2019 Storage upgrade phase 2 begins!

Drobo 5c - Rebuild

Now the waiting truly begins.  fingers crossed against additional failures.  On the next upgrade i’ll be able to test to see if the Drobo Pro (the original Drobo 8 bay) supports disks greater than 4TB.  Apparently, no one has tested that. I honestly wonder how many of these are still in use? I have now replaced every drive in my Pro.

Update: I have been informed by @mistacabage that the Drobo Pro will not accept drives larger then 4TB. The official documentation just said it was untested.

Drobo Pro - Rebuild

Visiting iFixit and finally fixing my laptop!

be3n at the iFixit set

I got the full tour, the place is amazing and far tidier then any workshop I have been in. They have pieces for nearly everything and almost everything in pieces. I got to try out their tools. I even touched their flame thrower!

iFixit’s Boring Conpany flame thrower

It turns out this little bugger was the cause of all my problems or at least my technical ones. Once I got this guy replaced, my 2011 MacBook Pro was back kicking ass. Thanks Daniel you are awesome!

MacBook Pro 13-Inch SATA cable

I brought this gift to show my appreciation, I hope you like it. It is TechStep diagnostic tool from Apple for testing and diagnosing vintage Macs. I don’t even remember what i traded it for nearly 20 years ago, but i never once used it. I hope you enjoy it and maybe even do something cool with it. I cannot wait to come back.

Apple TechStep Diagnostic Tool

Pilgrimage to the Internet Archive

Internet Archive

The offering I brought was nearly 100 lbs of technology from my childhood.  I met some amazing staff and volunteers (they even archive their employees). Even visited the blinking lights of their servers.  They archive even more then I knew.  More then web, old software and films, they even archive music and have an impressive collection (i found several rare or out of print artists and albums in their archive).

Amiga Offering to Internet Archive


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Apple announces small changes that signify an exciting direction!

Apple Announcement 2015Apple’s big announcement today turned out to be more small enhancements that add up to exciting developments.  First off the rundown, iPhone 6s/6s Plus hits stores the 25th.  Faster, better camera, haptic feedback, force touch, and rose gold.  New iPad Pro with 2732?by?2048 12.9″ screen, a keyboard case, and a stylus!  Hits stores November. (also a new iPad Mini)  The Apple TV, got a complete rebuild with amazing looking features, but no delivery date.  Also some new Watch styles and bands or whatever.

Continue reading “Apple announces small changes that signify an exciting direction!”

AirFlick- awesome new way to send media to your apple TV!

AirFlick is a new piece of software that easily lets you send videos and pictures to your apple tv from a computer without hassling with itunes. it is simple, fast, and best of all free!  It’s created by teacher, writer, coder, hacker, and all around great gal, Erica Sadun.

Oficial Site for Erica’s AirPlay related software
http://ericasadun.com/

Boxee is here!

It finally arrived today and i quickly set it up. i left it scanning my massive media library, however i did note one glaring omission. presently netflix is excluded from boxee’s list of apps. will this be corrected or has M$’s DRM killed netflix for the Linux based Boxee? only time will tell. apart from that, it is totally awesome from remote control to interface and even startup effects. i cannot wait to see what 3rd party developers do with it.

Apple Announced. . . blah blah blah whatever.

Those of you who don’t know, apple announced a few new toys a couple of days ago.  my lackluster post is due mostly to the underwhelming release.  Mostly announcing features that have been obviously lacking since the iPhone first hit the scene over 3 years ago.

Among their offerings is Apple TV: a cheaper apple tv with a smaller footprint and no storage.  Designed to promote more rentals from the apple store, most of the exciting features are “Coming Soon” undoubtedly to coincide with iOS 4.1 or 4.2.  New iPod Touch with everything you’ll find on iPhone 4 except for GPS, (because that might actually be useful).  Cool to see FaceTime on the iPods though.  New Shuffle combines the inovations of the last model with the usability of earlier ones.  The Nano was a mixed bag.  joining the iOS family with this version they remove it’s camera and video playback capability.  It is unclear if it will ever get the benefits of iOS such as apps.  Touch screens are cool, but if there aren’t apps, i’d rather have buttons and play videos.   Lastly, iTunes 10.  As if iTunes wasn’t a bloated POS already, now it is it’s own social network: Ping.  Caught between wanting to be blip.fm and last.fm, Ping offers me nothing but more iTunes Store Spam.  At least i hear they’ve finally added some threading.  My biggest complaint about previous iTunes is that it does so much and often gets a little shall we say “Pinwheely.”  It’s usually when i’m importing new tracks or syncing/restoring an iDevice.  Of all it’s many features, the ONE thing i EXPECT itunes to do is control my music!  at that, it often fails.  Let’s see if this new version will improve their already abysmal record.

Jailbreakers or Unlockers Note:  iTunes is safe, but you will want to hold off on the inevitable iOS updates.  if you saved your blob you can always go back, but not with your baseband, so unlockers should especially be careful.