Longtime readers of this blog know that I'm a sucker for novel uses of technology, especially those that give me a chance to learn something new. So when I spotted a Vonage VoIP telephone on clearance at the local Best Buy, I couldn't resist. After a quick Google search to confirm it could be unlocked and used with any provider, I took one home. I don't have it working … [Read more...] about Experimenting With VoIP
NSLU2
The New Mac Mini is Finally Here!
I've been waiting on a Mac Mini to replace my sluggish and crash-prone Firefly/NSLU2 home music and file server, and Apple finally delivered the goods today, after leaving us in the lurch at Macworld 2009! I've placed my order for a base-model Mac Mini, and look forward to using Apple's iPhone Remote with the Airport Express AirTunes as my primary home music playing … [Read more...] about The New Mac Mini is Finally Here!
The Future of Home Storage
This is part of an ongoing series of longer articles I will be posting every Sunday as part of an experiment in offering more in-depth content. Along with my professional focus on enterprise storage systems, I'm enamored of home networking, and recently passed the three terabyte mark at home! This got me thinking about where home storage is heading. As you can see in the … [Read more...] about The Future of Home Storage
No More CDs
So yesterday we finished ripping our entire CD collection - we've now completed our switch to digital music at home. It's done. It amuses me to think of the statistics: We have 11,284 tracks stored, including 279 Christmas songs and 549 kids songs! Most songs were ripped using LAME at the VBR3 setting in joint stereo This music library takes up 58 GB of storage on … [Read more...] about No More CDs
Why I Like Drobo
There has been lots of talk about the Data Robotics (aka Drobo) SOHO "storage robot" - whoever they have doing their marketing deserves a raise! When I first heard about it, I was pretty puzzled - Why care about yet another storage enclosure, especially an overly expensive one that doesn't even have NAS features? On closer examination, I have become a believer in the … [Read more...] about Why I Like Drobo