VMworld 2012 Best of Show Winners

Here are the VMworld 2012 Best of Show winners straight up from TechTarget.  I can't say I understand all of the choices and you have to take them for what they are - press picks, but most of these products are worth another look.  I share a couple of thoughts after some sections, all just my opinion, of course:

Business Continuity and Data Protection
Gold: FalconStor RecoverTrac 2.5, FalconStor Software
Silver: EMC Avamar 6.1, EMC Corp.
Bronze: Symantec NetBackup 5220, Symantec Corp.

Comment: How does yet another proprietary hardware box from EMC win silver?  Where's vSphere replication with SRM, especially now that it's free with vSphere?  I saw other products at VMworld that were more deserving.

Security and Compliance for Virtualization
Gold: Layer 7 API Portal, Layer 7 Technologies
Silver: None
Bronze: None

Comment:  No Silver or Bronze?  That seems odd.  These guys need to try harder.

Virtualization Management
Gold: HotLink Hybrid Express, HotLink Corp.
Silver: Control Console 7.1, CiRBA Inc.
Bronze: Puppet Enterprise 2.5, Puppet Labs

Comment:  HotLink has some cool products, but the other two?  Again, I saw better management products at VMworld.

Hardware for Virtualization
Gold: Tintri VMstore T540 with Tintri OS 1.4, Tintri Inc.
Silver: Nutanix Complete Cluster, Nutanix
Bronze: Zebi Storage Arrays, Tegile Systems Inc.

Comment:  All of these products are cool and worth a look.  Nutanix won this last year and has since exploded in growth and mind share - I heard several people talking positively about them at the conference.  They should have included SimpliVity and Scale Computing.

Desktop Virtualization
Gold: Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI, Atlantis Computing Inc.
Silver: SysTrack MarketPlace, 6.1, Lakeside Software Inc.
Bronze: HP t410 All-in-One Zero Client, Hewlett-Packard Co.

Comment:  Again, all products worth looking at.  Only I would have included Teradici PCoIP, they now provide a solutions for Microsoft RDS and "shared GPU" putting them on par (or close to?) Citrix HDX 3D Pro.

Private Cloud Computing Technologies
Gold: Piston Enterprise OpenStack, Version 1, Piston Cloud Computing, Inc.
Silver: ManageIQ's Enterprise Virtualization Management Suite, Version 4
Bronze: Embotics V-Commander, Version 4.5, Embotics

Public and Hybrid Cloud Computing Technologies
Gold: DynamicOps Cloud Suite 4.5, DynamicOpsby VMware Inc.
Silver: Skytap Cloud, Skytap Inc.
Bronze: None

New Technology
Gold:  Systems Management Virtualization, 1.0, Intigua
Silver: EqualLogic Storage Blade Array, Dell Inc.
Bronze: XtremIO Flash Array, Version 1.1, XtremIO

Best of Show
Winner: HotLink Hybrid Express, HotLink

Post-VMworld 2012 Recap

Another good year for VMware and VMworld.  This year the themed seemed to be 'integration'.  VMware announced vCloud Suite 1.5 which includes what is just the beginning of integration between various VMware products.  I spoke with several VMware developers at the conference and this message was pretty consistent.  Here's the rundown on other aspects of the conference:

Location:  From Vegas, back to San Francisco!  Well, the food was much better than 2010, I'll give them that.  But still - blankets to eat lunch outside (again), really?  I walked back to the "hang space" which was perfect.  At one point I was with a group that included one of the event coordinators and it was really interesting to hear things like how early they have to book locations and all of the logistics that go into the event.  After that discussion, I have a better appreciation for what it takes to put on an event of this size and will therefore stop complaining about the location(!).

Key Notes:  Last year was all about VMware's vision for cloud and desktop computing.  This year was more about integration.  They announced products that were consistent with both the "vision" and "integration" themes:

• vCloud Suite 1.5:  This is the big integration piece, combining vSphere infrastructure with their cloud and management products
• vSphere 5.1 with vSphere Data Protection based on EMC Avamar technology
• vSphere Replication - previously tied to SRM, now a separate product feature
• VMware Horizon Suite:  Integrating several desktop and mobile products including AppBlast, Horizon App Manager, Octopus, ThinApp and Horizon Mobile.

