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VMworld set up a lab this year that ran a hybrid cloud.
The VMware team set up a data center at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco that connected to public clouds provided by Terremark in Miami and Verizon in Ashburn, Va.
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The hybrid cloud was redundant so if it went down, the load could be picked up elsewhere.
This was the first year that VMworld used a hybrid cloud environment. They called it Lab Cloud. The numbers demonstrate the difference in what can be accomplished in a multi-tenant environment.
Last year, there were 4,500 labs completed at VMword. This year there were more than 15,000 labs done.
Lab Cloud deployed and destroyed about 4000 Virtual Machines on a per hour basis. In total, Lab Cloud deployed a total of 145,097 virtual machines. Private cloud environments can not usually handle this kind of load, showing again the capabilities of what can be done when data centers and public cloud environments are connected.
To be fair, it is important to remember that this is a lab environment. The Lab Cloud was built from scratch. Any enterprise environment will face any number of obstacles in setting up a hybrid environment.
One thing it does show is the volume of virtual machines that are being spun into the cloud. The Lab Cloud demonstrated how much more extended a cloud environment can be compared to a traditional data center operation or a private cloud.
It also shows how VMware plans to do training at future VMworld events. VMware set up 480 seats for doing labs. Each lab took about an hour to do. A few people complete all of the labs. But more so, it helped give attendees hands-on experience in how to manage thousands of virtual machines that are being deployed and destroyed throughout a work day.
Source: Yellow Bricks
The enterprise needs this kind of training for a few reasons. Hybrid cloud computing is still very new to most people. The labs give people a chance to learn new skills that will be needed as enterprise operations evolve toward a hybrid cloud computing environment.
And perhaps just as much, it shows the IT knowledge worker the possibilities that the cloud brings to their work.
AFP - Connecticut's top law enforcement official called for online classifieds website Craigslist to confirm that it has permanently closed its "adult services" listings.
AP - A fashion show built around the landmark fountain of Lincoln Center brought celebrities, fashion designers and some ordinary New Yorkers to their feet Tuesday night.
Authorities cracked down on file-sharing sites across Europe yesterday in a major operation two years in the making, Swedish officials told media.
The raid is getting special attention because one target in Stockholm is best known for hosting part of Wikileaks.org, the site where whistle-blowers have leaked highly sensitive documents from governments across the world. But authorities said the real target was not Wikileaks, but the highly-active pirate network known as The Scene or Warez Scene, which encompasses 48 sites.
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Seven locations were raided in Sweden, according to the file-sharing news site Torrent Freak, including a university. Raids were also reportedly carried out in the Netherlands, Norway, Germany, the UK, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Belgium, where the request originated.
Several torrent sites including Pirate Bay were down for users in some countries today.
Five policemen showed up yesterday morning at PRQ, the company that in part hosts Wikileaks, and asked about two IP addresses used in 2009. The company handed over email addresses associated with the IP addresses, which are the only records it keeps on its clients. No servers or computers were confiscated, the company said.
The raid comes as Wikileaks is preparing to release 15,000 classified documents related to the war in Afghanistan, which the U.S. government is anxious to prevent. PRQ denied that Wikileaks was the subject of the raid and Wikileaks has not made any statement yet.
"The raid was about the usual file-sharing crack-down, which they have each year, so not directed directly against PRQ or its customers," PRQ said in an email to customers.
The extent and precise targeting of the raid suggest that it was a dedicated effort to crack down on piracy. The fact that one of Wikileaks' hosts was targeted could be a coincidence because Wikileaks and file-sharing sites have similar requirements: security and bravery in the face of international law enforcement.
But stranger conspiracy theories regarding Wikileaks have been proposed. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is claiming rape charges filed against him in Sweden are part of a smear campaign orchestrated by the U.S. government.
What do you think - was Wikileaks a target here?
DiscussPC World - Red Bend, a mobile software management company, has acquired VirtualLogix to stake its claim in the emerging field of mobile virtualization.
This week, David Chen, Devindra Hardawar, and Adam Quigley discuss whether or not 3D really is the future, praise the quiet certitude of The American, reflect on the sprawling nature of the Red Riding trilogy, and try to figure out why people in theaters are boo-ing at the mention of M. Night Shyamalan. Special guest Matt Singer joins us from IFC News.
You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. We’ll be back on Sunday (9/19) at 10 PM EST / 7 PM PST at Slashfilm’s live page to review The Town.
