The recent fourth quarter reports from server manufacturers was dim, and Sun Microsystems was by far the worst (with a 35% loss compared to the same period last year). On top of this, Sun just announced in October (within their 8K filing for the SEC) intentions to lay off 3000 employees in the next 12 months. Infoworld also had a nice piece on this; according to Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, the company is losing $100 million each month the European Union regulators put off accepting the merger.

With the Oracle acquisition in progress, there are a lot of questions about the future viability of Sun Microsystems, and of some of its products.

I don’t think people realize just how important the Sun group of products are, and what an impact it would have if most – or even some – of the products were cancelled. Consider this list of Sun products:

• Java.
• Solaris – and OpenSolaris.
• SPARC – and OpenSPARC.
• MySQL. There was a recent report from the 451 Group that suggests that usage of MySQL may fall off based on the current uncertainty around Sun.
• StarOffice – and OpenOffice.
• VirtualBox (and associated virtual products). Virtualbox also has an open source version, and was just updated to version 3.1 with new features. InformationWeek and eWeek both had excellent articles on the new Virtualbox.
• Sun Modular Data Centers (originally with the codename Project Blackbox).
• The Lustre Filesystem.

Most of the most popular products were mentioned by Oracle in their Sun Acquisition FAQ (PDF), stating that they will increase money spent on each over what Sun spent. These products include: Java, Solaris, SPARC, StarOffice, NetBeans, virtualization products, Glassfish, and MySQL. Other products were not mentioned – such as Lustre, the Modular Data Center, and others.

The list above also does not list the technologies that were spearheaded by Sun – and some still are: ZFS, NFS, NIS (and NIS+), dtrace, containers, and smc.

It would be unfortunate – and materially significant – if Sun were to go under or if any of the majority of their products were to be cancelled. One can only hope this does not happen…

Historic Deal Calls for up to $50M in Private Investment, the Creation of Nearly 300 New Jobs and Over $500M in Economic Impact Over Ten Years, and Catalytic Improvements in Infrastructure, Representing the Second-Largest Single Private-Sector Investment Ever in Downtown Alexandria

Memorandum of Understanding Signed with Hospitality Initiatives Partnership

Last week in Phoenix, Arizona, Alexandria Mayor Jacques M. Roy, City Councilman Harry Silver, and GAEDA Director Clifford Moller signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Roland Fontaine, the CEO of Creative Analytical Solutions and a principal of Hospitality Initiatives Partnership (H.I.P.), a team of nationally-known and award-winning architects, hoteliers, and developers who joined together to propose a mega-million dollar deal in response to the City’s Downtown Hotels Initiative.

“During the last decade, the public spent millions and millions on a hotel and convention center, but we’ve never been able to completely capture the value of this investment,” said Mayor Jacques Roy. “Our aims were clear: First, we wanted a solution that minimized the public risk. We wanted to leverage the investment we have already made in order to attract private dollars and create a private deal, not a public hotel complex. Second, if the public needed to fill ‘a gap,’ then we wanted to make sure that any additional public investment would be infrastructure owned by the City—and supportive of the deal, not part of or tending to interpose the public in hotel operations. Third, we wanted to attract real private dollars, not just tax credit money. We never wanted to buy another hotel or get deeper into the hotel business. We want out of the business. To win this project, you had to put up real dollars and have an actionable plan driven by private dollars. This is a stark contrast to touted deals all around the nation, which rely heavily and in some cases exclusively on the public.”

H.I.P. is driven by David Rau of 3North Architects, Paul Cooper of Lifestyle Hospitality, and Roland Fontaine of Creative Analytical Solutions.  H.I.P. has already, on this project, attracted equity, debt, and/or tax credit interest from 29 different firms.

Two months ago, Mr. Rau, who crafted the master site plan, was honored at the annual conference of the National Trust for Historic Preservation for his work in the $120 million renovation and reopening of the Bedford Springs Resort, a sprawling and historic resort in South Central Pennsylvania. Mr. Rau and his colleagues have worked on major hotel projects throughout the nation, including Pinehurst in North Carolina and the Boorshead in Virginia.

Paul Cooper has over 18 years of experience in the hospitality industry and has managed nearly $500 million in hotel assets.

Roland Fontaine is the CEO of Creative Analytical Solutions and offers more than 40 years of experience in the hospitality industry. Prior to forming Creative Analytical Solutions, a company that has completed quality hotel projects in several states, Mr. Fontaine held executive-level positions at Ritz-Carlton, Sheraton, and Doubletree Hotels.

The Downtown Hotels Initiative, which was created by the Mayor and City staff, was launched in March 2009. It yielded proposals from firms across the nation at no cost to the taxpayer. Two months ago, these proposals were judged by a Selection Committee composed of members of the Alexandria/Pineville Convention and Visitors Bureau, GAEDA, the Hotel/Motel Association, the Alexandria City Council, and the Roy Administration. After extensive review, the Selection Committee decided to shortlist two firms.

“H.I.P. is proposing one of the largest private-sector investments in the history of Downtown Alexandria,” said Mayor Roy. “This isn’t just a short-term solution. This is thinking big about the future of Alexandria as the multi-parish, regional hub city it is. Consistent with my campaign promises, we needed to think about how to push Alexandria’s place in the state given the geography and resources we have.”

Council President Roosevelt Johnson echoed similar sentiments. “I have tried to move the City forward by pushing tourism and marketing our area,” said Johnson. “This is a big step, and with the marketing piece outlined in the MOU, we are on the right track.”

“Most importantly, H.I.P. isn’t asking the City to get deeper into the hotel business,” said Mayor Roy. “They’re asking us to get out of that business and to, instead, augment our investment in surrounding public infrastructure. We needed to do this anyway.”

H.I.P.’s proposal calls for approximately $40-$50 million in renovations to both the Hotel Bentley and the Alexander Fulton, including extensive new construction that will reorient the Bentley’s entrance onto Jackson Street and create a new pedestrian plaza between the Bentley, the Fulton, and the Riverfront Center.

H.I.P’s proposal does not require the City to purchase or lease any portion of the Bentley, though it does offer an opportunity for over 10,000 square feet of office space. The proposal does not require the City to relocate offices or demolish City Hall.

Sherri Smith of the APA-CVB is excited about these possibilities. Smith lauded the deal, offering a note of caution on ensuring the Alexandria Riverfront Center remains the preeminent concern. “I think that with both hotels in full operation, the CVB can do its job in a way I haven’t been able to do since we have been here. This initiative will help all hotel properties within the City, and hopefully region, attract better conventions and tourist business.”

Said Mayor Roy, “H.I.P. is also offering a long-term vision. From the beginning, we all agreed that we should be focused on locating a sustainable solution. Over a decade ago, when the City and the State built the Riverfront Center, they did so because they believed in the viability of the Hotel Bentley and the former Holiday Inn (today the Fulton). But we never had a master site plan or a cohesive plan for property management. Since the Riverfront Center opened, the Fulton has changed management three times, and the Bentley has changed ownership and management three times. We knew the only way these three assets, two of which are owned by the public, could succeed individually is if they also succeeded together.”

