Virtualization as a concept is not new; computational environment virtualization has been around since the first mainframe systems. But recently, the term “virtualization” has become ubiquitous, representing any type of process obfuscation where a process is somehow removed from its physical operating environment. Because of this ambiguity, virtualization can almost be applied to any and all parts of an IT infrastructure. For example, mobile device emulators are a
form of virtualization because the hardware platform normally required to run the mobile operating system has been emulated, removing the OS binding from the hardware it was written for. But this is just one example of one type of virtualization; there are many definitions of the term “virtualization” floating around in the current lexicon, and all (or at least most) of them are correct, which can be quite confusing.
Before considering any type of data center virtualization, it’s important to define what technology or category of service you’re trying to virtualize. Generally speaking, virtualization falls into three categories:
Operating System, Storage, and Applications.
These categories are very broad and don’t adequately delineate the key aspects of data center virtualization. It’s helpful to distill these broader categories into specific categories to thoroughly understand the differences (and similarities) between the definitions of virtualization.
Operating System Virtualization
The most prevalent form of virtualization today, virtual operating systems (or virtual machines) are quickly becoming a core component of the IT infrastructure. Generally, this is the form of virtualization end-users are most familiar with. Virtual machines are typically full implementations of standard operating systems, such as Windows XP, Vista, 7 or RedHat Enterprise Linux, running simultaneously on the same physical hardware.
Virtual Machine Managers (VMMs) manage each virtual machine individually; each OS instance is unaware that 1) it’s virtual and 2) that other virtual operating systems are (or may be) running at the same time. Companies like Microsoft, VMware, Intel, and AMD are leading the way in breaking the physical relationship between an operating system and its native hardware, extending this paradigm into the data center. As the primary driving force, data center consolidation is bringing the benefi ts of virtual machines to the mainstream market, allowing enterprises to reduce the number of physical machines in their data centers without reducing the number of underlying applications. This trend ultimately saves enterprises money on hardware, co-location fees, rack space, power, cable management, and more.
Application Server Virtualization
Application Server Virtualization has been around since the first load balancer, which explains why “application virtualization” is often used as a synonym for advanced load balancing. The core concept of application server virtualization is best seen with a reverse proxy load balancer: an
appliance or service that provides access to many different application services transparently. In a typical deployment, a reverse proxy will host a virtual interface accessible to the end user on the “front end.” On the “back end,” the reverse proxy will load balance a number of different servers and applications such as a web server.
The virtual interface—often referred to as a Virtual IP or VIP—is exposed to the outside world, represents itself as the actual web server, and manages the connections to and from the web server as needed. This enables the load balancer to manage multiple web servers or applications as a single instance, providing a more secure and robust topology than one allowing users direct access to individual web servers. This is a one: many (one-to-many) virtualization representation: one server is presented to the world, hiding the availability of multiple servers behind a reverse proxy appliance. Application Server Virtualization can be applied to any (and all) types of application deployments and architectures, from fronting application logic servers to distributing the load between multiple web server platforms, and even all the way back
in the data center to the data and storage tiers with database virtualization.
Application Virtualization
While they may sound very similar, Application Server and Application Virtualization are two completely different concepts. What we now refer to as application virtualization we used to call “thin clients.” The technology is exactly the same, only the name has changed to make it more IT-PC (politically correct, not personal computer). Softgrid by Microsoft is an excellent example of deploying application virtualization. Although you may be running Microsoft Word 2007 locally on your laptop, the binaries, personal information, and running state are all stored on, managed, and delivered by Softgrid. Your local laptop provides the CPU and RAM required to run the software, but nothing is installed locally on your own machine. Other types of Application Virtualization include Microsoft Terminal Services and browser-based applications. All of these implementations depend on the virtual application running locally and the management and application logic running remotely.
VIRTUALIZATION DEFINED
Management Virtualization
Chances are you already implement administrative virtualization throughout your IT organization, but you probably don’t refer to it by this phrase. If you implement separate passwords for your root/administrator accounts between your mail and web servers, and your mail administrators don’t know the password to the web server and vise versa, then you’ve deployed management virtualization in its most basic form. The paradigm can be extended down to segmented administration roles on one platform or box, which is where segmented administration becomes “virtual.” User and group policies in Microsoft Windows XP, 2003, and Vista are an excellent example of virtualized administration rights: Alice may be in the backup
group for the 2003 Active Directory server, but not in the admin group. She has read access to all the fi les she needs to back up, but she doesn’t have rights to install new fi les or software. Although she is logging into the same sever that the true administrator is logs into, her user experience differs from the administrator. Management virtualization is also a key concept in overall data center management. It’s critical that the network administrators have full access to all the infrastructure gear, such as core routers and switches, but that they not have admin-level access to servers
Network Virtualization
Network virtualization may be the most ambiguous, specific definition of virtualization. For brevity, the scope of this discussion is relegated to what amounts to virtual IP management and segmentation. A simple example of IP virtualization is a VLAN: a single Ethernet port may support multiple virtual connections from multiple IP addresses and networks, but they are virtually segmented using VLAN tags. Each virtual IP connection over this single physical port is independent and unaware of others’ existence, but the switch is aware of each unique connection and manages each one independently. Another example is virtual routing tables: typically, a routing table and an IP network port share a 1:1 relationship, even though that single port may host multiple virtual interfaces (such as VLANs or the “eth0:1” virtual network adapters supported by Linux). The single routing table will contain multiple routes for each virtual connection, but they are still managed in a single table. Virtual routing tables change that
paradigm into a one:many relationship, where any single physical interface can maintain multiple routing tables, each with multiple entries. This provides the interface with the ability to bring up (and tear down) routing services on the fly for one network without interrupting other services
and routing tables on that same interface.
