Miscellany

I’ve successfully compiled and installed OpenSolaris from source code. While the build and install has a lot of rough edges still, it’s very exciting to have a working open source (mostly) copy of Solaris running!

Dennis Hickey wrote an interesting article in the Taipei Times “Clearing the air over sovereignty.”

My dad left this morning. The highlight of his visit was spending Sunday and Monday up on Yangming Mountain. We stayed at a nice out of the way hot spring resort and spent some time exploring some of the scenic spots. Emily got carsick twice and we got stuck in the rain at one spot, and I had to drive illegally (I can drive but don’t have a Taiwan driver’s license. My wife can barely drive but has a license. We tried it the legal way but it was not fun.), but overall it was pretty nice.

The low point was me getting a stomach bug again on Tuesday. We managed to make it out for a while to take the world’s fastest elevator to the top of the world’s tallest building (Taipei 101), but it wasn’t that fun for me. I think we know why I keep getting sick though. On Tuesday evening one of the downstairs neighbors in our building came up to say that the water tank for the building is very dirty and wanted to discuss splitting the cost of cleaning it. While we have our own separate water tank, it turns out that it is fed from the main building tank. I’d wondered about the water quality before, so I’m hoping that getting the tanks cleaned will solve the problem. I’m sticking to bottled water from 7-11 until they’re cleaned.

Thanks for sending the salami, Bonita.