Anyone doing much storage work on Microsoft Windows machines is familiar with Robocopy. It's the best tool to move data between NTFS filesystems, since Robocopy maintains permissions and file attributes. It also tolerates dropped connections, resuming where it left off, and can throttle operations over slow networks. But Robocopy was never very quick, especially when dealing … [Read more...] about Robocopy: Better, Faster, Stronger
Windows 7
Are Microsoft and EMC beginning a renaissance of geek respect?
Who's naughty and who's nice? The average computer geek of the last decade would have placed Microsoft atop the naughty list. The average corporate IT manager's nice list probably wouldn't have included EMC and Oracle. Yet Google, Apple, Sun, HP and even IBM don't have this frequent negativity directed towards them. What's the difference between naughty and nice when it comes … [Read more...] about Are Microsoft and EMC beginning a renaissance of geek respect?
My 2009 IT Industry Predictions
It's that time again, when everyone who thinks they're a pundit (that would be everyone with a blog or Twitter account) has to make predictions for the coming year. But predictions are perilous: Get it right and you look like a mere trend-watcher; get it wrong and you look like a fool. It's such a hassle! So I'm doing something different this year: I'm going to make predictions … [Read more...] about My 2009 IT Industry Predictions
Drobo, XP Users: Beware of 4K “Advanced Format” Drives!
Personal computer hard disk drive access methods have repeatedly been forced to adapt to ever-expanding capacity. Physical (CHS) addressing and 28-bit LBA have been abandoned, but the disk drives themselves retain the tiny 512-byte sectors they have had since IBM introduced fixed-block addressing in the 1970's. But time marches on, and Western Digital is leading the change to … [Read more...] about Drobo, XP Users: Beware of 4K “Advanced Format” Drives!
A Concrete Reason Macs Beat PCs: Intel VT
There is a lot of FUD flowing between Apple Macintosh true believers and the rest of the PC world. This is especially true now that Macs use Intel CPUs, NVIDIA chipsets and graphics, and so much more commodity PC parts. Lots have argued that a Mac is just an expensive PC with a flashy case and slick operating system. Mac fans have to admit that there is a lot of commonality … [Read more...] about A Concrete Reason Macs Beat PCs: Intel VT