One of the amusing aspects of being self-employed is watching all the giants battle it out. Every company is gunning for someone, but the amazing thing is that they rarely have each other in their sights: NetApp is gunning for EMC who’s more focused on HP who wants to knock off Oracle who’s fixated on IBM. It sounds very “high school romance” but this is deadly-serious business.
Archives for December 2010
Get a Cradlepoint PHS300 Portable 3G WiFi Router For Just $99!
I love my Cradlepoint PHS300 router. It’s been a constant companion for me for two years, providing Internet access for me and my friends at just about every conference I attend (and organize!) It’s a battery-powered box with a USB port and WiFi radio. Attach almost any 3G or 4G modem or smartphone (other than the iPhone) and you’re online and sharing. And it’s better than a MiFi: You can customize the experience, it’s faster (in my testing), and it scales to support way more users.
Back From the Pile: Interesting Links, December 10, 2010
This week I started getting to know a whole bunch of wireless geeks in preparation for Wireless Field Day in March. I also wrote about Light Peak, my search for an AirPrint-compatible printer, and some more on the iPad. On the enterprise IT side, I covered Application Performance Monitoring (with a special offer from SolarWinds) and Dell’s potential acquisition of Compellent.
What If Light Peak Was Electrical Rather Than Optical?
As I considered the possibilities of the new Apple/Intel interconnect technology known as Light Peak, an odd parallel with 10 Gb Ethernet popped into my head. Much of the confusion around Light Peak revolves around connectors, power conduction, and backward-compatibility. Then, like the Grinch, I thought of something I hadn’t before: Why use optical at all? 10 GBASE-T does just fine over twisted pair, and short interconnect distances would reduce power draw to reasonable levels. What if Light Peak was electrical rather than optical?
Light Peak + USB 3.0 = Awesome!
Yesterday I talked about Light Peak, the new optical interconnect being developed by Apple, Intel, and others. Today I’m continuing that theme, suggesting a possible productization that would really take Light Peak to the next level: Integrating it with USB 3.0.