They also announced the end for the vRAM "tax"!  This brought the second biggest applause of the morning (and it was big).  Even bigger was Paul Maritz's 'handing over the reigns' to VMware's new CEO, Pat Gelsinger.  These guys have known each other for some time - they both worked as engineers for Intel.  Small world.

I had the opportunity to meet Pat at the CTO party and he seemed to be a genuinely nice down-to-earth guy.  Let just hope he executes(!).  I highly recommend watching the General Session key notes here: 

General Session Key Note - Day 1

General Session Key Note - Day 2

VMworld App:  Not much love for the app this year.  Unfortunately last year's was better.  This year it was riddled with performance problems.  Even the live polling was a miss for me.  It obviously worked for some people.  By time the question loaded, the poll was closed so I didn't get to vote on much.  WiFi performance was spotty too.  Both the app and WiFi access improved by day 3, but by then the damage is done.  On a more positive note, the VMworld 2012 community hosted on Socialcast was fantastic.  VMware is shutting this down by the end of September.  I understand why, but have to wonder if this isn't a better tool than VMworld.com - I think it's open for debate.  I hope they provide a Socialcast site again next year, maybe making access available a littler earlier.

Alumni Elite Event: It's been 9 years in a row now (which means next year is the big 10, a decade of VMworld!).  The dinner was mostly anti-climatic.  We landed on Forbes Island, except it's not an island, but a floating boat/barge kind-of-thing. 

Here's the lighthouse - fantastic view from up there:

Whoa... looking down:

Here's the restaurant and lighthouse from a distance.  Notice the lack of sea lions.  Those planks were full two years ago.  Apparently they follow the schools of Mackerel of which there aren't many this year in the bay:

I have to say the food was excellent.  The gift was just "meh", but it was a gift so I won't complain (too much).  On the bus over, one guy said he thought we were getting a MacBook Pro.  I'm betting he was disappointed!  I had to laugh at that as I thought an iPad at best.  Last years iPod Shuffle and Vegas show was an awesome surprise.  In the event planner's defense, she was new to the whole thing and maybe not given much time to put it together.  I expect next year will be better.

When they started recognizing Alumni Elite, it started with 55 of us 3 years ago.  Last year, the number dropped to 45.  This year there were 32.  Technically, there's less than that as they are including guys that may have missed years of the US conference, but attended the European VMworld.

CTO Party:  This was a great party again this year.  As I mentioned before I got to meet Pat Gelsinger and I also met Steve Herrod.  Both guys were accommodating.  I had drank a couple on an empty stomach before meeting either of them so hopefully I didn't embarrass myself!  See drink in hand (sorry, crappy cell camera pics - this is a good justification for having a decent camera on your phone, right?  Will I ever get this chance again?):

 

ARRITDOR was here!

VMworld Party:  I stayed at the CTO party right up until the start of the VMworld party (and then some).  By time I got to the hall, the opening band, Morning Parade, on played 2-3 more songs.  Which is good because I'm not a fan.  It reminded me of the Killers, a.k.a whiny Euro blandness.  Not really rock 'n roll in my book.  But maybe the kids love it and I'm out of touch, IDK.

Now we're in-between bands and they have this video board/music mash-up thing which is cool (well, except maybe for the Sound of Music, not sure why that was included).  And once Marley's "One Love"  started the party was on!

So out comes Jon Bon Jovi and he gets right down to business.  And for the most part, he's all business the entire show.  Not much interaction with the crowd.  I think he took a que from the Killers.  Oh he did have some witty banter, something like - 'sing-along with me, if you do you can put that you sang with Bon Jovi on your resume, the girls know that's a good thing'.  And 'come on guys you can do better than that, I flew a long way to sing for you tonight', or something like that.  Really?  I'm thinking the guy has a big head.  Maybe I missing something here.

Lack of audience connection aside, he did look like he was having fun and I know everyone around me was having fun.  He did three Bon Jovi numbers - Bad Medicine, You Give Love a Bad Name and Wanted Dead or Alive - and a handful of covers.  His encore was Wilson Pickett's "634-5789 (Soulsville, U.S.A.)".  Hmmm,  would not have been my pick for an encore song but that's what he did.

