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Showing posts from May, 2006

Desktop Virtualization: Clean/Dirty : Dirty/Clean concept

We are gathering all the companies (in the North) here in the Netherlands and hold some discussion groups to talk about virtualization (be it Desktop, Server and even Workplace virtualization for that matter). And after the sessions we will hold a seminar in the Media Central, Groningen . (Nic pic ;)) I have already invited my ex-employer (who is now a VIP VMware partner - where is the VMware logo , Nils?) among others. And the Clean/Dirty:Dirty/Clean concept (I'll do it as a vodcast with my Back2Blackboard Sessions) is something I was toying with for some time. I personally feel that it will bring a clearer message to the "regular folks" who so badly need to be virtualized. More later... ( (We are off to Centerparcs for a few days :-))

High Performance Organization: What sucks and what rocks!

Quick list of what organizations should be doing. I am a firm believer of action. I have gained tremendous amount of [atleast I'd like to think so :0)] a sense of urgency, if you will, when it comes to getting things done from my experience at sea. Getting going with things. Moving on to the next level. Shedding skin all the time. Well you get the point, I see. What should a typical High Performance Organization be doing and what should it stop doing right away. Stop doing the following: Prolonged meetings Endless discussions Brainstorm sessions Planning (Strategy, Future plans whatever that falls into some category where endless hours are wasted making some drawings that die almost immediately after the first presentation) Debating Talking about teams and teamwork (It's really dry) Stop talking about best practices (They are best for the guy who wrote for his organization's success NOT yours) Standards for performance and task oriented thinking Ok this list can go on and

Virtualization news roundup!

Given all the hype and rush towards the desktop virtualization, Microsoft may acquire Softricity . Microsoft Corp. reportedly is in talks to acquire Softricity Inc., whose "virtualization" technology gives computers access to software without actually installing the application. The negotiations were reported Thursday evening by Computer Reseller News, which cited unnamed sources. The companies declined comment. So will EMC also woo Softricity? We don't know yet. ACE from VMware is in my opinion a rather simple solution to desktop virtualization. Softricity boasts (with Softgrid 4.0 )to being the first vendor coming out with the application virtualization platform. While VMware's rush for deployment continues. Wasatch funds goes on with its initiative on Asynchronous Mirroring which ends up protecting everything at all places (SAN = your data using datacore 's SANsymphony) and OS= VMware virtualization) Wasatch has migrated about 75% of its systems over to VMware

Well Sysadmins , your job too can go to India!!!

And don't tell me you didn't think of it. And don't you even dare to tell me that you didn't see it coming. So if you haven't marketed yourself to others then you might as well say goodbye to your day job to India ! Discuss it on Slashdot . " NOIDA , India -- In the wee hours of a May morning, the computer system for Advanced Micro Devices Inc. started spitting out alerts. The technician taking note was nowhere near AMD's computer servers in Sunnyvale, Calif., or Austin, Texas. He was working the evening shift from an office cubicle in this suburb of New Delhi." Geez, I grew up there. PS: So we better stop whining (about your headset, like the CEO of despair inc says) about our day jobs.

Change Management: Boon or Curse?

I will be collecting my thoughts on Change Management pretty soon. I'll focus on... Change Activists within an organization Devil's advocate vs Relentless inquisitor Inside the box (Inside Out) vs Out of the box (Outside In) Logic (yawn) vs Learning (yay) Problem Solving Ability vs Solution Identification Change is just not welcome. Not by the ones who promote is as a boon and talk at great lengths about it. Not by the ones who have to get their jobs done. Face it. What makes it only worse is to put the same people who had been using the adhoc ideologies to run the business (whatever value that it had OR was perceived by the client) and are now the guardians of the newly implemented way of working. So what did not change? Yes you got it! PERCEPTION! More later...

Huge amounts of data storage on water?

Water? H2O? Is it possible? Well this Drexel Physics professor thinks so! RAM is necessary in a computer because it stores information for programs that are currently running. As this news release was written, RAM stored the words in a file. Because RAM can transfer files faster than a hard-drive, it is used to handle running programs. However most RAM is volatile, and if the computer loses power all the information in RAM is lost. This is not the case with ferroelectric memory. Ferroelectric memory is non-volatile, so it is entirely possible for files to be stored permanently in a computer¹s RAM. Applying nano-wires and the new stabilization method to existing ferroelectric RAM would deal a double blow to hard-drives in size and speed. And that would take the storage world (and the Storage giants) into a total different battle arena. Imagine (but again I did muse lightly about it on my very first article -- Hmm how time flies). Plugging in modules to your hyperactive-hyperavailable

Your own Newspaper?

