What to do with an iPad

Okay, let's think about it. What would make the iPad something I would want? The device has just been released. It is smooth, responsive, powerful and portable. Whatever you might think of Apple, this is the device that is closest to what you see envisioned in sci-fi. The pad device.

But with the missing feature list as long as my arm, what would I need it for? The answer is clearly for me, nothing! So, if they asked me what would I see it do?

Well, there are always the easy things that everyone has been shouting about: running non-proprietary software, connectivity, multi-tasking. But what I really want a device like this is portability. Not how I can carry it around, but what it can connect to while carrying it around.

I want to take my pad to a desk with a keyboard on it, put the pad in a holder and start typing. While I type, the keyboard station is charging my pad. After finishing my document I pick up my pad and go to the printer. Pressing one button on the printer and one on my pad I am printing the document. I want to hand my document to someone else, I bring my pad to theirs and another button press, my document is now on their pad. I want to collaborate and in a meeting documents are passed electronically between pads. I am in a lecture or briefing and I can submit questions and make comments on distributed materials, answer voting calls.

In my work I want to be able to identify equipment or stock by bringing my pad next to it and updating a network service automatically. The options become more limitless when you consider writing your own applications.

But for now, if I want a nice looking toy, I'll go for an iPad. It'll keep my interest until the next nice toy comes along.

Server 2008 R2 and VMWare vSphere 4

Server 2008 R2 is supported as an experimental product on vSphere 4. As a consequence, there are some gotchas that the boys at VMWare have yet to fix in an official patch. The biggest problem so far is the unexpected and unpredictable lockup on the console. If you want to run Server 2008 R2 on you VMWare box, here is what to look out for:

• Network Drivers - The E1000 driver is alledged to be responsible for server lock up. Once you have created your initial VM, remove the standard E1000 interface that is added by default, and add a new network interface with a vmxnet 3 driver. Now the OS will not have a driver for this, so you will have to install vmware tools before you start doing any network activity. If you are building from PXE you will need to import the vmxnet drivers into your OS building applciation.

• Video Drivers - This is the reason the console will lock up, but only after you have installed vmware tools. When installing vmware tools, do a custom installation. Expand the drivers section and change the video driver option to "This option is unavailable." Continuing without this driver will not affect your experience in the slightest.

Other than this, 2008 R2 virtual machines run well in vSphere 4.