Why you won't even notice an SSD.

I finally got the SSD for my Macbook Pro I've been hankering after for a long time now. It's fantastic, just like everyone said it would be.

Should you upgrade your current machine with an SSD? Probably. Should you make sure there's an SSD in your next machine? Definitely.

Here's the interesting thing though - it doesn't feel fast any more, and I've only had it for a bit over a month. So what's happened? Something must have gone wrong technically. Maybe it needs to be sent back and replaced with a new, fast again drive? Nup. The drive is still working perfectly. It's just that crazy fast is the new normal. Which means if I ever switched back to a regular spinning disk, it would be painfully slow. The only thing that has changed is my perception of it.

In many ways, it's a great problem to have. My machine is now fast enough that I don't notice it's limitations in my current use cases - most notably creating and running lots of virtual machines concurrently.

Other upgrades that had a similar effect include putting 16GB of RAM in the MBP and the retina display on the newer model iPhones and iPads. Once you've used them for a short period of time, you really only notice when they're not there any more.

Ultimately, this is how technology should be. So adequately specced that it doesn't draw attention to itself. Once those technological limits are out of the way, the technology fades into the background and you can get on with the important work you have to do. The technology serves you, it's a lever for your creativity, and it doesn't break you out of your flow with painfully slow file transfers and memory limits.

DiskSpeedTesthdd.png

Here's a speed test (5GB data transfers) for the original 5400RPM disk Apple shipped.

And here's the Samsung 830 SSD.

DiskSpeedTestSSD.png

In the context of "fast enough", the numbers barely matter. It's fast enough, for now.

The computer that doesn't crash

It is virtually impossible to maintain a high tempo exploring and keeping abreast of the churn and chaos in the technology space, and then translate that into meaningful training solutions. We often see technology following the creative masterful minds of popular  sci-fi and futurist writers (look at the LG GD910 wrist phone/watch, or the new Pebble and recall the Dick Tracy series). And, now we are seeing the emergence of computers that never 'crash'.  This was the subject of an article that caught our eye published last week at newscientist.com. Cyborg self healing, 2001 Space Odyssey just around the corner? For now it is watch this space.... http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21729045.400-the-computer-that-never-crashes.html

IPv6 Prefix Delegation and Firewall Rules

Many service providers will supply their customers with a block of IPv6 addresses using DHCP based Prefix Delegation. This is described in RFC 3315.

When configuring your traffic filter or firewall on your router, you will need to remember to allow DHCPv6 traffic on your outside interface.

DHCPv6 uses UDP port 546 client side, and UDP port 547 on the server side. As it will be your WAN interface that is behaving as the DHCP client, you will need to:

• allow OUTBOUND traffic with a SOURCE port of 546 and a DESTINATION port of 547;
• allow INBOUND traffic with a SOURCE port of 547 and a DESTINATION port of 546.

Without these rules, you won't get a prefix and there'll be no IPv6 for you!