It looks like you want a storage appliance for your data centre. Maybe you'd prefer a smart card reader?
- Reference: 1588580829
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/04/bork/
- Source link:
Sent in by Register reader Dave S, this bit of borkage comes from the department of "you recommend what ?"
The recommendation panel is a familiar sight on many retailer's pages, and used to encourage punters to part with cash for extra gear. "If you like this, then you'll really like this," exhort Bezos and his ilk. The same principle is used to direct a customer to in-stock items when something is unavailable rather than the horror of a browse with another retailer.
In this instance, Dave was looking for some storage. He's not alone. The cloud vendors have been feeling the pinch a little as demand for their services has rocketed, fuelled by a chunk of the world's population suddenly sat at home.
He was considering one of Rubrik's storage appliances, the r6412s, which is aimed at large-scale environments. It's a bit of a beast – [1]the specs [PDF] have the 2U rack-mounted device rocking four 10-core CPUs, 384GB DDR4 RAM, 144TB of HDD storage and four 400GB SSDs. Little wonder the thing needs 985W.
Sadly for Dave, however, his electronic retailer of choice, TigerDirect, lacked stock. Doubtless the suits from one or another cockroach of tech (those cloud vendors that always seem to do well no matter what disaster has befallen the world) had already swooped.
[2]
Click to enlarge
No matter, though. TigerDirect had the perfect alternative to a four-node, 144TB HDD rackmount storage monster... A USB 3.0 memory card reader.
It's certainly a lot cheaper, and we've seen some intriguing storage arrays built from similar. One prominent Linux vendor demonstrated a Ceph cluster built from a dozen or so Raspberry Pis at a recent conference, although the engineer responsible told us: "Never do this," with a haunted look in his eye.
But "You May Consider This Alternative"?
We've contacted TigerDirect to find out just how in blue blazes this is a replacement for that . As Dave drily observed: "I hadn't realised the two items were so similar."
We have a sinking feeling it is likely due to an idle click by a bored minion somewhere down the line, tagging Rubrik's finest as a mere Smart Media Reader. We suspect [3]CEO Bipul Sinha might have a thing or two to say about that. Then again, the company does have some experience with the odd [4]configuration cock-up .
Or perhaps a machine-learning algorithm has gone rogue, hysterically stamping everything in the catalogue as "Flash!", "Flash!", "Flash!" like a 1980s-obsessed automaton. ®
Sponsored: [5]Choosing A Low-Code Vendor
[1] https://www.rubrik.com/content/dam/rubrik/en/resources/data-sheet/Spec-Sheet-Rubrik-Appliance-Specs-r6000.pdf
[2] https://regmedia.co.uk/2020/05/01/bork_1.jpg
[3] https://www.rubrik.com/en/company/about/leadership
[4] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/01/31/rubrik_exposed_database/
[5] https://go.theregister.co.uk/tl/1936/-8579/choosing-a-low-code-vendor?td=wptl1936
Re: Bit like Amazon at the moment
>but was offered page after page of cheap nasty PPE medical visors. Totally useless,
Yea, the irony being that your 'table saw, big angle-grinder or chainsawing down trees' really matters.
On the other hand, who gives a toss what useless crap doctors, nurses, paramedics, cleaners etc. are forced to use. Lucky their crap is really cheap, since they're having to pay for it themselves. Even stranger times.
And back towards topic: Amazon search has always been useless. It's impossible to search out the 'slightly better quality' from the dross.
Re: Bit like Amazon at the moment
Linked IN too... I wanted a great job, found one I liked (didn't get it) LI, now LI sends me jobs that are NOT like the one I originally looked at...
Re: Bit like Amazon at the moment
Amazon search has always been crap but together the marketplace and sponsored results have made it almost useless thanks to click bait descriptions (don't describe what it isn't ) and questionable sponsoring of terms.
A couple of months ago I searched for "ball pein hammer" on Amazon. Got a couple of novels back in the sponsored results... Daddy's Little Angel and Stepbrother with Benefits . I think you can imagine the genre. Although I did wonder who would pay to place those in a search for hammers.
Re: Bit like Amazon at the moment
eBay is as almost as bad. Maybe three hits and then an almost unnoticeably small caption introducing items with fewer words followed by a list from the wild blue yonder. Or an equally overlookable intro to ads from international vendors when you've specifically clicked UK only because you don't want to wait for whatever it was to arrive on a slow boat from China.
Re: Bit like Amazon at the moment
I wanted a new heavy duty face guard for when I'm using my table saw, big angle-grinder or chainsawing down trees.
There's a story about the late President Reagan and protective equipment. Whilst still president he was on his ranch enjoying a few days of holiday. He announced he was going to do some work in the woods and his head of detail, a couple of other secret service agents and the Whitehouse photographer went off with him and his tools. He'd used his chainsaw, an axe etc. with no problem and they headed back to the house. Head of detail says to the photographer he must have got some good images of the President. Photographer says yes but can't use any of them as Reagan wasn't wearing the correct protective equipment.
Re: Bit like Amazon at the moment
Photographer says yes but can't use any of them as Reagan wasn't wearing the correct protective equipment.
When I was on the editorial team for a festival newsletter we had exactly the same issue. Someone would say, "I've got a great picture of X doing Y!" We'd immediately reject it due to incorrect PPE, bad working practice, etc.
Re: Bit like Amazon at the moment
It was the opposite of that when we lived in France, the DIY programmes on TV there often had presenters covered head to toe in muck and dust from using power saws, angle grinders, ripping down old ceilings etc and no masks, eye protection etc. A total disregard for personal safety; I've seen some really gung-ho use of chainsaws too with no respect for what damage they can do to flesh within a split second.
Recruitment Searches
I'm a Contract PM who manages a variety of projects including technical infrastructure projects. I've also managed a number of projects starting or transforming service desks.
I do include the architecture stack I've worked with in my CV but there is no claim to be a technical consultant. Probably half the enquiries I get about availability are about technical consultancy roles, and 10% are for service desk agent.
Re: Recruitment Searches
Their search algorithms are universally useless. If you put "technical writer" in your CV, you'll get every job opening that contains both the words "technical" and "writing", in any combination or context.
Re: Recruitment Searches
The local labor government in Victoria has a ad up at the train stations with the typical "we are sorry for the delays" while patting themselves on the back for spending our money. There are 4 people in the picture of "rail construction" and 3 of them are doing things that should get them kicked off a worksite. The other one is just standing around looking like a supervisor.
Re: Recruitment Searches
Thought you were going to regale us with stories about job offers to design buildings. Almost tempted to downvote you for that...
Tiger Direct?
Good Lord, why would anyone buy anything from that gang of shifty box-shifters? Especially a piece of kit like that! I remember being excited that CompUSA had been resurrected online, until I found out it was just a new web-front for TD!
Startech.com
I like Startech.com gear and find it quite good, are you sure it's not equivalent?
"The same principle is used to direct a customer to in-stock items when something is unavailable"
There's a word missing there.:"Irrelevant". Or possibly several: "mindblowingly and utterly bonkers irrelevant".
Bit like Amazon at the moment
I wanted a new heavy duty face guard for when I'm using my table saw, big angle-grinder or chainsawing down trees. Narrowed my search to the DIY and tools section but was offered page after page of cheap nasty PPE medical visors. Totally useless, but you can see what Amazon are shifting at the moment. I'll wait until I can get a proper one from B&Q or Wickes.