links for 2010-09-16
Bullshit Bingo [Random!] OMG, awesome.
Resolving Time Sync Issues in Virtual Machines
VMware recently published, or updated, KB 1005760 which “will assist you with the troubleshooting of time synchronization issues within a virtual machine.” I feel it’s noteworthy to point out that this particular KB article is for VMware ACE, Fusion, Server, and Workstation. It is NOT (repeat: NOT) for ESX and ESXi! In fact, for ESX and ESXi the recommendations are directly the opposite. As per KB 1006427 (Linux) and KB 1318 (Windows) you should disable VMware Tools time synchronization and enable NTP or Windows Time Synchronization. You may be asking why you’d want your VMs to do their own synchronization. There are a couple of big reasons. First, the VMware Tools time sync might run the clock backwards. One of …
Heroes
As kids, we grew up with heroes all around us. From fictional superheroes like Superman, Spiderman, and Wonder Woman, to real life heroes like firefighters, we saw them saving lives, defeating evil, and telling us not to do drugs. As a Cub Scout my father, a firefighter, would take us all to the local firehouse and let us sit in the trucks, turn on the lights, honk the horn. He was a hero, to all us seven year olds. And it was an absolute mystery, a flat-out betrayal, when he said one day that he never wanted his sons to follow in his footsteps. Why can’t I be a hero, too? Heroes like firefighters are only heroic when things are going …
links for 2010-09-14
Airline CEO: Nix co-pilot, save money – CNN.com "Let's take out the second pilot. Let the bloody computer fly it," O'Leary told Bloomberg Businessweek, adding that a flight attendant on each flight could be trained to help land a plane if something goes wrong. "If the pilot has an emergency, he rings the bell, he calls her in," O'Leary told the magazine. "She could take over." <– Um, what happens if the pilot doesn't get to ring the bell? Boy, I'm glad this guy runs an airline… VMware KB: Best practices for virtual machine snapshots in the VMware environment "Snapshots are not backups. As the snapshot file is only a change log of the original virtual disk, do not rely upon …
links for 2010-09-12
Michael Moore: If the 'Mosque' Isn't Built, This Is No Longer America "There is a McDonald's two blocks from Ground Zero. Trust me, McDonald's has killed far more people than the terrorists." I wish some big news channel would do an hour long special on Islam, if only so people would stop talking out of their asses about a religion they know nothing about.
Getting WordPress Updates To Work With FTP
WordPress includes a handy feature to auto-upgrade plugins, themes, and even the core software when needed. However, it has never worked for me on my self-hosted blog. The Updates page prompts me for FTP information, I press ‘Proceed’, and I get a blank page. Nothing happens. So I tore into the wp-config.php documentation. Here’s how to get automatic updates working with FTP. There are methods to get SSH working for these updates, but at the time I wrote this the PHP ssh2 extension wasn’t compiling right, and the whole process was quite complex. I’ll make another post later when things get better. Goes without saying that a backup copy of your stuff might be handy, too… First, make sure your …
VMworld 2010: Hands-On Labs
This morning John Troyer coordinated a bunch of bloggers for a session over at the VMworld 2010 Hands-On Lab facilities in Moscone West. Adam Zimman, Dan Anderson, and Curtis Pope took turns explaining and demoing the lab to us. The lab itself was built as a cloud-oriented system, using software-on-demand and service-on-demand principles, and relying heavily on remotely-hosted equipment in data centers in Miami, FL (Terremark) and Ashburn, VA (Verizon). The Lab team is really building on what they’ve learned from other years. There are many more labs this year than last, and they’re all self-paced, though there are options for instructor interaction as well if you have questions or want more one-on-one guidance. Self-paced labs means they can do …
VMworld 2010: Saturday
A quick walk past Moscone on Saturday yielded a real life “401: Not Authorized,” most likely because it’s “501: Not Implemented” yet. So we continued on down to AT&T Park to watch the Giants lose to the Diamondbacks, 11-3 (it was 6-1 after the first inning, Barry Zito was having a real bad night). At least we got Joe DiMaggio bobbleheads. Not much else to do, it looks like a bunch of folks led by the inimitable Veeam guys went to the Chieftain. My coworker Steve and I opted for an early turn-in, to hedge against the upcoming late ones. Below are some photos. On tap for Sunday: a sneak preview of the Labs this morning, brunch with a bunch …
links for 2010-08-28
Blockbuster's Bankruptcy Could Be the Beginning of the End for DVDs Um, ever heard of the long tail? I know a person who just got their first DVD player… This is NOT the beginning of the end of DVDs. UW campus buildings evacuated due to bomb scare; item proved safe Across the street from my building… Thought it was a pipe bomb… Bomb dog smelled an odor… It probably was a section of pipe, seeing as the building immediately adjacent is a coal power plant staffed by people who have the titles like pipefitter, steamfitter, electrician, etc. And I wouldn't be surprised if it had solvent on it, and that's what the dog smelled. The real question is how it …
Rebel Alliances
Stephen Foskett has a great post today on The Enterprise IT Acquisition Game, wherein he talks about how it’s open season on data storage companies, with a lesser emphasis on networking: So this is the game: Four full-line enterprise superpowers battling each other for datacenter dominance and coveting the extra profits of a few verticals. HP clearly believes they can chip away at EMC and Cisco in storage and networking; Dell and IBM have so far focused mainly on storage; and Oracle hasn’t made a move in either direction, instead challenging the other three in the core server and software space. Right on, especially with the “coveting the extra profits” part. For years, Dell, IBM, and HP have been busy …
