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By admin, October 16, 2011 10:21 pm

今天早上才得知海運大廈Maserati Car Show將會展出最新的GranCabrio Sport和全球只有50台的MC12﹐馬上動身去拍個夠。果然MC12完全把GranCabrio Sport的艷光遮蓋﹐成為全場的焦點所在﹗

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By admin, October 13, 2011 1:42 pm

最近用了整整2個星期的時間瘋狂地研究了好多美式肌肉的歷史和款式。最喜歡的還是那些60年代末期﹐70年代初的那堆經典如Chevrolet Camaro, Pontiac GTO﹑Dodge Challenger/Charger, Plymouth Cuda/Road Runner, Ford Mustang等等。

之前就有啟蒙車模朋友咬牙切齒地說過我遲早都一定會掉進美式肌肉坑的﹐現在還真不幸被“言中”了。

生產美式肌肉車的廠商大多數都是這幾間﹕GMP(金融還嘯後倒閉了﹐太可惜了)﹑Highway 61 (Super Car Collectibles)﹑ERTL和American Muscle Collectibles﹐質量也是按照這個順序﹐以GMP的做工最好。

後來發現這些年來美式肌肉的車模已經出了太多款式﹐越找就越發現美國肌肉車的文化實在太博大精深了﹐只是一般亞洲和歐洲的車模迷們都忽略了美式肌肉的這塊瑰寶。

所以只能挑精的﹐年份定于自己最喜歡的1968到1972年間的款式為主﹐目標明確後﹐就好找了。至少不能是狗腿們﹐一下子就把ERTL和American Muscle Collectibles全部剔除了﹐剩下的GMP和Highway 61裡面挑啊挑﹐最終百裡挑一﹐終于鎖定了以下這3款﹐它們正在運輸路途中。

首先GMP橙色的1970年Pontiac GTO第一版真的要多謝新加坡的Allan大哥割愛。然後另一台黃色的1970 Dodge Challenger R/T 440 Six Pack更是稀罕絕版之物﹐最近更榮升為我的第二最愛Muscle Car﹐第一當然還是67/68年野馬﹐最後盾那台橙色的是2006年Dodge Challenger HEMI概念版本。

另外最近在本地也用極合理的價格收到了另一台銀色的GMP 1972 Le Man GTO Convertible﹐現在只差紅白間GMP的Camaro Street Fighter了﹐以後有機會一定會收。

1/18 GMP (gmp8041) Pontiac GTO Judge Orbit Orang 1970 (Limited 3000, 2001)

1/18 Highway61 (H50469) Dodge Challenger R/T Banana Yellow 440 1970

1/18 Highway61 (H50502) Dodge Challenger R/T Concept Red HEMI 2006

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By admin, October 13, 2011 1:12 pm

Interesting there is a 10 years glass ceiling, it was never mentioned in their web site I guess.

If you open a license file with notepad, you will see that there are two expiration dates: one for support and one for the product. Each license is issued for 10 years, so if your support expires, you can use an existing installation until the product expiration date is reached. You will not, however, be eligible for support and product upgrades.

Thanks,
Andrey Beck
Veeam Software Support

Comments (2)

By admin, October 13, 2011 12:28 pm

今天看到MC論壇有兄弟貼出了第十屆中國國際玩具及模型展覽會的最新車模預告﹐以下是我個人的一點心得﹕

- AA的Mustang 2010﹕希望不會又是個換殼不換芯的變種特工﹐我最近買了個風火輪精細版的紅白色GT500﹐就是看中了它鏤空的前引擎入氣口﹐淘寶價才$280 ﹐性價比AA高了很多分。

