Sunday, November 20, 2011

Solaris 11

Oracle finally lauched Solaris 11 (aka SunOS 5.11 update 11/11).
While retaining all major features of Solaris 10 (zones, ZFS, ...) this shifted towards the now defunct OpenSolaris (IPS packaging, elimination of some ancient tools, more GNU-like utilities).
I have installed it and worked OOB flawlessly, install time being of about 10 minutes. The installer seemed a little outdated but worked precisely - similar to a Linux/BSD one. After the fist boot I enjoyed tinkering a little with it. The feeling was that I have been working more with a Debian-like distro than with Solaris as many of the Linux idioms were incorporated.
On this promise Oracle (they promised to invest more on Solaris than Sun did) kept its word and shipped quite a   good system. Too bad that they have closed the ARM branch as Solaris has shown enormous potential for embedded devices.
  

Movies in weekend

Amazingly, this weekend I have seen two full movies.
Friday I have seen "The Rise of the Planet of the Apes". The story was predictable and linear but the special effects were stunning.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/81/Rise_of_the_Planet_of_the_Apes_Poster.jpg/220px-Rise_of_the_Planet_of_the_Apes_Poster.jpg)
 

Saturday I have finally seen "Inception". It is a long time since I haven't seen a movie as good as it. I found it to be a modern version of George Roy Hill's 1973 "The Sting" mixed with ideas from"The Neuromancer". The idea of dreams within dreams and the possibility of building worlds (not only scam scenes) takes the plot to a more profound level. There are lots of similarities in the plot and in the characters but Nolan's movie is deeper and have more profound connotations. Most of the cast was remarkable (except for Marion Cottliard which gave a pale representation).

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7f/Inception_ver3.jpg/220px-Inception_ver3.jpg)