The Twitter Diaries: Mar 20 – Apr 6, 2011

Even tho my profile states that I work for Joyent, FB keeps showing me ads titled Work at Oracle? #FAIL #
The Twitter Diaries: Mar 5-20, 2011 #
But not in a Disney way  #

@edsai that may be taking hard-core geek too far #node #fedramp #csa #
@edsai That, we all need tattooed on our foreheads #
in Italy anything thats worthy of interest or comment has a bit of mommy in the mix #
Would like breathing to be a little easier right now #
@reiger best of all possible worlds. Even better when you can do it just walking. 😉 #
@reiger nice! #
@zaps l’unico politico italian che mi manca – la Bonino. Forse anche Rosy Bindi #la7 #linfedele #
@jamescmcpherson Congratulations to all! #fb #
Hans Rosling and the magic washing machine | Video on TED.com  #

Ross is playing music that I would ordinarily sing along to, but I have no voice. Frustrating. Maybe not for her. #
The DTrace book is off the press! Final copies will soon be shipping from the publisher’s warehouse, mostly to Amazon #
rose from my sickbed to come to the Joyent office, was missing my peeps #
RT @avareltech: @DeirdreS will the book be available on safari? — already is! #
Sometimes the most valuable thing I can do is get people in a room and let /them/ talk. Especially when I have no voice. #
More sleep and less cough would be very welcome… starting 6 hours ago #
(only the Italians would consider food a strategic resource, but thats another story)  #
@ryah I’ve been up all night coughing. I’m not sure which of us had a worse time. #
@ryah Thanks. Just tell me it’ll be over soon? #
Just saw a hawk being mobbed by crows outside my window… in San Francisco #
@trine Diesel is a surname in German, no? In Anglo cultures, at least, it’s not unusual to use a surname in the family as a given name. #
@trine I was giving them the benefit of the doubt. 😉 #
@MartinDBA DTrace videos #
.@lskrocki Revolutionary then still is now. Which is both amazing and sad. #
RT @notmatt: In six months, I expect I’ll post something just like this from @ryancnelson – Amen, +3 months #
@standaloneSA Isaac Rozenfeld of Sun/Oracle would be awesome for this #sysadmin #lopsa #
@WinnieWongSF What on earth are you up to over there? #
@ryah The power of the tweet is yours #
Showered, changed into a fresh t-shirt… and got back into bed. If only I could sleep! #
@sh1mmer Why would anyone pay money to buy dead-trees wikipedia? Makes no sense at all #
Twelfth Night – THE RAIN IT RAINETH EVERY DAY  #