- AA的Aston Martin V12 Vantage﹕因為自己接受不了V12 Vantage這種畫蛇添足﹐完全破壞了原先V8 Vantage的高雅美感。V12引擎蓋子上那堆好像黑色昆虫的物體令我馬上聯想到經典恐怖科幻片“異形”裡的相似場面﹐簡直就是難看的要命。記得上回看Top Gear的主持人Jeremy在夕陽中開著那台V12 Vantage﹐一路嘆息這類心愛超跑將會很快在消失人間﹐因為歐盟即將推出對大排放量的超跑提出更嚴格的管制。

另外銀色的DB5之前已經講過﹐除了狗腿有改進之外﹐其它一概停留在幾年前的工藝上﹐且不提模具勞損﹐縫隙太大的弊病。

- AA的Lamborghini Countach系列看來沒戲了﹐我們等來的居然不是紅色和銀色25週年紀念版本。這幾款預告的版本跟京商相比之下﹐除了那液壓桿之外沒有任何進步﹐但價格一定會在一倍以上。另外之前還在其它玩具展覽裡看到AA即將推出的那一眾極為誇張的Countach版本﹐如美版在車頭加上了難看的保險杆和尾巴排氣管多達10個之多的怪物等實在不敢恭維。唉﹐無它﹐京商多年前就已經把準則設的太高﹐除非你實在沒辦法或者之前錯過了。AA這次來的太遲了﹐難怪古語有雲“既生瑜，何生亮﹖”

- AA的Alfa Romeo TZ 1963﹕無論是TZ或者是TZ2都有抄襲法拉利250GTO的嫌疑﹐所以它們未能引起我的購買意慾。反而那台謠傳已久的Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale Prototype 1967完全令我心魂顛倒。

- JAGUAR E-TYPE﹕看來AA這季度最有機會成功的便是這一系列的經典英國國寶。今年適逢JAGUAR E-TYPE 50週年紀念﹐再加上車迷們等SERIES I 3.8/SERIES II 4.2等到的脖子都長了(5年了吧)﹐希望可以在年底前成功收到紅色開篷的SERIES I 3.8(必收色和款)﹑米色開篷的SERIES II 4.2(70年代法國情色電影艾曼妞中的跑車)和黑色的硬頂SERIES I 3.8。

73601  JAGUAR E-TYPE ROADSTER JAGUAR E-TYPE ROADSTER SERIES I 3.8 (RED)
73603  JAGUAR E-TYPE ROADSTER JAGUAR E-TYPE ROADSTER SERIES I 3.8 (CREAM)
73611  JAGUAR E-TYPE COUPE SERIE JAGUAR E-TYPE COUPE SERIES I 3.8 (BLACK) (RHD) 

73581  JAGUAR E-TYPE ROADSTER JAGUAR E-TYPE ROADSTER SERIES II 4.2 (RED)
73582  JAGUAR E-TYPE ROADSTER JAGUAR E-TYPE ROADSTER SERIES II 4.2 (CREAM) 

至于捷豹XJ-S白色硬頂及敞篷版﹐我已經有Minichamps的1比43白色版本﹐所以應該不會收了﹐除非AA推出最好看的紅色XJ-S敞篷版(73572)。

- 最後不得不提的是那個半路殺出個程咬金的最大驚喜﹗WELLY將會推出Bentley Continental Supersport﹐看來Bentley終于肯放手把車模牌照發放給幾家(JADA Paragon和WELLY)﹐不在是Minichamps的專利了﹐這是個好事﹐因為之前AA獨大發生不愉快的亂加價事件真的令人很反感﹐市場有競爭才有進步﹐這絕對是件好事。

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By admin, October 12, 2011 11:13 pm

The following is from the latest October Equallogic newsletter:

How will installing Dell EqualLogic Multipathing Extension Module (MEM) for MPIO on my ESXi hosts affect the number of iSCSI connections in an EqualLogic pool?

