Comments (3)

By admin, February 16, 2013 8:38 pm

我之前一直都很喜歡Tecnifibre的NRG2 Multi，唯一的缺點就是不耐用，每個月就要再穿一次，不到20個鐘頭就斷線了，小數怕長計，一年下來算起來幾乎都可以買一只全新的球拍了。後來聽不同師兄的介紹，得知原來Gut線的Hybrid一來手感更好，二來壽命比較耐用，而且透過師兄更加有較大的穿線折扣，長遠來算比NRG2更加經濟實惠。

這次Hybrid的新體驗，感覺Babolat Hybrid RPM Blast 17g + VS Gut 16g的確比NRG2硬，開始很不習慣，經過了一個多鐘頭兩種不同的線不停地摩擦結合後才漸入佳境，慢慢感覺到了VS Gut的手感和RPM Blast的Spin。

Babolat VS Gut不用多說，手感控制當然一流，其實看見不少朋友們都會用塑料袋裝起腸線球拍，目的是防潮。但是現今VS Gut的最新Thermogut科技已經做到防熱和防潮，我認為放在塑料袋反而會困住了濕氣，對Gut造成負面影響。

雖然大家都是Poly，但因為Babolat RPM Blast擁有獨特的八角形相比起Tecnifibre Black Code的五邊形更加咬球，從而大大增加球停留在線床的時間，所以打起Top Spin來更加得心應手。

Poly線出名硬，有不少師兄都曾經深受其害(網球肘)，尤其是Luxilon Big Banger，所以很多都不約而同地推薦較為軟身的Poly: Black Code就是這個原因，有說跌磅的Poly也是造成網球肘的元凶之一。另外聽說這次的RPM是”Team”版本，也就是Babolat所有”Team”版本都比較軟身和令到擊球更加舒服，也就是Arm Friendly。

另外就是兩副線都是黑色，連VS Gut (Babolat VS Natural ThermoGut 16 Touch String Black) 也用了罕有的黑色Coating，配上我那只Head YOUTEK IG Extreme Pro黃黑的Paint Job，的確好鬼型，哈哈。

我這次的選擇是Main用VS Gut、Cross用RPM Blast， 同是55磅，目的當然是想比較耐用。相反的話(Main用RPM Blast、Cross用VS Gut)手感肯定會較好，但是球線的壽命也會大大縮短。

根據觀察朋友使用的經驗來推測，這樣的組合應該可以維持至少2-3個月，當然Poly的RPM Blast的磅數應該已經全掉光了，其實這是所有Poly的死穴，就是從穿完線那刻就開始跌磅，聽師兄說最近出了一隻金色跌磅比較慢的Poly，這是一個好的開始，當然也有人中途再穿過一條新的RPM Blast(Cross)來維持整體磅數，但我認為這是多此一舉。

另外這次的體驗Hybrid開始不再用Damper，完全感覺到了純淨的感覺，很喜歡，現在覺得加了Damper後擊球的時候好像總是隔了層什東西的感覺，不知道你們有沒有同感﹖

其實兩年前我就曾經自行Mix過類似Hybrid，當時的選擇是Babolat Natural Gut (Main)加上Gamma TNT2(Cross)穿在Price Original Graphite Oversize上(一只超Classic和Flex的板)。手感好是好，但是就是代價不菲，因為不到一個月就斷線了，心疼死了，那次經驗實在太奢侈了，所以之後都沒有再穿過腸線。

最後在網上查此線資料的時候才發現原來Babolat Hybrid RPM Blast 17g + VS Gut 16g正是Nadal的選擇!

Comments (0)

By admin, February 11, 2013 9:32 pm

What can I say? Riverbed Stingray Traffic Manager (previously know as Zeus Traffic Manager)  is probably one of the best Load Balancers I’ve tested on the market, now it’s also available as VMware OVF format.

From initial VM OVF deployment to the actual implementation of the first load balanced web sites was less than 30 minutes. Simple concept and solid performance during stress tested (concurrent over 10,000 users per seconds).

I particularly like the admin GUI, simple and intuitive, everything is self explanatory and no non-sense.

What’s best, it also comes with an integrated Application Firewall as well as Traffic Manager Cluster Mode which you can add one or more Traffic Managers to the cluster to make it HA, wow, this idea is brilliant!