Hardware Virtualization
Hardware virtualization is very similar in concept to OS/Platform virtualization, and to some degree is required for OS virtualization to occur. Hardware virtualization breaks up pieces and locations of physical hardware into independent segments and manages those segments as separate, individual components. Although they fall into different classifi cations, both symmetric and asymmetric multiprocessing are examples of hardware virtualization. In both instances, the process requesting CPU time isn’t aware which processor it’s going to run on; it just requests CPU time from the OS scheduler and the scheduler takes the responsibility of allocating processor time. As far as the process is concerned, it could be spread across any number of CPUs and any part of RAM, so long as it’s able to run unaffected. Another example of hardware virtualization is “slicing”: carving out precise portions of the system to run in a “walled garden,” such as allocating a fi xed 25% of CPU resources to bulk encryption. If there are no processes that need to crunch numbers on the CPU for block encryption, then that 25% of the CPU will go unutilized. If too many processes need mathematical computations at once and require more than 25%, they will be queued and run as a FIFO buffer because the CPU isn’t allowed to give out more than 25% of its resources to encryption. This type of hardware virtualization is sometimes referred to as pre-allocation. Asymmetric multiprocessing is a form of pre-allocation virtualization where certain tasks are only run on certain CPUs. In contrast, symmetric multiprocessing is a form of dynamic allocation, where CPUs are interchangeable and used as needed by any part of the management system. Each classification of hardware virtualization is unique and has value, depending on the implementation. Pre-allocation virtualization is perfect
for very specifi c hardware tasks, such as offloading functions to a highly optimized, single-purpose chip. However, pre-allocation of commodity hardware can cause artifi cial resource shortages if the allocated chunk is underutilized. Dynamic allocation virtualization is a more standard approach and typically offers greater benefit when compared to pre-allocation. For true virtual service provisioning, dynamic resource allocation is important because it allows complete hardware management and control for resources as needed; virtual resources can be allocated as long as hardware resources are still available. The downside to dynamic allocation implementations is that they typically do not provide full control over the dynamicity, leading to processes which can consume all available resources.
Storage Virtualization
As another example of a tried-and-true technology that’s been dubbed “virtualization,” storage virtualization can be broken up into two general classes: block virtualization and fi le virtualization. Block virtualization is best summed up by Storage Area Network (SAN) and Network Attached Storage (NAS) technologies: distributed storage networks that appear to be single physical devices. Under the hood, SAN devices themselves typically implement another form of Storage Virtualization: RAID. iSCSI is another very common and specific virtual implementation of block virtualization, allowing an operating system or application to map a virtual block device, such as a mounted drive, to a local network adapter (software or hardware) instead of a physical drive controller. The iSCSI network adapter translates block calls from the application to network packets the SAN understands and then back again, essentially providing a virtual hard drive.File virtualization moves the virtual layer up into the more human-consumable fi le and directory structure level. Most file virtualization technologies sit in front of storage networks and keep track of which fi les and directories reside on which storage devices, maintaining global mappings offile locations. When a request is made to read a fi le, the user may think this fi le is statically located on their personal remote drive, P:\My Files\budget.xls; however, the file virtualization appliance knows that the file is actually located on an SMB server in a data center across the globe at //10.0.16.125/finance/mike/budget-document/budget.xls. File-level virtualization obfuscates the static virtual location pointer of a fi le (in this case, on mike’s P:\ drive) from the physical location, allowing the back-end network to remain dynamic. If the IP address for the SMB server has to change, or the connection needs to be re-routed to another data center entirely, only the virtual appliance’s location map needs to be updated, not
every user that needs to access their P:\ drive.
Service Virtualization
Finally, we reach the macro definition of virtualization: service virtualization. Service virtualization is consolidation of all of the above definitions into one catch-all catchphrase. Service virtualization connects all of the components utilized in delivering an application over the network, and includes the process of making all pieces of an application work together regardless of where those pieces physically reside. This is why service virtualization is typically used as an enabler for application availability.
For example, a web application typically has many parts: the user-facing HTML; the application server that processes user input; the SOA gears that coordinate service and data availability between each component; the database back-end for user, application, and SOA data; the network that delivers the application components; and the storage network that stores
the application code and data. Service virtualization allows each one of the pieces to function independently and be “called up” as needed for the entire application to function properly. When we look deeper into these individual application components, we may see that the web server
is load-balanced between 15 virtual machine operating systems, the SOA requests are pushed through any number of XML gateways on the wire, the database servers may be located in one of five global data centers, and so on. Service virtualization combines these independent pieces and presents them together to the user as a single, complete application.
While Service virtualization may encompass all the current definitions of virtualization, it’s by no means where IT will stop defining the term. With the pervasive and varied use of the word (as well as the technologies it refers to), there may never be a “fi nal” defi nition for virtualization; it will continue to evolve and expand as more and more technologies become less and less dependent on rigid operating environments.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
HOTEL KEY CARDS!!!!
Something to think about....... ........ I was talking with a colleague this morning who is working on a hotel project, This is pretty good info. I really never even thought about key cards containing anything other than an access code for the room! But wow HOTEL KEY CARDS contain a lot more so :
Have you ever wondered what is on your magnetic Hotel key card?
Answer:
a.. Customer's name
B. Customer's partial home address
c. Hotel room number
d. Check-in date and out dates
e. **Customer's credit card number and expiration date!
Simply put, hotels do not erase the information on these cards until an employee reissues the card to the next hotel guest.. At that time, the new guest's information is electronically 'overwritten' on the card and the
previous guest's information is erased in the overwriting process.
But until the card is rewritten for the next guest, it usually is kept in a drawer at the front desk with
***YOUR INFORMATION ON IT!****
The bottom line is: Keep the cards, take them home with you, or destroy them.
