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On a 4U rackspace, you can actually fit in 42 drives and if you use 3TB drives, that would translate to 126TB. Hmm… it would take me years to fill up that space. But definitely this is good for mid size companies that have entrerprise data. TAt home, I definitely don’t need such data storage systems but during my work before, when I was in charge of our data center, that’s perfect for it.

I haven’t been actively researching for enterprise wide data storage systems so when I came across Nexan’s products, I was like blown away. I didn’t know storage systems has evolved so much over the past few years.

About 7 years ago, when I was still working in the industry, most of the drives are those RAID5 with a couple of GB of data is the norm. So just imagine how surprised I am seeing 4U size products that can handle 126 TerraBytes of data. That’s awesome.

Also, before it used to be so complicated to setup these data storage systems. I remember playing around with partitions, combining disks, mirroring, setting up RAID, but now it looks like there’s some cool wizard that let’s you configure these things. Moreover, there’s this power saving technology. Nobody was thinking about saving power a few years back, but now, that’s one of the important considerations when choosing these data center devices.

So what really is the end use of iPad? Is it being used more as a productivity tool, or a gaming device?

A couple of months ago, iPad 2 was released. Same thing, my wife bought it and still, the primary use is for games. My son and daughter always play angry birds, some first person shooter games, and learning games for my 3 year old daughter. Before, I can see kids playing PSPs but now, the iPad is now their chosen gaming platform.

I wonder how much percentage of iPad app sales are from games. My hunch is, it could be more than 50%. The success of these tablet pcs in my opinion has been attributed largely because of games. If it weren’t for games, tablet PCs won’t really take off. I remember, prior to iPad, there were a couple of tablet pcs on the market. Those were really marketed as laptop replacements so it was more of a productivity tool.

Thanks to games, tablet PCs prices has gone down significantly. I can see very inexpensive android based tablet devices on the market.

My parents have always lived in the same house their entire life. They love it there and I don’t think they ever want to move. The problem is that they are so far away from any kind of civilization. While there is nothing wrong with that and I completely respect their need for quiet, it makes it very difficult to visit them. I have to plan the entire week and make sure I have all I need because the store is not close. For years, I even had to put an automatic reply on my e-mail because I couldn’t even check it from their house. However, last year I finally found internet service for them at http://www.satellitestarinternet.com/hughes-net/kentucky/c/cynthiana/ and it has made my life so much better. I think my parents could care less about it, but it makes visiting them a lot easier. For some reason, it is hard for me to survive without the internet. I just feel disconnected and left out. In a strange way, it feels like never getting picked to be on a kickball team. The only thing my parents like about it is that I visit more, so I guess it is a win-win for everyone.

It was a 15 year old teenager. Some runaway kid who got involved in some syndicate perhaps. He was taken away by his family and I don’t think he just spent a couple of days in jail.

I wanted to have a security camera installed at the back side of our house. Probably one of those cameras with infrared capability so it can see at night. I can just add in a bunch of infrared LEDs to “light up” the area and make it more visible. I’ve seen some plans on the internet on how to do just that. Basically they’ve just built this square matrix of LEDs and wire them up, add some resistors to limit the current and there you go, a nice DIY infrared light source.

The good thing about infrared is that is shows on camera, but the unsuspecting burglar doesn’t see any light at all.

The new baby is finally here! What an exciting day! We came home from the hospital yesterday and put the little one into his crib. He seems to love his crib and his cute nursery. While I was so excited to get him into his bed, I realized that not having him in the room made me a little paranoid. The next day I went to www.allhomesecurity.com and found a security system for our house. I am hoping this will help my thoughts of thinking someone took him. I know it is unlikely for someone to quietly sneak into our home and take our child without making a peep. However, this is all I could think about when I was trying to sleep that first night back. I never realized I could love a little being so much and I want to feel he is in a safe environment and a safe place. I am finally starting to feel that way and finally starting to adjust to the schedule of a newborn. Wish me luck on this unexplored adventure.

I’ve always wanted to try a full internet security software. A few months ago I checked out the top anti virus software. Since it’s not really a full internet security suite, I’m planning to upgrade sometime soon. So I’m checking the best internet security software review.