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Shownotes
Introduction
- (00:30) Matt Singer from IFC
What We’ve Been Watching
- Devindra (01:50): The American
- Matt Singer (09:40): Clash of the Titans, The Lost Skeleton Returns Again
- Adam (19:12): Red Riding Trilogy
News Discussion
- (28:10) James Cameron Disses Piranha 3D, Producer Responds
- (43:10) M. Night Shyamalan Worked Story Written for Unbreakable 2 Into One of the Night Chronicles
- (53:05) Ridley Scott Talks Alien Prequels
Featured Review
- (1:04:12) Machete
Credits
- A big thanks to our sponsor, Audible. Visit audiblepodcast.com/filmcast to sign up and get a FREE audio book!
- Our music comes from Point 22 courtesy of the Podsafe Network, and Brad Sucks
- If you’d like advertise with us or sponsor us, please e-mail slashfilmcast@gmail.com.
- Contact us at our voicemail number: 781-583-1993
- You can donate and support the /Filmcast by going to www.slashfilmcast.com and clicking on the left-hand side “Donate” links! Thanks to all our donors this week!
Well, power to the people, I guess. Yesterday we announced quite innocently that we’d be changing our logo every day for 50 days to salute a different startup. We thought it would be fun based on doing it last week with an old Twitter logo.
Fun it was not. Reddit, it seems, has been doing exactly the same thing for the last eight days. Within moments of our post going up we were slammed for copying them. And then demands were made that we stop, and/or give them credit for inventing the silly idea. I scoffed, and then things went crazy. We get more than our fair share of crazies in our comments, but this was over the top even in our experience. We banned dozens of hateful comments, but they’re coming faster than we can stop them. And I certainly have no intention of doing this day after day as each new logo goes up.
So, Reddit, you win. Making fake logos is your territory from here on out. Some things just aren’t worth fighting about. And believe me, if we actually ever visited Reddit and saw that they had begun doing this we never would have done this, too.
Hope everyone enjoyed our 1 day of logos.
Just two days before Apple's media event last week, CNET reported that Apple was set to extend the length of song samples in the iTunes Store from 30 seconds to as much as 90 seconds, offering consumers g...
AP - A second nanny testifying at the drug conspiracy trial of Anna Nicole Smith's two doctors and lawyer-boyfriend said Tuesday that she kept a list of drugs given to the model and that it numbered 18 at one point.
Firefox just launched its fifth Firefox 4 beta, which includes a more streamlined interface, faster graphics and a new audio API that exposes raw audio data (see video above).
What’s new in this latest iteration of Firefox?
* The introduction of an audio API which uses HTML5, allowing developers to visualize the sound data in a browser and creating novel ways to experience sound while web surfing.
* Emphasis on faster graphics with default graphics support from Direct2D, a 2-D graphics API for Windows 7, on machines that support Windows 7.
* Implementation of the HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), a security protocol that increases the chances for a secure connections.
A stable version is set to be released by Mozilla in November. You can try out the latest beta here.
AP - John Lennon's killer was again denied parole in New York, nearly 30 years after gunning down the ex-Beatle outside the musician's New York City apartment building.
More new cases have been introduced for Apple's latest iPod touch, this time from Incipio and XtremeMac, though neither company has updated its website. Incipio will deliver five cases for the Touch, alongside a wristband for the sixth-generation Nano and an armband series for the Touch, Nano and Shuffle. Incipio's dermaSHOT is a high-density silicone case for the Touch, featuring a finish that slips easily into pants pockets. The SILICRYLIC has a silicone core with a hard-shell shield for the back and corners. The Feather is an ultralight polycarbonate case, while t...
Gather up a group of people who make their living through web design, and they’ll probably all agree on at least two things: A) touchscreens aren’t going anywhere, and B) designing web stuff for touchscreens sort of sucks. Native apps have, in a sense, spoiled users; with things like drag-and-drop and basic touch gesture recognition almost laughably simple to implement in native apps, web app developers are left to hack in such features themselves or risk having their app seem dated from the get-go.
Today Yahoo! is looking to make things a bit less painful with the latest release of their open-source User Interface library, YUI.
Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>
AP - A fashion show built around the landmark fountain of Lincoln Center brought celebrities, fashion designers and some ordinary New Yorkers to their feet Tuesday night.
We've heard that the new iPod nano and iPod Touch will be arriving in Apple retail stores tomorrow, and the first reviews are starting to filter in.
The iPod nano is the most dramatically different device in Apple's lineup. ...
