Monthly Archives: January 2006

Mac OS X Update 10.4.4

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Today, at the MacWorld Expo, Steve Jobs announced that Mac OS X 10.4.4 would be released today. I will post more here when the download becomes available.

In the meantime, check out Engadget’s coverage of his keynote: Steve Jobs keynote live from Macworld 2006.

Update: It appears as if Quicktime 7.0.4 and iTunes 6.0.2 were also released today.

The 10.4.4 Update delivers overall improved reliability and compatibility for Mac OS X v10.4 and is recommended for all users.

It includes fixes for:
- SMB/CIFS and NFS network file services
- Bluetooth wireless access
- Core Graphics, Core Audio, Core Image, RAW camera support, including updated ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers
- Spotlight indexing and searching
- AppleScript, iChat, DVD Player, and Safari applications
- Dashboard widgets: Calendar and Stocks
- Software Update and Sync Services
- compatibility with USB and FireWire devices and third party applications
- previous standalone security updates

Download

[tags]Mac OS X, Apple, update, software, Macworld, Quicktime, iTunes[/tags]

Best Companies to Work For

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From an internal e-mail from our CEO, Dan Warmenhoven:

For the fourth year in a row, NetApp has been recognized by FORTUNE Magazine as among the “100 Best Companies to Work For” in 2005. This year we are ranked #27, vs. last year’s rank of #24.

Wow, it shows us as having only 2,712 U.S. employees. This survey had to be taken in early 2005, because I know we don’t have ~1500 overseas employees. I guess that’s what happens when you’re growing like crazy and hiring ~300 new employees per quarter.

View: Fortune: 100 Best Companies to Work For

Update: The Fortune site shows that we have 1,191 employees outside the U.S., so I guess I was wrong. :P

[tags]NetApp, Fortune[/tags]

My Largest Volume

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One of the great things about working for a storage company is that I have access to TONS of storage. In the current project I’m working on, I have to create a huge volume and fill it up to ensure that the SCSI/FCP layer, NetApp filer, and the operating system are all able to handle it. How large was my test volume? Sixteen Terabytes (16TB = 16 * (2^40) bytes):

Volume in drive E is NTAP1
Volume Serial Number is DC10-EBF9

Directory of E:\

01/09/2006 02:25 PM 7 testFile
1 File(s) 7 bytes
0 Dir(s) 17,554,814,398,464 bytes free

I was able to easily pull it off by converting the disk to a GUID Partition Table (Windows Server 2003 SP1 GPT) and then perform a quick format, of course. So, now I’m off to begin the long process of filling this thing up.

[tags]Volume, LUN, GUID, GPT, terabyte, TB, NetApp[/tags]

Tech OnTap

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A common naming theme at NetApp is “OnTap.” Our filer’s operating system is called Data OnTAP, our stock symbol is NTAP, and a few months ago, NetApp announced a monthly newsletter called Tech OnTap. If any of you readers have an interest in storage, specifically NetApp storage, feel free to sign up.

“Join Tech OnTap and get monthly IT insights, plus exclusive access to real-world best practices, white papers, demos, peer reviews, and more. (Not to mention special private events and even the occasional free beer.) Tech OnTap gives IT leaders what they need to make smart data management decisions.”

Sign up for Tech OnTap

[tags]NetApp, OnTap, NTAP, storage[/tags]

NAS Product of the Year

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As my first post in the new direction of the blog, I’d like to share something that came out just the other day from InfoWorld. On January 2, 2006, InfoWorld made a list called the “2006 Technology of the Year Awards.” On this list, NetApp won for “Best NAS” with the NetApp FAS3020c. Their comments say that the FAS3020c has “Solid performace, flawless fail-over, exceptional scalability, and (is) a jack of all trades.” I must say that in my experience with the FAS3020c, I agree. I’ve been working with it for about a month now, and I absolutely love this box. It is truly amazing, and has been rock solid…although I’ve been using it to test SAN over FCP, I have no doubt NAS is the same way.

Source: Network Appliance™ FAS3000 Series Named Best NAS Product of the Year by InfoWorld
View: InfoWorld: 2006 Technology of the Year Awards: The winners’ list

[tags]NetApp, FAS3020, FAS3000, SAN, NAS, FCP, iSCSI[/tags]

Blog Direction

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I arrived to work on Thursday to find that I had an internal email from someone in NetApp Worldwide Integrated Marketing regarding my blog. I am amazed; my little blog was found. So, that brings me to my point…I need to find a direction with this blog. I think I’m going to make it a little more ‘tech’ centric. I know that’s where I originally intended it to go, and most of you expected that…so that’s what I’m going to do. In our discussion, I realized that there aren’t many NetApp bloggers. I found that a quick Google search unveiled a few customers (or prospects) requesting more NetApp engineer bloggers. So, I’d like to hear some comments.

[tags]NetApp, blog, engineer, SAN, NAS, FCP[/tags]

Fires burn 11 homes near Hobbs

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Saturday night, Rebecca got a phone call from her parents that said there was a wild fire near our home town of Hobbs, New Mexico. KCBD reported that 4 fires burned 53,000 acres, destroyed 11 homes and 2 businesses in the southeastern New Mexico area. Here is an exerpt from the news article:

In New Mexico, fire fighters are watching for hot spots after destructive fires there. Four blazes scorched more than 53,000 acres and burned 11 homes and two businesses in Southeastern New Mexico this weekend. Just more than 100 miles southwest of Lubbock, residents in Hobbs, New Mexico are returning to their homes only to find ashes. Five hundred people were evacuated. NewsChannel 11′s Kealey McIntire went to Hobbs and gives us a firsthand look at the damage.

View: KCBD – NewsChannel 11 / Lubbock, TX: New Mexico Fire Victims Return to Ash Instead of Homes

Apple Bluetooth Firmware Update

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Apple on Tuesday released a 1.5 MB “Bluetooth Firmware Update for Mac OS X 10.4.3.” Apple’s page reports that the update (1.2) “improves Bluetooth performance and reliability issues.” At the time of this posting, the update is not available via Software Update.

The Bluetooth Firmware Updater supports D-Link USB Adapters and Apple internal Bluetooth modules for: iMac G4, 12″ and 15″ Powerbook, iMac G5, and Mac Mini.

Sources: AppleInsider | Apple released Bluetooth Firmware Update, Bluetooth Firmware Update for Mac OS X 10.4.3 – Apple

UPDATE: Odd, the updater told me that an update is not needed for my computer.  Checking in Applications\Utilities\Bluetooth Firmware Updater, I found that I already had v1.2.0 (1.2.0f6).

New Year’s

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For this New Year’s…we had visitors!  Allison from AMP’s ZZzzz flew in last Thursday and was here until Tuesday morning.  For those of you who don’t know, in a few months, she will be Dr. Allison.  She is about to finish her D.C. in August from Parker College of Chiropractic.   Then, on Saturday, Andrew from Schwartz speaks up drove in from Washington, DC, where he’s about to finish up his duties as an Innkeeper at Samaritan Inns.  It seems like it’s been forever since we’d all got together…we reminisced about our Freshman college days and had a great time.  I’m so glad that they both got a chance to come to Raleigh…unfortunately, the time went fast, and now we’re all back to our regular routines…