VMware Visio Stencils

After dredging around looking for Visio Stencils I found the official post, then a broken link, and then finally a working link from Technodrone website. The files themselves are hosted on mediasite which is a pretty obnoxious with pop-ups and seizure inducing ads.

Well, I’m reposting them here for an easy download:

• VMware-Stencil1-vSphere.zip
• VMware-Stencil2-vSphere.zip

VMWorld and Work

VMWorld 2009  and many other VMWarevirtualisation topics are still rolling around in my head. So many ideas, so many paths… so many vendors calling me after the conference.

Some interesting tidbits of discussions included baremetal VMWare View clients. In response to portable thinclients like the WyseMobile Thinclient, VMWare wants to install its hypervisoron your hardware then install the VM workstation on top of that – checking in the deltas to a central server for management, backup, and business continuity.

VMWare View workstations with support for VoIP, presumably leveraging the PCoIP protocol learned from Teradici.

And this week after a 64GB memory upgrade on our virtual desktop environment, the talk of thinclients has risen to a roar. It looks like we’re going to be spending upwards of a half a million on workstation refresh this year – do we plunk down a core duo micro tower twenty five times a room or invest in a virtual desktop environment that’s infinitely easier to manage and much more mobile.

We’re also implementing a new NetAppSAN. The gear just arrived this afternoon – five pallets worth. It’s a thing of beauty, and it’s not even out of the box yet. Dual FAS3140 controllers, 28 x 450GB 15,000 RPM FiberChannel drives and 14 x 1TB 7200 RPM SATA drives.

We’ve already moved the LeftHand/MPC equipment to a temp rack  until we can migrate the data off of them.

It’s going to be a busy week.

Latest Run!

I’ve started running with Kathy a few weeks ago – she’s already kicking my arse, but supportive of my efforts to run. Nike+ and my iPod have made running almost fun. Feel free to add me as a friend if you’re out there… just don’t point and laugh – I’m a noobie in this endeavor.

iPod Touching

Any users out there with a Philips SBD6020 iPod dock having issues with their iPod Touch? I have a 2nd Generation 32GB Touch (an awesome gift from the entire family for Christmas) docked here at work and it appears to be exhibiting some odd symptoms.

1. The top of the dock base gets very warm while charging, near the right of the iPod (it is plugged into AC, not using 6 x AAA batteries)

2. An audible static is emanating from the speakers and seems to change when I touch the screen.

I’ll continue researching the issue but until then, I’m not comfortable leaving the unit in the dock. I guess I’m only out $20, and my daughter can use it for her Nano.

I thought maybe someone would trip over this in a Google search and post in the comments. Cheers and happy holidays!

AC/DC finally in iTunes Genius Lists

When Apple released their latest version of iTunes 8, they introduced an interesting new feature called “Genius”. Sure, it’s on par with Apple’s pretentiousness to call their features smarter than you – but I have to admit, it makes a great play list.

The genius will build a play list based on the song you selected. It uses a database of your existing music, play habits, and the habits of other users that are using iTunes genius.

It’s a bit of a black box, but it’s confirmed that iTunes sends some of your info up to the mother ship for processing, and can take quite a long time if you have a large library of music.

Anyway, when this was all released – AC/DC and The Beatles were not part of the database. It was obvious that they were left out of the initial genius build.

Apple must be allowing other users’ preferences for music to be included now because in the last few days the genius lists that I generate are now including AC/DC and Beatles music.