H.I.P. plans to invest approximately $40-$50 million purchasing and renovating both the Hotel Bentley and the Alexander Fulton, including the construction at the Bentley of a new 4,000 square foot restaurant, 3,500 square foot porte cochere, and a 2,000 square foot spa. They also plan to develop both retail and restaurant opportunities that would front a newly-created town plaza, located on the present-day parking lot of the Fulton and the present-day back entrance of the Hotel Bentley. The Bentley’s entrance is to be reoriented to face Jackson Street and the new town plaza. The City will invest in infrastructure improvements to the streets and offer the value of the Alexander Fulton in order to make way for private-sector investment. The City will also consider, if justified, construction of a parking garage, capital improvements to the City-owned portions of the Fulton, and other capped incentives. All of these represent the core components of the first phase of the plan.

As a supplementary component, in phase two, H.I.P.’s proposal calls for the private-sector development of a 32,000 square foot residential tower connected to the new parking garage. Phase two also calls for the creation of an additional 18,000 square foot green space, “Cathedral Park,” which would face the entrance of St. Francis Xavier Cathedral on Fourth Street and the side of Emmanuel Baptist Church on Jackson Street and would create the opportunity for the construction of ten townhouses.

H.I.P. estimates an overall economic impact of more than $500 million over the next ten years and anticipates the hiring of nearly new 300 employees, stabilized, after ten years.

Bob Dean, owner of the Hotel Bentley, said this week, “We are making real progress.”

Councilman Harry Silver said, “This is the real deal. It is a commitment to what we can be as a community—what we should be. It is thinking in phases down the road, not just tomorrow. I am so pleased with this process. If this doesn’t get it, nothing will.”

Councilman Silver cautioned there is work to be done, but the pieces are in place.

** Click on thumbnails for full-size renderings.

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to the Sparc Teams Blog for November 2009 – we have lots of news and updates this week.

Sparc Teams Workshop Dates

Following the resounding success of the last series of Workshops at Tobacco Factory and Pierian Centre, We’re pleased to announce new dates for the Sparc Teams Workshops as follows:

• Wednesday 30th November 2009 – Intro Workshop at the Tobacco Factory 12.30-3.30
• Wednesday 9th December 2009 – Intro Workshop at the Pierian Centre 12.30-3.30
• Monday 4th January 2009 – Intro Workshop at the Tobacco Factory 12.30-3.30

Please email us at Sparcy@SparcTeams.com if you would like to register for any of the Workshops. Spaces are limited so SIGN UP NOW!!

SPARC TEAMS Updates

This last few weeks we’ve had some great meetings with:

• @BristolBuddies, a Social network for people new to Bristol, (http://www.bristolbuddies.co.uk)
• Katie Moore at Start Up Business Community (http://www.startupcommunity.co.uk)
• John Bradford at Science City (http://www.sciencecitybristol.com)
• ‘Worklessness’ Solutions Meeting at Bristol City Council
• Elaine Flint at Social Enterprise Works http://www.socialenterpriseworks.org)
• Kerry McArthy (Labour MP for Bristol East)
• Connolly and Callaghan and Bristol Social Housing
• Bristol City Council

We’re actively meeting up with partners in Bristol – particularly focusing upon how we can collaborate to support the under and unemployed in our city and make our service the very best it can be for those who need and deserve it. Watch this space for more updates coming soon.

Here are the list of useful commands frequently used during package management.

pkgadd

Adds software packages to the system

pkgrm

Removes software packages from the system

pkginfo

Displays software package information

pkgchk

Checks the accuracy of a software package installation

So, we’ll take an example to use above commands. I’ve a package called SUNWant.Z, which I want to install.

So I use the following syntax to add a package.

pkgadd -d SUNWant.Z

To check whether your package has been installed, you can use pkginfo and grep the output to find a specific package.

pkginfo | grep SUNWant

To check the accuracy of the package, you can use pkgchk command as:

pkgchk SUNWant

To remove above package, we have the pkgrm command to use:

pkgrm SUNWant

Refer the Sun documentation for further details.

The run levels in Solaris are little different than what you know about run levels in Linux. So, if you come from Linux background this could be little confusing initially.

There are total 8 run levels in Solaris. Default run level is 3. At a given point of time, a system can be in only one run level.

0    Power Down State
To shut down the operating system so that it is safe to turn off power to the system. This will bring the machine to Open Boot Prompt (OK)

s or S    Single User State
To run as a single user with some file systems mounted and accessible.

1     Administrative State
To access all available file systems. User logins are disabled.

2    Multiuser State
For normal operations. Multiple users can access the system and all file system. All daemons are running except for the NFS server daemons.

3    Multiuser level with NFS resources shared
For normal operations with NFS resources shared. This is the default run level for the Solaris environment.

4    Alternative multiuser state
Currently unavailable.

5    Power-down state
To shut down the operating system so that it is safe to turn off power to the system. If possible, automatically turns off power on systems that support this feature.

6    Reboot state
To shut down the system to run level 0, and then reboot to multiuser level with NFS resources shared (or whatever level is the default in the inittab file).

Es curioso lo que da de sí un día muy ventoso en el que toda tu familia trabaja menos tú. Aparte de un casi imposible partido de tenis y el bricolaje ese que nunca encuentras el momento, he tenido ocasión de navegar por la red y leer varios de esos temas que marcas como “por hacer” y quiero aprovechar para comentar algunos que pueden ser de interés.

Lo primero es que al estar en Sun me estoy dando cuenta de que las instituciones europeas importan en nuestras vidas bastante más de lo que parece. Neelie Kroes es la Comisaria Europea para la Competición y sus declaraciones a Reuters el  21 de octubre tras una reunión en Bruselas con el Presidente de Oracle Safra Catz indicando que Oracle no ha conseguido despejar las preocupaciones sobre los riesgos para la competencia que la compra de Sun genera han dado pie a una tormenta de opiniones en la prensa especializada.

En la noticia que publica Reuters, se desarrolla el tema que, en líneas generales, se centra en las preocupaciones de la CE sobre el futuro de la competencia si el líder de las bases de datos empresariales asumiese al líder de las bases de datos open source. La CE ve una gran concentración de mercado y Oracle argumenta que MySQL compite con SQL Server de Microsoft y lo seguirá haciendo. Para el interesado en las especulaciones periodísticas pueden leer lo que ha publicado The Register y eWeek.

Como empleado de Sun no puedo comentar nada más que la postura de Oracle está publicada recientemente y que es obvio que sus responsables legales están trabajando en el tema.

Pero estos duelos de grandes alturas no nos bloquean y seguimos trabajando y quizás imbuidos por la influencia del comprador estamos acelerando los lanzamientos de soluciones innovadoras y poniendo en valor las virtudes de las mismas, cosa en la que quizá no habíamos sido muy proactivos últimamente.

