Cricket Liu

Cricket presented at the last PacITPros meeting in San Francisco and if you were lucky enough to attend it you got to see a great presentation on DNS. Cricket works for Infoblox but his presentation was great for anyone to hear since it really does apply to anyone running a robust DNS infrastructure.
Best part was he was kind enough to sign my second ed. DNS and BIND book. We should have his presentation posted up on PacITPros soon.
- Ed

Apple iPhone update

It appears I am not alone in my feeling regarding the Apple iPhone. Check out this article over at the Register. I think it says a lot about some of the difference between those that are using it from a consumer level and those that look at things from a business utility point of view. Like I said before - they are nuts to think EDGE would be a good solution for this device.
So - who else has returned their iPhone? Anyone else frustrated with the hardware limitation? This $500+ phone has no extended battery option, no option to replace the battery yourself at all for that matter, limited headset compatibility due to a design flaw, no option to expand the storage with Micro SD or any other cheap and available storage, and the list goes on and on.
Honestly, am I super happy with my Windows Mobile 5 phone? - no. Do I think the hardware vendors have a log way to go? - yes.
That being said, at least I have some options when it comes to my current phone. I am still bitter at Verizon and CDMA in general for not doing the smart thing and using sim-cards like all the GSM phones do. It slows the release of handsets for both Verizon and Sprint plus it limits the option for upgrading the phone quickly (like not having to call customer service.)
- Ed

Update (again): Well, it appears that the iPhone isn't enterprise network ready either. Here is an interesting article at Network World about the iPhone killing the Duke University wireless network. Hope Apple can fix this issue before it starts plaguing us all. Plus, the review over at The Gadgeteer makes a good point. The iPhone is a feature phone, not a smart phone, seems to be the case from what I am reading.

Update July 30,2007 (again...): There have been corrections to the iPhone on Duke's network, I've been lazy and not posted them, which isn't too fair. Michael Swan has the link posted in the comments on this entry. At least Cisco fixed their issue, but it still makes me wonder what else awaits us with the iPhone. I've seen some reviews that say the performance on edge is very good and others that seem very disappointed with it. Honestly, I am not willing to part ways with $500 to find out for myself.
- Ed

MVP status

Well, it seems that I have been renewed for another year as a Microsoft MVP. I honestly didn't know what to expect this year as so many of the MVP's I do know didn't get renewed. Thanks to PacITPros (SFNTUG, TVNUG and EBCUG). Without them I would not qualify at all so a big shout out to all those who are members of those user groups.
- Ed

Apple iPhone - yeah yeah, whatever

OK, I think the folks camping out and waiting for a new iPhone are nuts. I understand the desire for a device but even Steve Jobs admits that surfing the web on the AT&T Edge network is horrible. I am still amazed that they released this product running on the old Edge network. I think people will be kicking themselves when Apple releases the next version of the phone in 6 mo. time that is running on the newer 3g stuff. Apple has been known to do that sort of thing in the past, I wouldn't be surprised if they did it here. Somehow saying that wifi will fill in the void really isn't good enough and sort of slights the vision of having good mobile communications everywhere.
I am the first to admit that Apple builds very sexy products that are remarkably consumer friendly. At the same time, regardless of the vendor, I do expect them to move the bar forward, not backwards, which is what Apple is doing by deploying on Edge.
I'll stick to my Verizon EVDO service for now...
- Ed

Ubuntu, VMware, Windows - the ultimate laptop?

OK, for work I have a new Lenovo T60 (IBM Thinkpad) 15.4" widescreen with 60GB HD, 3GB of RAM and an Intel Core2 T7200 chip at 2.0Ghz. Needless to say, it is a very nice laptop. So, the question is, what do I run on it? Normally this would never come up, install Windows Vista and be done with it. But two of my colleagues run Ubuntu and I felt it was time to learn something new again. So, I have Ubuntu up and running (7.04 - feisty) and I have installed VMware Workstation 6.0 on it. I have built a VM for Windows XP Pro and will be building another for Windows Vista (I am thinking of doing Windows Server 2003 also).
At this point I have gotten everything working that I expected. I have been very impressed with the performance and ease of use of Ubuntu and how robust the feature are compared with Windows.
There are still a ton of special apps I need on Windows but that is the point of the VM - I don't have to give it up yet. Also, I get to run XP in a full sized window on one screen while still being able to switch screens to my Linux environment.
I think for a lot of folks it is time to check out some of the Linux distros again and see if one works for you. They have gotten more and more desktop friendly and the ease of upgrade and management is very remarkable (especially in light of what it was at a few years ago).
Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend - my hats off to all those who have served our country.
- Ed