Agusta
Eén van de 'voordelen' van dichtbij Diest te wonen, is dat er al eens wat militair materiaal overvliegt. Wij kijken er al niet meer op wanneer een C-130 laag overvliegt. Maar wel impressionant, natuurlijk. Gisteren toch iets spectaculairder meegemaakt : 2 Agusta (?) helicopters die uiterst laag in de buurt bleven rondvliegen. Eéntje ervan leek te landen op het voetbalveld achter onze tuin (fotoke op Flickr), bleek dan uiteindelijk een halve minuut zo'n 5 meter boven het veld te blijven zweven, en vertrok daarna opnieuw met luid geraas, ditmaal voorgoed.
Attack of the killer kroketten
Vergeet de exploderende Senseo's : de mini kroketten van de Carrefour zijn heel wat gevaarlijker. Binnen de halve minuut nadat je ze uit het frietvet haalt, ontploffen d'er minstens enkele waarbij de gloeiend hete brij tot één meter ver & hoog rondspat. Wie geel stippenbehang in de keuken wilt, wendt zich best tot de diepvriesafdeling van je lokale supermarkt.
TSM 6.1 : Proof of Technology
I got invited by IBM to attend their Proof of Technology session about TSM6.1. It was an interesting opportunity to delve some deeper into the new functionalities of TSM6.1, and to chat with other TSM customers about their experiences. First, the 'good' news : I wasn't the only one who got problems with the installation on AIX; apparently only on AIX6, some installations were flawless, but on the AIX5 platform, noone succeeded yet in installing TSM6.1.
The session was introduced with an explanation about TSM FastBack, which is basically a CDP solution for remote branches, aimed at Windows installations. It captures data changes at the block level, with very minimal impact to the system, and also provides a near instant restore capability that enables applications to be up and running within minutes after data recovery is initiated.
TSM6.1 then : to my big surprise, we were invited to a hands-on session with an upgrade from 5.5 to 6.1. It all went quite faster than expected, so I took the remaining time to study the data-deduplication in TSM. First of all, data-dedup can only be applied to sequential file device classes. It uses a SHA-1 hashing algorithm, which can give a infinitesimal probablility of a hash-collision ( a 40PB archive give a 0.5*10-28 chance on a collision). Creating or upgrading your storage pool to a dedup-based one is performed by this command :
As soon as you execute this command, an extra process is started :
This process starts identifying duplicate data blocks, and goes idle when nothing is left to process, so you'll allways see at least one of these processes running per deduplicated storage pool. This process is the first part of data-deduplication and, while running, can use lots of CPU and memory resources : existing FILE volumes are opened and read (I/O intensive), data is fingerprinted into chunks (CPU intensive) and a SHA digest is calculated on the chunk (CPU intensive). To avoid false-positives, size of chunk and another quick digest are also checked. Common chunks are replaced with pointers to the location of the common data (DB updates, LOCK contention). The second phase of data-dedup is the effective removal of the spurious datablocks, by a reclamation process.
There was also some presentation about the reporting features introduced into TSM6.1, which I already studied. The reporting is based on a combination of ISC, ITM, TEP and DB2, and needs a whopping 2.2GB download. The reporting feature I looked into was only the TEP part, but apparently there's also some reporting baked into ISC. The provided reports are pretty basic, but IBM is planning on creating a script library for all TSM customers. You can also extend your TSM based reporting with BIRT, an Eclipse plugin. Customers which now rely on TSM Operational Reporting, might be interested to know that this product will be discontinued with TSM6.1...
IBM looks determined to push Sun and HP customers to Linux on mainframe. At work, we compared the performance of TSM on AIX and on zLinux. IBM seemed *very* curious about our performance figures on these tests, and I got an IBM representative asking me lots of questions about it. I was quite surprised at the time of the tests to see TSM performe so well on zLinux, but it did perform about 18% less better than the AIX version. It still outperformed TSM on Solaris by a whopping 300%...
The session was introduced with an explanation about TSM FastBack, which is basically a CDP solution for remote branches, aimed at Windows installations. It captures data changes at the block level, with very minimal impact to the system, and also provides a near instant restore capability that enables applications to be up and running within minutes after data recovery is initiated.
