Storage Decisions

ZFS: Super File System!

February 27, 2008 by Stephen 2 Comments

ZFS really piques my interest, so I just had to include it in my TechTarget storage virtualization seminar series. Here’s a quick primer for those of you who aren’t familiar with it, and thus are wondering why anyone would get stoked over a filesystem! ZFS (originally “zettabyte file system” but now just ZFS) takes the […]

VMware Storage Tidbits

February 22, 2008 by Stephen Leave a Comment

When researching the interaction of storage and VMware for my upcoming TechTarget seminar series on storage virtualization, I picked up a few little tidbits of information that I wanted to share… Beware of block sizes greater than 256 KB when using certain Fibre Channel arrays! VMware’s performance research shows that throughput drops on some FC […]

Volume Management: Virtualizing Host Storage

February 21, 2008 by Stephen Leave a Comment

I’ve been feverishly preparing for my upcoming TechTarget seminar series focused on storage virtualization, so I thought it might be interesting to post a few topics from the talk here on the blog. If you’ll be in Washington DC on March 4, or Durham NC on March 6 and are interested in the world of […]

Come See My Storage Virtualization Seminar!

February 17, 2008 by Stephen Leave a Comment

TechTarget recently announced a new Storage Decisions Seminar series focused on Storage Virtualization, with yours truly as the speaker! Although the content is still being formalized, the first sessions are right around the corner on March 4 (in Wachington, DC), and March 6 (in Durham, NC). If you’re near either of these cities, I would […]

Storage Decisions 2008 Dates Are Announced!

February 12, 2008 by Stephen Leave a Comment

TechTarget’s Storage Decisions shows have long been a highlight of the data storage industry calendar, and the company recently announced the dates for 2008. I’m pleased to announce that I will again be presenting at these shows, and will post more details on my topics as they become available. Storage Decisions 2008 dates and locations: […]

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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 2018 iPad Pro is a Beast!

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!

How Smart Is the Mondaine Helvetica Smart Watch?

December 30, 2015

I love watches and technology, so I was thrilled to hear about the creation of a “horological smart watch” base by the Swiss watchmaking industry. One of the first examples of this new breed is the just-released Mondaine Helvetica Smart. I purchased one of these watches, the limited-edition “1 of 1957” variety, and have had a chance to evaluate it both as a watch and a gadget.

MacBook Users: Encrypt Your Drive with OS X FileVault! It’s Easy and Free!

December 20, 2012

Once you encrypt your MacBook’s drive with FileVault 2, you’ll never even know it’s there. But if you ever lose your machine, you can rest easy knowing that your data is safe. Considering how well this solution performs and that it is included free of charge, there is no reason not to use it!

From Kipling’s Dirigibles to the Jet Age

May 13, 2012

I don’t get much chance to read for pleasure, but two things I’ve been reading recently spurred my imagination. After reliving the advent of modern transportation in the solid non-fiction Jet Age by Sam Howe Verhovek, I stumbled upon two pieces of speculative fiction from an unlikely source that predated everything presented there.

How To Keep Your Family Activities In Sync With A Shared Google Calendar

April 18, 2010

Smartphones, computers, and iPads are proliferating in families today. Although my three kids do not (yet) have their own mobile phones, we still have quite a few devices with calendar functions: An iPhone each for me, my wife, and our au pair along with an iPad and a few computers. Using Google Calendar, we have set up an awesome shared calendar to keep all of our activities in sync. Read on for instructions!

Review: American Standard’s Champion 4 Toilet Flushes Almost Anything

July 31, 2012

Although most crappers are crap, plumbing companies like American Standard are hard at work innovating to eliminate the excrement. The current champion is fittingly called the Champion 4, and I have purchased, installed, and tested two examples of the type. The Champion is engineered to reduce the most common causes of clogs, and it has proved effective and “hands-off” in my real-world testing.

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.

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!

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.