En este sentido, entre el 11 y el 13 de octubre hemos anunciado hasta ocho records mundiales de rendimiento. Sólo los ennumero con el correspondiente enlace para el interesado:

• Sun SPARC Enterprise M9000: 2.400 SPECint_rate_base2006 y 1.930 SPECfp_rate_base2006
• Sun SPARC Enterprise M9000 Server- 64 proc: 196.564 SAPS
• 4x Sun Blade Server con base de datos Oracle: 75.762 Two-Tier SAP Sales and Distribution (SD) Parallel Standard Application Benchmark
• Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440 Servers: 50.000 Oracle BI EE Users
• Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440 Server: 100.209 SPECweb2005
• Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440 Servers con Oracle RAC: 7.717.510.6 tpmC
• Sun SPARC Enterprise M4000 server con tecnología FlasFire: 250.000 nóminas con PeopleSoft Enterprise Payroll 9.0

The City of Alexandria released a Request for Proposals for Commercial Redevelopment at the Hodgest Stockbarn site.

Questions were invited to be submitted by October 23, 2009. No questions were received by the City.

Please click here to download the full RFP.

[Nate] over at SparkFun Electronics has posted a cease and desist letter he received from SPARC industries.  Apparently their legal department feels that his name is close enough to theirs to ignite a legal battle. They are demanding that he transfer his domain to them immediately to extinguish the flames. This all seems a bit silly, his name isn’t really at all like theirs and his product isn’t similar either.  To add to the peculiarity of this, going to their site throws up a big red malware warning for us (in chrome).

[thanks IraqiGeek]

Billy Brick has tweeted about a video from SPARC about open access. The three-minute video is meant to introduce viewers to the concept of open access.

October 19 through 23 is…

Photo credit – Courtesy of http://www.openaccessweek.org/ – All rights reserved – Copyright 2009

SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Research Consortium) is the organizer of Open Access Week.  Information about SPARC Europe is here.

The concept of open-access journals distributed on computer networks worldwide (at no cost to users) when I was earning a MLS degree (in 1991) would’ve seemed not only unlikely to ever happen in this world, but might have caused one’s graduate school peers and instructors to wonder if you needed to visit a psychiatrist – and soon!

But that world which might have seemed fantastical in the early-1990’s has indeed come to fruition through the determined efforts of many hundreds of librarians, scientists, researchers, administrators and volunteers worldwide. It is an exciting time to be an information professional.

A long-time advocate of open-access scholarly publications, Peter Suber has written an overview about the meaning and purpose of Open Access (OA), and has described this international project well.

Celebrate Open Access Week 2009 by visiting these wonderful sites:

• OIASter which provides 23,090,000 articles from 1,500 sources.

• BioMedCentral offers 202 journals on its website.

• Public Library of Science (PLoS) publishes seven peer-reviewed journals.

• PubMedCentral, an open access journal archive.

• JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee ), National Library of Medicine and the Wellcome Foundation are collaborating on the Medical Journals Backfile Digitisation Project.  A list of journals being planned for digitisation is here.
  

• OpenDOAR: Directory of Open Access Repositories (a digital directory of international archival sites).

• DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals

• Hindawi Publishing - See their list of Open Access journals in Medicine.

____________________________________

Here are other links to Open Access sites from around the world:

• Open Archives Initiative
• OASIS: Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook
• Open Access Directory (hosted on the Simmons College server) provides a link to Periodicals which frequently publish about Open Access
• SPARC Open Access Newsletter
• DSpace
• Registry of  Open Access Repositories (ROAR) which currently lists 1,509 members.  See a list of the registered institutions at ROAR MAP.
• FAQ Sheet: What Librarians Can do to Promote Open Access
• Created for Open Access Week 2008, and sponsored by PLoS, watch a brief video of Dr. Ida Sim, faculty at UCSF, discussing the value of scientific research published in open access journals.
  

____________________________________

Want to learn more about metadata? First, what is NISO? Here is an excerpt from their “About” page:

” NISO, a non-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), identifies, develops, maintains, and publishes   technical standards to manage information in our changing and ever-more digital environment. NISO standards apply both traditional and new technologies to the full range of information-related needs, including retrieval, re-purposing, storage, metadata, and preservation. “

Text excerpted from: http://www.niso.org/about

NISO staff have published a group of freely available reports about metadata.  The following two reports are brief and useful: one, a  20-page report about metadata (2004), and “Metadata Demystified: A Guide for Publishers” (2003).  Because somebody has to organize all this stuff!

In an effort to briefly describe the process of indexing and organizing open-access documents from a myriad of global sources, I refer to the Dublin Metadata Initiative created by OCLC (Online Computer Library Center). The final NISO document, “Dublin Core of Elements” * was approved in 2007 by a consortium of library and technical folks assembled by OCLC.

(My librarian-colleague has assured me today that this is all anyone will want to know about this topic.  Be pithy for heaven sakes!)

____________________________________

* Note: The Dublin Core refers to the city of Dublin, Ohio where OCLC corporate headquarters  are located (not Dublin, Ireland).  Development of core standards originated during a 1995 invitational workshop at OCLC; “core” because its descriptive elements are broad and generic, intended for use to describe a diverse range of actual or virtual resources.

The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (NISO Standard Z39.98-007) is a vocabulary of fifteen properties used by indexers to describe individual items before adding these records to shared digital catalog files.  Standard elements to describe an individual work or item would include (for example) title of the resource, creator of the resource, subject or topic of the resource, format of the resource, etc.

3 more machines added to the collection. 3 Sun Machines. Two Ultra 10’s (One  is a Elite 3D,)  and the Ultra 1 is a creator 3D.

These machiens need a OS installing. Not sure if im going to put Solaris or another floavour of *nix or BSD. One of the Ultra 10s will be going to http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/

FAST FACTS

Company: Victoria University of Wellington

Industry: Higher Education

Geography New Zealand

Business Challenge: Replacing an end-of-life proprietary system with a stable and reliable platform that would facilitate lower-cost hardware and ongoing savings on platform maintenance

Migration Path: From Sun Solaris SPARC to Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Intel Xeon Processor-based Dell servers

Software: Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Banner (student administration application by Sungard Higher Education)

Hardware: 4 x Dell 2850 servers with Intel Xeon processors

Benefits: Reduced annual maintenance fees, realized cost savings of 75 percent related to hardware, increased application performance, improved security, stability, and reliability

Download the case study [PDF]

BACKGROUND
Situated in the 25,000-strong community of Victoria, for over a century the Victoria University of Wellington has developed a tradition of strong international links in teaching and research, and programmes of national significance and international quality.

With more than 21,380 students and some 2,000 full time staff, the University is committed to providing students with opportunities to acquire, understand, and apply disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge, as well as related skills and attitudes, and to enhance their personal development.

BUSINESS CHALLENGE
or five years, the Victoria University of Wellington had been successfully running its student administration system, including its primary Banner software application, on a Sun Solaris platform. However, as the infrastructure hardware approached its ‘end of life,’ system administrators were becoming concerned about the ongoing operating costs of the existing system, and the hardware replacement costs that were imminent.

According to Andrew Matthews, Applications Development and Support manager for Central Student Administration, Victoria University of Wellington, as the University approached the replacement phase of the hardware lifecycle, it began to seriously investigate alternative options.

“We were conscious of the high costs associated with the ongoing maintenance of our Sun Solaris platform, and like any organisation, we were keen to reduce expenditure on new hardware,” said Matthews.

