I'm the guy that likes to abuse my RAID arrays, described here and here. So this success with CacheCade Pro 2.0 is that much sweeter, even if it took about a year and a half to fully bake. This vZilla project, which inspired me to start this web site on June 1 2011 in the first place, was in je…
Santa arrived a day early, with a Yoga joining our family of zillas today, ordered on Nov. 24, but arriving on Dec. 20, weeks ahead of the Jan 2013 expectations. Let's call it yZilla. It's really called a Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13, which is really a convertible Ultrabook/tablet at 13.3" 1600x900 …
April 20 2022 Urgent Update - Insteon ceased all sales and service operations abruptly in mid April of 2022, as covered by arstechnica here. Their abrupt closure left customers without access to their hubs to change any settings, myself included. While smarthome.com hasn't been taken offline yet, I…
Accell UltraAV B142C-010B DisplayPort to DisplayPort 1.2 Cable with Latches (10 Feet / 3m) I've been using my Nixeus 2560x1440 monitor for months now, sandwiched nicely between two 1920x1080p monitors, a set up I describe here: How to enjoy Windows 8 on your Lenovo ThinkPad W520 laptop, with 3…
If you're lucky enough to have a laptop with a combined eSATA/USB port, aka eSATAp, then this $19.95 cable from Amazon might be of interest to you. Especially if you temporarily wish to try another operating systems on your laptop, without affecting the primary operating system in any way. Shared…
This article has been popular for many years right through 2019, and it still works right up through vSphere 6.7 Update 2 and PowerPanel Business Edition Agent for Virtual Machine version 4.0! The latest info has been appended via detailed updates below. Introduction CyberPower PFCLCD Series…
ETQ TG72K12 8,250 Watt 13 HP 420cc 4-Cycle OHV Gas Powered Portable Generator with Electric Start I live in a lovely, quiet suburb in central Connecticut, about 30 miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean/Long Island Sound. This proximity to warm water moderates the temperature extremes a bit. But we…
Let's start with the new Lightning cables and connectors. The first 2 devices are apparently electronically and functionally the same, just one is a longer, flexible version of the other. My tests so far seem to back this up. Lightning to 30-pin Adapter $29.00 Apple Part# MD823ZM/A (on Amazon h…
Jul. 12 2013 Update: Unfortunately, buy-it-once FingerPrint is no longer sold, replaced by Presto, which I haven't tested, but is reviewed by The Wall Street Journal here. This article kept for archival purposes only. I routinely use FingerPrint in my home, and in other family member's homes, such…
Nixeus WQHD 27" S-IPS Ultra High Resolution 2560x1440 PC/MAC Monitor NX-VUE27 available on Amazon here. For the full backstory on my quest for a good monitor, you may wish to read the following article first: TinkerTry.com/close-look-qnix-qx2700-led-2560x1440-27-inch-monitor and Nixeus' new…
Did a little cleaning, wall-painting, cable-management, and desk-lowering (with a circular saw) while off from work this past week, with the "before" picture seen here. Seems to be a great time to share the list of what I use on my newly-organized, more-ergonomic desk, now 27" in …
[Consider reading PC Perspective's full look at such Korean 2560x1440 Monitors over here] [See also update from August 3 2012 below, about the new Nixeus Vue US version] I've been eager to move my primary display away from my always-a-little-blurry 24" 1920x1200 CCD backlit 90 watt monitor, …
Lenovo ThinkPad USB 3.0 Dock 0A33970 is available on Amazon here. Pictured above is my temporary test rig, trying out my new video output options that go well beyond the 2 monitor-outputs at a time max on my previously used LenovoThinkPad Mini Dock Plus Series 3 433830U. You can see the Lenovo Thi…
