketball and one from (yes) curling.

Switching to a new pair of running shoes. Nike Air Zoom Elite, size 10.5.

Sometimes when people do something extraordinary in their life, it overshadows everything else they do. It’s always great to be able to celebrate the life of someone like Sir Edmund Hillary who did something wonderful, and then live a life of grace and achievement which rivaled the original accomplishment. It’s also a good time to remember Tenzing Norgay, his Sherpa counterpart who has a full half-share in the claim of “first to summit Mt.

There was a bit of a scramble yesterday when Business Week put their own subtitle on my submitted op-ed. Their anti-offset interpretation brought me a bit up short, since the focus of the piece wasn’t supposed to be offsets, but carbon neutrality. So clearly I had missed the mark, so thought I’d take another shot here. First, let’s start with what I believe about out our collective situation. GHG emissions and associated climate change are a major challenge, and we don’t have a simple solution.