Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Multi-core chips in the home
My thoughts are presently stuck on the home PC market. I like having fast connected computers at home, but I have little interest in managing multiple systems. I would be extremely interested in a single-footprint, high-reliability solution that satisfied the whole family's computing needs. Cheap computers with multi-core chips will provide the capacity to do this; I'm just wondering what the software solution will be in the home computer market to take advantage of this capacity. Virtualization will play a part. I like the idea of multiple users, each running a dedicated image of the OS. Sounds a bit like VM, the IBM OS technology developed in the 1960's. Good ideas linger.
Sunday, May 29, 2005
Installation Blues (blue screens, that is)
I hope everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day weekend.
I've spent (way) too much of it preparing a new computer that my wife and I plan to give to give to my oldest as a graduation gift.
Half of my time was spent configuring and tweaking the OS (XP Pro), setting up wirelesss networking, and doing the necessary security things. The other half was spent installing extra software.
I finally reached the point where the system would not successfully restart. Every time it reached the sign-on screen, the system went blue screen. I assumed it was related to some auto-run or startup software, but I'm no expert in this area, and I didn't know how to intercept the failure.
My solution was to initiate recovery of the factory load from a "hidden partition" on the system (the system does not ship with a copy of Windows or a recovery CD). I was delighted (and surprised) when that process worked.
Well, back to square one.
I've spent (way) too much of it preparing a new computer that my wife and I plan to give to give to my oldest as a graduation gift.
Half of my time was spent configuring and tweaking the OS (XP Pro), setting up wirelesss networking, and doing the necessary security things. The other half was spent installing extra software.
I finally reached the point where the system would not successfully restart. Every time it reached the sign-on screen, the system went blue screen. I assumed it was related to some auto-run or startup software, but I'm no expert in this area, and I didn't know how to intercept the failure.
My solution was to initiate recovery of the factory load from a "hidden partition" on the system (the system does not ship with a copy of Windows or a recovery CD). I was delighted (and surprised) when that process worked.
Well, back to square one.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
My favorite iSeries newsletter is ...
My favorite iSeries newsletter is "The Four Hundred" (http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfhindex.html). It's published weekly (Monday), and it provides the keenest insights into IBM's announcements and actions (pertaining to iSeries). It's definitely more informative and interesting than internal IBM publications that I am privy to. Kudos to the editor Timothy Prickett Morgan and the rest of the staff at the IT Jungle (http://www.itjungle.com/)
(speaking for myself and not on behalf of IBM)
(speaking for myself and not on behalf of IBM)
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
wiki for iSeries users
David Gibbs earlier today announced a wiki for iSeries users. The URL is http://wiki.midrange.com
David also runs an archive for mailing lists at midrange dot com (http://archive.midrange.com/). I follow the MI400, C400, and RPG400 mailing lists there (actually, I use the news server at news.gmane.org to follow the discussions).
My thanks to David.
