After doing some research I have found that ESX 3.0.1 does not currently support jumbo frames. For some customers this is a real problem as they are looking to implement iSCSI in their Virtual Infrastructure.

After doing some asking, there is development in process to support Jumbo Frames in the future, but I haven’t been able to get anyone to give me any sort of timeframe on it.

Interestingly enough, while researching this online I stumbled across this great whitepaper on iSCSI written by my old friend/colleague, Rob Daly.

Technorati Tags: iSCSI, Jumbo Frames, VMware, ESX

Here’s a great article / pic showing how far we have come in data storage technologies.

It’s amazing how far computer technology in general has improved in the last 50 years.

You’ve come a long way baby.

Technorati Tags: storage, IBM, Data Storage

On November 6 2006 Microsoft and Novell signed their “agreement”. This ad was release prior to that.

Funny what $348 million can do…

Technorati Tags: Novell, Microsoft

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer recently told analysts:

“I would not anticipate that we make a huge additional revenue stream from our Novell deal, but I do think it clearly establishes that open source is not free,” he said, “and open source will have to respect intellectual property rights of others just as any other competitor will.”

Intellectual Property Rights? Microsoft screams about IP rights when they think theirs are being infringed, but never when they are the ones infringing. They seem to think that having a monopoly that allows them to squeeze out competition is fair. They also forget that in all this, they are attempting to trample on the GPL and all IP developed under it. This has in fact, delayed the latest version of the GNU Public License (GPL).

Free Software Foundation President and co-author of the GPL, Richard Stallman, recently weighed in on this:

“The GPL was designed to ensure that all users of a program receive the four essential freedoms which define free software. These freedoms allow you to run the program as you see fit, study and adapt it for your own purposes, redistribute copies to help your neighbor, and release your improvements to the public.

He continued: “The recent patent agreement between Microsoft and Novell aims to undermine these freedoms. In this draft we have worked hard to prevent such deals from making a mockery of free software.”

Technorati Tags: GPL, Richard Stallman, Linux, Microsoft, Steve Ballmer

So far, after 27 votes, it appears that HP is leading the polls for the x86 hardware poll.

Technorati Tags: x86 hardware

I was catching up on some blogs I read when I came upon this post over at TarryBlogging. He was responding to an article on ZDnet written by Dana Blankenhorn.

This article (found here) is regarding Xen, Open Source, and virtualization. Apparently Mr Blankenhorn recently interviewed Xensource’s Simon Crosby and wasn’t impressed.

Like Tarry, I don’t get Dana’s point. In fact, I’m not even sure why ZDnet published this. It really lacks any point. I think he’s trying to make a point without really understanding the technology. Or any technology for that matter. I read some of his other articles, and he doesn’t seem to get any where. It’s like he’s writing inside jokes that only he understands. In his articles, he starts to go somewhere but never goes there.

I know this seems kinda harsh, and in all fairness I found some articles written by him that are very interesting:

Like this one on former Open Source Initiatives general counsel Larry Rosen’s stand on the GPL.

Or this one discussing wether GPL v2 or GPL v3 will emerge as the open source standard.

All I can say is edit your work and make sure you are making the point you want to make.  (Good advise I should probably take myself.)

Technorati Tags: ZDnet, Dana Blankenhorn, Xensource, virtualization

Just for the record, I really love Sun servers. I have an 8-way 4600 running ESX 3.0.1 here in my lab and it smokes! I also think that Solaris is a great OS.

I know my last post seemed a little “anti-Sun”. I just found that HP article interesting. However, it’s nothing new in the industry to flip-flop. Technology moves fast and business has to move with it. This is especially for companies that sell technologies.

Therefore, I open the doors to all competitive papers! HP, IBM, Dell, & Sun, send me your competitive FUD… err, marketing material for all to read.

I’ve also decided to take a poll.  Who makes the best x86 based server?  Dell, HP, IBM, or SUN.   Vote now!

Over the past few days a few of my colleagues have surprised me by not knowing how to use Google to get directory assistance from their cell phones. As a result I thought I’d share this information in case there are some people who could benefit from it.

Using Google for directory assistance is fairly simple:

1. Create a new SMS/text message on your phone. The recepient should be 46645.

2. In the body of the message type in as much information about the person / business as you have:

Joe Young, 123 Main st, Anytown, ST

3. Send the message. In a few minutes Google will respond with any 411 information it finds.

Good Luck!

Technorati Tags: google directory assistance, SMS directory assistance, cell phone tips

I was just handed an article on eWeek that discusses some new hardware hacks that were presented at the Black Hat Federal Conference. The eWeek article states:

At the Black Hat Briefings here on Jan. 28, two breakthrough hardware hacks were demonstrated. One shocker was Coseinc Senior Security Researcher Joanna Rutkowska’s demonstration of a way to subvert system memory through software—in essence, the shattering of our long-held belief that “going to hardware” to secure incident response is a security failsafe.

Hardware heresy didn’t stop there. John Heasman from NGSS (Next Generation Security Software) proved that rootkits can persist on a device—on firmware—rather than on disk, and can thus survive a machine being reimaged. Even reformatting won’t save us these days.

These are extremely interesting because it now means that there are ways for hackers to penetrate our systems and either leave no trace, or embed themselves into our hardware so that the system stays “infected” even if re-imaged.

A full copy of the article can be found here.

I’ve also added a link Joanna Rutkowska’s blog. You can find copies of her Black Hat presentation as well as her demonstration videos on her blog, or here:

cheating-hardware-memory-acquisition-updated.ppt

DMA-cheating-demo-bh-fed07.rar

Technorati Tags: Black Hat Federal Conference, Joanna Rutkowska, hardware hacks

A friend just sent me this new story from Yahoo! discussing the explosive growth of electronic data.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070305/ap_on_hi_te/information_explosion_2

I’m not sure people realize how much of a problem this could be. Currently, historians have to search the earth for the slightest bit of data. Take for example the Ancient Egyptians. We search allover Egypt looking for tombs, cities, pottery, scrolls, etc… Even with what we find it’s not always clear what it means. Science has made this easier, but it’s still not an easy task.

Think ahead to the future. With googols upon googols of pieces of information. How do they determine what’s important and what’s not. How do they determine what’s factual, and what’s a hoax?

Combine this with all of the new governmental regulations forcing companies to hold onto data for years, sometimes decades, it becomes hard to delete old data. Where does it end?

What can curb this? Content-Addressable Storage? Archiving? Something new?