Hans Reiser: Once a Linux Visionary, Now Accused of Murder

There was one thing, probably only one of the few, I really like of Linux since the first time I've installed in 1997 (wow already 10 years), especially in SuSE (now NOVELL) and that was the Reiser filesystem.

A file system organizes data on a computer. When you double-click a Microsoft Word document on your desktop, for instance, the file system tells the processor where to find the data. When you upload a picture from your camera, the file system decides how to place the information on your hard drive. Every bit and byte — including the operating system itself — has its place in the layers upon layers of branching directories. "A file system represents the roads and waterways of the OS,"

Differently from Windows, where there are only 2 major filesystem as FAT32 and NTFS, in Linux there are many different types, some of them developed under other OS (OS=Operating Systems) and later bring into the Linux Kernel. The most common at the point of time was the 'ext2' (now replaced by the 'ext3') that was the "installed by default" in 99% of all linux distributions at that point of time. But ReiserFS was much much superior in quality, in performance and in stability. But Hans Raiser (its developer) was a bit "strange" fellow... that never to be liked by Linux's owner, Mr. Linus Torvalds (someone I would like to call "the idiot", imho anyway). People believe the ReiserFS never got the full right attention from Mr. Linus (at that point of time the only person that can decide what can go into his linux kernel), simply because Linux kernel itself was getting much less attention (= $$ paid by big softwarehouses) compared to a small part of it, a filesystem.

Anyway, 10 years of debates, arguments, ets are too long to be zipped inside here...

Hans Reiser, one time one of the most respected programmers in the world, is now a jailed man, waiting for the probe starting next week; at the bottom of this post there is a link to an article posted on one of my favourite magazine, WIRED, that combined 4 interviews made to him since he has been jailed.

The end of the article (along with Reiser's inability to account for his front seat) seems to suggest Reiser knows more than he is telling.
"Sean Sturgeon — Reiser's childhood friend and Nina's ex-lover" had apparently confessed to eight killings, but would not give names. He swears he did not kill Nina, but claims the author would 'weep and piss blood' if he knew all the details of Reiser's friendship with Sturgeon.

Personally, I think the guy isn't all there. Of course I've always been told that the line between genius and insanity is a very thin faint one.
They all sound too whacked out to be raising kids. Regardless of who killed Nina (if she's dead, that is), the real victims are those kids. They're going to grow up without a mother or a father, and what few memories they will have of their childhood will be stranger than some of my nightmares.
A sad case all the way around. Each of those lives is destroyed and the open source community has lost a prolific (if eccentric and pushy) contributor.

http://www.wired.com

Intel Core 2 Duo processors... buggy!

If you are considering to buy a new laptop/desktop computer engined with an Intel CORE 2 DUO processor, I would recommend you to wait for a while until new production, maybe not ruled out from Intel's Malaysia plant will be bugs free.

openbsd developers mailing list
or
undeadly.org (openbsd journal)
or
slashdot.org (/.)

As just some of you knows, I'm a programmer/contributors for some BSD operating systems flavour (as FreeBSD, OpenBSD) especially for high-end servers environment; If anyone of you out there need help to setup a cluster or normal server unix favour, please feel free to contact me for whatever I may useful to solve your problems.

But please don't ask me to help with your Linux...
I did use it since 1997 for my own servers in Italy and well, it's still running, running well, but.... well, it's more about politics, conflicts, mentality, license, debate and probably fashion.
Yes, fashion! Linux nowadays is simply a cool toy for snobbish arrogant people.
Administer a cluster or high-availability node/blades is nothing related to fashion and it's not cool, it's experience, determination, a different mind opened wider than "normal" computer user.

So if you wanna talk serious about OS and servers application, only BSD languages please!

Have a nice crontab day and remember : rm -dfr * /

Can't live without Homer ?

This things happen only in Malaysia.
Malaysia Boleh !

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: It was a caper that Bart would have loved — except the culprits got caught.

Two Malaysian college students believed to be over-exuberant fans of "The Simpsons" stole a life-sized figurine of Homer Simpson from a cinema, but police tracked them down and forced them to return it Thursday.

