Posts from — February 2008

Nothing particularly interesting here, just thought these were kind of funny / ridiculous . . . We were burning some DVD’s with Roxio’s Toast the other day and the thing went a little nutty.  Just before we shut it down it gave us this :

Seriously???  Why am I still waiting then?  Here’s another one that didn’t quite make sense to me.  This one came from Torrey’s computer when we first made the switch to Leopard:

Don’t get me wrong, Time machine is pretty cool but someone needs a math lesson . . . .

TB

I’m still a bit behind but I awoke Tuesday morning to the announcement that Apple had released Xsan 2, it’s next generation SAN software.  Cool!  There were said to be some major improvements coming so this is great news.  Only one thing . . . why is Apple advertising Xsan 2.0 for use with Promise Technology’s VTrak E-Class RAID Subsystem instead of their own Xserve RAID.  When has Apple EVER touted anyones else’s hardware for that matter.  Why would Apple put a competitor on their websi . . . . unless . . . . wait a minute . . . .it can’t be . . . .  (quickly browse to http://www.apple.com/xserve/RAID) . . . . “Promise Technology and Xsan.  Both built to build on.”  No!!!!!  But alas, it’s true.  The mighty Xserve RAID is dead.

Actually, I can’t really say mighty cause the thing hadn’t been updated (aside from capacity) pretty much since it’s introduction in 2004.  Controllers were out dated and seriously, 2Gb Fibre . . . . maybe this is a good thing.  Especially when you take a look at what Promise is all about. Couple of quick tidbits on their VTrak E-Class line approved with Apple. . 

• Dual active/active RAID Controllers (Apple MPIO capable)

• Dual 4Gb/s Fibre Channel ports per controller

• SATA or SAS hard drives (pre-installed & tested)

• RAID Levels 0, 1, 1E, 5, 6 ,10, 50, 60

• Optional Expansion Chassis for up to 32 drives of high performance storage

Not bad at all!  Found out it also has JBOD expansion support for up to 60 HDD’s and supports up to 256 LUNs.  Good stuff, especially when compared to the now non-existent Xserve RAID.  I am a little bummed Apple will no longer be the source for hardware and software but what can you do.  Here’s a shot of the new VTrak E-class from Promise.  I I personally like the looks of the Xserve RAID a little more but I’ll take performance over looks any day.  All in all, this may not be as bad as I thought.  If Apple is diligent in their certification process to maintain the integrity of their product on third party hardware, then it will definitely be a positive move.  Now if I could just figure out the real reason they pulled out of NAB this year . . . .

TB

I meant to post this a lot quicker but got backed up from the time off and just couldn’t get to it.  Oh well, better late than never.  So I just got back from almost a week of Snowboarding in Utah.  Ya, it was siiiiiiick!!!  My cousin Steve and I decided to make a road trip out of it and headed off around 6:30am on Thursday morning.  Poor guy had to work the night before and lives in Redding so didn’t get to my house till about 1:30am.  Needless to say he slept and I drove for the first part of the trip.  A little boring but I kept myself entertained with a little Armstrong & Getty and Rush Limbaugh – gotta love AM radio.  It was a surprisingly easy drive though and by 4pm we were pulling in to good ol’ West Jordan, Utah.

We got the serious hook up and got to stay with my wifes grandparents who just built a home out there.  It’s a nice place with plenty of room for us to stay in.  The cool thing about Utah is that everyone has basements.  They decided to put a Theater Room in theirs – 42” plasma, 5.1 surround, step up seating with Lazy Boy recliners and all the junk food you could ask for.  You can probably guess where we spent most of our time.  The other cool thing is that her grandma, Nancy, is a chef and insisted on cooking for us ever meal  =)  Home theater and gourmet food . . . . .not a bad gig! 

She’s coming out with a cookbook in the next few months and had me take a few shots with my video camera for the cover.  Here’s a shot that may be used (she made the dish). . . .

The next morning Steve and I met another cousin, Chad at the Salt Lake Airport and headed off to the first day of snowboarding.  The first day we decided to head to Brighton.  We were pretty excited because Brighton has been featured in some pretty prominent snowboard videos and we were expecting big things.  Unfortunately,  it wasn’t quite what we had anticipated.  Due to the amount of snow they had recently received they didn’t have their park up and running.  No big deal – just got hit some powder runs in all that new snow they had right?  Well, that would have been great except the weather was bad and due to high winds, all the lifts to the best powder runs were shut down.  Don’t get me wrong, we still had a great time but it could have been better. 

So check this out . . . . it’s our first run of the day and we’re stoked to be out riding the Utah snow.  Steve’s leading the way down the hill and we decided to make a tree run. I’m following him in and out of the trees when all of a sudden he disappears.  I come around the bend and see this:

Apparently he didn’t see the stump until it was too late.  They funny part was that he was completely stuck because the he was laying downhill and couldn’t lift his board high enough to get it over the stump.  Combine that with the deep snow he was in and the one branch on the entire stump that happened to be on the side his board was on and he was done!  Being the great guy that I am, instead of helping him out I reached for my iPhone to snap a few shots.  We eventually got him out but it was quite the ordeal.  Makes for a good story though  =)  Here’s a copy of the trail map (click on it for a better picture).  It’s a pretty big mountain so we were bummed that we could only ride a small part of it.

We were pretty much limited to the Majestic and Crest Express lifts the entire day.  Like I said, good time but could have been better.

The next day we were going to hit Snowbird but heard it was pretty windy so decided to head north to Snow Basin.  It was a gamble because Snow Basin was about an hour away and there was no guarantee that it wouldn’t be windy there too but we decided to give it a try. . . . man were we glad we did!  Weather was good and the place was amazing!  We took the gondola up to one peak and headed over to another gondola where we were among the first groups to head up.  That might have been the best run of the trip – completely untracked powder, everywhere!  One of the best runs I’ve ever had.  We spent all morning on that side and didn’t have to deal with anyone else’s tracks until early afternoon.  Here’s a trail map of the mountain (again, click for a better picture). . . 

The first day we spent most of our time on the east side of the mountain (at least I think it was the east side – left side of the map).  Took the Strawberry Express gondola most of the day (the pic at the top of this post is from inside the gondola).  The second day we discovered that a couple of Olympic events were held there during the Salt Lake Winter Olympics and there was an Olympic Tram on the other side of the mountain.  We took the John Paul Express to the top where you could catch the tram and discovered another lodge at the top.  These lodges were incredible!  Looked more like lobbies to 5 star hotels instead of ski lodges.  We decided that we’d grab some lunch up there before hitting the tram.  After lunch we headed over to the tram and made the ascent.  Another great move!  It took us to the very top of the mountain which felt like the top of the world.  Here’s a shot of Steve and Chad at the top . . .