Events

Tech Field Day Extra at VMworld US 2014

August 24, 2014 By Stephen 1 Comment

As most of my readers know, I also run the Tech Field Day event series, bringing independent voices in IT together with interesting companies in our space. This year, we’re running a full-blown Tech Field Day event at VMworld, the largest we’ve ever put together. Although there’s no live audience for Tech Field Day apart from the delegate panel, I invite you to watch online!

Cloud & General Virtualization Panel at #VMUnderground Opening Acts, #VMworld 2014

August 22, 2014 By Stephen Leave a Comment

I’ll be part of the “Cloud & General Virtualization” panel at 3pm. Moderated by Leah Schoeb, this panel also includes Stu Miniman, Sean Clark, Hugo Phan, Aaron Delp, and little old me. How cloudy!

#VMEspresso with @SolarWinds at #VMworld: “Storage I/O is About to Get Crazy”

August 20, 2014 By Stephen 1 Comment

Join me for “Storage I/O is About to Get Crazy”! I’ll be speaking on Tuesday morning, August 26, at 7:30 AM at Jillian’s San Francisco, right on the corner next to Moscone and the rest of VMworld. SolarWinds is sponsoring this talk and will provide breakfast (including gourmet coffee) to any and all registered VMworld attendees.

Truth in Storage: Minneapolis and Chicago

June 9, 2014 By Stephen Leave a Comment

This week I’m back on the road for another pair of seminars in my Truth in Storage series with Truth in IT. These seminars are really enjoyable for me, since I am able to talk Storage tech for hours on end. It’s great to be back on the storage topic, after two years of trying […]

PacITPros TechDays SF

June 3, 2014 By Stephen Leave a Comment

This week I’m off to San Francisco to attend two events: Fusion-io promises to “change the way you look at flash storage” on Wednesday, and I’ll be presenting on Microsoft Windows storage technologies at PacITPros TechDays SF on Thursday! I don’t actually know much about the Fusion-io event. It’s not secret, and I’m sure I’ll be […]

« Previous Page

GPS Time Rollover Failures Keep Happening (But They’re Almost Done)

This is week “1111111111” in the GPS system. Tomorrow morning it will roll over to week “0000000000”. How well will various systems handle this change? Not well, judging by what we’ve seen so far!

Ranting and Raving About the 2018 iPad Pro

I remain enthusiastic about the iPad Pro, despite getting a scratched screen and my concerns about durability. It’s a worthy successor to the original and offers enough improvements that I’d recommend the upgrade for just about anyone who uses their iPad for serious work. It’s still not yet a laptop replacement, but this is due more to a lack of desktop-class software for iOS than anything in Apple’s control.

Storage Changes in VMware vSphere 5.1

September 4, 2012

As I have done since version 3.5, I’m charting the storage changes in VMware’s latest release of vSphere, 5.1. Unlike version 5, which included many new technical storage features, 5.1 mainly tweaks existing features and adds these new elements to the mix.

The End of Unlimited Data – Part 1: The Buffet

June 2, 2010

The headlines are all over the blogs: AT&T announced today that they are doing away with “unlimited” data plans and replacing them with limited packages at lower prices. I’m not going to repeat the news – Boy Genius Report has the best overview I’ve seen. Instead, I’m going to explain why I think this is a positive move for everyone involved, including AT&T, the customer, and the US wireless phone industry as a whole. This first post talks about the buffet mentality that got us here.

What You See and What You Get When You Follow Me

May 28, 2019

Social media ought to be social, not just a broadcast platform. That’s my feeling at least. It’s been a while since I’ve ranted about “write-only” social media accounts, so I thought I might as well do it again. And at the same time, I thought I would update you on my promise to the people who read, follow, and interact with me online.

It’s Fine To Mount Hard Drives On Their Side Or Even Upside-Down

August 13, 2016

Have you ever wondered if mounting a hard disk drive on its side or even upside-down affects its lifespan or reliability? According to every drive manufacturer, it’s perfectly acceptable to mount a hard disk drive in any orientation as long as it’s not tilted and has sufficient cooling.

Put that camera away and enjoy the view!

April 11, 2012

Photography is an act of observation and contemplation as much as a technical process. Although cameras, lenses, and (ugh!) flashes can seem cumbersome and intrusive, I ask for patience. I promise itâ€™s not getting in the way of life like some entertainment device. My camera enhances my experience of the world!

Hands-On Review: Unicomp Spacesaver M Keyboard for Mac

July 3, 2012

I would not hesitate to recommend the Unicomp Spacesaver M to Macintosh users used to an original IBM Model M, and I am admittedly a tough customer. I wish that Unicomp would update their website, packaging, logo, and keyboard graphics, but none of this really matters as your fingers press the keys. If any keyboard is worth $100, it is the Unicomp Spacesaver M!

Virtual Machine Mobility: Of What, and to Where and in What State?

January 16, 2012

Moving cold virtual machine images from system to system, or even across great distances, is one of the main selling points of server virtualization. But it becomes much more difficult to manage movement of virtual machines that are still running, especially outside cluster or across WAN links. When talking about virtual machine mobility, it is important to consider what is being moved, the state it is in, and where it is going.

SMB 3 is Going to be Huge, in both Scope and Impact

May 6, 2012

Microsoft is about to release the third major revision to their ubiquitous network storage protocol, SMB. Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V 3 will really highlight this technology, and I predict it will transform the way people think about networked storage for Windows systems. But SMB 3 is big in another way, too: there are tons of new features, and not all will be implemented by everyone.