"This case has been solved," Mazlan Mansor, police chief of Malaysia's central Petaling Jaya district, told The Associated Press.

The fiberglass replica of Homer holding a TV remote control was part of a promotional display at a local cinema for the upcoming big-screen version of the U.S. TV cartoon series.

The exhibit included the rest of the Simpson family — Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie — sitting on a couch at a multiplex lobby in 1 Utama, a popular suburban shopping mall near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's largest city.

"Homer will be reunited with his family soon," Moo Hon Mei, 20th Century Fox's senior marketing director in Malaysia, told the AP. She said the studio suspected the thieves were "passionate fans who want to own a piece of 'The Simpsons' before the movie opens."

Cinema employees discovered the 1.2-meter-tall (4-feet-tall), statue had vanished Monday morning. Closed-circuit security cameras showed that two men carried the statue out at about 3 a.m. and took it to the mall's parking lot, where they put Homer in the boot of their car and sped away. The theft took only three minutes.

Police traced Homer's kidnappers through their car license plate and summoned them to the police station, where they returned the figurine unscathed Thursday, Mazlan said.

"They were students, only 21 or 22 years old," Mazlan said. "We've released them for now, and a decision will be made later on whether to charge them for theft."

The figurine costs 3,000 ringgit (US$860; €640) and was flown in from the United States, Moo said. The other Simpsons remain on display, but it was not immediately clear whether the mall has taken any extra security to curb further abductions, she said.

Moo said 20th Century Fox had offered a reward of 1,000 ringgit (US$285; €212) for information leading to the figurine's discovery.

"The Simpsons Movie" starts showing in Malaysia on July 26, one day before its U.S. launch.

When 'civilized' shouldn't be the eact world to call this world today

Last week, the USA army forces in deployed in Iraq, did found an horfanotrofy lturn into a torture camp where many kids, most of them, with mental illness, were left dying without food.
I would like to say something,...but...I think photos are talking enough!
What else to say, maybe that we shouldn't call "civilized" this world!
Have a nice day, because you can have it, as not someone else is wishing too.

Sometimes, maybe....women are right!

What I like more recently is to lay down on my bed, immediately after shower and read one of those book that have nothing inside that could interest Leonardo Da Vinci if he could be still alive, one of those low-culture comics book, especially italians, that have the strange unknown power to make you forget about all those past day problems.

Sometimes is amazing to see how a book can have so much power...

I don't tell you, whose book is this, I mean the writer, but as it's in italian, I believe some of my friends will find no difficulties to guess it right. For all my other foreigner friends, sorry alls, but I can't translate some of the typical italians jokes. I will play it fair soon, don't worry!

For the moment....

Il principe azzurro

È che noi donne siamo fastidiose. Ci abbiamo la fastidiosità inserita proprio nel DNA. Sarà che il cuore ci batte più veloce e diventiamo insofferenti. Abbiamo bisogno che il nostro Re mogio ci dica delle robe. Ma non robe qualsiasi, tipo: «Guarda che ti scade il bollo dell'auto». Parole d'amore, dannazione. Agogniamo l'assoluto. Vogliamo credere che siamo fatti proprio uno per l'altra. Qualche giorno fa mi sentivo molto Perla di Labuan, così ho mandato un SMS al mio Sandokan personale. «Ti amo» ho scritto. Un po' scontato, ma sempre attuale. Bastava che mi rispondesse: «Anch'io». Son poi sei lettere. No. Lui no. La mia tigre di Mompracem mi ha risposto: «Prendo atto». Ho dovuto alzare il gomito con la Soluzione Schoum per liberarmi dalle scorie emotive. E io che una volta credevo nel principe azzurro. Coi capelli di polenta e gli occhi a lago. Due. Bolsena e Bracciano. Che mi citofonava al portone posteggiando il cavallo bianco di lato al cassonetto. Son passati trentotto anni e ancora non l'ho trovato. O son cretina o comincio a dubitare che sia una specie protetta. Magari si è estinto da anni. Ho trovato svariati uomini che mi piacevano, con i quali ho fatto anche un pezzo di strada. Principini, principastri, principuzzi. Non tantissimi per la verità. Con qualcuno ho giusto fatto due passi. Mai a cavallo. Sempre a piedi. Ma nessun principe azzurro. E allora me ne sono fatta una ragione. E son cambiata io. Il tempo mi ha trasformata. Mi si è allargato il punto vita, ho perso altri due decimi di vista e mi è crollato il sottomento come ai pellicani. Solo le tette resistono. In decenni di rispettabile carriera ancora non si sono sottomesse alla forza di gravità. Col tempo ho anche imparato a conoscermi. Mi so a menadito. Riesco persino a mettermi il rossetto a memoria. E ho imparato anche a fare a meno del principe azzurro. Però le parole d'amore le esigo. Ieri ci ho riprovato. Gli ho scritto: «Grazie di esistere». E lui mi ha risposto: «Prego». Zotico. Poi si è accorto di avere un tantino esagerato. La sera è arrivato a casa con una poesia. Scritta apposta per me. Mi ha specificato che era in stile futurista. Poi ha cominciato a declamare: «Non bulloni! / Non pistoni! / Centomila megatoni / tengo dentro ai pantaloni!». Ecco fatto. La mia idea dell'inferno è più o meno questa.