#1 inBooks > Computers & Internet > Operating Systems > Solaris DTrace book #

Top ten lists on several ways of being Best Places to Live for Expatriates – Italy not on any   #
Suggestions to stop a tickling wet cough so I can sleep? Tried mucinex dm, tea, hot lemon & honey (w & w/out bourbon), syrup, drops… #
@bubbva there’s no lack of humidity in Sf right now, esp since I’m barely using heating #
As we get more education we get more confidence and income, women are saying, she finally had the guts to walk out.  #
Let’s see if any of this new crop of medicines can tame tho cough enough for me to sleep #
.@timminchin That takes real guts in her situation – she has a good chance of being killed for that interview. #
@vdotw @edsai too late to get it tonight, I took dextromethorphan. Mix with acetiminophen w codeine left over from surgery? #
@deirdresm I don’t think she has a choice, unless she can find visas and a way to supprot herself and 6 siblings in some other country… #
s@trine Good luck, my dears. Thinking of you. #
Argh! Why am I not in New York?  #
RT @JessicaGottlieb: My Childhood Bullies Apologized to Me on FB 20 Years Later – careful, that’s not always sincere #
Sometimes the apologetic ex bully is just a scam artist ready to make you the victim, as ever. Or just plain batshit crazy. #
As I expected, doc says it’s just a really bad cold. But he’s giving me the good stuff. #
@MrSimonTaylor What if they just move the Y they’ve got? #
@anildash is that home made pizza? Sounds like the kind of awesome I would like to try #
the doctor told me to eat lots of non-dairy protein. Fortunately, I was planning to do exactly that. #
@deirdresm dairy causese mucus, whcih I already have too much of #
@GodlessAtheist Eww, eww, get it off me! #
Finally got a fair amount of sleep, I’m always surprised by how good that feels. Think I’ll do it some more. #
RT @nodejsconfit: http://nodejsconf.it the first italian conference about #nodejs #webdebs /cc @joyent @jsconfit #
We’re long past point of diminishing returns on awareness, days, ribbons for various causes. I don’t care what color you’re wearing or why #
.@johnnysunshine Spot on! Even non-believers are not entirely rational. We believe that thinking good thoughts somehow magically helps. #
Not even if Jesus Christ himself… Italian Idiom and Sayings #
.@elizadushku My photos of beautiful graffitit on trains in Italy and walls #slightlyobsessed #
RT @sogrady: @jasonh: give me analytics and i’ll pay – true dat. Tho you can do a lot with bit.ly #
Those who recommended codeine cough syrup were right – very effective. I’m tempted to sleep through the weekend. Probably shourd. #
the comments say far more than the article: Sex and the Long-Term Relationship – NYTimes.com  #
the state of my life 4 years ago: Light at the End of the Tunnel #
and one year ago: Gallery: Tech Days 2010 Hyderabad #
@WinnieWongSF Yup. I can deal – happily – with change. It’s stasis that kills my soul. #
Dave Pacheco’s Blog Example: HTTP request latency and garbage collection #
Friendly Atheist Prayer: It’s Almost Like Doing Something #
@webmink @lskrocki I love goats, but they are tricksy beasts, and you have to be way smarter than they are. Harder than you might think. #
@rob_ellis Giving way to hipsters and suits? Remember our mascot! #
.@acarvin How many of the deniers are women? #
it should be possible to know a great deal about me by analyzing who I follow & retweet. Is anyone doing this kind of analysis? #
.@zephoria IPuzzled by the slut shaming that flourishes among schoolkids. Why is teen culture so vicious and unforgiving (and hypcritical)? #
Amazon: WTF?!? Customers who have purchased or rated Sondheim’s Putting It Together might like Sarah Palin’s Alaska… Uh, no. Really NO. #
Why, yes, I am up at 430 am hacking up a lung, thank you for asking. #
@webmink dying from not-surprise 😉 #
@gedamore thanks’ I’m trying to! #
.@hridaybala Even experts will find the DTrace book useful – it’s 1100 pages of mostly new invention, bound to be something they don’t know #
Oh, shit, our mascot got loose: @BronxZooHBadger #
Hmm, even the White House camera person bumps and shakes from time to time. And the President is a lot easier to film than most of my stars #
The world needs more singing in public.  #

