The number of cloud service APIs grows every day. It's hard to believe so many companies are giving away their data for free. But not all APIs are created equal. In this course, Joe Lowery helps you sort through the clutter and identify the most useful APIs available for your web applications. First, there are the popular Google cloud services and device-specific APIs for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. Then there are APIs to connect to followers on platforms like Facebook and Twitter and even pull images from Flickr. For some really interesting data, Joe shows how to access corporate APIs from companies like Citrix and General Motors. (Imagine getting vehicle data straight from GM.) Last, he shows how to leverage public sector APIs and mine data from the national census, weather bureaus, and even federal job boards. Learn how to make your web projects stand out with cloud services.


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Charles D. Peek
January 14, 2021 - September 19, 2021
Charles "Chuck" David Peek, age 64 of Roscommon, Michigan, passed away September 19th, 2021 surrounded by his loving family in Roaming Shores, Ohio, after a courageous battle with cancer. Chuck was born January 14th, 1957 in Topeka, Kansas to parents Richard and Helen Peek. Chuck had some special childhood family members whom he shared many memories, especially his brothers John, Mike and Pat Peek. He was a member of the Pipefitter local 120 for 20 years, loved to be outdoors fishing and hunting, he loved music, especially old rock and roll, and most of all he loved his family and friends. Chuck's greatest accomplishment were his children and grandchildren. Chuck was proud to serve our country in the U.S. Navy. He is survived by his children; Stephanie Lynn Peek of Ellsworth, Kira Lynn Peek ( Katie) of Cawker City Kansas, Charlie David Peek Jr. of Mayfield, OH., Katie Lynn Kratochvil (Bret) of Roaming Shores, OH, Matthew John Peek of Chesterland, Ohio and Michael Allen Peek of Chesterland, Ohio. He is also survived by his loving grandchildren; Makinzie Hardesty, Conner Sizemore, Kaydence Peek-Koster, Cooper Peek-Koster, Emma Peek, Isaiah Peek, and Carson Kratochvil. Chuck is also survived by his brothers; John, Mike and Pat Peek. Chuck is preceded in death by his wife Leslie Peek and his parents. A Memorial Service will be held Saturday September 25th, 2021 from 2-5pm at Lake Erie Cremation & Funeral Services, 1500 Harpersfield Rd., Geneva, OH. 44041. Chuck's final resting place will be at Lenawee Memorial Gardens in Tecumseh, Michigan where he will be buried with his wife. Lake Erie Cremation & Funeral Services assisted the family with arrangements. 440-361-2273, www.lakeeriecrematory.com.
Charles "Chuck" David Peek, age 64 of Roscommon, Michigan, passed away September 19th, 2021 surrounded by his loving family in Roaming Shores, Ohio, after a courageous battle with cancer. Chuck was born January 14th, 1957 in Topeka,... View Obituary & Service Information
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Klipsch fine-tunes product development and distribution with Dropbox
By Andrew Shen
There's sound, and then there's… sound.
Klipsch® makes speakers and headphones that deliver the latter.
Paul W. Klipsch founded the company in 1946, and his legacy lives on among audiophiles and people who aren't satisfied with standard TV speakers or headphones that come with your phone. Using patented horn loaded technology, Klipsch delivers high-clarity, low-distortion audio for their customers' favorite music and entertainment. And Dropbox is key to ensuring Klipsch's teams stay in rhythm.
It all started in a tin shed in Hope, Arkansas, where Paul Klipsch designed and hand-built his revolutionary speakers. Now headquartered in Indianapolis, the company uses the latest acoustic and technological advancements in their products and the way they market them around the world.
Crafting an extraordinary product
The product development process at Klipsch is thorough. Designers mock up sketches and renderings incorporating the newest premium materials—like titanium tweeters and cerametallic woofers—while also making sure fans are getting what they love and expect from the brand. The headphone team is continually improving upon their patented oval ear tips to make sure their options fit comfortably into any ear canal. "Our attention to detail is our competitive advantage," Vlad Grodzinskiy, Senior Manager of Product Development, says.
These designs are modified in real time in Dropbox. They're then shared with senior executives and customer-facing teams, before eventually making it to production. This approval process runs the gamut from technical quality assurance to business considerations: testing dynamic volume ranges, projecting sales by region, and anticipating manufacturing challenges.
"We have 250 employees, which is small for a company with our consumer footprint," Grodzinskiy says. "Our size makes it easier to collaborate with many teams, and Dropbox lets us share, gather feedback, and iterate even faster. We consider ourselves a 70-year-old startup."
Amplifying the message
Klipsch sells their products through retailers (Amazon, Best Buy, etc.) and a global sales team. To ensure every partner has the latest marketing materials, Klipsch uses public Dropbox links. They set up custom landing pages that re-direct sellers to a Dropbox folder, with assets neatly organized by model. Material ranges from spec sheets to instruction manuals to high-resolution product photos.
Partners can also find tactical collateral like buyers' guides, promotional event calendars, and product roadmaps. This method especially comes in handy for salespeople on the road, who can either use the Dropbox mobile app or visit the site directly. "We noticed what really gave us a leg up on the competition wasn't necessarily the amount of content we had, but we had the easiest way for people to access it all," says Grodzinskiy. "With Dropbox, our sellers know our marketing materials are always up-to-date, and the interface makes it easy to navigate."
Despite having an impressive history, Klipsch is always looking forward. "Our CEO is very open-minded," Grodzinskiy says. "He'll say, 'If there's a better way to do something, there's no reason not to try it.'"
To learn more about how Dropbox can help your design, marketing, and sales teams, visit dropbox.com/business.
Andrew Shen is on the Editorial Content team at Dropbox.
Q&A with Kate Nash: How collaborative chemistry unleashes creativity
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The director of Magazine Dreams on why organization is the unsung hero of filmmaking
By Drew Pearce
This Sundance doc lays bare the healing power of vulnerability
By Andrew Richdale
Director Chris Zalla on creating a space for creativity
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By Sally Zhang


Is SOLIDWORKS compatible with Windows 10®? That is a question we are hearing a lot lately. On July 28 2015, Microsoft® announced that Windows 10® is now available. Jul 29, 2015 SOLIDWORKS 2015 SP5, SOLIDWORKS 2016 and SOLIDWORKS 2017 software support Windows 10 64-bit Pro and Enterprise. Jan 18, 2006 SolidWorks® 2006 SP 3.1 is now available to Subscription Service customers. For more information about this release or to download your.


JUDGES RUBRIC: Judges may give a +1.5 instead of +1 at their discretion on a line if they feel a particular aspect was above and beyond all expectations.
For category-specific rules in addition these below, scroll down to their section.
+1 For multiple layers of highlighting.
+1 For exceptional freehand work. This means artistic work that is above and beyond basic freehand work such as squad markings, etc. This is in addition to the previous bonus.
+1 Exceptional basing with multiple elements used, or for noteworthy care taken in construction.
+1 For exceptional conversion work. This means sculpting parts, major kit bashes, etc. This in addition to the previous bonus.
May not be larger than 2ft x 2ft x 2ft including display board.
+1 For a cohesive, noteworthy theme throughout the army. This is above and beyond a common theme and represents an impressive, creative work that is unique or uncommon.
+1 For a Display Board.
+1 For an exceptional Display Board that shows effort and artistic talent above and beyond the norm. This is in addition to the previous bonus.
+1 For "cool" factor. Put us in awe of your creative might.
Maximum size is 1ft x 1ft x 1ft.
+1 For telling a story.
May not be more than a single model, no display boards allowed. Model may not be larger than 10" tall.
+1 For using multiple kits, or "kitbashing".
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We will be providing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place trophies for each category.
The three 1st Place winners of this competition will also be immortalized on our Hall of Fame plaque forever! Plus each of them will receive a sweet engraved trophy!
Judges reserve the right to bump you up or down in Advanced or Beginner classes if they think you have been put in the wrong category.