“In the interest of finding a viable solution and with enterprise-ready open source solutions available, for the first time we really opened our eyes to possibilities beyond the proprietary world,” he said.

The Victoria University of Wellington was also looking for a solution that would enable it to build more redundancy into the system without requiring additional physical boxes, which were simply too expensive.

SOLUTION
The University’s selection process initially focused on the replacement of the expensive proprietary hardware, and once a decision was made to standardise on the server infrastructure on commodity based servers from Dell. The strong relationship between Dell and Red Hat led the university to evaluate and deploy Red Hat Enterprise Linux for its critical applications.

In 2002, the University began the process of migrating its student administration systems from Sun Solaris to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The new platform enabled the University to save money by standardising on four Dell 2850 servers, which run the Banner student administration system and a number of bespoke internal applications that the University developed for its enrollment management systems.

“Red Hat Enterprise Linux was the obvious choice when it came to finding a platform that would meet our requirements for immediate hardware savings and long-term maintenance savings,” said Matthews.

“We knew that Red Hat Enterprise Linux could support our core Banner application, but we were also impressed by Red Hat’s security credentials, given that our system handles a high volume of student records and we have strict auditing guidelines, and it had a proven track record when it came to its support capabilities.”

With the initial migration complete, the University will continue to extend Red Hat Enterprise Linux to a further 13 Dell 1850 application and web servers as they approach end of life in 2010.

BENEFITS
Since putting Red Hat Enterprise Linux into production at the University, Matthews and his team have recognised a number of benefits across the board.

The Victoria University of Wellington’s move to Red Hat Enterprise Linux running on Dell servers has saved the University more than NZ$16,000 (approx. USD$10,330) per annum in support costs for student administration systems, alone.

“In addition to the support costs savings year-on-year, we estimate that we saved approximately 75 per cent in upfront hardware costs,” said Matthews.

With these substantial cost savings, the University could also afford to implement the redundancy system it had hoped to create.

Additionally, in the long term the University has peace of mind when it comes to future hardware replacement cycles. With hardware typically becoming redundant every five years, the University can now realistically afford to manage this ideal lifecycle span.

The performance of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform has also impressed the University.

“Our previous Solaris system delivered a high standard of performance, so when it came to evaluating our new platform the bar was set quite high. We’re very pleased that the Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform has more than proven itself on the performance front,” said Matthews.

“A solid and reliable operating system is like a silent partner – it’s a critical supporting layer of the IT infrastructure that should just do its job without any hiccups or complaints. As a manager of a number of systems, I am very comfortable with how our Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform runs because it performs well and isn’t a burden on me or the University in any way,” said Matthews.

To check the OBP variables in your Solaris SPARC server and leaving Solaris up and running, you’ll need to use the eeprom command

root@solaris:/ # eeprom
asr-policy=normal
test-args: data not available.
diag-passes=1
local-mac-address?=true
fcode-debug?=false
scsi-initiator-id=7
oem-logo: data not available.
oem-logo?=false
oem-banner: data not available.
oem-banner?=false
ansi-terminal?=true
screen-#columns=80
screen-#rows=34
ttyb-rts-dtr-off=false
ttyb-ignore-cd=true
ttya-rts-dtr-off=false
ttya-ignore-cd=true
ttyb-mode=9600,8,n,1,-
ttya-mode=9600,8,n,1,-
output-device=ttya
input-device=ttya
auto-boot-on-error?=true
error-reset-recovery=sync
load-base=16384
auto-boot?=true
network-boot-arguments: data not available.
boot-command=boot
diag-file: data not available.
diag-device=disk0:a
boot-file: data not available.
boot-device=vx-rootdisk vx-rootmirr
use-nvramrc?=false
nvramrc=devalias vx-rootdisk /pci@1c,600000/scsi@2/disk@0,0:a
devalias vx-rootmirr /pci@1c,600000/scsi@2/disk@3,0:a
security-mode=none
security-password: data not available.
security-#badlogins=0
verbosity=normal
diag-trigger=error-reset power-on-reset
service-mode?=false
diag-script=normal
diag-level=max
diag-switch?=false

I can’t comment on the Oracle-Sun acquisition but I’d like to direct your attention to the first-page ad in todays Wall Street Journal.

I don’t think anyone should be doubting Oracles commitment. Personally, I’m looking forward to what’s to come.

Cheers,

– Terrence

Thank you Town Talk for spotlighting this historic building.

“Too-costly repair plan leaves Alexandria’s Armour building vulnerable”

The old Armour & Co. building in Alexandria is potentially facing the wrecking ball again. This time, local preservationists want to save it for good.  

“Enough is enough,” said Charles Charrier, president of the Historical Association of Central Louisiana. “So much of our past is gone. Much of our downtown is gone. Many of our commercial and warehouse buildings are gone. Our position is it’s time for the ‘just tear it down’ mentality to stop here in Alexandria.”

The former meat processing plant at 1901 Third St. is a good place to take that stand, Charrier thinks.

Built between 1909 and 1914, the building for decades housed a packing plant, which would receive meat via railroad and process it for sale locally. It has been vacant for about 20 years.

“It’s one of the last surviving industrial buildings that depended on rail transportation for its existence,” Charrier said. “That’s why it’s significant, along with the grand design and historic character.” …for the rest of the article, click here.

If you happen to own a SPARC64 box, you’ll probably already know that even if the kernel is 64bit the userland comes from the normal SPARC Debian port, so it’s 32bit. Mysql is no exception, with all the 32bit limitations – mainly the 4GB RAM per process limit.

This is really  a PITA because if you have a SPARC64 box probably it has got plenty of RAM and you want to use it at its full potential, without having to messing around with Solaris (yeah, I don’t like it very much, I’m sorry).

This guide covers Mysql 5.1 installation in Debian Lenny, so we have to use SID repositories.


# echo "deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ sid main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
# echo "deb-src http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ sid main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list


then let’s edit our apt preferences to avoid massive update on next dist-upgrade

# vim /etc/apt/preferences
Package: *
Pin: release a=stable
Pin-Priority: 900
Package: *
Pin: release a=sid
Pin-Priority: 100


and then update our repo list

# aptitude update


And here we go:

# apt-get build-dep mysql-server-5.1
# mkdir /tmp/mysql-build; cd /tmp/mysql-build
# apt-get source mysql-server-5.1
# vim mysql-dfsg-5.1*/debian/rules


here we touch a little the rules for compiling cause there are a couple of things that are not going to work by default.

The MAKE_J variable doesn’t work very well, so you can modify the grep to look for “CPU” instead of “processor” or you could hardcode it to the number of processor you have. This will make compilation a lot faster.

MAKE_J = -j$(shell if [ -f /proc/cpuinfo ] ; then grep -c CPU* /proc/cpuinfo ; else echo 1 ; fi)


then edit the CFLAGS variable because it’s used to compile some library that will ignore the environment variables we are going to set later in this howto.

