Red-Ringed Tupperware Party with (super-effective) Tin Foil Hats (6)

Mvack Koo!!

The bad thing is that I had to spend money today.

The good thing is that I got to do it right. Build a system the way it should be. 100% customized to my requirements. I guess at the end of the day I am a power user and I work in the industry....no getting away from it. (kinda like a truck driver wishing their daily driver was a coupe or ragtop)

External hard disk cases REALLY cripple performance. Best I ever got out of the external casing was 30MB/sec. Best I am getting out of the new box is a mind-blowing 85MB/sec of real, useable throughput. I never even thought that single hard disks were capable of such speeds. That Western Digital CaviarRE is truly SOME hard disk.

And forget tiny little cases. I didn't even get the Shuttle XPC. I went for the time-honored, time-tested 'big iron' systems. A nice aluminium medium tower in the bone-stock-boring-as-heck config we use at work. And we use it because it's so reliable... I could use reliability right now.

Kvack Yoda.

You're right about what the external hard disks do to the performance, but I think it's almost a necessary evil today. At least for me.

Time to take an evening walk for me. It's all snowy and wintery outside

Actually, I don't mind so much what they do to performance, as what they do to reliability. This morning, the Firewire drive failed to spin up for no good reason. Incidentally, I was using the same physical hard disk in the external Firewire case, and I moved it over to the new system, and no problems there. I've already swept the disk with my usual battery of diagnostics, nothing is wrong with the disk itself.

Can't trust my data to an external casing that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't

The alternative, which not everybody (understandably) wants to deal with is network-attached storage (NAS). Yes, it is cumbersome but it is reliable, stable, and tremendously effective at saving my bacon. And my bacon could definitely use some saving right now....

Lightstream wrote in post #4665080
The alternative, which not everybody (understandably) wants to deal with is network-attached storage (NAS). Yes, it is cumbersome but it is reliable, stable, and tremendously effective at saving my bacon. And my bacon could definitely use some saving right now....

Today it is not cumbersome unless you choose to build your own NAS. I have mentioned it before I have 2 Buffalo LinkStation's that work perfectly. They have so far not given me the kind of problems with recognising the drive as I have had with both USB and Firewire connected external hd's.

tommykjensen wrote in post #4665126
Today it is not cumbersome unless you choose to build your own NAS. I have mentioned it before I have 2 Buffalo LinkStation's that work perfectly. They have so far not given me the kind of problems with recognising the drive as I have had with both USB and Firewire connected external hd's.

I don't trust the commercial products.. none of them seem to tick all my boxes, so I roll my own. But you do have a point, nowadays it is becoming easier for end-users to deploy NAS systems.

As for my custom setups, unless I'm trying to do something I shouldn't, they have never given me problems. Once properly configured they just run, sometimes for years!

This might be a reliable solution for you:
http://www.sun.com …enterprise/5800​/index.xml

Unfortunately, Sun and I have not seen eye to eye since the days of the Ultra1 and Ultra5....

(I used to be an UltraSPARC guy back in the day too - the ISP where I worked was pretty big on our SPARC gear, but ironically, used BSD systems where the going got tough)

Lightstream wrote in post #4665206
Unfortunately, Sun and I have not seen eye to eye since the days of the Ultra1 and Ultra5....

(I used to be an UltraSPARC guy back in the day too - the ISP where I worked was pretty big on our SPARC gear, but ironically, used BSD systems where the going got tough)

http://www.apple.com/x​serve/raid/

Hey Oregon folk - the weather looks... *gasp* DRY and sunny for this weekend... just saying...

timbernet wrote in post #4665235
http://www.apple.com/x​serve/raid/

Scotlet has a funny sense of humor....

I am getting a divorce from my Mac and you recommend me another Mac?

fi20100 wrote in post #4665043
Time to take an evening walk for me. It's all snowy and wintery outside

Lucky you!

Wow, it was really nice weather outside right now. Not cold, just fresh and nice.

I also happened to take a walk past the local Mac store... (it's just 250 meters away, a curse or a blessing I don't know), and came home with a new keyboard. One of those slick (wired) once... Must say they feel quite different from other "normal" keyboards... but quite nice. Almost a little bit of a laptop feeling to it

Interesting discussion on the Pocket Wizard/Skyport debate here.

theflyingkiwi wrote in post #4660408
Your just trying to be a meany head aren't you?

well if not then I take my back my happy birthday

Who's trying? and it isn't my birthday, so that threat doesn't bother me.

Woolburr wrote in post #4662191
Thanks for the input on the photo...proof you don't need f/2.8 or faster to have interesting DOF....Mk2n with a 300 f/4.

Gee, that's a great lens being put to outstanding use.

Permagrin wrote in post #4662197
my that's a fantastic lens you've got there

It seems to be cropping up all over the place these days . . .

belmondo wrote in post #4663289
My Achilles heel is ginger snaps and cold milk.


Ohhhh, how I love ginger snaps and cold milk.

TJ's Triple Ginger Snaps! 9they're pre-breaking them nowadays so all the calories have leaked out before you get them home, too.)

belmondo wrote in post #4663290
....and Girl Scout Thin Mints.

****Sigh****

Samoas!

Maureen Souza wrote in post #4663403
I am thrilled at the location...a country home in the wine region of Tuscany. I hope my P&S is up to the challenge!

Oooh - where? we stopped at an agriturismo when we were there . . .