Bob Zelin
7
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Shane –
so with you in mind, why would I build a new car for you with the features that you want. So that maybe in 5 years, when your Honda blows up, you will think about me ?You see the “Apple Nuts” on line at the mall, waiting on line for days to get the latest iPhone, iPad, whatever Apple comes out with – need it or not – they want it. Now THAT’s who I want for a customer. And here on Creative Cow, where I am always yelling at people to throw out their old Fiber Channel cards, and AVID Unity’s and buy new modern equipment – well, I get to install this new equipment, so those new customers will generate income for me. But for me personally – I am embarrassed to admit that my Mac’s are a White MacBook, a 2009 Mac Pro and a 2012 Mac Mini. (I’ve got some HP Z series workstations too).
I had every intention of buying a new MacBook Pro with Thunderbolt 3, but after all the nightmare reviews so far, I will at least wait until NAB to see what options for expansion are out there. But there are those that say “I don’t care, I want one of those new fangled thunderbolt 3 Mac Book Pros !”. Well, that’s the customer I would want – not me, and not you.Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com -
Herb is of course, absolutely correct –
“For Apple, if a 14 yer old can’t figure out how to use it, it’s too complicated”
So, Professional users – please explain to me what is wrong with Apple’s business model. Let me give you a little
“tech talk” to relate. Cisco is the “industry standard” for the switch business, and their products are complicated and expensive. They still use command line interface (CLI) to setup their switches. But today “any idiot” (like me) can go out and get a Netgear 10G switch, and without being “Cisco Certified”, I can setup a 10G network for folks, just like you, at a fraction of the price of a Cisco network, with the same performance, and Mr. Big Shot IT Manager who has 25 years of Cisco experience is no longer needed. And of course, Mr Cisco Certified hates Netgear switches, but almost 300 installs later, Netgear 10G switches are super fast, reliable, easy to configure, cheap, and MOST IMPORTANT – don’t need Mr. Cisco Certified.Now, lets look at FCP-X and the whole Apple line of products. Got a nice DSLR camera, but have no idea of how to really use it ? Just plug it into a Mac, and VOILA ! – your pictures are downloading to your computer, and you never even read the manual – WOW – and they look “pretty damn good”.
That’s the market. I have said this over and over again. They do not want a market of 50,000 – 100,000 professionals, when they can get MILLIONS to do “our job” (just like Mr. Cisco), and they make billions of dollars while the 50,000 professional editors cry “boo hoo”. It’s not personal – it’s just business.
And as I have observed over and over and over and over – Many “professional” older editors still are using their old Mac Pro’s – still are running FCP 7, or AVID Media Composer V7.0. How do you get these professionals to go out and spend a few thousand on new hardware in 2017, or 2018 ? Simple – you can’t – because their gear works JUST FINE, and they are making tons of money, and winning awards, with the current equipment that they have.
This translates to “this is not the market we want to appeal to anymore, because they won’t go out and spend
$8000 for a new top of the line Mac Pro 2017 with Thunderbolt 3, Nvidia GPU and 128 Gig of RAM”. Because Mr. 45 – 55 year old editor is more than happy with his current setup – it works just fine.
So they are just trying to stay in business (just like us), and appealing to a crowd that will hand over some money.It ain’t rocket science – just business.
Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com -
Michael writes –
Simple to build and run from a single power supply in a rack case without spaghetti to peripherals like outboard card holders.OMG !!! What does the back of your 6,1 Mac Pro look like ? Everyone’s looks like a spaghetti pile, with all the USB and Thunderbolt 2 ports coming off of it. Everyones computer faces out to them (back facing you) with the spaghetti of
monitors, drives, USB hubs, Blackmagic and AJA cards, flash drives, external drives piled up, thunderbolt to 10G adaptors. If that’s not a spaghetti mess, then what do you call it ?Because if you say “I just have my new Mac Pro, and my monitor, and nothing else hooked up to it, and I use wireless keyboard, wireless mouse, and WiFi” – then I can pretty much guess that you don’t do this for a living.
Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com -
replies from Bob Zelin below (so many questions !!!!!!!)
I’m trying to understand the order of how components can be hooked together in a 10g situation (just 2 computers) and at what point adding a device to the mix becomes a “time for a switch and server” situation.
REPLY – you can’t share your Pegasus with 2 computers at the same time, unless you use one computer at a a time (one computer with direct attached to the Pegasus, and that computer becomes the “server” when you want to use the second computer. If you try to access both computers to the same drive at the same time, you will “beach ball” and lock up. That is when you need a server – if you need two computers to access the same drive at the same time.
I recently saw the Mixing Light tutorials on setting up a “proRes dongle” using a mac as a remote render box.
Since i have 2 Avid dongles, and 2 Resolve dongles, i thought Hmmmmm.
Found a great deal on a 2015 imac locally, and brought it into the room, put Avid on it, put Resolve on it, and started playing with remote rendering, or in the case of Avid, sharing my projects and drives to allow it to do the final render.REPLY – to share Resolve databases, you need to setup the database as per the manual. You can’t have AVID access the same bins at the same time, unless you have AVID Storage (or Facilis or EditShare) or Indistore software to trick the AVID into thinking it’s connected to an ISIS/Unity. This translates into building a common server for your systems.
I don’t usually need to work on 2 projects at once, i just like the idea of one box outputting what the other box built.
I shared my pegasys over the network so the imac sees it, and seems quite happy with that. I know there can be issues trying to access the same media on the same drive at the same time…not what i’m typically trying to do. For now, i just put the pegasys into a read only mode for the imac while i play, and check out the increased render times over a 1 g network.
REPLY – if you setup a server (QNAP, Mac Pro, a pro solution, etc.) then you can access the same media at the same time.
I have looked at SANmp and am intriged by it as well, and am testing it in this workflow as well.
REPLY – this is designed to turn one computer into the server (iSCSI target) and your workstations talk to the Target server, like a Mac Pro.
My question is in trying to hook two computers together, using 10g instead of 1G.
REPLY – sure you can. It works fine. But the same rules apply. You can put 10G card on one computer, and thunderbolt to 10G on your iMac, and connect the two with Cat 6 cabling. This works fine. But this is for data transfer. Or if you want to access the “server” (one of your computers with the storage) from the client (the one without the Pegasus).
The minute you try to access the media from both computers at the same time, you will have trouble. But for data transfer, or working isolated on the second computer from the first computer, without having to unhook the drives – yes, this works great.If i bought the Qnap with Thunderbolt and 10 G… and ran the thunderbolt to the imac, and put a 10g card in my PC and ran to that, i believe that would be an attainable solution.
REPLY – it sure would – especially if you got the TVS-871T. This has two built in 10G ports and four built in 1G ports. So the QNAP IS the server, and you can do exactly what you want. True shared storage for very little money. Want to run both AVID Media Composers at the same time – just put Indistore software on your computers, and it all works. (just the Media Composer clients, not the QNAP).
But my brain doesn’t like to stop that quickly. I start in on the what ifs.
What if i don’t have enough lanes in my PC for a 10g card. (its pretty packed in there with thunderbolt, Kona, minisas, esata, and a 1070 graphics card.
REPLY – then find a slot for it. Get an ATTO NT11 card for your PC, or a Sonnet Presto 10GbaseT card. If you don’t have a slot for it (get rid of the miniSAS) – then you can’t have 10G
Then i could run the Qnap to the PC with thunderbolt, and use a Thunderbolt to 10g adapter to hook up the qnap to the imac. That would work right?
REPLY – do not use the QNAP with Thunderbolt – even the 871T. Use the built in 10G Cat 6 ports, and everything will perform wonderfully. You will be disappointed with Thunderbolt networking.
But what happens to my pegasys? I love my pegasys…hasn’t had a hickup in 3 years.
