Alfa BBT

Apart from a NAS, there was one other device on my wish list for some time already; an eReader. Originally I was looking into devices with a relatively big (8+ inch) screen. However I settled for a 6 inch unit as the larger ones are either too expensive or being delayed.

Anyway I defined my needs as:

• PDF support. PDF is, in theorie, more a standard for print then a true ebook format but a lot of technical books come in this format.
• Not tied to a specific reseller; meaning Kindle, Nook and the likes are “No Go”.
• Ability to sideload most of the content. I don’t intent to buy a lot of novels online. I want to read technical documents or use services like Instapaper to generate ebooks from online content.
• Don’t cost an arm and a leg. I’ve never actually used such a gadget so there’s always a risk that I end end up not liking the technology.
• I consider WIFI,  Touchscreen and other features as nice to haves. I don’t absolutely need them.

I ended up buying a Foxit Eslick. It’s not the latest and greatest but it does what I want it to do (without a lot of bells and whistles) and is one of the cheapest ereaders on the market.

Here are some unboxing photos:

Next step is loading some content on the unit.

CU

One of the important features of the new (unboxing here) Atom based Synology NASses is Wake-On-Lan. This technology keeps the network interface powered on when the remainder of the device is powered of. The goal is to let you power on the device over the network by sending a “magic packet”, which is based on the MAC-address of the target network adapter.

The MAC address of a Synology NAS can be found in the admin interface:

For those of you looking how to remotely shutdown the NAS while testing; the command can be found in the right top corner ;-)

First of all you should activate the WoL feature under “System > Power”:

I decided to give free SolarWinds WoL utility a try as suggested by smallnetbuilder. It’s limited featureset is more than sufficient for a little home network, but you’ll need to provide an e-mail address before they allow you to download it.

Open the SolarWinds Wake-On-Lan tool and enter both the IP- and MAC-address of your NAS. Click the “Wake Up PC”-button:

Click “OK” on the notification window:

A little monitor pops up…

…and alerts you when the target is powered on.

The whole process takes about a minute.

After having this solution approved by the Misses I scheduled the NAS to power down every night @ 3AM.

This leaves sufficient of a time window to use the NAS for downloading stuff overnight:

“Nachtsurfen” as we call it (between 00:00 and 10:00) reduces the download limit with only 50% of the size of the downloaded package.

I’m using a WD NetCenter for my home storage needs since about 3.5 years. This unit is not only very slow but it also has a very basic feature-set. It’s not possible to reorganize your data (move files around, rename shares etc) via the web interface. There’s no console access possible either.

Hence a decent NAS was on my wishlist for some time already. The needs/nice-to-haves I had in mind were:

• 2 or 4 disk model:  I want to use RAID (on top of regular backups) to better protect my data, so 2 hard disks is a minimum. A 4 disk unit might be more future proof.
• Capacity: The NetCenter unit has only 500Gb, but data is growing steadily as the Misses likes to play around with Adobe Photoshop and Premiere. I’ll start with recuperating 2x 1Tb disk I have sitting in another machine. I can upgrade to 2x 2Tb later if needed.
• Network: gigabit
• Budget: not unlimited ;-)
• Full-featured management tools
• Some form of Download manager
• Better performance
• Energy saving features e.g. hibernation, WOL etc…
• ISCI

When Synology published the official press release on the DS710+ last week it was time to treat myself on a late, it’s February after all, new years present. It went quite fast actually:

1. 11/02 – Press release
2. 15/02 – Noticed the device in a trusted web shop as “out of stock”. Signed up to be notified by e-mail notification when the device is in stock.
3. 16/02 – “In stock” e-mail notification. Ordered about half an hour before the deadline for next day delivery.
4. 17/02 – Package arrived about 14(!) hours later

Last but not least, the unboxing pics;

I did look into QNAP too as they have a similar unit, Ts-259 Pro-Turbo, but went for Synology because the communtity seems lager in our region and the features match a tiny bit better with my needs. For those interested; both manufacturers have demo environment of their management tools online:

• http://demo.synology.com:5000 (Account=”admin”, Password=”synology”)
• http://www.qnap.com/liveDemo.asp (Account=”qnap”, Password=”qnap”)

Update 2010-03-06: If I wetted your appetite with the pics above, proceed to Overclock3d.net for some detailed shots of the internals of Synology’s DS710+

Update 2009-10-23: Windows 7 drivers now available!