CFLAGS=$${MYSQL_BUILD_CFLAGS:-"-O3 -DBIG_JOINS=1 -m64 -mcpu=niagara2 ${FORCE_FPIC_CFLAGS}"} \

it should be about line 73. Please note that -m64 will make it 64bit so it’s mandatory while the mcpu flag it’s to optimize the executable for your CPU. In my case it’s a niagara2 chip but you can use another CPU as well. Check the GCC documentation for more details
Save and quit and then we can start with the compilation process:

# export CFLAGS="-m64 -mcpu=niagara2 -O2 -g"
# export CXXFLAGS="-m64 -mcpu=niagara2 -O2 -g"
# export CPPFLAGS="-m64 -mcpu=niagara2 -O2 -g"
# export LDFLAGS="-m64 -mcpu=niagara2 -O2 -g"
# export DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS="nocheck"
# debuild -us -uc --preserve-env


that’s it. After some minutes (depending on your HW), you should have in /tmp/mysql-build all your new DEBs which you can install with dpkg -i. I advice to install the stock mysql-server-5.1 with aptitude before to get all dependencies installed, then you can use dpkg with your new DEBs.

I will make the assumption you know your way around Unix, Solaris, a Sparc Ultra 5 or equivalent, and you are competent at using vi or textedit.

Sign in as root.

Verify that ntp is installed:

$ pkginfo | grep -i ntp
system      SUNWntpr       NTP, (Root)
system      SUNWntpu       NTP, (Usr)

Open /etc/inet/ntp.server. That is only a template and you will not require it in its entirety. Using vi or textedit, create /etc/inet/ntp.conf.

# /etc/inet/ntp.conf
#
# Undisciplined local clock
server 127.127.1.0

This entry specifies your machine’s own clock as a source. It is unsynchronized with any other time sources or machines. Next, write the entry for the driftfile:

# driftfile
driftfile /var/ntp/ntp.drift

Enable logging and specify the log files and location:

# logging

statsdir /var/ntp/ntpstats/
filegen peerstats file peerstats type day enable
filegen loopstats file loopstats type day enable
filegen clockstats file clockstats type day enable

Reboot the Sparc. If their are errors in ntp.conf, you’ll see an “xntpd” error message during boot as the services are enabled. If there are no messages, you’re ok.

Verify the ntp is running:

#ps -ef | grep ntp
root   682     1  0 22:32:12 acts1    0:02 /usr/lib/inet/xntpd

Now, using ntptrace to check the time source:

#ntptrace
localhost: stratum 16, offset 0.000000, synch distance 0.000000

Congratulations! You are now successfully running a stratum 16 ntp server at the bottom of the food chain.

I also configured the machine to poll NIST ACTS by modem. This is not required, but is a good idea if *none* of the internet time servers are available (to be added later), either by a network failure remotely (a backhoe hits their T1) or locally (your cat jumps on the ethernet to DSL bridge and it crashes to the floor, disconnecting the power) and you don’t notice the trouble for a few hours.

As the modem polls ACTS, your server will eventually move up through the strata. If you want to volunteer your server for the NTP server pool, it is advisable to run at stratum 2.

Add the following after the local clock entry and uncomment either the server *and* phone entries for Colorado *or* Hawaii but *not* for both locations.:

# Colorado NIST ACTS
#server 127.127.18.1
#phone atdt13034944774
# Hawaii NIST ACTS
#server 127.127.18.1
#phone atdt18083354721

Oh, yeah – you’ll need a modem. Use a Hayes compatible 1200-9600 bps modem. I use either an MT224 or MT932. You can get them off of ebay for a song. You’ll need a serial cable as well, and configure it for asynchronous dial-up service.

If in OpenWindows or CDE, start AdminTool, then Browse—>Serial Ports—>Port a. In the Template drop-down menu, select “Terminal – Hardwired”. Make sure “Service Enable” is checked. Set “Baud Rate” to the your modem’s rate. Select “Apply” then “OK”.

Once the modem is connected and configured, test the connection to modem on serial port a.

# tip /dev/cua/a
connected
atdt <——-type this command and watch for the response on the modem’s status lights.

Type ~. or close Command Tool.

A symbolic link is now required for xntpd to access the modem /dev/cua/a. From the command line:

#ln -s /dev/cua/a /dev/acts1

Note “acts1″ corresponds to the last number in “server 127.127.18.1″. Power cycle the modem, then reboot the Sparc. If all goes well, no xntpd error messages will appear and the modem will dial NIST ACTS and receive time data.

Now let’s see what the time sources are (output redacted):

$ ntpq -c peers localhost
remote                                refid                    st   poll
LOCAL(0)                      LOCAL(0)             3   64
ACTS_MODEM(1)        .ACTS.                   0   1024

You now have an undisciplined local clock at stratum 3 (column “st”) polling itself every 64 seconds (column “poll”) and a server  designated as stratum 1 polled every 1024 seconds.

So far, /etc/inet/ntp.conf looks like:

# /etc/inet/ntp.conf
#
# Undisciplined local clock
server 127.127.1.0

# Colorado NIST ACTS
server 127.127.18.1
phone atdt13034944774

# driftfile
driftfile /var/ntp/ntp.drift

# logging
statsdir /var/ntp/ntpstats/
filegen peerstats file peerstats type day enable
filegen loopstats file loopstats type day enable
filegen clockstats file clockstats type day enable

Adding “prefer” (without quotes) at the end of the NIST ACTS server entry will instruct xntpd to use the modem time as the preferred source. Instead of rebooting the Sparc, stop then start xntpd:

# /etc/init.d/xnptd stop
# /etc/init.d/xnptd start

NOTE: If you’re *not* going to be a stratum 2 time source, this set up is ok. If you *are* going to be a stratum 2 time source, it absolutely stinks.

Next: How to upgrade your server to Stratum 2.

Giám đốc điều hành Oracle Larry Ellison chia sẻ những chiến lược trong quá trình chuyển đổi sau khi khiến cả Thung lũng Silicon sửng sốt với việc bất ngờ mua lại nhà sản xuất máy chủ Sun Microsystems.

Một số nhà phân tích cho rằng Oracle, hãng sản xuất phần mềm cơ sở dữ liệu lớn nhất thế giới, chỉ thực sự hứng thú với những tài sản phần mềm của Sun và thậm chí, Oracle có thể bán đứt các phần cứng của Sun.

Cuộc phỏng vấn dưới đây được Reuters thực hiện qua e-mail.

- Tại sao Oracle, một công ty luôn tự hào về những khoản lợi nhuận cao, lại sẵn sàng đầu tư vào kinh doanh phần cứng với lợi nhuận thấp?

- Trong khi hầu hết các doanh nghiệp kinh doanh phần cứng hiện nay chỉ kiếm được lợi nhuận thấp thì vẫn có những công ty như Apple và Cisco lại thu được rất nhiều lợi nhuận bởi vì họ đã xuất sắc khi tích hợp phần cứng và phần mềm. Nếu một công ty có khả năng phát triển cả hai bộ phận phần cứng và phần mềm, họ có thể cung cấp những hệ thống tốt hơn nhiều so với việc chỉ phát triển phần mềm. Điều này lý giải vì sao iPhone của Apple tốt hơn nhiều so với điện thoại của Microsoft.