Overall he was entertaining and his band was pretty good, the stand-out being the violinist.  She did some phenomenal playing during a short jam at the end of the Who's 'Baba O'Riley'.  If you can find it on YouTube I suggest watching.  Again, sorry for the crappy cell phone pics:

  

Solutions Exhibit: Wow!  This best and biggest one yet!  This was really one of the big highlights for me.  I believe it in everyone's interest to spend a lot of time here talking to vendors and discovering new products and solutions.  This year was no different in this regards.  I brought back ideas that included several different products I had not even heard of before this event.  Here are some pics of the exhibit floor:

 

 

The swag was really flowing too.  Many t-shirts, too many... made it to Splunk's booth and got a fantastic T before they ran out this year.  Other vendors should take note - make a T that people actually want to wear, not with just a giant name/logo on it.  People will actually wear it more often than just doing lawn work(!).  The swag of the year award has to go to... drum roll...   sources unnamed for the rubber chicken!  Here it is on my button wall with Darth Tatar protection (yes, weird, I know):

Hmmm.... so what is the rubber chicken all about?  Well, I guess you'll just have to "find" out next year when you take a hands-on lab.

The Whiptail booth had a special guest.  I got to meet this guy and get his autograph.  The line was long but the wasn't wasn't too bad:

You can find more photos of me and other attendees here: WhipTail's Facebook Photos Page.  SimpliVity had this junk, er, I mean super car in their booth.  Do you think I'll win an Audi R8?

I've never really "won" anything at VMworld over the last nine years.  I'm not going to start holding my breath now.

Attendance:  Record attendance again this year, roughly 21,000 attendees.  And guess what, another hurricane!  This time it was hurricane Isaac which caused some serious flooding, but was much less powerful than Katrina.  Actually, this was the year of personal tragedy - my wife's van blew a transmission, our home theater receiver went bad and our Acer tablet stopped working.  What's worse, one of my son's slept-walked and fell down the stairs.  My wife rushed him to the ER and luckily he checked out okay, just a big knot on top of his head (whew!).  Both the van and receiver have been fixed now.  Still waiting on the Acer tablet.  So... yeah, getting a Samsung next time!

Signage:  For whatever reason, CRN continues to capture the "wacky" side of VMworld.  Check out their expose here: 20 Weird and Wacky Scenes from VMworld 2012.  The sumo wrestler was hilarious - they had a 20 foot tall version outside on the street corner.  Unfortunately, I was unable to snap a pic of Oracle's taxi signage, but it was there again this year except it read "4x more scalable" with the added "2x faster than VMware".  LOL (again)!

Takeaways: New for this year, I'm including this section of high-level takeaways.  These are things I learned that were interesting or some-how relevant to my current workplace:

• Pretty much all that was said in the General Sessions (see above)
• Vidyo had an impressive video conferencing solution
• vExpert Meeting: they're watching us!
• Symantec Lunch 'n Learn for vExperts:
• They have figured out a way to "dedupe" file scanning in their endpoint protection product
• The feature is called client cache and it looks to actually reduce disk I/O generated by file scans
• AV vendors take note!
• Only 5 of the 20 vExperts showed-up - I felt bad for them and have to say shame on those for not showing  up!  If you want vendors to keep extending privileges to us like this, you need to keep your commitments.
• HP Blogger/vExpert Briefing:
• Only backup/recovery solution that truly integrates with vCenter Director
• New switch that offers higher-end virtual VLAN and routing features for significantly less cost.  No separate feature licenses unlike Cisco.
• They cut the cost of the P4000/Lefthand VSA by what looks to be half.  They are even selling in 100-packs for hosting/managed providers so they can deploy and utilized local disk space on their servers.  It's now called HP StoreVirtual VSA.
• Session - vMotion Futures:
• Unified vMotion - no longer requires shared storage
• Performance - nearly as fast as traditional Storage vMotion
• Guest Performance Penalty (CPU, memory, storage) = same as Storage vMotion
• Futures = Unified vMotion across vCenter instances
• Session - Storage Performance Troubleshooting
• AV scans generate high I/O crushing storage performance (nothing new there)
• Mis-aligned guest OS disk partitions can also have a large negative impact on storage performance.  If you're a Netapp customer you're in luck, they have tools and technology to handle this on their arrays.
• Virtualization monitoring (current project):
• "Incumbent" = vKernel vOPS Server Standard
• Others on the list: VMware vCenter Operations, VMTurbo
• Add Xangati (per discussion in Solutions Exhibit booth)
• End-to-end monitoring:
• SecurActive's Performance Vision = these guys have an intriguing end-to-end monitoring solution.  More investigation required, add to the short list.
• Currently looked at eG Innovations, Citrix EdgeSight and Microsoft Operations Manager
• Not many tools do true end-to-end monitoring (or do it well)
• Server-side cache:  based on my discussions with HP and Fusion-io in the Solutions Exhibit, this technology is in its very early stage.  Fusion-io has a product called ioTurbine but more investigation is needed to determine if it meets our technical and budgetary requirements.
• Vendors continue to push "cloud" and cloud-related products/technologies.  In all of my networking, I didn't talk to anyone who was moving full-bore to the cloud and totally embracing it.  I thought I would at least run across someone that was doing hybrid cloud but no luck.  Obviously there are companies doing this but I found this telling.