Can i incorporate that as well, or does it just stay as a direct attachment to the main box?REPLY – it stays at direct attached storage to the main box. If you get the QNAP. Or you can build a Mac Pro server and use the Pegasus. I can tell you that if it is the R6 and not the R8, you will have limited performance for 2 computers using it at the same time.
Is that where SANmp can come into play? (i do have a mac mini with a sonnet expander as well if needed to host something else)
REPLY – you build a Mac Pro server (or Mac Mini server which is not that powerful). You hookup your Pegasus to the Mac Mini, and put the SANmp iSCSI Target on the Mac Pro (with it’s dongle). Now you put iSCSI initiator from SANmp client onto your two computers. It’s up to you if you want to do this.
If i had SANmp running on the imac, with the pegasys connected to it via thunderbolt, and then the Sonnet thunderbolt to 10 g on the other thunderbolt port, could i then connect that 10 g cable straight into my PC (assuming i can get a 10g card in my pc) and my pc could access the pegasys via 10G? That would eliminate the need for the qnap right now right?
REPLY – you are making all of this very confusing. This is a simple setup.
But what if…in the future i need more storage, and i bring in another device…say a Qnap, how does it connect to what i already have…are we now looking at a switch and a server situation?
REPLY – if you have a 10G switch, you simply plug in additional servers (like the QNAP) into your 10G switch, and now everyone can access everything that you own.
I’m not worried about a solution for a minimal amount of money, not that money is no object..i’m trying to understand how the pieces could work together.
REPLY – simple overview of every network in the world. Server – Switch – client computers. That’s it.
This could be QNAP – switch – client computers. And of course, for just 2 or 3 computers, the QNAP has multiple built in ports, so you could avoid the switch. Check out the price of the TVS-871T-16G. It’s pretty damn cheap.Can you connect more than 1 device into a direct computer to computer 10g setup?
REPLY – if you have 2 ports on the 10G card, then yes, you can plug in two client computers to this.
I know there are plenty of devices out there, advertising on this site that offer shared storage solutions.
I know there are portable solutions and bigger solutions. I’m not desperate to go out and spend money on this idea, but i want an understanding of what is and isn’t possible on a direct connection.REPLY – you can always contact me ! And I don’t sell a damn thing.
What i’m not interested in right now is a big rack with a shared storage bay. My office space is not tiny, but i don’t have room for a loud set of drives. (i have an AvidRaid SR that spends most of its time turned off because its just too loud for my current situation)
REPLY – check out the size of the small QNAP. It’s silent and tiny (and cheap).
Bob Zelin
I know thats a lot of what ifs…but at this stage, its as much about understanding the technology, so that if and when i need it, i’m more prepared.
Glenn
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com -
simple answer.
You don’t do it.
But you say “I only made $5000 in the last 2 1/2 years, and I can’t afford H&R Block”.
Perhaps you were an orphan. Perhaps your parents past away when you were young. Perhaps no adult spoke with you when you were young.YOU MUST FILE TAXES IN THE UNITED STATES. Even if you own nothing. You must declare your earnings.
Let me be a little specific. Here in the lovely state of Florida, where there is no state and city tax – only Federal tax, they do have SALES tax. And I hardly sell anything, except my services, which are not taxable. But I occationally sell some parts like cable and connectors. This coming January 20th, I will have sold no parts. I MUST FILE my form EZ-15 State Sales Tax by January 20th, even if I owe ZERO money. If I don’t I will be penalized by the Florida Department of Revenue for $50 for the month. Even if I wind up paying them on January 21st.Let me make this a little more clear. Let’s say you work on a job with Todd Terry and Rich Rubasch. And lets say they are not nice to you, and you punch them in the face. The odds are, since you are a nice guy, even if they try to press charges, probably nothing will happen to you and you will get a suspended sentence, and you will never spend more than one day in jail. HOWEVER, let’s say you EMPLOY Todd Terry and Rich Rubasch, and you don’t get a W9 form from them, and it is determined that they are your employees, and not freelancers, and Todd Terry files for unemployment because he worked for Suz Rizza Productions. Now you are in BIG TROUBLE, and the government will come after you. SOMEONE has to pay workmans comp, someone has to make the social security deduction. And if your ACCOUNTANT determines that you have not earned enough to make tax payments, then it’s his job to determine this (or H&R Block, or whoever you decide to go to).