- Apple và Cisco đã cho thấy họ có khả năng kết hợp các sản phẩm phần cứng và phần mềm. Vậy kinh nghiệm của Oracle trong lĩnh vực này ra sao?

- Oracle đã bắt đầu thiết kế các sản phẩm phần cứng và phần mềm tích hợp cách đây vài năm, khi chúng tôi bắt đầu dự án phát triển máy chủ cơ sở dữ liệu Exadata. Một vài đối thủ của Oracle như Teradata và Netezza đã phân phối các hệ thống phần cứng/ phần mềm tích hợp sẵn, trong khi chúng tôi chỉ phân phối phần mềm. Sự kết hợp giữa phần cứng và phần mềm mang lại những lợi thế quan trọng cho các ứng dụng lưu trữ dữ liệu.

Trên cơ sở đó, chúng tôi cũng kết hợp các sản phẩm phần cứng với phần mềm và cho ra đời sản phẩm của riêng mình – dòng máy chủ cơ sở dữ liệu Exadata. Máy chủ Exadata của Oracle chạy những các ứng dụng lưu trữ dữ liệu nhanh hơn nhiều, nhanh hơn ít nhất 10 lần so với các phần mềm của Oracle chạy trên các phần cứng thông thường. Máy chủ này bao gồm tất cả phần cứng và phần mềm, cơ sở dữ liệu đến ổ đĩa. Bạn chỉ cần cắm điện và chạy mà không cần đến một hệ thống tích hợp nào hết.

- Oracle đã hoàn thành việc tích hợp phần mềm và phần cứng với máy chủ cơ sở dữ liệu Exadata. Tuy nhiên, Exadata lại sử dụng bộ vi xử lý Intel thông thường. Vậy ông có dự định gì với việc sản xuất bộ vi xử lý SPARC của Sun?

- Một khi chúng tôi đã mua lại Sun, nghĩa là chúng tôi sẽ tiếp tục tăng cường đầu tư vào SPARC. Chúng tôi cho rằng việc thiết kế chip cho riêng mình là rất, rất quan trọng. Thậm chí, Apple cũng đang tự thiết kế chip cho riêng họ. Hiện tại, chip SPARC hoạt động có khi tốt hơn chip của Intel và ngược lại. Ví dụ như, SPARC tiết kiệm năng lượng hơn chip Intel khi cùng hoạt động trên một bộ vi xử lý. Đây không chỉ đơn thuần là vấn đề môi trường, mà là vấn đề kinh tế. Ngày nay, các trung tâm dữ liệu đang phải chi trả cho điện năng sử dụng để vận hành hệ thống máy tính của họ một khoản tiền nhiều như khoản đầu tư mua máy tính. Vì thế, máy SPARC sẽ tiết kiệm hơn so với khi sử dụng máy Intel.

- Kế hoạch của ông là sử dụng SPARC để cạnh tranh bằng cách giảm lượng điện tiêu thụ tại trung tâm dữ liệu?

- Không. Lý do chính của việc chúng tôi thiết kế chip cho riêng mình là để tạo nên những chiếc máy tính có hiệu suất tốt nhất, đáng tin cậy nhất và có tính bảo mật trên thị trường. Một vài chương trình của máy sẽ làm việc tốt hơn nếu chúng được triển khai tích hợp trên bộ vi xử lý thay vì chỉ là chương trình phần mềm. Khi chúng tôi có Sun, chúng tôi có thể lên kế hoạch và tiến hành đồng bộ hóa các chương trình mới này từ vi xử lý tới chương trình phần mềm, giống như IBM và các nhà cung cấp hệ thống lớn khác. Chúng tôi muốn cộng tác với Fujitsu để phát triển các tính năng tiên tiến cho bộ vi xử lý SPARC nhằm nâng cao hiệu suất hoạt động của cơ sở dữ liệu Oracle. Theo tôi, điều này sẽ cho phép các máy chủ với máy tính hệ thống mở SPARC Solaris thách thức vị trí thống trị của IBM trong thị phần trung tâm dữ liệu. Sun đã rất thành công suốt một thời gian rất dài trong việc cung cấp các hệ thống máy tính dựa trên chip SPARC và hệ điều hành Solaris. Giờ đây, cùng với sức mạnh từ việc tích hợp với phần mềm của Oracle, tôi tin rằng họ sẽ tiếp tục thành công.

- Đội ngũ quản lý của ông không có kinh nghiệm trong việc phân phối phần cứng. Như vậy mức độ rủi ro sẽ như thế nào khi bước chân vào một lĩnh vực kinh doanh mà mình không quen thuộc?

- Hiển nhiên là chúng tôi muốn duy trì đội ngũ kỹ sư phần cứng cừ khôi của Sun. Nhiều năm qua, Sun đã dẫn đầu ngành trong việc xây dựng và phân phối các hệ thống đổi mới. Ví dụ, Sun là công ty đầu tiên phân phối các hệ thống được phát triển trên bộ xử lý đa lõi – mà Sun gọi là chip Niagara – sau đó, được ngành công nghiệp noi theo. Oracle có một thành tích đáng nể trong việc duy trì các kỹ sư tài năng đến từ các công ty sáp nhập và đối với Sun cũng vậy. Hơn nữa, trong vài năm gần đây, Oracle đã thu được rất nhiều kinh nghiệm trong việc phát triển và phân phối hệ thống tích hợp phần cứng và phần mềm đầu tiên, đó là máy chủ cơ sở dữ liệu Exadata. Oracle đã có rất nhiều kinh nghiệm về lĩnh vực phần cứng. Hàng trăm kỹ sư của Oracle đến từ các công ty hệ thống khác như IBM và HP. Bản thân tôi cũng bắt đầu sự nghiệp của mình tại thung lũng Silicon với một công ty phần cứng đã từng cộng tác với Fujitsu để thiết kế và xây dựng máy chủ tương thích đầu tiên của IBM.

- Rất nhiều suy đoán từ báo chí cho rằng Oracle sắp sửa bán đi một phần hoặc tất cả phần cứng của Sun. Tuy nhiên, trong các câu trả lời trước của ông, có thể thấy một điều là ông sẽ duy trì việc kinh doanh SPARC Solaris. Ông sẽ duy trì cả việc kinh doanh hệ thống lưu trữ và sao lưu dữ liệu?

- Nhất định rồi. Chúng tôi tin rằng người dùng sẽ cảm thấy tốt nhất khi tất cả các bộ phận trong hệ thống được thiết kế để phối hợp với nhau. Hệ thống lưu trữ và dự phòng dữ liệu là những bộ phận thiết yếu đối với hệ thống cơ sở dữ liệu hiệu năng cao, tính tin cậy cao cũng như tính bảo mật cao. Do đó, chúng tôi dự định sẽ phát triển và sản xuất các bộ phận như vậy. Rõ ràng là rất nhiều khách hàng của Sun đã chọn hệ thống lưu trữ và sao lưu dữ liệu từ các nhà cung cấp khác. Đó là tất cả những gì mà hệ thống “mở” hướng tới: cung cấp cho khách hàng một sự lựa chọn duy nhất. Tuy nhiên, Oracle hy vọng sẽ tiếp tục cạnh tranh trong cả hai lĩnh vực lưu trữ và sao lưu dữ liệu sau khi đã mua Sun.

