American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall 2010 meeting

So it's the opening day of AGU in San Francisco and the geophysics world has turned out in force. It's a bit weird for an IT geek to be here, but since SOEST is a major player, I figured it was about time to see what's happening. After all my school turns into a ghost town during the conference with a huge portion of our researchers and grad students presenting talks and posters here.

Email time machine...nudgemail.com

I'm not passing judgement, but a whole lot of us use email as a reminder..a reminder that tends to get lost in the masses of other emails. Nudgemail is simply a service that will accept emails from you and resent them back at your chosen date and time.

Just what do users perceive when they say the network is slow?

"The network is down" or "my Internet is slow" have become the modern version of "the sky is falling". The reality is that every time you open even a simple web page, you are in reality opening a closely knit collection of pieces flying in from a huge number of locations via numerous Internet byways and highways all converging in your browser. Simply put, that simple web page may consist of hundreds of parts from dozens of locations all over the world.

Apps good enough to justify a new iPad

I purchased my WiFi only iPad because it so perfectly matched a need for a project that I'm doing with the University of Hawaii School of Nursing; but along the way I've been discovering a whole passel full of really kewl apps that continue to dazzle me. I know, I know, I've already written about how Apple is using Foxconn, the world's largest sweatshop, but human rights issues can be fixed (I hope).

Record 4 tv shows at a time

It's all about finding something to let your mind escape and the television world has been fighting for your viewing time. However why is it that the two or three shows you are looking forward watching are scheduled at the same time. So while Tivo is a great solution, i'm just plain cheap and so far have refused to fork out the recurring charge. My answer has been a Windows 7 Ultimate machine running Windows Media Center, but I've got to admit the open source MythTV was an extremely strong contender for my home media center. Media Center is also available on the home premium edition. Extenders from vendors like Linksys make inexpensive and silent boxes for the living room, while the Windows 7 machine sits in your home office.

Personalize your gear..

You can get mp3 players etched with your name, you can order the Flip video camera with your own image plastered over the camera...but now i've stumbled across an iPad app that let's you skin lots of your electronics with very little effort.

Should we pay more attention to fair trade electronics?

A friend of mine tweeted about the insane working conditions at the company that makes iPhones....such stories make me pause to figure out if any of my other electronics are made by foxconn.

Win2k8 R2 SP1 and why it will rock your world

Sometimes the naming for a service pack just can't do it justice. The press corp received an early introduction to where the changes in service pack 1 will take us.

My favorite feature is called RemoteFX and while it could be described as an iterative upgrade to Windows Terminal Server, the ability to time share server installed graphics processors will give thin clients a massive boost. Thin clients give a huge security boost while reducing cost and desktop footprint, but they've traditionally stank at 3D graphics. The catch is that blade servers don't have slots for graphic cards and only a few graphics cards have even been tested if you have pci-e slots. All this will change but for now only one thin client is ready to ship.

Another reason why Apple isn't enterprise

Over the years i've tried out a great number of portable computers that started with machines like Kaypro, Osborne, and Timex in the old Z-80 days; Toshiba, Dell, Acer, HP as more modern examples. Common to all the so called enterprise solutions was almost a fanatical need to repair broken units as quickly as possible. I ran a Toshiba repair facility in the mid 1980's with average repair time measured in hours rather than days. Right down to having parts depots actually housed in adjoining warehouses to the Fedex depot in Memphis. The standard practice was to ship a special cradle box to the customer so that laptop would survive shipping and an overnight pickup label. Turn around back to the customer has been as little as 3 days total, and as many as 5 days.

So why is it that I spent extra to extend my Apple MacBook Pro warranty an extra two years but yet Apple is claiming that the motherboard was going to take 7 days to arrive. They're also saying that the 3rd party hard disk and ram were going to potentially void my warranty, and that the dent on the corner of the laptop would also. So as I understand, only a perfectly stock and perfectly intact machine is eligible for warranty repair. All this from the corporation's actual store and from their certified repair staff. The local repair center is telling me that ignoring the upgrades is going to be a favor...