Good night!

I didn't forget about you all!

My dears,

almost 3 weeks since last post, and, yes, I know, I know!

These has been 3 very tough weeks for me, preparing for an important visit (customer), completing one machine for the same (customer), arranging the best for the same (customer).

Did I forget about you ? Not at all, it's just I'm not able to compress 36 working hours into 24! And honestly not even 25 into 24. I'm very curious to know how some of my friends are able to do so many things in 24 hours, including sleep (8 hours) without delegating!

My table is always empty at the end of the day with all my tasks completed but still no dinner, no shower, and sometimes already midnight!

So strange the life....

Outside there are so many people so laaazy! They have no idea how to spend their time.

Inside, my bed side drawer is still full of dreams and although I can start to work around at some of them, I don't have time.

Can someone tell me how can I have more time ?

Malaysian food... If you find in your supermarket, please avoid it!

Banned 50 years ago, Rhodamine B still used in foodstuff

PENANG: Food operators are still using a cancer-causing dye in the preparation of belacan (shrimp paste) and several popular Chinese buns and kuih, according to the Consumers Association of Penang (CAP).

The dye was banned more than 50 years ago but food operators are still using it due to lax enforcement, said its president S. M. Mohd Idris.

He said a recent test by CAP found that samples of the food items contained Rhodamine B – a pink-coloured dye banned under the Food Regulation 1985 and Food and Drug Ordinance of 1952.

Mohamed Idris said CAP first detected the presence of Rhodamine B in belacan in 1973. Since then, random tests on several other items were conducted between 1983 and this year.

“On each occasion, we will notify the Health Ministry of our findings and request that they conduct an investigation,” he said at a press conference here on Tuesday.

Idris said the ministry’s failure to enforce the law could jeopardise the public’s health.

“We discovered traces of the dye in five samples of belacan bought from a famous wet market in Kuala Lumpur and in eight samples of Mi Ku, Siew Ku and Huat Kuih bought from several wet markets in Penang,” he said, adding that the tests were conducted in the last two months.

“The dye is commonly used in the textile and plastic industries to give containers and cloth a bright pinkish hue. It is also used to dye feather dusters,” he said.

“Almost all Malaysians are at risk because belacan is widely consumed. Producers of the dye are very clever. The dye is packed into small consumer-friendly bottles and is readily available at sundry shops everywhere.

“The Health Ministry should stop the sale of dye in small quantities because it is not meant for consumers,” he added.

If any colouring agent must be used, Idris said natural dyes, like beetroot extract, should be the option.

source

Malaysia is not safe at all... Think about it!

Quoted from BBC News

Malaysia celebrates 50 years of independence this year and to mark the occasion it has launched Visit Malaysia Year 2007.