******** NEVER leave them behind in the room or room wastebasket.
******** NEVER turn them into the front desk when you check out of a room.
They will not charge you for the card (it's illegal) and you'll be sure you are not leaving a lot of valuable personal information on it that could be easily lifted off with any simple scanning device card reader..
For the same reason, if you arrive at the airport and discover you still have the card key in your pocket, do not toss it in an airport trash basket. Take it home and destroy it by cutting it up, especially through the
electronic information strip!
If you have a small magnet, pass it across the magnetic strip several times..Then try it in the door, it will not work. It erases everything on the card.
PLEASE FORWARD to friends and family*
Have you ever wondered what is on your magnetic Hotel key card?
Answer:
a.. Customer's name
B. Customer's partial home address
c. Hotel room number
d. Check-in date and out dates
e. **Customer's credit card number and expiration date!
Simply put, hotels do not erase the information on these cards until an employee reissues the card to the next hotel guest.. At that time, the new guest's information is electronically 'overwritten' on the card and the
previous guest's information is erased in the overwriting process.
But until the card is rewritten for the next guest, it usually is kept in a drawer at the front desk with
***YOUR INFORMATION ON IT!****
The bottom line is: Keep the cards, take them home with you, or destroy them.
******** NEVER leave them behind in the room or room wastebasket.
******** NEVER turn them into the front desk when you check out of a room.
They will not charge you for the card (it's illegal) and you'll be sure you are not leaving a lot of valuable personal information on it that could be easily lifted off with any simple scanning device card reader..
For the same reason, if you arrive at the airport and discover you still have the card key in your pocket, do not toss it in an airport trash basket. Take it home and destroy it by cutting it up, especially through the
electronic information strip!
If you have a small magnet, pass it across the magnetic strip several times..Then try it in the door, it will not work. It erases everything on the card.
PLEASE FORWARD to friends and family*
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
You’ve got passion. You do. Really. Don’t believe me? Look at your list.
If you’re going to make it as an entrepreneur, you better have passion for what you’re doing. It’s cause and effect—passion begets persistence and persistence begets success. If you do what you love you won’t give up until you succeed. Pretty basic, right?
While this message is 100% simple and 100% true, finding your passion can feel like a mystery you’ll never solve. Until today.
If you have the desire to succeed in business but aren’t sure what you really want to do, here’s a surefire way to figure it out. Make a list of answers to the following questions:
1. What’s the first thing you want to do when you get some free time? What activities do you find yourself saying, “yes” to most weekends? What do you like to do on vacation?
2. What do you love most about your job? Which tasks do you look forward to doing? What aspects of your job come easy to you?
3. When you look back on your life, what were your proudest moments?
4. What causes do you feel passionate about? What have you volunteered for or donated money to in the past?
5. Outside of work tasks, what do you Google most often? What type of blogs do you gravitate to; what kind of books do you read? What are your hobbies?
6. What are the most outrageous daydreams you’ve had about your life?
7. When you were a kid, what do you want to be when you grew up? List all of them—even Wonder Woman.
8. If you could go back to school and be guaranteed a fantastic, crazy-good job in your field right after graduation, what would you study? Or, if you had loads of free time and didn’t have to worry about a degree or a job, what would you like to learn more about?
9. If you never had to worry about money again, what would you do with your time?
10. If the movie of your life was up for a Best Picture Academy Award, which clip would they show on Oscar night?
The entrepreneur’s path can be rocky. You’re going to get knocked down. A lot. So you better build your business around what lights you up inside, otherwise you won’t have the will to get back up.
You’ve got passion. You do. Really. Don’t believe me? Look at your list.
Friday, December 4, 2009
How to Make Custom iPhone Ringtones for Free
- 1
Open iTunes.
- Step 2
Find the song that you want to make into a ringtone.
- Step 3
Listen to the song and find the part of it you want to use. The chorus may be a good place to start.
- Step 4
Write down the start and stop times of the clip.
- Step 5
Right-click the song and select "Get Info."
- Step 6
Click the "Options" tab.
- Step 7
Type in the start time of your ringtone in the text box next to "Start Time" in the minutes:seconds (i.e. 2:01) format.
- Step 8
Type in the end time of your ringtone in the text box next to "Stop Time." Make sure the ringtone is no more than 40 seconds long.
- Step 9
Click "OK."
- Step 10
Right-click your song again and select "Convert Selection to AAC." Wait for iTunes to convert your song. It will create a duplicate version.
- Step 11
Right-click the ringtone and select "Delete."
- Step 12
Click on the "Keep Files" button.
- Step 13
Find the file. It's usually in your User folder under Music > iTunes > iTunes Music and under the band's name. It will have an extension of "m4a."
- Step 14
Replace the "m4a" extension of your ringtone with "m4r". You can either double-click slowly to rename your file, or right-click and select "Get Info" on a Mac or "Rename" on a Windows PC.
- Step 15
Click "Use .m4r" or the PC equivalent when the system warns you that the change may affect the use of your file.
- Step 16
Double-click the ringtone file. ITunes will automatically add it to your ringtones folder in your iTunes Music Library.
- Step 17
Connect your iPhone and sync your ringtones.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Excellence in any given field. Just Random Thoughts
It's hard to believe that we're coming to the end of another calendar year. It seems like the days just fly by. When I was younger, each day seemed to stretch on forever. I remember having a hard time going to sleep without knowing what events were planned for the coming day. These days, it seems difficult to find the time to do all of the things that I WANT to do, while keeping up with the things I HAVE to do.
I realize that one of the most important things I can do with my time is to prioritize those things that really matter to me. I just finished reading a book called "Talent Is Overrated" by Geoff Colvin. In it, he explores what the determining factors are for excellence in any given field. What he finds is that regardless of any myths we have been told about being "born with a gift" in a particular area, without exception it is those individuals who put in countless hours of practice, research and study in a given field are the ones who rise to stardom and notoriety. But beyond just putting in the hours, the type of practice that these people do pushes them beyond their current abilities and outside of their existing comfort zone. They have to be willing to fail repeatedly in order to achieve their highest ambitions.
