Workers for the world, get a life

“One hundred fifty years of research proves that shorter work hours actually raise productivity and profits -- and overtime destroys them. So why do we still do this?”

For years, I’ve been preaching that productivity comes from working smarter and more efficiently, not longer. Reports of productivity gains that come from firing people and having the remaining folks work do their jobs too are BS.

This article posted on AlterNet, Why We Have to Go Back to a 40-Hour Work Week to Keep Our Sanity by Sara Robinson is one of the best I’ve seen on the point.

Folks, if you’re regularly working more than about 40 hours, change your life.

What Bogus BS!

Keynote’s Mobile Minute quotes a study by The Yankee Group that states it measured website performance comparing a desktop computer with a tablet and a smartphone (the ubiquitous iPhone and iPad) and lo and behold, the results showed that the tablet was 8X slower than the desktop.

Of course, the desktop was probably connected via wired 1GB Ethernet, while the tablet and phone were connected via Wi-Fi and 3G, but who’s counting. (The blog entry I saw doesn’t have a link to the data so I can’t confirm my prejudicial reaction.)

Why not expend bits on something that’s not obvious?

Is Windows 8 Server Going to be Expensive Linux?

What’s with Microsoft’s enterprise envy? It’s getting worse and worse. Not they’re saying people aren’t interested in ease-of-use and don’t need a GUI to manage servers.

Here’s one of many quotes on the subject. This one’s from RedmondMag.com:

Optional GUI. Removing the GUI shell from Server is as easy as unchecking a checkbox or running a PowerShell command, and doing so can increase server stability and reduce the number of patches that have to be installed. Microsoft is on a mission to remove the GUI entirely, so Windows Server 8 is your chance to start getting used to the brave new world on your own terms. You'll rely on rich, client-side GUIs and on the PowerShell command-line. It's happening. Not everyone is happy about that, but it's happening anyway. Might as well start getting used to it.

I appreciate that the command line and scripting can be very useful in automating processes and that uber-geeks would rather type commands than click a mouse, but come on. If I wanted to manage my servers from the command line, I’d use Linux and save tens of thousands of dollars.

I’m not completely against the CLI – I use it when I must. But the whole history of Microsoft Windows Server is predicated on the lower costs of management due to its interface and other design features. I guess Microsoft doesn’t really believe in that any more.

Dumb.

Know thyself–not so fast

A quick copy of Andrew Sullivan:

Jonah Lehrer reviews Thinking, Fast and Slow, a new book by Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman:

Teaching people about the hazards of multitasking doesn’t lead to less texting in the car; learning about the weakness of the will doesn’t increase the success of diets; knowing that most people are overconfident about the future doesn’t make us more realistic. The problem isn’t that we’re stupid—it’s that we’re so damn stubborn. ... [Kahneman's] greatest legacy, perhaps, is also his bleakest: By categorizing our cognitive flaws, documenting not just our errors but also their embarrassing predictability, he has revealed the hollowness of a very ancient aspiration. Knowing thyself is not enough. Not even close.

Caring for your PC even when it’s not caring for you

PC’s are finicky beasts. Manufacturers often select hardware components with cost rather than quality as the primary consideration. The application programs, more and more often required to work together as one toolset face the challenge of not crashing each other; or themselves. Microsoft, the developer of the most popular operating system, Windows, has endeavored mightily to keep their OS running – through version after version – so that today: Windows 7, even installed on a home built PC runs. Well. Reliably.

But it can’t do it alone. At least not on a computer onto which new programs are frequently installed, vast reaches of the Internet are explored and the testing of devices, programs and systems both local and distributed are a constant activity. Windows needs help.

Geeks like me, pay attention to the utilities that can keep PC’s healthy, happy and sound. We don’t like to pay too much – or anything for the utilities. But they have to work to keep the machine going and to get us out of trouble when something goes wrong in spite of our protective efforts.

Of the many independent developers and companies that create utilities for PCs, one of the best is iolo technologies. They call themselves the PC Tune-up Experts and having used a wide range of their products, free and not-so, over the years I can attest to the fact that they are the go-to company for the tools to keep your PC humming.

This review if on Iolo’s core product for individual use: System Mechanic. This venerable product is now up to version 10.5 and those years of experience show clearly in its mature, easy to navigate interface, broad range of features and ease of use. Ease of use is important, even for experienced folks, for at least two reasons. First of all, you don’t want to spend large amounts of time doing a tune-up. Tune-ups should be fast and invisible. But you also don’t want to make wrong choices when the mechanic asks you about what to do about an odd file, registry entry and so forth. System Mechanic does a great job in providing the information you need to make those choices without burdening you with too much jargon or obscure references.