@sogrady Officially, Amazon doesn’t let you re-download music you’ve lost any more than Apple does. So far they’ve been kind to me, but… #
@NickKristof I happily paid for it a few years ago, was surprised when they stopped charging. Now I’ll have to see if I run into the limit. #
RT @KatieS: I wonder what the @honeybadger thinks of @BronxZoosCobra? – drat, there’s another one? #
Amazon says the Kindle edition is available now: DTrace book
#
RT @marczak: dtrace, I love you. – Aww #
@hridaybala Cool, thanks! #dtrace #
@konobi Dunno, but it’s affecting SF as well. #
@LusciousPear Better that it’s an ex, no? #headdesk #
@arclight Bed Spencer & Terrence Hill? You’re either Italian… or Indian. #
@neo_indian I initially read nuns and wickets…. #
@neo_indian Oh, I know. If I had any way to watch it here< I would. #
Not allowed to take pictures in the historic mills bldg because it’s a historic landmark and people go after places like this. Huh? #
Browsing at Walgreens, I realize there’s a genre missing in romance novels: Hot Tech – My Sexy Geek. Someone could make millions. #
RT @Annarella: @DeirdreS My Sexy Vampire Sysadm and My Wolfish Dba 😉 – That’s more like a reality show! #
My kid accuses me of being a terrible mother, but one of my failings is needing a definition of a good one. !Italian Mamma for Dummies? #
@sriramnrn Heh. My parents cheated – I was in boarding school from age 14, never came home again #
@bcantrill You hiring or looking? 😉 #
@rioter In case any of these are helpful. And of course there’s the book. #
whoever pointed out this new weather site, thanks! I like it – WeatherSpark | Interactive Weather Charts #
.@jlb13 Science fiction writers could see technology wd zoom ahead, but found culture hard to reimagine. Maybe Heinlein was the exception. #
@jlb13 It’s even funnier to read early Spinrad where characters living in 20nn are using hip 60s slang #
5 years ago today we buried my Aunt Rosie. She left a huge hole in many lives, and we gave her the send-off to prove it  #
I believe sleep is finally on the way. For which I am deeply, deeply grateful to the pharmaceutical industry. #
Real life will overtake a cynical national health-care debate. #
Illumos in the Cloud: What is Joyent Up to? – umm, yes, I wrote that #
@dexterous Thanks, will get that fixed. Too many fingers in the pie – I wrote most of the article, but not that bit #
I’m told that this is a 21-day cold & I’m lucky it hasn’t turned into pneumonia. Maybe that means I’ll be able to stop coughing & sleep soon #
@ryancnelson You need to move it into that corner conference room that’s always too cold #
@jlb13 (Eyebeam) #


.@ebertchicago If he really had the courage of his convictions, he would go burn Korans in Afghanistan. #
1 year ago I arrived from Colorado and moved into this apartment is San Francisco, with the help of @jeffreytaylor Still happy to be here! #
RT @jamescmcpherson: Is there any point in keeping 3.5 floppy disks these days? #fb – I’m using them as drink coasters – geek chic! #
I come from a family of drama queens (myself included). It gets very tiring. #
RT @NomdeB: Thinking that in honor of cricket & India, must watch Lagaan (2001) http://bit.ly/dJxuq6 🙂 – Good idea! #
@mamash Plus – they sing and dance! #
Intel Cloud Builders – Joyent #
DTrace book on its way to Amazon, those who ordered fm Informit get it this week. Kindle & other e-versions avail NOW #
RT @hudsonette: Hmm. I miss Walter Cronkite, too. – Yes, tho I hated him reporting the Vitenam casualties every night. Dad coulda been one #
@quasi42 I thought that date a bit optimistic, US Amazon says Apr 11. Informit orders arrive this week, though. #
RT @hudsonette: @DeirdreS oh, glad he wasn’t! Yes, those were scary news broadcasts. – Scary times. #
@heckenpenner83 Got book? 😉 #dtrace #freebsd #
.@hudsonette Not sure if this is really scary or just hilarious. The US combines the most advanced tech with the most backward superstition. #
.@hudsonette I have long feared that the powers that be want a crap education system so they can have a mass of gullible sheep as voters #
@binarycrusader Oh, is that what that’s about? Hmm… #
@jitterted good point #
@Cdash @shawnferry I’ve heard you two described as a pair of alpha dogs. 😉 #
My gut says the GOP Path to Prosperity is just that: the wealthy of the GOP will benefit, the rest of us will be thoroughly screwed. #
Once you enter the democratic political arena on a religious platform, your beliefs are up for legitimate attack #
RT @melanierenzulli: Anyone have the MLB At Bat app? Can you stream the games on your tv? Wondering if it’s worth 15…. @ryancnelson ? #
@Cdash Heh. Guess. #
Mirroring Facebooks Culture in a New Corporate Campus – NYTimes.com  – will be sad but interesting to see results #
It has to come to life… bit by bit, Putting it together  – Is other words: it’s showtime, folks! #

TechTalkTO: James Duncan on Node.js on Vimeo  #

TechTalkTO: James Duncan on Node.js from FreshBooks on Vimeo.

illumos in the Cloud: What is Joyent Up to?