TSM6.1 then : to my big surprise, we were invited to a hands-on session with an upgrade from 5.5 to 6.1. It all went quite faster than expected, so I took the remaining time to study the data-deduplication in TSM. First of all, data-dedup can only be applied to sequential file device classes. It uses a SHA-1 hashing algorithm, which can give a infinitesimal probablility of a hash-collision ( a 40PB archive give a 0.5*10-28 chance on a collision). Creating or upgrading your storage pool to a dedup-based one is performed by this command :
update stgpool datadedup=yes
As soon as you execute this command, an extra process is started :
Process Process Description Status
Number
-------- -------------------- -------------------------------------------------
283 Identify Duplicates Storage Pool FILEPOOL, Volume /tsmpool2/00006664.
BFS, Files Processed: 2000, Duplicate
Extents Found: 344, Duplicate Bytes Found:
3,238,123 Current Physical File (bytes):
2,626,676,296.
Status: Processing
This process starts identifying duplicate data blocks, and goes idle when nothing is left to process, so you'll allways see at least one of these processes running per deduplicated storage pool. This process is the first part of data-deduplication and, while running, can use lots of CPU and memory resources : existing FILE volumes are opened and read (I/O intensive), data is fingerprinted into chunks (CPU intensive) and a SHA digest is calculated on the chunk (CPU intensive). To avoid false-positives, size of chunk and another quick digest are also checked. Common chunks are replaced with pointers to the location of the common data (DB updates, LOCK contention). The second phase of data-dedup is the effective removal of the spurious datablocks, by a reclamation process.
There was also some presentation about the reporting features introduced into TSM6.1, which I already studied. The reporting is based on a combination of ISC, ITM, TEP and DB2, and needs a whopping 2.2GB download. The reporting feature I looked into was only the TEP part, but apparently there's also some reporting baked into ISC. The provided reports are pretty basic, but IBM is planning on creating a script library for all TSM customers. You can also extend your TSM based reporting with BIRT, an Eclipse plugin. Customers which now rely on TSM Operational Reporting, might be interested to know that this product will be discontinued with TSM6.1...
IBM looks determined to push Sun and HP customers to Linux on mainframe. At work, we compared the performance of TSM on AIX and on zLinux. IBM seemed *very* curious about our performance figures on these tests, and I got an IBM representative asking me lots of questions about it. I was quite surprised at the time of the tests to see TSM performe so well on zLinux, but it did perform about 18% less better than the AIX version. It still outperformed TSM on Solaris by a whopping 300%...
B-klas
Sinds een 3tal maanden zitten we met onze hond in de A-klas op de hondenschool. Concreet betekent dit ook dat vanaf nu overgangsproeven vereist zijn om de hond naar een hogere klas te laten overgaan. We hebben net de overgangsproef voor de B-klas achter de rug.
Heel vreemd hoe het gedrag van een hond kan veranderen alnaargelang de dag. Vorige zondag liep onze hond een perfect parcours. Vandaag had ze er echter totaal geen zin in. Continu verlopen, niet blijven zitten, blaffen en springen naar andere honden. Ik had er na een tijdje flink de pest in, maar aangezien je stil moet blijven terwijl andere honden met de proef bezig zijn, kon ik dus niet veel anders dan eens flink aan de leiband trekken, wat de hond met plezier beantwoordde met extra rukken terug, wat me een flinke schram op m'n hand opleverde. Ook de proef zelf was maar zo-zo : bij de apport oefening haalde ze bvb wel de apport op, maar bracht ze'm niet terug.
Ik dacht dus dat we met een flinke buis naar huis mochten terugkeren, maar zie : met de hakken over de sloot. Geslaagd in deliberatie dus, en vanaf volgende les mogen we ermee in de B-klas. Hierin worden de vaardigheden van de A-klas verder geperfectioneerd, en worden ook oefeningen zonder leiband stilaan ingevoerd.
Heel vreemd hoe het gedrag van een hond kan veranderen alnaargelang de dag. Vorige zondag liep onze hond een perfect parcours. Vandaag had ze er echter totaal geen zin in. Continu verlopen, niet blijven zitten, blaffen en springen naar andere honden. Ik had er na een tijdje flink de pest in, maar aangezien je stil moet blijven terwijl andere honden met de proef bezig zijn, kon ik dus niet veel anders dan eens flink aan de leiband trekken, wat de hond met plezier beantwoordde met extra rukken terug, wat me een flinke schram op m'n hand opleverde. Ook de proef zelf was maar zo-zo : bij de apport oefening haalde ze bvb wel de apport op, maar bracht ze'm niet terug.
