50Micron.com

Ok, more like Day-4, but time runs away.

So far, so good.  If they manage to not screw the pooch between now and Oct 22nd, Microsoft may have almost come close to trying to redeem themselves.

I’m running Win7 on two computers now.  My laptop, which at work I’ve mostly rendered into a terminal server by implementing a very limited VDI infrastructure (different post entirely) but it gives me a chance to play.

It’s fairly quick, suspends/resumes on demand without too much belching.

I’m still annoyed that it doesn’t use all 4G of my laptops memory, but the way I understand it that’s a limitation in the hardware/chipset more than anything.  (I’m not too saavy on Intel-based limitations, so this is a guess)

Most importantly, and where Win7 excels opposed to Vista, is even in Beta, all of my usual software runs.  Right out of the box, no patches/updates needed.  I’m impressed.

Even Roxio Easy Media Creator 10 loads, complete with the ISO mounter that I’ve come to depend on.

On my desktop it screams.  My desktop is a Dual-Core 2.8G box with 4G of ram.  (Still hit the 3200Meg limit though

It discovered the quad-head setup with only minor tweaking and hasn’t lost the layout once the way Vista usually does.  (About once a week I was having to remind Vista where each monitor is in relation to the other one.  Graphics are blazingly fast but I’ve yet to test it with Call of Duty 4 or something that really exercizes the Dual 2-port 1GB PCI-e Video cards this thing runs.

The TV tuner works out of the box, and media center has some nice tweaks, including (finally) the ability to record/DVR directly to a share.  (Given that my DVR area is a Terabyte of Celerra NAS, that’s a meaningful accomplishment for me)   Using Vista I was having to script a copy from the internal drive to the share, and MediaCenter was not able to read the details once they were moved, they just became random videos.  (Despite the fact that the .dvr-ms filetype contains the metadata structures to keep the program information handy)

So all in all, not too bad.

And what’s the deal with the black&white icons in the system tray?  I would expect these as “place holders” in the early beta versions while the new icons can be developed.. but this:

Simply doesn’t make any sense.

Anyone else playing with Win7?  What are your thoughts?

Ok – it doesn’t suck yet.

I’m sure I’m going to have my membership to the all-geek club revoked for that statement but saying anything else wouldn’t be totally honest.

I installed Win7, RC1 (I think – Build 7100) yesterday on the spare harddrive on my laptop just for grins.

First off I was amazed at the size of the download, almost a full gig smaller than Vista, must have been all that debug code they pulled out of it.

Second point was the install went smoothly and with minimal customer interaction.  When I look at a product and say “this is probably something i could hand my son (who, sob, is not technically inclined beyond how to load a game into the PS3) and tell him to run with, and expect that he’ll only ask a dozen or so questions.

The third things I noticed were the UI.  Surprisingly intuitive.  The “Windows Sidebar” has been replaced by an active desktop that actually works, you can drop gadgets anywhere on the desktop, which makes for the abiltiy to more logically place things based on your needs.

The old windows task bar has been replaced by something, not surprisingly, more mac-like.  Each application has a button, multiple windows within an application get grouped with the app.  Mousing over the application gives you a preview of all windows associated with the app, and mousing over the preview brings each window to the forfront in succession.  (It makes finding what you’re looking for in a desktop full of app windows much easier, since Win7 *STILL* doesn’t come with multiple desktops)

So far, so good.  I’ll follow up tomorrow after I start installing applications and see which ones don’t work.  (always the big fear, right?)

6x Dell 1850 Servers - $8,000, One two-post Rack - $500. One Furniture Moving Strap from home-depot - $5.99 - Earthquakeproofing your server rack - Priceless.

Just Sayin……

I just got the following job posting and it made me, literally, laugh out loud, spitting latte all over my laptop.

If your sales rep allows you to do something like this, it’s a fair bet that s/he hates you (or is planning to buy your company out of bankruptcy later).

“WANTED: VMWare 1-month resident to assist with new deployment/planning around 200VM’s and new Celerra NS480’s being purchased by client. Will probably end up primarily being VM’s using NFS on NS Celerra Replication will be enabled between (2) NS480’s.”

The key points are:

200VM’s

Celerra

**NFS**

Replicator

Ewww…..

Did I mention NFS?

