Comments (3) Boring as usual, it’s all about Windows 8, non of the sales there have deep knowledge about Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V 3.0, the ones in front panel just non-stop blablablala…those noise really put me into sleep, except Microsoft promotion girls are always the center of the flash. 
I ended up leaving much early than expected, I am not going to attend this kind of seminar anymore in the future for sure, it’s a completely waste of my time.
True beauty always last forever ! To me, Audrey is always graceful no matter on screen or off screen.
早上又聽到了這首記憶猶新的歌，其實大約10年前就聽過陶哲現場的表演，說真的，當時沒什麼感覺。
但這首重新編排和由同樣是來自台灣的創作歌手Joanna Wang的全新演繹則給人一種截然不同的感覺，奇怪的是王若琳的聲音竟然帶有些美國R&B的獨特滄桑，不看樣子還真會以為是個黑人女歌手。
NO MORE vTax YEAH!!!
VMware finally has to face the truth: Sales Record is going Down and competitor Microsoft is chasing like a dog, almost onto its foot.
It’s a great start this week’s VMWorld 2012 by announcing the cancellation of vTax from VMW’s new CEO Pat Gelsinger and even the exiting CEO Paul Martiz said the vRam thing was indeed TOO COMPLICATED to implement.
So I am sure we will see 1TB/2TB ESX host to become a norm pretty soon and not to mention the cost per VM will be greatly driving down and become much more competitive than Hyper-V or XEN.
Bravo! It’s time to buy some more VMW now!
Finally, I can’t wait to attend the latest VMware conference in Hong Kong and experience those exciting new features from ESX 5.1!
PS. Congratulations to Equallogic, they have won The Finalist of the Category New Technology in VMworld 2012 Awards.
Update: Sep 10, 2012
VMware vRAM still in place for VSPPs
VMware isn’t completely “striking the word vRAM from the vocabulary of the vDictionary,” as CEO Pat Gelsinger said at VMworld. The controversial pricing model will still apply to those running vSphere in public clouds.Participants in the VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP) will continue to charge according to the amount of memory allocated per virtual machine (VM). Some service providers said they have no major problems with vRAM licensing and pricing because it aligns well with the public cloud’s pay-per-use business model.
“We’re fairly happy with where we are right now,” said Pat O’Day, chief technology officer of VSPP partner BlueLock LLC.
But a West Coast-based VSPP partner said VMware vRAM can put VSPPs at a disadvantage against other service providers, especially when it comes to high-density hosts.
“We’re seeing a lot of large service providers and industry players moving off of VMware and into open source … and that’s putting competitive pressure on us,” said the partner, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
How VMware vRAM works for VSPPs
The VMware vRAM allocation limits for VSPPs are different from those abolished at VMworld, which were for business customers purchasing vSphere. For VSPPs, vRAM is capped at 24 GB of reserved memory per VM, and VSPPs are charged for at least 50% of the memory they reserve for each VM.
Also, unlike with the licenses for private organizations, VSPP vRAM is not associated with a CPU-based entitlement, and it does not require the purchase of additional licenses to accommodate memory pool size limits.
The infrastructure for BlueLock Virtual Datacenters runs on Hewlett-Packard servers, packing in 512 GB of RAM each. VMware licensing is a very small percentage of BlueLock’s overall costs, O’Day said. Given the 24 GB per VM cap, the company could probably add even more RAM to each server, O’Day said.
“But that’s not worth disrupting our business model to do,” he added.
VSPPs’ VMware vRAM reactionsVMware discontinued the wildly unpopular vRAM licensing and pricing model for business customers after more than a year of discontent. Some VSPPs worried the move away from vRAM on the enterprise side would also affect their businesses, according to an email one VSPP software distributor sent to service provider clients.
“We have received feedback from quite a few partners who have expressed concern to us over the announcement that VMware is moving away from vRAM,” the distributor said in the email, which was obtained by SearchCloudComputing.com. “The question to a person seems to be, ‘How does this impact me as a VSPP partner whose billing is completely based around vRAM?’ The answer is, not at all.”
But the West Coast partner, who received that email, said the cost of memory on high-density hosts can eat into VSPPs’ margins or force VSPPs to pass the costs on to end-user customers. This partner offers services including hosted virtual desktops that don’t run on VMware View, and vRAM can cost as much as $7 per gigabyte under this model.
“If you’re trying to provision a desktop with four gigabytes of RAM … the memory alone is $30,” the partner said. “You’re at a significant disadvantage as the market tries to bring the price down.”
Furthermore, the complexity of the licensing model makes it difficult to set the monthly costs of vRAM based on usage, the partner said.
“You basically hand VMware your wallet and let them take whatever they want,” the partner added. “… The pricing is so complicated, we have no way to estimate how much we’re going to pay VMware at the end of the month.”
In a blog post discussing the continuation of vRAM for VSPPs, VMware said the vRAM model allows service providers to sell more computing capability from the same infrastructure, and to control the memory oversubscription and service profit margin through allocated vRAM delivered to customers.