Well it was Windows Vista that drove me from the PC platform, but it looks like the idiotic service attitudes of Apple might very well drive me back. Things like 24x7 support lines and timely repairs just aren't optional if you want to play in the enterprise IT world, and it sure sounds like Apple isn't very interested.

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Location:Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Why airline loyalty is important

So for about $40 savings the Microsoft travel agency stuck me on continental where I don't have premier status. They stuck me in the middle seat on a 7.5 hour flight direct from Honolulu to Houston...on a 100% full flight. Then having to do an OJ Simpson run through the airport in Houston to make my connecting flight from Houston to New Orleans. Joy.

The only nice thing is that Continental still feeds us in cattle car class...though it was Jimmy Dean egg&cheese bagels, and they did a pretty good job of watering us.

So i'm certainly looking forward to United and Continental getting the two systems merged. It would be great if United treated cattle class better and continental learning scheduling from United. Well at least they didn't lose my checked bag, though they did manage to tear off one of the handles.

Well more from New Orleans and the Microsoft Tech Ed conference.

/Brian chee


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Location:New Orleans, louisiana, USA

Not worth the paper they're printed on

I just heard from a friend that his grumbling on his personal blog got him passed over for a job, even though his qualifications were far superior to the other applicants. http://bit.ly/ckioAP

Well I wanted to grumble in support of all the amazingly talented networking engineers I've met over the years that haven't wasted their time on pieces of paper. Too many corporations have been led by cfo's that are so impressed by their pieces of paper that they think promotions, hiring, and bonuses must have pieces of paper to make them worth while. Apparently too few IT managers are willing to evaluate good projects, and almost no one i've met is willing to let their people use community service and professional projects as a way to judge skills as a alternative to certificates.

I would also like to say that on projects like Interop, that my experience is that my learning is exponential in comparison to traditional classes. I also learn better because there are large and immediate ramifications to the quality of my work on such projects.

Well i'm done venting...

Brian chee


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Location:Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Are we really remembering what those in uniform really do for us?

On this Memorial day we sit back in our armchairs watching television, grilling, and other fun things. However we still have a whole lot of people in uniform out in harms ways. But wait, not everyone in harms way is in uniform. For every person out on the sharp point of the stick is literally hundreds of civilians and non-combatant military working towards supporting our way of life.

I'd like everyone, even those who aren't American citizens to stop and think about those that help keep us all safe...give thanks to them on this Memorial Day.

Brian chee

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Location:Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Zagat for iPad

The age old question is all the harder to answer if you're not familiar with the city. I've used AAA tour books, and the paper versions of restaurant guides...but just thumbing through a guide means you tend to lean towards the first thing you find.

The road of broken promises in the world of long term storage

Anyone that has been in the IT biz for any length of time have seen the sorrow of lost datasets on storage media no longer supported. 8" floppies, 5.25" floppies, 9 track tapes, 14" or 5.25" optical worm drives...the landfills are filled with the skeletons of a multitude of "long term storage systems".








The challenge is really about identifying the next storage technology in time to budget for conversion. It also means that you need to make darn sure the data is worth migrating. Is it because of a regulatory issue like sarbox, or is the data of something that could never be reproduced?

Is Holographic Versatile Disks the next thing? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc







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Location:Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

We're being translated to Portugese

So while the book on Cloud Computing that Curt Franklin and I wrote together is selling well; it has recently been contracted by a Brazilian publisher to translate it into Portuguese for sale into the south American markets. We are stunned and pleased, especially as Taylor & Francis (crc press) is heading towards sending us a contract for a second book on cloud security.

http://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Computing-Technologies-Strategies-Ubiquitous/dp/1439806128/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271362973&sr=8-1



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Location:Brazil

Hello World

So even after setting up dozens of blogs, wikis, etc for work...this is my very first personal blog. I get to pontificate about things i like, dislike, stumbled over, or went gaga over.

This is also where i'm going to post my predictions of where I think technology is moving to.

Sincerely,
Brian "Cheebert" Chee

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Location:Kaneohe, Hawaii, USA