November 2006 Archives

At work I ordered a new dual drive SATA RAID enclosure.  When I was looking for one I found a couple that seem identical.  I just wanted to share the links on these so in case someone else is looking for them they can be informed.

The one I actually bought is from a company named Nitro AV and the product is a Vanguard IIIS.  The maker doesn't sell direct so I ordered it from FirewireDirect from this link.  On both sites the product is 239.95.  Both of these companies seem to be related somehow since in both cases they mention a company called Akumen, Inc.

While doing this search I also came across what appears to be the exact same product from a company called coolgear, from them the product is know as SATAVault.  The coolgear site itself directly links to a site called SATAgear and if you dig around you can find the link for the actual product here.  I also found the same SATAVault at a site called cooldrives which also sells cooldrive products.  It is also hard to find products on the cooldrives site but you can find this one at this link.  At these two sites the product is either 319.98 or 329.98, $80-90 more expensive.  All of these sites are listed as owned by a company known as QCUSA UTWO according to WHOIS data.

Some might think there is some difference to account for the nearly $100 price difference, but there isn't.  The included parts are the same and even the directions are the same other than a few pictures and name changes.  The cheaper one even has a link for monitoring software that more expensive one doesn't mention.

It was interesting researching this and finding these companies with so many virtual fronts that all go back to the same place.  It makes me wonder about some of them.  Good luck in your searches.

When the 360 was first being announced one of its features that was touted was a changeable faceplate. I must admit when I first heard this I thought is was pretty silly. I just never had any desire to customize previous game systems. As time has gone on there have been some pretty cool faceplates released and even ones that allow someone to make their own. I found one that I even liked so much that I bought it. The picture at the top is of the standard white face plate cover mounted in my rack. The one at the bottom is of the new carbon fiber face plate. It isn't real carbon fiber, just looks like it. I really like how the new faceplate blends in with my rack much better. It would have been much harder and warranty voiding to make this type of change without the console being built to have removable faceplates. Maybe it was a good idea after all.

I decided to setup a zooomr account to use in sharing photos. I had previously setup a flcikr account and uploaded 29 pictures. Due to a lack of allowed uploads with a non-pro account I didn't use it much. Today I setup a zooomr account and I have already uploaded as many pictures as the flickr one. I will try to migrate the pictures over as well. Today I added pictures from my 30th birthday party, Dan's Wedding and some of the outside of the house. Feel free to check them out.

We are not totally done with the outside yard work but I took some pictures so I thought I would share them. Mostly the stuff we are working on now is edging and other smaller items. The pictures can be found here on my new zooomr account.

This is mostly for Mom. It also allows me to get my zoomr account setup. There is also a hidden item in this picture which some might notice.

Today is the 10th anniversary of my first day at a real 5 day a week job. I started with Wordlink on 11/1/1996. Thankfully Tom took a chance on a kid out of school who had some computer experience. I immediately began working at John Deere and moved to East Moline, IL.

The last ten years have been a pretty wild ride. There have been some highs (being hired by Microsoft) and some lows (being fired by Microsoft) along the way. I would say for the most part it has been an upward swing. There were some really interesting experiences like working with the Department of Energy on Y2K. On the other extreme were some long days spent working on maddening problems.

Pretty much each job I have had I have stayed at longer than the last. Right now I am working on 3.5 years at my current job. I can't say at this point where I will be 10 years from now. One thing I do know for sure is that technology will change faster in the next 10 years then it did in the last 10. As a result what I do will change. It will be an adventure and I look forward to it.

I may have also found something to possibly displace work as my number one priority. That has been a rarity for the majority of the last ten years. Thanks to all those who have helped me along the way, maybe I can return the favor one day.