Simo’s Sagacity

Preview of ZFS on FreeNAS 0.7 Server Video on YouTube

I have created a new FreeNAS tutorial video previewing ZFS on FreeNAS 0.7. It has been uploaded to YouTube.

Following the success of the RAID5 FreeNAS tutorial video this next video is a sneak preview of ZFS which is coming in FreeNAS 0.7.

ZFS is a file system designed by Sun Microsystems for the Solaris Operating System. ZFS is open-source software and has therefore also been ported to FreeBSD the OS behind FreeNAS.

A traditional file systems resides on single hard drive and if you want to use more than one hard drive they need to be combined either with RAID or with a volume manager.

ZFS is different, all ZFS filesystems are built on top of virtual storage pools called zpools. A zpool is constructed of virtual devices, which are themselves constructed of physical hard drives (or indeed files or hard drive partitions).

Hard drives within a virtual device may be configured in different ways, depending on needs and space available: non-redundantly (similar to RAID 0), as a mirror (RAID 1) of two or more devices, as a RAID-Z group of three or more devices (which is similar to RAID 5), or as a RAID-Z2 group of four or more devices (which is similar to RAID 6).

FreeNAS 0.7 is only an alpha release from the nightly build system and ZFS is considered experimental, but it does give us a sneak preview of what is in store for FreeNAS.

The video will also be uploaded to the LearnFreeNAS.com website.

Saudi Arabia: Muslim Father Kills Daughter for Converting to Christianity - Worthy News

The Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) www.persecution.org has learned that a Saudi Arabian man cut out the tongue of his daughter and burned her to death after finding out that she had converted to Christianity.

The girl came to know about Jesus Christ through the internet, according to Gulf News. Her father found about her conversion and killed her “following a heated debate on religion” the source indicated. The man is currently in custody. There is no indication as to the killer’s identity or the date of the crime except “that the killing happened recently.”

Read more here: Saudi Arabia: Muslim Father Kills Daughter for Converting to Christianity

(Via Worthy News.)

Winnie-the-Pooh held for robbery?

Japanese police have arrested a 20-year-old man who attacked and robbed two people after they stared at his Winnie-the-Pooh costume, officials said on Tuesday.

Masayuki Ishikawa was hanging out on a Tokyo street corner after midnight last month while wearing the cuddly costume, accompanied by two friends dressed as a mouse and a panther, when he took offence at being stared at, police said.

Ishikawa and his friends beat up the two victims and stole $160 from them, the spokesman said, adding the group had apparently donned the unusual garb because they had run out of clean clothes.

Read more here: Winnie-the-Pooh held for robbery?

The Mac Cool Factor

John Martellaro of MacObserver writes, “Linux just doesn’t have the cool factor to make switching worth the risk, but the Mac does. That’s why Linux works in the enterprise where cheap and boring is okay, but not with consumers who have come to expect more.”

Yes, it may be less expensive to install Linux in a “consumer desktop”, but it isn’t going to work as well, or be as intuitive, because it simply doesn’t offer the consumer the applications they want and need. It doesn’t work well with the iPhone or the iPod. And on top of all those practical reasons, Martellaro says, “it doesn’t have that hard to define cool factor.”

The suggestion is that the tipping point is also about the difference between “cool” and “lame”. Is “good enough, and cheaper” really what the consumer wants? It’s sad, really, that we’ve all come to expect little more than “good enough” from most of the companies we shell out our money to. Maybe the continuing growth in customer-shift from PC to Mac is about the fact that the average consumer no longer wants to accept ” good enough”. They want quality, they want dependability, they want design, and yes, a little bit of “cool” goes a long way when thrown into that mix.

Read more here: The Mac Cool Factor

(Via Mac Offers.)

10 Coolest Devices Running Linux (Updated!)

As you all probably know Linux is not limited to just desktops. It’s far reaching, actually. Not that you’d have a Terminal app on it or anything, but you could. Some of you may have a mobile phone running Linux and you probably don’t even know it. The most popular phone in the world runs Unix. That’s right. The iPhone runs on Unix. Are there any other cool devices out there running on Linux or Unix? Of course there are:

Read more here: 10 Coolest Devices Running Linux (Updated!)

(Via Linux.com :: Newsvac.)

Messianic leaders say Hebrew tablet validates Jesus’ claims

Israeli Jewish believers in Jesus say the recently publicized Hebrew tablet describing the death and resurrection of a messianic figure challenges centuries of teachings by rabbinic Judaism that the redemptive process of Jesus was a departure from biblical Jewish understanding, according to a story carried on www.israeltoday.co.il

The story says that the unique stone tablet dubbed “Gabriel’s Revelation” contains 87 partial lines of archaic Hebrew in which the archangel commands a messianic ruler identified as the “Prince of Princes” to rise after having been dead for three days.

(Via Worthy News.)

Muslim Candidate Kills Christian Voter For Refusing To Vote For Him - Worthy News

Muslim Candidate Kills Christian Voter For Refusing To Vote For Him:

OKARA, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife) — Widow Zeenat Javed was still awaiting justice Sunday, August 10, four months after her Christian husband was killed for refusing to vote for a Muslim candidate in elections in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

Javed said her Christian husband, Javed Masih, was killed in April when supporters of a Muslim candidate for the Punjab Aseembly, identified as Mohammad Abdul Sattar, opened fire on Christians who apparently refused to vote for him.

“Abdul Sattar came to Christian Village on April 10th, 2008, with his gang and opened fire on Christians who didn’t vote for him in the Joint Election System,” under which Muslims support Christians and Christians back Muslim politicians, said rights group Christian Youth Fellowship-Pakistan CYF.

“Javed Masih died on spot by firing, while [fellow Christian] Irshaad Masih was seriously injured,” the group said in a statement to BosNewsLife.

RAID 5 video on YouTube

Following the launch of learnfreenas.com I have created a tutorial video about configuring RAID 5 on FreeNAS.

I have also uploaded it to YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8-DrhYKTFE

Thanks,

Gary

LearnFreeNAS.com Launched

Hi,

To coincide with the release of my “Learning FreeNAS” book I have started a new website LearnFreeNAS.com.

It is a one stop site for tips, articles, tutorials and videos about FreeNAS the Open Source Network Attached Storage OS.

Go visit it!!! Please!!!

Gary

My latest article: Comparing Linux USB flash disk distros

My latest article “Comparing Linux USB flash disk distros” has been published on Linux.com.

In the article I review the mini-distros DSL and PuppyLinux and also the full desktop distributions PendriveLinux, Ubuntu and Mandriva Flash.

I also posted a comment/update with a quick look at Fedora 9 USB Live.

You can read the review here.