Planet vSphere-land

I am an avid Google Reader user, so I’m thoroughly annoyed by Google’s decision to kill it as of July 1. But there’s no stopping the tide, so I’ve made the move to Feedbin as a Reader replacement as of today. It’s a slick, snappy web application with a committed developer and, critically, support for Reeder, my favorite offline RSS reading application. Let’s h...

The iPhone 5 gets decent battery life, considering how thin it is, but it certainly doesn’t last all day. That’s why I decided to pick up a Mophie Juice Pack Air battery case for it. How does this compare to the Juice Pack for the iPhone 4? And is it worth $99? Read on for my full review! The Mophie Juice Pack Air really delivers the goods, giving my iPhone 5 all-day power The iPhone...

I am lucky enough to have received a Nifty MiniDrive for my Retina MacBook Pro, and am in process of putting it through its paces with a SanDisk 64 GB SDXC card. One of the first concerns I had is the steal-ability of such a small, valuable, content-rich item. So I decided to protect it using Mac OS X’s FIleVault 2 full-disk encryption technology. Here’s a step-by-step guide and my p...

As we enter the last month of the first quarter of 2013, it’s clear that some of the stalwarts of the IT industry are struggling with a rapidly changing market and rapidly changing technological trends. Today’s IT landscape looks far different than the one we saw just a few short years ago and the biggest fish in the IT sea appear to be having issues adjusting to the constantly shifting mark...

I recently came across a very useful tidbit after receiving several inquires asking how to configure an Apple Mac Mini to automatically startup after a power failure. This is extremely useful for situations where power is eventually restored and you are not physically around to press the power button. Automatically starting up after a power failure is not a new feature of the Mac Mini and it act...

Connectivity overseas can be a real pain. Roaming is prohibitively expensive, so a local SIM is best. But most American mobile phones are “locked” to a carrier, and American phone companies use different network technologies and frequencies than most other countries. That’s why I was excited to test my Verizon iPhone 5 abroad. The Verizon iPhone 5 works perfectly on Vodafone Au...

Release after release, Microsoft pushes Windows forward. Yet the operating system is continually undermined by the “value-focused” low-end machines pushed by the majority of OEMs. This race to the bottom has tarnished Windows for a decade and now threatens to derail Windows 8. Microsoft must do something to stop the crap before it’s too late! This is not the latest technology; ...

If you are running ESXi on an Apple Mac Mini and it is installed on a USB key, you probably have noticed that the Mac Mini tries to boot from disk by default and instead of using the USB device. This means when you reboot your ESXi host each time, you will need to hold down the "ALT/OPTION" key which will present you with a boot menu to select the device you wish to boot from.This can be quite a...

Cisco made a massive strategic blunder in the last decade, aggressively moving into consumer devices rather than focusing on their core enterprise and service provider markets. It seems that Cisco is now in the process of rectifying this mistake, but charting a path to growth is an entirely different matter! A Cisco Cius at Cisco Live 2011, with iPhones in the background Cisco’s Consumer B...

After our TiVo died, our family has turned to the Apple TV more and more. I’ve encoded some movies using Handbrake but wasn’t sure how to access alternative audio tracks (commentary, etc) or subtitles, and an Internet search was less than helpful. It turns out its fairly simple once you know the trick! A New Hope I have long used a Series 3 TiVo as my cable tuner, and we often used i...

Apple’s MacBook laptops have become increasingly desirable and successful, making them a prime target for thieves. Now that Mac OS X includes integrated and efficient full disk encryption, I recommend that everyone with a MacBook enable it. It’s easy, nonintrusive, and a potential lifesaver if your machine is stolen! Why Encrypt Your MacBook? Like so many features in Mac OS X, Apple ...

It’s not always easy to tell if your system needs more memory, or if it’s just slow. In this article, I will present an easy method for even a computer novice to know whether he has enough memory on his Mac! Virtual Memory and Page Outs Most people are aware that computers contain at least two different kinds of memory: Main system RAM is used by running programs Disks are used for ...

