Rubenerd

Brown Bag PowerMenu running in a VirtualBox VM on my Mac

How much do you remember about DOS? Mr Nolte on Twitter sent me a link to an article of his on Examiner.com where you can test your DOS knowledge!

I scored 9 out of 10 (I fudged the very first question!) which given I was born in 1986 and used our first DOS machine when I was 4, I reckon is not too bad of an effort. I guess it's true what they say, you learn more when you're young than you do at any other point in your life.

These are the questions, if you think you know the answers go ahead to Harold's article and choose the right multiple choice answers!

When was MS-DOS first introduced?
On which operating system was DOS directly based?
Which command is used to clear the screen?
What key(s) do you use to exit a program?
What does CTRL+ALT+DEL do?
What is the command ATTRIB used for?
What does FDISK do?
What would you type to see files and folders?
What is the beginning folder for all DOS paths?
Which program did not run in DOS?

I loved that old computer; we had PC-DOS 4.x I believe, followed by MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions, then a few years later we got MS-DOS 6.22 to use with Windows 3.1 in 386 Enhanced Mode (it was a 486SX!) so we could use the drive compression. We had Windows 95 on it briefly, but we really didn't have enough RAM to use it properly.

As for DOS applications, before we had Windows we used XTreeGold (Wikipedia) as our de facto shell, then we relegated that to just file management when we got a shareware copy of PowerMenu by Brown Bag Software. I wonder if either of those or the companies that made them are still around? A cursory Google search turned up plenty of results for products called PowerMenu but none were the same. And of course it goes without saying that Commander Keen is the greatest game of all time!

Come to think of it… I could write a pile of posts about this stuff! Is "pile" the correct collective noun for "stuff"?

Due to some silly distractions I had to postpone my reviews of Mac virtualisation software. Today's review is for Q.app, a free and open source native Mac port of the QEMU processor emulator.

Q.app can be described in one word: svelte! In a download that weighs in at under 10MiB, this tiny application can create and run fully contained virtual machines; it's very impressive! It's also clear a lot of care and attention has been put into the interface: because it's a native Cocoa port the interface feels like a real Mac application and the guests you create are bundled into native OS X packages.

ASIDE: As a matter of disclosure, I am not affiliated with the Q.app project or QEMU, nor was I given a financial incentive to positively review their application, though now it’s after the fact I would be more than happy to accept such payments. Thank you.

Because Q.app uses QEMU it doesn't have the sophisticated performance or graphics of much heavier (and far more expensive) apps like VMware Fusion which I've previously blogged about, but apps that require those kinds of resources aren't the intended use of it anyway.

Provided you use more modest operating systems instead of trying to shoehorn Windows 7 or Ubuntu with Gnome into it, it's very usable. Windows 2000, the BSDs and lighter distributions of GNU/Linux run just fine. Windows 95 and DOS (including the latest FreeDOS) absolutely scream! As with any VM software, the key is finding the oldest OS that can run the software you need, unless you intend on using the Internet in it for security reasons.

I have had some stability issues with Q on my first generation Core Duo MacBook Pro, and the Q drivers to enable a Samba share between my Windows 2000 guest and my Mac stubbornly refuse to work, but I'm willing to chalk both these problems up to a problem with the operator not necessarily the software! My iBook G3 was obviously slower, but didn't have either of these issues.

If you need to run a application written for another OS (or with caveats perhaps even another processor!) and you don't have time or inclination to register for and download a huge product like Fusion or Parallels, or if you're like me and just want to run a ton of older OSs for silly nostalgic reasons, you can't go wrong with Q.app. The folks behind this app have done a great job.

(Update 2021: I wrote this trying hard to be optimistic and open-minded. Suffice to say, is a phrase with three words).

Showing my support running OpenSolaris in VirtualBox on my Mac :-)

Well it's official, Sun Microsystems found a suitor not in IBM, Apple or Microsoft, but with Oracle. I must say on the whole I'm cautiously relieved, though there are some things that worry me. What an ambiguous sentence. Well you know what they say, certainty is hobgoblin of the fool… right? Wait, that's not how it goes.

Firstly, Java and Solaris absolutely make sense for Oracle; I believe I read somewhere that (paraphrasing) Larry Ellison claimed Solaris was the most effective Unix system out there for use with Oracle infrastructure. I haven't played with OpenSolaris (or Linux for that matter) to the extent I've used FreeBSD but I was really impressed by it's completeness and quality. I'm also interested in licencing; as a BSD guy the CDDL that has prevented Linux users from adopting ZFS and Dtrace hasn't bothered me but Oracle's work with Linux may see it change to the GPL… maybe.