What would it be like if we applied this philosophy to our relationships? What if we had to go beyond what we knew we were capable of in order to communicate with and support the ones we love? Or what if we applied this same philosophy to the workplace? How many of us are willing to put ourselves out there for possible failure and rejection in order to stretch the boundaries of our professional life? How much time, effort and risk are we willing to put into these areas of huge consequence in our lives?
Perhaps the more important question is: what if we DON'T take the risks needed to become the best possible spouses, siblings, parents, creators, workers, human beings we can be? Is playing it safe really that safe in the long run? I encourage all of us to think about not just the time we are putting in, but also how much of our SELVES we are putting into our everyday activities. Perhaps we would be richer for the experience...
I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.
Numerous vulnerabilities in VMware products
Interesting Info from TP
Currently, updates have only been released for some of the affected products, such as ESX 4.0 and vCenter 4.0. According to VMware, security updates for the other products are pending completion .
See also:
Monday, November 30, 2009
How to Crack, Unprotect or Remove Document Protection in Word
Ever run into situation where someone sends you a read-only password protected Word document, but wants you to make changes?
I Did this week end and this is the answer I found : So here's how to crack it if you are using the newer versions of Word: Note I have not tried this with 2007 yet .
If you are using office XP or 2003, you can change the view to HTML-Code using Microsoft Script-Editor by pressing the [Alt]+[Shift]+[F11] key combination.
Search for "Password" and you will find somethimg like this:
To remove the protection:
-Just remowe those two lines, and after saving the document , the protection is gone.
To remove the password:
-replace the Password, here "19E8E61E", with "00000000", save the Document and close "Script-Editor".
Alternative you can save your document as .html and use a html-Editor.
Now if I could only figure out how to crack protected Acrobat files.
Note that this does not work for File Open password protected Office files. Office encrypts the files with a 40 bit key for this type of protection. To break that you have to use either a brute force password hacker or a decrypt-er that tries all possible key combos until it finds the right one.
There's actually a free command line utility, named GuaWord that will decrypt Word documents. Keep in mind that it takes a few days to go through all the combination's to find the right one.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Endless Twitter - Have we gone mad?
What are Twitter Applications?
Welcome to Twitter apps! - I have tallied 275 Twitter applications at the moment
Twitter applications can be called by different names. They are sometimes called as "twitter tools", "twitter add-ons" and the likes. But whatever the name they are called, they are simply websites which have built-in scripts that complement Twitter.
Here is a simple collection of all the Twitter applications I have encountered on the internet. Contribute more applications to keep the list growing.
Twitter applications can be called by different names. They are sometimes called as "twitter tools", "twitter add-ons" and the likes. But whatever the name they are called, they are simply websites which have built-in scripts that complement Twitter.
Here is a simple collection of all the Twitter applications I have encountered on the internet. Contribute more applications to keep the list growing.
For those who don't know , Twitter is a status-updating or microblogging social networking website. It is a breakthrough in social networking because it takes communication into another level. Before, a person can only update his status (eg. what he's doing, where he is) at a certain time. But withTwitter and it's mobile integration, he can update his status almost all throughout the day and get in touch with people that matters to him the most.
But the functions of Twitter do not stop there. It is now used by various fields. Business, for example, has used Twitter to get in touch with customers on a personal level. It is also a nice place to meet people from different parts of the world that shares the same interests. Furthermore, its possibilities to promote new technology, news and products can't be denied.
Join Twitter and use these Twitter applications to spice up your tweets!
Visit me on Twitter
Twitter have been used by companies, bloggers and agencies to promote their brand. Promote your own brand today
Twitter Applications Directory...
Find Tweeters like You
Directories and User Search Tools
- Twits like Me
- Find out people like you
- Twellow
- A Twitter directory sorted by occupation
- Just Tweet It
- A twitter directory sorted by interest
- Twubble
- This tool will automatically find people who are compatible with your interests. However, if you follow too many people, then Twubble may recommend some people that you already follow
- Twittie Me
- Search for similar users and advertise your twitter page
- Twitdir
- Search for words in usernames, locations or descriptions
Find out what is the latest trends on Twitter
Sites that tell the latest stories and trends on Twitter
- Twitter Search (Summize previously)
- Search for the latest trends on Twitter
- Twitscoop
- A search tool that tracks trends as well as certain events.
- Flaptor Search
- A search tool that can be installed on your browser.
- Tweet Scan
- Search keywords on Twitter
- Twitterment
- Search Twitter users and topics
- Twitbuzz
- Find out the latest links and conversations on Twitter
- Tweetmeme
- find out the latest Stories on Twitter
- Twistori
- Find out what twitter loves, hates, believes, etc.
- Twitturly
- Find out the most talked about stories on Twitter
- Twitterverse
- Find out what Twitter is doing
- GoodBadMe
- Keep track of the good and bad on the twitterverse
- Favotter
- Find out the most favored (saved to favorites) tweets
- Twitstat
- real time twitter analytics
Track Twitter Users
Find out who the top Twitter users are
- Twitterholic
- Find out who the top twitter users are
- Toptweet
- Find out the top twitter users on one place.
- Twitrank
- a list of the top 150 Twitterers
Track certain keywords on Twitter
See keyword behavior on Twitter with these sites
- Tweet Beep
- Find out who is talking about you or your website through certain keywords
- Site volume
- Enter five keywords and see their activity on Twitter
- Tweet Volume
- A more personalize version of Site Volume
- Monitter
- Monitor Twitter conversations on three keywords. Good for catching the latest news
- Hashtags
- Track a certain keyword on Twitter
- Twemes
- See twitter memes or tags for Twitter
- Tweetchannel
- Find out what people are talking about through certain keywords called channels.