- Ông sẽ chuyển hướng từ Exadata sang Solaris SPARC của Sun?

- Exadata do HP phát triển, sử dụng bộ vi xử lý của Intel. Chúng tôi không có ý định sẽ cho ra đời một phiên bản SPARC Solaris của Exadata. Chúng tôi đã có mối quan hệ rất tốt với HP và hy vọng vẫn duy trì mối quan hệ đó. Exadata đem lại hiệu suất lưu trữ dữ liệu cao với mức chi phí thấp hơn so với các sản phẩm phần cứng thông thường khác. Các khách hàng đều yêu thích loại máy này. Đây là sản phẩm thành công nhất trong lịch sử 30 năm của Oracle. Việc mua Sun sẽ không làm giảm cam kết của chúng tôi đối với sản phẩm này.

(Theo Reuters)

Bài viết liên quan

Intel thay thế Core 2 Duo bằng i3, i5 và i7

Phiên bản Windows Server 2008 rẻ nhất ra mắt tại VN

Chip đa lõi đặt ra thách thức lớn cho ngành CNTT

Intel ’sốc’ vì mức phạt kỷ lục 1,44 tỷ USD

Nguồn: viencanh.com Oracle cam kết theo đuổi hoạt động kinh doanh phần cứng

Recently, at the Louisiana Trust’s Preservation Conference, which was held here in Alexandria, I met the woman who was almost singlehandedly responsible for saving one of Georgia’s historic bungalow neighborhoods.  I did not realize who I was talking to, until later when Charles Charrier, President of HACL (Historical Association of Central Louisiana), pointed it out.  If I would have known who she was, I would have picked her brain a little.

Her story goes something like this.  The neighborhood surrounding Mercer University was falling into decay.  It was mostly rent property controlled by slumlords who didn’t care a whit about the once beautiful, craftsman style neighborhood of bungalows.  This lady decided to do something about it.  She talked to several city officials, preservation groups, banks, but she could not garner their support.  So, she decided to do it on her own.  She purchased one house and restored it and that was so successful, she bought 2-3 more and restored them.  By that time, the city and other groups saw that she put her money where her mouth was, and also that she was serious about tackling this neighborhood, so they decided to support her.  The University became involved and, this is what has happened to that neighborhood: click here to view their site and photo gallery.

I think that the same can happen in Alexandria.  All we need are one or two believers that this neighborhood can be saved and revitalized, and the rest will be written in the annals of the history of the City of Alexandria.  SPARC is a great start…now, let us see some citizen involvement.

Andrea Warren

Treasurer, Historical Association of Central Louisiana

Resident of the historical West End of Alexandria

Preservationist

Me enteré a través del blog de Eloy Rodrigues sobre el lanzamiento de OASIS: Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook, proyecto liderado por Alma Swan  y Leslie Chan (University of Toronto) :

El propósito de OASIS es ofrecer un fuente de información autoritativa sobre “Acceso Abierto”, que cubre el concepto, principios, ventajas, los métodos y medios para lograrlo. El sitio destaca los desarrollos e iniciativas de todo el mundo, con enlaces a diversos recursos adicionales y casos de estudio. Como tal es tanto una experiencia de creación de comunidad como un ejercicio de generación de recursos. Se anima a los usuarios a compartir y bajar los recursos ofrecidos y a modificarlos y adaptarlos a los usos locales. El Acceso Abierto está en evolución e invitamos a la creciente comunidad global a formar parte de este emocionante movimiento mundial”

El sitio ofrece la información organizada como una guía adaptada al interés de los diferentes usuarios: investigadores, bibliotecas y bibliotearios, editores, gestores de repositorios y staff técnico, administradores de políticas científicas, organismos financiadores, estudiantes y público en general.

El énfasis de este recurso está en los aspectos prácticos: “Pasos prácticos para implementar el Acceso Abierto“. Las organizaciones que apoyan esta iniciativa son: eIFL.net (Electronic Information for Libraries), Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resource Coaliation (SPARC), Open Access Directory (OAD), y Science Commons.

Gracias Eloy por compartir este excelente recurso con nosotros!

For more information, please see the entire document:

CRA-1 Action Items

The City Administration has recommended awarding investment packages totaling $17M over five to ten years in incentives and hard infrastructure costs as well as another $10M-$20M in R.I.V.E.R. Project activities.  This means the public would own significant properties and have a significant investment in the area—investment that would be used and enjoyed by citizens on a daily basis. 

An initial assessment and COAN applying to the SPARC designated CRA-1 indicate benefits following general funding limits: $667,000 in CRA funds; at least one new fire station; $17M+ in hard infrastructure improvements, $1M in housing infrastructure for designated development proposals, and $1M+ in recreation infrastructure; and, potentially, up to $10M in designated funds to receive matching for riverfront development activity (to be allocated by the Commission or Management Teams to a mega-project or projects).   

Already, the City has applied for and received $3.9M in Neighborhood Stabilization Funds for matching with the SPARC-CRA-1 Housing Initiative. 

In addition, as much as $1M is federally earmarked for R.I.V.E.R. activity and almost $3M for recreation under the City’s FastTrack or general municipal capital outlay programs.  

Finally, as much as $10M may be available through state capital outlay for Sugarhouse Road. 

This is a working document, not meant to be a final assessment or “Findings of Necessity.”  Partial recommended awards, however, have been determined as follows: 

Riverfront Activities (R.I.V.E.R.) 

•  Riverfront Enhancement Project ($4.5M – $5M out of $17+M allocated in CRA-1) (matched with $1M in federal funds for feasibility): 

- Design, planning, and construction of improvements and enhancements to the Alexandria Riverfront Amphitheater (which might be renamed after an important local figure, or, alternatively, the subject of naming rights from a private-sector company in exchange for an investment of at least $500K), including but not limited to changes in accessibility, the installation of stadium seating, the improvement of staging and acoustics, and the construction of restroom facilities.  Attention should also be given to the improvement and augmentation of aesthetics and design of the facility.  (Seeking $1M in federally-approved monies and $120K+/- in design, planning from S.PA.R.C.) 

- Design, planning, and construction of improvements and enhancements to the Alexandria Riverfront Center, particularly along the riverfront.  (Seeking $2M- $2.5M, including $380K- $500K in design, planning from private sources.)  (Note, the Downtown Hotels Initiative was issued as a separate RFP; it can be located at www.sparccommission.com/rfqs-and-rfps.) 

- Main Street streetscape project: Complements improvements made to Upper, Middle, and Lower Third Street.  ($1M- $1.5M, including $200K in design, planning). 

R.I.V.E.R.:      $5M 

Street design, drainage, sewer, utilities and permanent public space to be donated/owned by the COA 

Soft Incentives such as plan costs and feasibility studies or direct business incentives such as façade aid - $167K

TOTAL:      $5.167M in permanently- and privately-owned infrastructure improvements 

$5.167M 

Ruston Foundry Megasite 

Parish Multi-Purpose Recreation Facility 

• These projects could be developed as a mega or mega development(s), allocating funds up to $10M.   