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text:
Therapists: Log In | Sign Up
Find a Psychiatrist
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30 Awe-inspiring Facts About Your Body
Andrea Bonior Ph.D.
Friendship 2.0
18 Questions to Ask Before Getting Married
Some of them aren't fun to think about, but they're crucial to know.
Making Marriage Work
Find a marriage therapist near me
In my years as a psychologist and advice columnist, I've seen a lot of individuals in unhappy marriages. In some of these cases, there are particular crises that have led to the strains: the loss of a loved one, difficulties with child-rearing, unexpected health problems or financial setbacks. But in other cases, the early warnings of potential friction were there all along, in the form of personality conflicts or day-to-day incompatibility.
If you are thinking of committing for life — or even just living together — it may be very helpful to contemplate some of the issues that can frequently drive a wedge in long-term relationships. Often, in the throes of passionate romantic love, it is hard to envision that the daily, unromantic grind ("Why do you always use up the last of the coffee without letting me know?") can be enough to threaten that love. But take it from a therapist who is privy to people's relationship misery: It most certainly can.
Below are some issues that you may not have thought about, but you must, before committing to someone. None of these should be seen as deal-breakers. After all, love itself (and even commitment) can provide motivation to work through virtually anything. But the more that you can anticipate friction beforehand, the more proactively you can work to resolve it and have a plan for how to keep it from wrecking your relationship. Don't put on blinders when it comes to compatibility. Even the deepest love can't prevent certain conflicts over decades of living together: It's how you anticipate those conflicts and how you're willing to work on them that will determine whether your marriage can go the distance.
1. What differences do I love now but may find grating in five years?
The irony of passionate romantic love is sometimes the qualities that are most different from us are the very things that can draw us most intensely to a partner. Maybe his spontaneity is exciting, since you tend to live by an itinerary. Maybe her willingness to ditch responsibilities for a mental health day is refreshing, when you've typically worked even when you have the flu. From different spending styles to different social lives to vastly different sleep schedules, careers, or hobbies, the idea of someone being opposite from us is sometimes particularly attractive in its novelty and exoticism. And indeed, it's a good thing when we can be exposed to a perspective far different than our own. But eventually, our own habits may remain what we're most comfortable with — and if our partner's style continues to be quite different, what used to be enticing may turn downright annoying.
2. How do we individually and collectively handle stress?
What's your partner like when they're stuck in traffic? When they've had a bad performance review? When they haven't had enough sleep, when their parent has a health scare, when they get an exorbitant parking ticket, or when they have to call customer service for a defective product? Often the rosy period of early romance has everyone restraining themselves to be on their best behavior. This makes the early romance sweeter, of course, but it denies us a glimpse into who they are when they're under pressure. And decades of marriage and life, in general, can bring plenty of pressure. Even more important is how the two of you handle stress together — do you retreat and isolate, or connect to resolve things as a team?
3. What is my partner's relationship with drugs, alcohol, and gambling?
Sure, problems with substance abuse and gambling can crop up unexpectedly in a marriage, as we sometimes see when new casinos come to town. But all too often, the signs of potential problems with alcoholism or addiction were there all along but were willfully not talked about or even acknowledged — perhaps out of fear or denial. Or maybe what seems reasonable for a young, childless couple in terms of partying and drinking no longer seems reasonable with two toddlers underfoot, and yet one partner can't seem to change their lifestyle. Take a hard look at your partner's — and your own — relationship with substances. As much as you might want to ignore potential problems, it is invariably true that the earlier they are addressed, the better chance there is that they can be dealt with successfully.
4. How are we as roommates?
"We are living like roommates, rather than lovers" is often used as an example of how a relationship has lost its spark, and indeed, it's not a good thing when your partner feels no different than the person you bunked with at summer camp. But, I would argue that getting along as roommates — though not sufficient for a marriage — is still vital and necessary. How well do you compromise about what the temperature should be? How do your sleep schedules work out? How do you resolve issues about cleanliness, decorating styles, chores, guests, pets, and food preparation? Who takes responsibility for the bills or finding a plumber when your toilet has leaked all over the place?
5. What are our thoughts about kids, and how certain are they?
Virtually everyone would acknowledge that opinions about whether or not to have kids should be openly discussed and clarified before getting married. But you may be surprised how often this becomes an issue anyway, because of one important and often overlooked phenomenon: People change. It's important not just to discuss your preferences, but to assess how much wiggle room you each have. If each of you vaguely imagines having two children, that might sound like you're perfectly compatible on that score. But what if after one child, one of you absolutely wants to stop? What happens if infertility is an issue — how hard will you continue to try, and how do you feel about adoption? What happens if one person still has the itch for more children after the second one? What happens if one person unexpectedly wants to be a stay-at-home parent? Or not? It's important to dig deeper.
6. How much do we talk about our relationship with others?
Few people outline ground rules about how much "private business" should be spread to other friends and family when they are first dating. And this is a good thing, as keeping strong emotional intimacy with friends and family can provide a safety valve for those that are in a controlling relationship (not to mention provide endless entertainment with stories of dating that are good, bad, or ugly). But once married, lots of people's expectations change. Will you consider it a betrayal if your wife spills everything about your sexual intimacy problems to her best friend? Are you okay with a husband who asks his mother for marital advice? There is no right answer about how much to share with friends and family, but the more you are on the same page, the better off — and less blindsided — you will be.
7. How do we handle conflict, and how could we be better about it?
Decades of marriage and family research have shown one indisputable truth: Conflicts will arise, and how you handle those conflicts is every bit as important as the conflicts themselves. Have you gotten in the habit of a certain type of arguing? Does one of you stonewall the other? Is one of you always the first to apologize? Does one person express their feelings and the other holds them in until resentment builds? Is one of you prone to yelling and getting it all out in the moment, while the other person wants space to cool down before talking things through? In general, the healthiest marriages have respectful and honest communication without game-playing, passive-aggressiveness, personal attacks, or power trips. Examine your styles of handling conflicts and see if there is room for improvement.
8. How are we with each other's families?
Any marital therapist will tell you: The in-laws are often the biggest can of worms within a marriage. You need not experience rapturous admiration for your spouse's family (though if you do, how lucky you are!), but you do need to make sure that your relationship with them feels comfortable in terms of your partner. What if your partner has a very conflicted relationship with her parents, but you find them hilarious and harmless? What if your husband wants to still spend two week's annual vacation with his brothers' families, and you can't stand their politics? What role will your in-laws have in your potential children's lives? What happens as your spouse's parents age and need care? What happens if they need to borrow money — or instead they give you an amount that changes your dynamic? How close and open with them will you and your partner be about the goings-on in your day-to-day lives? Often, the planning of the wedding itself is the first arena where inter-family squabbles develop. Don't brush it off, but take it as an opportunity for practice.
9. Is there something that I am expecting to change?
I cannot tell you how often I have worked with someone whose marriage is falling apart, and they say, "Well, she's always been kind of selfish, but I thought it would get better after having kids" or "He's never been a responsible person with money, but I figured once we owned a home he would grow up." Be honest with yourself. Are you assuming that your partner will magically become a different person — even in terms of something relatively small — just with the passage of time, the new status of "spouse," or the addition of children/pets/mortgage/a "real" job? Think again. Maybe they will, but the motivation has to come from them, not you. And if you choose to marry someone, you must choose to take them as they are, end of story — without fooling yourself that there are conditions that will eventually be met.
10. How compatible are we in our money styles, and how will we handle finances once married?
I have written and spoken about money issues in relationships — and the conflicts they can cause — so much, because they seem to be among the very top ways that a marriage can be strained. From different spending styles to how big a house to buy, from different attitudes about debt and "retail therapy" to hidden accounts, childhood baggage, and differing expectations about how much should be lent to friends and family and even how much to tip the refrigerator delivery guy, money conflicts can be killer to deal with. Money is often tied up with all kinds of emotional importance, and it can carry the weight of its association with everything from freedom to security to autonomy to power and status. The more you talk about it, and the more honest you are with yourselves and each other about what you bring to the table in terms of your money attitudes and how they will be resolved, the better foundation you build in your marriage.
11. Who needs more free and alone time, and is that okay?
It's not traditionally thought of as one of the hot buttons of marriage, and yet I see it causing conflict all the time. From big ways — he is used to four or five hours of golf on weekends, or she wants to continue to occasionally go on weekend getaways alone — to small ones — she needs 10 minutes of pre-coffee silence in the morning, or he likes to work out by himself, not with her. There is a wide variance in how much time people need to themselves or with their friends. So, how well do your styles fit together? Big differences can be accommodated if there is respect and understanding and communication. But if it's never talked about, then two years into the marriage when he is still on his weekly guys' night out, and she is frustrated to be home alone with Netflix, because she always assumed he'd eventually give those nights up once he got married, that could spell resentment that could become serious.