Well yeah, thats exactly what I saw on ZDnet. Thought I'd try it out. It's a certain fodey site, check it out . It's fun to try. I already did :-) Sensational Newss! Or for instance, something like this is cool for my upcoming Blackboard Sessions

Oracle Linux saga continues: Part Deux

Apparently it was not just speculation. According to Bill Snyder it seems to be getting closer. Oracle's idea of making its own Linux Distro is a station that is long gone. I would say better take a good look at RedHat. It's in a hot seat and in a very "buy me" situation, since it stole JBoss from Oracle. Now there's talk on Wall Street that Oracle may use its annual analyst meeting in July to announce its debut as a Linux provider. Goldman Sachs analyst Rick Sherlund took the possibility seriously enough to publish a 36-page note on the subject this week and convene a conference call with investors and independent Linux experts to discuss the matter. What I don't know if it's just a war of words between Ellison and Szulik or something really what Oracle wants to do. I did mention and warn Oracle against the "I too wanna build my own little Linux distro". So if its just to hurt each others image and bring shares down then its pretty lame. If th

Open Management Consortium VS HP,BMC et al

Resistance is good. Results are always very sensational. Check out the site . Members? About the Open Management Consortium The Open Management Consortium was announced to help advance the promotion, adoption, development and integration of open source systems/network management software. The founding members of the Consortium are Ayamon, Emu Software, Qlusters, Symbiot, Webmin and Zenoss. For more information, please visit http://www.openmanagement.org. About Qlusters, Inc. Founded in 2001, Qlusters provides open source systems management software to automate the data center. openQRM significantly reduces annual management costs for the data center while helping increase server utilization and minimizing downtime for Fortune 1000 companies. Qlusters is partners with leading vendors including HP, IBM, Intel, and Red Hat. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, California with offices in Israel and New York. For more information, please visit http://www.qlusters.com. About Emu Softwa

PSP giga pack: Round 1

Bought myself the Giga pack and doing cool stuff with it like: Playing movies on it Surfing on the web with it's Wi-Fi IM'ing on it MP3s and naturally playing with/on it. There are even more hacks on it (Ok this one is real neat but I'm working on a different model using MacMini to integrate VoIP, MythTV etc , an all in one thing and then this hack might come in handy)and we will take a shot at it in Round 2 :-)

Ex-Cisco routers/switches designer designs the fastest electric car!

Saw this on CNN Ian Wright has a car that blows away a Ferrari 360 Spider and a Porsche Carrera GT in drag races, and whose 0-to-60 acceleration time ranks it among the fastest production autos in the world. In fact, it's second only to the French-made Bugatti Veyron, a 1,000-horsepower, 16-cylinder beast that hits 60 mph half a second faster and goes for $1.25 million. The key difference? The Bugatti gets eight miles per gallon. Wright's car? It runs off an electric battery. Check it out here .

Its all about passion: Round 1

Anything you do around your life, be it work or private is dead and dull if you don't have the passion. If you don't breathe fire you're not hot. No way Lady, you aint hot! Many of us remain and will continue to remain passive players. Receivers. Commentators. Just the dorks on the sidelines. Well if that is what you choose, we ssssslong sucker! Why do you think a programmer (who really rocks) feels like a king? Why do you think a sysadmin rock? Well its because they do something more than just mundane things like maintaining/subverting code or monitoring OSs like janitors. They do something really cool. Really breakthrough. I was reading an oldish article at HBR and saw a great article on "Change Management and Change Agents". A regular change management has a great potential to suck and die. Eventually its the fastest way to lose clients. We'll talk about that tomorrow (when I'm done collecting thought). Today its about passion. I saw and caught my 4 yea

Job Market on the rise!

Lately I'm beginning to get some serious offers on the job front. And no they are NOT recruiters And then I saw this talking about the fastest growing jobs on the market. Note: One must however note that without necessary skill sets you don't qualify. Mere paper tarzans won't qualify anymore.

Why will Microsoft lose to Google

I liked the writeup because it spoke about two oldest things that have existed since mankind. For success you will need speed and friends Charlie goes on further: So, Microsoft is spending billions of dollars to fight off Google this coming year, and it is all for naught. The two things it needs, speed and friends, can't be bought. You can't throw engineers at a project and make it go faster. You can't throw the football team at a high school computer club and make friends. Without both speed and friends, you can't get a foothold in this new market. Microsoft has neither now, and only a small chance of hitting the speed goal. Two and a half years ago, I said it lost it, and it was a slow downhill from there. Now, it is game over. There is no remedy, they made their own bed and to mix metaphors, the chickens have come home to roost in it. It is time for a new maximum leader Read on... I think very important thing. Today it is just about anybodys game to bash up M$ for n

Skypecasting!

Skype has launched another way to set up conference calls (upto 100 people) and start talking. OK so right now a lot of amateurs are trying it out and you can setup one yourself. Maybe I will set one up myself later.