The interesting answer to this question is for most the number of connections will increase but for a few it will go down.  The key to understanding the number of iSCSI connections created by MEM are the following variables:

• The number of ESX hosts you have
• The number of vmkernel ports assigned for iSCSI on each ESX server
• The number of EqualLogic members in the pool
• The number of volumes in the EqualLogic pool being accessed from the ESXi hosts
• The MEM parameter settings

The MEM is designed to provide many enhancements over the VMware vSphere Round Robin multipathing and standard fixed path functionality including – automatic connection management, automatic load balancing across multiple active paths, increased bandwidth, and reduced network latency.  However, before installing the MEM you should evaluate and understand how the number of iSCSI connections will change in your environment and plan accordingly. In some cases it may be necessary to adjust the MEM parameter settings from the defaults to avoid exceeding the array firmware limits.

The MEM parameters are listed below.  You’ll notice each parameter has a default, minimum and maximum value.  What we’ll go over in this note is how to determine if the default values are suitable values for your environment and if not, what values are suitable for your environment to ensure that the total iSCSI connections to the EqualLogic pool remains below the EqualLogic pool iSCSI connection limit.

Single EqualLogic Array in Pool

Let’s start with a simple example – a four node ESXi cluster with 4 vmkernel ports on each host.  Those hosts all connect to 30 volumes on an EQL pool and that pool has a single EQL array. For each individual ESXi host the following variables effect how many connections MEM creates: 

So the first step in our ESXi host connection math is to get some subvalues from these parameters we’ll call X, Y and Z.

X = [Lesser of (# of vmkernel ports) or (membersessions parameter value)]

Y = [# of volumes connected to by this ESXi host]

Z = [Lesser of ((# of arrays in pool) or (volumesessions/membersessions)]

We then use X, Y and Z to calculate the total MEM sessions for one ESXi host using the formula below.

Total iSCSI Sessions from ESXi host = [Lesser of (X * Y  *  Z)  or (totalsessions MEM parameter value)]

So in this particular scenario X = 2 (the membersessions MEM parameter value),   Y = 30 (# of volumes connected to by this ESXi host) and Z = 1 (the # of arrays in the pool).  So for one ESXi host in this scenario we have a total of 60 iSCSI connections.  Since 60 is less than the totalsessions MEM parameter limit of 512 the MEM will create all 60 connections on this ESXi host.

We have 4 ESXi hosts in our environment this EQL array will have a total of 240 (4 x 60) connections from those ESXi hosts.   

Why would I get less iSCSI connections with MEM?

Let’s go back to our statement that some environments you may have less connections with MEM than with VMware vSphere Round Robin multipathing.  Typically this will only happen if you have a single member group and when the number of vmkernel ports is more than the membersessions MEM parameter.  In our original example we had four vmkernel ports so with VMWare fixed VMware vSphere Round Robin multipathing you would have four connections to each volume.  When you install MEM it will look at the membersessions MEM parameter and change the number of connections to the default of 2 connections per volume.

You may be concerned that changing from four connections per volume to two connections per volume might have a performance impact but this is usually not true. MEM will use all four VMkernel ports for the various volumes but just not use all vmkernel ports for all volumes. In addition, the EqualLogic array connection load balancing will keep the network load on each individual array port balanced out as evenly as possible.

Add Additional EqualLogic Arrays in Pool

Let’s say your environment grows and you need more storage capacity.  Let’s add another two EqualLogic arrays to that single member pool in our original example.   The volumes in the pool will now spread out over all three arrays. That is, there is a “slice” of the volume on each of the three arrays.  Now the 3^rd MEM parameter – volumesessions – comes into play.  MEM will create 2 connections (membersessions default) to each of the three arrays that have a slice of the volume. MEM is aware of what portion of each volume is on each array so these connections allow it to more efficiently pull volume data down to the ESX server. Standard ESX MPIO doesn’t know about the EqualLogic volume structure so it can’t be as efficient as MEM.

The only parameter that changes in the table from the first example is the number of arrays which increases from 1 to 3.

