We live in a world of cattle, not pets, and Kubernetes rules the roost. I've been meaning to spend some time getting up to speed on the latest but didn't have enough hardware to make that happen until now. I recently bought a whole pile of surplus hardware so I will be able to experiment with orchestration and container platforms in the office. Watch this space for more details … [Read more...] about Introducing Rabbit: I Bought a Cloud!
Intel
My Core i7 Macintosh SE
I recently built the biggest, clunkiest iPad mini case ever, transforming my old Macintosh SE case into an iPad stand. But what to do with that empty case? Why, it's the perfect size for a custom Mini-ITX PC! Introducing my liquid-cooled Core i7 monster Mac SE! Creative Packaging After removing the original Macintosh motherboard, I was struck by its neat packaging in the … [Read more...] about My Core i7 Macintosh SE
My FreeNAS Build: Supermicro X10SL7, Intel Haswell Xeon, ECC RAM
In my last post, I talked about my decision to build a FreeNAS box. Today I'm going to dive into the hardware I selected, starting with the motherboard, CPU, and memory. FreeNAS runs on any PC hardware, but building a reliable and scalable storage solution means picking higher-end components. I selected a Supermicro X10SL7 server-class motherboard with 14 (!) SAS/SATA ports … [Read more...] about My FreeNAS Build: Supermicro X10SL7, Intel Haswell Xeon, ECC RAM
Plexistor Integrates NVDIMM for Every Application
I'm really excited about the prospects of memory-addressable flash. Moving flash closer to the CPU and addressing it as memory rather than block storage brings tremendous performance benefits, and is a once-in-a-generation radical change to system architecture. But questions remain as to how it can be integrated with today's applications. Now Plexistor is here with a promising … [Read more...] about Plexistor Integrates NVDIMM for Every Application
Impatiently Waiting For the Next MacBook Pro
I've been a MacBook Pro user since the last decade, switching for better hardware but staying for the better OS. I happily bought a 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display the day they were announced, but I've been using that same machine since 2012. Now I'm impatiently waiting to upgrade, holding out for Intel's new Skylake CPUs and the late-2015 or early-2016 MacBook … [Read more...] about Impatiently Waiting For the Next MacBook Pro