digital camera

E-Waste: 32 MB Flash Cards

October 3, 2008 by Stephen 7 Comments

Just about every digital camera comes with a tiny, mostly-useless “starter” memory card

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!

The third-generation iPad Pro is a great machine but also a bellwether of change at Apple. It will be very hard for the rest of the mobile and client computing industry to keep up with this kind of progress!

Top VMware Blogs 2014: How I Voted

February 25, 2014

Once again, it’s time for vSphere-Land.com’s “Top vBlog” voting. And once again Feedbin and Twitter are full of hundreds of bloggers lamely begging for me to vote for them. And once again, I didn’t base my votes on their begs or my own hunches. Follow along as I explain how I actually voted and why I think you should use the same mechanism. And no, I’m not going to say who I voted for!

Defining Failure: What Is MTTR, MTTF, and MTBF?

July 6, 2011

Most computer industry vendors use the term â€œMTBFâ€ rather indiscriminately. But IT pros know that systems do not magically repair themselves, at least not yet, so MTTR and MTTF are just as important!

Storage Changes in VMware vSphere 5

July 16, 2011

Once again, VMware added a ton of new storage enhancements to vSphere. With storage rapidly becoming the limiting factor in scalability and performance of virtual machine environments, this is no surprise. Also not surprising is the fact that major features like Policy-Driven Storage and Storage DRS (along with SIOC) are exclusive to “Enterprise Plus” licenses.

Why You Should Never Again Utter The Word, “CIFS”

February 16, 2012

CIFS is not the network storage protocol used by Microsoft Windows, and many other clients. The protocol used to share files over a LAN by the majority of personal computers is called SMB. I wish everyone in the industry would get that through their heads.

It’s Time To Move Beyond Passwords (Especially On Web Sites)

January 8, 2016

Sure, single sign-on puts all your eggs in one basket. But this is vastly preferable to trusting that hundreds of third-party baskets are secure, especially when they prove on a weekly basis that they aren’t! It’s time to put distributed passwords behind us and switch to systems like SAML, both for businesses and consumers.

Review: Blue Snowball USB Microphone

March 31, 2010

I’ve really jumped into recording podcasts, and am also an avid audio and video conference user. Wanting better sound, I upgraded my Logitech microphone to the highly-regarded Blue Microphones Snowball desktop USB microphone. Here are my initial thoughts.

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!

Rocking Out With the Topping VX1 Desktop/Bookshelf Amplifier

October 6, 2015

A few months back, I asked folks on Twitter and LinkedIn for recommendations for a desktop amplifier for a pair of bookshelf speakers. I ended up with a Topping VX1, one of the many “Class-T” digital amps lauded by audiophiles for their excellent sound reproduction. Boy am I impressed! It’s rare that such an inexpensive gadget (around $100!) delivers so much performance!