12. How should household chores be divided?
Bickering over household chores once married has become a cliche, but it couldn't be more real for many couples. Unfortunately, even couples who have a comfortable division of responsibility pre-marriage can often be thrown into resentful conflicts once circumstances change: The addition of a baby, a change in a partner's job or commute, or a bigger house with new types of maintenance needed. I also see that in many heterosexual marriages, gender stereotypes when it comes to divvying up housework may gradually seep in after the wedding, even if they weren't there when the couple first lived together. There will be conflicts over chores; count on it. But how will you continue to work on it? How well do you communicate about them? Will you be able to have an evolving dialogue that takes into account both people's preferences and annoyances in terms of divvying up responsibilities? And if one person falls into the role of the "default" parent (the person who is always on top of the birthday cards and dentist appointments), are they okay with being that person?
13. How stuck are we in each of our jobs, and what would happen if we got fired or wanted to leave?
Layoffs, promotions, pay cuts, job transfers, firings, burnout, corporate mergers — they can all change a person's employment status in the blink of an eye. Is there one partner whose job is "dominant" — by salary, by prestige, by passion, or by amount of hours worked? What would happen if that person no longer had that job, voluntarily or involuntarily? Are there expectations about who will make more money, who will or will not stay home with children, who will eventually get promoted or go to graduate school or change careers? Of course, nothing can be spelled out completely clearly in advance. But the more you can acknowledge what your expectations are, what you hope for, and how you would handle a change in plans, the better you will be able to roll with the punches if the need should arise to do so.
14. How okay am I with my partner's closeness to others, and when might I think of it as an emotional affair?
Styles of flirtation, emotional intimacy levels with coworkers, modes of communication with friends, amount of work travel, or tendency to go to lunch or happy hours with people — they all vary widely among individuals. A wallflower with no close male friends besides her husband can most certainly still be happily married to a charmer who flirts with the waitress or has lunch with his female coworkers — but only if both parties have eyes wide open about their own and their partner's behavior. Is it alright if your husband is texting his coworker emojis while you're side by side in bed? Would you be hurt if your partner had lunch with an ex without telling you? Every couple must define for themselves what they are or are not comfortable with. And the more you pretend that it will all magically work out even when there are differences, the more you set yourself up for feeling betrayed.
15. What's our relationship to religion?
With rates of formal religious service attendance continuing to decline across the U.S., it's clear that a lot of couples fall into the category of not considering themselves particularly religious. That may seem roughly compatible for day-to-day life, but often things change, and nuances are important. How will you celebrate the holidays? Will you expect to start going to places of worship once you have children? Does your religious expression change when your extended family is around or in times of crisis? What happens if one of you simply starts becoming more or less religious than they were before? Again, communication and anticipation are key.
16. What's our expectation about where to live geographically?
People move around a lot in young adulthood — some data suggests more than ever before. But often, the settling down that comes with marriage can reveal long-hidden assumptions about where someone thought they would "end up." Maybe what one partner views as a temporary adventure for a specific job is something the other partner thinks of as a newly adopted and permanent hometown. Maybe he always assumed that once he had children, they would move back to the opposite coast to be near his parents. Or she feels the need to be closer to her old friends once she finishes graduate school. Of course, it's totally fine if neither of you wants to draw up a plan of where you'll be, as long as you're both okay with that — after all, life demands flexibility. But when one person has a solidified vision and the other wants to stay open or changes their mind, that can spell disaster.
17. How important is the upkeep of physical appearance?
It's yet another cliche of marriage that comes from a place of truth: Your spouse will not be primping for a day of errands with you in the same way they primped for your fourth date. Part of the comfort of marriage is knowing that your spouse's love for you is not subject to the same "yay versus nay" judgment of early romantic chemistry, and that when you have a stomach bug, your spouse will be focused on helping you through it, rather than being grossed out. Nonetheless, I see a lot of couples for whom there can be strain over time when it comes to changes in physical appearance. This taps into everything from hygiene to weight and physical fitness, from clothing choices to grooming and hairstyle and facial hair changes. In an ideal world, by the time you get married, you will already have seen each other more in day-to-day comfort than in some idealized, gussied-up version that is impossible to sustain. But what if things change further once the lifetime commitment is made? And how should you talk about each other's bodies, and how much sway should a spouse's opinion matter in your hairstyle and clothes? It can be a fraught topic, but the more you can bring it out in the open if you find it affecting your relationship, the better off you will be.
18. How are things in the bedroom?
Yes, some couples may choose to wait until marriage before becoming sexually intimate, but even in those cases, it is important to have communication and mutual understanding about what role sex will be expected to play in a marriage. For the majority of couples, sexual patterns have long had a chance to become ingrained by the time they say "I do." What happens if sex drives change, whether because of the novelty wearing off or because one partner is facing physical or health changes? What are each partner's attitudes about pornography? How adventurous are you? Does one partner have a significantly higher sex drive than the other? Who usually initiates, and is that okay? Does one partner withhold sex as a form of power? How much will be spoken about past sexual partners and histories? Often, sex early in a relationship is so good as to even mask other problems. But when sex becomes a problem in and of itself, it's important to communicate about it — and sadly, because it can be a difficult topic, sometimes that doesn't happen until long after the early warning signs of trouble were there, making it much harder to resolve.
See more of my posts on relationships:
7 Ways to Build Trust in a Relationship
10 Tips to Make a Long-Distance Relationship Work
6 Red Flags to Watch Out For In Any Relationship
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Andrea Bonior, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and speaker on the faculty of Georgetown University. She is the author of Detox Your Thoughts: Quit Negative Self-Talk for Good and Discover the Life You've Always Wanted.
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sip. savor. taste. linger. inhale. munch. chomp. bite. devour. slurp. tantalize. tempt. feast. nibble. indulge. infuse. inspire.
a friend recently asked me why i incessantly post instagrams of all my eating exploits. from burgers and brie fries to tortellini and truffles, i'm constantly snapping, filtering, tagging and posting.
i realize this may be annoying…and if it truly bugs you, you've probably already hidden my culinary captures from your feed.
or perhaps the constant deluge of edible delights may make you hungry. you might have just eaten a perfectly respectable sandwich, and then along comes a pic of a ginormous piece of carrot cake, moist yet flaky, three layers deep, heaping with cream cheese frosting and homemade whipped cream, dusted with a hint of cinnamon, and BOOM, the grumbellies kick right back in…and maybe, just maybe a droplet of drool falls from your lips. if that's the case, i'm truly sorry. food is meant to be shared, but the virtual method doesn't quite give you the warm afterglow and full-bellied feeling of an IRL ("in real life") bite!
so what is the psychology behind this obsession? as a child i was never lacking in the food department so, as far as i know, there's no deep-seated void that's being filled by the endless food photo frenzy. but there must be a reason i get so lathered up.
if you're passonate about food, you know that it's not just nourishment. it's creativity. history. beauty. emotion. feelings. flavor. memory. harmony. sustenance. whimsy. comfort. togetherness.
to you, it may just be a piece of bread.
to me, food is life. meant to be savored, celebrated and devoured…especially with a sunny side up egg on top. CHOMP!
i found out about the festival from a popular creative magazine that i follow called contagious. they were running a contest: describe your perfect picnic in 10 words or less, and you could win a ticket to the 3-day extravaganza, which showcases international luminaries from the worlds of design, advertising and academia.
from a practical standpoint, i wasn't serious about entering because, even if i did win, i couldn't justify hauling myself across the pond and paying for airfare and lodging, just to soak up the "inspiring ideas"…but the writer in me was excited by the challenge.
the first thought that popped into my head was the food! (shocker, i know.) a crusty baguette. a crisp sauvignon blanc. italian salami and artisan cheese. tuscan white beans marinated in extra virgin olive oil. bubbly san pellegrino. and for dessert, a big flakey mille feuille oozing with rich creamy custard with each delectable bite.
the food is lovely…but i come to realize "picnic" is a state of mind. a feeling. it's simplicity. sweetness. sharing. whimsy. imagination. an invitation. an escape…yet utterly familiar.
now i hear norah jones crooning in my ear.
my perfect picnic in 10 words or less.
naked toes. green grass. cloud shapes. deep breaths. belly laughs.
for italians, it's pasta sauce. for jews, it's matzo ball. for southerners and sports fans, it's chili. and for filipinos, it's sinagang (pronounced "sin-ee-gung"), a sour tamarind-based soup that is the country's quintessential comfort food. what is it about these dishes, cooked in a pot, bubbling on the stovetop, that makes us swoon? why, when we bite into them, do we experience so much more than mere flavors and textures, but also warmth, togetherness, security, sustenance—the visceral, irresistible taste of home?
recently i went on a trip to LA to visit family. much like the midwest, they've been going through a nasty heat wave, and our first few days there were scorchers. to deal with the blistering temperatures, we consumed lots of salads, fresh fruit, coconut water, pinkberry, and more than a few glasses of sauvignon blanc.
