Go To Hell

This was on the bottom of an E-Mail I received today. I had to do something with it!

Performance and Style

WD My Passport Ultra Metal Edition 1TB USB 3.0 2.5" Portable External Hard Drive WDBTYH0010BBA-NESN Navy    

The case is very nice and being made of aluminum I would suspect it would help keep the drive running at a cooler temperature better than a plastic case would, although during all my torture the drive temps never showed any signs for concern. Although I dislike having to install proprietary software on my PC, the WD Smartware is a very easy to understand software and installed and even updated to the current version without a hitch on my Windows 7 Ultimate box, alas as is usually the case there is no direct Linux support. The ability to include your dropbox account is a nice touch although there are other services out there that offer much better plans (10 to 20GB) for free as well. Hardware encryption could be a plus to some, especially if you are the type that drag this thing around with you wherever you go. For the normal Joe that leaves it sitting at home as a Backup destination leaves little use for it IMO.

The Pro software provides licensing to three computers. Data transfer rates seem to be on mark with what you should expect from USB3.0 I was able to transfer a 1.1GB file to the device in just over 30 seconds. Transferring files from a second USB3.0 device saw rates of 70 to 72 MB/s for a sustained period of time and the drives never seemed to get any warmer than about 105DegF

On a side note for those that use and maintain OpenSource computers, this drive does work equally well on Linux systems especially once you ditch all the proprietary software from its internals, which will also see the recovery of disk space so you actually get a near 1TB (993GB) amount of room.

Overall I am quite happy with the performance aspect of the drive, and would recommend it to those looking for a simple option for backing up their PC that runs Mac or Windows. I would equally recommend it to those running Linux as long as they want to deal with a total delete and reformat of the drive prior to use.

Not exactly sure of why one would want (or is that need) to back up the files on the cloud? If the cloud servers mess things up you still have the files on your computer, if your computer messes up you still have the files in the cloud, and/or on your other devices that are synced with it.

                                                                                                                                      

Please Fight This If You Can

They are trying to take away our freedoms again!

Please read here this article at

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/what-is-the-trans-pacific-partnership-and-how-does-it-threaten-internet-freedom/

Setting Up The Raspberry Pi

     This will be the first of a series of posts I will upload as I Setup my Raspberry Pi Home Theater PC.

Received The Raspberry

I opted for the B+ model which is available at on-line stores for around $38 US. Don't forget that you will need a Micro SD card of at least a class 4 for the installation of the operating system, I was able to order this 32GB class 10 combo for $24.

The Pi comes with an HDMI connection which provides full 1080p and digital audio for your HDTV and sound system.

Power is much simpler than you might expect, most people might not even have to purchase a power supply as they could have one in their possession all ready, as I did. It happens to be nothing more than an old cellphone charger I had kicking around the shop that uses the mini USB connection, and supplies a minimum of 750ma at 5 - 5.2 VDC.

The Pi is about the size of a credit card

So at this point I actually have a fully operational micro PC that can deliver movies and sound to my Home Theater system for around $62. Of course now one should figure out how to enclose the device for protection / aesthetics. Now to work on how I want to accomplish that.

Shop Work

As is usually the case ...

Now that I have everything moved into my shop and arranged the way I want it, I have decided to start putting a proper wall covering up, I am getting sick of looking at insulation all the time.

Yep, I know, wainscoting is traditionally placed vertically. Well, I never claimed to be a die-hard traditionalist, I like it this way! It will look much better once I get the oil on it.

Colors Are Getting Stronger

I don't know if I could live where the trees don't change or

Where I can't walk along a country lane less travelled.