MacBook

Total Nightmare: USB-C and Thunderbolt 3

October 29, 2016 By Stephen 113 Comments

Did you buy the new MacBook or MacBook Pro? Maybe the Google Pixel? You’re about to enter a world of confusion thanks to those new “USB-C” ports. See, that simple-looking port hides a world of complexity, and the (thankful) backward-compatibility uses different kinds of cables for different tasks. Shoppers have to be very careful to buy exactly the right cable for their devices!

Apple Packs PCIe SSD Alongside PC-Fast CPU and Graphics in iPhone 6s and iPad Pro

September 28, 2015 By Stephen 3 Comments

We all knew that the iPhone 6s and iPad pro would boast CPU and graphics performance to challenge mainstream PC’s, but it has now been revealed that the storage layer packs revolutionary NVMe/PCIe connectivity and performance. Although the iPhone 6s doesn’t need this kind of performance, the forthcoming iPad Pro ought to rock!

Impatiently Waiting For the Next MacBook Pro

September 25, 2015 By Stephen 3 Comments

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 Pro.

Check Your Mac’s Drive and Reclaim 5 GB of Wasted Space!

July 24, 2015 By Stephen 8 Comments

Since most MacBooks are SSD-only, one would think Apple would be careful about leaving junk around on the drive. But many people are finding 5 GB wasted for a years-old leftover Mac OS X install image! Here’s how to reclaim that space if you’re missing it…

The PNY StorEDGE is a Must-Have MacBook Accessory

May 9, 2014 By Stephen 3 Comments

Although I appreciate Apple’s decision to go all-SSD on the MacBook line, it does cause some problems capacity-wise. Even 256 GB is an expensive proposition from Apple, and it’s not easy or cheap to expand storage on these laptops. One option is a fast USB 3 drive like the SanDisk Extreme, and there’s also some external Thunderbolt […]

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.

Microsoft: Kill the Craptops Before They Destroy Windows!

January 7, 2013

Release after release, Microsoft pushes Windows forward. Yet the operating system is continually undermined by the “value-focused” low-end machines pushed by the majority of OEMs. This race to the bottom has tarnished Windows for a decade and now threatens to derail Windows 8. Microsoft must do something to stop the crap before it’s too late!

How to Get Me to Write about Your Company or Product

March 15, 2012

Blog posts are really, really important for PR and awareness these days. And posts on independent sites like this one are critical to get awareness and search engine ranking. I get dozens of requests every week from companies wanting me to write about them. So I thought it would be a good idea to lay out exactly what it takes!

Nimble Storage Rolls Out an All-Flash Array

February 24, 2016

It took longer than I expected for Nimble Storage to introduce an all-flash array, but their AF7000 looks to be a very credible offering. They’re targeting XtremIO and Pure with their marketing, but I expect HP, Dell, and especially NetApp to be cross-shopped more frequently. In that fight, I expect the Nimble AF7000 to be very attractive indeed!

Follow the Yellow Brick Road to the Software-Defined Future

November 29, 2012

The Software-Defined Datacenter is a great concept, but it just won’t work. The big enterprise companies will never allow VMware (and daddy EMC) to commoditize them out of existence, so useful implementations will be rarer than ruby slippers. The best we can hope for is point enhancements to enable greater virtual machine mobility through SDN and improved storage integration.

Donate Your Swag to School Kids In Need

July 28, 2010

Trade shows are a veritable swag-fest, some with great loot and some with junk. I’ve been critical of the booth babe and chotchkie phenomenon, but my friend Kevin Houston has a better suggestion: Donate your (useful) swag like backpacks and pens to school kids in need.

What’s (Still) Wrong With Dropbox For Business

April 17, 2013

I am a heavy (and paying) user of Dropbox, using it both for business and personal storage and synchronization. Although I find the service incredibly useful, Dropbox is far from perfect, especially for business users. So I thought I would take a few moments to talk about what I’d like to see Dropbox improve.

My Advice For New Business Travelers: Get The Credit Cards!

March 20, 2014

New business travelers first should sign up for a preferred hotel and airline program and focus their travel dollars there. Then, they should get a Chase Sapphire card or American Express Platinum card to earn points on travel and transfer those points to the hotel or airline program for redemption. Finally, they should consider getting the co-branded credit card for their hotel chain and airline of choice.

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.