Over 7000 people the world over have already expressed the L’Aquila’s candidacy to become European Capital of Culture in 2019.
Where? On Facebook.
This is in addition to the people who have signed on here or on the Italian language blog. This is also in addition to the official letters and faxes of support from local and national cultural, civic, business and institutional leaders who have signed on. 
We hope to be able to give you all more concrete information soon. All I can say is that institutional support is bipartisan (or rather, multi-partisan) and comes from both the private and public sectors.
We hope to be able to give you more concrete news soon.
For now, please keep supporting L’Aquila’s candidacy and spreading the word. Ask your friends who you think might support this Earthquake devastated city to comment and sign up for updates here or send them to the group on Facebook. Part of the page on Facebook is in English (please sift through the “info” page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=183317549268&ref=ts)
Cities are made of more than just houses. L’Aquila was one of Italy’s and Europe’s lesser known but still amazing jewels. Even with the damage and the rubble and the scaffolding it is still beautiful. And most of the historical center is still off-limits without a firefighter escort.
We believe that if L’Aquila becomes European Capital of Culture in 2019, in 9 years it will be a cultural center of Europe.
Grazie!

Pensaba que no se podía hacer, pero es muy paradójico que el mando de la tele traiga los controles de reproducción de vídeo y esta parte del software incluido en el firmware de la misma esté capado…

Investigando un poco encontré un foro donde aparecía una combinación secreta para mostrar el menú del servicio técnico de la Tv, para que aparezca dejad la tele en Off pero enchufada y pulsad en el mando:

INFO –> Menú –> Volumen Mute –> POWER

entonces la tele se encenderá y aparecerá un menú secreto, sólo teneis que cambiar donde dice UB6000 por UB7000, no pongais otro modelo porque puede que perdais la imagen o el sonido xD , no cambies nada más a no ser que sepáis que estais tocando. Cuando lo hayáis hecho pulsad en POWER,y ya está ,ahora tendréis la posibilidad de acceder a la parte Multimedia (VIDEO) de vuestro firmware de serie 6000.

No he probado a cambiar el firmware por el de una 7020 pero si alguien lo hace que lo comente así me ayudará.

Especificaciones detalladas del televisor LED Samsung UE46B7020WW

Video:

Tamaño de la Pantalla: 46″
Resolución: 1 920 x 1 080
Ratio de contraste dinámico: Mega
Retroiluminación: LED
Real Movie 1080 24p: Sí
Tenología de Imagen: Motor LED de Samsung
Auto Motion Plus 120/240HZ: Motion Plus de 100/200Hz
Wide Color Enhacer: WCE Pro

Audio:

Tipo de Altavoz: Down Firing
Sistemas de Efectos de Sonido: SRS Trusurround HD & Dolby Digital Plus
Woofer: Sí
Salida de sonido (RMS): 10W x 2

Características:

Temporizador de suspensión: Sí
Buscador Automático de Canal: Sí
Apagado automático: Sí
Anynet+ (HDMI+CEC): Sí
Modo juego: Sí
PIP (imagen en imagen): 1 sintonizador PIP
Programador de apagado/encendido: Sí
Lenguaje OSD: 25 idiomas europeos
EPG: Sí
Internet@TV: Sí
InfoLink: No
DLNA: Sí (compatible)
Biblioteca de Contenidos (Flash): Sí (2GB)
USB 2,0: Sí (USB 2.0 Movie)
BD: Sí
Compatibilidad con adaptador LAN inalámbrico: Sí
Administración de contenidos: Sí
Tipo control remoto: Mando a distancia por infrarrojos
Interfaz de usuario: Inteligente
Nivelador automático de volúmenes: Sí

Sistema:

Tipo de Televisión Digital: DVB-T/C, MPEG4
Sintonizador de televisión digital integrado: Sí

Dimensiones:

Tamaño con soporte (AnxAlxProf): 1 129 x 767 x 275mm
Tamaño sin soporte (AnxAlxProf): 1 129 x 705 x 29,9mm
Embalaje (AnxAlxProf): 1 415 x 818 x 260mm

Peso:

Peso con embalaje: 28,4kg
Peso del televisor con soporte: 22,5kg
Peso del televisor sin soporte: 17,7kg

Accesorios:

Cable de Antena: No incluido
Cable de Alimentación: Incluido
Bateria: Incluido
Compatible con Montaje en Pared VESA (An xAl): Sí (40-55″: 400 x 400)
Compatible con Montaje en Pared Ultraplano: Sí
Modelo del mando a distancia: TM970
Control Remoto Simple: Sí
CD de instalación: Sí (DLNA Certified)
Cable de conexión: Euroconector / Componente / AV IN
Manual de instrucciones: Sí

Energía:

Fuente de alimentación: 220-240V CA, 50/60Hz
Comsumo Eléctrico (en funcionamiento): 170
Comsumo Eléctrico (en espera): < 0,1W

Serie:

Serie: 7

Panel:

Panel Ultra Clear: Sí

Características Adicionales:

TV hotel (RS232 / Transferencia IR): No
Modo de hotel (software): Sí
Compatibilidad con clonación de control remoto: No
Opción de TV Hotel – Altavoz Externo: No
Opción de TV Hotel – Reloj: No

Entradas y Salidas (posteriores):

HDMI: 4
Audio Digital (óptico): 1
Salida de audio izq./der. (miniconector): No
Entrada para PC (D-sub): 1
Entrada de audio para PC (miniconector): 1
Entrada de audio DVI: Uso común para entrada de audio para PC
Componente (Y / Pb / Pr): 1 (miniconector)
Compuesto (AV): 1 (miniconector)
Ethernet (LAN): 1
Entrada RF: 1

Diseño:

Tipo: TV LCD SAMSUNG
Color: Negro platino
Efecto Luminoso: Sí
Giro (izquierda/derecha): Sí (20 / 20)

*Las funciones y las especificaciones están sujetas a cambio sin previo aviso.

Q: Why don’t English students stare out of the window in the morning?

Creative Commons - owned by Charliestyr

A: Because they’d have nothing to do in the afternoon.

What would I say I gained from my three years at Durham University? Well, I made lots of friends, lots of good friends. I went to lots of good parties. I learnt lots of drinking games, drank a lot of coffee in lots of coffee shops, ate a lot of stir fry. Along the way I acquired a lot of bizarre fancy dress outfits, all to be consigned to the bottom of my wardrobe, never to see daylight again. All in all I had a pretty good time.