A new update to Xinet's WebNative Suite has added Adobe CS5 support to Picture Wrangler ID, WebNative ID, Annotator ID, and Asset Browser ID. The four plug-ins have been created to work with Adobe InDesign, providing users with additional features not found in the default software. For example, Picture Wrangler ID provides one-click relinking between FPO and high-resolution versions of images, while Annotator ID can be used to create PDF's that contain interactive links to images that reside on the WebNative server. To purchase the WebNative Suite, customers must con...This Week in DVD & Blu-ray is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD and Blu-ray releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy and Fry’s.
MACGRUBER
Not everyone is going to appreciate MacGruber’s unabashed clever-stupid comedic sensibilities, and those that do will likely be accused of being idiots by those that don’t. It’s a crude, silly movie that works because it knows exactly what it is and embraces it, finding just the right rhythm to deliver its absurdist, knowing slant on ’80s action flicks. All of the characters have their goofy charm, but they’re restrained enough to make the film feel like it could just be a straight action movie, were the outright cartoonish MacGruber not there to fuck everything up. For the first time ever, Will Forte has finally found a role for which his over-the-top demeanor is perfectly suited, and his delivery and timing in just about every scene is riotously funny. Director Jorma Taccone deserves much of that credit, as he effortlessly maintains the pace of the film’s non-stop gags, one-liners and saxophone-enhanced musical beats. MacGruber isn’t a great movie—it’s nowhere near the caliber of, say, Hot Fuzz—but it’s far funnier than it should’ve been, and easily one of the funniest movies of the year so far.
Available on Blu-ray? Yes.
Notable Extras: DVD & Blu-ray – Unrated & theatrical versions, commentary with director/co-writer Jorma Taccone, co-writer/actor Will Forte and co-writer John Solomon, a deleted scene, and a gag reel.
| BEST DVD PRICE | ||
|---|---|---|
| Target | Best Buy | Fry’s |
| N/A | $19.99 | N/A |
| Amazon – $17.99 | ||
| BEST BLU-RAY PRICE | ||
|---|---|---|
| Target | Best Buy | Fry’s |
| N/A | $26.99 | N/A |
| Amazon – $26.99 | ||
EXCLUSIVE DEAL:
What? Exclusive Blu-ray/DVD combo pack.
Where? Best Buy.
SOLITARY MAN
Solitary Man is what a 90-minute movie of Californication would be, if Californication were smarter, wittier, and more honest. Michael Douglas has a year decade or two on David Duchovny, yet he’s still fully believable as the glib, charming, self-serving womanizer. Wrinkles and all, this may just be the best performance of his career. As Ben Kalmen, he’s a man resolutely determined to continue living his life in the carefree manner he’s been living it, even as he sets fire to everything he touches. Ben isn’t the most pleasant of characters, but he is an interesting one, and as played by Douglas, he’s a consistently captivating one. Douglas is expected to carry the film, and he does so flawlessly. A terrific supporting cast (which includes, among others, Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito, Mary Louise-Parker, Jenna Fischer, Jesse Eisenberg and Olivia Thirlby) helps ease the load, and they’re served well by a script that treats them all—even the characters with less than five minutes of screen time—like real, fully-defined individuals.
Available on Blu-ray? Yes.
Notable Extras: DVD & Blu-ray – Audio commentary with writer/director Brian Koppelman, director David Levien and actor Douglas McGrath, and a Solitary Man: Alone in a Crowd Behind the Scenes featurette.
| DVD PRICE |
|---|
| Amazon – $17.99 |
| BLU-RAY PRICE |
|---|
| Amazon – $23.99 |
THAT EVENING SUN
Were the plot of That Evening Sun as envisioned by the film’s lead character, the determined-to-a-fault Abner Meecham, it’d be the tale of a righteous old man fighting for ownership of his house and land against a lazy, undeserving redneck. And were That Evening Sun a less interesting film, that’s exactly what it would be. Where the film really shines, though, is its measured portrayal of its characters. There’s a complexity to these people, one that extends way beyond the anticipated good vs. evil dichotomy. Meecham is probably a better person than his appointed enemy Lonzo Choat, but had the film been told from Lonzo’s perspective, Meecham could’ve just as easily been the villain. Superbly played by Hal Holbrook, Meecham is like a live-action incarnation of Carl Fredricksen from Up; he’s a bitter widow who only wants to live out the last remaining years of his life in peace, in the house he rightfully earned—regardless of who it effects in the process. Lonzo, meanwhile, is a drunk—and a mean one at that—but he’s trying to provide for his family, and now that he’s found a home where he can do that, he aims to keep it. When the goals of these two characters clash, things get ugly pretty quickly, and they build to a resolution that, while unsurprising, feels well-earned.
Available on Blu-ray? Yes.
