I broke down and got an iPhone
Posted by ryan on August 4, 2009 | Filed under Tech
Last week I finally broke down and got an iPhone.
I really should elaborate. Until last week I had been rocking the Android based HTC G1 on T-Mobile. The G1 really lost me lately when I tried to run Twidroid and Google Voice applications simultaneously. The G1 got so slow that it just wasn’t helping me be productive anymore.
Since I got the iPhone I have descended several more levels into extreme nerdation. Here are a few of my favorite apps.
Things
Things by Cultured Code is the app I use on my Mac to keep up with projects and tasks. The iPhone counterpart has made me at least 67.5% more productive when out and about.
TwitterFon
A fast Twitter app, enough said.
WordPress
I can actually write and edit all my WordPress based sites right from the iPhone.
SEO Ranking
With this app I can check keyword placement on all the domains I manage right from my pocket.
Analytics
There are several apps that adapt Google Analytics reports for the iPhone. I wasted money trying several and this is my favorite.
Highpoint RocketRAID 4320 Review
Posted by ryan on August 2, 2009 | Filed under Tech
Overview
The TechStudio I.T. squad just finished installing a Highpoint RocketRAID 4320 into a Dell T300 server for a client. The server was originally configured with three Seagate 500gb hard drives and a standard SATA controller. The drive was partitioned into an OS and data partition, all were dynamic and software RAID was being used for redundancy on the OS partition in the form of a mirror. Software RAID on the OS drive is dangerous because it does not always mean an easy recovery… or a recovery at all. This thread is an example of how things can go wrong. TechStudio’s resident hardware expert, Kyle, picked out the RocketRAID 4320 as the SAS card we would upgrade to. It works great in the T300 server, and we got it from Newegg with a $320 discount.
Great Features
Time does not permit me to go through all the cards features, but some of the ones we are using are really great. The performance increase after installing the card was also significant over the dynamic Windows disk.
My favorite feature is the card’s remote management system. The RAID card has a network port, we added it to the network and configured it to e-mail alerts to all pertinent personnel for the client.
RocketRAID 4320 RAID Build Time
We built a RAID 5 out of three 500gb Seagate drives, the build time was 10.5 hours. The nice thing was that I got an e-mail on my iPhone when the build was complete so we could head back into the client site to finish the job.
RocketRAID 4320 Restore From Acronis
If you are restoring Acronis images onto a new array on a RocketRAID 4320, make sure you are using Echo 9.7 or newer or you will have to create a BartPE disk with the appropriate drivers.
Satisfied Customer
Bottom line… I am a satisfied Highpoint customer. The card is performing fantastically and was a great value. I highly recommend it.
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