People have been speculating about how Sun will open-source Solaris – what license etc. – generally based on their own prejuduces rather than any specific information.

The fact is that Jonathan Schwartz, who seems to be the point man within Sun for opening Solaris, has said many times that Sun will use an OSI approved license. And that means something. OSI-vetted licenses differ, but the source will be freely available, redistributable, and unencumbered by restrictive terms on who can use it and how it can be used.

So if Schwartz delivers, the license will not be an issue.

Meanwhile, in this story: Novell Hints It Could Use IP To Bedevil Open Source Solaris (LinuxWorld)

Linux vendor (and therefore automatic good-guy for many zealots) Novell is all but threatening to sue Sun if Sun open-sources Solaris. Fun, huh?

I’m considering packs.

Right now I have a Kelty Tioga frame pack, and a large Jansport rucksack that is light but uncomfortable with moderate loads. I haven’t used either for backpacking, but the Kelty is an external frame pack and would be somewhat unwieldy for lightweight packing, and the Jansport has little to recommend it.

Under consideration:
Mountainsmith Ghost 3000 ci, 2 lb 4 oz
Mountainsmith Auspex 4000 ci, 4 lb
Kifaru Marauder 2500 ci, 4lb 7 oz., plus long pockets
Kifaru Pointman 3000 ci, 4lb 15 oz, plus long pockets

The Mountainsmith packs are lightweight and relatively inexpensive but have a good reputation. Kifaru products are said to be extremely robust, and their prices and weights reflect that.

I may take a few trips with the Jansport or Kelty before buying.

I tried the reflectix cozy / Grease Pot combo to cook up some whole wheat pasta while I was alone for the weekend (wouldn’t feed Julie that stuff, unless we were camping) and it did pretty well.

Boil 1.5 cups water, add 1 cup pasta, return to boil, put in cozy and cover. Wait 5 minutes and pasta is done, ready to drain and add cheese / sauce / etc.

For a full meal I’d use more pasta, but the smaller quantity is really the tougher test. Whole wheat pasta is weird but it cooks fast, and whole wheat really is better food.

It’s hard to know: has technorati accepted my blog claim?

The opening screen says not, the member profile screen seems to say it has. No clarity though.
This post will issue yet another ping.

It looks like October is gone. I have three major deliverables next week, not counting the survey script I’m working up now.

It’s not so bad, we had two great days of hiking in England, but I’d really like to get out into some wilderness before winter. Seems unlikely now, though.

I’m putting together another gallon of gun cleaner using C.E. “Ed” Harris’s famous formula. This time I’m going to try making a refined, low-odor version – not that I ever objected much to the original formula, but others in my household feel otherwise.

The original formula calls for equal quantities of

• Acetone
• Mineral spirits
• K-1 Kerosene
• Dexron III ATF

A gallon of that formula has served to clean my guns for many years.

To try to make a cleaner, low-odor version, I’m going to use:

• Highly refined deodorized mineral spirits (brand name to come)
• Klean-Strip “Klean Heat Odorless Fuel” kerosene substitute

Even with these ingredients I won’t want to breath the vapors, but it should make it much more pleasant to use.

h2. Textile 2 is now activated for my weblog.

It should make it easy for me to
* Add bulleted lists
* Add numbered lists
* create links
* display images

“Here are the instructions”:http://textism.com/tools/textile/index.html

Textile is

bq. A Humane Web Text Generator

Let’s see how it works!

This is the new weblog for sealrock.org.

I’m using WordPress, an open source php-based blogging tool. I have imported all the entries from my TypePad weblog. The Movable Type import worked fine, and now I can close and cancel the TypePad account.

Having decided that the Grease Pot Improved (GPI) concept is worth checking out, I’m going to do some tests and publish the results.

Things I want to check are:

1. Boil times with uninsulated/insulated pot lid
There probably won’t be a huge difference, and boil times are variable anyway.

2. Temperature after time with uninsulated/insulated pot lid
I will probably boil water, then let the pot cool for five minutes and check the temperature. This to determine whether the insulated lid alone is useful for keeping food warm.

3. Temperature after time with GPI cozy/over top cozy
My concern is that the GPI cozy leaves a gap at the top, which will hurt performance — but will it be enough to care about? an over-the-top cozy is slightly less convenient than the GPI and won’t give any boil time improvement but should be thermally optimal.

The key to conducting this test will be to order things so that all the tests with the uninsulated lid are done first. Then I can glue on the insulation and proceed to the other tests.

When? Maybe this weekend.