Voice of the DBA

Tag: syndicated

  • iPad Update

    I updated the iPad tonight to iOS 4.2. I had no particular reason to upgrade, but I saw a few people posting that they had upgraded, and noticed a few apps people had talked about the productivity upgrades of a few apps that required iOS 4.x.

    It took a long time. I started at 3:10, but it required iTunes 10.1, and then I had to download the firmware, and it was still updating when I last checked around 6. So I left it and went to karate.

    When I got home, it looked the same. The only difference was the addition of “GameCenter” on the main screen. I checked settings, and sure enough it had been updated, but nothing showed multi-tasking, and I couldn’t create a folder.

    However a double click on the home button brought up the multi-tasking window, so I could see what was running. Semi-cool, but not sure how useful. We’ll see as I try to use it more. I added DropBox, EasyReader (for PDFs) and a few more items people had mentioned, including a Twitter app.

    Now I’ll play with it a bit and see how useful it is.

    I also sent a note to a friend to see if they wanted my tablet. If not, I’ll be looking to sell that on eBay and recover some funds. I have the feeling I won’t be traveling with it, and instead I’d like to have the money and look to perhaps upgrade my phone instead.

    One thing I noticed last week was in typing on the iPad. I grabbed it to do a bit of blogging and I was surprised at how fast I could type on the virtual keyboard. The spacing is similar to what I like and the audible clicks were very handy. I can see those as being annoying at a conference, so I’d likely need headphones for the feedback for me, set low enough to let me still here what I’m taking notes on.

    A cooler, and cooler device, the more I play with it.

  • Semi-Crippled

    When it rains it pours.

    Last week my Nano died. It won’t hold a charge, or at least it won’t play more than about 4 minutes before it reboots. It also can’t get the Nike + sensor to work, and it’s out of warranty. So it’s essentially DoA right now and not worth fixing. My guess is it would be $50 to fix it at a minimum, which seems silly. Not sure what I’ll do for run tracking for now other than manual stuff.

    Then two days ago I bent my jawbone headset and snapped off the ear loop. It was already semi-flaky since the case got disconnected, so I ordered a new one.

    Yesterday Twhirl stopped working on my desktop. I got an update and all of a sudden it won’t log in. It reports a bad password if I put one in, but the correct password just freezes at the login screen.

    Today Livemeeting broke and I couldn’t easily participate in a work meeting. It somewhat sucked since I had things to discuss.

    What will go wrong tomorrow? Almost afraid to go skiing.

  • Real World SQL Azure

    Worthy of an editorial, but this is a pretty good use-case for why SQL Azure might make sense. This is a business where

    • clients pay by the use of software
    • there needs to be distributed data center access
    • there’s a client application that is distributed
    • usage of versions/databases may scale up or down

    Not everyone is in this type of business, but if you are, then SQL Azure might be worth looking at.

  • No More Drive Extender – Windows Home Server

    I guess I might need to go back to RAID. From the Windows Team Blog, there is a decision to remove Drive Extender from the next version of Windows Home Server. Based on the comments, I’m not alone in thinking this is a stupid move.

    The big challenge for me was automatically protecting the data on my various computers. Windows Home Server gave me an easy way to copy the data, and also have it on multiple drives, so it was safe in the event of a drive failure. I have heard that the larger 1TB and 2TB drives are more likely to have corruption as well, so there’s more of an issue here.

    Putting RAID together for small systems is a hassle, though perhaps R1 isn’t a big deal if you have 2TB drives. In any case, I’ll be thinking about whether I need to stick with WHS in the future or migrate to some other solution.