For years – decades, even – Sun Microsystems held some of the world’s greatest engineering talent fast in its cozy embrace. Then, as so often happens, acquisition unleashed a storm of change. A year later, a good deal of Sun’s top talent has moved on, including some well-known names from Solaris engineering. I’m sure this tech diaspora will benefit the industry as a whole, as Sun talent spreads far and wide.

For three years at Sun, I worked closely with top Solaris engineers. Many became friends, so I have kept in touch with those who left, and kept an eye on where they went. A number of the best and brightest settled at a cloud computing company out of San Francisco, called Joyent.

Bryan Cantrill, Jerry Jelinek, Brendan Gregg (with whom I worked very closely on the DTrace book), and several other members of Sun’s FISHworks team made the move to Joyent in late 2010. In addition, Joyent had brought on Ryan Dahl (the creator of Node.js, a hot new technology the world was beginning to hear about), Isaac Schlueter and more recently, Tom Hughes-Croucher (author of the upcoming Node.js book for O’Reilly). Putting all these elements together, it was clear that Joyent must be up to something very interesting; I had to become a Joyeur myself to find out exactly what was going on in the company!

We should first spend a few words to answer the question: What exactly is cloud computing? As Steve Gillmor said when asked at the O’Reilly Web 2.0 conference in 2008: to developers, cloud computing means being able to implement ideas at a very early stage, without having to concern themselves about future scaling up. This applies to start-ups and enterprises as well – companies too want a place to implement and deploy their applications or games quickly and flexibly with confidence they can scale rapidly if needed.

A good cloud hosting company provides the just-right amount of computing infrastructure, exactly when you need it. This includes “bursting” CPU capacity, so that your Facebook game doesn’t fall over when it suddenly goes viral, making you a victim of your own success. A good cloud hosting company has monitoring tools that can tell the difference between a short-term surge in traffic and a longer-term need to scale up capacity. Launched in early 2004 as one of the early pioneers of cloud computing, Joyent was the platform of choice for many popular web startups, including Twitter, WordPress and more. Over time, Joyent’s public cloud service became hugely popular with casual/social game studios, retail and ecommerce companies and many social networking applications. While the public face of Joyent has been a cloud computing service much like Amazon’s (but a lot faster), at heart Joyent is a software company.

I was already familiar with Joyent as one of the most innovative users of OpenSolaris: Ben Rockwood was a frequent conference speaker on OpenSolaris and related topics, and was active in the OpenSolaris community. Joyent was also one of the biggest contributors to OpenSolaris patches and is now a supporter of Illumos.

Based on Illumos, Joyent has created its own operating system, SmartOS, optimized for cloud computing. Why make a cloud kernel based on Illumos? From the cloud operator’s perspective, the advantages are obvious:

Maximize resource usage

  • Illumos virtualization (zones and Crossbow network virtualization) lets a cloud hosting provider put more customers on the physical server (each in their own SmartMachine), while still giving all of them phenomenal performance. Joyent’s servers typically run at 70% CPU capacity, against an industry standard of around 30%.
  • Creation and startup of additional zones – in other words, adding new paying customers – is nearly instantaneous.
  • 100% of RAM is allocated to SmartMachines or repurposed for SmartCache as an ARC-cache layer between application and disk.

Maximize performance

  • No hardware emulation means the machine runs much faster; SmartOS is the hypervisor.
  • In cloud computing, latency is everything. ZFS with ARC dramatically improves disk performance, reducing a major source of slowdowns.
  • 3X more transactions per second compared to Amazon EC2 of similar size and cost.

Know what’s going on

  • Users of Solaris, Illumos, Mac OS X and FreeBSD know that DTrace gives you an unprecedented view throughout the software stack. But all that power comes at a price: using DTrace effectively requires expertise. The Joyent team is now harnessing the power of DTrace in a more user-friendly form with cloud analytics, which will be available to Joyent customers via a GUI and an API.

Companies who want to take advantage of the benefits of the cloud – variable costs, flexible resource usage, and affordability – are choosing Joyent for the efficiency it offers compared to legacy cloud systems. Thank you, Illumos, for giving us much better utilization and faster performance, and hence lower costs to customers.

