In the post before this one I had some trouble with a Freecom XXS USB drive. I had no way of fixing it, so it went back to the store (and basically back to Freecom). But since that drive is used for offsite backups I needed a replacement unit, because the return of the old drive could take several weeks.
This time the Western Digital My Passport Essentials 500GB (2.5" USB powered) disk was chosen. A nice small device with lot's of storage capacity.
Western Digital Proprietary Connector on the LeftUpon opening the box I noticed immediately that there's something 'wrong' with this drive. The cable / USB connector is proprietary. The connector is some sort of ultra-mini-USB format. No need to say that of all the USB cables I collected over the years will ever fit. So I need to be extremely careful with the one I got with the drive.
Since I lose stuff (hell, everyone does), you could expect a blog post of me swearing 'bloody hell' (and stuff) when I have lost the cable.... but I won't, just read the rest of this review.
Before I go into the imperfections of the iPhone, I must mention that the iPhone is one of the best (smart)phones I've had so far.....My (smartphone) references are the Nokia Communicator, Nokia E61i, Nokia N95. While the PDA experience comes from Psion (to bad that they are gone), and a boatload of crappy/unstable Windows CE/Mobile platforms over the last 10 years.
Every device had its limitations, but the iPhone clearly has the upperhand (at the moment). But there's always room for improvement :-)
As of today, I'm the (proud) owner of an iPhone 3Gs 32GB (Black). Ever since the release a couple of years ago I really wanted an iPhone. The problem is that we can only get an iPhone in combination with a T-Mobile plan here in Holland, and alternatives to the T-Mobile plan are relatively expensive;
- You need to cough up the entire amount for a SIMLOCK free iPhone in once (several hundreds of euros) or
- Get the T-Mobile plan and let them remove the SIMLOCK (for a fee). Initially less expensive, but you're still hooked to their two year plan.
Either way, an iPhone cost around 800 euros, whether you pay it at once or spread the costs over two years. Since I didn't like to finance T-Mobile for a plan, since I already got a pretty good deal, I went out and bought an iPhone.
Am I growing a cynic, or is this a case being an Apple 'fanboy'? Even though I think I'm open-minded in the world of Operating Systems, I seem to be less and less fond of the latest Microsoft CLIENT Operating Systems. Note the all caps 'client' word. I have no problem whatsoever with the server versions (so far).
Today I installed Windows 7 Enterprise (MSDN edition) on a spare SATA disk in my work laptop (Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook E8310). Initially installing the OS wasn't the problem. The bad things happened when I wanted to install the drivers and work-related software.
I must note that this review might not be very representative. My experience with Vista is about 8 hours total, and as you will find out later on; Windows 7 added about 4 hours today.
Anyway, back to the 'review';
The installation takes (almost) no user input whatsoever. Only things the OS needs to know are;
- clean install or upgrade
- regional settings
- username with a password
The first time Windows booted, I was already getting annoyed with the bouncing / rotating balls in the boot splash screen. They could have used the resources for creating this (either in functionality development ($$$) of the OS, or in speeding up booting the system) for booting faster instead of using CPU-cycles.
For comparison; Apple has a tiny spinning wheel to indicate that the system is booting, no splash screen, and is less expensive (probably $29 USD for an upgrade).
Today was one of those days. First the two NSMXpress appliances failed yesterday (version 2008.2r2). No way of connecting the client gui. The webinterface and SSH connections worked fine though. Picked one up for examination, and since I had some *cough*good*cough* experiences a while back I assumed the latest software had some undocumented bug.
A back to factory defaults (version 2007.3r1) worked fine, but due to certain hardware the 2008 version was needed. So I upgraded the appliance (again) and found (while waiting) that the security certificate, used between the NSM server and the client gui, had expired on Juli 20th, 2009....... So someone forgot to update the certificates in the 2008.2r2 software.
After fixing that, the client gui worked like a charm.
Oké. At the moment I run a server at home. This server runs several services which I need (at the moment). These services include:
- File sharing
- Web server (mostly for testing and development, since this website is hosted @ Dreamhost.com SquareSpace.com)
- *cough*Download station*cough*
- Mail Server (serving several personal domains)
- SSH Server
- Local onsite backups
All this runs on an old (especially in IT terms) PC with Windows. The CPU and other peripherals sucks in electricity like you've never seen before (it's an old AMD Thunderbird CPU from the early overclocking days -> 2000/2001). Apart from being old, it's also responsible for about 70% of my energy bill (a 'rough' estimation). Besides that, it's also responsible for permanent subtropic temperatures in my study.
;)