yet when my parents arrived, the culinary conversation took a 180 degree turn. they gathered their luggage from the car, flung open the door, and my son, bursting with anticipation, ran to my dad. he stretched out his arms and squeezed.
there, in the 110-degree, sweat-inducing oven that was the san fernando valley, my son was begging for a bowl of hot soup.
you might think it cruel that the poor guy, now in his 70s, flew 4.5 hours to get here to be with his family, only to be told he had to step on over to the kitchen to start cooking…but you'd be wrong. dad is "the man" in the kitchen and there is no place he'd rather be than with his family stirring up a big piping pot of sinigang.
it's a "kitchen-sink" kind of soup, chock full of ingredients and simple to prepare; yet for some reason it never quite tastes the same as when dad makes it. he starts by trimming the meat—usually short ribs but sometimes oxtail or chuck. then he slices the vegetables: chinese eggplant, broccoli, cabbage, green beans, okra, parsnips and a bit of ginger. he throws it all into the pot (the biggest one he can find) and sprinkles in the knorr sinigang seasoning, which gives it a delicious sour flavor similar to thai tom yum soup. for more nuance (and also to preserve his status as the best sinigang maker in our family), he always throws in a couple extra mystery ingredients at the end when we're not looking: a squeeze of calamansi, filipino lime, to infuse a hint of acidity, a dash of patis (fish sauce) for a bit more saltiness. he brings it all to a boil, occasionally lifting up the lid to make sure every veggie and piece of meat soaks up the flavor. delicious steam rises into the air. and then he drops it down to a simmer.
flavors are extracted. aromas start to permeate. we all breathe in deeply…love is in the air.
we love it. and we love him. and all of that love goes straight into the pot…and down into our bellies. we sit together at the table, and for a rare few minutes in our boisterous household, it's quiet—save for the clinking of spoons and forks as we shovel in the "sabaw" or broth-soaked rice and fight for the last pieces of broccoli. the table inevitably erupts into giggles when my brother, as he has been doing since we were little kids, gets up for a third plate of rice and scrapes the bottom of the pot for any remaining morsels.
no matter what it's called, this kind of meal is so much more than food—it's love in a pot. it's rituals passed on from generation to generation. like chicken soup for the soul, it's healing. it's warmth. it's sustenance. it's comfort and connectedness. it's your history. your family. it's home.
one of my biggest sources of inspiration these days is our weekly family trips to the green city market, a farmers market near the lakefront in chicago. we walk, hand in hand, admiring the vibrant produce that heralds each season, chatting with the friendly local farmers, and sampling tasty bites from eco-minded entrepreneurs selling everything from artisan cheeses to piping hot cider cinnamon donut holes, grass-fed burgers with butterkase cheese, homemade rosemary honey ice cream, decadent crepes and smoking hot tamales. here in this giant city of nearly 3 million, people actually smile at each other as they pass by. tails wag in unison as dogs of all shapes and sizes exchange curious sniffs and playful barks. tempting aromas waft, blooms burst with color, and kids beam with sticky fingers and berry stained lips.
besides the delicious ritual of it all, i've come to appreciate so much more about this weekly trek than i ever realized when we first started going to the market several years ago. i guess you could say i've been on a journey…and in the process, i've realized that the market is not simply about a place to hang out on a saturday morning as the city starts to stir. it's about a lifestyle, a change of mindset, an idea, and a movement that you can actually believe in.
in the past, there have always been certain things about food or politics or the environment that have bugged me, but generally speaking, life was good and i never felt like i had the time nor the inclination to dwell too long on these massive issues. it's not that i didn't care--i simply felt overwhelmed. sadly, i felt pretty darned accomplished if my day included waking up to the alarm (without hitting snooze), figuring out what to wear, getting the kids ready for school, orchestrating my days filled with work, deciding what to make for dinner, squeezing in errands and whatever me-time i could muster. as a working mom with two kids, that's about all the head space i had left.
but the little drips of exposure to news headlines and to friends and family dealing with health issues started to chip away at my complacency. when i finally watched "food inc.," everything came to a head. i was at a tipping point.
why is the food we eat--especially fast food--so cheap?
how is it possible that all the bright shiny products in the grocery aisles: the flawless fruits, plump chickens, perfect pork chops, don't make us stronger and healthier, but rather bafflingly sicker?
how, with modern science and technology, are we seeing new strains and countless epidemics of e. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually.
why do more and more people we know, and worst of all kids, suffer from cancer and diabetes, rampant allergies, ADHD, autism and obesity?
until food inc., i never realized how little control we as consumers have when it comes to our food, how unregulated the industry is, how little choice we actually have--despite the aisles and aisles of products that line the shelves. on this journey, my personal journey, this movie pushed me over the edge.
all this depressing news could lead one to feel even more overwhelmed than ever before. but rather than close my eyes, stick my head in the sand, i actually felt empowered. to make a change. the one choice we all have is this: we can make smarter, more informed choices. we can seek out the freshest ingredients at our local farmers market. we can make little changes that have a huge impact on our health and well-being, starting by simply being aware.
for the longest time, there were a lot of buzzwords that were an enigma to me. organic, sustainable--it all seemed like clever marketing, an excuse to charge a premium at "whole paycheck" (aka whole foods) without a clear benefit. "sure it might taste a little bit better," i rationalized, "but i don't mind the occasional bruise on my apple or tough piece of meat. it's worth it for the cost savings."
but what i didn't realize is that what i was supposedly saving in terms of dollars up front, was costing me and my family in the form of health risks later---from pesticides on produce to steroids given to sickly livestock to cancer-causing, genetically modified crops. sound extreme? to that, i'd say watch the film and decide for yourself. and if you're still not convinced, i would only ask this: if there were even a remote possibility that any of these things were linked to health issues, and you actually had the power to do something--to avoid them--wouldn't it be worth it to try? especially if it were much easier than you ever thought?
on this journey, i came to find out that the words bandied about actually have critical meaning.
why organic? simply put, organic means no pesticides, no chemical fertilizers, no genetically modified organisms, no irradiation, no industrial solvents and no chemical additives.
why local? locally grown fruits and vegetables are usually sold within 24 hours of being harvested, versus weeks or months like the ones at the grocery store. produce that is in season and picked at the height of ripeness has exceptional flavor and the most nutrients. finally rather than lining the pockets of mega-corporations, who aim for the cheapest (aka poorest quality) food and build in costs for packaging, preserving and shipping your food, you're directly supporting the little guy--small farmers who bring food to our tables with passion and integrity, rather than simply for profit.
why sustainable? "to sustain" means "to keep in existence"--for ourselves, for our children and for future generations. sustainable farming is a way of raising food that is healthy for consumers and animals, does not harm the environment, is humane for workers, respects animals, provides a fair wage to the farmer, and supports and enhances rural communities. it's about rotating crops to preserve nutrients in the soil, not using toxic pesticides, serving as stewards rather than solely acting in self-interest.
do i still eat out at restaurants, have an occasional cocktail or three, snarf up a double char dog at the wiener's circle, or take a trip to the vending machine for a reese's peanut butter cup when the craving hits? sure. i'm hardly ready to swap out the blahniks for a pair of birkenstocks. but, at the very least, most of the time, i eat in a way that makes me feel good, inside and out. and that feels right: physically, emotionally and ethically...there are few other things i can think of in this crazy world that fit that bill.
"in wine there is the truth." it's a latin phrase that refers to the remarkable ability of wine to bring out people's true feelings. we've all been there before: several glasses in, feeling a warm glow, inhibitions wiped away…and the truth comes out—sometimes for the good, other times…well…you might just hope that the truth serum comes with a memory-eraser so you don't have to relive the silly, embarrassing or awkward moments of truth spurred on by the multiple glasses of liquid courage you just consumed.
i'm sure about now you're anxiously awaiting the sordid details of a wine-induced night filled with squirmy truthful confrontations or swinging from chandeliers…but alas, i must disappoint.
this time i'm taking the high road, telling a wine tale of a different kind: about the "noble grape" and the truth it can teach us about ourselves.
several years ago, we went on a trip to napa valley. if you've never been there, it's time to add it to your bucket list. it's mind-blowingly beautiful with acre after acre of lush vineyards, the freshest, most vibrant produce you'll ever eat, and rich napa stories of the people behind each unique winery.
we had been there several times so rather than the casual meandering of our previous trips, this time we had an actual agenda. the wine spectator ratings were logged, the route was mapped out, and our mission was to check out some of the best california cabernet wineries in the region.
for such a little valley (30 miles long), there are more than 45,000 acres planted to grapes in napa. we wanted to find out what made these wines some of the very best—not only in california, but the world.
we started out at rudd, a jawdropping estate in oakville. it was regal and elegant, with amazing gardens, a tuscan style tasting room and an intriguing ivy-covered hobbit hole that served as the entrance to their wine cave. past the massive sunflowers beckoning you in through the doorway, it was what you'd expect: beauty, refinement, a perfectly manicured epicurean experience.
next we hopped down the road to groth, where it was much more about education than elegance. though the property was pretty, it was here that we received a much deeper glimpse into the art and science of winemaking: the winemaker's philosophy, the process, and the vast array of factors that go into making world-class wines. we took a tour and got up close and personal with a critical component of the winemaking process: the soil. mason jars filled with gravely dirt samples lined the shelves of one room. and when we walked through the dusty vineyard, the ground felt not lush and fertile as we had expected, but dry and in some places, rock solid.