I’ve even gone as far as adding the 3rd TM (on a different subnets) into the cluster, it worked somehow, but failed when creating a Traffic IP as the Traffic IP must be seen on all subnet, I think this can be easily solved using a router between the two different subnets thought. Alternatively, I think GSLB is my next option on the list, but don’t have time now, will try later.

The most magical feature is Aptimizer which transparently optimize your web page (ie, compressed, hence reduced the time for loading) without you rewrite any of the coding.

Stingray Aptimizer is what was formerly known as Website Accelerator, or WAX. It was created by New Zealand software developer Aptimize to rejigger and accelerate web pages running on IIS or Apache web servers as well as pages stored on content delivery networks from Akamai Technologies.

Aptimizer analyzes how web pages load and reorganizes the content so a web browser doesn’t have to make so many roundtrips back to the web server to load a page. Because there are dozens of elements on a typical page, reconfiguring the web pages on the fly and storing the more efficient web page in cache on the web server can reduce page load times by a factor of four. The beauty is that this optimization does not change the web applications one bit, so you don’t have to modify your code.

The only complain is probably the cost, which is prohibitive to implement for the average SMBs, but since Riverbed is really targeting enterprise market, so I guess they don’t really care about the little ones after all.

Oh…there is a free and fully functional with limited features (10 request per second) Developer edition, don’t forget to try it out.

Comments (0)

By admin, February 10, 2013 9:34 pm

今天有幸品嘗到了超嫩的紐西蘭小羊架，製作方法非常簡單，用Olive Oil和香草腌大概5分鐘，然後焗15分鐘就大功告成，味道超級的好! 覺得比城中名店Sabatini的羊架還要好吃得多! 而且全部成本才$150，太合算了，這個當然要多謝從事食品進出口生意朋友的優惠。

其實烹飪西餐的竅門大部份還得依賴食物的質量，相比起中菜擁有化腐杇為神奇的效果和其博大精深的文化，簡直就是小巫見大巫。

Onion Soup with Parmesan Cheese
New Zealand Baby Lamb Rack
Brussel Sprout from US
Red Wine from Bordeaux
French Lemon Tart

Comments (0)

By admin, February 6, 2013 12:27 pm

比較了一下功能，重量以及售價，號稱全副FF的入門版6D明顯是雞肋，比上不足(5D2、5D3)，比下有餘否 (貴過60D很多)。

最重要是十字對焦只有一點，所以對焦太慢，影BB、運動等完全跟不上，還不如EOS 7D。

另外發現兩年前買的那隻APS-C鏡王EF-S 17-55mm f2.8 IS USM售價竟然要9千多，比當初的7千頭還要貴上1/3，看來全拜日圓升值所賜，所以之前有攝影前輩提醒購買高級相機鏡頭是一種保值的投資的確有其道理。

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By admin, February 6, 2013 11:29 am

This is the latest recommendation from Dell Equallogic, found in Firmware 6.0 Release Note:

Beginning with this release, the Group Manager GUI no longer includes the option for configuring a group member to use RAID 5 for its RAID policy. RAID 5 carries higher risks of encountering an uncorrectable drive error during a rebuild, and therefore does not offer optimal data protection. Consequently, Dell recommends against using RAID 5 for any business-critical data.

RAID 5 may still be required for certain applications, depending on performance and data availability require-ments. To allow for these scenarios, you may still use the CLI to configure a group member to use RAID 5.

For a complete discussion of RAID policies on PS Series systems, review the Dell Technical Report titled PS Series Storage Arrays: Choosing a Member RAID Policy, which can be downloaded from either of the following locations:

• www.equallogic.com/resourcecenter/documentcenter.aspx

• en.community.dell.com/techcenter/storage/w/wiki/equallogic-tech-reports.aspx

In addition, Dell recommends against using RAID configurations that do not use spare drives. You should convert all group member that are using a no-spares RAID policy to a policy that uses spare drives.

Known Issues and Limitations

The following restrictions and known issues apply to this version of the PS Series Firmware. For information about known issues and restrictions from other releases, see the Release Notes for those versions. For issues about Dell EqualLogic FS Series Appliances, refer to the Dell EqualLogic FS Series Appliances Release Notes. For issues and limitations pertaining to host operating systems and iSCSI initiators, refer to the iSCSI Initiator and Operating System Considerations document.

