Rich’s Random Podcast Generator: VMWare Certified Professional, Super Router, VMWare, MS Marketing, Corporate Decisions of the Past, Cylons – RRPG007

Jay Moore, John Stutsman, and Mike Howard of jpeg2RAW fame join the show this week. Topics include uses for VM servers in the home, pop screens and swivel mounts for microphones, Apple v. MS, and the good ol’ Ford Pinto.

A majority of people own computers that run on the Intel platform. Mike’s entire household runs on AMD because he like’s the bang for the buck. Plus he likes to root for the underdog which is why he sides with Microsoft. Wait…what??

Have you seen those recent Windows commercials on television? One or two might be passable, might be, but on the whole they are squirm-inducing and weak. Microsoft’s approach seems so out of touch. It’s a simple fact that Apple crushes MS when it comes to consumer marketing. The top-down approach always worked for them because Steve Job’s was a one-of-a kind individual who could envision the future. But Microsoft’s top-down approach doesn’t work, and never has. Folks like to lay the blame at Steve Ballmer’s feet. Is it time for him to go? Or is it simply time for a new approach?

Rich has a spare PC now that he’s gone The Full Fo-Shay* and purchased the parts to build his new i7-2600k system. He’s now exploring ways he might make use of his cast-off Q9550 system by setting it up as a VM server. Jay, John, Mike discuss various scenarios including Mike’s Super Router which you can read about over on the the Home Server Show forums. Mike has combined the best of pfSense + untangle running on XenServer to create a front end that protects and monitors his home network. This goes way beyond your typical store-bought router.

Congratulations to Jay Moore on passing the VMWare Certified Professional test. Jay is now the official go-to guy for all that is VMWare. Right?

There’s a discussion about notorious corporate decisions of the past, notably one that affected the safety of the Ford Pinto.

John, it turns out, is a serious electronics geek who way back in the day would diagnose and repair a car radio rather than shell over big bucks to a dealer for a replacement. He’d figure out that a transistor was bad and he’d just picked up a new one and and replace it.

The guys graciously explain SG-1 and Cylons to Rich, the last person on this good Earth to hear about this stuff.

*The Full Fo-Shay is a term first coined by Rich O’Neil on RRPG #6. It refers one spending a good chunk of change to purchase a premium product. It can also refer to when one purchases a few similar premium products in order to check them out. The idea for the term was inspired by Mike Faucher whose BYOB podcast usually fires up their listeners to spend vast sums of money on new hardware which no one ever really seems to mind doing.

In the show this week: Jim Collison, Rich O’Neil, Mike Howard, John Stutsman, Jay Moore

Rich’s RPG is a weekly show hosted by Jim Collison and Rich O’Neil on Google + Hangout. They talk tech with like-minded folks and together they cover whatever’s interesting – hot or not, current or historical. No outlines, no agenda, no worries. Got a headset and some free time? Join them!

Jim’s Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/jcollison

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Podcast Intro and Exit Music used by permission from “”In the Shadow Of The Great Machine” by Fool’s Chaos. Hear more great tunes at Fool’s Chaos

Microsoft Marketing, Steve Ballmer, Super Router, VM servers, VMWare Certified Professional