What I'm also interested in is Sun's free and open source acquisitions and assets, namely NetBeans, VirtualBox, OpenOffice.org and MySQL. If they keep them and continue to support them I don't see any problem, and one could argue that said projects would benefit from being part of a larger company in the same vein as Linux at IBM. Some brainstorming on each:

• NetBeans would compliment their Java acquisition, but Oracle is a signed member of the Eclipse foundation. Will Oracle attempt to merge it, ditch it or continue to develop it and instead ditch Eclipse?

• VirtualBox at Oracle is a fascinating combination. Could Oracle somehow leverage VirtualBox’s virtualisation technology to more efficently deploy servers with Oracle’s database? They could do it with Solaris too!

• OpenOffice.org is a real wildcard. One could potentially see Oracle leverage OOo against Microsoft, or perhaps they could pull a Novell and instead fork it into an independent stream and an Oracle branded product that could use groupware Oracle develops. The possibilities are extremely intriguing.

• MySQL for me is a major concern. Oracle’s databases and MySQL are light years apart in features and from what I’ve heard scalability, but the gap is much narrower than it was even a few years ago. Is it conceivable Oracle would intentionally cripple MySQL or keep it with only a subset of features so as to not cannibalise their bread and butter? If they do, might we see MySQL forks or even a general move to PostgreSQL?

I've done work for Oracle in the past but I still don't know the inner workings of the company or the details regarding merged product lines (ala PeopleSoft and Siebel). Whatever the outcome, I'll be watching closely.

As I've said here before I have huge respect for Sun and have always wanted a pimped out Sun Workstation to really get stuck into Solaris. In fact if I were offered a Mac Pro or a similarly high end Sun Workstation I'd take the latter just because I've used them at university but ave never had one of my own before!

The biggest question I still have though is: what will happen to one of my top technology idols Jonathan Schwartz? Will he get a position in Oracle? Will he continue to blog from there? Or perhaps a more pertinent question would be: will he be allowed to blog from there?

I wish Sun the best in this transition period.

Very well put.

Clipmarked from Scripting News:

I made enough money in the late 80s to realize what wealth buys — distance. Then it took a few years to learn that distance is not what I wanted, in fact I don’t think it’s human to crave distance. People are built to want to be among others, at least I was.

I bought a house with a 750 foot driveway in the middle of the woods. My neighbors built houses the size of high schools. You couldn’t walk anywhere.

Now I live among humanity, much more modestly and I’m happier.

Om Malik mocking John C. Dvorak on Cranky Geeks 162!

As usual, Om Malik from GigaOm.com hits the issue right on the head. He's one of the few tech bloggers and commentators today I have all the time in the world for.

As I've been saying for a while now, the problem with Facebook's latest design is that they think I really care what all my former classmates are doing 24 hours a day in the same vein as Twitter, which just isn't the case. I use Twitter and follow people I'm really interested in.

If you only read one paragraph below, make it the last one. Worded brilliantly, unlike the paragraphs in this post I wrote myself. Grilled cheese sandwiches contain tastyness.

Clipmarked from GigaOm:

Facebook, by its very nature, is mostly about our past, sometimes about our present, but very rarely about our future. Being symmetric, it’s important that we have some sort of a prior relationship with a person in order to friend them on Facebook.

Zuckerberg & Co. have let themselves turn green with envy over the latest Silicon Valley phenomenon, Twitter — and in the process, have set out to mutate Facebook’s own DNA.

Facebook’s recent redesign brought Twitter-style updates into its service […]

By allowing a torrent of status updates into our Facebook pages, the company has destroyed what made it special: its ability to construct a constantly updated newspaper about us. With Twitter-like updates, the site has lost its intimacy, flooding us with a lot of white noise.

Current Victorian vehicle licence plate

A discussion prompted by Sir Kloss on Google Reader regarding Alaska and the views of some of it's people compared to the rest of the US led me to thinking what makes South Australia different from the rest of Australia. I'd say Farmer's Union Iced Coffee (Wikipedia) is the most important difference.

One thing I have really noticed studying in Adelaide (Wikipedia) having lived in and visited Melbourne in particular is that people here are far more humble and realistic about their state, and don't have an overinflated sense of self worth.