Notable Extras: DVD & Blu-ray – Anti-commentary with Scott Teems, Rodney Taylor and Travis Sittard, a making-of featurette, The Art and Craft of “That Evening Sun”, and Cast & Crew Interviews.
| DVD PRICE |
|---|
| Amazon – $15.49 |
| BLU-RAY PRICE |
|---|
| Amazon – $26.99 |
THE OFFICE (SEASON 6)
I sometimes think that getting canceled early is the best thing that can happen to a show in the US. At least then its legacy is left intact, with fans fondly remembering what was, and enthusiastically imagining what could’ve been. The only alternative, it seems, is the frustration, depression or indifference that comes with a show that attains popularity, since once studios find success with a series, they continue to pick up subsequent seasons well after the point that it’s been run creatively dry. Compare this practice with that of UK television, which rarely has more than 6 episodes to a season, and even then tends to end its shows well before they’ve worn out their welcome. How fitting it is that The Office would be the latest TV show to fulfill the American TV trend, with its latest season showing very little signs of the heartfelt charm that made it so beloved during its early years, while its UK counterpart sits comfortably with 12 wonderful episodes and a perfect series special. This isn’t to say that Season 6 of The Office doesn’t contain enjoyable episodes, as it most certainly does, but the show has lost its sense of purpose. The plotlines have been stretched as far as they can go, and the characters have grown too broad and one-note. Had the writers used Season 6 as a way to build to an actual ending for the show, the series’ legacy could’ve been restored. But alas, they’ve decided to keep it going for seasons to come, Steve Carell’s departure be damned. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.
Available on Blu-ray? Yes.
Notable Extras: DVD & Blu-ray – Commentaries featuring the cast and crew, more than 4 hours of deleted scenes, 2 extended episodes, a full-screen version of the Sabre corporate welcome video starring Kathy Bates and Christian Slater, a “Podcast” Minisode, a blooper reel, and The Office promos.
| BEST DVD PRICE | ||
|---|---|---|
| Target | Best Buy | Fry’s |
| $29.99 | $31.99 | $29.97 |
| Amazon – $29.99 | ||
| BEST BLU-RAY PRICE | ||
|---|---|---|
| Target | Best Buy | Fry’s |
| $37.99 | $41.99 | $37.97 |
| Amazon – $41.99 | ||
EXCLUSIVE DEAL:
What? Includes “That’s What She Said” T-shirt and bonus disc.
Where? Best Buy.
EXCLUSIVE DEAL:
What? Bonus disc includes 2 extended episodes with scenes never seen before.
Where? Target.
KILLERS
From the director of a lot of bad movies, starring two annoying actors, featuring a staggeringly lame trailer, with equally negative reviews to match. You’d think that would be a recipe for box office gold, but amazingly, even audiences decided to pass on this one.
Available on Blu-ray? Yes.
| DVD PRICE |
|---|
| Amazon – $16.99 |
| BLU-RAY PRICE |
|---|
| Amazon – $24.99 |
Other noteworthy DVD (and Blu-ray) releases this week…
Chuck (Season 3) [DVD / Blu-ray] – Supernatural (Season 5) [DVD / Blu-ray] – Smallville (Season 9) [DVD / Blu-ray] – Skins (Vol. 3) – Prime Suspect (The Complete Collection)
Noteworthy Blu-ray-specific releases this week…
THX 1138 – Fordbidden Planet – Stardust – Mars Attacks!
NOTES: Some deals may vary by store. Some deals may be in-store only. All deals are for DVDs unless otherwise noted.
Exclusive: Supernatural (Season 5) includes bonus disc with 100th episode featurette.
Exclusive: Smallville (Season 9) includes Superman T-shirt.
Exclusive: Supernatural (Season 5) includes keychain.
$19.99 – LOST (Season 1 – 5), The Office (Season 1 – 5), Supernatural (Season 1 – 4), House (Season 1 – 5), The Mentalist (Season 1)
$24.99 – Sons of Anarchy (Season 1)
$7.99 – Blu-ray sale: 3:10 to Yuma
$9.99 – Blu-ray sale: Ghostbusters, Starship Troopers, Underworld, Tears of the Sun
$12.99 – Blu-ray sale: The Evil Dead
omg! - Angelina Jolie has visited northwest Pakistan to meet victims of the recent flooding. The actress appealed to the international community to provide aid and help the country recover from its worst natural disaster. (Sept 7)
AP - Glenn Shadix (SHA-dix), the actor best remembered for his portrayal of a portly, pretentious designer in the comedy "Beetlejuice," has died. He was 58.