Ik dacht dus dat we met een flinke buis naar huis mochten terugkeren, maar zie : met de hakken over de sloot. Geslaagd in deliberatie dus, en vanaf volgende les mogen we ermee in de B-klas. Hierin worden de vaardigheden van de A-klas verder geperfectioneerd, en worden ook oefeningen zonder leiband stilaan ingevoerd.
Prague, part 2
Last month, I visited Prague, Czechia, to see if we could assist our colleagues from CSOB in moving their myriad of backup solutions towards one global environment. As many questions remained unanswered (and a bunch more popped up) after the first visit, we realized we needed much more information. So last Tuesday and Wednesday, I had the pleasure of visiting this beautiful city again. The two days were mostly filled up with an exhausting meeting marathon, but I think it was worth the trouble.
This also meant we could spent some time on sightseeing the city. It seems that Prague is one of Europe's best-preserved cities. It's filled with sumptuous Art Nouveau facades, offers tons of cheap Mozart and Vivaldi, and is home of the well-known lager beer in Europe. Prague's focal point is the Old Town Square, a market square since the 11th century. Today the old-time market stalls have been replaced by cafés, touristy horse buggies, and souvenir hawkers, but the square — ringed by pastel buildings — is still beautiful. Facing the square is the towering 14th-century Tyn Church, with its fanciful spires almost a fairy-tale castle. The pointed 250-foot spire rising from the square marks the 14th-century Old Town Hall, famous for its astronomical clock. Join the gang for the striking of the hour on the 15th-century clock featuring revolving disks, celestial symbols, and sweeping hands.
Charles Bridge is a famous historical bridge that crosses the Vltava river, which used to be the most important connection between the Old Town and Prague Castle. The bridge was originally called the Stone Bridge but has been the "Charles Bridge" since 1870. The Old Town bridge tower is often considered to be one of the most astonishing civil gothic-style buildings in the world. The bridge is decorated by a continuous alley of 30 statues and statuaries, most of them baroque-style, erected around 1700.
Looming atop the hill is Prague Castle, the roost of Czech rulers for over a thousand years. It's huge (by some measures, the biggest castle on earth) and exhausting in its own way, as the many stairs to the top are a hard nut to crack. The persisting tourist is rewarded with a splendid view over the old city (and a cool lager in the pub at the end of the stairs).
This also meant we could spent some time on sightseeing the city. It seems that Prague is one of Europe's best-preserved cities. It's filled with sumptuous Art Nouveau facades, offers tons of cheap Mozart and Vivaldi, and is home of the well-known lager beer in Europe. Prague's focal point is the Old Town Square, a market square since the 11th century. Today the old-time market stalls have been replaced by cafés, touristy horse buggies, and souvenir hawkers, but the square — ringed by pastel buildings — is still beautiful. Facing the square is the towering 14th-century Tyn Church, with its fanciful spires almost a fairy-tale castle. The pointed 250-foot spire rising from the square marks the 14th-century Old Town Hall, famous for its astronomical clock. Join the gang for the striking of the hour on the 15th-century clock featuring revolving disks, celestial symbols, and sweeping hands.
Charles Bridge is a famous historical bridge that crosses the Vltava river, which used to be the most important connection between the Old Town and Prague Castle. The bridge was originally called the Stone Bridge but has been the "Charles Bridge" since 1870. The Old Town bridge tower is often considered to be one of the most astonishing civil gothic-style buildings in the world. The bridge is decorated by a continuous alley of 30 statues and statuaries, most of them baroque-style, erected around 1700.
Looming atop the hill is Prague Castle, the roost of Czech rulers for over a thousand years. It's huge (by some measures, the biggest castle on earth) and exhausting in its own way, as the many stairs to the top are a hard nut to crack. The persisting tourist is rewarded with a splendid view over the old city (and a cool lager in the pub at the end of the stairs).