we came to find out that over 2 million years ago, "the beautiful and serene napa valley was one of the most violent places on earth" from a geological perspective. "the ground on which we were standing was created by exploding volcanoes and fiery flows of molten rock, shattering earthquakes, upthrust chunks of primeval sea bottom and massive floods"—yielding some of the most mineral-rich soil for grape-growing.
in the oakville appellation, the 1.5 mile stretch where these two wineries sit, the poor, nutrient-deficient top layer of soil causes the vines' roots to strike deeply into the earth in search of nutrition. at these depths, they are able to find enough moisture to sustain themselves.
making the twisty, twenty-minute trek up to pride mountain, a similar theme emerged. 2000+ feet up, the winemakers talked of rocky, volcanic soil, excellent for drainage and creating the perfect conditions to "stress the vines." the dry soil forces the vines to push deeper to find sustenance. the end result is smaller, more compact grapes with higher skin to juice ratio—ultimately developing the complex and concentrated richness of these wines. from gentle stress comes succulent flavors of black cherry, currant, blackberry, cassis, licorice, cocoa and even vanilla.
i loved the idea of such richness coming from rough circumstances. the tumultuous story of the soil yielding some of the most coveted treasures in the wine world. too much of a good thing (in this case water) leads to big, full grapes that lack depth and dimension. too little means poor grapes that fail to grow. the delicate balance of stress and diligent care yields the very best results.
the truths i found, in winemaking as in life: out of stress, comes character and complexity. out of hardship, resilience. out of the need to survive, you can actually thrive.
not everyday can be a revelation. where you experience a life-altering epiphany. a defining milestone. a brush with death. or unexpected kindness.
sometimes—most of the time—it's just plain ordinary. status quo.
wake up. slog through the day. clock it at 5pm. make dinner. put the kids down. take the dog out. pass out. lather. rinse. repeat.
like "fred the baker" in these classic dunkin donuts commercials, it sometimes feels like we're shutting off and going rote. autopilot. same thing, different day.
when i get that feeling, i turn to one of my best, most reliable friends: chocolate.
what is better with chocolate, you ask? well, everything, of course. if you're having a bad day, chocolate is a scientifically proven pick me up. if it's a special occasion, chocolate says "i love you"—did you know consumers buy more than 58 million pounds of chocolate during valentine's week? for your kid's first ice cream cone, tell me it wasn't chocolate? have family in town: then the go-to pan of classic chocolate brownies never disappoints. a favorite decadent dessert: melty lava cake oozing with chocolate goodness.
"take me away": when i really want to splurge, i spring for a $26 box of exotic truffles from vosges, an haut chocolatier in chicago. wrapped in a gorgeous purple box and satin bow that puts even the iconic robin's egg blue tiffany box to shame, this collection of truffles aims to transcend with tastes of exotic lands and indigenous cultures. chocolate paired with curry, wasabi, macademia nuts, cointreau, paprika and crunchy hazelnut praline is served up with whimsical names like gianduia, ambrosia, absinthe, naga, black pearl, budapest, woolloomooloo and my favorite, wink of the rabbit.
"a nugget of goodness": if you're not buying the opulent spin and yuppified version of this delicious treat, then do as i do most days: kiss—keep it simple stupid. chocolate, nearly any kind of chocolate, can do the trick. it doesn't have to be fancy to be fabulous. i often keep a little stash of hershey's kisses in my purse. when the going gets tough, the chocolate gets going: out of my bag and straight into my mouth. it's not about gorging and then feeling guilty later. rather, just a little taste, a nugget of goodness in an otherwise blah day. that simple. that delicious.
there's a phenomenon in my office that can only be described as "bacon lust." whenever the word is mentioned, people swoon. groans of delight can be heard throughout the halls. one of our most popular potluck events is "bacon fest," in which people share their most beloved, creative bacon dishes, which range from carmelized bacon rumaki to maple bacon ice cream. we've recognized stellar employees by signing them up for the "bacon of the month" club. when we have friday morning breakfast, you better be early or the only thing left will be an empty tray full of bacon drippings.
ever wonder what it is about bacon that induces such hysteria? obviously there's the taste. that crisp, salty, fatty goodness is the starting point. but i believe there's so much more. the smell, that can transport you from your office drudgery to sunday morning brunch with your family. to hefty BLTs that you've shared with your buddies. it fills your belly and warms your heart.
the bacon lust that i and my co-workers share reminds me of one of my favorite chefs and writers, anthony bourdain. he's jaded, he's cynical. he's opinionated. he looks like one of those dudes that, after a night of slamming tequila shots with his chef-lebrity friends into the wee hours, wakes up to smoke a ciggie and down a cup of black coffee just perfect the raspy horse lodged firmly in his throat. and he happens to love swine.
despite his sometimes crass demeanor, you can tell the man loves food. whether it's "whole roasted piggy" in the barrios or french fare at le bernardin, you can feel the love oozing from every pore. it's visceral. if you've ever seen him eat bone marrow, you know what i'm talking about. he closes his eyes. he savors it. his eyes roll back into his head. and after he's through, he takes a big exhale and probably reaches over to light another ciggie!
i can relate. people always ask me why i always take pictures of my food. why i takes me so long to finish. why i feel the need to post vivid descriptions of every meal on facebook (as if to not post each ingredient means it doesn't exist).
the answer is simple. it's simply because i love food. i may have been known to utter the phrase "i love it so much i'd marry it" about a plate of truffle fries once...and you know what? i meant it :P ...so when i came across a writing contest that anthony bourdain was sponsoring called "the medium raw challenge," i bit.
the assignment is simple. write an essay answering the question: "what does it mean to cook food well?" the prize: your write up being featured as a forward in the paperback edition of bourdain's new book, "medium raw". here is my essay entry, reproduced here. i guess you could also call it a manifesto about why i love food.
Six concise lines. A world of meaning.
What chefs know, and people who are passionate about food feel intuitively, is that "cooking food well" all comes down to one thing: respect. For the ingredients. For the artistry. And yes, for the taste—that lingers far beyond the moment when morsel touches mouth.
The ingredients: Respecting the pig in all its "piggy-ness"
In this age of mc-mass production, over-processed, genetically modified, artificially sweetened slop that is passed off as food, "cooking food well" means buying from farmers who care for their animals and crops like they do their own children. Using every part of the pig to show the little fellow that, in life as in death, he maintained his dignity, served a higher purpose. Choosing ingredients that are fresh, local, seasonal. Why? There are a plethora of reasons, from nutritional to sustainable, even metaphysical, but the one true defense, in the context of cooking and eating "well" is that it simply tastes better. Whether you're talking about a swine or sweet peas, heffers or jicama, respecting the ingredients means celebrating them in their purest form.
My respect for and fascination with cooking lies in its power of transformation. It has nothing to do with formal training, CIA-certified technique, James Beard accolades. No, this is about the ability to turn the simplest of ingredients—eggs, bread, cheese—into life-altering experiences. It's about the mastery of chefs who can turn piles of produce into painstaking masterpieces, course by delectable course. Whether you rigidly follow recipes or embrace improvisation, whether it's home cooking or haute cuisine, the foundation of "cooking well" is passion—deep, burning passion—to create (and ultimately eat) a delicious meal.
A great meal has the power to transcend time and space, simply through its taste. When you experience it, the flavors linger. The taste is imprinted, seared, into your mouth, your nose, your brain, your soul. It lingers. "Cooking well" is about understanding that food doesn't just exist to provide fuel, satiate your appetite or satisfy hunger. It's about something much deeper. It nourishes your spirit. Deepens bonds. Connects you to loved ones. Fills the void. Turns that frown upside down. It gives you a taste of life. Offers a glimpse of truth.
"Cooking well" fuels living well. Food for your body and your soul.
do you ever feel like the universe is conspiring against you? like a black cloud is hovering overhead, following you closer than your own shadow? times when everything seems to go wrong in a crazy succession of circumstances that conjures up images of the old "mousetrap" game—a chain reaction of events that ends up with you, trapped under a web of just plain bad luck?
when i go through those agonizing stretches, i find that rituals help to keep me grounded.
take brunch, for example. brunch at bongo room happens to be one of my favorite rituals. our usual order: eggs benedict for me, breakfast burrito for my husband, and a "chocolate tower" to split (that's right, dessert with brunch).
the decadent tower is made of bittersweet chocolate chunk bread stuffed with maple mascarpone, banana creme brulee sauce, bananas and shaved chocolate. that in itself is the stuff of breakfast legends. but there's so much more to the bongo ritual than just the delectable food.
when we go there, it's friendly and familiar. a neighborhood joint where you can feel the energy of the city, but where they also know your name (i know, queue up the "cheers" theme song). people-watching is a wholly satisfying event: a mix of urban hipsters, post-college grads with their visiting parents, tatooed rockers, urban moms and dads with bugaboo strollers parked outside and new couples, sometimes formed a few hours earlier and sharing their first sober conversation—all while a faint yet thumping soundtrack worthy of boys town plays in the background. the feast for the stomach, the eyes and the ears is topped off with a leisurely stroll around our beloved hood.
rituals are so special because they're like coming home: when your world is in flux, they provide comfort, safety, the feeling that "everything is in its right place"...and in the case of bongo, rituals can often happen to be delicious too.
rituals can come in all shapes, sizes and circumstances.
at face value they seem almost trivial—but if you look a little deeper, they're usually far more than simple acts that satisfy a craving or entertain you while you're killing time. unlike most things in life, rituals are a tiny sliver of life that you can control—and make your own.
what are the rituals that you hold dear, that help you make order out of the chaos of daily life? i'd love to hear them, and maybe add a few more to my own playlist.