So yes, another great conference this year.  As previously mentioned, next year will be number 10 for VMworld and I think we're all expecting big things.  VMworld returns to San Francisco again next year at the Moscone Center, August 26-29.  See you there!

Pre-VMworld 2012 Swag!

VMworld 2012 doesn't start until next week, but I've already got some swag!

A very nice Nike golf shirt from Tintri for us VMware vExpert 2012 folks.  Not a customer, but they have a very interesting product you should consider if you're in the market for new storage.

Thanks Tintri!

Cloud What?

Here's how cloud computing is defined by the Wiki:

"Cloud computing is the delivery of computing and storage capacity as a service to a community of end-recipients. The name comes from the use of a cloud-shaped symbol as an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it contains in system diagrams. Cloud computing entrusts services with a user's data, software and computation over a network."

Yeeoouzzza!  That probably means a little to a few.  Let's simplify terms in an effort to reach a better understanding.  We'll start by using an example:
Take that desktop computer sitting under your desk and put it in the datacenter (which I'm going to assume is in the same building as your office).  See that?  Your desktop is now in a private cloud.
Take that same desktop and move it into a datacenter owned by any other company other than your employer.  Where is it now?  It's in the public cloud.

When you read or hear about the "cloud", it's usually in the context of the public cloud.  And this is really another way of talking about something that is accessed over the Internet.  That something can be a software service such as email (Google Gmail), a platform service such as web services, or an infrastructure service such as a virtual server (Amazon EC2).

So why do we have this word "cloud"?  We had hosted email services over the Internet long before anyone coined the term.  Why not just call it Internet-hosted email?  Or Internet-hosted virtual servers? Etc, etc.  I think I know the answer: it's virtualization's fault.  More specifically, it's VMware's fault.

When VMware virtualization started becoming mainstream, there was a desire by many in the IT industry to jump on the next big thing.  And the desire was to jump ahead quickly.  We got server consolidation, okay great!  Now we have hosted dev/test environments, spectacular!  Now have significantly cheaper DR solutions, awesome!  We can now host desktops, especially for apps where Terminal Services doesn't fit the bill (later called VDI).  So what's the next big thing?

My observation is that several IT vendors, led by VMware, have started this cloud trend/marketing machine and most other vendors have jumped aboard the hype train.  Now we have vendors clamoring to be your cloud-based solution and it's almost become a given that everyone is looking at how the cloud can help their organization.

And this is where one of my motivations to write this article comes from.  Is this cloud thing all hype?  No.  There are some scenarios where it does make sense.  A common scenario is the organization with a need that their small (or no) IT staff can fulfill.  There are certainly cases like this where I would have no problem recommending cloud solutions.

One of the common arguments for choosing cloud services/solutions is to free-up IT staff to focus on the job they're supposed to be doing (or something similar to that).  Well, what's really happening is that when companies move an internally hosted solution such as email to the cloud, the CFO want's to know the financial pay-off, the ROI.  In many of these cases, somebody gets fired.  Maybe this wouldn't happen if we weren't in the Great Recession, but that's little comfort to the Exchange admin that just lost his job!

We need to start thinking of cloud solutions as outsourced solutions.  Not as silver-bullets that are going to bring peace and harmony to an otherwise functional IT department.

Here's another point of consideration:  if the vendors pushing cloud solutions are correct, shouldn't all of us IT folks be rushing out to interview with cloud service providers right now?  If the cloud utopia does occur, IT departments will look very different - much smaller with IT admins acting more as liaisons and requiring much less technical knowledge.  It's hard to believe this will really happen and is certainly open for much debate, but food-for-thought nonetheless.