- Twitter Meter
- Find the trends of certain keywords
- Flaptor Trends
- Compare the trends of three keywords on Twitter
- Twitter Spectrum
- Find out the dominant keywords via a tagcloud generated.
- Serendipitwiterrous
- Search for tweets of a certain person using certain keywords
- Twittertroll
- real-time Twitter search engine
Twitter Links
Work with lnks on Twitter
- Twitter Buzz
- See the most popular links on Twitter
- Link Bunch
- Share more than one link on Twitter
- Tweetwire
- Sorts out links posted on Twitter into news format
- Twitterlinkr
- Find out the latest links posted on Twitter
- Twitturls
- Find out the latest URLs posted on Twitter
- Twitter Split
- Change the way you post links by adding your domain on the beginning of the link
Track Tweets Across the Globe
What do you get when you mix maps with Twitter?
- Twittearth
- Watch as people from different parts of the world tweet.
- Twitter Vision
- Watch Twitter in real time and see the location of Twitter users
- My Tweet Map
- A high tech map that tracks the location of a person
- GeoTwitterous
- Track a person across the map
- Twitter Map
- Same with GeoTwitterous
- Twitter Local
- Find out Tweets about a certain locale
- TwitSpy
- Another way where you can track the location of tweets
- Geo Twitter
- Another twitter location tracking site
- Mibazaar
- Shows current posts as they are posted on maps
- Twitter Atlas
- Find the conversations at certain locations
- Twitter Faces
- Map + Faces
Enhance your Tweeting
Some tools to add elements to your tweeting
- Twitter Keys
- Brighten your tweets with little pictures
- Twi8r
- Translate shorthand text to English and the other way around for easy tweeting
- Phweet
- Phone + Tweet, talk to your twitter friends through this online phone
Create Reviews via Twitter
Who thought 140 character won't make reviews?
- Micro Reviews
- Post reviews on Twitter
- Notches
- Submit reviews. A partner of Microreview
- Louder Tweets
- Have your reviews of certain products posted
Tweet Reading Tools
change how you read tweets
- Twitter Digest
- Read tweets digest-style
- Tweet2tweet
- Read the conversations between two people on twitter.
- Twalala
- Choose the tweets you wants to read. Mute people or mute topics that you don't want to read
All About Followers and Following
Track your followers as well as your own following behavior
- Tweet Wheel
- Find out which of your friends know each other
- Twitter Karma
- Find out who is following and unfollowing you. Have a mass follow and unfollow tool.
- Twitter Snooze
- If you have noisy twitter friends, you can snooze them for a certain time so you won't receive their tweets.
- My Tweeple
- Evaluate your followers through the number of dings (recommendations) they have from other Twitter users
- Less Friends
- Find out who unfollowed you using this tool
- Qwitter
- Receive the names of the people who unfollowed you via email.
- Does Follow
- Tells you if a certain follower is following a person or not
- Twitterless
- Receive a direct message when someone unfollows you
- Twitter100
- Find out the latest 100 posts of your followers
- Twitterator
- Follow a list of people all at once
- Twitter Who
- Invite lots of people in one go
- Twitterlex
- See your last 30 tweets along with your friends. Use on Mac.
- What's Up?
- Find out what people are up to
Use Twitter on Your Site or Blog
Tools that can integrate Twitter to your site or blog
- Add Tweets
- Make Twitter Update Widgets for site or blog using javascript
- Twitterfeed
- Post your blog to Twitter through your RSS feed
- Feed Tweeter
- integrate Twitter with Plurk, your blog and delicious
- Twitter Counter
- Display your follower count on your site or blog.
- Twit This
- Add this option so people can easily tweet information from your site or blog
- Twitter Tools
- A wordpress plugin that lets you integrate Twitter with your blog. You can send your updates to your blog as well as create tweets directly from your blog
- Twitter for Wordpress
- displays latest tweets on your blog
- Loudtwitter
- Ships your tweets to your blog
- Twitter Sharts
- 'Shart' your twitter status anywhere within your wordpress blog posts or pages
- Twitt Twoo
- plugin that will allow you to update your Twitter status right from your blog's sidebar.
- Twitter Updater
- automatically sends a Twitter status update to your Twitter account when you create, publish, or edit your WordPress post
- Twitter Wordpress Sidebar Widget
- a wordpress widget where you can send your tweets to your blog
- WordTwit
- a plugin that utilizes the Twitter API to automatically push a post to your Twitter account when it is first published.
- Comment Twitter SMS Notification
- plug in to be notified by SMS when a user post a new comment on your blog.
- Stammy's RSS To Twitter
- Not too many people have access to a Ruby-enabled server so the author decided to make a simple PHP script to get the job done.
- PingTwitter
- automatically update your Twitter Account when you publish a new blog post
Update Twitter with other Social Networking Sites
Post to different social networking sites at once
Twitter and your Favorite Websites
Integrate Twitter with other websites
- Twibler
- Update Twitter with your current ebay listings
- Twizon
- Twitter meets Amazon
- iTwitter
- iGoogle gadget that have ping.fm, twitter videos, twitter news, twitter tips, twitter tools and more.
- Be Twittered
- iGoogle app that automatically updates every 3 minutes
- Twitter Facebook App
- Integrate Twitter with Facebook
- Friendfeed Twitter client
- Update Twitter through Friendfeed
- Twitku
- Twitter + Jaiku
- Buy Later
- Receive tweets when an item comes back in stock at Amazon
- Twitter Yedda
- integrate Twitter with your Yedda account
- Twitget
- gadget for Windows Live. Displays your tweets
- Twitter Planet
- Windows Live gadget that features the public timeline on the planet earth
- Twitt
- Import links on your tweets to delicious
- Twitter Viddler
- Integrate Twitter with your Viddler account
- Drupal on Twitter
- This module provides twitter notification for new posts. Each user can use their own twitter account to post updates too, as well as have a custom format string.