What’s best:

The first thing I like is the first thing you see when the program start up:

The overview screen shows you your systems status – in this case Poor, plus suggestions on ways to improve performance. If you have faith, you can merely click Repair All and everything will be taken care of, but if you’re like me, you both want to be in control and know that some of the things a tool such as System Mechanic sees as problems are things you’ve done on purpose. So, you should click View Problems. This is where System Mechanic stands out:

 

The list alone provides excellent information on the issues found and gives you the option to choose which items to fix, drill down and select items to fix with higher granularity, schedule maintenance and most importantly, choose to ignore certain problems. Because for you, they’re not a problem.

For example, one of the problems System Mechanic identified on this PC was that there were 4 repairable security vulnerabilities. If you click the repair button you can choose to repair the problems right away, hide the problem or start a wizard from which you can determine what to do about the identified vulnerabilities.

For example, the first item in the list is my company’s SharePoint portal. It’s showing up as a trusted site. Which it should be. But System Mechanic explains the risks. You’re then given the option to repair – meaning no longer trusting the site – or ignore this issue for this session or permanently. Similarly  .hta, a .js and a .vbe files were found. All of these can pose risks to security. If you look closely you can see that the recommended repair is very slick – open the files in notepad. This prevents them from executing so you can inspect the files if you’re unsure.

These clear, well documented choices are available for all the repair scenarios. What’s best about this is that after a few months, System Mechanic is ignoring things you want it to ignore and you can do your repairs more quickly.

This same attention to ease of use and what I call user screw-up protection is carried out throughout the product. Whether you’re looking to automate some or all of the maintenance tasks or check your Internet Security status, the interface is clear, and well explained.

My other favorite set of features is the toolbox. Here you will find a selection of maintenance and repair tools that can be run individually or in sets to handle almost any system issue.

I’m the type of guy who likes to run the tools separately when I have a problem, but the batch ones work great when I just need to clean up a mess.

I could go on trough all the features, but you’d be better off just downloading a trial version to see for yourself. Better yet, just buy the darn thing. It’s not expensive and it really works well.

Before I go, there’s one more set of features that are extremely useful. It starts with reports that show you the status of your computer – nothing unusual there, but beautifully presented – and goes to a history view that shows you what System Mechanic has done on your machine over time.

What makes the history so useful is that there is also the ability, via SafetyNet to revert the changes from a session – just in case you didn’t let System Mechanic prevent you from doing something stupid.

There are lots of products that offer similar collections of utilities. In fact, iolo makes one called Advanced Systems Care that comes in both free and Pro (money) based versions. But for me, System Mechanic offers the best combination of tools, ease of use, regular updates, and functionality of the products I’ve used. And, when I’ve completed a session, my computer runs better. And that’s no placebo effect!

Personal mobile devices and the future of computing

Several decades ago I wrote that them main reason for personal computers was for communication. that was before the public Internet. Now, not only is it obvious that personal computing is for communication, but a whole range of industries have grown up in support of that proposition.

Smartphones have lead the evolution and will continue to do so, but tablets, like the iPad I'm using to write this, are the true demonstration. The evolutionary trend is moving faster and faster. Communicating with a device now... Will we still need devices in 10 years.

The proliferation of mobile computers has helped lead to the exponential growth of data centers and thus the need for a refresh of the centralized computing paradigm. Where there has been a move to RAIC in the data center, a case can now easily be made that what needed is not tens of thousands of small servers but hundreds or thousands of very large servers. The re-emergence of the mainframe, but a new type of mainframe. One not dedicated to the running of giant transactional applications. Instead, perhaps just very powerful hardware platforms that can deliver the tens of thousands of servers. Beyond VMs.

I've been studying the large systems I'd ignored in the past and am wondering how these systems can succeed in a market now dominated by simple inexpensive, easy to use, servers. More study is needed.

I guess this one doesn't go to thirteen!

Symantec recently announced the newest version of Backup Exec replacing the current Version 12. The new version is called Backup Exec 2010.

I guess the realized that no one would buy version 13 of a backup software product.

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.

Integrating management systems

In the August 31-Sept 7 issue of NetworkWorld, Tim Greene writes about 3Com's efforts in unifying network and security management.

"The most significant aspect of the announcement is the management, says Phil Hochmuth, an analyst with the Yankee Group. 'Enterprises are really consolidating their management roles,' he says. 'More and more enterprise IT and enterprise security teams are sharing the same hat, the teams are extremely integrated. The more they are looking at the same screens, the better.'"

This is something I've been discussing and writing about for many years. Too many different management consoles leads to confusion, error and frequently extreme segregation of operational functionality limiting the ability of administrators to manage increasingly complex systems. Systems that are comprised a mixture of servers, storage, networks, security systems and more and all being virtualized as well.

This need is becoming more and more critical as even the largest organizations are relying on teams of technologists responsible for managing these virtualized, integrated, multi-vendor environments. These teams may be made up of men and women who've specialized in storage or server or application management, but are now being asked to address issues outside their comfort zones as the issues they're facing are not necessarily linked to any single component of the IT environment. Problems may be coming from any device, program or function in the system and waiting for another specialist to solve a problem is untenable.

