Two weeks ago Jim Mauro, a Sun engineer who writes extensively on Solaris internals and performance topics, gave a talk at the Exit Certified training center in San Jose. I was teaching network administration next door, but luckily my students were happy to forego a lecture/lab on IPv6 and listen to Jim instead.

Jim has an easy style, a gift that seems common among Sun's top engineers, that allows him to drill fairly deep into the technical details of Solaris without losing a lot of people. For me the great benefit was in hearing someone else present topics I also teach. Jim's added graces, having been deep in the development process, and having presented to so many different audiences, made my time in the room well-spent. I got several ideas I could incorporate into my own presentations and, blissfully, no discoveries that I have been teaching it wrong! Always a relief.

In conjunction with his books, Solaris Internals and Solaris Performance and Tools, Jim and his co-authors want to build interest in their Solaris Internals site as a go-to resource. I plug it here as a thank-you to Jim for his generous chat time that day and because I will probably play off, extend, or comment on cool stuff as it appears over there.