Oh no, wait, I’m forgetting something. The books. I read a lot of books too. Or at least I started a lot of books. Ok, I bought a lot of books. I spent a lot of time on Amazon. I now have a very impressive bookshelf ranging from giant tomes of Middle English Romances to Modern Irish Poetry, all in varying states of disrepair (surprisingly the Romances remain relatively unharmed).

I also got a degree. I’ve got a BA. A BA Hons Dunelm no less. And it’s proved quite useful so far – it’s got me a bit of work and into my current MA course when I realised it still couldn’t get me much work at the moment. It also just looks quite nice after my name.

But, as you may have gathered (no, the Romances were not bed-time reading), I did an English degree. A degree that, at Durham at least, is not seen to require much actual teaching. Approximately six non- compulsory contact hours of teaching a week, in fact.

And this was great. Please don’t imagine for a second I’m complaining. While my friends beetled away in lecture halls and labs I could get up at a leisurely time, have my lunch whenever I felt like it and perfect my now considerable Tetris ability. Oh, and maybe whip out one of those books once in a while.

I had a great time. And what’s more, having started in 2005, I got in before top-up fees. Ideal because, as any student knows, guilt at bunking off lectures increases exponentially with the amount you’re actually paying per lecture. And when you’ve only got four a week, well, that’s already a considerable amount of guilt.

Creative Commons - owned by JFMercure

And it’s because of this that I’m fairly glad I’m not planning on going back to being an undergrad any time soon. With BBC News online reporting that vice-chancellors from top universities are reported to want to raise tuition fees to as much as £7,000 a year, it’s hardly surprising that some prospective students might start to panic. That’s a lot of money per hung-over, missed lecture.

In fact, that’s a lot of money per lecture, even assuming you actually make it in. It’s a lot to pay for a small bearded chap to draw you an amusing illustration of Shakespeare’s sonnets in crumbling chalk on a blackboard at the front of a crumbling lecture theatre. When after all, Sparknotes are free.

Yes, I learnt a lot at University, I made a lot of friends, and read a lot of books. But £21,000 worth of books? £21,000 worth of friends? I’ll get back to you on that. When, and if, it all finally gets me a job.

Voraussichtlich Q1/2009 wird das “8 Port X2 10G – XL”-Modul für den Nexus 7000 zur Verfügung stehen.

Voraussichtlich  Q1/2010 soll der Nexus 2148-T direkt an den Nexus 7000 anschließbar sein.

Dann wird ein Nexus 5000 nur noch für FCoE bzw. FC Verbindungen benötigt.

Jumat, 02/10/2009 16:15 WIB

oleh : Santi Dwi Jayanti – detikinet

Muzu.tv(Screenshot)

Jakarta – Sejauh ini YouTube masih menjadi rajanya situs berbagi video meski para pecintanya harus puas dengan rendahnya kualitas gambar yang ditampilkan. Nah, celah inilah yang akhirnya dimanfaatkan oleh situs serupa untuk menandingi kepopuleran YouTube.

Muzu, yang berbasis di Irlandia, adalah nama situs baru tersebut. Guna memperkuat jaringannya, mereka telah menggaet 4 raksasa label rekaman: Universal, Sony BMG, Warner dan EMI. Untuk label independennya sendiri, sebanyak lebih dari 7.000 label telah setuju untuk bernaung.

Apa saja yang ditawarkan oleh Muzu? Selain ratusan video musik dengan kualitas jempolan, Muzu juga memungkinkan penggunanya untuk menciptakan playlist yang berisi video dan klip favorit mereka dan membagikannya dengan yang lain via internet, termasuk pada situs-situs jejaring.

Dalam pernyataannya yang dikutip detikINET dari Telegraph, Jumat (2/10/2009), pihak Muzu terlihat sangat yakin dengan layanan mereka. “Kurang apa lagi, tiap-tiap video sudah mendapat ijin dan disetujui oleh artisnya. Anda tak harus melihat video dengan tampilan berbintik-bintik lagi,” tegas mereka. ( sha / faw )

Sumber :http://www.detikinet.com/read/2009/10/02/133013/1213743/317/pesaing-baru-youtube-lahir

Dia 10 de Outubro eu escrevi um post aqui no Pedi Di Lare sobre os super heróis e a física …. Eu coloquei o post no Ocioso e batemos o recorde de visitas em um único dia alcançando incríveis 7000 visitas … Mas eu não sou professor de física nem um fanático pelos quadrinhos … E por falta de pesquisa minha o post acabou saindo com MUITOS erros… Mediante a polêmica do post resolvi fazer essa retratação … A todos os aficcionados por quadrinhos e fãs da física que se decepcionaram ao ler o post …Por isso …. Sorry….

El portal GlobalResearch.ca publica hoy mismo un interesante artículo de William Engdahl en el que se anuncia la recientemente firma de un decreto por la Secretario de Estado Estadounidense para la Salud y los Servicios Humanos, Kathleen Sebelius, por la cual se ofrece inmunidad legal total a los fabricantes de la vacuna para la Gripe A. “ La actual campaña oficial de pánico creada entorno a la Gripe A está tomando rápidamente las dimensiones de una novela de ciencia ficción de George Orwell. El documento firmado por Sebelius garantiza inmunidad a aquellos que fabrican la vacuna, bajo el auspicio de una ley de salud pública del año 2006. ”

SIGUE LEYENDO LA ENTRADA HACIENDO CLICK  EN: “Leer el resto de la entrada>>”

“Además de los 7000 millones de dólares gastados por el Gobierno en el programa que permita la rápida colocación de las vacunas en el mercado antes del inicio de la campaña de gripe del próximo otoño, el proceso se está llevando a cabo sin seguir siquiera los procedimientos de seguridad normales en este tipo de investigaciones. Existirá una nueva agenda de trabajo oficial bajo la campaña de histeria promovida por la OMS por la cual se declara que el virus H1N1 (el cual todavía no ha sido rigurosamente aislado, caracterizado y/o fotografiado mediante microscopía electrónica por los científicos) supone un riesgo de pandemia global?” Engdahl prosigue: Erase una vez ALGUIEN en Ginebra que, en recomendación del Grupo de Expertos para la Asesoría Estratégica sobre Inmunización (SAGE en inglés) de la OMS, declaró al H1N1 en fase 6; osea riesgo de Pandemia. Vale la pena escudriñar en la lista de miembros de dicho Grupo de Expertos y Asesores Estratégicos de la OMS. Su presidente desde 2005 ha sido Director de Inmunización del Departamento Británico de Salud, el Dr David Salisbury. Existe abundante documentación mostrando que, durante los 80’s, Salisbury fue altamente criticado por llevar a cabo una vacunación masiva en niños con una vacuna multiple MMR fabricada por la compañía antecesora de la actual GlaxoSmithKline [CR: curiosamente esta compañía es una de las productoras de la vacuna contra la Gripe A, y el Reino Unido ha vuelto a anunciar una campaña de vacunación masiva para este Otoño]. Dicha vacuna fue retirada del mercado en Japón, después de que un número significativo de niños desarrollase reacciones adversas [CR: Demasiado parecido al asunto de Gardasil (Merck) y Cervarix (GlaxoSmithKline)? Casualmente la misma compañía promoviendo campañas similares también en la actualidad] y el Gobierno Japonés fue obligado a pagar una fuerte compensación económica a las víctimas. En Suecia, la vacuna MMR de GlaxoSmithKline fue retirada después de que algunos científicos la asociasen al desarrollo de la dolencia de Crohn. Aparentemente todo esto tuvo un pequeño impacto en la moral del presidente Salisbury.

Según un investigador británico independiente, Alan Golding, quien obtuvo documentos desclasificados sobre el caso en “1986 Trivirix, un compuesto de MMR que contenía la cepa Ureba AM-9 de las paperas, fue introducido en Canada para reemplazar a MMR I. Gran preocupación respecto a su introducción en el Reino Unido fueron registradas en las notas oficiales de la Joint Working Party of the British Paediatric Association y de la Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) Liaison Group el 26 de Junio de ese mismo año. Dicha preocupación todavía no estaba bien fundamentada. Con el tiempo un creciente número de informes mostrando la gran incidencia de la meningitis aséptica entre personas que habían sido vacunadas, apareció. Al final, todas las vacunas MMR conteniendo la cepa Urabe de las paperas fueron retiradas en Canada a principios de 1988. Esto fue antes de que dichas vacunas fueran autorizadas por el Departamento de Salud del Reino Unido…” El informe añade que, “en Smith-Kline—French, la compañía farmaceútica que se convirtió, luego, en Smith-Kline-Beecham y llevó a cabo la fabricación de la vacuna para el Reino Unido, estaban tan “preocupados” sobre estos temas de seguridad que obtuvieron una autorización del Reino Unido para la comercialización de las vacunas basadas en la cepa Urabe. Como resultado de su “preocupación” ante la posibilidad de que numerosos niños pudieran ser seriamente dañados por uno de sus productos, exigieron una indemnización al gobierno del Reino Unido que les indemnizase por las posibles acciones legales que se derivasen de las “perdidas”(humanas) asociadas a la vacuna (la cual por aquel entonces ya se sabía que conllevaba un gran riesgo). El gobierno británico (aconsejado en aquel entonces por el Profesor Salisbury y otros miembros del Departmento de Salud) entusiasmado ante la posibilidad de poder colocar una vacuna tan barata en el mercado, aceptó cubrir las indemnizaciones solicitadas.” Hoy en día el mismo Dr Salisbury está promoviendo la proliferación global de vacunas H1N1 fabricadas por la misma firma, ahora llamada GlaxoSmithKline, y que no han sido aún probadas convenientemente. Repitiendo “la de la Gripe Porcina” La última vez que el Gobierno Norteamericano enfrentó una gripe porcina fue en 1976. Millones de demandas fueron presentadas alegando haber sufrido efectos secundarios tras recibir los “pinchazos”. Sin embargo, esta vez el gobierno ha tomado medidas para prevenir cualquier medida legal que otros miles de ciudadanos norteamericanos puedan a tomar en un futuro próximo como consecuencia de las posibles complicaciones que surjan tras ser inoculados con vacunas que no han sido adecuadamente probadas. En 1976 el Presidente Gerald Ford, enfrentando una dificil campaña de reelección, fue aconsejado por el máximo responsable del CDC (Centers for Disease Control and prevention), David Sencer, a lanzar una campaña de vacunación masiva. Al igual que en la actualidad con el virus de la gripe porcina H1N1, Sencer también usó la estrategia del pánico alegando que el virus podría llegar a convertirse en una pandemia al estilo de la de 1918 (la famosa gripe española). Científicos actuales, mantienen que las muertes acontecidas debido a la onda de la gripe española, 1918-1919, no vinieron en su mayor parte de la acción del virus sino de las campañas de vacunación masivas emprendidas contra dicha Gripe. De un modo interesado, la Rockefeller University and Foundation estuvo también involucrada en dicho evento.[CR: Recuerden el célebre discurso de David Rockefeller en la cena de los embajadores de la ONU abogando por la necesidad de una reducción drástica de la población...]Casos de lo que fue entonces llamado Gripe Porcina, fueron detectatados en soldados en Fort Dix, New Jersey, en 1976, incluyendo una muerte. Aquella muerte (cuya verdadera causa está todavía en disputa pues el soldado, enfermo de gripe, fue obligado a marchar habiendo declarado sentirse agotado y débil) fue usado por Sencer y Ford para el lanzamiento de uno de las mayores fiascos del sistema de salud público en la Historia de los EEUU. El escándalo posterior obligó a Sencer a presentar su dimisión como presidente del CDC. Miles de los inoculados presentaron reclamaciones debido al desarrollo de una enfermedad paralizadora, una neuritis periférica asociada a otras vacunas, como la de la gripe y el tétanos, llamada Síndrome de Guillain-Barre. 25 personas murieron tras tomar la vacuna, 500 desarrollaron el referido síndrome (una inflamación del sistema nervioso el cual puede causar parálisis y ser fatal). El gobierno de los EEUU fue forzado a pagar daños y perjuicios después de que las victimas hiciesen del asunto un escándalo nacional. Al final de 1976 la vacuna de la Gripe porcina demostró ser bastante peor que la enfermedad. Sencer fue despedido en 1977 por el tremendo fiasco, pero en aquel entonces el daño ya estaba hecho. No hacemos tests de seguridad? Don’t worry, be happy… La historia se pone fea. Ahora la administración Obama ha firmado un documento de inmunidad legal. La FDA y las autoridades sanitarias británicas han decidido permitir a los gigantes farmaceúticos poner productos en el mercado incluso antes de que ninguno de los tests previos para monitorizar la existencia de efectos secundarios dañinos, haya sido realizado. Las primeras dosis de la vacuna para la actual Gripe A[CR:el cambio de nombre debió decidirse para evitar las evidentes comparaciones con el fiasco de 1976]van a estar disponibles para el público antes de disponer de la totalidad de los datos sobre su seguridad y efectividad. Estas vacunas no testadas van a ser repartidas en dos dosis. Como puede ser documentado, una de las marcas contendrá un aditivo químico para mejorar el efecto de las mismas, incrementando potencialmente de un modo dramático el riesgo de efectos secundarios. Los niños estarán entre los primeros en recibir los “pinchazos” y deben recibir la vacuna más de un mes antes de que los resultados preeliminares sean recibidos. El Gobierno Británico ha efectuado pedidos por adelantado de 132 millones de dosis de la vacuna a dos de los fabricantes, GlaxoSmithKline y Baxter, y han autorizado “por adelantado” tres tipos de vacunas en modo de preparación para una pandemia, a pesar de que ha sido repetido por activa y por pasiva, tanto por la OMS como por los epidemiólogos, que es imposible prepararse por adelantado para la posible mutación del afable H1N1 hacia una forma más agresiva. Resulta también tremendamente curioso que un año antes de que se hubiese publicado ningún caso de H1N1, Baxter (la mayor compañía farmacéutica del mundo) presentase una patente para la vacuna contra el virus H1N1: Baxter Vaccine Patent Application US 2009/0060950 A1.[/B] Los registros de la misma muestran como se solicitó protección para una vacuna cuya “composición envuelve a más de un antígeno…como influenza A e influenza B seleccionados en particular desde uno, o más, de los subtipos humanos H1N1, H2N2, H3N2, H5N1, H7N7, H1N2, H9N2, H7N2, H7N3, H10N7, de los subtipos H1N1, H1N2, H3N1 and H3N2 de la gripe del cerdo, de los subtipos H7N7, H3N8 de la gripe del perro o del caballo o de los subtipos H5N1, H7N2, H1N7, H7N3, H13N6, H5N9, H11N6, H3N8, H9N2, H5N2, H4N8, H10N7, H2N2, H8N4, H14N5, H6N5, H12N5 de la gripe de las aves.” La solicitud va más allá especificando que “los potenciadores más adecuados pueden ser seleccionados provinientes de geles minerales, hidróxido de aluminio, surfactantes, lysolecitina, polialcoholes pluronicos, polianiones o emulsiones de aceite tales como agua en aceite, aceite en aceite, aceite en agua o cualquiera de estas combinaciones. Por supuesto, la selección del potenciador depende de las aplicaciones. P. Ej. la toxicidad debe depender del organismo al que se destina el tratamiento pudiendo variar de no tóxico a altamente tóxico.” Sin ningún tipo de responsabilidad legal, podría ser que Baxter se esté preparando para vender miles de millones de dosis conteniendo el altamente tóxico hidróxido de aluminio como potenciador Quizás sea la hora de difundir todo esto en la sociedad y pelear por nuestros derechos, y denunciar a todos aquellos que votaron a favor de los 7000 millones de dólares de fondo de emergencia y quienes han tolerado la firma de la declaración de inmunidad de la industria farmaceútica frente a futuros pleitos debidos a los efectos secundarios que puedan provocar sus productos. Lo mismo debería aplicarse a otros sistemas de salud nacionales [CR:debemos incluir especialmente al británico, español, argentino y australiano] que están solicitando a sus ciudadanos que se vacunen contra el H1N1 mediante la vacuna de GlaxoSmithKline o Baxter para ver si estas son realmente seguras. Y mientras la OMS ha incluso parado de monitorizar al H1N1 Otra indicación de que el mundo está siendo controlado por chupasangres de dimensiones colosales, es el papel de la OMS en el marco general de la historia de la Gripe A. La OMS, el organismo mundial empecinado en monitorizar los casos de la “supuesta” pandemia, simplemente ha decidido dejar de contabilizar el número de casos de gripe porcina H1N1 Influenza A (como prefieren llamarlo ahora) La breve nota dice que continuarán pidiendo a las naciones que publiquen sus primeros casos confirmados. También se dice que los paises deberían vigilar el advenimiento de fatalidades, lo que podría indicar que el virus ha mutado hacia una forma letal. Otras “señales de las que estar vigilantes,” son picos de ausencia escolar, etc. El CDC de Atlanta también mostró estar de acuerdo con el paro en la cuantificación de los casos por parte de la OMS. El Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, director del Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, admite que los tests existentes para confirmar el positivo por H1N1 Influenza A no son siquiera seguros y se hayan lejos aún de poder ofrecer un claro positivo o negativo. “Medidas malas pueden ser peores que no efectuar ninguna medida,”. Por lo tanto, la OMS ha decidido parar la realización de tests que ni siquiera ofrecen un retrato científico real a la hora de determinar con precisión quienes estaban infectados por el H1N1 y quienes no. Han decidido parar de contar casos y realizar tests del H1N1 alrededor del mundo simplemente bajo el razonamiento “podemos considerar que casi todos los casos son Gripe A”. Esta es la ciencia en cuyas bases se nos dice que debemos vacunar a nuestros jóvenes.

Thanks for the lead Jen Lopez. Reader discretion is advised. This is very sad. Do not read it at work as I did.

A man in Grand Rapids, Michigan incredibly took out a $7000 full page ad in the paper to present the following essay to the people of his community.

HOW COULD YOU? – By Jim Willis, 2001

“When I was a puppy, I entertained you with my antics and made you laugh. You called me your child, and despite a number of chewed shoes and a couple of murdered throw pillows, I became your best friend. Whenever I was “bad,” you’d shake your finger at me and ask “How could you?” — but then you’d relent and roll me over for a belly rub.

My housebreaking took a little longer than expected, because you were terribly busy, but we worked on that together. I remember those nights of nuzzling you in bed and listening to your confidences and secret dreams, and I believed that life could not be any more perfect. We went for long walks and runs in the park, car rides, stops for ice cream (I only got the cone because “ice cream is bad for dogs” you said), and I took long naps in the sun waiting for you to come home at the end of the day.

Gradually, you began spending more time at work and on your career, and more time searching for a human mate. I waited for you patiently, comforted you through heartbreaks and disappointments, never chided you about bad decisions, and romped with glee at your homecomings, and when you fell in love. She, now your wife, is not a “dog person” – - still I welcomed her into our home, tried to show her affection, and obeyed her. I was happy because you were happy.

Then the human babies came along and I shared your excitement. I was fascinated by their pinkness, how they smelled, and I wanted to mother them, too. Only she and you worried that I might hurt them, and I spent most of my time banished to another room, or to a dog crate. Oh, how I wanted to love them, but I became a “prisoner of love.” As they began to grow, I became their friend. They clung to my fur and pulled themselves up on wobbly legs, poked fingers in my eyes, investigated my ears, and gave me kisses on my nose. I loved everything about them and their touch — because your touch was now so infrequent — and I would’ve defended them with my life if need be. I would sneak into their beds and listen to their worries and secret dreams, and together we waited for the sound of your car in the driveway.

There had been a time, when others asked you if you had a dog, that you produced a photo of me from your wallet and told them stories about me. These past few years, you just answered “yes” and changed the subject. I had gone from being “your dog” to “just a dog ,” and you resented every expenditure on my behalf.

Now, you have a new career opportunity in another city, and you and they will be moving to an apartment that does not allow pets. You’ve made the right decision for your “family,” but there was a time when I was your only family.

I was excited about the car ride until we arrived at the animal shelter. It smelled of dogs and cats, of fear, of hopelessness. You filled out the paperwork and said “I know you will find a good home for her.” They shrugged and gave you a pained look. They understand the realities facing a middle-aged dog, even one with “papers.” You had to pry your son’s fingers loose from my collar as he screamed “No, Daddy! Please don’t let them take my dog!” And I worried for him, and what lessons you had just taught him about friendship and loyalty, about love and responsibility, and about respect for all life. You gave me a good-bye pat on the head, avoided my eyes, and politely refused to take my collar and leash with you. You had a deadline to meet and now I have one, too. After you left, the two nice ladies said you probably knew about your upcoming move months ago and made no attempt to find me another good home. They shook their heads and asked, “How could you?”

They are as attentive to us here in the shelter as their busy schedules allow. They feed us, of course, but I lost my appetite days ago. At first, whenever anyone passed my pen, I rushed to the front, hoping it was you that you had changed your mind — that this was all a bad dream… or I hoped it would at least be someone who cared, anyone who might save me.

When I realized I could not compete with the frolicking for attention of happy puppies, oblivious to their own fate, I retreated to a far corner and waited. I heard her footsteps as she came for me at the end of the day, and I padded along the aisle after her to a separate room. A blissfully quiet room. She placed me on the table and rubbed my ears, and told me not to worry. My heart pounded in anticipation of what was to come, but there was also a sense of relief. The prisoner of love had run out of days.

As is my nature, I was more concerned about her. The burden which she bears weighs heavily on her, and I know that, the same way I knew your every mood. She gently placed a tourniquet around my foreleg as a tear ran down her cheek. I licked her hand in the same way I used to comfort you so many years ago. She expertly slid the hypodermic needle into my vein. As I felt the sting and the cool liquid coursing through my body, I lay down sleepily, looked into her kind eyes and murmured, “How could you?”

Perhaps because she understood my dog speak, she said, “I’m so sorry.” She hugged me, and hurriedly explained it was her job to make sure I went to a better place, where I wouldn’t be ignored or abused or abandoned, or have to fend for myself — a place of love and light so very different from this earthly place. And with my last bit of energy, I tried to convey to her with a thump of my tail that my “How could you?” was not directed at her. It was directed at you, My Beloved Master, I was thinking of you. I will think of you and wait for you forever. May everyone in your life continue to show you so much loyalty.

A Note from the Author: If “How Could You?” brought tears to your eyes as you read it, as it did to mine as I wrote it, it is because it is the composite story of the millions of formerly “owned” pets who die each year in American & Canadian animal shelters. Please use this to help educate, on your websites, in newsletters, on animal shelter and vet office bulletin boards. Tell the public that the decision to add a pet to the family is an important one for life, that animals deserve our love and sensible care, that finding another appropriate home for your animal is your responsibility and any local humane society or animal welfare league can offer you good advice, and that all life is precious. Please do your part to stop the killing, and encourage all spay & neuter campaigns in order to prevent unwanted animals.

Please pass this on to everyone, not to hurt them or make them sad, but it could save maybe, even one, unwanted pet. Remember…They love UNCONDITIONALLY.”

Please remember this story when you get your next pet, when you need to find a new home for your pet, or when your living situations change. Pets are NOT disposable. Pets are just like your children. You have to feed, provide, love and cherish them as you do your human children.

They will never tell you they hate you for not letting them stay up late, never resent you for not buying them that skirt, or wish they belonged to someone else. They will always love you no matter if you hit them, abandon them, or ignore them. They don’t care about that huge zit that popped up over night, if your clothes don’t match, and won’t notice the extra couple pounds you put on. All they want is your love and affection.

There are millions of incredible dogs sitting in your local shelters and rescues. People often feel like homeless animals are somehow damaged or not as good, this is completely untrue especially in this economy. Please visit petfinder.com to search by zip, gender, and breed of your next pet. I guarantee you will find the perfect addition to your family AND you’ll be saving a life! You never know- by saving theirs you may just save your own!

SPAY AND NEUTER. ADOPT AND SAVE A LIFE. DON’T BREED OR BUY WHILE SHELTER PETS DIE!

Hey Guys, Im back from Vacation!

Also, I am working on my secret Webosaurs Site!

It is currently in Testing/Beta, and will be released soon!

You will be able to get special previews of News, and even Beluga’s Webosaurs Music Videos!

Also, We have reached 7000 Hits, so there will be a party soon!

More details will be announced soon,

~Beluga~

Dear Bapak / Ibu,

Sarung kami diproduksi dengan menggunakan bahan 100 % cotton dengan corak yang indah dan menarik, nyaman dipakai, tidak luntur dan indah dilihat. Perbedaan harga terletak pada kerapatan benang dan packaging sarung tersebut. Untuk Yang Gajah Rakit dan Al Fanhur kerapatan benang 6000, Gajah rakit di sampul dengan plastik rapi berlogo gajah rakit dan Al Fanhur dibungkus rapi dengan kotak hitam berlogo Al Fanhur Hijau. Thawaf adalah sarung berkelas premium kami, dengan kerapatan 7000 benang dengan packaging kotak oval hitam yang cantik berlogo Thawaf. Kami menyediakan paket sample untuk bapak/ibu lihat kualitasnya dengan harga hanya Rp.100.000.

That’s what I said when the number of page views crossed 7000. In about 3 months that too.

That left me wondering if I should transform into a socially responsible blogger overnight and start giving gyan. And while I am at it, why don’t I turn greedy and throw in a few Google ads and make a few bucks?

Balls.

I can’t be socially responsible. Fuck it. I can’t be responsible in the first place.

And gyan? Guess I’ll be bathing in virtual spit rains that’ll start flowing once I do that.

So rest assured that profanities will continue pouring. Weirdness will remain. The chappy, dry, sarcastic humour too.

And I’ll continue to piss people off.

But 7000? Woah!

P.S.: There were few people who told me that a name like fartingpen would turn people off and the blog will never take off. I have 3 words for you guys. 1. Kiss. 2. My. 3. Ass.

P.P.S: Dude MAK, I wasn’t talking about you in the previous sentence. I don’t believe in flinging abuses at the same person more than once.

Se você ainda usa (ou usava até esses dias atrás) o Windows 7 beta, pode se despedir dele, agora ele vai ficar reiniciando de 2 em 2 horas, muito cruel da parte da Microsoft, como já sabíamos antes isso aconteceu no dia 01 de Agosto, e o intuito disso é para que as pessoas migrem para o RC o quanto antes e por final o RTM.

Se você ainda não fez o download do Windows 7 RC, baixe-o clicando aqui.

Somehow, Nicole and I had yet to truly reach a summit. It’s probably because we’d never picked a hike with the summit of a mountain as our destination. On Mt. Aix, we came close, only to be turned back by fear and thunderclouds. At Marmot Pass earlier this year, summiting Buckhorn Mtn. had been a thought until full backpacks and bum knees made us think otherwise. So reaching a summit was overdue, and Nicole in particular really wanted to accomplish that goal.

Mt. Stuart and The Enchantments Range from Navaho Peak.

Cousin Bobby, who accompanied us on our hike to Goat Lake two weekends ago and didn’t break a sweat the entire time, wanted to go out again. We wanted to take him somewhere impressive, as we only have a few more free weekends until his internship ends. We also wanted to make him sweat.

Our friend David, who just returned from teaching English in Mexico for ~1.75 years and is staying with us at the moment, insisted that he had boundless energy and didn’t want to be left behind. He may have been exaggerating, and he might be regretting his decision at this very moment.

Our destination was chosen earlier in the week: Navaho Peak, in the Teanaway area. Like last week, we were unpleasantly surprised to find that Navaho Pass was declared WTA’s Hike of the Week. Undeterred by this obvious and repetitive display of telepathic plagiarism, we kept the plans in place as they were.

So it was that our party of four left West Seattle at 06:00, an accomplishment in itself as far as I’m concerned. Now that I know I can get everyone out of bed at 05:30, it’s just another small step to get them up at 05:00, or even 04:30.

Getting to the Teanaway area is quite easy—it’s barely off I-90 just east of Cle Elum, where we stopped for Safeway deli sandwiches and David ran into the Cle Elum Bakery for some of his favorite cookies. Up WA-970 and the Teanaway River Road we went. Out in the river we saw three beautiful bucks—I jumped out of the car, opened the trunk, attached my telephoto and shot a few frames. It was a great sight.

Deer in the Teanaway River.

With deer on the brain, we started back up the Teanway River Road, expecting to see our trail’s number—#1359—on a sign near a right turn. After driving for ten or fifteen minutes, it became clear that we missed the turnoff, and had to turn around and backtrack. We were looking for Stafford Creek Road, but it is actually signed Road 9703, and while there is a trail number on a sign there, it wasn’t ours.

After that small setback, we pulled into the trailhead parking lot around 08:40 and were on the trail at 08:50.

The trail starts off along the river with several ups and downs, with more ups than downs. There is evidence that an older trail stayed closer to Stafford Creek, but it has been washed out and the trail re-routed above it. There are a couple forks of the older and younger trail. Branches are helpfully laid across the older trail—just stay right and go uphill. You’ll be going uphill the whole way anyway! Tiger Lilies are plentiful along this lower portion of the trail, and give way to Columbines shortly after. This portion of the hike isn’t terribly exciting, offering little views and a steady but gentle uphill grade. Thankfully, the sun still hadn’t risen above the ridge to the east, so we hiked in the shade.

Red rock formation across Stafford Creek.

After a few miles, interesting red formations appear across the river, and the trail begins climbing a bit more earnestly. At 10:40 and 4.8 miles in, we reached the intersection with the Standup Creek Trail #1369. We all were doing quite well, though some expressed doubts about summiting what I’d erroneously pointed out as our destination earlier. Little did we know, we’d be going even higher. We continued on, our party separating by several minutes from time to time, with Bobby often well out in the lead and David bringing up the back. The red rocks across the river first were above us, then across from us, and then below us.

The trail to Navaho Pass, aka Stafford Creek Trail, aka Trail #1359

At 11:30 we came to a beautiful little meadow with purple flowers and a few steadfast glacier lilies. There were a few nice campsites, most occupied. At the meadow, the trail hugs the right side of the meadow—don’t walk straight across it!

After the meadow, the trail crosses a picturesque stream lined with what I’m for now calling Purple Rocket Flowers and then sends you out across a barren moonscape on your final push to Navaho Pass. The rocks here are fascinating, and the scenery entirely different from what came before and what was to come after. At some point below, we’d left the safety of the shade and for the rest of the day we’d be hiking underneath a full sun. I wore long pants and a long-sleeved shirt and escaped with only minor sunburn on my right hand, others weren’t so protected and applied sunscreen, but too late.

From flowers...

...to moonscape.

We took the last several steps and reached the pass at 11:55. The views across to the peaks of The Enchantments were excellent. We snapped a few photos (including some of a couple we’d been playing hiking hopscotch with on the way up) and sat down to eat our lunch. There was a very cool breeze that was refreshing momentarily, but we took shelter behind a few small trees to rest. We looked to the east of the pass at Navaho Peak, which still stood ~1200′ higher. For much of our ~thirty-minute rest, it appeared that we’d be leaving David behind and heading up to the summit ourselves. Then, after food and rest, he stood up to test his knee and pronounced himself fit to continue. We left for the summit at 12:30.

The view north from Navaho Pass.

There’s a trail all the way to the top of Navaho Peak, easily followed. Like the rest of the trail, it’s quite dusty and dry, and small gravel and dust on a steep incline made for slow, slippery progress both up and down. Once again we each set our own pace, though Nicole did end up staying close to David and offering him support. While walking along the ridge, Mt. Adams comes into view off to the south, and then, Mt. Rainier in its glory. To the north, Mt. Stuart, which is mostly hidden at the pass, stands above The Enchantments. The climb was hot and slow. I stopped from time to time to look up toward Bobby—while I could still see him—and/or down to Nicole and David—when I could still see them. I put my bandanna underneath my hat and over my ears. For a while it felt like it was just me and the mountain. Near what I assumed to be the top, there were still two small patches of snow. I’d seen them from below and immediately placed a snowball under my hat. In just another minute or two I saw Bobby sitting atop the rocky summit. Even then I stopped a time or two to catch my breath and take in the view.

Weathered trees and Mt. Stuart.

I reached the summit at 13:20. It felt amazing to be standing at the very top, with unobstructed views in every direction. I showed Bobby the summit register, which we pulled out and signed, an act each of us did for the first time. For fifteen minutes the two of us sat at the summit. Two young women were just below the summit, where they’d been when Bobby arrived. They left as Nicole and David arrived. I was very happy to see Nicole, I knew she really wanted to do it, knew she could do it, and was proud to see her standing on Navaho Peak and smiling. David surprised me beyond words—more cervezas and mole than mountains in middle Mexico, and here he was, up at the top of a mountain with us after just a week in the country! On our hardest hike to date!

Northern panorama from the summit of Navaho Peak.

Bobby cracks open the summit register.

David, pretending to enjoy the summit.

Proof that we were there as well.

We’d come ~7 miles and gained ~4100′ to be at the top of Navaho Peak. We stayed on the top, just the four of us, for the next ~thirty minutes. It was time well spent, and we knew we had a long way to down and out yet.

At 14:00, we left the summit. I gave David one of my trekking poles for the way out, which he accepted gladly after shunning trekking poles on the way up. The way out was long and slow. We stopped to filter a bit of water from below the pass. The group spread out wide as we continued down what felt like a very, very long final several miles. I knew we were getting close when the Tiger Lilies stood at the sides of the trail again.

Going down.

Around 17:30, we all convened at the Forester, used the facilities, and gingerly set ourselves into our designated seats. After we’d set out from the pass to the summit, David had asked if he could drive home. “That depends on if you make it to the top,” I said. So David’s reward for summiting was driving us all home, including sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic from Cle Elum to Keechelus Lake. And we really wanted to get home…

Which we did, at 20:20, some fourteen hours after leaving the house that morning.

We all pushed ourselves hard on this hike. It was worth it.

Stats: ~14 miles from trailhead to summit and back, with ~4100′ of elevation gain and loss. Our high point was the summit of Navaho Peak, 7223′. It took us 3:15 to get from the trailhead to the pass, and another 0:50 to make it to the summit. Return times were similar. Hike time: ~seven hours.

 This hike took us to a higher elevation than we’ve ever been, with more elevation gained than any other hike.

As always, a few more photos at Flickr.

Editorial Reviews

A NATIONAL affordable housing organisation has called on the Federal Government to scrap its first-homeowner grant.

The grant, which was raised from $7000 to $14,000 for existing dwellings and from $14,000 to $21,000 for new homes as part of Labour’s $10.4 billion stimulus package last year, is due to expire on June 30.

The National Shelter has called on Treasurer Wayne Swan to axe the scheme when he hands down his second budget tomorrow, saying it inflates housing prices beyond the value of the grant.

“We’d be in favour of getting rid of all of it,” chief executive Adrian Pisarski told ABC Radio today, adding if the scheme was continued, it should be means-tested.

“That actually targets those lower-income families who really struggle to get into the housing market and doesn’t advantage wealthy families who can support their kids into the market at the cost of those lower income families.”

But the Master Builders Association says the enhanced scheme should be kept as it is, minimising the effects of the global financial crisis.

“We put to the government that … the best bang for the taxpayers’ buck would come from keeping the boost for new housing,” chief executive Wilhelm Harnisch said.

“It does generate new activity, it does generate jobs, it also has the multiply effect into retail, manufacturing and other sectors.”
www.news.com.au

This is the second in a series of articles on Sun Microsystem’s Unified Storage System, also known as Amber Road.  Previous post(s):

Review: Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage System – Part I

So in the first post in this series I discussed the USS and gave a basic overview of the hardware.  In this post I’ll discuss the disk components of the hardware in more detail and look at the use of flash (SSD) drives and ZFS to produce a commodity storage device.

Traditional storage arrays permit the configuration of multiple disk types within a single array.  This can range from solid state disks (SSDs), through to fast fibre channel drives and slower high capacity SATA drives.  USS operates a slightly different model – all drives in the USS array are high capacity SATA.  SSD drives are then used to ameliorate performance on read and write activity in combination with the ZFS file system, by using the SSDs for read caching and write logging.  

How ZFS & SSD Are Used

OK, I’m not going to post a long diatribe about ZFS (although I may in the future), however it’s worth just having a look at the basic concepts in order to understand how ZFS impacts USS performance.  So, ZFS (originally called “Zettabyte File System”) is a high performance, high capacity filesystem introduced into Solaris about three years ago.  It is more resilient than UFS, not requiring filesystems checks after a system crash.  It also integrates the features of a standard filesystem and volume manager, pooling physical disks into groups from which filesystems can then be created.  ZFS supports RAID protection, including RAID-1 and RAID-Z, a proprietary implementation of RAID-5.  RAID-Z doesn’t suffer the same performance penalty as traditional RAID-5 as ZFS uses a Copy-on-Write (COW) methodology to write data into new locations rather than overwriting the original position.  

ZFS uses two features (which relate to USS) to improve performance.  Firstly, disk reads are held in cache (called ARC  - Adaptive Replacement Cache).  Second, disk writes are journalled  (or logged) into the ZIL (ZFS Intent Log).  The ZIL provides resilience in the event of a system crash, however it also offers the opportunity for increased filesystem write performance.  Have a look at the graphic on the right, which is heavily used in the Sun documentation on USS.  This shows how traditional storage pools would be allocated with RAM and disk.  The USS model implements ARC for cached reads (which is stored in RAM), L2ARC, a level 2 ARC which extends ARC and is stored on read-biased SSDs and the ZIL, which is stored on write-biased SSDs.  

L2ARC allows cache reads to be improved by creating an intermediate tier of read cache between disk and main memory.  ZIL improves writes by logging them to SSD and periodically flushing them to physical disk.  In the event of a system crash, integrity is still maintained as the ZIL is non-volatile.

In the USS, SATA drives are used in the main disk pool.  STEC SSD drives are used for the L2ARC and ZIL.  The model I reviewed had 36GB of ZIL cache, deployed as two 18GB SSD modules in standard disk enclosures.  The current implementation of USS only allows for a single disk pool, which means all data has to be protected with the same RAID level.  This is an annoying restriction, but I expect it will change in a future release as creating separate pools is simply a ZFS feature.

Why SSD and SATA?

