Are 1U servers now considered blades?  This guy seems to think so.  And if that's the case, it might explain why blade purchases are increasing year over year.

In my book, a 1U is not a blade.  I suppose it would be *possible* to mount a blade into a 1U 'blade chassis', but what's the point?

This is a blade and you'll probably find some blades here and here.

Plus, blades just make no sense today, but I'm willing to be proven wrong.  They are so power dense that they don't make sense in any data center built today (except for maybe SwitchNap.)  We aren't space constrained, we're power constrained.  Packing more power into a small form factor doesn't make any sense.  Start making blades with the Intel Atom processor and then we can talk (well, assuming you attack the management issues too.)

This isn't even worth the fight.  Mr. President, please move on to bigger things.  This transition has been in the works for a long, long time.  Those that haven't seen it coming don't watch television anyway.

Thank you, drive through.

I got a pedometer in early August and I've tried to wear it every day.  I'm just trying to figure out how many steps I take on an average day.  Out of the 152 days for which I have stats, I have averaged 7307 steps per day which works out to 3.2 miles per day on average.

According to this site, men take an average of 7192 steps per day.  Now I know how it feels to be average.

If I add just a mile of walking per day that should get me over the 10,000 mark.

I was at Costco today picking up the usual lot of monster pack sundries when I spot a two pack of vanilla beans in their own test tubes.  Yes, that's right, vanilla beans in test tubes.  You might call them vials, but let's be real, they are test tubes.  5 beans per tube.  Those went into my cart so fast that there doesn't exist a time measurement device accurate enough to have measured it.  I once looked for test tubes long enough to store vanilla beans.  They all came up short.  I bought this as much for the test tubes as the vanilla beans. :)

How am I going to use these 10 vanilla beans?

- vanilla ice cream (who cares if it's winter!)

- poached pears

- vanilla sugar

- creme brulee

- hmmm

They are good until June.. hmm, I might have to go back and get some more..

I need a cat sitter for the holidays.  Dec 20 - Jan 4.  Anyone have a recommendation?

I have lots of vacation time stored up.  I pretty much need to take 4 weeks of vacation time next year in order to not lose it altogether.  I could take up to 8 weeks.  Here is where I need your help.  I need ideas on what to do, where to go, etc..  And if you'd like to come with, let me know!

Help!

Yesterday the strut tower reinforcement plates arrived for my Mini.  This seemed like a perfect Saturday project, especially when they claim "10 minute installation."  The included instructions say:

Tools Required:

 * Torque Wrench

 * Deep 9/16" Socket Wrench

I didn't have either.  I did a quick asking around to see if anyone had a Torque Wrench that I could borrow.  No luck.  A little look around the Intarwebs and I found that this torque wrench was a decent choice.  Sure, I could have splurged for the Digitork model, but come on, I'm going to use this thing once.

So it's off to Sears.  But hmm, the car is a bit dirty, maybe I should stop for a quick washing before I work on the car.  I found a car wash right next to Sears, and there was an online coupon code for $2 off.  Perfect.  I drive up and there are two other cars in front of me, figuring it might be a minute or two, I turned off the engine.  After a couple of minutes of just sitting there waiting an attendant came out and asked me to back up because the car wash somehow stopped for the car in the wash and they needed to back out.  Ok, no problem..  Then that car went through and the car in front of me enters the wash.  I pull up to the automated attendant and started to buy a wash.  Then the machine stopped again.  Another couple of minutes and the attendant came out again.  By now there were 6 cars waiting behind me.  We all had to back up again, let the machine reset and try again.  This time he tells me NOT to start to buy a wash because that will cause the machine to stop.  There are no signs saying that I shouldn't try to buy a wash while it's in use.  The automated attendant will happily let me start a transaction.  He says "This wash is on me because you've waited for so long."  Finally, the car is washed.

So it's off to Sears.  I walk in the door and I'm immediately lost.  I walked in the 'softer side' door.  I shake it off and look around for anything appearing to be tool like or a sign saying Craftsman.  Tools are in the basement.  That didn't take too long to find, but they sure do a good job of confusing people when they walk in the door.  So I start looking for sockets.  They were out of the torque wrench (even though the web site said that they had them in stock.)  Ok, it's a nice day, let's find another Sears.  I whipped out the iPhone and found out there was one in Hillsdale Mall.

So it's off to Sears.  This one looks almost like the last one so I make a B-Line for the basement.  They have both the Deep 9/16" Socket and the Torque Wrench...behind a locked door.  Luckily there is only one old dude in the checkout line and he's almost finished.  Ok, Torque Wrench and socket in hand!  Back home to do this 10 minute install.

I bring everything down to the garage and start removing the bolts on the strut towers.  I put the bolt adapters on then I notice that the bolts that hold everything down are kinda big.  Uh oh.  I do a quick check and I don't have the right socket!  It's not on the list of required tools either..  Old bolts back on, everything back upstairs.  Then I take a closer look at EVERY SINGLE PIECE in the kit.  I'm NOT making TWO more trips out.  Ok, I just need that one socket.

So it's off to Sears.  GAH, I don't want to go all the way back to Sears.  I've had my fill of Sears for the year.  Lowes! yes!!  There's a Lowe's kinda close by.  I stop by Lowe's and they have a socket that will work.  FINALLY, the last piece of the puzzle.  I must have hit 100 kph (ok, maybe it was mph, who can tell on these fancy speedometers) on the way home.

So it's back up stairs to get the parts and back down to start the work.  Now that all the pieces are here it should just take 10 minutes.  Which would have been about right if Brian and, uhh, oh crap, what's her name, stop by to chat.  They also have a Mini but have never heard of these strut towers mushrooming.  I explain to them that mine mushroomed and it cost $1,001.06 to fix and that they really need some of these strut tower reinforcement plates.

And so, that's how my 10 minute project took over 5 hours today.  I hope you've been more efficient on your Saturday.

I went to pick up supplies today from Whole Foods and their bulk spice rack is gone!  That was my favorite part of their market.  Today is a sad day.

They 'replaced' it with canned fruits.

UPDATE:  They didn't get rid of it, they just moved it next to the other bulk foods.  Yay!