Advice, insight and opinion.

Yesterday afternoon Dan Wheldon, 2-time Indy 500 winner, lost his life in a horrible accident at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He leaves a wife and two young sons.

On a purely human level, anytime a person loses their life, it’s a tragedy. Some people suggest that if a person dies doing what they love, then it’s not so bad. That may be true depending on your point of view. But for someone to suffer in such a horrific way is just terrible.

The irony is that Dan has been testing the new for 2012 season Indycar which is being touted for the improvements in safety. It’s purely speculation on my part, but with the design of next year’s cars, an accident such as yesterday’s MAY not have been so bad. Part of the tragedy in yesterday’s accident was that several cars were vaulted into the air, including Wheldon’s car, as they ran into the back of another car. The new design has something akin to a “bumper” behind the rear wheels, to avoid airborne cars.

It’s a shame that such a young, successful, and genuinely liked man left our world in such circumstances.

Learn more about Dan Wheldon by following the links below:
http://www.danwheldon.com/

http://www.indycar.com/

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20111016/IRL/111019897

http://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/indy500/galleries/show/6831-dan-wheldon-through-the-years-at-indy/

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Were you one of those rabid buyers snapping up the fire sale HP TouchPads a few weeks ago? Are you in love with HP’s Palm-sourced WebOS? Yeah, me neither.

Have no fear, Android is here — but in its early stages.

Check this link for more info: http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/hp-touchpad-running-android-20110822/

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I am making my (now) yearly pilgrimage to Lime Rock Park in CT tomorrow for the Historic Festival — it should be a great time. Stay tuned for lots of photos next week.

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HP’s now defunct Touchpad tablets are generating quite a buzz in the online world–mostly because of their fire sale after the announcement of their impending death.

I have a couple of theories regarding this:

1. HP, after spending a lot of money to buy the WebOS technology–which many people viewed as a smart idea–was paid off by a major competitor to get out of the tablet arena. Apple? Doubtful as nothing seems to rock their world. Microsoft? Hmmmmm. Considering that once all of the middle-of-the-road tablet competitors die off they will be the only survivor other Apple, well….

2. HP is generating a lot of press about their tablets via announcing their discontinuation . . . until they decide to backtrack and continue on development and sales — especially now that they have sold out their stock of first edition tablets and gotten them into a lot more people’s hands than they were before dropping their prices.

Thoughts? Anyone feeling strongly about either? Let me know!

Popularity: 93% [?]

I’ve been using the free version of LogMeIn in supporting my town’s systems without having to drive all over the place when the need arises. It’s enough for my needs, and I don’t miss the file transfer and other options for the Pro version.

Recently I moved into the modern age by replacing my Blackberry (I had been using a Blackberry device for the past 5 years or so) with an Android-based smartphone. Needless to say — I LOVE IT!

One of the apps I came across was LogMeIn’s Ignition product, which I purchased and installed so that I have even more flexibility in supporting my town’s systems. I was a little doubtful about it, and to be honest, I have had some issues trying to connect to some of the systems, but overall it seems to be a very solid app.

I encourage any of you LogMeIn users to give it a try on your smartphone.

Popularity: 85% [?]

I have had some weird experiences this week installing, and trying to install, Windows Service Pack 1.

With my main PC at work, it downloaded and installed via Windows Update with no issues at all.

With a laptop, upon downloading via Windows Update, it got stuck at 40% overnight and went nowhere. I went ahead and downloaded the SP1 executables directly from Microsoft and tried again. This time it got stuck installing overnight. I ended up having to hold the power button down to turn it off, and when turned back on it got stuck saying it was implementing updates — overnight again.

On another PC, it downloaded and installed via Windows Update just fine, but once it rebooted I could not reach the internet at all. I had to perform a System Restore to get it working again.

So far my impression of W7 SP1? Hold off on installing it…

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…I have to admit that I have a lot to say, but not enough time to say it. Life (especially work) has been very busy and I haven’t had time to blog.

If you want to keep updated checkout my twitter feed and follow me. I tweet when the moment presents itself and retweet a lot of useful information I encounter.

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We all have software applications in our “toolkits” that we rely on — troubleshooting tools, network utilities, etc. One of the tools that I have depended on for at least six years now is Acronis‘ imaging tool. I have used several versions over the years, and they have all been rock solid dependable and have saved by backside many times.

In my current position my IT budget is very small, so I have been looking for an alternative to Acronis because it’s one and only downside, in my opinion, is that it is expensive to license the software. My searching came up with several options and after testing them I chose Macrium Reflect imaging software.

It doesn’t have a fancy interface, it not nearly as full-featured as some of Acronis’ versions, and does not have a management console for central administration — but it does the job of imaging very well. I have installed it on both physical and virtual servers and have had excellent performance and reliability. There are a few rough edges within the program that I will go into in another post.

Oh, and did I mention –  it’s only$40 per copy?!

In my next post I’ll do a walk through of installing Macrium Reflect.

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From Mathew Lodge’s post on VMware’s Communities site:

During the launch of VMware’s vCloud Datacenter Services, I was asked if there were applications or datasets that could never be moved to public or hybrid clouds because of security concerns. It’s a legitimate question given the uncertainty of what security, exactly, is provided in many public clouds. My answer is an emphatic “No”, as an implicit assumption is that the physical walls of an organization offer superior security.

A sophisticated attempt to steal $440m from Sumitomo Mitsui bank’s London offices in 2005 showed that what is within the four walls of one’s own building are just as vulnerable to attack as those outside them. The criminal case was tried in 2009, convicting everyone involved and providing the following details.

Bribed security staff disabled security cameras and let in hired hackers under the cover of an after-hours poker game. The hackers installed key logging and “screen scraping” software onto Sumitomo’s inter-bank transfer systems. Armed with credentials collected from these systems, the would-be thieves returned a month later disguised as office cleaners and attempted to transfer 229 million Pounds Sterling (approximately $440m at the time) to accounts in Dubai, Spain, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The key takeaway is this: security is about transparent risk management, whether it is implemented inside the walls of your building or someone else’s. Yet security teams are often correct that their own datacenters are more secure than some of the best-known public clouds, because internal security controls are fully transparent — all physical and logical controls are known and can be audited.

Read the full post here.

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From How To Geek:

Seems like every guide to securing your wireless network tells you to keep your SSID from broadcasting to make your network more secure, but is that really worthwhile? Let’s take a look at one of the silliest myths out there.

This myth has been around for a very long time, and we aren’t expecting everybody to receive this news with happy agreement. You’re welcome to state your case in the comments for why hidden wireless networks are a great idea, but we think if you keep reading, you’ll realize that it’s just not a security feature.

It’s never a good sign when manufacturers create technologies that don’t follow the agreed-upon spec documents that ensure interoperability between vendors—it’s usually a way for them to make more money with vendor lock-in features that require you to buy their hardware.

Read the complete post here.

Popularity: 86% [?]