My coworkers and I recently undertook the task of upgrading our vSphere 5.1 environment to version 5.5. While upgrades of these nature aren't really newsworthy we did something of increasing interest in the VMware world: switched from the Windows-based vCenter Server on a physical host to the vCenter Server Appliance, or vCSA, which is a VM. This is the story of that process.
If you aren't familiar with the vCSA it is a vCenter implementation delivered as a SuSE-based appliance from VMware. It has been around for several major versions, but until vSphere 5.5 it didn't have both feature parity with Windows and the ability to support very many hosts & VMs without connecting to an external database. Under vSphere 5.5 the embedded database has improved to support 100 hosts and 3000 virtual machines, which easily covers our needs. While my team consists of very capable IT professionals, able to run Windows and MS SQL Server with their proverbial eyes shut and limbs tied behind them, it'd be better if we simply didn't need to. On top of all of this, upgrades between major vCenter releases on Windows have always been perilous, with full reinstalls the norm. The few major upgrades we've done with the vCSA have been pretty straightforward and easy, and when they weren't we just reverted the snapshot and tried again.
There are still some limitations to the vCSA. It doesn't support linked mode, because linked mode is built on the Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) functionality in Windows (which is also why a Windows vCenter cannot reside on a domain controller). We don't use linked mode because it makes the environment more complicated, without much return on investment for the time we would spend dealing with the additional complexity. The vCSA doesn't support vCenter Heartbeat, either. We don't use Heartbeat because it's fairly expensive, and if our vCenter servers are virtual machines we can use snapshots, replication, HA, and DRS to help minimize possible downtime.
Last, the vCSA doesn't include Update Manager support, so you still need a Windows guest to run it, and, if you follow directions, a MS SQL Server, too. We thought about those directions, and how we actually use Update Manager. We use Update Manager to keep our infrastructure updated, but it isn't critical to our operations, and our Update Manager configuration isn't complicated (the default baselines, add the Dell OpenManage depot URL, upload a couple of custom ESXi boot images, Dell EqualLogic MPMs, and newer Broadcom drivers for our blades). Coupled with the ability to take snapshots, and our use of Veeam Backup & Replication to back the whole thing up, what would we lose if it was down for a day? (Nothing, we plan our patching in advance). Does anybody but my team rely on it? (No.) What would we lose if we had to rebuild it from scratch or restore it from backup? (About an hour of someone's time). Are we concerned with SQL database performance for this application? (No, we run scans and remediations asynchronously — we start them and walk away). Given this, we decided to build a Windows VM for each of our vCSAs to run Update Manager, and we would use the MS SQL Server Express database it offers to install for non-production use. Easy.
There isn't an official upgrade process to move from Windows vCenter to the vCSA, so we had to come up with our own. What we've done in the past is disconnect an ESXi host from vCenter with all the VMs running, and add it to another vCenter somewhere else. When we tested that we found a big snag: the vSphere Distributed Switches (vDS) disappeared. In vSphere 5.1 VMware added the ability to export a vDS configuration and import it somewhere else, which, in theory, should have made this easy. When we did that export/import and then reconnected our ESXi hosts the vDS on the host didn't mate up with vCenter's vDS, erasing the vDS on the host and leaving our VMs with no network. Not good.
As it turns out, there is a bug in vSphere 5.1 that prevents this from working correctly, which bas been fixed in vCenter 5.1 Update 2. Our vCenter was 5.1 Update 1, and because Windows vCenter upgrades are often a crapshoot we didn't feel like wasting a ton of our staff time getting to Update 2. Most of our network links are redundant, and standard virtual switches import seamlessly. So, using a bunch of PowerCLI commands we moved the redundant NICs to a new standard vSwitch and recreated the tagged VLAN port groups.
Build the new management cluster first, get that set up, tested, and debugged. This also gives people a chance to upgrade clients and whatnot. Deploy a Veeam backup proxy into the management cluster so you can back the new appliances up.
Get the new production cluster vCSA deployed, get authentication working, and duplicate the clusters, resource pools (enable DRS in partial mode), folder structure, and permissions. This was also a good time to work through some of the vSphere Hardening Guide, dealing with SSL, resetting service account passwords to long random strings, and ensuring there is a service account for each add-on (vCOPS, Veeam, VIN, etc.).
Document resource pool configurations, as the cutover process will mess with them and you want to know the way they were set up originally.
Document HA exceptions and settings.
Document all DRS rules and groups for re-creation on the new vCSA (you can't create rules until vCenter sees the VMs).
Import a copy of the vSphere Distributed Switches, because even if we couldn't use them straight up it made rebuilding easier. Resist the urge to upgrade them to 5.5 at this point — remember that you'll be importing ESXi 5.1 hosts which can't participate in a newer vDS. We also audited the port group configurations at this time.
Set Update Manager up so we could do ESXi 5.5 upgrades.
Verify all physical network port configurations. We actually didn't do this, trusting that they'd been set up correctly by our Networking group. We discovered, the hard way, that at some point some of our ports became misconfigured through human error (switchport trunk allowed vlan vs. switchport trunk allowed vlan add — under Cisco IOS the word "add" is very significant), and others through configuration rot. As you'd expect, this caused outages when VMs were migrated to those ports. It's an easy fix, fix the ports, just put the VMs back on the primary NIC, or put the primary NIC in the standard vSwitch temporarily. I suggest you trust but verify. Actually, I suggest you automate and remove the humans from the process altogether.
One day before, remove all extra infrastructure components (Infrastructure Navigator, vC Ops, NetApp Virtual Storage Console, etc.) from the old vCenter. There may be a way to keep vCenter Operations Manager going and just move it, but in our testing it lost track of the VMs that moved, even when it could see them on a different vCenter. So we just dumped the reports we wanted, documented the customizations, and planned to start fresh on the other side.
One day before, split the networking and move all VMs to the standard virtual switches. Use PowerCLI to reduce time and errors. Isolate workloads that do not have redundant networking or rely on a vDS feature to one host that can stay on the old vCenter until a future scheduled outage window. I would suggest using the backup or secondary links for the standard vSwitch. Why? When you add a host to a vDS you'll be prompted to specify the uplink NIC for that host. vCenter will assign that NIC to the first uplink slot. You can save some work by choosing wisely in this step.
Remove the ESXi hosts from the vDSes.
Day of the upgrade, disable vSphere Replication and Veeam Backup & Replication. We aren't using these heavily, relying on array-based replication for most of our stuff. If you care about this you will definitely want to test this more than I did.
Disable HA on the old vCenter (we didn't want something we did to trigger it, and we'd be online anyhow to restart VMs if something went wrong).
Cripple DRS by putting it into manual mode. Don't ever disable DRS — your resource pools will go away.
One at a time, disconnect (don't remove) the ESXi hosts from the old vCenter, and add them to the vCSA. We asked it to keep the resource pools, grafting them into the root resource pool. This operation seems to mess with the resource pool settings a bit so you want to have already created good resource pools as part of step 2, and then you can just move the VMs out of one and into the other.
Move all ESXi hosts to the vCSA except the host that has workloads with specific networking needs. Get them organized into clusters.
Recreate DRS & HA rules & customizations.
Readd the ESXi hosts to the vCSA vDSes. Migrate VMs back to the vDS, then remove the standard vSwitch and re-add that NIC to the secondary uplink.
Fix & restart Veeam Backup & Replication & vSphere Replication.
During the wee hours of the next morning we moved the ESXi hosts with the specialized networking on them. We'd documented the networking configurations so we could rapidly rebuild them when they lost their vDS configurations, minimizing the outage.
Remove all ESXi hosts from the old Windows vCenter. I like doing this in case I have to restart the old box, I don't want that old vCenter getting ideas about my hosts. Shut the old vCenter down. I also disabled the services so they wouldn't restart, or cause alarms (we have a monitoring check to see if any service set to "Automatic" isn't running).
Re-enable HA. Put DRS back in fully automated mode. Resolve issues.
Move any service DNS names (A or CNAME records) to where they need to go. We did this earlier in the process and discovered that the old vCenter used some of these names internally. It crashed and halted our upgrade for 45 minutes while we switched them back and restarted the old vCenter. We might have been able to hack it with a hosts file entry or some DNS trickery but it wasn't worth it, as all the new vCSAs had their own DNS entries.
Wait for a day or two to make sure everything is stable. If it isn't you still have a working vCenter 5.1, and you haven't upgraded your hosts yet.
Upgrade your hosts to 5.5 using Update Manager.
Upgrade your vDS to 5.5.
Switch scripts & third-party apps to use the new vCSAs. You might also be able to do this earlier in the process, depending on the tool.
Bask in the glory of vSphere 5.5 running as a vCSA. It's a lot of steps but mostly straightforward. It is also a good opportunity to learn how to script a lot of this if you are unfamiliar with it. For a couple of these steps I just used PowerCLI one-liners and populated them with Excel's autocomplete, pasting them into the PowerCLI window as I needed them. Crude? Yes. Effective? Yes. I'm way better in C, C++, and Perl than I am in PowerShell. Also, I owe Alan Renouf and Luc Dekens beer.
Have we had any issues so far? Yes! No major upgrade is without a bunch of little problems.
One of our hosts crashed a few months ago from a hardware fault, and during the upgrade when we moved VMs around we were getting disconnected NICs on VMs. When we tried to reconnect them we'd get "Invalid configuration for device '0'" and the NIC wouldn't reconnect. A temporary fix is to reassign that NIC to a different port group, save it, then reassign it to the correct port group and reconnect it. The KB indicates that this is a problem with the cached information for the vDS but that it's fixed in 5.1. I don't think it is. Nevertheless, we just split the primary & backup NICs again, created a new vDS, and moved all the VMs a third time.
We are also having a hell of a time with the VMware Tools under 5.5, where it just deletes the VMXNET3 driver and quits, leaving our Windows VMs without a NIC. We have a support case open on that one, moving incredibly slowly. I doubt that's a problem with the vCSA, just the typical craptastic Tools installer, probably not checking return codes or handling error conditions well (not that I'm bitter, every hour my team spends dealing with Windows Tools issues is an hour out of our lives we never get back).
Lastly, there's a bug with the vCSA that causes the console functionality in the web client to fail, citing "Could not connect to x.y.z.a:7331." There is a nice KB article on how to fix it that my team found, and I'm hoping that it's fixed permanently in 5.5 Update 1. I know bugs happen, but I don't like it when we customize appliances.
Fantastic post. As I said in email, this would make a GREAT VMworld session. I'm going to post this internally on Socialcast.
Was one of the reasons you went to VCSA the better security of the platform?


