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Showing posts from May, 2014

Can I use an SD card for Virtual Machines?

The answer is Yes you can use an SD card to host virtual machines.  The utility of that depends on the card you have and the speed of the card reader built into your machine. I've been using a Dell E7240 Ultrabook as my primary on-site machine. It only has a 128GB SSD so I've been debating on where I can put virtual machine disk images.  It has an internal MSATA and an SD card slot.  SD cards are easier to get around here so I purchased a couple 64GB SD cards to try out.   I get up to 17MB/s copying my VMDK files to the SD cards on the E7240 and up to 42MB/s copying VMDK files on the Macbook Pro 2011. I tested the following cards with CrystalDiskInfo and my MacBook running Windows 8.1 bootcamp. The Macbook Pro results imply that it may be a limit of the E7240s SD card slot interface, possibly some kind of USB. PNY StoreEdge 64GB.  This is a short card intended for Macbook and Macbook Air with short SD card slots.  There are no specs on the package. PNY Storage for

2014 USA Science and Engineering Festival USASEF in Washington DC - Wow

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You can read where scientists, engineers and technicians write about how we need to excite more kids about science and engineering. Engineering and science companies, government agencies, universities and primary education institutions all understand that we need to excite more people about the science and engineering disciplines.  Some of these groups worked together to create the USA Science and Engineering Festival in DC  and associated events in other places.  This was a big (big big) trade show like event with hundreds of companies probably 50-100 universities and dozens of government agencies.  Several of the universities had multiple booths in different sections for their various colleges, programs and labs.  The event filled two floors of the Washington DC convention center.  Six stages ran presentations and talks continuously during the event. The kids and older folks who are still kids at heart had a great time. The USA Science & Engineering Festival is a national g