So let’s get our subvalues X, Y and Z for the situation where there are 3 arrays rather than just one:

X = [Lesser of (# of vmkernel ports) or (membersessions parameter value)]  = 2

Y = [# of volumes connected to by this ESXi host] = 30

Z = [Lesser of ((# of arrays in pool) or (volumesessions/membersessions)] 

= (3) or (6/2)

 = 3

So   X * Y * Z = 180 connections per ESXi host in this example.  180 is less than the totalsessions limit of 512 so MEM will create a total of 180 connections from each ESXi host. 

We have 4 ESXi hosts in our environment this EQL array will have a total of 720 (4 x 180) connections from those ESXi hosts.   720 total connections is within the limits for a PS6xxx series array but is well over the connection limit for a PS4xxx series pool.  However, if any additional expansion of the environment occurs – such as adding two additional ESXi hosts – the session count will now be 1080. So in some circumstances we may need to make some adjustments in the MEM parameters or array group configuration to optimize our configuration.   We’ll talk about that in the next section.
Planning the Number of iSCSI Connections

So if you have done your math and see that you’re getting near the array firmware limits for connections how do can you alter the number of connections?  There are several choices for this including:

• reduce the number of volumes per pool
• reduce the number of ESX servers that connect to each volume
• move some of the EQL arrays/volumes to another pool
• reduce the membersessions MEM parameter limit on each ESX server
• reduce the volumesessions MEM parameter limit on each ESX serer
• reduce the totalsessions MEM parameters limit on each ESX server.

Remember when you’re doing your math that you also need to include any connections from non-ESXi hosts when deciding if you’re going to exceed the array iSCSI connection limit.

As we’ve seen a little bit of planning will help you keep the iSCSI connections to your EqualLogic pool at an optimal level.

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By admin, October 11, 2011 10:59 am

自己90年代初Ayrton Senna走後就再沒關心過F1的賽事﹐記得小時候還很用心的做過一台他Marlboro紅白拉花1:24的F1賽車。

兩年前的一天﹐在小區商場附近偶然發現有幾個漂亮的MM在派免費飲料﹐嘗試了一口可能是我人生唯一的一次紅牛(直至現在都沒再喝過)。之後在MM們的慫恿下﹐還傻乎乎的跟後面的F1照了張即影即有的相片﹐仔細觀察﹐今天才發現後面還有兩個好像很專業的F1技術老外。

恍如隔世﹐原來紅牛車隊現在已經在F1賽場上鼎鼎大名﹐如日方中﹗

P.S. 咦怎麼最近朋友見到我都說我玩車模後“苗條”了不少﹐看來一定是給車魔折磨的利害。

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By admin, October 10, 2011 1:25 pm

近年來印度寶萊塢好戲連場﹐大有取代香港作為東方Hollywood之勢。之前2008年的Slumdog Millionaire叫好叫座﹐但另一套3 Idiots卻遲了3年才在香港上演。

我其實有點排斥印度式的胡鬧搞笑歌舞戲﹐看了這套片子的前半部份﹐差點沒放棄。原來精彩的部份是從下半部份才爆發出來﹐裡面有血有淚﹐有情有義﹐整套片的意寓深長﹐對東方家長式的傳統教育做出了有力的諷刺。

這是套很值得中國家長反省的片子。子女大學選科到底是為了自己的興趣還是純粹為了滿足家長自己對下一代的期望。

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By admin, October 10, 2011 12:36 pm

I wouldn’t say it’s professional to be exact, but somehow their words between the lines did reveal the truth.

Btw, I love both products and using both in my client’s environment, both has its advantage and disadvantage. IMOP, I would say Veeam is the leader in virtual world and Acronis continues to be the leader in physical or within each vm as it allows more granular restore requirements.

The whole flight is that Anton was pissed about Sergey mentioning their own method of running VM from backup image directly via NFS and not to say a word about this feature was in fact invented by Veeam in the first place. (ie, Copycat from Acronis)

At the end it seemed to be Anton from Veeam vs Sergey from Acronis, fight start, Round 1, KO!