- Googlereader Twitter Script
- Add a Twitter button to your Google Reader
- Twitter King Widget
- Widget for Netvibes
- Your Minis
- Twitter widget for yourminis website
Twitter for Groups
Effective when you want to only talk to a particular group
- Group Tweet
- Tweet with only a particular group of people
- Live Twitting
- Host Conferences or conduct interviews on twitter and record it in an organized fashion
- Crowd Status
- Find out the status of a certain group of people on Twitter
- Twitter Groups
- Tag your followers into different groups
Twitter as an organizer
Remind yourself of certain activities you have to do
- Timer
- Set an alarm for things you have to do
- Retweet Me
- A reminder tool that sends a DM on your scheduled activities.
- Remember the Milk
- Manage tasks on Twitter as well as set notifications for yourself
- Twittercal
- Integrate your Google Calendar with Twitter
- My Chores
- Track your chores
- Planypus
- Make plans and export them to Twitter
- Server Mojo
- Monitor your server with Twitter
Schedule your Tweets
Auto-tools to schedule tweets. Use wisely. Do not use for spam
- Tweet Later
- Schedule tweets, auto-follow and auto-welcome people
- Twittertise
- Schedule your tweets. Very useful when you are advertising.
- Tweet Ahead
- Schedule your tweets on Mac
- Twit Response
- Imagine Twitter + Autoresponder. Send tweets automatically.
Find answers to your questions
Think Yahoo Answers meet Twitter
- Lazy Tweet
- Find answers to your questions by posting "@lazyweb" or "@lazytweet"
- Toanswer
- Easily get answers to your questions by posting "@toask" and "@toanswer [question ID]"
- At Answer Me
- Another question tool
- Twitter Answers
- Another question site with a nice layout so you can easily get answers to your questions.
Polls on Twitter
Very useful for research
- Straw Poll
- Create and answer polls on Twitter
- Twitter Polldaddy
- Create a poll on polldaddy and tweet it
- Poll Tweets
- Participate in the latest Twitter poll
- Twittpoll
- Join some twitter polls and receive the results in 24 hours
Track Yourself Through Twitter Statistics
Check out your status on Twitter
- Tweet Burner
- Track the links that you post on Twitter
- Twitter Grader
- find out your twitter grade. Computed based on how complete your profile is as well as the number and influence of your followers.
- Tweet Stats
- Graph your tweet activity
- Twinfluence
- Measure your Twitter influence through tweets, reach of followers as well as second-order followers
- Tweeple Twak
- Track your friend gains and declines
- Twit Graph
- Graph your tweeting activity
- Tweet 140
- Track your direct message and tweet frequency
- Twitter Ratio
- Find out your friend to follower ratio.
Make Money with Twitter
Ways you can use your twitter account to earn money
Handle Multiple Twitter Accounts
These tools will help you handle those accounts at a certain time. Useful when you have a company twitter profile.
- Easy Tweets
- Multiple account handling, scheduled tweets, overcoming errors, shorten URLs, add RSS
- The Mattinator
- Multiple accounts on Twitter
Graphic Twitter Resources
Resources where you can get backgrounds for your profile as well as icons to put in your blog
- Twitter Backs
- Free Twitter Backgrounds. Includes @problogger's background.
- Twitter Patterns
- 50 design patterns you can easily use for your twitter background
- Tweet Backs
- Some twitter backgrounds you could use
- Siah Design
- free Twitter buttons you could use as well as animated ones.
- Buttons
- Follow me on twitter buttons
- Twignature
- Create your own twitter
Integrate Twitter with Files, Images and Videos
Upload anything to Twitter
- Twitpic
- Let you share photos on Twitter
- Autopostr
- Update your Twitter when you post a Flickr picture
- Snaptweet
- Share your Flickr photos on Twitter
- Twixr
- Allows you to share pictures on Twitter via your mobile phone
- Visual Twitter
- Answers "what are you doing?" with pictures.
- Twitter Poster
- A huge conglomeration of Twitter user images.
- Twiddeo
- Think Twitter updates + video
- Twitplus
- Make tweets with pictures, videos and files
- Twittershare
- Share pictures, music, video and other files on Twitter.
- Twixxer
- Share photos and videos on Twitter
- Tweet Cube
- Upload files to Twitter
- Pikter
- Post pictures on Twitter
Twitter and Email
Receive and send tweets via email
- Twittermail
- Update twitter via email
- Twitter Reply
- Receive your replies on your email
- OuTwit
- Update Twitter with your Microsoft Outlook
- Vtwitter
- Vtwitter allows Zimbra users to send messages (or sometimes called tweets) to their Twitter account directly from their Zimbra email.
- mail2twitter
- mail2twitter is a free service that allows you to post tweets through e-mail
Twitter and Music
Integrate twitter with your love for music
- Twittytunes
- Tweet what you're listening, watching or reading regardless what player you are using.
- Blip.fm
- Listen to music and tweet it to Twitter
- Wiiizzz
- Lists the audio tracks on Twitter
Twitter Downtime Saviors
Tools that will save you when Twitter has its downtimes
- Twit a Bit
- The place to be when Twitter is down. Anyone can continue tweeting in this site.
- Tweetake
- Backup your twitter account
- Twitter Safe
- Another place where you can backup your account.
- Hahlo
- Another website where you can tweet
Twitter Spam Watchers
Fight twitter spam with these tools
- Twitter Blacklist
- Find out who's blacklisted on Twitter
- Twerp Scan
- Find out who's following too many people at a small span of time.