Whole latte love
Na rijp beraad voor een nieuw koffiemachine, heb ik uiteindelijk voor de Delonghi Lattissima gekozen. Espresso, lungo, cappuccino en macchiato in één koffiemachine. En ik moet zeggen, ik heb er nog geen minuut spijt van gehad. Iedere ochtend is een feest met een lekkere lungo of cappuccino, en natuurlijk de Nespresso cups. Het smaakverschil met de Senseo is gigantisch (is dus echt wel slootwater), en Nespresso is in één woord verslaved.
De Lattissima kwam met een proefaanbod van 12 verschillende Nespresso cups, maar da's eigenlijk te weinig om een duidelijk idee te krijgen van het smaakbereik van Nespresso, zeker als je ze verspreid opdrinkt in lungo's of macchiato's. Nadeel van het Nespresso systeem, is dat je ze niet vindt in een gewone winkel of warenhuisketen. Je moet ze online bestellen, maar je kan ze wel gratis laten leveren in elk Kiala punt, dichtbij in je buurt.
Ik raad iedere nieuwe Nespresso klant trouwens aan om de introductie box te kopen op de nespresso site. 250 verschillende cups (inclusief de 3 Pure Origin soorten) in een mooie kartonnen box, samen met een klein boekje met wat uitleg over de oorsprong en bereiding van koffie, plus een gedetailleerde uitleg over de verschillende smaken in het gamma. En natuurlijk een mooie presentatiebox voor de cups.
De Lattissima kwam met een proefaanbod van 12 verschillende Nespresso cups, maar da's eigenlijk te weinig om een duidelijk idee te krijgen van het smaakbereik van Nespresso, zeker als je ze verspreid opdrinkt in lungo's of macchiato's. Nadeel van het Nespresso systeem, is dat je ze niet vindt in een gewone winkel of warenhuisketen. Je moet ze online bestellen, maar je kan ze wel gratis laten leveren in elk Kiala punt, dichtbij in je buurt.
Ik raad iedere nieuwe Nespresso klant trouwens aan om de introductie box te kopen op de nespresso site. 250 verschillende cups (inclusief de 3 Pure Origin soorten) in een mooie kartonnen box, samen met een klein boekje met wat uitleg over de oorsprong en bereiding van koffie, plus een gedetailleerde uitleg over de verschillende smaken in het gamma. En natuurlijk een mooie presentatiebox voor de cups.
Breakfast of champions
My goodness; here's a deal : given 10 eggs, 10 bacons, 10 sausages, 10 toasts, 5 black puddings, tomatoes, beans and mushrooms, no drink and only 20 minutes to work it all down.
If you succeed, then this breakfast for champions is all free. Only in Westhoughton (Manchester), UK.
If you succeed, then this breakfast for champions is all free. Only in Westhoughton (Manchester), UK.
Pizza theorem
I just thought about this :
The volume of a pizza of thickness a and radius z can be decribed by the following formula :
Isn't math fun ;)
The volume of a pizza of thickness a and radius z can be decribed by the following formula :
pi zz a
Isn't math fun ;)
Integer sequences
Tired of searching for the solution in yet-another-integer-sequence ? Really wanna know x in the following series ?
10,11,12,13,15,16,17,20,22,24,31,100,x,10000
Head over to the encyclopedia of integer sequences, and let the web find it out for you.
10,11,12,13,15,16,17,20,22,24,31,100,x,10000
Head over to the encyclopedia of integer sequences, and let the web find it out for you.
Stemtest
Aangezien kruisbestuiving bij Belgische partijen in is tegenwoordig - iedere partij heeft zowel iets groen, iets liberaal en iets socialistisch in zijn programma - is kiezen tegenwoordig nog nooit zo moeilijk geweest. Vandaar dat de stemtest van de Standaard het leven iets gemakkelijker kan maken.
Disclaimer : we achten u intelligent genoeg om te weten dat het opmaken van uw politiek profiel gebaseerd op basis van 36 vraagjes niet echt wetenschappelijk is, en in sommige gevallen naar manipulatie neigt. Maar doet u gerust uw voordeel ermee.
Disclaimer : we achten u intelligent genoeg om te weten dat het opmaken van uw politiek profiel gebaseerd op basis van 36 vraagjes niet echt wetenschappelijk is, en in sommige gevallen naar manipulatie neigt. Maar doet u gerust uw voordeel ermee.