Author

Philip Sellers

Phil is a Solutions Architect at XenTegra, based in Charlotte, NC, with over 20 years of industry experience. He loves solving complex, technology problems by breaking down the impossible into tangible achievements - and by thinking two or three steps ahead of where we are today. He has spent most of my career as an infrastructure technologist in hands-on roles, even while serving as a leader. His perspective is one of servant leadership, working with his team to build something greater collectively. Having been lucky to have many opportunities and doorways opened during his career - Phil has a diverse background as a programmer, a writer, an analyst all while staying grounded in infrastructure technology.

Moving from MS Money to Moneywell

by Philip Sellers June 12, 2009

written by Philip Sellers

I think that I have settled on Moneywell as my software of choice for Mac money management. I really like how this software is setup for an envelope system style of managing your money. I also like that it imported my QIF exports, although there is no way for it to preserve transfer transactions between accounts.

I initially had problems and had dimissed Moneywell because I could not connect to my primary bank. After perusing the Quicken Financial Life forums (I was a beta tester), I found the issue – I was not using the correct username and password. To work with my bank, I needed to provide my member number and PIN to authenticate – not my website username and password. Worked that out, and now automatic updates are all set.

June 12, 2009 1 comment

Home Tech

CrashPlan backup is awesome

by Philip Sellers June 12, 2009

written by Philip Sellers

I setup CrashPlan for a friend overnight and the software really lives up to its advertising. The software is really easy to install and registration is straight forward. After install, you select what data to backup – which is less robust than Mozy’s default filters – but its easy enough to point to her user directory on her Mac and backup the entire profile.

After setting up her selections to backup, just need to point it to a destination. CrashPlan makes that really simple. You have 4 options – folders, computers, friends or online.

June 12, 2009 0 comments

Apple Home Tech

Quicken Financial Life beta expires, community closed

by Philip Sellers June 11, 2009

written by Philip Sellers

Maybe I’m late to the party, but I found that my Quicken Financial Life beta build had expired. Unfortunately, there is also no newer build to download. So, no more testing of that software. But I’m not crying.

June 11, 2009 2 comments

Personal

One month later, Mozy backup almost complete

by Philip Sellers June 11, 2009

written by Philip Sellers

One month and two days ago, I posted about my experience with online backup solution Mozy. I’d tried the product once before and been disappointed with the backup speeds, and so I abandoned it, only to begin again last month. After a month of backing up, I’ve almost got my initial 60GB plus a month’s worth of changes backed up – well, by the time I get home today anyways, it should be done.

As I’ve chronicled, I think the initial backup is the biggest challenge for all online backup solutions, Mozy included. My experience taking one month really isn’t that bad given a relatively slow upstream connection and 60GB plus of data to backup. The process was relatively easy, though I needed to throttle the bandwidth to keep my Internet connection usable while I was at home. Thanks to a comment on an earlier post, I was able to find that very hidden setting in the Mozy client.

June 11, 2009 3 comments

Apple Datacenter Home Tech Software

Microsoft officially kills Money (updated)

by Philip Sellers June 10, 2009

written by Philip Sellers

I’ve been a loyal Microsoft Money user since 2004 – well, maybe 2003. My transaction logs go back to mid-2004, but I think I decided to start over with a new data file in 2004. I’d played with MS Money since 2003 sometime, but I seriously approached it in 2004. Yesterday, I learned, Microsoft will be killing the product. It will no longer be for sale at the end of this month and automatic services for the product will go dark in two years.

Microsoft Money was the one product that I haven’t found a suitable alternative for on the Mac. And having years of data in its proprietary format doesn’t help, either. Really, there are great Mac software options, including Quicken for Mac (maybe Quicken Financial Life sometime soon), Moneywell or Moneydance.

June 10, 2009 0 comments

Apple Datacenter Software

Did Apple lose its chance to capitalize on Vista?

by Philip Sellers June 5, 2009

written by Philip Sellers

I read a Digg for an article over at macworld.com entitled Apple has squandered the gift that was Vista. I’m not sure I agree with the author’s perspective. In fact, I think what Apple did might have been a very smart play. After reading the piece, the author’s view seems to be that because Apple still has less than 10% of the market share and that it didn’t introduce a netbook or business laptop (??) that they somehow failed to capitalize on the opportunity left by Vista. Let me offer a different perspective.