Someone actually sold this?  Even if the customer comes to you direct and says “this is what I want…” the answer should be “In the interests of protecting you from yourself, I can’t allow you to do this.”

I don’t care how much the deal is worth.

I recently put a very terse email together to a recruiter.  These people have been sending me 3-5 emails PER WEEK on a position that is almost completely foreign to “Data Storage”  (Well, it does involve data…but that’s it about as close as it gets.)

Recruiting is another place where supposedly technical work is going to the lowest bidder, and judging by the accents I’m hearing, usually overseas.  This drives me nuts.  Not just because American companies continue to ship jobs overseas despite the fact that our own unemployment numbers are ready to surpass 9% (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)

The other reason I hate it is that it’s obvious (see below) that the comprehension level of these people is around the 3rd grade.

Recruiting used to be an art form.  Now it’s usually just some idiot saying “you want fries with that?”

And to people who outsource their recruiting let me tell you something.  If you can’t afford a real recruiter, you probably can’t afford a real staff either.  And if you would rather screw your country than pay someone what they’re worth, I really don’t want to work for you.

————————–My Response:

To whom it may concern:

I usually don’t like to remove myself from job lists, but you’ve been (incorrectly) identifying me for this positions for months upon months now.

Please make the madness stop. I am not a “data modeler” by any stretch of the imagination and by continuing to attempt to recruit me for this position proves that you actually have no idea what a “data modeler” actually is.

Data modeling is a way to structure and organize data so it can be used easily by databases. If you’ll check the information that you’ve got somewhere in your data banks on me, you’ll find that “Structure” and “Organize” have nothing to do with my field. (”Databases” only relates to my field on the periphery, in that it all has to be stored somewhere.)

Thank you for your PROMPT consideration.

/JG

———————-Original Email

Dear Jesse,

If you have the experience required for the following job order, please forward your latest resume to kaden@catstaffing-us.com Or Call me at 201 255 0319 x 177., along with responding to the following questions:

What is your hourly rate?
Where do you currently reside (city, state)?
Would you be willing to relocate?
Are you a registered http://www.logtalent.com User? ( It is FREE, It will help us to track your availability and resume for future job openings )
What is your availability to start a new project?
Are you authorized to work in the United States?
If you are not a US citizen, do you have the legal right to remain permanently in the US ? If not, what is your visa status?
Do you have a personal website URL? Your own blog or personal website. ?

PLEASE CAREFULLY READ THE JOB DESCRIPTION DETAILS AS PROVIDED BELOW. THIS IS AN IMMEDIATE OPENING:

Job Title: Data Architect
Job Location:
Job Type: Contract
JobDetail Description:

Job Title: Data Architect Location: Worcester, MA Length: 6+ months Skills: Data Architect , XML Description: Position Available for Data Architect in Worcester area, MA Summary The Data Architect will responsible for the design and architecture for the enterprise data solutions implemented in projects.
The data architect must be involved in the early stages of projects and produce data-related design deliverables that will enable project teams to build/modify systems in keeping with the overall data architecture strategy.
The Data Architect will need a demonstrated ability to produce conceptual, logical, and physical data models.
Responsibilities Assist project teams regarding data mapping and data modeling as well as facilitation of information gathering sessions, provide data analysis services and document them as required; Develop, implement and maintain processes for logical to physical data model creation.
Processes will provide data integrity, quality, reliability, availability, and reuse; Ensure adherence to company data architectural guidelines, principles and standards in all project milestones and deliverables; Define and implement data strategies as part of the project life cycle; Research, evaluate and recommend new technologies and techniques to more effectively monitor and manage data asset; Design messaging models and schemas for SOA such as XML; Perform dimensional modeling for data warehousing; Demonstrate responsibility and accountability for the deliverables; Other responsibilities as required.
What are the must haves of this position? Solid leadership and influencing skills which balance creative yet practical solutions for the businesses without compromising corporate data strategies and standards; demonstrate respect and a positive attitude, while projecting a sense of calm and control under pressure situations; Strong verbal and written communication skills which can clearly articulate complex concepts and ideas to all levels of the organization in both technical and non-technical terms; Extensive knowledge of data mapping and data modeling processes; Understanding of data architecture as it relates to operational and analytical information, i.
e.
platforms, reference data, DBMS, data integration; Analytical skills which effectively deal with conceptual and tangible ideas along with attention to detail; Working knowledge of the IT development process and life cycle, i.
e.
roles/responsibilities, tasks, milestones, deliverables; Team oriented with ability to work effectively with many different people across many diverse organizations; Ability to work on multiple, concurrent projects in a dynamic environment assignment-based organization and manage time appropriately; Management skills, with the ability to plan, organize and orchestrate activities such as JAD and review sessions; ability to identify and manage risks and issues, including appropriate escalation when needed; Need to be a self-starter, passionate for data and able to work independently with minimal supervision; Requirements: Bachelors Degree and 3 – 5 Years of Experience in data related fields; Experience with enterprise-level DBMS systems and tools e.g. Oracle, DB2, SQL Server Experience with Erwin, XML Spy is a plus; Experience with ACORD is a plus.