RAID Conversion From No-Spares To Spares Does Not Work
RAID conversion from a no-spares policy to a spares policy appears to work, but it actually converts to no-spares, resulting in no change. (Funny )

Comments (0)

By admin, February 6, 2013 10:36 am

I am pretty happy with SANHQ 2.2, HIT MS 4 and HIT VMware 3.1, and there aren’t much new features I need, so I choose to delay the upgrade for the time being.

Furthermore, there are two interesting videos presented by Dell EQL User Group in Taiwan (in Chinese), the following new features were intensively mentioned as well. (Part 1 and Part 2)

SAN HQ 2.5 Announcement

Dell announces Host Integration Tools for Microsoft 4.5

Dell Announces Host Integration Tools for VMware 3.5

Note: HIT for VMware v3.1.1, and earlier, is not compatible with Equallogic Firmware Version, 6.0, of the PS Series Firmware. A later version must be installed prior to upgrading to Version 6.0, for compatibility.

Comments (0)

By admin, January 29, 2013 11:50 am

This huge PDF poster shows some of the advanced features that VMware doesn’t have, even I am not a Microsoft visualization guy, but it’s good to know what competitor is up to.

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By admin, January 26, 2013 7:28 pm

“Keep It SIMPLE!”

I was once told by a data center veteran about 10 years ago.

This has been deeply embedded in my network/storage/security design methodology ever since and it is still holding the truth even today. It saved me from many pitfalls and allowed me to quickly track down where exactly the problems were.

It is especially true when your equipments (server/switch/storage) are growing at a fast pace and “Keep It SIMPLE!” is the only tool to save your life after all.

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By admin, January 24, 2013 11:56 am

昨天看了2011年的韓國片【陽光姐妹淘】，實話說這套比台灣的【那些年，我們一起追的女孩】強多了，而且當中有一首好聽的80年代初Disco音樂，後來才知道原來有個厲害的Cyndi Lauper，比Madonna還要早出道，而且是始祖，Madonna的Prototype(原型)。

迷幻Disco的年代類似的還有同期英倫Culture Club的Karma Chameleon和Do You Really
Wan’t Hurt Me。

當然不能不提的是Giorgio Moroder為電影Midnight Express編曲的經典Chase旋律。

Comments (0)

By admin, January 23, 2013 1:31 pm

HMV都宣佈破產了，唱片年代一去不復來，卻有人仍鍾情屬於上世紀的黑膠唱片，前任政務司司長許仕仁、東亞銀行主席李國寶、立法會議員何俊仁同樣都是黑膠 迷，據說許仕仁還租了一個貨倉專門擺放眾多珍藏……有三個黑膠發燒友獨愛黑膠既清脆又厚實的聲音，40年來不惜花費巨款到處尋覓心頭好，黑膠珍藏數以萬 計，每天看着唱盤上的黑膠唱片徐徐轉動，聽着音樂緩緩播放，不期然進入了忘我境界。

歐美頭版死忠　植海湛

年近花甲的植海湛自15歲開始就迷上黑膠唱片，40多年來對黑膠不離不棄，他是貿易公司老闆，退休前每天只需工作兩小時，放工後總會周圍閒逛，四處搜羅心 儀的黑膠唱片，結果越買越多，現時珍藏多達1.5萬隻，十多年前更索性在上環租一個800呎的商業單位安放他收藏的黑膠及價值十多萬的音響作私人音樂廳， 一有時間就約齊三五知己上去聽歌，03年退休便將這個黑膠樂園變成黑膠唱片店，公諸同好。

五十至七十年代，貓王、披頭四等巨星湧現，音樂發展蓬 勃，是黑膠唱片最盛行、最輝煌及質素最好的時期，那時出產的黑膠唱片音質厚實鏗鏘，尤其五十年代以單聲道（mono）錄製的黑膠採用原聲，最原汁原味。直 至八十年代中後期，雷射唱片開始盛行，逐漸取代黑膠唱片，就算有生產商再生產黑膠，質素都已經大不如前，因為當中混入了很多數碼技術，製成品已沒有原裝的 味道，與原聲母帶相差極遠，識貨之人對這類黑膠大多都看不上眼，植海湛亦然。