- Twitspam
- Report those spammers here
Twitter Messenger Applications
Integrate Twitter with your Messenger
- TwitterIM
- Integrate twitter with your MSN or ICQ Messenger
- Yahoo Messenger Twitter Sync Plugin
- Integrate twitter with your Yahoo Messenger
- TwitterYM
- Update your Twitter on Yahoo Messenger
- Twessenger
- Twitter tool for Windows Live Messenger
- Twit4live
- Update twitter via messenger as well as advertise the tweets of your friends.
- TikiTwit
- Integrate Twitter with iChat
Twitter Softwares and Widgets
Clients you can download to your desktop
- Twitterific
- A downloadable application which have multiple account support, auto refreshing mechanism, audio notification of new tweets and integration with AppleScript. Compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 or later
- Mad Twitter
- Twitterific for Windows
- Tweet-r
- An Air Application that differentiates itself from other downloadable twitter applications through its flawless drag-and-drop file uploading system.
- Twidget
- a downloadable application with all the features of twitter except that it auto refreshes.
- Twhirl
- popular software that can handle multiple accounts, URL shortening, crossposting to Pownce and Jaiku, Post images on Twitpic, and search tweets using twitter search and tweetscan.
- Tweetdeck
- Adobe AIR application that lets you view your replies and public tweets as well as group tweets at the same time
- Twinja
- another twitter client built on AIR
- Snitter
- another twitter client built on AIR
- Pwytter
- A standalone Twitter client
- Teletwitter
- Twitter client for Windows
- Twitterlicious
- Twitter for Windows that supports proxies, have a read-unread system and auto-refresh mechanism.
- Twitter CLI
- Tweet via a command line
- BLT
- Another tool to update Twitter on a command line
- Twitteroo
- Let you send tweets on your PC with URL shortening and sound notifications for tweets
- Chirrup
- A Japanese software which showcases your followers and accounts in other social networks
- Twadget
- Twitter tool for Windows Vista
- Twitgit
- Twitter widget for Mac users
- Vim Twitter Client
- A simple client by Vim
- ZenTwitter
- Update Twitter without opening a window
- Twitux
- Another simple Twitter client
- Deskbar Twitter
- Update Twitter on Ubuntu
- Gtwitter
- Update Twitter on Linux
- Twit.el
- update Twitter on Emacs
- Spaz
- open source desktop client for Mac, Windows and Linux
- Tweeter
- client that is Java-based and supports proxies. Inspired by Twitteroo
- GTwitter
- GTwitter is a Linux client for reading and posting to twitter.com web service.
- Natsulion
- Simple Twitter client for Mac
- Twitterpod
- TwitterPod can store logs to database and search Twitter logs quickly like Mail.app
- Twitterpost
- TwitterPost allows you to easily post to and read from your Twitter feed - plus a whole lot more
- Twittereeze
- SIMBL extension to add functionality to Twitterrific
Twitter with your Browser
And save yourself some energy
- Twit Kit
- Integrate Twitter with your Firefox browser. This plugin can work on Windows, Mac and Linux. You can also customize the look to fit your tastes.
- Twitterfox
- Find out the statuses of your friends on Twitter right on your Firefox browser
- Shareaholic
- Share webpages with your friends on Twitter. Can be integrated with your Firefox Browser
- Twitbin
- Receive and send tweets at the side of your Firefox browser
- Firefox Search Plugin
- Find out how you can post to Twitter right from your Firefox search bar
- Twitterbar
- Post to Twitter via the address bar
- Tweetbar
- A twitter sidebar for Firefox and Flock
- Twippera
- Twitter widget for Opera
- Power Twitter
- Twitter plugin for Firefox that have photo and video sharing capabilities.
- Yoono
- Firefox add-on that add different social networks to your browser
- Twitzer
- Firefox plugin that let you post more than 140 characters.
- Twitterlights
- Firefox addon that lets you Tweet any page you see.
- Twitterbook
- Post to twitter like Bookmarking
- Twitterline
- Displays your friend's public timeline on your toolbar
- Maxthon
- This is a toolbar you can download so you can tweet via your browser
Twitter on your Mobile Phone
Twitter anywhere you like
- Twitterfone
- Update Twitter using Voice
- Twitsay
- Record Voice Messages on Twitter
- Twitter for iphone
- Self explanatory
- Itwtr
- Another Twitter client for iphones
- Pocket Tweets
- another twitter client for your iphone
- Twittai
- mobile phone software with retweeting capabilities
- CCtwit
- windows mobile twitter client written in c# leveraging the .net compact framework.
- Twapper
- send updates from your 30boxes calendar to your phone via Twitter.
- Twittelator
- Integrate your iphone with Twitter
- Twitterberry
- Integrate Twitter with your blackberry
- Vlingo
- Another tool to integrate your blackberry with Twitter
- Email Twitter
- Get your Tweets on any email-enabled mobile phone
- iTweet
- Twitter Site for your iphone
- Qik
- A tool that let you share videos via your phone.
- Jargong
- Twitter client for your phone that has Flickr and other social network integration
- MoTwit
- Application for Palm OS
- Widsets
- Get content without sending SMS
- Moby Picture
- Post to your blog or sites like Twitter on your mobile phone
- Twixr
- allows you to share pictures on Twitter via your mobile phone
- Locify
- Send twitter updates on your mobile phone along with GPS location
- Fring
- Post to Twitter + other sites using your mobile phone
- Abiro Jitter
- Abiro Jitter (Java Twitter) is an easy-to-use and fully-featured Twitter client for mobile phones
- Jtwitter
- Java application which you can install on your phone
- Twidroid
- twitter client for android mobile phones
- Twitteresce
- Twitteresce allows you to access your twitter feed using your mobile phone.