A pretty lousy one actually.

So my wife and I went to see the new Star Trek movie last night, as a part of the whole Mother’s Day weekend extravaganza that you have when you’re trying to honor a woman who can manage to hold our kids in some semblence of order.  (Did I mention that she keeps me in line pretty well too? – Bygones)

So this was great for multiple reasons.

First, the last movie we saw in theaters was “The DaVinci Code” (Great movie but pedantic compared to the book) so an outing without the kids is kind of a rarity for us.

Second, we are both AVID Die-Hard Trekkies…  (She even went in her “Starfleet Acadamy Alumni” sweatshirt – which made her stand out here in Redneckville, Virginia as the *ONLY* one who dressed up for it)

I wanted to start a thread on the new movie and get opinions.  I think this movie did a wonderful job of pushing Trek into the 21st Century, as well as opening the door and hopefully encouraging a whole new series of TV and Theater productions.

In discussing the show, I would ask that you preface your comments with “SPOILER:” if you are going to give away anything pertinent to the plot, the plot was such a brain twister that I’m not really willing to give any of it away myself, but it’s hard to keep that a secret while discussing WHY this movie sort of changes things…

Oh – and one thing i can say without giving too much away.

The actor they got to play Kirk was good.  Got the whole attitude thing down to a T.

The actor they got to play Spock was better.  Looks, mannerisms, all right on mark.

But the guy who played Bones, in my opinion, stole the bloody movie.  He nailed it *SO* well that I really thought a few times I was looking at a much younger DeForest Kelly.

Anyway, like I said, a little diversion, because Dammit Jim this is a storage site not IMDB.com…

Got my first presentation on EMC’s new “Atmos” storage platform.

Now granted this was kind of a sales-ey (is to a word) presentation but I’m pretty impressed so far.

It seems what EMC has done is combined the best of Celerra and Centerra. (In fact, the gentleman giving the presentation sort of placed it on the map right between the two)

The basics of it is they get a bunch of 1U (Presumably Dell) Pizza-Box type servers and put them in front of a bunch of really *REALLY* cheap storage.

They then present the storage out using a variety of protocols, CIFS/NFS, and the REST/SOAP API’s.  Rumors of an iSCSI could not be confirmed…or explained (how in the world would you convert block-storage to object-storage and expect any kind of real performance?)

Downsides….well, there are multiple single-points-of-failure in each frame, which is why when you invest in the Atmos hardware you will buy a minimum of two frames.  I think this could have been avoided in a more robust deployment.

There is no “Compliance” edition (yet?)  This would/could easily be the replacement for the Centerra, if they can just get past that little hurdle.  I’ve known many customers (and been one myself) who have chosen the NetApp filer over Centerra for archiving because all we wanted/needed was a CIFS share that we could guarantee the content on.

I was not able to get reasonable performance numbers from the presenter.  Assuming Gigabit-Ethernet off the internal switch/bus/apparatus maximum sustained transfer rate would be 125 MBytes/Sec.  10Gig-Ethernet is currently running at substantially less than the 1.25G that you would expect.

I’m curious as to what the world’s thoughts are on “Cloud” storage (I hate the term “Cloud” anything – it’s a mostly meaningless term that describes nothing but outsourcing.)

Next step: Get my hands on one and try it out.  This may not be as much of a long-shot as it seems. 

Security is a good thing….until it isn’t.

Security isn’t a good then when it interferes needlessly with productivity.  By needlessly I mean to say when you don’t get the security you’re looking for but instead make it harder for your people to do their job than needs to be.

