From Testing The (Virtual) Waters to Floating With The Machines

Over the last couple of weeks I found myself strolling down memory lane. I felt something was missing, which isn't exactly new or special. It took me a some days to realise that it seemed to be about some special playground. Being involved in Tony's book on virtual machine labs, I felt that just running some VMs on my MacBook Pro via Parallels Desktop wasn't enough anymore. After a year without a "serious" lab to tinker with, I decided to start something new.

Intel NUC7 (left), Alienware m7700 (right)

Shortly after the Intel NUC had arrived and the basic setup was ready to go, I remembered that the machine I ran my very first home lab on was still around. Putting the 12 year old DTR system next to the new "member of the family" brought back some memories of the first challenges and adventures in the Land Of The Virtual Machines. As you can see, I decided to write about the (home) labs, especially about the hardware and software involved. The beginnings lie more than a decade back.

In 2004, shortly after starting a new occupation, I learned about two coworkers who had created a setup to test a virtualisation platform. Having heard and read about VMware Workstation for a couple of months, I hadn't used it at that time. Being curious, I reached out to my colleagues to learn more about what they where "playing" with and what goals they had. They told me about VMware GSX Server and were kind enough to tell me about their plans and to keep me in the loop. Later that year, while at the company's HQ to attend some meetings, I met one of said colleagues in person. After showing me the actual setup and giving me the chance to get (some kind of) first hand experience, he handed be a book and suggested that I could take with me to have a look and return it on my next visit.

I didn't find the time back then to actually read 'Rob's Guide to Using VMware', not to mention work through it (or even parts of it), but looking back, it was the right book to find or have at the right time. It was back then when I was making up my mind about earning some certifications, and I was thinking about ways to learn about the bits I hadn't (and wouldn't have) to deal with at work. After coming across resources like Microsoft's Self-Paced Training Kits etc. and discussing options with friends and family, I decided to create my first home lab.

In early 2005, I started things by getting my own copy of the book mentioned above, the necessary training kits - and a notebook. Back then, Alienware was a valued and (somewhat) independent brand, offering mostly medium to high end machines for gamers. Among other things, they "made" and sold quite nice desktop replacement systems. Mostly because it had very good reviews and offered some interesting configuration options, I chose to order an Alienware m7700 based on:

VMware Workstation 5 (Still have the orig. media set.)

• Intel Pentium 4 @ 3.6 GHz
• 2 GB RAM
• 2x 100 GB HDD

Back then, this was enough to run Microsoft Windows XP and VMware Workstation 5, with the lab itself consisting of up to five (or even six) virtual machines (mostly Windows XP and Windows Server 2003). It was interesting (and challenging at times, of course) to find out what could be achieved using this environment, supported by some USB hubs, USB NICs and networking gear.

This setup served me well for me more than three years, even (maybe even more) after successfully completing the first rounds of certifications. Mostly because of some major changes of circumstances that had quite some impact on almost all parts of my life, I almost completely abandoned this home lab platform and went for almost two years without a playground of this kind.

In the meantime, since "becoming a Mac" in early 2007, Parallels Desktop for Mac (starting with v2.5) became my companion to test and play around with new (mostly but not exclusively work-related) stuff at home. As I had no intention to run a full-blown or even a basic-but-complete home lab, the (slightly upgraded) MacBook served my needs pretty well:

• Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.0 GHz
• 2 GB RAM
• 80 GB HDD

With some new ideas in my head (in particular investing time and effort into brushing up my humble knowledge and skills re application development), some new goals to pursue and the updated version of the 17" MacBook Pro becoming available in early 2009, I decided to get me that new machine and get things going. Who would have guessed back then that today (in mid 2017) this MBP still is my indispensable day-to-day workhorse? Well, it is, and despite discontinued support (and thus lack of OS updates/upgrades), chances are that I am going to use this computer until something breaks (or some other aspects would render continue running it a very bad idea). The original configuration of the 17" MacBook Pro included:

• Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.93 GHz
• 4 GB RAM
• 320 GB HDD

Of course, there have been some upgrades over the years, with the current setup (as of today) being:

• Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.93 GHz
• 8 GB RAM
• 512 GB SSD

Apart from the fact that this MBP still works pretty well even after more than eight years of being used on a daily basis, having an actual portable solution for a lot of different purposes (research/education, development, operations/system administration etc.) made and still makes it easy for me to live with some concessions I had and have to make. If there would be a kind of officially supported way to receive the most recent version of macOS, I think I would keep using this machine "forever". (No, I am not going to dive into what is referred to as 'planned obsolescence', at least not this time, even though being technically able to run v10.12 without (known) problems but being rejected to get it by the MBPs product ID/serial number sure is annoying, to say the least. Anyway.)

