I've noticed that some apps I have downloaded on my iOS devices from the App Store are supported by ads. Although I used to be 100% anti-ad, I see the value since I use ads in a limited capacity myself. I have also noticed a few apps that offer the option to remove ads with an in-app purchase. If you're an app developer and you use ads, please offer an option to remove them with an in-app purchase. That would be wonderful. If it's not there, I probably won't use your app. I'm happy to pay for no ads.
VMware Fusion 5 and VMware Workstation 9 Released
VMware introduced two new products this week, one is VMware Fusion 5 and the other is VMware Workstation 9. Both products add some great new features but the most interesting is a new flavor of VMware Fusion in the form of VMware Fusion 5 Professional. As expected, a new addition to either variety of VMware Fusion 5 is Mountain Lion Support. Also as expected Windows 8 is supported in both flavors of VMware Fusion 5 and also VMware Workstation 9.
Read moreSilverStone ST45SF-G is First Gold Rated Modular SFX Power Supply
A power supply is always a critical part of any system. My experience in the last year with Seasonic X-series Gold-rated power supplies has been excellent but there is one deficiency in Seasonic's lineup. SilverStone has been making very good power supplies but I have been holding off on purchasing one until now because a new model perfectly fits a need I have.
Read moreFar more could be done to stop the deadly bacteria C. diff →
Since my wife has some significant immune deficiencies, any time she has to go into the hospital is very, very risky. This article is just a reminder of how bacteria and viruses are getting worse and worse. If you don't have to be in the hospital, you really don't ever want to be.
Are You Reading Lobste.rs? →
There is a new news site in town that has already become my de facto place to read tech news. Lobste.rs was founded by Joshua Stein as a response to getting banned from Hacker News. I never liked Hacker News very much but Lobste.rs is fantastic! It is invite only to avoid spam. If you need an invite, let me know.
This is also my first link log post. If you don't know what that is, you probably haven't read The Daring Fireball Linked List or Marco.org. You can differentiate link log posts by the arrow following the title. You can still link to the individual post here by clicking on the date rather than the title.
OpenBSD/sparc64 and root on softraid(4)
I came across a puzzling dilemma today as I was provisioning some Sun Fire V120 servers for some tests. Although somewhat old now, a 650MHz Sun Fire V120 with 3GB of memory does just fine for a lot of tasks like DNS, some basic mail processing, and static web content. One of the dilemmas I have faced in the past was running two disks in a RAID mirror. OpenBSD has had softraid(4) for quite a while but OpenBSD 5.1 adds support for the root filesystem on softraid(4) for amd64, i386, and sparc64 systems. There was only one problem.
Read moreBuilding Your Own Minecraft Server: Putting It All Together
I previously covered several different hardware builds for building your own Minecraft server. Martin, a good friend of mine, decided to go with the "Premium Mini-ITX Build" I had outlined. He is the person I had mentioned who introduced me to Minecraft to begin with. Martin and a few others have been working together on a very impressive Minecraft world. Especially for creative purposes, Minecraft becomes much more fun when you can all work together on amazing creations.
Read moreIvy Bridge Motherboards: Asus Maximus V Gene and a new Workstation
As I covered in the previous article about my first Ivy Bridge motherboard, the Asus Sabertooth Z77, the Ivy Bridge upgrade is more significant for the motherboard chipsets than for the processors themselves. Today, we are looking at the Asus Maximus V Gene, a Micro ATX board that is part of the Republic of Gamers series.
Read moreSilverStone FT03-Mini Set to be the Mini-ITX Case to Beat
Although the form factor has its limitations, I continue to be fascinated with Mini-ITX systems. The newest Mini-ITX premium case is the SilverStone FT03-Mini. It has a similar but more compact form factor to the Micro ATX SilverStone FT03. I never ended up purchasing the FT03 but the FT03 Mini is on the top of my list. This morning, the FT03-Mini models showed up in stock at Newegg.
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Building Your Own Minecraft Server: Hardware
A friend of mine introduced me to Minecraft about a year ago. It's a very interesting and creative game. It's a fun activity with our oldest son since you can build all sorts of amazing structures in the game. Most everyone I've played with likes the creative mode which is all about building and does not involve any monsters. In any case, if you are not familiar with the game, you can find out all about it at Minecraft.net
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