Featured on "Rich’s Random Podcast Generator" Episode #8

Posted by Paul Braren on Oct 17 2011 in
  • Podcasts

    • Sunday, Oct 16 2011: Today, I had the honor of spending quality time in a Google+ Hangout group chat, with a great bunch of techies, at Rich’s Random Podcast Generator.

    The Hangout experience brought back some memories I have of CU-SeeMe video conferencing, back in 1995, here's the full story. At that university job, a special place known for pioneering computing, I was helping in just a small way, running some tests under Windows NT 3.1 and OS/2 2.1 for a developer Steve Edgar. Using just an Intel 486 CPU barebones system, a modem, and a black and white webcam I aimed out my apartment window, it actually looked pretty decent. I can almost still hear that Sportster modem, screeching...

    Ok, timewarp, back to today, 16 years later...this time, with a new Logitech C910 webcam, so new in fact that this was my very first test.

    At the Google+ Hangout, in attendance were many of my tech heroes from podcasts I've listened to for years now, who also actively post over at the homeservershow.com/forums.  What a lot of fun, those 2 hours flew by. Thank you Rich O'Neil, Jim Collison, Mike Howard, John Zajdler, Tim Black, and Jay Moore!

    GoogleHangout2011-10-16

    We covered a variety pack of topics for those with a variety of interests, or short attention spans, or both. Home Servers, backup, virtualization, efficiency, power supplies, RAID, SSDs, VPNs, and Google+.  Head spinning yet?

    Don't forget to check out the great podcasts these guys are a regular part of, such as:
    The Home Server Show
    Home Tech Podcast
    Home Server Show Podcast BYOB Podcast

    CU-SeeMeAndGoogleHangout

    (dev team pic from ftp://ftp.mizar.org/packages/cu-seeme/html/Team.html, dated via gif filename properties)

    VCP logo TinkerTry - PCs, EVs, home tech, efficiency and more, including virtualization. My opinions here. IT Professional offering part-time consulting.

    vExpert logo Paul Braren, MCSE in 1998, VCP #2681 in 2005, vExpert 2014 to 2025, Veeam Vanguard Emeritus, 2015 to 2019.

    Public Speaking Schedule

    Member of Build Green Connecticut

    Build Green CT logo

    Project Manager of my All Electric Home Retrofit

    All Electric Home Retrofit

    Support TinkerTry

    PayPal | Patreon

    PayPal donation Patreon support

    Easily update VMware ESXi at TinkerTry.com/easy-update-to-latest-esxi

    Update ESXi Hypervisor

    Necessity to sunset SuperServer Bundles

    SuperServers These systems still work great for many even 9+ years later, mine included, even with (unsupported) vSphere 8 and Windows 11 Version 21H2. But unless you added the optional TPM module, it may be the end of the line as far as repurposing them for running the latest Windows 11 Version 24H2 and beyond.

    After 6 successful years testing then shipping well over 1,000 Xeon D Bundles, Wiredzone had to stop SuperServer bundles in mid-2021 due to cost, supply, and logistics challenges. Bare bones system sales continued for years longer.

    What's next in 2025? I don't yet have my answer for my home lab, especially now that VCF certification is required to keep non-production home lab licenses going, even as a vExpert and VMUG Advantage EVALExperience customer.

    As for a SuperServer follow-on, the Xeon D-1700/2700 (Ice Lake D) was a minor refresh for 2023, with Xeon D-1800/2800 (Granite Rapids D) refresh slightly better in 2024, and hopefully Xeon 6 (Granite Rapids-D) much better in 2025 featuring PCIe Gen5, MCRDIMMs, and 100GbE networking, wow! Feb. 27 2025 update update looks promising, but pricey. Infortunately, it's become clear to me that Supermicro is less focuses on the mini-tower form factor these days.

    As for the CPU industry, it's unfortunate that Pat Gelsinger was apparently ousted from Intel's helm in these challenging times, but I'm also grateful to have had the honor of working at VMware when he was the CIO there. I'll leave it at that, given the whole Broadcom thing.