Things went on mostly unchanged, even after joining a new employer in 2011, mainly because the aforementioned MacBook Pro hold enough reserve capacities to allow me both, self-teaching me different/additional aspects of software development as well as keeping my sysadmin skills up-to-date (or at least to not fall too far behind). In late 2014, after it had been kept in some sort of quarantine (for quite some weird reasons, actually), I "inherited" the Dell Precision M4600 that had been used by the lead developer who had left about two years ago. The original configuration of the system wasn't too bad:

• Intel Core i7-2720QM @ 2.20 GHz
• 8 GB RAM
• 250 GB HDD

While the agency's two developers where allowed/given multiple test beds, for some reasons the sysadmins never had one. After some discussions with our management, I was allowed to get some upgrades for the mobile workstation that would allow running some (more or less) serious testing environment. The final setup of the M4600 consisted (among other parts) of:

• Intel Core i7-2720QM @ 2.20 GHz
• 32 GB RAM
• 500 GB SSD
• 256 GB SSD

Running Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2, this setup proved more than just helpful in a lot of cases over the following months. With VMware vSphere 5.x running in the production environment, it was interesting and instructive to deal with Hyper-V, not only because of the differences in concepts and approaches to solutions of/within the products, but also because things needed to be transferred from one environment to the other and vice versa.

About this time last year, during the final stage of shutting down the agency (a completely different and quite sad/irritating story) the M4600 became the live datacentre for the remaining employees, delivering all the "basic" services still needed, just until the day before everyone (including me) had to leave. Moving the virtual machines almost seamlessly from the vSphere environment to this little Hyper-V server was as interesting as seeing the latter doing a great job at allowing my colleagues to work right to the point where we all had to stop. (A moment of silence for this little hero, please.)

With a tool like the machine mentioned above at hand, I really had no need to think about re-building a "playground"/lab at home, and after moving on the a new agency and an entirely new position, I really didn't think I would even consider it any more. As mentioned in the introduction, things developed different than expected. So in a way, having been involved with Tony's work and book made me think about "returning to my roots", at least as far as some dedicated home lab setup was concerned. Compared to the good old Alienware m7700, the configuration of the Intel NUC sure is a little bit - different:

• Intel Core i7-7567U @ 3.50 GHz
• 32 GB RAM
• 1 TB SSD 

It will be interesting to find out about what is possible with a setup like that, about the limitation of an environment like that (or at least those of the recent configuration), and which challenges as well as inspirations will be found along the way - floating with the machines.

Why I've become a Mac - but stayed a PC too

First of all I think it's best that I make my point: In my humble opinion there is no such thing as an overall superior computer system! Each and every computer system brings its pros and cons. And as with every tool different computer systems are of different use in different cases. I'm very short on that, but I don't see any point on further discussion here. (Feel free to leave a comment anyway.)

Well, that's almost the answer to the headline question why I've become a Mac but stayed a PC too.

When I look back, I think I considered getting a Mac first time two decades ago. Back then, this was the time of those great machines powered by the 68k processor families by Motorola. These days I had just made the leap from a Commodore VC20 (anybody remember this one?) to the IBM PC compatible Commodore PC10-III. At that point it was just great because it was what I needed to follow computer science classes and go beyond that. A friend of mine and me had some good times developping our own, well, let's call it a GUI. But it was just far, far away from that DR GEM desktop!

Right from the start I really loved the idea of GUI! And I tried so very hard to get one of those Commodore AMIGA or an Atari ST. But even back then I was very short on money. Only thing left for me was a lot of reading. I think that was when I fell in love with the Mac. It was different, it had that very special way to use it - it had options delivered by default others didn't deliver even as add-on. And besides graphics it was all about music. Later on the AMIGA and the ST became popular in those areas too. But they just wern't Macs. And I had to stick to good old PC.

