Technology Ramblings

Anyone who has been involved with computing and digital storage recognizes the value of backup.  Even with much improved MTBF of traditional HDD and the advent of SSD - the reality is that drives, controllers, etc can fail and the potential loss of data can be devastating.  No one wants to loose all of their kids photos or their music and video collection. The challenge has always been - which is the best way to backup and what should I backup ? While there are all kinds of methods and software that can provide data protection and backup services.  I've taken the following route. I use a two drive approach to my primary storage.  First is an SSD acting as the OS drive.  In my case, I multi-boot that drive to Windows 7, 8.1 and Ubuntu Linux.   Second is my data drive where I keep all my relevant content. This includes all Documents, Photos, Music, Videos, etc.  It is very easy in Windows to point your profile to a different drive for the default and any specialized folder you

This year I made a conscious  choice to reduce my family's mobile costs.  So I decided to try two things. Transition to a non-contract plan for the entire family Transition to a inexpensive smartphone So first I transitioned from a traditional 2 year contract plan from TMO with unlimited everything to their Simple Choice Plan - with unlimited voice, text and 500 Mb of Data / line.  The effect was dramatic - from over $200 monthly average to around $90 for 3 lines.  And that included features like Visual Voicemail.    Second was to get a new phone.   Previously I was running an HTC Radar with WP 7.8. My use case for a Smartphone is pretty similar to most.. Corporate (Exchange) and Personal Email accounts Messaging and UC - so Text, IM and Lync Social Accounts - Twitter, LinkedIn, etc News, Sports, Weather and Finance Feeds Office capabilities - read, review Word, Excel and PowerPoint + some OneNote Media - Mostly Music, Some Video Photos - albeit relatively ligh

Microsoft Exchange Server can arguably rank as the most successful server product within Microsoft's portfolio.  It has helped drive adoption of Windows Server and Active Directory along with untold amounts of server and storage infrastructure.  It has also driven a whole group of 3rd party software from compliance and archiving to backup/recovery over its tenure.   Exchange has also evolved to be a key part of MS's Cloud initiative as a portion of the Office365 offerings as well as being supported by an increasing number of hosters and outsourcers. With the release of Exchange 2013 - Exchange is now in it's 8th major release cycle and the brand is 17 years old, starting from Exchange 4.0 being released back in April of 1996.  From that humble release competing against the likes of cc:Mail and Groupwise - through it's long running competition with Lotus Notes, Exchange has evolved from a small workgroup messaging solution to the highly consolidated, highly available a