September 2012 – Pieter Viljoen's Blog

Storage Spaces Leaves Me Empty

I was very intrigued when I found out about Storage Spaces and ReFS being introduced in Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8. But now that I’ve spent some time with it, I’m left disappointed, and I will not be trusting my precious data with either of these features, just yet. Microsoft publicly announced StorageContinue reading “Storage Spaces Leaves Me Empty”

XBMC for Linux on Pivos XIOS DS

Pivos released a XBMC build for Linux, and I tried it out. The Pivos XIOS DS is very small (less than 5” x 5” x 1”) HTPC supporting hardware accelerated 1080p video and HD audio playback. The XIOS DS supports XBMC for Android, and XBMC for Linux, with native hardware acceleration. I reviewed the AndroidContinue reading “XBMC for Linux on Pivos XIOS DS”

Koubachi Wi-Fi Plant Sensor

Last week several tech and gadget news outlets reported that the Koubachi Wi-Fi Plant Sensor has been released and is available for order (Amazon or SmartHome). I remembered reading about this device some time ago, and I decided to try it out. Our houseplants are under my care, and they are generally happy and healthy.Continue reading “Koubachi Wi-Fi Plant Sensor”

Dyslexic Intel RSTe Driver

I encounter one problem after another running Windows 8 and Server 2012 on the dual Xeon E5 Intel C600 chipset based SuperMicro 7047A-T and 7047A-73 SuperWorkstation machines. I will say that this is really not representative of my Windows 8 experience in general, as all other machines I installed on worked fine with the in-boxContinue reading “Dyslexic Intel RSTe Driver”