Drobo, XP Users: Beware of 4K “Advanced Format” Drives!
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Computer history, Enterprise storage, Everything, Terabyte home on 23. Dec, 2009 | View Comments
Personal computer hard disk drive access methods have been repeatedly forced to adapt to ever-expanding capacity. But Western Digital is leading the change to larger 4 kilobyte hard disk blocks. Although this new “Advanced Format” includes mechanisms for backwards compatibility, buyers should be wary of these new drives for the time being.
A Concrete Reason Macs Beat PCs: Intel VT
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Computer history, Terabyte home, Virtual Storage on 07. Aug, 2009 | View Comments
There is a lot of FUD flowing between Apple Macintosh true believers and the rest of the PC world. This is especially true now that Macs use Intel CPUs, NVIDIA chipsets and graphics, and so much more commodity PC parts. Lots have argued that a Mac is just an expensive PC with a flashy case [...]
Windows 7 Is Here! In My Hands! But Why 8 DVDs?
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Enterprise storage, Personal, Terabyte home on 27. May, 2009 | View Comments
Microsoft just let loose a Release Candidate for Windows 7, the operating system that will bring peace, love, and joy to PC users everywhere and finally stop folks from switching to Macs instead of using Vista. Maybe.
The Future of Home Storage
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Computer history, Terabyte home on 12. Oct, 2008 | View Comments
Consumers demand friendly, flexible solutions. They don’t want to fuss with their media, and they don’t want simple shared storage. They want integration with multiple devices and flexibility to access their content on any device.
Vista, OS X Boot Time Compared
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Personal, Terabyte home on 14. Aug, 2008 | View Comments
I recently mentioned how impressed I was with the speed of my MacBook, even when running Windows in Boot Camp. Of course, this was a subjective feeling, so I decided to try timing some events to see if the clock agreed with my brain. Sure enough, the Mac is faster than my Dell XPS M1330 [...]
Windows Server 2008 Changes Storage
Posted by Stephen in Enterprise storage, Personal, Terabyte home on 31. Jul, 2008 | View Comments
Although it’s been available for a while now, Windows Server 2008’s storage changes aren’t widely reported. TechTarget’s Dave Raffo wrote a piece about it today, Windows Server 2008’s hidden storage features, including some quotes from me, but it’s still less than clear.
So let me sum up:
Server Message Block (SMB) 2.0 is probably the biggest news. Microsoft [...]
Storage Fixes in VMware ESX Server 3.5 Update 2
Posted by Stephen in Enterprise storage, Virtual Storage on 28. Jul, 2008 | View Comments
VMware just released Update 2 for VMware ESX Server 3.5 (Virtual Infrastructure), and it includes some storage fixes of note:
Support for Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) for filesystems Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 guests. This means VMware services like VCB and SRM can now signal Windows Server to quiesce filesystems before creating a clone [...]
Quick and Easy Bluetooth Sharing Between PC and Mac
Posted by Stephen in Apple on 25. Jul, 2008 | View Comments
As I transition to the Mac, I often find myself needing to transfer a file back and forth quickly. I could create SMB shares on both systems, but this requires both to be connected to a wired or wireless Ethernet LAN. Luckily, both Vista and OS X offer functional Bluetooth sharing technology for [...]
Switch Day 1: This Mac is Hot!
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Personal, Terabyte home, Virtual Storage on 14. Jun, 2008 | View Comments
So the Mac has joined my replacement work Dell – two new computers in two days! Here are my first thoughts on the hardware:
This post is part of my series focused on switching from PC to Mac.
How To Buy Discount Apple Computers
Got Some AppleCare For Cheap
Switch! or How the Mac (Finally) Won Me Over
Switch Day [...]
Switch! or How the Mac (Finally) Won Me Over
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Terabyte home on 12. Jun, 2008 | View Comments
It’s official, I am a switcher. A splitter. An ex-Windows user (at home, at least). Today I bought my first Mac since the SE that still haunts our basement storage room in its cute gray carrying bag. Come Friday, I will be an official Mac user!
How did it come to this? It’s not really Microsoft’s [...]