A few examples:

1.   Company “A” hires consultants to perform day-to-day tasks.  Company “A” then refuses to give them access to the troubleshooting tools and software downloads they are supposed to be supporting.

2.   Company “B” decides that it’s employees can’t be trusted.  (If you can’t trust an employee, why are they an employee?)  Company “B” then decides to lock down PC workstations so that *NO* software can be installed or removed by said employee.  Company “B” instructs their helpdesk to ignore all requests for installation of needed software.

3.   Company “C” requires an contractor to be on-call for 24×7 support.  Company “C” refuses to grant said contractor remote access to support the equipment he’s on-call to support, forcing a 45 minute drive in the event of an emergency.  Company “C” then reams the contractor for not being timely in his/her support.

4.   (My Favourite)  Company “D” gets *VERY* creative with Windows Group Policies on a workstation, rendering said workstation a paperweight.  Company “D” neglects to block access to the system BIOS and allows booting from USB only to allow any user to introduce any unlocked/unguarded operating system in the world into their environment by virtue of a thumbdrive.

In my career, I’ve been said employee/contractor in every one of these instances.

(Just an aside -  my favorite gotcha came from watching a help-desk guy come in and disable the USB ports in the bios of a system only to be rudely reminded that the keyboard and mouse are USB (and that they don’t make PS2 connections for them any longer))

My point is this:  If you’re going to implement security make sure it’s effective security that also allows your employees to do their jobs.

If it’s not effective security – IE going to show a security benefit (that benefit being a quantifiable improvement in the security of your data or the stability of your environment) don’t bother with it – you do nothing but alienate the people you hire to work for you and make them want to go elsewhere.

Contrary to popular belief, there are still elsewheres to go.

So I had a failure – Tuesday night last week, which caused me (forced me, really) to write this post:

I Miss the Good Old Days

Now in the grand scheme of things, it was probably a bit snarky, but at 4am I think I legally am not responsible for my actions.

But the bottom line is on Tuesday at about 5pm I called to open a hardware case.  Hardware.  The high-school kid who answers the phone routes me into the Software group.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s kindof the opposite of hardware.  (And no, if this kid was a college graduate, please god tell me what college he graduated from so i can forbid my son from going there)

2 hour wait for the call-back, 2 hours of trading email back and forth before I convince him this is a hardware case and to please route it to the hardware people.

He never does the transfer.

In the meantime, it’s about 2am and I go fix the bloody problem myself, restart my change scripts and all is happy.  I got home about 4 that morning after an 18 hour day.

Leap forward to Thursday night.  Same process, different array, same failure.  Now it’s 10pm and I call in and STRESS to the triage guy that this is a HARDWARE case.  He routes me to hardware.  75 minutes to call-back, 2 hours to fix the problem and step the script through to the end, plus I get handy knowledge like root-cause analysis and a set of steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

My point is this.  So many problem can be avoided if you simply LISTEN to the person who is calling in.  Assess their skill level and if someone asks to be transferred to a specific group (ESPECIALLY if he knows the actual name of the group he wants to be transferred to – means he’s done this before)

Long and the short of it was on Tuesday, a failed drive on the target array was failed when the script started.  This caused it to error out because it saw invalid tracks existing between the mirrors.

Same thing happened on Thursday, different drive, different symm, and out of 4,000 volumes it happened to hit a volume I was working with both times.

I should play the lottery…   You’ll know if I win too because my blackberry doesn’t work on the beach in Cozumel.

When the triage guys @ EMC actually listened to the person calling in the problem and directed the call appropriately. (Just had one I specifically asked for PSE and they routed me to software for some unknown reason, now, three hours later, it’s been re-routed to PSE)

When the support specialist working a call would stay through the end of the problem, and didn’t give you the “Sorry my shift is over, please explain your problem to a new guy for 45 minutes before you do anything else productive”

Follow-up. It’s now 0100 the next morning. I’ve been working on this problem for 8 hours straight. The software guy who was originally assigned went home without turning the call over to someone else. I’ve gotten not a single call since before 9pm.

This is not support people. This is the opposite of support. I’ve since fixed the problem myself, without the help of the SAC/PSE folks. The sad part is if I had done this 8 hours ago I could have been home eating my corned-beef / cabbage and drinking my Guiness.

Totally missed St. Patrick’s day, the only religious holiday I actually observe.

Not happy.