The country's palm-fringed beaches, affordable priced hotels, sprawling shopping malls, fantastic food and wildlife already make it one of Asia's premier destinations. And this year its tourism authorities hope a big push will propel visitor numbers towards an astonishing target of 20 million. But following an incident late last year, American Wayne Wright is far from convinced by the promise of Malaysian hospitality and the claim of its tourism slogan that it is truly Asia.

"I was walking in Chinatown," he told the BBC, "when a gentleman in very scruffy type clothes, nothing that you would associate with police or anyone in authority, walked up to me and asked me, "Can I see your passport?"."

Fearing a scam, Mr Wright refused and tried to move away.

"At that point he essentially lunged at me, grabbed me, put handcuffs on me really tightly and called for a few other people out in the crowd," he explained.

Mr Wright, a serving US Navy lawyer, says he protested that he was a US citizen and told the men who had grabbed him that his passport was in his hotel room, a matter of a few hundred meters away. He was taken, shackled, through Chinatown and put into a caged truck used by the Malaysian immigration department.

Worst experience

There he met a second American, who had also been grabbed by men who refused to show any identification, Yahweh Passim Nam. It became abundantly clear to Mr Wright and Mr Nam they had more in common than their nationality. Both they and every one of the 30 or so other people arrested in the same raid were black. This was probably the worst experience I have had in my life

"At this time I'm knowing this is racial profiling, beyond a shadow of a doubt," said Mr Nam, an ex-US Navy serviceman and now a multi media engineer living in Vancouver, Canada.

"This is definitely some screwed up mission by some... militant group, trying to get Africans to take us somewhere," he said, adding that he feared for his life.

They were taken to an immigration detention center where for almost 24 hours they say they were fed only bread and water, not allowed to go to the toilet and refused permission to contact the US embassy.

"I was treated inhumanely," said Mr Nam. "I felt like a dog, I felt like something worse than a dog."

Mr Wright agrees. "Honestly this was probably the worst experience I have had in my life," he said. Both say that, when they were finally freed, immigration officers treated the matter as a joke, something that incensed them.

Morality patrol

Malaysia's Head of Immigration Enforcement Ishak Mohamad was approached by the BBC for comment, but was unavailable. Nor would the prime minister's department comment, although a senior official privately cast doubt on the accounts of the two men.

However not only do they appear to bear one another out, but they are also backed up by the US embassy, which confirmed it provided consular assistance to have them released from custody. No charges were filed against the men. The incident does not appear to be isolated.

Several Africans approached on the streets of Kuala Lumpur by the BBC over the issue reported facing discrimination in Malaysia, whether it be people refusing to sit next to them on public transport, taxis refusing to stop for them through to harassment by police and immigration officers. Nor have recent problems been confined to people of African origin.

In October, a couple in their 60s from the US state of Alaska were woken at 0200 with threats to break down the door of their rented holiday apartment on Langkawi Island. It was an Islamic morality patrol, which under Malaysian law has widespread powers over Muslims' behavior.

"When I opened the door I saw six men, in my face, yelling at me that they want to inspect the apartment, that I'm Muslim and that they're coming in," Randal Barnhart said.

He told the men he was not Muslim and refused to let them enter, but they persisted.

"They started yelling, 'We want to see your woman, we want to see your woman'," an angry Mr Barnhart recalled.

"So I asked Carole, who was just wearing a sarong to stand back 15 feet in the light so they could see that she is a white woman - my wife of 42 years."

The intruders refused to leave without seeing a marriage certificate and were only persuaded to go after being shown the couple's passports. Mr Barnhart says his wife suffered a nervous breakdown and returned to the US and he is currently pursuing legal action against the religious department.

But rather than disciplining the officers - who apparently broke the law by carrying out the raid without regular police in tow - local politicians defended them saying Mrs Barnhart was mistaken for a local Muslim because she liked to wear a sarong. That assertion has been greeted with derision by some in Malaysia.

Regrettable

Malaysia's Tourism Minister Adnan Mansor defended the immigration department, pointing out that Malaysia has problems with illegal migration.

"Sorry to say especially there's a lot of Africans, black people, who come to our country and overstay," he said.

"What they did was just trying to clean up some of these people who've overstayed in our country."

