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Shadow's Home Page

(last updated 02/06/2010)

Shadow and servers

My name's Glenn Holmer, and I'm a Java programmer (not a web designer, as you can see...) living on the East Side in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA: this is the view out my window. I can be reached by email as shadowm at lyonlabs.org.

As of 10/07/2009, this machine is running OpenSolaris.

The picture at right is me with some of the servers I'm responsible for at work.

You can see my astrological birth chart if you like (don't tell me Pluto isn't a planet).

Here's a link to pictures of my travels to Yogyakarta in central Java (Indonesia).

...all watched over by machines of loving grace.


I'm a long-time Commodore 64 enthusiast; in fact, most of this site consists of information about this great little machine that's still so much fun to use. There are software and documentation downloads, programming tips, and pictures of exotic hardware. You'll also find photos from Commodore shows around the US and Canada in recent years, where all are welcome to join in the Commodore goodness. You can find all this from the main Commodore page.


If you're ever in Silicon Valley, be sure to visit the Computer History Museum. They've got displays that will knock your socks off, from centuries-old slide rules, to the underground behemoths that watched the skies during the Cold War. They've even got a piece of ENIAC! One of their latest acquisitions is a reconstruction of Charles Babbage's Difference Engine.


I'm an active member of the NetBeans community, and have been part of the NetCAT (Community Acceptance Testing) program for the 3.6, 4.0, 4.1, 5.0, 6.0, 6.5, 6.7, and 6.8 releases. I am also a past member of the NetBeans Dream Team.

NetBeans 6.8 was released on 12/10/2009, and includes support for Java EE 6 and performance improvements in the editor. There's a good introductory video available, with more linked from there (including a good one on the new Java EE 6 features.

Happy 10th birthday, NetBeans!


I've become very interested in OpenSolaris, especially since the release of 2009.06 and the presentations I saw about it at Community One. A presentation at a local users group was enough to push me over the edge, and in October 2009, I started running this server on it. I'm going to be adding some tips 'n' tricks here as I gradually chronicle my OpenSolaris adventures.

  • Having trouble installing packages or upgrading to a new dev build? Try pkg refresh --full to jog the package manager's memory.
  • To upgrade to a specific dev build, you can follow the instructions given in bug 3436; here are the commands to upgrade to build 129:
        pkg install SUNWipkg
        beadm create snv_129
        beadm mount snv_129 /mnt
        pkg -R /mnt install entire@0.5.11-0.129
        bootadm update-archive -R /mnt
        beadm unmount snv_129
        beadm activate snv_129
    

  • I've been a Linux user since 1995, starting with Slackware. I switched to SUSE in 1998 after seeing it at the Linux Expo in Raleigh, and stuck with it for ten years. In mid-2008, I switched to Ubuntu, and continue to run it on my desktop machines. Ubuntu 9.10 ("Karmic Koala") is the current release. Here are some tips 'n' tricks: