Torture testing the Microsoft Surface tablet

Interesting.  The Microsoft Surface gets put through the paces.  If they really wanted to test it, they should have left it with a 5 year old for a week.

 

Monitors Needed

Monitors needed.  LG, Planar, HP, Dell, Viewsonic, V7, Lenovo, Acer, Asus, Samsung, Sharp, et al, listen up.

must be 20" plus
must have HDMI, VGA, Displayport, DVI-D connections- and include the damn cables
must be multi-touch capable
must have wireless built in
must have some processing capabilities
if Windows 8 is too much to ask for, then at least Android. 
Must be no more than $150.00.  If they can build tablets for $75 then a 20+ inch monitor with the same capabilities is not much of a stretch.

LG HECTO

Nice! 

Gary Merson, HD Guru

LG’s latest projector system is powered by freaking lasers

Until now, all consumer front projector systems produced light using lamps or in rare cases LEDs. The new LG HECTO FP system, on the other hand, uses lasers for illumination instead. Yes, lasers.

As LG announced on Wednesday, the new projector system uses lasers and a Texas Instruments DLP chip to form images. Typical home front projectors require around a 9 to 12 foot distance from the lens to a 100-inch screen. The LG HECTO requires only a 22-inch throw to fill the screen and can be placed on the floor or the mounted to the ceiling.

The LG HECTO Laser Projection TV will be sold as a complete system with a 100-Inch diagonal screen, a built-in ATSC TV tuner, HDMI switching and a Wi-Fi connection for streaming video.

http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/lgs-latest-projector-system-powered-freaking-lasers-1C7660219


 

Mapping the 2013 tablet wars

Portland Business Journal

Date: Wednesday, December 26, 2012, 7:22am PST

 

Price wars and patent battles were among the big trends in the tablet market in 2012, and this year it seemed that no matter what tablet a customer bought, they were in one of three ecosystems - Apple, Android or Windows 8.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/morning_call/2012/12/tablet-price-wars-to-continue-in-2013.html?ana=yfcpc

 

 

Leap Motion

Awesome cool technology

https://leapmotion.com/

Control your computer with gestures.  Like in that Tom Cruise, Samantha Morton movie, Minority Report.  Very cool!  Add that to my Christmas list, along with Dragon.


 

HP 6560B $599

HP

ProBook 6560b - 15.6" - Core i5 2450M - Windows 7 Professional 64-bit - 4 GB RAM - 500 GB HDD

HP ProBook 6560b - Core i5 2450M / 2.5 GHz - Windows 7 Professional 64-bit - 4 GB RAM - 500 GB HDD - DVD SuperMulti DL - 15.6" HD anti-glare wide 1366 x 768 / HD - Intel HD Graphics 3000 - tungsten - Smart Buy

PC Mall Part #: 9003789
Mfr. Part #: A7J97UT#ABA

 

 

Xbox SmartGlass

Microsoft's Xbox SmartGlass...Very cool!


 

3D Guitar

3D Printed Guitar

VMWare SRM

VMWare Site Recovery Manager

PCM Customer Briefing Center

PCM Customer Briefing Center
 

MacMall

MacMall is a reseller of computers manufactured by Apple Inc., such as the MacBook and iMac, with both an online store and brick-and-mortar locations. They buy Apple products in bulk, which allows them to sell them at a volume discount, and are one of the only companies authorized by Apple Inc. to do so. They also sell accessories for other Apple products, like iPods and iPhones. MacMall is a wholly owned subsidiary of PC Mall, which is a NASDAQ traded company.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacMall
 

Barclays Buys 8500 iPads

By Zack Whittaker for Between the Lines | November 26, 2012 -- 11:11 GMT (03:11 PST)

Summary: One of the world's largest banks is rolling out 8,500 iPads to its front-end bank branch staff. But what lies underneath is a signal to other corporate and enterprise clients that Apple's shiny rectangles are far from consumer-only devices.

http://www.zdnet.com/barclays-buys-8500-ipads-sends-enterprise-ready-bat-signal-7000007845/
 

HP StoreServ 7000 - 3Par

HP Expands Midrange 3PAR Storage Portfolio with StoreServ 7000 Tier 1 Solutions
HP's 3PAR StoreServ Storage lineup has been enhanced with systems and functionality to better support midmarket organizations adopting virtualization and cloud computing. Today’s announcement includes details about HP’s new 3PAR StoreServ 7000 Storage systems as well as resiliency and quality-of-service updates to the HP 3PAR Operating System Software.
http://www.storagereview.com/hp_expands_midrange_3par_storage_portfolio_with_storeserv_7000_tier_1_solutions


HP adds 3PAR StoreServ 7000 for midrange, file and object storage:

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co. today launched two lower-end midrange 3PAR storage arrays and a new big data and archiving platform in hopes of reversing its declining storage sales.
HP is extending 3PAR, its one successful storage platform, to cover the lower end of the midrange through the enterprise. The new systems are also available as all-flash arrays, and HP is also offering a migration path from its aging enterprise virtual arrays (EVAs) to 3PAR.
The new HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage 7000 series includes the 7200 and 7400 models. The other new product is the HP StoreAll Storage system for unstructured data. HP also enhanced its StoreOnce 2000 and 4000 backup deduplication disk target appliances.
http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/news/2240173682/HP-adds-3PAR-StoreServ-7000-for-midrange-file-and-object-storage

Samsung Printers Have Hidden Security Risk

Some Samsung printers, and Dell-branded printers manufactured by Samsung, can be remotely accessed by attackers. Here's how.

By Mathew J. Schwartz InformationWeek
November 28, 2012 03:06 PM

Some Samsung printers and Dell-branded printers manufactured by Samsung are vulnerable to being taken over remotely by an attacker.That warning was made Monday by the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT), which said that the affected printers "contain a hardcoded SNMP full read-write community string that remains active even when SNMP is disabled in the printer management utility." In other words, the printers have a hardcoded account in their firmware that can't be disabled by users. SNMP, or simple network management protocol, is a TCP/IP-based network protocol used to manage and monitor network device configuration.

http://www.informationweek.com/security/vulnerabilities/samsung-printers-have-hidden-security-ri/240142715


 

HP ElitePad

Hmmm...nice looking device not yet available in North America.  Will it sell?

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/ad/elitepad/features.html

Cisco to buy Meraki for $1.2billion

Nice play Cisco!  HP or Dell should have made this move.


Cisco Systems said Sunday that it had agreed to buy Meraki for about $1.2 billion, as the networking titan continues to bolster its cloud computing services.
By buying Meraki, a privately held company backed by the likes of Google and Sequoia Partners, Cisco will add products that allow networks to be controlled through the Internet.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/cisco-buy-meraki-1-2-025432136.html

iPad Mini Heist

How many iPads do you need?!!!  Who the heck does that?


It's like something straight out of Goodfellas.
Two thieves skirted security at JFK International Airport and got away with part of a cargo shipment of Apple's (AAPL) iPad minis worth $1.5 million, according to a report from the New York Post.
The crooks pulled off the heist late Monday night, just before midnight, and used one of the airport's forklifts to lift the heavy shipment of iPad minis, which were being stored in a cargo building, into their get-away truck, according to the report.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/crooks-pull-off-1-5-163231321.html;_ylt=AhV9dmEV0_31OnnlDp._xnSiuYdG;_ylu=X3oDMTQ4ZTFpNGdwBG1pdANDTkJDIFRvcCBTdG9yaWVzBHBrZwNlYWNmZTYyYy01ZjM5LTNiMzctYTdkMy1lMjZiYzA4ZTE4YTQEcG9zAzUEc2VjA01lZGlhQkxpc3RNaXhlZExQQ0FUZW1wBHZlcgMzZWQ5YjQ4Yy0yZjQ1LTExZTItYmJjOS02NTdkZDQyMTc0MGI-;_ylg=X3oDMTFpNzk0NjhtBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25z;_ylv=3

 

Google - Government Surveillance is On the Rise

http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/government-surveillance-rise-says-google-1C7048164

Government demands for user data worldwide from Google have "increased steadily," the search giant says in a new report: "One trend has become clear: Government surveillance is on the rise."


Not shocking at all. 

Office 365 Outages

So far, I am not a fan of cloud services - SAAS

http://searchexchange.techtarget.com/news/2240171234/Two-Office-365-outages-in-five-days-serve-as-reminders-of-cloud-chaos?utm_medium=EM&asrc=EM_NLT_19544255&track=NL-1701&ad=883120&

Two Office 365 outages in five days serve as reminders of cloud 'chaos'

Downtime may be part of the deal when it comes to cloud computing, but the second Microsoft Office 365 outage in five days tested the patience of IT pros and consultants.

Reports of the most recent Office 365 outage first emerged on Twitter yesterday morning, and Microsoft later confirmed that some Office 365 customers were experiencing intermittent email access. That came on the heels of another outage Nov. 8, when customers experienced delays in receiving their email...

...


 

Dragon naturally speaking

Dragon NaturallySpeaking works as well as Dragon medical, themhen, I can control my PC using just my voice.  I can start new e-mails just by saying new e-mail I can open up Microsoft Word just by saying, Microsoft Word.  I can even write this post on blogger.  Just using Dragon medical 10.  So hell yeah this is really freaking cool!

$199.00 Notebook from Acer

https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromebooks.html#ac-c7

Acer C7 Chromebook

Everyday simplicity

• 11.6’’ display
• 1 inch thin and 3 pounds
• Over 3.5 hours of battery
• Boots up in less than 20 seconds
• 100 GB of Google Drive free for 2 years1

Only: $199

 

3D Printing

HP needs to buy this company 3D Systems.  http://www.3dsystems.com/ 

The means of production in every home...interesting possibilities.

Viewsonic VSD220

This is a cool new product from Viewsonic, a touchscreen monitor with Google Android built in.

http://www.viewsonic.com/products/vsd220.htm




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Why the Drobo B1200i?

http://www.drobo.com/products/business/b1200i/index.php 

1. Tier 2 and Tier 3 VMs – Deploying new apps is fast with virtualization, to the point where sprawl occurs and the Tier 1 SAN needs expanding, time to offload the main SAN of lower-tier VMs and backing up with Veeam

2. Rich-media storage – Individual video, audio, and graphic files from Marketing and other departments add up very quickly, but don’t have the same criticality as databases

3. Expanding file servers – Rich media can fill these up, but so can the usual business files and applications, the same front end can manage lower-cost back-end storage for less critical data

4. Online archiving – HSM of the past called for archiving on low-cost tape, where disk today can be as cost effective at high capacities and enable online access without mounting media

5. Test & Development – Very important to stage & test, but almost impossible to have an exact replica environment; with virtualization the infrastructure does not need to match

6. Disk-based backup – Backup should be lower cost than primary, and having backup on a separate device is also better for high availability / failure domains

7. Utility storage in IT – Playing Tetris while moving large amounts of data is a challenge; everyone could use space in the network for storing things on a temporary and permanent basis

8. Migration – Like utility storage, but in larger organizations migration is a very periodic event, and the more storage you have the harder it is without a place to put it temporarily

9. Research / analysis – These can involve huge data sets, and the more storage the more research that can be done, needs for individual projects are often short-term

10. Dissimilar DR replication – Buying and identical array for replication may not always be feasible, and the 2nd site does not need to be as powerful as primary for recovery of select applications

11. VMware Essentials Plus, Exchange 2010 up to 250 users - all of the classic primary SAN use cases on a smaller scale

thanks Aaron

RIM- Blackberry

Who will buy RIM, Microsoft or Cisco?

Clickfree Hard Drives

I need to buy one of these

Clickfree

2TB C2 3.5" BackupDesk USB 3.0

Featuring EASY Run - Just plug it in and Clickfree backup begins. Patented soware requires no set-up.

PC Mall Part #: 8786143

Mfr. Part #: CA3D20-2C

 

Storage and Backup

Computers and Electronics

Consumer Electronics

Storage and BackUp