The Melbourne Docklands in 2006, by Diliff on Wikipedia

Melbourne (Wikipedia) is a nice place and has been voted as the most liveable city in the world by The Economist several times, but I worry it gets to some people's heads there. The current state government's longer term development initiative describes Victoria as "The Place to Be" on their vehicle registration plates and on promotional material. The state's Premier has called Adelaide a "backwater" and the Lord Mayor of Melbourne went so far as to say recently that Adelaide doesn't even have a reason for existing and should be shut down. It's cringe-worthy, though at the same time fun to watch these people make arses of themselves!

By comparison, people in Adelaide and South Australia in general have a far more self-depreciating sense of humour about themselves which is quite refreshing. It's as if people here know Adelaide is nice place to live, while being secure and confident enough in themselves not to indulge in Victoria-like shenanigans.

Adelaide by wayfaring.info

Therefore I suggest the state government here ditch the new licence plates here which humbly just print the name "South Australia" under the registration number and replace it with "South Australia — The Unpretentious State". Or do we want to keep taking the high road (ha!) and leave it as is? I'll leave it up to the Premier.

Now to Twitter this to Mike Rann and then I'll go grab some afternoon tea. Adelaide has more restaurants and cafés per capita than anywhere else in Australia, so I have my pick of places!

Hard hitting blogging analysis. And I like his trunk.

As some of you would no doubt remember, with my previous webhost Servage it was quite normal for the database or web server backing this blog to go offline for anywhere between several hours to several days. For those who have only just stumbled upon my bizarre mix of whatnot here, I'm not exaggerating with those downtime figures!

My new webhost sent me this message this afternoon:

Dear Ruben,

On Sunday 19th April 2009 we will be performing scheduled maintenance on our shared hosting servers. The maintenance will be starting at 3:00PM and finishing at 5:00PM (GMT+10).

We expect minimal downtime, however you may notice your website unavailable for a period of 2-3 minutes during this time. No email will be affected, only your website.

Best Regards,
Segment Publishing Customer Support

You read that right… 2-3 minutes. My old webhost would have blamed an outage of 2-3 minutes on the fact I sneezed and subsequently closed my eyes for the duration of that time. Or worse still, they would have claimed it was the result of me setting my permissions wrong. That was their answer to everything. Hehe, sneeze.

Earlier today I talked about how the best way to treat an online visitor or customer is the same as with any other industry: with respect. I guess having lived without it for so long online, now having it feels weird.

I'm forming a theory that FreeBSD people not only have a better server OS than others, but that they're cooler too. SegPub is a FreeBSD webhost… perhaps I'm onto something. Or perhaps I'm just on something. I wish I were witty, then I'd have wit.

Given Last.fm's probably necessary but poorly executed recent move to charge people living outside select countries, Ruben relegated it to the roll of just keeping track of music he's played via it's scrobbling client in order to generate his own music charts.

He wondered where they got the word scrobble from in the first place. He thought it sounded like a budget brand of oat cereal. You know, the one with "clusters" or "pieces" or "sultanas" or whatever it is the blasted granola lobby calls them these days. Scrobble is a part of a nutritious breakfast, along with Eggo and Pop Tarts. Yeesh.

Upon updating his profile to reflect this narrowing of use of his Last.fm account, he noticed his sister had a graphic displaying her most played artist along with a percentage breakdown of said artist and her two runner-ups. He also noticed he started referring to himself in the third person for some reason beyond him.

Ruben decided the graphic his sister had looked just smashing, so he proceeded to direct his browser to BloGate's last.fm sidebar image generator to create one for himself. He entered his username and was presented with the graphic you see to the right of this text.

He was surprised that the living jazz legend Michael Franks was played a stupendously ridiculous (he liked the phrasing of that) 10% of the time. He knew he was obsessed with his music, but certainly not to that extent. End of communique.

Sad news being reported by South Australia's Greens senator Mark Parnell this month. It's really sad this kind of discrimination is still legal in this day and age.

I've previously blogged about Mark Parnell here. We need more people like him in politics.

Clipmarked from markparnell.org.au:

Critical amendments to the Equal Opportunity Act that will allow religious schools to continue to discriminate against gay teachers have passed the SA Upper House with the support of Liberals, Family First and No Pokies.

“The Greens were extremely disappointed that Labor had previously backed down on removing discrimination against teachers on the basis of sexuality. Now, this already compromised Bill has been compromised again.

“An individual’s sexuality or chosen gender has absolutely no impact on their ability to teach well. So why will schools be able to discriminate on that basis?

“Freedom from discrimination on the basis of a person’s sexuality is a basic human right. Our state used to have an enviable reputation for progressive social policy. Not any more”, he said.