- Long term “nominalized” agreement on lease of 30+ acres  

- Design, planning, and construction of infrastructure supporting a large-scale industrial and/or commercial office park, including but limited to the construction of roads, sidewalks, and utilities, the design and implementation of a business plan for the location of tenants, investors, and developers, and the development of a comprehensive master plan for the development: $5M 

- Construction of a multi-use arena/professional recreational facility: $5M SPARC (along with $10M Police Jury or Cooperative Financing District or Plan, $1M G.A.E.D.A., $1M APCVB/City of Pineville, $5M+ private contributions with naming rights). 

Ruston Foundry Megasite(s):   $5M 

Street design, drainage, sewer, utilities and permanent public space to be donated/owned by the COA 

Soft Incentives such as plan costs and feasibility studies – $333K  

TOTAL:      $5.333M in permanently- and privately-owned infrastructure improvements 

$10.5M 

Sugarhouse Road 

• Sugarhouse Road funding of $5M in S.P.A.R.C. funding to begin immediately. 

$15.5M 

The Billboard Liberation Front subverts corporate "art" with public "vandalism" in LA

Visual culture overwhelms the public spaces of Los Angeles. Billboards, blimps, and the eyes of action stars in movie advertisements on buses follow us, and, often, move with us (quite literally, in the case of the buses). LA loves mass media, and mass media, with its giant, plastic, and mass produced heart, loves LA. Advertisements are the boring and expected elements of Los Angeles visual culture, however. The giant faces of celebrities and the catch-phrase catechisms of capitalism cover the sides of buildings like bird poop on a car that is already dirty, anyway. The public art that I wish to LA Rave about hides in plain sight amongst that commonplace glare of those friendly and invasive advertisements.

Since 1989 the city of Los Angeles has

Origins of Gay Rights Movement segment on The Great Wall of Los Angeles, along the Tujunga Flood Control Channel of the San Fernando Valley (there's a nice bike path there)

commissioned over 150 public artworks. Before that, in 1976, SPARC, the S.ocial and P.ublic A.rt R.esource C.enter, started finding spaces, people, and time to create community murals that communicate a narrative of Los Angeles that is far more compelling than any $10 movie, or one million dollar movie poster. And even before that, in the 1930s, David Alfaro Siqueiros, of Los Tres Grandes, ‘the three great’ Mexican muralists (and communists…the best known, perhaps, is Diego Rivera), painted three murals in Los Angeles.

“La América Tropical”, 1932 detail by David Alfaro Siqueiros on Olvera St

Siqueiros’ mural “Tropical America” still covers/makes up the space on the second floor of the Italian Hall on Olvera Street. Siqueiros’ use of public space to represent a critical view of the United States in relation to Latin America almost got him kicked out of the country (he had already been kicked out of Mexico). Controversy is key, and public art that challenges the mundane humdrum of city streets and understandings, keeps new images and ideas out on the visual culture playing field.

Los Souls Cafe Downtown

I’m not saying that all public art in Los Angeles challenges the status quo with subversive intentions.  I’m just so thrilled when I see some art/graffiti/murals that represent the thoughts and interests of somebody who’s not trying to get me to watch a TV show, buy a car, or care about either of those things.  Thank goodness for drawings I’ve never seen before, and even that mural of joggers on the 10 west leading out of Downtown that I’ve seen so many times.  I also like that creepy baby holding a ball on the Santa Ana Freeway.  If you’ve seen it, you know what I’m talking about.

Other people, more into lists than I, have compiled routes and archives of some of the more monumental displays of public art in Los Angeles.  This website is thorough in regards to commissioned installations.  Here you can find information about the art on the purple line.  This is another website that talks about LA murals and their connection to Los Angeles culture and history.

Great Wall of Los Angeles

Although I’m excited that these resources are available, and I’m sure you could spend some money buying guide books, coffee table books, or going on tours, the great part about the public art is that it’s everywhere.  It’s on the sides of buildings and freeways.  It’s in coffee shops, parks, and those electrical boxes that interrupt the sidewalks like metal bushes.  These images help me find my way around the city, or at least make getting lost much more interesting: past the giant guns that point in either direction, before the long orange face, if I see the caged monkey I’ve gone too far, ect.  So this is my first LA Rave: Public art!  It’s everywhere, it’s free, and anyone can participate.

via cjc-l

SCOAP3 – An opportunity to create change

A Webcast from SPARC and ACRL

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

9AM Pacific | 11AM Central | 12PM Eastern (90 minutes)

Registration is free. RSVP by June 9 at http://www.arl.org/sparc/meetings/event_registration.shtml

In follow up to the recent release of a new set of Frequently Asked Questions on the SCOAP3 initiative (see http://www.acrl.ala.org/acrlinsider/2009/05/04/acrl-and-sparc-release-new-scoap3-faq/), SPARC and ACRL are pleased to host Dr. Salvatore Mele, Head of Open Access at CERN and spokesperson for SCOAP3, at a live Web cast to explore the process of committing to the consortium, establishing its governing board, the project’s conditions for the call for tender, and to answer remaining questions. Please join us.

SCOAP3, the Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access in Particle Physics Publishing, currently depends on expressions of interest from the U.S. library community before the experiment can move ahead. The proposal is currently supported by more than 130 U.S. libraries, by the Canadian Research Knowledge Network, and by libraries, consortia and funding agencies in 18 other countries.

SCOAP3 has a unique potential to transform scholarly communication. The initiative aims to convert the literature of an entire field to Open Access by re-directing current expenditures in journal subscriptions. It has so far collected pledges for a total of 8.8 Million $/year from partners in 21 countries, corresponding to 63% of its worldwide budget envelope.

In the U.S., a growing number of leading libraries and library consortia have already signed an Expression of Interest pledging to re-direct their current expenditures in High-Energy Physics journals to the SCOAP3 initiative, if successful. These pledges total 2.5 Million $/year. About 1 Million $/year are still needed to complete the expected U.S. contribution and enable the initiative to move forward.

Please join us for this special event to learn more about how your library can help change the model for scholarly publishing in High Energy Physics.

Register by June 9 at http://www.arl.org/sparc/meetings/event_registration.shtml.

For more information, see:

• The SPARC-ACRL FAQs at http://www.arl.org/sparc/publications/papers/scoap3_09april.shtml

• The SCOAP3 web page at http://scoap3.org and

• The SCOAP3 expression of interest for U.S. libraries at http://tinyurl.com/scoap3us.

#

SPARC

SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), with SPARC Europe and SPARC Japan, is an international alliance of more than 800 academic and research libraries working to create a more open system of scholarly communication. SPARC’s advocacy, educational and publisher partnership programs encourage expanded dissemination of research. SPARC is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/sparc/.

ACRL

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), represents more than 13,000 academic and research librarians and interested individuals. It is the only individual membership organization in North America that develops programs, products and services to meet the unique needs of academic and research librarians. Its initiatives enable the higher education community to understand the role that academic libraries play in the teaching, learning and research environments.