Finally jumped on the netbook hype. I wanted a portable device to use with my Garmin GPS. I have more than one computer at home but they are either not portable or not really my property. On top of that the software (and especially the maps) that I use with this device are rather annoying/time consuming to install because of the copyright protection. Hence I needed some dedicated hardware because I got tired of reinstalling this stuff all the time.

Additionally, it might also serve as an image tank when going on holiday. Last but not least the extended battery capacity might come in handy for note taking during some events. Taking notes on a sheet of paper and typing them over in the evening is rather time consuming.

I spent some time looking around on the internet. Most netbooks have very similar specs because of the limitations imposed by Microsft and Intel on this platform. In the end I decided to go with the newest incarnation of Asus’ Eee PC; the Asus Eee PC 1005HA.

Specs

• 1005HA-WHI027X-BE
• 10′ WSVGA (1024×600 px)
• Intel Atom N280 Processor (1.66GHz, 32Bit, no virtualization support)
• Windows XP
• Bluetooth
• WiFi 802.11n
• 1024MB DDR2
• 160GB HDD
• 6 cells 5600mAh
• White

Hardware

For my intended purpose I have a couple of specific needs:

• USB ports are required for connecting the GPS (Garmin GPSMap60C) and HRM (Polar S720i). Additionally I also a USB KVM switch at home that I’d like to use with the netbook. The more the better, but three will do ;-)
• VGA connector to connect my oldskool 19″ CRT Monitor (1600×1200) via the KVM mentioned above. Intel restricts the maximum resolution that can be used together with their atom processors. An external monitor allows me to get around that disadvantage (at home at least).
• Storage. I need at least 50Gb of hard disk space for the OS and all op the map images. This particular model does not have and SSD but a regular 160Gb hard disk which is more than sufficient.
• Memory. The maximum amount of memory a manufacturer can but in a netbook is another restriction imposed on the netbook platform. This time it’s Microsoft that only wants to provide XP “netbook” licenses for system with max 1Gb of RAM. Some subnotebooks, like the 1005HA, offer the possibility to upgrade the memory afterwards.
• A last requirement is perhaps a little les important than the other ones. When I attended the TechDays event in March I was frustrated because I couldn’t use my laptop for note taking because it only lasts for 2 or 3 hours and then needs to be recharged. Basically I started looking for a model that could be used an entire business day (while using standby/hibernation during lunch and breaks). The advertised battery capacity is 10,5 hours for this Eee pc . Alltough these numbers are measured in ideal circumstances, but even if it’s only 7 or 8 hours it is still a lot more than any normal laptop. Note: XP shows 12h09 remaining after charging the little computer for the first time.

OS

I was considering 3 options for the OS on my Netbook. First of all I really wanted to give Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) a try. Ubuntu 9.10 “Karmic Koala” alpha 3 seems to support all of the hardware (including network interfaces) in the 1005HA out of the box according to the interwebs. Unfortunately none of the applications I intend to run on this machine have a native Linux version. I would basically need to run all of them via Wine, Mono or inside a VM. That doesn’t make a lot of sense.