Don’t be foolish. You just can’t pocket the money and hope for the best (that no one will find out). They ALWAYS find out, because you can be selling crack on the street corner, and you might get away with it. But don’t pay the taxes on the crack that you sold, and you will be prosecuted. Think this is a joke – it’s not.
As you have been advised, get an accountant (even if it’s H&R Block) – or get a job, and THEY will take out 1/3 of your money for taxes and social security.
See, it’s not easy being in business – even if it’s only you. It’s not fair, is it ?
Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com -
do you mean Microsoft SharePoint ? Why would you do this, when there are wonderful asset managers for video out there, like CatDV and Axle Video, that are designed exactly for your application ?
Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com -
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you bought an iMac with thunderbolt 2.
Simple answer – buy an empty Thunderbolt 2 RAID chassis, and install your drives. Problem solved.
ps – you are on the wrong forum – you should be on the RAID forum.
Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com -
one of the main reasons I hate Apple monitors (don’t worry, they don’t make monitors anymore).
Countless companies like Gefen and Smart AVI (and plenty of others) make VGA extenders, DVI extenders, DVI-D
extenders, and even display port extenders. And modern monitors (like LG) that use thunderbolt – Corning makes wonderful long optical Thunderbolt extenders.But Apple decided to make this series of monitors with these ridiculous short built in mini display port male cables, that are virtually impossible to extend.
Solution – change your monitors. I know that’s not a good answer, but you are stuck with the wrong product for your application.
Every other company never stuck a fixed cable onto their monitors with a male end. Apple was the only one to ever do this, and created the dilemma that you are in .
Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com -
ya know – what the hell do I know (not much) but this is my opinion, and I have heard similar opinions to this.
This is also one of the reasons I give our Bill Davis a hard time all the time (because of his promotion of “know a high school student that wants to edit).Look at the Ford GT that Ford will release in 2017. It’s like the Dodge Viper. It’s not a car for the masses, but people look at it, and drool, and wind up buying a generic model. Ford or Dodge never make their quota, or impress their stock investors with a Ford GT, or Dodge Viper (does the Chevy Stingray affect GM’s bottom line) ? Well maybe the Stingray is a good analogy, because they DO sell Stingrays – but not many.
This is the Mac Pro – especially with what “we” want – a NVidia GTX 1080GPU in it. How many will they sell. Will they sell 5 million – or will they sell 100,000 – or maybe even less.
Lots of companies have “flagship” products to promote their product line (Apple could say “the latest DreamWorks movie was done with Apple computers) – and it certainly wont’ be the new MacBook Pro.
WE are the Ferrari owners – WE want the hi end sports car, because WE are the race drivers, and it matters to us.
Exactly who would care if GM, Ford and Chrysler dumped all their flagship sports cars. Would it affect their bottom line ? Would the investors care.Guys like Steve Jobs cared, because “cool” was more important than making money. But Jobs ain’t running the show anymore.
There is no one more than me that wants to see a new generation of Mac Pro’s, iMac’s and Mac Mini’s. And it’s not just me – there are all the “NAB manufacturers” that have Thunderbolt 3 products ready – with 24 bay RAID arrays, 10G and 40G Ethernet adaptors, etc. etc. Every one of my clients wants external GPU’s for their cylinder Mac Pro’s. As the expression goes – “you are preaching to the choir”, and Creative Cow (and FCP.co, etc.) are the churches.
But do “we” matter. Do the 100,000 (maybe) people that will buy this stuff make a big enough market to influence Apple ? What would happen if 10 million people knew how to edit ?
Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com