It’s with great pleasure to let all of my readers know that I’ll be speaking at the Kansas City VMware Users Group on Tuesday, December 11th. It’s with even greater pleasure to announce that I’ll be sharing the same stage as Mr. Steve “Woz” Wozniak! (I have to present right after his keynote, how in the heck will I stay composed?!) The VMUG will take place at ...

I’m a hardcore Dropbox user, but I don’t love their limited sharing features or having my personal data in the cloud. I was intrigued by the waves of personal shared storage devices that have appeared, but none are appropriate and complete replacements for Dropbox. But a new product just launched on Kickstarter really has a chance of success! Transporters work together to create a pe...

If you recently purchased the new 2012 Apple Mac Mini 6,2 which was just released not too long ago and tried to install either ESXi 5.0 or 5.1, you probably noticed a PSOD (Pink/Purple Screen of Death) during the installation. This is currently a known issue and there is an extensive VMTN thread (9,300+ views) about this problem which also includes a fix through a collaboration between VMTN comm...

I’m a UNIX command line guy, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I love regular expressions. This simple language allows one to slice and dice text strings with abandon, greatly simplifying data extraction and replacement tasks. Although it’s been there since 2010, I was thrilled recently to discover that Google Spreadsheets now supports in-cell regular expressions! It̵...

Considering their luxury reputation and attention to detail, it’s surprising that Apple is shipping defective Lightning cables. Alas, it’s true: I’ve received one, a few of my twitter followers have as well, and the Apple store was not that surprised when I came in for a replacement. The telltale sign of a defective Lightning cable: Mac OS X shuts the port down! Symptoms of a D...

This morning, Apple introduced the new iMac, with a build-to-order storage configuration called “Fusion Drive”. But what is Fusion Drive? Although it could be an off-the-shelf hybrid drive, I believe it is a software driver in Mac OS X. Update: Apple’s Knowledge Base article on Fusion Drive for Mac Mini and iMac essentially confirms my conclusion: Fusion Drive is a function of ...

I know some people were upset when Apple moved from the old 30 pin dock to the new Lightning connector with the iPhone 5, but such is the price of progress. Early adopters like me, however, found it difficult to make the switch with Lightning cables in short supply. That’s why I was thrilled to have a friend of mine bring over a couple of Apple’s newest adapters from the UK: The Lig...

In December 2010, I set about selecting a new printer. As documented here on my blog, I purchased an HP Photosmart Premium all-in-one (C410a) thanks to its AirPrint capability and decent photo quality. This week, after less than two years of light use, my Photosmart stopped printing. I tried two new black ink cartridges but nothing worked. The photo “side” is fine, but it’s wor...

Has Twitter gone nuts? They’ve spent the year blocking the most popular third-party applications and restricting user access, all the while limiting the features of their own applications. What are they thinking? It seems a calculated move to drive users toward their website, but in this age of mobile, that just might be the stupidest thing a company could do. I’m Being Swallowed by...

After I moved my iMac move volume to an SSD, I was left with an internal hard disk drive full of data. Rather than blowing away and start again, I decided to repartition it using CoreStorage. After resizing the existing volume, I decided to create a new drive to store Final Cut Pro data. The CoreStorage createVolume command made short work of this task! Preliminary Steps Before you can create a ...

After I moved my iMac move volume to an SSD, I was left with an internal hard disk drive full of data. Rather than blowing away and start again, I decided to repartition it using CoreStorage. My next step was to resize my existing drive to make room for a new logical volume. CoreStorage can resize a drive non-destructively, moving existing data aside and clearing capacity for other uses. Prelim...

After I moved my iMac move volume to an SSD, I was left with an internal hard disk drive full of data. Rather than blowing away and start again, I decided to repartition it using CoreStorage. The first step to storage bliss is conversion: Mac OS X can non-destructively convert an existing drive to CoreStorage! From there you’re free to resize it, create new volumes, and pretty much anythi...

Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion” added a volume manager called CoreStorage, a development I was gleeful to report last year. But what can you do with CoreStorage? Here are some examples. It may look overly technical, but this is some awesome storage mojo! To maximize usefulness, I’m dividing this into multiple posts, each with a specific CoreStorage trick: Convert an existing drive to Cor...