WPI Archives – Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat

February 12, 2012

Like Dystopian Cyberpunk Fiction? You’ll Love Max Headroom on DVD! Really!

August 11, 2010 By Stephen 2 Comments

It’s a familiar tale: A production company gets the green light to produce a new science fiction television series and pours their hearts into it, then the network destroys it. I’m not talking about Joss Whedon’s masterful Firefly; I’m talking about the 1987 series, Max Headroom. If you’re not familiar with the series, you may be recoiling slightly in post-traumatic 1980′s stress at the thought of Coca Cola’s overexposed pitchman being associated with anything positive. But you really ought to give it a chance. The show is simply amazing.

Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: bioethics, censorship, cyberpunk, DVD, fiction, identity, individuality, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Joss Whedon, Lost, Max Headroom, Shout! Factory, television, WPI

Two Stupidly Cool Terminal Fonts

January 25, 2010 By Stephen Leave a Comment

Two stupidly-cool fonts in action: My normal DEC VT220-like terminal and a super-large terminal with super-tiny Tom Thumb displaying Hamlet. All of Hamlet. No kidding.

Filed Under: Apple, Computer History, Personal Tagged With: Brian Swetland, Carole Gunst, DEC, featured, FontForge, fonts, Hamlet, Harlan Anderson, iMac, OS X, Robey Pointer, ssh, Terminal, Viacheslav Slavinsky, VT220, WPI

Latest Content

Preview: Two Thunderbolt Video Input and Output Devices from Blackmagic Design: Intensity Shuttle and Intensity Extreme

February 10, 2012

I was thrilled to see the announcement by Blackmagic Design of two Thunderbolt versions of their respected Intensity video input/output box. But which is the better choice, the Intensity Shuttle or Intensity Extreme?

Teaching Science with Wi-Fi (Thanks, Ruckus and MetaGeek!)

February 10, 2012

As a parent, especially a techie one, you never know when a teachable moment is going to appear. Last night, I mentioned that I was testing a new Ruckus access point and enthused about how fast it was. My 12-year-old asked, “why is it so fast?” This led to a wonderful discussion about radio waves, congestion and propagation, and spectrum licensing. Yeah, I’m that kind of dad.

Review: Das Keyboard Model S for Mac (and Why I’m Sending It Back)

February 8, 2012

Make no mistake, the Das Keyboard Model S for Mac is a whole class better than the plastic junk most people use, and the snappy Cherry MX blue key switches are more rewarding than any scissor or membrane keyboard out there, but this is no IBM Model M, so buckling spring fans should look elsewhere.

EMC VFCache (aka “Project Lightning”) Is One Small Step, But an Important One

February 6, 2012

EMC VFCache (née Project Lightning) is a fairly simple offering: A server-based PCIe flash card that acts as a read cache with no integration with storage arrays or hypervisors. But EMC’s entrance into the host-based flash storage market is a powerful demonstration of the wave of disruption caused by flash-based storage and high-performance computing.

Nimbus E-Class: The First Big, Redundant, All-Flash Enterprise Array

January 31, 2012

The new Nimbus Data E-Class comes just at the right moment, with 500 TB of capacity, a fully redundant “dual active” controller architecture, massive performance (even InfiniBand), and complete feature set (once VAAI is released).

How My Blog Became Infected With MW:JS:150 Malware (And How I Fixed It)

January 26, 2012

This week, two blog readers let me know what Google Chrome was warning them of malware on my blog. I dived in and discovered that, indeed, a nasty, obfuscated JavaScript attack had made its way into my site. Although I was disappointed by the lack of clarity about how to fix it, I believe I was able to remove it last night.

Cheap, No-Contract 4G Data: Clear’s Undocumented Daily- and Weekly-Pass Plans

January 23, 2012

Although Clear clearly wants buyers to sign up for monthly service, they also have “secret” on-demand 2-hour, daily, and weekly plans. Here’s how to get online cheap!

HP’s Mighty Stumble

January 19, 2012

HP stumbled mightily in 2011, and it had nothing to do with product or people. Even sales remained strong, though the PC business is changing. HP’s mighty stumble was a crisis of confidence due to a chain of shenanigans at the very top. This culminated with the short reign of Léo Apotheker, leaving HP to reassure the market of its strategy.

Why Should Anyone Take Dell Seriously in Enterprise Storage?

January 16, 2012

For a massive IT company, Dell sure doesn’t get the kind of respect given their competitors. Time and again, I’ll hear the sneers about Dell being little more than a “box shifter” who doesn’t “get” real enterprise IT needs. After a series of acquisitions in storage and networking, Dell is trying to stake a claim as a serious competitor to HP, IBM, Oracle, and the like. But why should anyone take Dell seriously, especially in enterprise storage?