After the failure of DR GEM, MS took its chances with Windows which became, well, let's call it pretty much mainstream. I joined using Windows 3.1/3.11 which came along with my first notebook. Must have been back then when networked computers became popular even for small companies. Never mind. I cared and I got myself involved by means of Novell NetWare and Micosoft Windows NT (moving from 3.x to 4.0).

On the other hand I loved to make music ever since. (And I still do.) Visiting a dear friend at his studio now and then I met again those Atari ST and of course those Macs. And amazing stuff we produced using tools on a Mac. It was easy, a snap - and a good idea became a good song or score. It became obvious that I had to get one of those machines! My notebook was ready to record basic demos but this stuff was just great - on top of the ease of use the Macs provided ever since.

As time went by, just some more years, I became more and more involved with company IT. It became obvious that I had to do something to show some of my skills not just to fellow IT pros but to HR staff to. So I became certified and it isn't hard to imagine which programs were on top of my list. There were lots of challenges and most of the time it was fun figuring out ways for IT environments to become a real company value. And I took lots of work home with me to plan and test solutions I had on my mind.

About three years ago I started to question a lot of things. I mean it. Amongst those habits was that modern man's model railroad too: Why still play around with workrelated stuff at home, rendering private equipment unusable from time to time? Why not just have some machine that just works? I had become tired of fixing my personal equipment, pushing it to some limits, bringing on changes - just like a model railroad.

Searching the Apple homepage for a reseller close to me, I fond one quite close to me. I drove by and asked for a test drive. - Playing around with that MacBook it struck me like lightning! It didn't even take an hour to be sure that this was the remedy! So when I brought back this little white thing I placed the order. A week later I received my first Mac...

Today I'm writing these lines using my third Mac (a MacBook Pro, to be more precise). And I'm still in love with the technique and still find it amazing that it, well, just works. I'm still with IT business and I'm still bringing on solutions to keep the company's IT up and running and stepping forward. But it's a reliefe to return home and find a machine that just works. That's it and I love it! It's the simple things in life that make you feel good. Me too.

And that is why I've become a Mac but stayed a PC too.

So, what's your story? Feel free to let me know - I'm curious!

CU - GU!

The Art Of Noise

Even though it's months now that I moved to my new flat I haven't neither been able nor motivated to unpack and set up all I brought here. All in all happening step by step - very small steps. Anyway, looks that it's time to start doing it.

While waiting for my just ordered 17"MBP it's time to prepare for one of it's major uses: Home recording and producing demos.

Haven't done any of this stuff for quite a time. The last recordings I did seriously date back about 10 years. Jeez! I just made up my mind about the equipment I used:

• Escom Paradigma 486 notebook
• MS Win 3.11 (instead of DR GEM)
• Steinberg Cubasis
• Steinberg PCmidi (parallel)
• Yamaha QY20
• Yamaha MDF-1
• Yamaha PSS-480
• BOSS BX-4 mixer
• AIWA tape deck

The results were quite impressive - for demo recordings. And I've had some real fun doing that stuff. And, you know, words can only say so much - it's hard to express...

Time went by. A lot of things happened that brought even more changes to my life. A lot of them sure worth telling another time.

For a couple of years I'm a proud owner/user of a MacBook. Again and again it's quite impressing what is possible using this thing. Even the bundled stuff can help you produce quite a few things. Arranged some sweet backing tracks for remixing with the free loops already for example.

Now I'm about to set up my small home recording corner again:

• 17" MacBook Pro (can't wait for delivery)
• GarageBand (may switch to Logic express later)
• M-Audio MIDISPORT 2x2 (Anniversery Edition)
• Yamaha QY20 (still have this "notebook")
• Yamaha PSS-480 (yes, still there)
• BOSS BX-4 mixer (for other audio sources)

And maybe, yes, maybe I'll even get a guitar (electric one, nice sound, more options).

I think that will be a lot of fun. And maybe I will post the one or the other demo track here (or link it, more likely). That way all can enjoy (like it - or not) the art of noise.

CU - GU!