I confess, it's been a long time since I undertook the effort to operate a Unix system. When I began shopping for operating systems last month, I had only a general idea of what I was interested in doing. I need to run a minimum of four servers in a clustered configuration with one of them accessible to the Internet. This means one connection server, two application servers and a database server.

Now, with funding at a bare minimum, I also cannot afford a commercial operating system, nor would I pay for one. Windows is NOT an option, even though it is supposed to run Java fast. The only other feasible option I could think of was Solaris.

"Solaris? Doesn't Solaris Suck?" I thought. So, I googled "solaris sucks" and dug around. I found nothing substantive, and decided to burn the ISOs. Give it a whirl.

Four weeks later, I've purchased both of the Solaris Internals hardcover books and a book on Solaris System Admin certification, and I'm absolutely convinced I made the correct choice. Solaris is awesome. Let me count the ways:

1. Fine grained role-based access control (RBAC) instead of su
2. Zones (in lieu of virtualization) that fully integrates with RBAC
3. Easy to install and lock down. The secure configuration options right out of install are fantastic
4. Gives Java apps a performance boost
5. Best OS documentation I've ever read

Now, this is a pretty pie-in-the-sky list, but it's my sky, and pie beats cake any day. The first item in the list, by itself, was worth the initial (small) learning curve. This is an Open Source Operating System (OS^2?) with military-grade security features integrated at the kernel level.

Okay, so no bad news yet. I'm still learning about Solaris, very eager to set up my security zones and start focusing on application development again, but I have no regrets whatsoever about going this route. Maybe someday I'll pick up a couple of Sun boxes to get the rest of that performance boost, and be able to run a real Java shop.

I promise, however--if I find big gaping holes in this OS, or major annoyances I will be as vocal about them as I have been about the great first four weeks.

Posted by Alexander Saint Croix on 31 July 2007 at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In an article aptly titled "Hillary's Late Hit", Patrick Buchanan steps in from ringside to the Obama-Hillary grudge match and lands some unexpected but devastating body blows to Senator Clinton. This is political commentary at its best. Buchanan draws comparisons between Obama and American foreign policy presidential giants such as Eisenhower, LBJ, JFK and even Nixon that go a long way to bring the "big picture" and some much-needed historical perspective back into Hillary's false debate. I won't spoil the article for you, but it involves the likes of Stalin, Mao and other "bad people" who U.S. Presidents did not cower from, and left me wondering if, given her remarks this week, Hillary wouldn't take up residence in Cheney's infamous bunker immediately after swearing in. I don't often endorse opinion articles, but this one is insightful and concise. It left me with a fresh outlook on Obama, and a new sense of possibility for U.S. foreign policy. If you have five minutes today, give it a read.

Posted by Alexander Saint Croix on 27 July 2007 at 07:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the many benefits of a Boron-Hydrogen dense plasma focus fusion method of power generation is that it would be much more safe than modern fissile power plants. The earthquake that struck Japan this weekend might have caused environmental damage due to leaking fissile waste products.

With Boron-Hydrogen fusion, there is no radioactive input or output materials, no nuclear waste. Now, if we could get a reliable over-unity performance reaction from Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, we could go green and nuclear at the same time.

Visit http://www.focusfusion.org for more details

Posted by Alexander Saint Croix on 17 July 2007 at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)