text:
Q: Select query INNER JOIN issue I have tow tables Requisitions and RequisitionDetails
Requisitions table
+---------------+-----------------+
| RequisitionID | RequisitionDate |
+---------------+-----------------+
|             1 | 2016-08-17      |
|             2 | 2016-08-18      |
|             3 | 2016-08-19      |
+---------------+-----------------+

RequisitionDetails table
+---------------------+---------------+--------+----------+------------------+
| RequisitionDetailID | RequisitionID | ItemID | Quantity | ReceivedQuantity |
+---------------------+---------------+--------+----------+------------------+
|                   1 |             1 |      1 |        2 |                1 |
|                   2 |             1 |      2 |        3 |                2 |
|                   3 |             2 |      3 |        4 |                3 |
+---------------------+---------------+--------+----------+------------------+

I am trying to get Requisition data where Quantity is not equal to ReceivedQuantity.
i have tried the below query but its record with RequisitionID 1 twice.
How can i make the query returns the Requisition data without repeating the requisition data based on items that have Quantity is not equal to ReceivedQuantity.
SELECT
  dbo.Requisitions.RequisitionID,
  dbo.Requisitions.RequisitionDate
FROM dbo.Requisitions
INNER JOIN dbo.RequisitionDetails
  ON dbo.Requisitions.RequisitionID = dbo.RequisitionDetails.RequisitionID
where dbo.RequisitionDetails.Quantity != dbo.RequisitionDetails.ReceivedQuantity