So I’m left with two more options; either keep the default XP SP3 install (there’s nothing wrong with that) or upgrade to Windows 7. Hardware support from W7 RC onwards seems to be perfect. So I decided to upgrade to the RTM version right from the start. Some first hand experience with Microsofts newest client operating system always comes in handy

>>> enter first blue screen on Windows Server 2008 R2 here :-( <<<

Tweaks

• Remove all of the “XP” and “Atom inside” badges
• Change partitioning scheme; 25Gb System partition and use the remainder for a data partition (removed recovery & bootbooster partitions)
• Installed Windows 7 RTM from scratch using an external USB DVD drive
• Disable all the eyecandy & adjust system properties for best performance (except for the “show thumnails instead of icons option)
• Upgrade to 2Gb mem
• disable webcam + bluetooth in the BIOS

Software

Here’s a quick overview of the applications I aim to install on my newest gadget. Some of these have online alternatives that are at least as good as the packages below but I want to be able to use the entire kit offline.

• Garmin MapSource 6.13.7 (the “Last known good version) + drivers: This is the software that comes with the GPS unit (or rather with the accompanying maps)
• Google Earth, OziExplorer: some other mapping softwares
• WinGDB3, TrackAnalyse and a number of other gps related conversion/analysis tools
• Digifietser, Kraksontracks, OpenStreetMap, OpenMTBMap, JOSM: map, waypoint & track data to use with the programs above
• SportTracks: Activity logbook software. It can use both GPS & HRM data to keep a diary.
• Polar Precision Performance Software: standard software that comes with the HRM unit
• Evernote: Note taking application. I use it to store how to’s, ideas for blog posts etc
• Windows Live Writer: might come in handy to prepare some blogposts offline
• FireFox, VLC  mediaplayer, Songbird and Pidgin
• Sumatra PDF Viewer
• FLIQLO flip style clock screen saver

Photographs

Some more photographs on further disassembly of this netbook can be found here.

Conclusion

Pro

• Wireless N (single channel; 150Mbps theoretical maximum)
• Battery
• Portability (size + weight)

Con

• Glossy display & casing => fingerprints & reflections
• Limited resolution & memory
• Not powerful enough to watch heavily compressed movies (eg. YouTube HD or the *.mov files from my digicam), otherwise it would serve as a nice portable media player

Links

• http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=BtksJTDENqfsnuyf
• http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/241773/asus-eee-pc-1005ha-h-wit.html?tti=2&pti=21#tab:info
  http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_messages/1346289/27
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aYL-7-8PR0&feature=fvsr
• http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?model=EEE+PC+1005HAB&f_name=acpi.zip&SLanguage=en-us
• http://www.liliputing.com/2009/06/asus-eee-pc-1005ha-review.html
• http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewforum.php?id=70
• http://forum.gps.nl/viewtopic.php?t=19417
• http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1023/1/

I’ve been doing some research lately as I wanted to buy a KVM switch. While most brands seem rather barebones I did notice the KVMP line of ATEN. These devices do not only switch keyboard, video and mouse but also audio- and USB-peripherals.

Afterwards I lost some time figuring out where I could actually buy one. I ended up ordering via komplett and had an excellent experience with that shop. Delivery took place in exactly 1,5 days.

Initially I wanted to buy the Aten CS1784 because of these specifications:

• DVI digital and analog monitor support – fully compliant with the DVI specifications; also HDCP compliant
• Superior video quality – supports up to 2560 x 1600 (DVI Dual Link)*; 2048 x 1536; DDC2B (DVI-A)

I thought I would be set with this one because of it’s support for both DVI and VGA (by using an additional DVI-a to VGA adapter). Unfortunately the KVM cables are DVI-D only, meaning one would need to run a DVI-A cable in parallel for every VGA device. (Thanks to the people of ATEN Belgium for pointing this out.) I’m not investing in a KVM switch to actually increase the desktop clutter and thus chose to stick with the CS1734b model.

The first impression is a good one. Especially the solid build quality. Each audio plug is protected by a cap. Even better, where does one find metal housing in “The Plastic Age”?

Some pictures for you to take a look at:

I’ll try to update this post when I have a bit more experience with it…