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OCZ Technology 128GB Vertex 4 Series SATA 6.0 GB/s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive (SSD)

Wed, 2012-11-21 07:57

I just picked up an OCZ Technology 128GB Vertex 4 Solid State Drive (SSD) to drop in one of my machines at home. It doesn't need much space, so 128Gb size should be more than enough.

The main reason for picking this up is the speed. The box that this is going in currently hosts several VMs and the storage is on a NAS. After installing this, some of that storage will be offloaded onto the SSD, which should make for some speedier response times than a 1Gb Ethernet connection to some spinning disks.

Best of Show at CES 2012

Sat, 2012-01-14 10:19

So, CES 2012 came and went this week. For the most part, nothing extraordinary announced at the show, no game changers. In the words of one blogger, this year was "more evolutionary than revolutionary." There were however a few cool gadgets worth mentioning. Read on for videos and write-ups on the three gadgets that stood out most.

ioSafe Rugged Portable Hard Drives

Wed, 2012-01-11 22:12

Ok, this is just too awesome not to post about. ioSafe is a company that manufactures and sells rugged computer peripherals that can withstand considerable abuse. To demonstrate their new Thunderbolt portable SSD/RAID disk, they pump a million volts of electricity into one using a Tesla coil. I will never think of Electrostatic Discharge in the same way...

Video below:

CES 2012 is in full swing

Tue, 2012-01-10 07:56

The 2012 Consumer Electronic Show officially kicks off today in Las Vegas,
Nevada. Media reporters and bloggers of the world have been busy the last few days with exclusive previews of new products.

The buzz this year seems to be focused on Ultrabooks, or basically ultra-thin laptops that hope to be as thin and cool as the MacBook Air.

This is Microsoft's final year at CES, as heard during their Monday night keynote.

Tablets aren't as big of a buzz as last year since the battle for first place has clearly been secured by Apple's iPad; but keep an eye out for improvements in the competition to battle Amazon for second place.

The Kindle

Thu, 2011-12-29 22:55

I've been thinking about picking up a Kindle lately. Everyone I've talked to that has one says they're awesome for reading.

The plane old Kindle seems to be the way to go since all I really want it for is reading, but the gadget geek in me wants to try out the Kindle Fire to play with the extra features. Anyone have one of these that can share there experience in the comments? I'd appreciate it a lot and I'm sure others would too.





Synology DS411j Network Attached Storage Review

Thu, 2011-12-22 20:22


 A little over a year ago I was in search of a storage solution for my home network. Several readers provided some great suggestions in the comments area of that first post which helped nudge me toward ultimately purchasing the Synology DS411j DiskStation.

So, here it is nearly a year after picking it up and I must say - this thing rocks! I wish I would have bought one of these sooner. This post provides an overview for some of the best this box has to offer.

WDLXTV

Sun, 2011-12-04 11:26


Last night I flashed my WD TV Live Plus HD Media Player with an aftermarket version of code called WDLXTV. Some notable differences are in the background image and the placement of the Internet media apps. For example, Youtube and Netflix are now in the Video menu, similarly Live365 and Pandora are in the Music menu.

It's not perfect, but at least my media player finds network shares and plays files again. That's more than I can say about the official firmware.

The Background Story

I purchased the WD TV Live Plus HD Media Player earlier this year because I wanted to start to digitize my dvd library. The idea of simply clicking a button on a remote control and selecting the movie I wanted to watch seemed awesome. Obviously any amount of time spent setting up that type of system would be justified in the many seconds a year I would save by not having to get up off the couch to manually insert a dvd into the player. As a man, I claim the right to justify anything I do with my infallible man-logic.

Netgear N750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router (WNDR4000)

Mon, 2011-11-14 19:34


Netgear_n750Five months ago my old wireless AP was on its last legs and needed to be replaced. Nearly every day, wireless access in my house simply wouldn't work and after unplugging the power and plugging it back in, wireless would work for a few short hours. That got tiresome, so I started searching for a new wireless solution.

I knew I wanted something that supported 802.11N, had Gigabit Ethernet ports, and could either be used as just a wireless AP or a router if necessary. I searched for hours, read reviews, and ultimately settled on the Netgear N750 450 Mbps Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router
.

Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot MiFi 4510L

Thu, 2011-11-10 19:27


I recently had the opportunity to test a Verizon Wireless MiFi Hotspot. The model number is Novatel Wireless MiFi4510L and is branded with the Verizon Wireless logo.

Once configured, it shows up like a normal wireless SSID and supports security settings including WPA2 Personal/PSK (AES). Out of the box, the setup takes all of about 5 minutes to customize the SSID, configure an admin password, and setup a few other options.

Scale of the Future

Wed, 2011-05-25 05:21

So, I generally don't share info about Health or Fitness products, but this one is totally worth an exception because it can attach to your network! 


The Withings Wifi Body Scale is a normal scale with the added ability to attach to a wireless network and upload its data to a central server to be viewed after the fact. It's bit on the pricey side when compared to a non-networked, traditional scale that simple provides your weight. However, it is quite comparable in price to other digital, sleek looking scales that provide BMI and other information. 

This thing can also track multiple users automatically. Just step on and it should recognize who you are. The whole family can geek out together while tracking their vitals!

Got an iPhone or iPad? Then this is for you because there is a Free iPhone and iPad App that goes with this scale. Available in the iTunes App Store to monitor your vitals on the go. 

Cisco Flip

Fri, 2011-01-14 15:55

Over the past few years, Cisco has gradually been introducing products in the consumer space, either through acquisition of companies or innovation of new products. The Flip Camera is one of those Cisco products that was part of the package when they acquired Pure Digital in 2009. 

If you have never seen a flip, it's basically a cell phone sized HD video camera with built-in compact flash. It's built to be an easy, consumer grade point and shoot video camera. You pull it out of the box, charge it up (or put batteries in it if it's a cheaper model) and start recording video. 

CES 2011

Wed, 2011-01-05 07:27

The 2011 Consumer Electronic Show kicks off this week in Las Vegas, Nevada. Officially the event begins tomorrow and goes through the weekend, but the media and bloggers of the world have already started the frenzy of discussing new products and predicting what's to come. 

Expect a slew of new cell phones, laptops, netbooks, and tablets on the mobile front. There's an entire section of the show devoted to electronics in automobiles that includes car stereos, gps/nav, and anything else you can cram into a car. One year, Mercedes Benz setup a closed track in a parking lot and allowed convention-goers to test drive anyone of a handful of their latest and greatest (it was very fun). Cloud based applications and touch technology will likely be the big buzz words this year.

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Dr. Radut