The power of SmartOS is now available to another kind of Joyent customer: the Service Providers (telcos, ISPs, datacenter operators) who are using Joyent’s cloud software to deliver cloud services to their customers. With the cloud market expected to grow from 30-55% in coming years, it’s no wonder that so many existing providers want to get into the cloud business too. And Joyent is making this very, very easy to do.

Led by VP of Engineering Bryan Cantrill, Joyent’s very talented engineering team has rolled up years of cloud computing experience into a powerful yet easy to use software package, SmartDataCenter 6. This is the fruit of a major engineering effort around multi-tenancy operation in the cloud, including enhancements to OS-level virtualization, DTrace and ZFS. These technologies – powerful and revolutionary as they are – are only the foundation of a cloud operating system. Using Node.js – a Joyent framework for high-throughput, evented-oriented systems – Joyent has built orchestration and management software that turns these foundational OS technologies into a revolutionary cloud offering.

I’m excited to be here at Joyent, working with amazing people on wonderful things. If you’re a current Joyent customer, or a prospect interested in learning more, please drop me a line or go to Joyent.com or JoyentCloud.com to learn more. I’mDeirdre@joyent.com.

originally published in Sun System News

The (Previous) Bombing of Tripoli

Reading the news today that US forces are bombing Tripoli brought on a quirky memory, almost completely unrelated to today’s events.

Last time the US bombed Tripoli, in 1986, I was on a study abroad year in Benares, India. I had chosen to live in Vijayanagaram Bhavan, the headquarters of the College Year in India program, so knew about all the students’ comings and goings. I also kept an eye on what was going in the world (a habit picked up from my dad the newshound). I owned a shortwave radio, and used it to listen to the Voice of America, BBC World Service, and Radio Moscow (whose announcers all sounded as if they had been raised in Nebraska).

I wrote up daily news summaries and posted them on the center’s bulletin board for my fellow students, a service they seemed to appreciate. So it was I who informed them about the US attack, which was not well received by the world community, nor by many Americans. There were fears of retaliatory attacks on American citizens worldwide. I heaved a sigh and got on with my life – been there, been threatened with death by the Islamic Jihad. We also imagined, I don’t know how realistically, the possibility of full-scale war, complete with Vietnam-style conscription of US youth.

A few days later, an American showed up at the Bhavan with a list of student names he wanted to check. His wife was a consular officer with the US Embassy in Delhi, so it was her duty to keep track of US citizens in the region in case there should be a need to whisk us all to safety. I was pleased that, having put my life in danger, my government was at least proposing to get me out of it again, and was happy to give the man the information he needed. Meanwhile, my classmates were at the other end of the verandah, muttering among themselves about the stranger and what his business might be.

As the man and I were finishing, one of the students – J, a painfully politically correct young man – came bustling up.

“Sir,” he said officiously, “I would like to lodge a complaint about the actions of the US government in Libya – ” He didn’t get to finish.

The man looked him straight in the eye and barked: “I am here to inform you that all US males over the age of 18 are being drafted into the army, and you have two days to report to the nearest recruiting center!”

J’s jaw dropped, he turned white as a sheet, and for once had nothing to say.

“Just kidding.”

The man smiled sweetly, and went about his business.

node.js Community Event: Rough Cut Videos

Joyent hosted a node.js community event at our San Francisco offices the other evening, in which Ryan Dahl announced a new version of node.js, and Brendan Gregg showed some amazing stuff you can do with Joyent Cloud Analytics on your no.de hosted site to understand what’s going on in your node.js app.

For more details on cloud analytics, see Dave’s and Robert’s blogs, and two more hours of video with Bryan and Brendan demoing.

Technical difficulties with UStream meant I didn’t have a stream recorded to their servers that night, technical difficulties with everything else meant I couldn’t get these rough cuts hosted anywhere til now. This is exactly what you would have seen on the stream (and more), including the bad camera angle which was forced by… oh never mind. A better view of cloud analytics will be forthcoming.

(NB: These videos disappeared from Joyent some time ago. Sorry.)

Deirdré Straughan on Italy, India, the Internet, the world, and now Australia