他店內售賣的收藏全都是來自歐美國家的「頭版」黑膠唱片，所謂頭版，即生產商第一批壓印出來的唱片，聲線最貼近原聲母帶，一般出產量不多，所以極為罕有， 他多數從網上訂購，或由相熟的賣家為他預留而得來，他很少購買東南亞、甚至香港出產的黑膠唱片，「歐美碟的音響和錄音都高質得多，亞洲碟完全及不上。」他 幾乎每年都會到歐美國家旅行，每次都必定會在當地搜羅心頭好，當中以德國、瑞典收穫最豐富，「英國倫敦大學區、Notting Hill附近都有很多，試過見到賣一英鎊一張，那次足足掃了百多張。」

另類投資從未跌價

黑膠唱片買少見少，偏偏膠面唱片很容易就刮花，大大影響音質，所以他有時會同款唱片買兩張，一張收藏，一張「粗聽」，就算弄花了也不覺心痛，最瘋狂一次他 試過買了20張一樣的唱片，起初只打算收藏，但後來看見唱片價格大幅升值，十多年前以30元一張購入，現時已升值至1000元一張。他笑言多年來從未見過 黑膠唱片跌價，所以收藏的存貨可留待他日售賣，作為一樣另類的投資工具。

植海湛聽音樂的口味也隨着年紀而改變，由十多歲時聽披頭四、滾石樂隊，到 投身社會後改聽爵士樂，直到退休後開始着迷於古典樂，就是愛其旋律、配樂和諧優美，精神倍感放鬆。「古典類先係國際化」，玩音響年資同樣豐富的他，以數十 萬換音響配件是等閒事，現時更是一個音響牌子audio exotics的顧問，既有靚碟又有靚機，難怪他經常在晚飯後沉醉於黑膠世界之中，直至凌晨兩三點都不覺疲累。

日本頭版擁躉　James Tang

年近半百的James Tang十多歲開始聽黑膠唱片，黑膠齡接近40年，藏唱片量超過一萬張，「黑膠唱片唔係商品，而係一件古董藝術，透過黑膠先學到音樂的靈魂和味道。」他專 攻日本版黑膠唱片，「日本技術好，可以capture到studio的氣氛，每次聽就像把我帶回到以前的年代。」

識玩紅膠white label　尤如讀PhD

日本頭版黑膠全都是後期根據歐美頭版黑膠翻錄，但日本科技先進，他們有本事令到壓印出來的頭版碟不會破壞原聲，甚至比歐美原裝版本更好聲，原來日本人採用 130至140克的黑膠唱片，比歐美更厚更實淨，而且唱片上坑紋較深，這會直接影響到音質，加上他們每印5萬張就會換一個鋼模，製作極其認真，James 笑言：「這就是炸魚柳和壽司製作方法的分別。」

黑膠唱片都有分級數，頭版、初版、二版……頭版又分不同地區，James87年開始開店售賣，他最 欣賞的日本版黑膠及頭版唱片，連當中最罕有、最珍貴，屬非賣品的生產商樣本，俗稱紅膠white label唱片及只作日本內銷的頭版黑膠他都找到，「識玩頭版黑膠已經算係大學level，玩埋紅膠white label直情係PhD！」

藏量30萬的狂人　歐德成

說到黑膠唱片超級粉絲，相信無人及得上歐德成。擁有逾30萬隻黑膠珍藏的他，甚至把自己的容身之所變成黑膠的儲存倉和店面，他說：「聽黑膠就好似飲酒，用 玻璃杯同紙杯飲又點會一樣？」甫走進他約500呎的「家」，裏頭的收藏多得誇張，幾乎佔據了每一吋位置，為了黑膠，他不介意每晚睡在那條面積僅得20方呎 的通道，「冇乜所謂啦，瞓幾個鐘啫！」

越南華僑歐德成生於越南，40多年前僅得10歲時聽到鄰居用黑膠唱盤播歌，一聽上癮，直到七十年代來到香 港，他到唱片店打工，開始把薪金都奉獻在黑膠唱片上，現時的收藏超過30萬張。他甚至把自己心愛的哈利電單車賣掉，套現在屯門另租一個5000呎貨倉放置 珍藏。

看唱盤轉動　半天也不悶

只要是黑膠唱片，他幾乎甚麼類型的音樂都聽，貓王、貝多芬、薰妮、Beyond、甚至連兒歌都不放過，每日醒來後他都會把黑膠碟放到唱盤上，任由它轉動播 放，一直到夜深，「睇住個唱盤轉吓轉吓，十幾個鐘都唔會悶。」