Walking Man, Into Bar He Goes | whatever | Jokes.com

 

A guy walks into a bar and says, "I think I've heard this one before!"

Walking Man, Into Bar He Goes | whatever | Jokes.com

Get your Outlook under control

I don’t review products too often, but I have to mention the best productivity aid for Microsoft Outlook I’ve found so far: ClearContext.

There are two versions, personal,which is free and professional which is not. I actually sprung for the pro version, it’s so good.

My problem was too many e-mails and too many folders to sort them into. I also needed to track contacts and project tasks and e-mails and appointments and so on. ClearContext does addressed these issues with a relatively simple to use interface and some great automation features.

For example, with a single click (in version 5, currently in beta) any message in my inbox (or a Spam folder) can be sent to the right folder location and categorized. Send a reply and instead of going to the “Sent Items” folder your message is automatically also put into the correct folder and categorized.

In addition, Outlook follow-up and scheduling features are enhanced and simplified, so they’re easier to use.

Task and project management is where ClearContext really shines. Announced features for the next version promise to make it even better. There’s a feature called the Dashboard which displays all your Projects, Tasks and Actions, Appointments and Notifications (from Facebook, Linked-in etc.) In addition to the this global dashboard, double clicking on any project in the project list will open a tab just for that project which gives you a view of messages, Appointments, Contacts (extracted from the messages and linked to your Outlook Contacts lists or from which you can create an Outlook Contact. You can also see all the attachments relating to your projects and your Tasks.

Here’s a screenshot (borrowed from ClearContext’s web site) of the dashboards:

There are lots more features, but the most important one is the time you’ll save. It seems that I save at least 20 minutes in my AM mailbox cleanup alone. And I’ve been able to find project related attachments while I’m on the phone almost instantly. Just those two features make the software worth the money.

Use MS Outlook to run your life. Get ClearContext to get more control.

Search reveals people’s emotions

 

A search in TipTop on any subject will instantly reveal people’s emotions and experiences about it, as well as other concepts that are being discussed in connection with the subject.

Just what we need. A search engine that tells you how people feel about what you’ve searched for. How about what people think?

Oh, wait. Thinking is out of style. Emotional response is what matter.

I don’t want to know about how someone feels about that new SSD Drive. I want to know how it works, how it integrates into the array, how it affects performance for the array and for the attached servers.

I don’t really care if spending $10,000 of 64GB of SSD storage makes you feel good, bad, proud or nauseous. Well, maybe nauseous.

Is this Core-rect?

The article to which this is linked came across my inbox just now.

Tilera, which already has 36- and 64-core processors on the market, is announcing its third-generation products, Tile-Gx, which includes plans for a 100-core processor. The chip will appear in 2011. Tilera officials hope the high-core count in its processors will help give the company traction in a space dominated by Intel and AMD, which currently are looking at eight-core processors.

Tilera Talks 100-Core Processor 

I find this interesting on several levels. First, and most obvious, are these guys for real? Do they have something that can run on “Industry Standard” servers? (By this I mean, can companies like IBM or HP make servers that could run these processors without too much proprietary work?) The linked article below appears to say they can.

The next big question is whether any of the big server vendors risk their relationships with Intel or AMD to try Tilera? Or has the recent anti-trust actions with Intel and AMD opened a door that might not have existed a few years ago?

Whatever, I’d sure like to start running some tests on these things.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Tilera's 100-core Tile-GX processor won't boil the oceans, will still melt faces (engadget.com)
• Report: Intel closer to facing U.S. anticompetition charges (infoworld.com)

Making the choice between virtual and physical servers – Why Choose?

Image by JohnSeb via Flickr

 

the future of the physical server is secure, as there are still a number of reasons to use a physical server over a virtual server.

Making the choice between virtual and physical servers | Servers and Storage | TechRepublic.com

Scott Lowe writes about is experience and the policies in use at his place of work for the deployment of virtual machines versus physical servers. He states that the usual policy is to use VMs for everything unless there are compelling reasons for a plain physical server. He gives, as examples, Microsoft Communication Server instances and other examples where high I/O or CPU utilization would seem to preclude the use of or need for virtualization.

I’d like to suggest an alternative. One I’ve touched on before and one that my not be fully applicable in all instances with the software and hardware currently available:

All servers should be configured with a hypervisor as the base configuration. Even if the server will only run one OS and application it should still be installed as a VM. The main reason for this is HA/DR and provisioning time. There are undoubtedly performance issues that might need to be addressed, but modern server hardware, especially when combined with 10GBE can handle pretty much anything thrown at it.

 

Eddie Izzard finishes 43rd marathon in 52 days, covering 1,100 miles - Times Online

Image via Wikipedia

This is not about technology. It’s about a person’s will to do something  he has never done and doing so in a manner that far exceeds imagining.

BTW, I don’t think he ran in this outfit.

Eddie Izzard finishes 43rd marathon in 52 days, covering 1,100 miles

Eddie Izzard finishes 43rd marathon in 52 days, covering 1,100 miles - Times Online

Why did I add Ads?

I just added an ad-sense account to my blog. I did it for a couple of reasons. Mostly, I'm curious.

• What ads would appear?
• Will I make more than a dollar a month?
• Would it annoy my few readers?
• Would it generate traffic.

Whatever the reasons, it will be interesting and if I make a buck or two, I'll be grateful.