- Twobile
- Twitter client for users of Windows Mobile Pocket PCs
- Tiny Twitter
- Client for any Java enabled device (that's a bunch & includes the CrackBerry) and any Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Smartphone
- Twitter SpellCheck
- Check your spelling while twittering on your mobile phone
Specialized Twitter Sites
From funny, useless to weird Twitter sites
- Secret Tweet
- Imagine PostSecret + Twitter. Tweet those secrets
- Curse Bird
- Find out who's swearing on Twitter
- Tweet What You Eat
- Tweet what you're eating at the moment
- Foodfeed
- same with "Tweet what you eat"
- Xbox 360 Gamer Tag
- Automatically update twitter with what you are playing at a certain moment
- Twee60
- Another site where you can update Xbox live activities on Twitter
- @Trackthis
- Track your packages via Twitter with this tool
- Bkkeeper
- share what you're reading on Twitter
- Commuter Feed
- Share tweets on traffic and transit delays
- Foamee
- Tracks who you owe coffee or beer to
- InnerTwitter
- signals you through chimes where you have to let go of your thoughts.
- Qwitter Tobacco
- A twitter tool that helps you stop smoking
- Post like a Pirate
- Talk like a pirate on twitter
- Roll the dice
- Give you the power to roll a dice on twitter. Useful when you're betting or playing games with your friends.
- Twitter Me This
- A contest where you can win $5 if you answer their question
- Tweet gift
- Send gifts to your friends.
- Twaction
- turns your tweets into actions
- Xpenser
- Track your expenses with twitter
- Twithire
- The place where you can tweet job postings
- GasCalc
- Tracks your gas usage on Twitter
- Moonrise
- Tell twitter how you feel
- Deal Tagger
- Shop and tell your Twitter friends
- LOL feeds
- Have your tweets on lolcat images
- Textgasm
- Tweet your secrets
- Sad Statements
- Twitter + Flickr with an emotional twist. Post those sad statements here
- Twitter Nonsense
- Daily Twitter Comic Strip
- Xbox to Twitter app
- only updating when the title being played changes, not showing popups and even a preview of what your twitter updates will look like once they are combined with your template.
- Twitterbox
- a Twitter Client for Second Life
- Swotter
- Reads books to Twitter
- Twitterlit
- Twitters the first line of books
Friday, November 20, 2009
Fibre Channel over Ethernet
Great article from STORAGE AREA NETWORK (SAN)
George Crump,
Fibre Channel over Ethernet, or FCoE, is scoring high right now on the hype meter, but are you ready for it? And, more importantly, are you ready to provide it? Don't panic if the answers to those questions are no. In our three-part series on FCoE readiness, we'll tell you what steps to take to prepare yourself for the technology.
George Crump,
Fibre Channel over Ethernet, or FCoE, is scoring high right now on the hype meter, but are you ready for it? And, more importantly, are you ready to provide it? Don't panic if the answers to those questions are no. In our three-part series on FCoE readiness, we'll tell you what steps to take to prepare yourself for the technology.
In the initial part of this series, let's first talk about what the FCoE standard does: It converges storage and IP protocols onto a single cable transport and interface. The goal is to reduce cable count, switch complexity and interface card count in servers.
From a reseller pe
First, the product end of things: The FCoE standard was ratified in June by the INCITS T11 standards body and has been passed along to ANSI for its approval. The related Data Center Bridging (enhanced Ethernet) standard, which works in tandem with FCoE, isn't as far along in the process. (For more details on these two sets of standards, see "The status of FCoE.") But, as normally happens with new standards, vendors are already shipping products that support it. For instance, Cisco has its Nexus-series switches; Brocade has a complete lineup of cards, switches and blades for the DCX Backbone; and Emulex, in addition to standard CNA cards, has several blade server-sized products in the works. The product is there.
Next is the issue of customer need. FCoE can solve problems for your customers, especially in virtualized server environments, by improving bandwidth and reducing cable count to racks and the number of I/O adapters that servers require. But will customers spend money to gain these benefits, and, if so, when will they do it? In short, when will FCoE make it to the top of their whiteboard, and how do you make sure you're ready?
While the ultimate answer to the money question will rest with your customers and, on a macro level, will depend to a large degree on the United States' economic recovery, you need to take steps now. There are two reasons: You need to prepare for greater adoption later, and you need to help customers ID FCoE as worthy of their investment or help them cost-justify FCoE as a more cost-effective long-term investment despite the economy.
The first step toward those goals is to test and understand FCoE products. If you have a lab, set up a FCoE environment so you can begin testing. At a minimum, make sure your entire team is educated on the technology. Suppliers, the media and analysts are all talking up FCoE, so your customers are going to begin asking questions. You'll be much better off if your response isn't a blank stare. You should also leverage your research and education by sharing your efforts with customers. Have an FCoE demo day or a "What is FCoE?" seminar. This gives you increased interaction with your customers and sets you up as the FCoE expert. (We'll go into more detail on this in the next part of our FCoE series.)
The second step is to map out a plan for conversion to FCoE with your customers. As we discuss in the article "Planning for FCoE," our suggestion is to be realistic. Most customers are not going to rip out their entire infrastructure and replace it with FCoE equipment -- certainly not in this economy. But they are expanding their server virtualization projects, and that's a good opportunity to sell FCoE equipment.
With customers that are planning a new rack of virtualized servers, a top-of-rack deployment strategy is ideal; it's the most logical way to do it right now. It involves using an FCoE switch at the top of the rack, installing FCoE adapters in the virtualization hosts and then connecting FCoE cables from the top-of-rack switch to the adapters. The top-of-rack switch should have Fibre Channel and Ethernet ports. The FC connects to the existing storage infrastructure and Ethernet to the existing IP infrastructure. This approach provides your customers with the immediate value of improved performance, reduced cable count and reduced interface card count in that rack. It also allows them to step into a transition to FCoE without losing any of their current investment.
Ill post the rest of his series as it becomes available for those of you who are interested .
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