Over the last few months, I was noticing a slowdown in my PC. I had some antivirus protection installed but I don’t think that’s enough. I want to add some more layer of protection like being notified if a site is a phishing site. I remember I was almost a victim of this. I clicked on a “paypal” link and then logged in. Then I realized it wasn’t paypal’s actual URL so after a couple of minutes, I’ve immediately changed my passwords. Whew! That was close.

There’s also the issue about spyware. I hate those spywares and I consider these as bandwidth and space wasters. I don’t like it when these spywares just steal my computer’s resources, contributing to its “slowness”. Sometimes you don’t even realize you’ve got spywares installed specially if you install freewares and sharewares and someone added spyware code on it. Argh! That’s something everyone would hate.

Then there’s the botnet thing. I read before that you wouldn’t even notice that your PC is part of a botnet. These clever, malicious hackers and spammers sometimes hide and use whatever means they can to spread their botnet code and infect as much computers around the globe as possible. I hope these internet security softwares also protect computers from botnets.

Anyway, since I’ve already used norton before, I might was well use Norton Internet Security. At least I’m already familiar with their user interface and it wouldn’t really

First step is you need to somehow download the youtube video. There’s a lot of tools you can use but one tool I’ve used is the FLV downloader. You need to first be able to get those videos and store it in your PC. Once you’ve got the videos downloaded, the next step of course is to figure out how to put those videos into your iPod.

Second step. You would need to convert all your videos from FLV to ipod video format. Fortunately there’s another tool for that. Here’s a step by step guide on just exactly how to do the FLV to ipod conversion.

There you have it. A simple 2 step approach to getting youtube videos to your ipod.

Bring on the IR repeater. An IR repeater basically receives the IR signal from your remote and re-broadcast it. This device has a receiver which detects the signal from your remote, and a transmitter. Usually there is a long cable in between the receiver and transmitter. With an IR repeater, you can put the receiver outside the room, and the transmitter inside a room so you can basically use your remote even behind closed doors.

This specific IR repeater works at 38khz. Some IR receivers operate at 40Khz so you need to check your remote to make sure it operates at that band. It might be possible for it to work on a 40khz signal specially if the cable tv set top box has a receiver has a bandpass filter that lets 38k to 40khz signal to pass through. But still, it was designed for 38khz IR systems and therefore it’s best to use it for systems that operate at 38khz.

On the other hand, there are some other uses for this. I’m thinking of pranks. You can probably try and fool your friends while they watch TV. Watch a scary movie and then you can go out of sight and just point the remote at the IR repeater. Or you can probably think of suddenly turning on your radio/cd player. If you’re a hacker, you can actually buy an IR receiver that operates in 38Khz, connect it to a microcontroller, some relays, and you can turn on/off your light or desk lamps.

There’s a lot of possibilities with this IR repeater.

Typically, you’ll find people in a cell phone manufacturing plant, dressed up in a lab coat similar to this.

The guy in the above phone is working on a HD but similarly, those that manufacture semiconductors and products that require a specially controlled environments such as mobile phones, they do dress like these.

A big part of the assembly process is done by robots and pick and place machines like this

Then towards the end you’ll probably see an assembly type area with a lot of people dressed in the usual scrubs like the ones in http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/. They do stuff that needs the dexterity of a human hand and can’t be replaced by robots.

Cell phones are an integral part the modern society. Even low level income have cell phones nowadays. Although not the latest models, but still, the technology has been embraced and is now a necessity.

For those who ride motorcycles for leisure, like if you own a Harley Davidson, it’s nice to listen to music while driving along the countryside having a great time with you and your most precious vehicle. It’s important to have something that fits you well as well as it doesn’t mess around with your helmet.

Earphones are sometimes good but some people like this Boom Audio half helmet type (see photo above) which I found in the harley davidson accessories section of surdyke.com. It reduces wind noise, and you can still hear surrounding traffic.

I think headsets are a necessity for bikers who have GPS navigation systems installed. With a lot of wind noise, you can’t possibly hear anything from your GPS unit so better have some headset or earphones to plug into your GPS.

There’s also a variation of the Boom Audio headset where there’s a microphone. That one costs around $120 in Amazon. But if you don’t need that, I think the headset is cool at $67.54 in surdyke.