Con Colateral/Showbags

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capn_pineapple

Active Member
Aug 28, 2013
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So yesterday I went to the Melbourne VMUG, walked away with the usual collection of mints, pens, bottle openers, usb devices etc. but there were a couple of items I picked up that stood out a little from the crowd:
  • Pair of socks from Solidfire
  • International power adaptor from Synology (with a 2A fuse) it also has a pair of USB charging ports on it.
  • Weird spherical Rubiks cube type puzzle thing from Veeam
Oh and I also won a 400GB Intel 750 PCIe NVMe drive (hells yeah!!!! though, I have no idea what on earth I should do with it) [edited for correct model]

So here's the question, what have you brought back from a Con that was a little bit different?
 
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whitey

Moderator
Jun 30, 2014
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Xbox One from a VMUG abt a year ago in the business card drawing. Won a ZeusRam from a VMworld conference in the past as well :-D

Assume you meant a Intel 750 NVMe right? PCIe AIC or 2.5" model? BADASS!
 

cesmith9999

Well-Known Member
Mar 26, 2013
1,417
468
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I won a Emulex HBA, Seagate Hybrid drive, T-Shirts (gone to my wife/kids)

Chris
 

capn_pineapple

Active Member
Aug 28, 2013
356
80
28
Xbox One from a VMUG abt a year ago in the business card drawing. Won a ZeusRam from a VMworld conference in the past as well :-D

Assume you meant a Intel 750 NVMe right? PCIe AIC or 2.5" model? BADASS!
Oops, yeah, 750. PCIe model, no idea what I'm going to use it for at this point.
 

TuxDude

Well-Known Member
Sep 17, 2011
616
338
63
Nothing really large/expensive for me - but I did one manage 22 T-shirts from a single HP-World conference.
 

RyC

Active Member
Oct 17, 2013
359
88
28
The VMUG meetings in my city are so small, it seems almost everyone wins in a raffle. I won a very nice VMware coffee mug and a Raspberry Pi B
 

T_Minus

Build. Break. Fix. Repeat
Feb 15, 2015
7,625
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While I haven't gone to a VMUG meeting yet I doubt they would be small around San Fran. or Sacramento... then again, they may be sooo huge the prizes are just amazing?? LOL!!
 

vBuild2BAU

Member
Feb 27, 2016
41
9
8
Melbourne Australia
So yesterday I went to the Melbourne VMUG, walked away with the usual collection of mints, pens, bottle openers, usb devices etc. but there were a couple of items I picked up that stood out a little from the crowd:
  • Pair of socks from Solidfire
  • International power adaptor from Synology (with a 2A fuse) it also has a pair of USB charging ports on it.
  • Weird spherical Rubiks cube type puzzle thing from Veeam
Oh and I also won a 400GB Intel 750 PCIe NVMe drive (hells yeah!!!! though, I have no idea what on earth I should do with it) [edited for correct model]

So here's the question, what have you brought back from a Con that was a little bit different?
@capn_pineapple
Congratulations on winning the NVMe. I had the pleasure of spending the pool of money this year and the prizes were my idea. We had a really good prize pool this year. Initially wanted to give away an Oculus Rift because it's the next big thing in Virtualization (get it!). Anyhow that was too complicated with shipping and release dates etc. Probably 2017. Need to get onto Samsung/HTC or some such to come along.


The idea for the NVMe is as a caching drive in your ESXi box using something like PernixData FVP (full disclosure I am a PernixPro). PernixData FVP Software | PernixData

If not just use it as a datastore disk. Just make sure you update to latest VIBs from Intel.

First thing I did when I bought both the 400GB and 1.2TB models was run CrystalDiskMark and HD Tune.

And definitely would love to hear feedback on your experience and what we can do to make Melb VMUG Con better.

As far as stuff goes the backpacks we got at the end were pretty nice.
 

capn_pineapple

Active Member
Aug 28, 2013
356
80
28
It might be better to take this offline or at least private, BUT...
The pernix FVP actually looked really cool. I'll be looking at running it on my machine once I upgrade the RAM to the point where I have some free. The Surface Pro's were awesome too!
My understanding re: VR/Oculous Rift is that there's a company out of Japan making a VR-MMO a la Sword Art Online (if you have seen the anime)
Edit: Turns out this is just a tech demo / marketing stunt

Really glad to see someone of your position on this forum (welcome btw). Sadly my Z77 PC just doesn't support the 750. Perhaps I can swindle you into one of those new sexy Xeon-D 1587 systems with some of the vendor programs (Pernix FVP, PRTG sensors, etc.) and do a nice write-up for the UserCon marketing team HA! (wishful thinking I know)

Outside of that, I was really excited for the event, being my first one, I'll be sure to attend upcoming VMUG sessions. I particularly enjoyed the corporate based keynotes, the vendors were really good too, my only real complaint for the day was the clashes between some of the speakers I really wanted to see. C'est la vie.

I have some additional take-aways from the event that I'll PM you about.
 

vBuild2BAU

Member
Feb 27, 2016
41
9
8
Melbourne Australia
I work for IBM. The tech demo / stunt is partnered with IBM. But haven't really watched Anime in a long time.

Should still be able to use the card as a drive just can't boot from it.

I'd love to play with a Xeon-D but I don't hold much sway at all with vendors. Not unless I started a site about servers in the home and had a large readership *wink*. They would jump at that sort of promotion thing or a POC that could lead to business.

There's a free version called PernixData FVP freedom which just uses RAM. An alternative is Infinio. For anyone else who wants to accelerate their ESXi VMs.

As far as the clashes go. There was definitely a lot of behind the scenes healthy debating about pros and cons of sequencing and number of streams etc.

Our goal is make the group bigger and better. I'll try and answer some more VMware questions here that I see sometimes crop up.
 

capn_pineapple

Active Member
Aug 28, 2013
356
80
28
As far as the clashes go. There was definitely a lot of behind the scenes healthy debating about pros and cons of sequencing and number of streams etc
Oh, no... I meant scheduling clashes... I wanted to go to 2 sessions at the same time and haven't yet mastered quantum super-position which would allow me to do so.

Though the Dell boys stirring up the Nutanix/VMWare camps was hilarious!