Sergey Kandaurov wrote:

In vmProtect we offer an alternative solution which can effectively replicate replication in most scenarios: a virtual machine can be started directly from a compressed and deduped backup. It only takes several seconds, sometimes up to a minute to create virtual NFS share, mount it to ESXi host, register and power on the VM.

Anton Respond:

You only forgot to mention that this feature was originally invented by Veeam, has been available as a part of Veeam Backup & Replication for 1 year now, and is patent-pending (as you are well aware). While it is a smart thing to copy the leader (not for long though), I think you should at least be fair to the inventor, and should have referenced us (in this topic about Veeam), instead of making it look like something you guys have unique to replace your missing replication with.

Nevertheless, back to your replication comment, I must mention that you seem to completely lack any understanding of when and how replication is used in disaster recovery. Replicas are to be used when your production VMware environment goes down, which means you cannot even run your appliance (vmProtect can only run on VMware infrastructure, and does not support being installed on standalone physical server, am I correct)? Also, even if your appliance is somehow magically able to work after VMware environment or production storage disaster, I would love to see it running a few dozens of site’s VMs through NFS server, the disk I/O performance of those VMs, and how they will be meeting their SLAs. You clearly still have a lot to learn about replication and production environments, if you are positioning vPower as an alternative to replication.

I would have never replied to you, because I generally avoid vendor battles on public forums, just like I avoid advertizing Veeam products on these forums (instead, I only respond to specific questions, comments or remarks about Veeam). With thousands of daily visitors on Veeam’s own forums, I have a place to talk about my stuff. But this one looked so very special, I just could not pass it. First, clearly your only intent and sole purpose of registering on these forums a few days ago was to advertize your solution (which is NOT the purpose of these forums). Not a good start already, however, it would be understandable if you created the new topic. But instead, you have chosen the topic where OP is asking about the two very specific solutions (assume you found it by searching for Veeam), and crashed the party with blatant advertizement paired with pure marketing claims having nothing in common with reality. And that was
really hard to let go, I am sorry.

Why, instead, you have decided to go with 100% copycat of Veeam’s patent-pending, virtualization-specific archicture, which is nowhere near what you have patented? No need to answer, I perfectly realize that this was because your patented approach simply would not work with virtualization, as in-guest logic is not virtualization aware – so things like Storage VMotion (which is essential to finalize VM recovery), would not produce the desired results if you went that route.

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By admin, October 9, 2011 12:37 pm

今天發現我在MC論壇的帖子“我的瘋狂1/18收藏經歷”自2009年中開貼以來﹐至今已經超過了10萬的閱覽次數﹐看來還是有不少朋友捧場的﹐謝謝大家的欣賞﹐希望我的收藏經歷分享真的可以帶給大家快樂和對車模的熱愛﹗

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By admin, October 7, 2011 3:37 pm

最令我感觸的是在第二節11分50秒的時候﹐姐姐緩緩地道出了她和哥哥的一段難忘經歷。

世事變幻無常﹐往事已矣﹑人事全非﹐無奈哥哥已經隨風而去﹐只留下佳人對他的無限依稀懷念。

嫁為人婦淡出銀幕17年后的知名女星林青霞，近日又翩然轉身，以作家的身份出現在眾人面前。18日下午，林青霞現身北大百年講堂，為新書《窗里窗外》舉行內地首發座談會。而為她站台的兩位則是華語電影界的大人物，徐克和姜文。 　

現場，一向霸气外露的姜文導演不僅親自為林美人擔任主持人，更在言談中連連贊嘆林青霞魅力依舊。而香港怪才導演徐克不但甘當綠葉，為青霞串場主持，更在姜文的慫恿下，与林青霞共同哼唱起黃沾的經典名曲《滄海一聲笑》。　

發布會最后，徐克姜文送上了兩人合作的一幅毛筆字：窗里人間事，窗外林上春。