DevCentral Top 5 03/06/2009

When I said that things were cooking, and that the knob was only going to get turned up higher, I meant it. There has been so much going on in DevCentral land, in fact, that even the Top 5 was waylaid, temporarily. Never fear, though, it can be slowed but not stopped. Between new inner-workings for our site infrastructure, and an all new video-series documenting how we got there, plus the normal, awesome content the many contributors to DevCentral have been putting out, there's plenty to see. I'll make sure to hit the highlights for this week to see if we can get everyone caught up.

DevCentral Real IT - Episode 2, The Scoping

http://devcentral.f5.com/s/realit

This is the second episode in the recently released series documenting the DevCentral team working with IT, product experts, regional teams out of China, and everyone else needed to make rolling out a new DevCentral China portion of the site that is localized in both content and delivery. During this series we'll walk through the different steps it took to get where we were going, detailing the requirements to make it work, the issues faced along the way and the many people that it took to make this happen. A new episode will be released every week, along with interviews, video blogs and more as extras released throughout the week. Be sure to check back here often to see the newest videos about what the team and those that helped us have been up to.

Reason #1 That You Need File Virtualization

http://devcentral.f5.com/s/weblogs/dmacvittie/archive/2009/03/04/reason-1-that-you-need-file-virtualization.aspx

Don has set off on a new series in his blog about the varied reasons that file virtualization is an ever increasing need, and why you just might need it, whether you realize it or not. In the first installment he hits on a major win, Simplified Desktop Management. No more will admins cringe at managing so many shares, nor will they fear the very mention of expanding past the limitations of a given storage system. The ability to virtualize this means that scaling and management become much less of an arduous process, not to mention a sizeable cost savings if things are done right. I'm eager to see what's next on Don's list. With many years of experience using, researching and reviewing storage systems, he's definitely got the experience to get to the core of the issues, and I'm looking to learn a thing or two along the way.

Stop, Click & Listen

http://devcentral.f5.com/s/weblogs/psilva/archive/2009/03/05/stop-click-amp-listen.aspx

Pete Silva, one of the many contributors to DevCentral, has been pushing the effort to get multimedia versions of currently existing F5 content made available for consumption. His recent blog post calls out the audio version of Lori MacVittie's "Built to Scale" white paper. This is an awesome way to be able to consume content that may have been cumbersome before. Listen from DevCentral, download it and listen on the go, but now it's easier than ever to take in some of the awesome content you may have passed by before.

Joe's Guest Appearance on The PowerScripting Podcast

http://devcentral.f5.com/s/weblogs/Joe/archive/2009/03/03/my-guest-appearance-on-the-powerscripting-podcast-is-live.aspx

Our own Joe Pruitt has become a bit of a celebrity in the PowerShell community, it would seem. He was recently invited to joining the PowerScripting podcast where he sat in with other esteemed PS experts to talk code. He talked about everything from his work history to pastimes to his experience with PowerShell … I think he may have even mentioned DevCentral in there somewhere. It's fantastic to see Joe getting recognized for his outstanding work in this community and theirs (PowerShell) and it's definitely worth a listen if you're into the whole scripting thing.

DevCentral Weekly Roundup Episode 77 - The F5 Guy

http://devcentral.f5.com/s/weblogs/dcpodcast/archive/2009/03/05/devcentral-weekly-roundup-episode-77---the-f5-guy.aspx

Back again in the Top5 is the Weekly Roundup podcast. Every week we all get together to chat about what's been going on, what everyone has been up to and what cool things we've each found in the community. This is a fantastic way to keep up with the many things that are going on while getting the info straight from the geek's mouth, as it were. We cover tech tips and blogs, forum posts, wiki entries and more. This week we even covered a review of a third party node management app brought to you by the infamous F5 Guy, whose very existence was very pleasant news to all of us. You'll have to go take a listen to see exactly what I mean.

There it is, the Top5 back in action and hopefully as helpful as ever. Keep your eye out in the coming weeks for your dose of what's been happening on DC.

#Colin