tom-yager
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A look into Time Machine
Tom Yager, one of my favorite tech writers, has posted a great overview of how Time Machine works in Leopard. Imagine my surprise to find out that Apple's backup solution doesn't involve a Flux Capacitor of any kind! It does, however, involve lots of file copying, and clever disk space saving measures. Tom answers some questions about how much work you'll lose if you need to restore from a Time Machine backup (given the nature of how Time Machine saves files that answer varies depending on how far back you need to go). He also sheds some light on what, exactly, Time Machine is doing.If you love your data, you should read this post.
Leopard, 'a beautiful upgrade' says Tom Yager
Tom Yager is a big time geek, and I mean that in the best way possible. As the ' InfoWorld Test Center chief technologist' he gets his hands on all kinds of cool tech, and has used more OSes than most people ever dreamed of (heck, most people would be hard pressed to name more than 2 OSes, but that is beside the point). I point all this out because Tom knows what he is talking about, and recently he was moved to talk about Leopard.Tom calls Leopard 'a beautiful upgrade,' and in no uncertain terms lauds it as the best OS choice out there. He goes as far as saying that Leopard is more important than the iPhone, which I actually agree with. Read the full post to get even more excited about Friday.
Mac Pro, MacBook Pro win InfoWorld 2007 Tech honors
InfoWorld just released their 2007 Technology of the Year Awards, which cover technologies that were the best of 2006, and Apple has made a strong showing. The Mac Pro snagged Best Desktop/Workstation while the MacBook Pro took Best Notebook honors.InfoWorld also has an article up by Tom Yager that chronicles Apple's very smooth Intel transition. When I think about how well Apple handled the transition, and the number of developers who jumped on the Intel bandwagon so quickly, I am amazed.
Turn your Xserve into two machines
Not literally, of course, but Tom Yager writes that he has been able to replace two of his Windows servers with one Xserve, running Windows 2003. How has he accomplished this feat? By the good graces of Parallels Desktop and the wonders of virtualization. Tom promises to give more details about his setup, but he claims that the 3 servers running on his Xserve (one OS X, 2 Windows 2003) are smokin'.Tom Yager is a big fan of the Xserve, but I have to wonder about the wisdom of running enterprise level software in a consumer oriented virtualization product. I know I wouldn't be comfortable running any mission critical servers in Parallels since it is missing many enterprise level options that industrial strength virtualization solutions offer, and rightfully so. Parallels is working on a server version of their software, though I don't know if they plan on supporting OS X. Their website mentions running Windows, Linux, OS/2 or FreeBSD on the host machine, though they don't say what OS the host machine has to run.
Tom Yager reviews the new Xserve
The Xserve, the jewel in Apple's enterprise crown. We all know that Apple missed their target ship date, but that's ok if you believe what Tom Yager is saying. His two part review (part one, part two) paints a picture of a near perfect 1U server that is more than capable of handling most jobs. Tom does warn that if you are just looking at the list of parts that make up the Xserve you won't see the full picture. As with all Macs the Xserve is more than its components, it is also the software that is running on it. All Xserves come with Mac OS X Server 10.4 Unlimited-Client Edition at no extra cost, and once you power it on this thing is ready to go.Now, Tom mentions that this isn't a perfect server and if you're looking only at numbers you can build on for yourself at a cheaper price, but you'll be missing out on all the nice touches: the OS, the mix and match hard drives, the large number of Firewire and USB ports, and so much more.
Tom Yager on the new Xserve
How I love servers. It seems that Tom Yager might love them more than I do. He waxes eloquently about the newly redesigned Intel Xserve. Sure, it may look the same on the outside (for the most part) but on the inside this beast is new, and completely modular. Popping out the fans, switching out the motherboard, and getting at the RAM is an exercise in simplicity, according to Tom. I can't wait to get my hands on one, though I imagine it'll be awhile before anyone lets me near their Xserve.