Short version, if you're replacing a ceiling fixture, consider heading to Home Depot if you live near one, or head online, to try: Qty 1 of $46.97 Progress Lighting Renovations Collection Antique Nickel 3-light Flushmount Qty 3 of $13.97 EcoSmart 13-Watt (60W) Warm White (3000K) A19 LED Light Bulb…
*Be sure to read about important updates to this article at the bottom, basically admitting this may not be the best choice of drive for this application Finally, the drum-roll moment, will CacheCade Pro 2.0's Read and Write caching of my LSI 9265-8i's RAID5 work well? Will my RAID5 array become …
I "deployed" two Ooma Telo VOIP devices in my home late last year, and went into "production" immediately. I left Vonage after 7 years because their prices kept creeping up, and I had some technical issues that recently that pushed me to make the switch. My total costs went from…
This Core i5 Mac Mini 2011 started life with 4GB of RAM, a 500GB traditional (slow, 5400) hard drive, and respectable discreet graphics. A very efficient and cool little beast! Beefing it up considerably will likely not increase the watt burn much (which I'll measure before and after), or heat…
Feb 22 2012 Update: $207.99 USD after promo code, ends midnight eastern time tonight! Here's the purchase link: www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231487 Here's my DIMM drama. An intriguing tale of a month or so of oh no, followed by 32GB of sweet oh yeah! When purchasing a 4 DIMM s…
First, the router. Cisco-Linksys E4200 Dual-Band Wireless-N Router User Manual The model that Google seems to have chosen today, for their newly-announced "Google Screenwise Data Collector" is the Cisco-Linksys E4200, available for $154.45 USD on Amazon, and about the same at newegg.com.…
Consider reading this closely related article first: TinkerTry.com/raidabuse This weekend, I took a perfectly innocent Mediasonic HFR2-SU3S2 PRORAID 4 Bay Enclosure with USB 3.0 & eSATA, attached to a VM with USB 3.0, and pop out one of the RAID5's 4 drives. That seems kind of mean. But, the…
You may recall my article 5 months ago, Save on an impressive LED Light Bulb for your ceiling fixture, TinkerTry.com/creecr6, and the story I told about finding a suitable dimmer for my LED floodlights/downlights. The Lutron SPDC-203P I already had was really meant for CFLs, and only lasted a few …
Feb 28 2012 Update: Great news, with some patience and careful shopping, ~$200 USB can now get you 32GB of RAM that works great, given 32GB is what the free Hypervisor 5.0 supports maximum anyway, good deal! TinkerTry.com/32gb-memory-on-asrock-fatal1ty-z68-professional-gen3-motherboard I cannot…
Jan 26 2012 Update: Getting into RAID BIOS setup is now found to be easy, see solution at: TinkerTry.com/lsi-knowledgebase-article-points-tinkertry-method-configure-lsi-raid-z68-motherboard This article is getting rather stale (outdated), but is still quite popular. Below, you'll find how it first…
Pricing info in this newegg.com screenshot as of Jul 17 2011 subject to change at any time: I’ve been able to spend about 10 days with the ASRock Z68 Extreme4 motherboard, and I’m now able to give it a cursory overview, having kicked the tires a bit, with both Windows 7 x64 SP1 and VMware ESXi 4.1…
TinkerTry - PCs, EVs, home tech, efficiency and more, including virtualization. My opinions here, not my employer's.
Paul Braren, MCSE in 1998, VCP #2681 in 2005, vExpert 2014 to 2024, Veeam Vanguard Emeritus, 2015 to 2019.
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After 6 successful years testing then shipping well over 1,000 Xeon D Bundles, Wiredzone had to stop selling them in mid-2021 due to cost, supply, and logistics challenges. So far, Xeon D-1700/2700 (Ice Lake D) was a minor refresh for 2023, with Xeon D-1800/2800 (Granite Rapids D) refresh looking a little better for 2024. More cores, but still just PCIe Gen4 and DDR4. Looking ahead, I'm glad it's Pat Gelsinger at Intel's helm. I'm also grateful to have had the honor of working at VMware when Pat was the CIO there. I'll leave it at that, given the whole Broadcom thing.
Easily update VMware ESXi at TinkerTry.com/easy-update-to-latest-esxi