Finally, my advice is this: the next time a vendor is trying to sell you the cloud, ask yourself these questions:

• What's in it for you?
• Will it save you money or cost more?  Hard costs?  Soft costs?
• Is it similar to something you already have in place?  If so how is this "better"?
• Why is this cloud service/solution better than hosting it in-house, managed by your existing IT team?

Whenever and wherever you encounter the term "cloud" your mental little red flag should pop up and warn you to proceed with caution.  A little up-front technology skepticism will help you make sure that your decision is the right one.  Again, I believe cloud services and solutions can make sense in some cases.  However, I suggest questioning the status quo - don't assume that just because vendor xyz is pushing the technology that its the right for your organization.

NGD: 199? Fender American Standard Stratocaster

Ah, oh beautiful day!  I got my hands on a fantastic new (to me) instrument and my wife hasn't left me.  The object of consideration for today is a 1996(?) Fender American Standard Stratocaster.  I purchased this from one of my favorite used guitar outlets for almost exactly $500.  Any day you can get a good strat for around $500 is a good day IMO.

Unfortunately it did not come with a case, which would have made the deal super sweet, but I'll settle for very sweet.  While 90's strats aren't that rare, they are getting older.  I also have not been able to find a left-handed 90's strat in this color anywhere on the Internet - so maybe this one is a little more unique?  At least one can hope.

There's one thing I think is even more unique about this guitar: the model year.  It seems to be somewhat of a mystery!  Here's what I found so far:
The Serial Number  The serial number is an "N9", which usually means 1999, except Fender mistakingly used some of these stickers on 1990 guitars.
The Date Stamps  The neck has a date stamp of Feb 1, 1992 and the body has a stamp of Apr 23, 1992.
The Original Purchase Date  The original owner claims he bought it new in 1996.

So it could be a 1990, 1992, 1993, 1996 or 1999 model guitar.  Whew!  My guess is that's its a 1993 model that didn't sell until 1996 for some reason(?).

Specs (from Fender customer service):

Model Name: American Standard Stratocaster®
Series: American Standard Series
Body: Alder (Optional Swamp Ash Body Natural Finish Only p/n# 010-7400/2-721)
Neck: Maple
Fingerboard: Maple (9.5” Radius/241 mm)
No. of Frets: 22 Medium Jumbo Frets
Scale Length: 25.5” (648 mm)
Width @ Nut: 1.6875” (43 mm)
Hardware: Chrome
Machine Heads: Fender/Schaller Deluxe Cast/Sealed
Bridge: American Standard
Pickguard: 3-Ply White
Pickups: 3 American Standard Strat Single Coils
Pickup Switching: 5-Position Blade:
Position 1. Bridge Pickup
Position 2. Bridge and Middle Pickup
Position 3. Middle Pickup
Position 4. Middle and Neck Pickup
Position 5. Neck Pickup
Controls: Master Volume, Tone (Neck), TBX Tone (Mid, Bridge),
Source: U.S.
Accessories: Molded Case
U.S. MSRP: $1,049.99 (With Swamp Ash Body $1,199.99)
INTRODUCED: 1/1986
DISCONTINUED: 6/2000

Body: Alder
I've also found that there was a temporary ban on Alder wood from sometime in 1990 till sometime in 1994.  Yet, the body looks to be made of Alder.  Hmmm... maybe Fender kept these guitars in the warehouse until the ban was lifted?

Neck
And the neck feels fantastic, a real pleasure to play.  Not coincidentally, necks are supposed to be one of the best things about Fender strats built in the 90's.  Now I can see why.  This one had after-market chrome Sperzels on it - can't find those anymore.  Sperzels are okay, but I prefer Schallers when it comes to locking tuners.  The dial underneath the key is thicker allowing for easier (and less painful) tightening of the lock.

Electronics
It has the 90's-correct TBX tone control.  

Bridge
The tremolo came with all 5 of the black springs installed.  Black springs were also common for 90's era guitars.  I will probably remove 2 of the springs in an effort to determine the best floating bridge setup.

Update:  Oops... I did it again!
After watching used guitar sites for some time before and after this purchase, I decided I could find a better example of a 90's strat than this one.  It just had too many flaws so I returned it and got my money back.  It had:

• A gash on the underside of the neck at the 2nd fret
• Finish was worn to the wood on the fretboard at the second fret
• It needed a complete fret-leveling (another $100) - which was ultimately the deal-killer for me
• Dings and dent in front and back of the headstock and down the back of the neck
• Walnut truss rod plug had some damage
• Finished was bashed-in on the bottom side of the body, like it was dropped.
• Hole in the lower horn where previous owner had flipped it backward Hendrix-style.  I hate that!  Righties- leave the lefties alone!  It won't make you look or sound like Hendrix anyway!