VMware vRAM timeline
July 2011: VRAM licensing and pricing model announced at vSphere 5 launch.
Aug. 2011: VMware increases vRAM limits in response to complaints.
Aug. 2012: At VMworld, VMware eliminates vRAM licensing and pricing for business customers.
It’s one of its kind among the rarest ones, I’ve seen it on TW once, but no longer for sell available now.
I’ve finally got a chance to test drive this POG LB MidPlus (100) yesterday, it belongs to my tennis friend’s collection, he bought this racket from the States about 10 years ago.
Somehow, it’s quite stiff than the usual POG Oversize, very powerful, lots of spin, but I still can’t really manage to hit the center well, probably due to it’s 28 inches length.It feels very much close to Michael Chang’s long body (the blue one with signature) but even heavier.
I noticed this POG LB comes with one green line stripe deco than 4 stripes on the normal POG and “GRAPHITE LB” printed on the stabilizer bar instead of “GRAPHITE”.
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清末創辦的南洋兄弟煙草後人簡永楨，銅鑼灣加路連山道孔聖堂就是他家族在1935年捐出的，他也是土地發展顧問公司的老闆，去年舉辦攝影展時，老朋友郭炳江也來撐場。他鍾情收集 Leica相機，同一款式他買兩部，一部用一部儲，放在家也放在保險庫收藏，相機與鏡頭共有240多件，連全球只有三部的 Luxus Hektor都是他的收藏之一。
記者：黃碧珊
攝影：梁志永
儘管市場不斷有新功能新款式的相機推出，每當問攝影發燒友他們的 Dream Camera是甚麼，相信十個有十個也會答是 Leica。因為 Leica在1925年推出的相機，奠定現代35mm相機基礎，現時大部份相機沿用這規格，而且是專業全畫幅（ full frame）相機中最細的。
1961年，簡永楨十多歲時，父親要送他一部相機，並讓他自己選擇品牌及型號，結果他揀了輕巧的 Leica M3，自此愛上攝影也愛上 Leica，「當時僅從外形上選擇」。淺水灣酒店及沙田龍華酒店等，變成他的練習勝地， Leica拍攝出來的照片對比效果突出，機身又耐用，從一而終變成 Leica收藏家。對簡永楨而言最有紀念價值的當然是昔日父親所贈的 M3，對此型號有份特別感情，不同款式的紀念版收藏他逾十部。汶萊蘇丹登基銀禧紀念時，特別訂製送給賓客的鍍金 M6，則買了兩部相連獨立編號，「一部用來珍藏，一部使用。」
相機及鏡頭各約120件，簡永楨擁有共240多件 Leica產品，「部份會放在家中，有些則儲存於可容納四個人的大型銀行保險庫。」每次打算買新機前也要到家中或保險庫翻一翻，確認從前沒買過那個型號。 簡永楨擁有多本不同版本的「天書」，記錄了 Leica歷年推出的相機及鏡頭。訪問時，我問他展示的相機是哪年出品，他便按機身編號，從天書查出來，「這本1994年版本，是一個已故賣舊相機的英國 朋友有份製作，並送了一本給我；與官方版本最大的分別是，按罕有程度評分。」由 R1至 R10，評分越高越為特別。
今年5月在維也納拍賣會，標 誌 Leica首部面世經典相機、至今僅存12部的測試用途原型0系相機，便以全球相機成交價紀錄216萬歐元（約2159萬港元）拍賣，在天書中的評級是最 高級的 R10。「我沒有最高級的 Leica，但有 R8或 R9級別的。」雖然拒絕透露藏品的價值，但一部 R9級別的軍用 M1現時巿價約13.5萬元。他帶來其中11項珍藏讓我見識，7部相機及4個鏡頭的價值，都肯定超越記者的身家了。
他的辦公室掛滿他拍的旅遊照片。「六十年代可以去外國旅行是一件興奮的事，記得當時去日本也帶着部 M3。」數碼機 M9，菲林機 M6 MP、 R7、 R6.2及首部擁有的 M3都是他現時常用的旅行機，「通常只帶一部相機及一支廣角鏡」。前年去伊朗帶了兩部相機及數支鏡頭，算是最大陣仗了。
平日工作滿是工程的規劃計算，旅遊時簡永楨喜歡拍靜態環境，他笑說：「我是個感性的人。」鍾愛充滿古物、古蹟或大自然的地方，像敍利亞、伊朗、秘魯、不丹等較古樸國家，就算已發展國家也選擇到鄉郊之地，如法國酒莊、澳洲大紅石等。
前年年底，簡永楨到墨西哥看瑪雅遺址，以 M9配上24/1.4廣角鏡，拍攝數百幅相片，部份照片加上瑪雅文化的闡述印製成書，並舉辦影展。
他的公司就是他的長期展覽場，接待處、影印間、走廊、甚至員工的開放式辦公室，也掛滿他的作品，「沒有機會經常旅行，看着照片可回味當時情況。」當是在講求急速無誤的辦公室裏，留有一點空間抒發他的感性。