Both Wayne Wright and Yahweh Passim Nam had not overstayed their welcome. They had legitimate tourist visas. The minister says he is keen to repair the damage.

"Give us a chance and let us correct this," Mr Mansor said.

He has apologized to the Barnharts and acknowledges Malaysia has a problem with petty officials who readily abuse their power - a problem he says the government will address by re-educating them. But it is not the kind of news the country needs on the cusp of its big tourism year.

Asta, the American Society of Travel Agents, described the incidents as regrettable.

"Authorities have an obligation to educate the local populace about the importance of tourism and their role and to be vigilant and protective of anti-tourist incidents," a spokesman told the BBC.

And more worrying still for Malaysians is that such incidents are merely symptomatic of a wider issue - public servants who are increasingly resistant to government control. Newspaper columnist Dina Zaman says some Malaysians are looking to Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi to take a tougher line.

"They don't think he's authoritative enough," she believes.

"You need someone to actually sit down and say, 'Look you can't do this, you can't do that'. And yes, he's a nice man but with... the crime rate, all these things... it just makes you wonder whether he's too nice."

Millions of people will doubtless visit Malaysia during 2007 and most will have a very happy time. But until Malaysia's bureaucracy wants to make sure they all do, some would-be visitors may be deciding to holiday elsewhere.

‘Armed group ‘tailed mum’

MALAYSIA is promoted as safe country! Is it ?

Yek: She had called her son after finding her windscreens smashed

PETALING JAYA: The son of a woman who died after being involved in an accident in Puchong said several men confronted his mother just before her death early yesterday morning.

Yew Yong Hon said he received a call around midnight from his mother Yek Yow Ngan, 51, who said her car rear windscreen had been smashed.

Hours later, he received another call from his mother saying that the front windscreen was smashed.

“After receiving the second call, I quickly rushed over from my house in Ampang with my girlfriend,” Yek said.

Yew claimed that when he arrived, his mother, a Nanyang Siang Pau employee, was surrounded by a group of men with parangs and iron rods at her house in Batu 8, Puchong.

“I got out of my car and yelled. They then fled,” he said.

Yew, tailed his mother, who was in her own car, to lodge a police report. However, along the way, they saw the group of men waiting by a car and motorcycle at the roadside.

Son’s sorrow: Yew mourning the death of his mother at the Kwong Tong funeral parlour yesterday evening. Offering their sympathies are state assemblyman for Kinrara Dr Kow Cheong Wei (centre) and Puchong MCA division chief Wong Hock Aun. Yek’s body was released for burial after a post mortem.

“My mother sped off and I reversed my car to go another way. The group split into two and chased us. That’s when my mother and I got separated,” he said.

Yew said he managed to shake off his pursuers.

He then found his mother's car in an accident with another vehicle at Taman Bintang, near Bandar Kinrara. He brought Yek to Assunta Hospital.

“However, the hospital demanded RM10,000 for my mother’s operation but I only had RM250 with me. They made us wait an hour before transferring her to Hospital Kuala Lumpur,” he claimed.

Yek died three hours after she was admitted to HKL.

Meanwhile, Assunta Hospital said a medical officer had immediately attended to Yew's mother.

It said Yek was comatose restless and had suffered a heart attack. She had to be resuscitated and intubated, and needed four pints of blood.

However, when Yek was being prepared to be admitted to the Intensive Care Unit, Yew asked about charges.

“Hospital staff counselled that the estimated final bill could be more than RM10,000 in view of the severity of her injuries.

“The patient's family then requested for the patient to be transferred to a government hospital,” said the hospital.

It said the patient had incurred a bill of RM1,900 but only RM250 was paid.

“Assunta Hospital carried all emergency and necessary care and treatment for the patient and did not deny treatment or demand a deposit be paid before treatment,” it said, adding that all facts and information had been forwarded to the Health Ministry.

When contacted, Subang Jaya OCPD Asst Comm Zainal Rashid said police were unaware of the assault on Yek.

source

...and the wind was blowing his galleon away in the sunset...

Once upon a time...

Well, all the fairy tales should start in such way and I will not make it different, one time at least in my life, as always I tend to be different from anybody else!