I just couldn't get over the fact that for $50 more I could get a 90's strat in like-new condition.  The mystique of the manufactured vs. purchased date wasn't enough to make me keep it.  Oddly enough, it still played very nicely.  But in the end, I decided to put the money toward a different instrument that I'll  describe in a future post.

How to Activate Windows 8 Enterprise Preview

(If you want the quick answer, see the bottom of this article.)

I wanted to start using Windows 8 on my work laptop since it will be released in a matter of weeks.  We're a Microsoft EA customer, so I checked our Volume Licensing downloads and sure enough, there sat "Windows 8 Enterprise Preview" ready to download including the product key.  I compared the build number to the official Window 8 Consumer Preview and it's the same, 8400.

After replacing the drive in my laptop, I downloaded and installed.  Interestingly, it did not prompt me for a key during installation.  After installation, weird "activate this PC" text appeared on the screen that seemed to appear above windows opened on top of it, unlike the "evaluation copy" text.

Trying to activate from the "Metro" interface only gave me a message about a problem that occurred and to try again later.  Activating from control panel gave me more of an error message, but not much:  failed to activate windows, with a generic error code of 0xCxxxx.

So I thought it might be a good idea to call Microsoft Volume Licensing Activation support.  Bad idea. Here's how that went:
Called MS volume licensing activation center.
Did "over the phone" activation - read 9 groups with 7 numbers each.
After all that, person said the numbers were invalid???
Then they asked me to click on icons and options that didn't exist.
Then forwarded me to some tech support group.
Explained previous steps to new support tech.
New guy said volume licensing activation group should help me out.
I told him that they forwarded me to him.
He lies and says no, it was the retail volume license group!
Back to volume licensing group I go - exact same menu options.
Chose same option.
Yet another new guy says he is, in fact, in the volume licensing activation group. Ok.
I provide him Windows version and EA agreement number.
Silence, then on hold music.

Then ringing... what?

MS professional support person answers.

She says she can't hear me and hangs up.

Frustration sets in... install CentOS? Ubuntu?  SmartOS?  Hmmm...  Then I remember seeing the command "SLUI 4" in regards to activating Windows 7.  That brings up the "activation by phone" window.  On a whim, I tried "SLUI 3" - bang!  That brings up the "change activation key" window, exactly what I needed!  I pasted the new key and it activated automagically.

Why was this so difficult?  They'd better fix before RTM!

Monetizing The Blog

This post is a little over-due as I started monetizing this blog several months ago, but I thought I would say a few words about it anyway.

My purpose for this blog is not to make money (if it were, I'd spend much more time providing content and making it look better).  However, turning on the built-in blog revenue-generating features was easy so why not?  My main purpose is really to document and share information on things I'm passionate about and others might find helpful or interesting.  If I make a few pennies along the way, so be it.

The ads displayed in-between articles are from Google Adsense.  I have no control over what ads are displayed.  Theoretically, they're related to the blog post, but I can't guarantee that will always be the case.  I also can't say that I would recommend any service or product being advertised here since I don't know what it will be.  Take it for what it is.  If you click on it, I get a penny.

Besides Adsense, I have also signed-on with Amazon to become an affiliate.  All this means is that when I recommend something, I can provide a link to the product on Amazon's web site that, when used by the reader, will pay me a few pennies if the reader purchases the product.  Sort of like a referral fee.  Note that the price doesn't change for you, the reader/buyer.

The "Recommended Products" box at the bottom right of this blog contains products that I recommend.  And I only recommend products that I personally own and/or am very familiar with.  If I write a review of a product, I will include a link for that product at the bottom of the article.  Based on the products in the box (at the time of the article), you can see that I'm going to be writing reviews on home theater equipment from Yamaha and Polk Audio - all of which I've been very happy with, but you'll have to wait for the review to learn more.

Below that you'll see an "ARRITDOR Shopping" image/link.  Use this if you'd like to throw a couple of pennies my way - you can purchase any item on Amazon.com with no increased cost to you.

Don't feel like you need to use any of these options.  They are there if you want to use them.  And if you do use them, I'll greatly appreciate it.  Otherwise, just enjoy the articles.  Thanks!