A "Single-pane-of-Glass" console helps the administrative team identify the multifaceted issues they're facing and a uniform interface, tool set and command syntax empowers team members. They are empowered because they can resolve all but the most complex issues by using what they already know about the system and are comfortable enough with the tools at hand to attempt what may have not been comfortable for them before.

It's good to see 3Com attempt to address these issues, as is Cisco and the other vendors. It will be interesting to observe how this plays out.

NetApp unveils new virtualized storage software | NetworkWorld.com Community

 

Among the announcement are of a Virtual Storage Console, which is a plug-in module for VMware vCenter Server that lets storage administrators manage and monitor NetApp gear from within vSphere 4 environments.

NetApp unveils new virtualized storage software | NetworkWorld.com Community

This specific item and the other announcements from NetApp, quoted in this article,  show their continued commitment to marketing themselves as the VMware storage solution. Competitors will need to move quickly to implement similar capabilities in the area of two way management integration.

This is important because even if servers, storage, applications, I/O and everything else is virtualized, the devices are still individual components with unique characteristics that need their own management tools. In a virtualized world though, changes to the hardware have affects on the virtual space and visa versa; so being able to manage the virtual from a physical device and the physical from a virtual device will become ever more critical.

It’s going to become a requirement that admins be able to manage any storage system from vCenter and vCenter from any storage management console. These capabilities are going to be a special challenge to IBM and HP as their focus has been on integrating within  their own equipment stacks rather than bi-directional integration with management platforms for vendors such as VMware. Stories about a Cisco/EMC joint venture might, at least partially, be about this need for management capabilities across the whole hardware stack.

iPhone Ad

Has it come to this?

Mental Health Break - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan
Mental Health Break - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

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Yet another fallen leader

Just thinking about Teddy and the Kennedy's all day. JFK was the first President I was involved in. I remember Ike, and even Truman a bit, but JFK was my inspiration. Needless to say, his murder was devastating; starting my period of disillusionment with our country. Bobby's race for President in '68 brought back the positive feelings (with a help from McCarthy) after MLK assasination only to be dashed again, almost before my eyes as I'd seen him that day in LA, by yet another shooting.

Teddy became the spokesman for the rational liberal perspective. It took him a while, and I didn't support his run in 1980, I supported and worked for Jimmy Carter, but what a speech he gave and what a leader he was.

So I've been thinking...

Does the Cloud need “Servers”?

A cloud is something soft and fluffy. When used to describe shared compute services, it means, among other things, that the borders between the various compute services provided and the users of those services are blurred. Why shouldn’t the devices providing these services also be a bit blurry. Servers as we’ve come to know them (I’m mostly talking about x86 servers here) have architectures that are starting to really reach their architectural limits when providing cloud compute services. It’s time for something new and different.

Why couldn’t the hardware of which servers are now comprised be treated differently. Rather than clusters of servers or pools of virtual machines running on clusters of servers, I think it might make more sense for there to be pools of processors, pools of memory, pools of I/O, pools of storage. These can be provisioned in any combination of components as needed to deliver the functionality required by the applications in question.

Instead of racks and racks of servers filling acres of air conditioned space why not have racks or processors and racks of memory and of storage and so forth. Each of these module achieve different densities and consume different power volumes producing different heat profiles. This means that memory and processors which produce the most heat can be cooled separately from other components that produce less heat or storage that works fine at higher temperatures than processors and memory.

I’ll try and explore this idea more at a later time.

We don’t need no stinkin’ chillers!

Google’s Chiller-less Data Center

Google (GOOG) has begun operating a data center in Belgium that has no chillers to support its cooling systems, a strategy that will improve its energy efficiency while making local weather forecasting a larger factor in its data center management.

Kudos to Data Center Knowledge for bringing this to my attention. The story speaks for itself, so I’ll limit my comments to highlighting a few things that I found very interesting.

Google maintains its data centers at temperatures above 80 degrees.

Most data centers are kept below 80 degrees. Co-Lo facilities speak of keeping temperatures below 70 degrees. Google has an advantage over other large companies: among other things their equipment is much more uniform so airflow and other temperature management issues are less complex to manage.

Co-Lo facilities probably have to keep things cooler than corporate data centers because their tenants often won’t use best practices in provisioning for air flow and other factors such as highly heterogeneous hardware use.

At last month’s Structure 09 conference, Google’s Vijay Gill hinted that the company has developed automated tools to manage data center heat loads and quickly redistribute workloads during thermal events (a topic covered by The Register).

Google has had a head start here, and this is an area where the major vendors are playing catch-up. Most current hardware management tools now include power and temperature monitoring as standard features and we’re starting to see performance tuning for power and heat appear in the administrator console as a standard feature. This trend will undoubtedly continue as components become more manageable for energy use.