It’s worth touching on why the USS is different to a traditional storage device.  In a typical general storage array there will be LUNs presented to hosts which are very active, some moderately active and some totally inactive.  If the LUN activity is plotted on a graph with the busiest LUNs on the left, the least active on the right and the Y-axis showing the degree of activity on each LUN in IOPS, the profile of a normal system will follow the “Long Tail” model.  This variation in activity is why savings can be made from operating a tiered model in a large storage array , placing LUNs on the appropriate tier of storage based on their activity level.  

However, the trouble with taking I/O profile snapshots is that they’re just that – a snapshot.  They represent the I/O activity at that point in time.  Take a sample at another time of day or day of the week and another profile results.  This may show a very different set of busy LUNs compared to those highlighted previously.  One option is to average out the profiles over a suitable interval – say a day, a week or a month.  Whilst this will show on average the busiest LUNs, it will also mask any potential peaks in I/O demand as they will be averaged out over the period.  The shorter these peaks are, the less likely they will be noticed.  

Deployment of tiering has one other problem and that is determining the amount of storage required in each tier.  It may well be that the ratios of each storage tier required changes over time as an array grows in size.  Perhaps the consumers of storage on the array realise that tier-1 storage is expensive and ask for more tier-2 or a new project comes along that needs a large volume of tier-0 SSD.  Typically, traditional arrays are inflexible at physically swapping tiers of storage on demand.

The USS provides one option to the Long Tail model.  By accepting all writes into SSD and destaging later to SATA, it ensures that high performance non-volatile storage is available at the time of the write and for multiple successive reads.  Fronting disk access with SSD ensures that high performance is dynamically provided to LUNs as it is needed.

Now it would be possible to compromise the SSD write cache by flooding a USS array with writes and this would be true for any array.  The question is at what point the USS would fail.   Unfortunately with my testing, I wasn’t able to generate sufficient  workload to overwhelm the 7210 I tested.  However I can say that in the testing I performed, the array coped easily with the workload I threw at it.  Clearly there’s still a requirement to manage the ratio of SSD to SATA based on the workload profile of the array.

Value Proposition

So what’s the value of using SATA and SSD in combination as the USS does?  There are a number:

• All data is stored on cheap, high capacity SATA drives, reducing the overall cost of the solution.
• I/O performance demands are managed by a small incremental cost in SDD.
• Variations in I/O workload performance is dynamically managed, removing the need to implement multiple storage tiers, significantly reducing management overhead.
• Array expansion is simplified – there’s no need to spend time planning how additional storage should be assigned to an array by tier.

Next time I’ll look at the analytics provided by the USS and how it allows detailed device reporting.

It’s clear from recent technology announcements that storage is moving towards being a commodity offering.  Modular arrays are gaining in popularity as the underlying technology becomes more reliable.  Look at the hard disk drive; SATA devices are now capable of 1.2 million hours MTBF.  Vendors like 3Par, Equallogic/Dell and Compellent are increasing their market share as customers look for value in reducing their costs in both hardware acquisition and the effort of managing monolithic arrays.

Centralised storage is now almost ubiqutous in the datacentre.  This demand has driven the availability of lower cost and higher capacity devices more than ever before.  With protocols such as CIFS, NFS and iSCSI, centralised storage doesn’t have to be complex and storage arrays are following the direction of servers by moving towards commodity hardware.

In November 2008, Sun announced their entry into the commodity storage market with the Sun 7000 Unified Storage Server (USS) series (aka Amber Road).  Over the last month, I’ve been reviewing the 7210 array (the mid-range offering) and as an early product release, I can say I like it.

The Proposition

Sun’s proposition is pretty simple; with USS they are providing highly scalable storage solutions built on commodity hardware and open software components.  A mix of technologies is used to enable the use of low-cost SATA drives, supplemented by SSD for read and write optimisation.  The software stack is built on OpenSolaris and ZFS; Sun claim that the combination of ZFS, flash and SATA drives yields the best price/capacity and price/performance metrics in the industry today.  Unlike many other storage vendors, Sun are taking the approach of offering all current and future software features as part of the standard hardware cost.  This extends to the lifetime of the technology, so as new software features are made available in future releases, the customer can simply upgrade the USS and take advantage of them at no extra cost.

 The Product Range

There are currently three models in the product range; the 7110, 7210 and 7410.  The 7110 entry-level model comes with up to 2TB of storage in a 2U rack-mounted form-factor.  This is achieved by using 2.5″ drives; up to 14x 146GB 10K models.  Front-end host connectivity is through four 1Gbps Ethernet Ports.  The 7210 mid-range offering accomodates up to 48 1TB 3.5″ SATA drives, plus two 18GB SSD drives for logged writes (more on this later).  Connectivity is also provided through four 1Gbps Ethernet ports.  The high-end model (7410) offers up to 576 1TB drives, eight 18GB SSD drives for write cache and six 100GB SSD drives for read cache.  Front-end connectivity is again provided by four 1Gbps Ethernet ports.

Hardware

So, the 7210 model I trialled came with the standard 48x 1TB drives and two 18GB SSDs.   As a comparison I’ve racked it next to my ageing Clariion array.  This shows how things have changed over time!  The Clariion has a mere 360GB (10x 36GB drives) and takes over twice the space.  To give an idea of how the components are laid out, see the next graphic, which is a partial screenshot of the web administration GUI.  Drives are laid out in a vertical fashion, with all of the server components (memory, processors and ports) at the back of the unit.  Drives are replaced by pulling the 7210 forward in the rack and raising the top cover, which hinges upwards to provide access.

Although currently the 7210 can’t be expanded, there are options in place to allow this in the future.  The motherboard of the array supports up to three PCIe slots and the higher specification 7410 already supports expansion arrays accomodating 24x 1TB drives. 

Now, the USS is effectively a server as a storage array.  This is nothing new; the Clariion I mentioned earlier has two clusters running NT4 embedded and plenty of other vendors sell similar technology.  From a hardware perspective, what’s more interesting is the use of solid state to drive performance out of the commodity SATA drives in the array.  In the next post, I’ll be looking at this and how it integrates into ZFS.

These people I met during the weekend are off to the Caribbean!!!! They have studied the Caribbean for a while, it looks like a very well planned holiday! It is exciting to hear about new places….. they have chosen very interesting islands…..they call them sophisticated islands !!!!! There are 7,000 islands, islets and cays to choose from!!!! This chain of islands runs from the tip of Florida to the Northern coast of Venezuela!!!! They also told me these islands get you on a sexy mood………and I asked them how could this be???? More info to come!!!! Love it!!!