I was passed a link to this video the other day. It’s over simplified of course, but it breaks down a bit of the basics as far as how the backbone of the internet works, and what I do all day 
.
Growing up in the Internet Age
Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Cisco’s (NASDAQ:CSCO) new Unified Computing System (also known as Project California) is a very interesting piece of technology. In a nutshell, what they’re trying to do is reduce and unify all the equipment needed to run a server infrastructure into one box. Server hardware itself, server-attached storage (also known as a SAN or Storage Area Network), and network backbone (routing/switching devices) would all integrate into “blades” that lock into a high-speed backplane. Through this single unified system, they are able to employ virtualization of the actual “server” instances across the smaller and more efficient blades.
They have taken their knowledge in and expertise in networking and used it to create a high-speed switching/routing backplane that is 10 Gigabit-per-second Ethernet capable. Through it, administrators can consolidate the both the local-area network (LAN) connections, SAN, and high-speed clustering connections all into one. Cisco is hoping that by integrating all these devices into one, that it will simply administration and provisioning due to the virtualized nature of the product, reduce costs by consolidating duplicated hardware, increase energy efficiency and lower cooling costs with a unified chassis, among other things. They have also partnered with VMWare (NYSE:VMW), who is already and industry leader in virtualization technologies, for both their press announcement and to help them develop the underlying tech.
So far, I’ve seen mixed reactions from the industry. Traditionally, Cisco has partnered with the major computer manufactures as they had largely complimentary markets and very little overlap. However, this move is a clear indication that Cisco is dropping the gloves and wants to take on the big manufactueres directly. IBM (NASDAQ:IBM), HP (NAQDAQ:HPQ), Dell (NASDAQ:DELL), and Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:JAVA) are the four major incumbents in this sector, and they might just have something to be worried about. Cisco has a lot of financial resources to invest into this project, and with the economy in it’s current state, companies are always looking for tech that is going to lower their Total Cost of Ownership (or TCO).
Cisco isn’t the only player to get into this market though. Their primary rival in the network room is Juniper Networks (NASDAQ:JNPR), and they announced last month a similar project to integrate the various devices in the data centre together. However, it appears Cisco has a lead on them as far as bringing the product to market. Juniper is taking a slightly different approach, though.. they are actually in talks to partner with the major server manufacturers to bring this technology to market. Juniper has also indicated that it is looking to re-invent a best-of-breed technology in their product, and not necessarily be forced to stick with current tech and standards.
Same technology, but two different approaches. It will be also interesting to see if Cisco’s repositioning and determination to take on the entire project themselves will increase their share of the larger tech market, or if it could weaken their incumbent position on top of the networking sector.
PEER1 Networks employs both best-of-breed Cisco and Juniper networks equipment throughout their network infrastructure.
Codeweavers makes a wonderful piece of software called “Crossover” that allows you to install and run Windows Applications and Games under the Linux and Mac OSX platforms, without needing to install or run Windows. It’s not an emulator, but it’s based off of the Wine emulation layer. I’ve been meaning to write a blog entry about it for awhile, because it’s a very solid piece of software, and they have a great support team that is constantly working to improve the program. However, I had to write an entry today, because tomorrow they are going to give their software away for FREE, for 24 hours.
Yes sir, I said free. Free as in air. You can go here to read the press release on why they’re doing it, and how to get your hands on a copy of this gold nugget of software.
I’ve written before about what a great piece of software I think Spanning Sync is. They recently upgraded their code base to version 2.0 (which is free for all Spanning Sync owners/subscribers) and gave it a new trick.
Spanning Sync 2.0 Main Screen
Spanning Sync now uses the Google Contacts API to sync your Mac Address Book contacts with the Gmail Contacts section. This not only allows you to back up your contacts to Google, but provides easy access to those vital contacts from Gmail when you are on the go.
Now making this transition wasn’t as easy as the Calendar was, mostly because of the way Gmail deals with contacts, and some base restrictions they have. You aren’t permitted to have two contacts with matching e-mail addresses. Names? No problem. But e-mail addresses are a fatal error. Now I never really used the Google Contacts interface for much before, except for Google Talk. However, as I soon found out, Gmail adds a “suggested contact” for everyone you e-mail from Gmail who isn’t already in your address book. These suggested contacts cause Spanning Sync to spit some Google error goodness at your if you don’t wipe them out first. You will also quickly find your Gtalk contact list a mess too when you try to sync and Spanning Sync tries to figure out which direction to overwrite each contact.
Now this is a great feature, but you should probably take the following steps before starting contact syncing with Spanning Sync:
- Stop right now, and back up your contacts. Go. Do it. File>Export>Address Book Archive. If I didn’t do this when I first started playing around with the software, I’d be crying in my soup at all my screwed up contacts. Before going any further, do this.
- In your Spanning Sync preferences, switch your sync frequency to Manually. This allows you to safely make all your settings changes without Spanning Sync getting trigger happy. Once you’ve made it past your first sync, it’s safe to set this back to the frequency that works for you.
- Remove all your “suggested contacts” and other duplicate entries between your Mac Address Book and Google Contacts, with the exception of your Google Talk contact entries
- For your Google Talk contacts, do the opposite. Manually move the information over from your Mac Address Book to Google Contacts, and then wipe the entry out of your Mac Address Book. This ensures the special contact flags that exist on the Google side of things to denote a “Google Talk capable” contact are retained.
- If you really want to keep things segregated during that initial sync, go into your Mac Address Book and create two groups: a “Mac Contacts” group, and a “Gmail Contacts” group. Move all your Mac Address Book contacts into the Mac Contacts group, and set the Gmail Contacts group as the destination group in your Spanning Sync preferences. This will allow you to see what is going in what direction. Once you make it through that first sync, it’s easiest to set it back to All Contacts, move the contacts out of those groups, and remove the groups.
Contact Groups screen in SS 2.0
- Before hitting that sync button for the first time, you may wish to go back to the Advanced tab in the Spanning Sync preferences and hit Open Log Window. This will let you watch what the software is doing in real time, as well as show you any error messages.
- Okay, when you think you’re ready, hold your breath, maybe take ONE MORE backup and hide it away on a USB key, then hit the Sync button. If all goes according to plan, you will shortly have all your contacts in two places.
It’s really cool to have all your vital information available at your fingertips, where ever you are. Hopefully with a little luck, some good backups, and some of my tips here, you’ll be able to fix up your mess of contacts, as I did mine. If you are a Mac user, have contact (or calendar) information, and think it would be nice to have that information while on the go, look no farther than Spanning Sync. It’s a very well written piece of software, and is at a fair price (which is pretty much the polar opposite of some other Mac software *cough*Office2008*cough*). And you can *still* get $5 off on Spanning Sync by clicking this link: http://spanningsync.com/?r=SAUHNN.
So it appears I’ve made some more online waves. I got written up in a blog post here, once again about Spanning Sync.
I honestly had no idea that posting that code in my blog could get me that many referrals, and inherently, money. It’s a pretty good program they’ve got going on there, and worth checking out.