Continue Reading

June 5, 2009 0 comments

Home Tech

Mozy status update

by Philip Sellers May 29, 2009

written by Philip Sellers

Its been a couple weeks now since I’ve written a Mozy backup status update. We have progressed quite a ways in the backup process. I have interrupted the backups almost every evening once I get home because it was saturating my upstream connection and degrading my internet performance while I was trying to use it. So, that hasn’t helped my speed issues. But that does bring one point which Backblaze includes in their software – bandwidth throttling. That would be a nice feature to keep the client software from saturating your full upstream or downstream connection.

Beyond that, the backup is progressing nicely. I have less than 10GB of data left to be processed and uploaded. I think that we will be complete by the end of next week, if not sooner.

Since some data is now online, I am able to see the restore features of the Mozy website. As somone from Online Backup Reviews commented earlier, Mozy has added the feature of getting your data (snail) mailed to you in the event of a disaster. The rates are significantly better than Backblaze’s simliar service.

I let my Backblaze trial account lapse. I haven’t done much more with that software, but I genuinely liked the service and the yearly cost. I didn’t like the offline restore cost, though, and that kept me from subscribing. I thought those prices were very high ($99 for DVD?). I may sign up for a trial of another vendor just to see what the experience and software is like. More updates soon.

May 29, 2009 3 comments

Virtualization

Quest for certification: VCP

by Philip Sellers May 28, 2009

written by Philip Sellers

Ok, I’ll admit it. I’ve taken the VCP test and didn’t pass. (ok, not sure how many rungs I’ve just fallen on your ladder… I’m sure a few). So let me rationalize make excuses explain. I took the test last year at VMworld without studying much prior. And, I hadn’t had any hand-on experience with ESX 3.5, which was a major problem on my part. So, there’s my case. If it counts, I was just two questions from passing.

Attempt number two – I’m determined to be different this time. I’ll be retaking the test for certification on June 15 – next month – giving me a month to go over all my study materials. I am taking the 3.5 certification exam. Yes, I’m aware vSphere has arrived. That’s exactly why I’m taking this test. One, I need to take it because that’s where my experience lies and two, I need to take it while its still available.

So, any tips, sources, or suggestions for study materials and resources would be greatly appreciated. I am armed with Mike Laverik’s Virtual Infrastructure 3.5 book, my 3.0 courseware and a few study outlines from VMware.

May 28, 2009 0 comments

General

My one lonely certification

by Philip Sellers May 28, 2009

written by Philip Sellers

Certifications have always been something high on my list to-do, but something I never seem to get to. I did all the research and read skimmed most of the Microsoft library in a quest for MCP and MCSE about 8 or 9 years ago. I never took a single test. About five years ago, I switched jobs and did full-time web programming for a university. I got the books and started studying for Zend PHP certification. Never took the test.

I moved back into my preferred career path about 3 years ago now (my 3 year anniversary with HTC is June 6!) and certifications became something I wanted again. I think the desire is to prove that I know what I profess to know. At the same time, I’ve met a number of certified professional who are about as dumb as dirt when it comes to the technology they are certified on, but I digress.

So, to date, I have completed just one certification exam for our corporate mail product. That was a test I took at the tail end of the training course.

I have spent two and a half years working very hard to learn VMware – the in’s and out’s of the software – and the gotchas that might bite. And so, I want to be VMware certified. During my annual review, I also submitted VMware certification as one of my annual goals. It will be included in my review for this year. So, that was motivation to finally take this test and make it happen. So, I will update you on my quest for certification.

Being a Windows administrator for the company, I feel like I should have a Microsoft certification or two. Given Microsoft’s new certification program, I am not sure what certifications I want, so that too may be something to ponder. Updates coming soon…

May 28, 2009 1 comment

General

Quick post – caught up in Google Reader

by Philip Sellers May 28, 2009

written by Philip Sellers

So, my life has been no less busy in the last 10 days, but I did catch up with my Google Reader and all the news of the day. My wife is busy finishing a project management class for her Master program, so our family has been a little stretched lately. On top of that, work has been busy, too. All these are good and productive things. But just an update since I posted about nothing – here’s the followup about my nothing-ness.

May 28, 2009 0 comments