A: It's returning twice because of the two rows with RequistionID = 1 in the RequistionDetails table.  Since the rows returned are exact duplicates you can simply add the DISTINCT keyword to your select to see one of them:
SELECT DISTINCT
dbo.Requisitions.RequisitionID,
dbo.Requisitions.RequisitionDate
FROM dbo.Requisitions
INNER JOIN dbo.RequisitionDetails
ON dbo.Requisitions.RequisitionID = dbo.RequisitionDetails.RequisitionID
where   dbo.RequisitionDetails.Quantity!=
dbo.RequisitionDetails.ReceivedQuantity

You should also use some aliases to clean up your query:
SELECT DISTINCT
           R.RequisitionID,
           R.RequisitionDate
FROM       dbo.Requisitions R
INNER JOIN dbo.RequisitionDetails RD ON R.RequisitionID = RD.RequisitionID
WHERE      RD.Quantity != RD.ReceivedQuantity

A: You also can use exists for your case
select
* from requistions rq where exists(
select 1 from RequisitionDetails  rd where rd.RequisitionID=rq.RequisitionID
and rd.Quantity!=rd.ReceivedQuantity)

A: As you don't need columns from the 2nd table you can also switch to EXISTS to avoid DISTINCT:
SELECT req.*
FROM dbo.Requisitions as req
WHERE EXISTS
 ( SELECT * FROM dbo.RequisitionDetails as req_det
    WHERE req.RequisitionID = req_det.RequisitionID
      AND Quantity <> ReceivedQuantity
 )

Or IN:
SELECT req.*
FROM dbo.Requisitions
WHERE RequisitionID IN
 ( SELECT RequisitionID
   FROM dbo.RequisitionDetails
    WHERE Quantity <> ReceivedQuantity
 )

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


*FA Fuji used as Jungle Flavors are not available in Canada.
I know, how unique is an apple fritter? If it wasn't so good, I would have selected a different entry. This is a warm buttery fritter that is just in time for fall. Here in Canada we have Tim Hortons for our coffee stop and they make a very simple fresh (not overly sweet) apple fritter I really wanted to recreate. I mix this at 30/70 PG/VG and let it steep a week.
CAP Cinnamon Danish Swirl- this has a rich spicy cinnamon base with it requiring a high enough percentage for all notes to come through against the buttery cream but not so much to get a mouthful of cinnamon. 3% was just right to get this.
FA Fuji- at higher percentages this can be nauseating but is still a main note in the profile. 1% gives a greener apple without over powering the recipe. It holds on the steep and allows for a fresh apple note to ring through.
TPA Strawberry Ripe- this will need a higher percentage than the apple to lend its sweetness and red strawberry back note. It gives us a bridge between the apple and danish swirl.
FW Sweet Cream- this is imperative for our buttery creaminess in the recipe. It takes some steep time to shine through but when it arrives it creates a balance in the recipe.
FW Salty Butter Balls- I have no idea what salty butterballs are but know this flavor well. It works very well with Cinnamon Danish Swirl and the very slight salty butter flavor adds a richness and spicy butter to the mix. There is also a brown sugar like note included with this flavor and does it without the burnt sugar taste found in other options.
FW Butter pecan- what is lacking in the Butter balls and sweet cream is found here. The final butterscotch like flavor in the butter pecan tops it all off. There is a subtle pecan flavor that lends well to the other ingredients and rounds it all out.


Note: Unless otherwise indicated, these settings only affect activities within this distributed system - not activities between clients and servers.
Note: This setting controls only peer-to-peer communication and does not apply to client/server communication.
cluster-ssl-keystore, http-service-ssl-keystore, jmx-manager-ssl-keystore, server-ssl-keystore Properties that dentify the keystores to use for SSL connections.cluster-ssl-keystore defines the keystore for GemFire peer-to-peer connections. If you specify only cluster-ssl-keystore, then the same keystore is also used for client/server, JMX manager, and HTTP service connections. Specify the jmx-manager, server- or http-service- prefix with this property to use a different keystore for the respective SSL connection type. See Configuring SSL.
cluster-ssl-keystore-password, http-service-ssl-keystore-password, jmx-manager-ssl-keystore-password, server-ssl-keystore-password Properties that identify the passwords for the keystores used with SSL connections. See Configuring SSL.
cluster-ssl-keystore-type, http-service-ssl-keystore-type, jmx-manager-ssl-keystore-type, server-ssl-keystore-type System properties that identify the types of keystores used with SSL connections. See Configuring SSL.
cluster-ssl-truststore, http-service-ssl-truststore, jmx-manager-ssl-truststore, server-ssl-truststore Properties that identify the truststores to use for SSL connections. cluster-ssl-truststore defines the truststore for GemFire peer-to-peer connections. If you specify only cluster-ssl-truststore, then the same truststore is also used for client/server, JMX manager, and HTTP service connections. Specify the jmx-manager, server-, or http-service- prefix with this property to use a different truststore for the respective SSL connection type. See Configuring SSL.
Note: This setting controls only peer-to-peer communication and does not apply to client/server communication. If multicast is enabled, distributed regions use it for most communication. Partitioned regions only use multicast for a few purposes, and mainly use either TCP or UDP unicast.
This is a machine-wide attribute used for communication with clients in client/server installations. This setting has no effect on locator configuration.