Michael McNamara

technology, networking, virtualization and IP telephony

Where’s the content?

by

Yes I’m admitting that I need to post some new content here…

I’ve literally been wrapped up in a large (400+ handset) Nortel IP Telephony deployment not to mention dozens of other projects including such topics as virtualization and managed data center design. In the coming months I’ll also be participating in designing and setting up a 25 user pilot of Microsoft Office Communication Server and integrating it with the Nortel Succession 1000 platform.

I know a lot of us are also sitting on the edge of our seats waiting to see what will happen with Nortel. I heard a few rumors that something should be announced with the next week or two but only time will tell.

Thanks for reading!

Gravatars – How to setup?

by

gravatar_logoA few folks have asked how to they can setup their avatars so it shows up in the comments. The current WordPress theme I’m using is integrated with Gravatar. You simply need to visit the site and create an account using the same email address that your using on this blog. A vast majority of sites use Gravatar so your avatar will also start showing up in those sites as well.

You can sign-up for an account at this URL; http://en.gravatar.com/site/signup

Cheers!

WordPress Theme Change

by

I had been growing tired of the old WordPress theme for some time so it was time for a change.

Thanks to Richard ‘Jodi’ Maxwell for his time and efforts constructing the “Nearly-Sprung”  WordPress theme.

I have some cleanup to-do around the code but it doesn’t look too bad right now. I like the earthy green tones, hopefully it will inspire folks to think green as they design and construct future data centers and networks.

I’m also working toward adding some decent search capability into the site with the help of Google Search. I know a lot of folks have had issues finding some of the different articles (including myself) and this will hopefully resolve that problem.

Cheers!

Home Desktop Upgrade 2008

by

intelq9550I know your asking “who cares” but it’s a blog and not every post needs to be totally useful. In this case I thought I would just spew about my latest desktop creation, yes I still build my own PCs and overclock them as well.

Over the holidays I upgraded my PC by replacing the motherboard, CPU and memory. I also stepped up from Windows XP to Windows Vista Ultimate (64-bit) and I jumped back to an Intel platform from previously using AMD.

I used the following components:

I can honestly say that I’m quite pleased with how everything has turned out. I still play a few games here and there (Left 4 Dead is just awesome and I’m a big fan of Steam) and the DX10 support in Vista is just amazing on the eVGA 8800GTS that I reused from my previous system.  There was only one small issue that I encountered that involves the rear audio jacks from the RealTek HD Audio codec which I believe is a Windows Vista 64-bit driver problem since the audio hardware works with Ubuntu Live.

I also stumbled upon Windows Media Center and I have to honestly say that I’m very impressed. I ripped a few of my favorite DVDs to my hard disk and had my own on-demand library right there on my own PC.

I’m sure there will be a few folks scratching there heads asking why this bloat didn’t just purchase an Intel Core i7 processor inplace of the older Intel Core 2 processor. Honestly, while the price of the each processor was in line with the other the motherboard and memory were much more expensive for the Core i7 platform.

Cheers!

Update: January 22, 2009

I was finally able to resolve the audio issue by installing the latest drivers (v2.14) from the RealTek website for the “High Definition Audio Codec”.

Recent Posts

Categories

SUBSCRIBE BY EMAIL