My English is slightly broken and the improvement I've got while living in Malaysia, help to make it worse. So I "beg your pardon" and "ask your sympathy" if something you are going to read anywhere down here is simply "too broken" for you to understand your real meaning.
I will also try to be less annoying when telling my points: anyway as firm Italian man, I can simply tell you that as you came here your own, you can leave anytime you will feel.

Once upon a time, there was a quite shy but naughty rebellious boy, let's say aged 10, waiting for his favorite tv show every Monday night on the 2nd Italian national tv channel. The show was called (and probably still is) "Sandokan, the tiger of Monpracen";

What's so nice about that tv show ? Hard to say right now, maybe because already 25 years passed under the bridge, maybe because I can't remember right now the feelings of a 10 yo boy about far east lands, or simply, I strongly believe those feelings did vanish after have spent 5 years in that far land, now called Malaysia, not in search for any pirate, but in search of more business opportunities, one, before any others, to serve my existing Asian clients, faster and if possible cheaper.

25 years later this naughty boy is living in that far land, once called Malaya, now renamed Malaysia, fighting like a pirate many daily battles. to conquer not the land but the heart of the local people, not to be the new leader of this land but to "survive" in one of those "nations" that outsider consider as "paradise for turist" but that really have nothing to be good of.

Malaysia: 24 million people, 1 million jobless and more than 1 million foreign worker! What does make you think about it ? Why I should come to Malaysia to establish my business and later found that the laziness of locals force me to employ foreign poor workers from Vietnam, India, Nepal, Myanmar ? Why I can't simply go Vietnam and settle down there ? Why...

I did spend my last 3 years thinking what I did wrong to have so many daily problems.
Why my eyes and my feelings in love for this country did allow me to see through that invisible barrier how is really Malaysia ?

When I settle down here, together with my Princess (that she is also local Chinese, proud to say "Chinese" and funny she is the one that daily keep remind me to pack and move away from this country asap), I was confident that Malaysian people can help to develop an already 40 years old family business, exporting worldwide to almost 100 other countries.

Malaysia is made of spoiled, pampered, egoist peoples that didn't learned anything from that bad May 1997 when their economy drop down the drain, when suddenly nobody can't afford to buy a daily bowl of rice anymore.

Malaysia a "paradise" in those laminated catalogs you can surf in any travel agencies in your town, something recalling magic land, uncontaminated beach, etc..
Have you been in Malaysia ? Yes, maybe as a tourist, when local people are so friendly simply because they "control" you. They fix their prices and they know that you "mat salleh" (white man) can pay "their" price that is 10 times compared to the price for local.

But my question is clear... how you been in Malaysia as employer ? or simply as worker ?
No, right ? Okay this blog is for you, it will tell you the story of a 10yo naughty boy that one morning, 22 July 2002 packed his own belonging and take a one way flight from Italy, hope to have find a paradise, a nice place work to work, where to build a comfortable house for his Princess, far from the new Italian "dolce vita", a post Euro Italy where "proforma" is much important than real facts and where people, especially new generation, are empty like a bottle of beer rolling down the steps outside of the many discos...

5 years ago this boy, 32 at that time, start his journey, his new life here, with a lot of ambitions, believing that working hard could made the things possibles, never imaging what is the real Malaysia, a self egoist country where people are more interested to cheat foreigner as much as they can...

My comments, my daily posts will be always only my honest opinions and they will based on true life episodes. Malaysian government is so proud to promote this country as place of freedom and multi racial nation. I have the rights to express my own personal opinion and to inform my friends as all of you are about what's happening here, as all other media are reporting as well.

So if you want a first personal suggestion, chose other place for your holiday, other country for your investment! Don't waste your time, your money here. There are many other Asian countries much better than Malaysia, from my own point of view, like Singapore, Vietnam for example for business and Thailand for holiday.

"...the Majesty, the biggest galleon ever seen, was leaving Malacca that same afternoon. Mr. Berton can't turn to view that old town for last time as the sunbeams was hacking is eyes. The smell of drugs and spices blow by the wind towards the sails was the last thing he could remember from that old deadly town..."