Oliver Hansen

My Network Attached Storage Solution – Part 1

I’ve been wanting one of these for a while. I first realized they could be affordable after browsing through a Fry’s Electronics store and seeing a Buffalo Tera byte NAS device for around 5 or 600 dollars. It’s been a while so I don’t recall the exact price. I read some reviews online of this device and it sounded alright but not good enough to make me want to give up control of my NAS device. What I mean is that a retail NAS device is really just a computer with the software already set up and configured for you. If I build my own I can decide what software to use and maybe change things later if I change my mind.

So I decided to go for FreeNAS as the software and around a Tera Byte as the size. Now that I am getting paychecks I decided to go for it and buy the stuff this week. One of the cool things about FreeNAS is that it is such a small OS (based on FreeBSD) that it will run on a USB jump drive easily. I was a little nervous because most of the documentation on motherboards that I looked at didn’t say if it had the ability to USB booting or not but since it’s new I’m hoping it does. The motherboard has a built in SATA RAID controller for 4 drives which I also ordered. I will be using a RAID 5 array because it is about the best balance of redundancy, performance and cost. Using 4 500GB drives I will be getting around 1.5TB of space according to RaidCalc and then depending on which file system I choose to go with I will have more than 90% of that space left for storage. At this time I’m still trying to decide what will be best for my use.

The main goal of all this if you haven’t guessed yet is to have all my multi-media and data files in a central location that has the fault-tolerance of RAID. If one of the hard drives fails, the data will still be recoverable as long as it is replaced before another drive fails. The other benefit is that I can take more than 30GB of music off of the hard drive of my laptop plus other videos and data that I only access from time to time. With this extra space I can install games or programs that require large amounts of space and not worry about running out of space on the laptop. Since the NAS is on the network I will always have access to my files. Another benefit is that if I wanted to let others share my media on the home network they can access it just as easily as if it were another drive on their computer.

The parts should be arriving next week so I’ll keep you updated to my progress. I’m sure there will be at least one late night of working out problems as there always is with new technology. 🙂

Ryu and Chun Li Salsa Dancing!

Some of my favorite things from childhood. Street Fighter II and all of it’s incarnations. Seeing them Salsa dancing is something I never even thought of back then. Now that I enjoy salsa I had to share this video

Think Soccer Players Are Tough? Try Rugby.

So which is made of tougher men? I used to think soccer (football to the rest of the world) players were tough but not after watching the last World Cup. They do have stamina but it was pretty pathetic to watch them fall down when nothing even happens to them and then roll around on the grass acting like they are in so much pain. Obviously they do it to get penalties and it works sometimes but it’s dumb.

So check out this video comparing soccer to rugby.

The Vista General Availability Launch in NY

I had my first full show in New York City over the weekend. I’ve worked a couple one just the first or last day of a show but this one was mostly all the way through. The main idea of this show was to announce that Windows Vista was released to the public. Doing the show was a little crazy because I guess it started out as just a small thing and then just kept growing and growing. The only thing I got to do other than work was the first night I got in.

I arrived at the hotel around 6:30 or 7 at night and one of my PCV friends that lives in NY came in to see me. We got to go out and see a little of Times Square then we went down to 18th and had a drink at one of if not the oldest pub in the city. It was pretty neat. Nice, old and torn up a bit. Super high ceiling and a dumb waiter going up to the kitchen. Since I had to wake early the next day we took a cab back to my hotel and called it a night. It was really great to see an RPCV friend 🙂 .

The Vista Launch was pretty standard as far as new OS releases for Microsoft go. Not that I’ve ever been to one before but it was pretty crazy and over the top. Continue reading “The Vista General Availability Launch in NY” »

Passed My Peer Review

Now I don’t have to stress over whether or not I’m keeping my job. I wasn’t really worried but it’s nice to have it out of the way. The peer review was basically me in a room with the manager and 4 other experienced techs and they were allowed to grill me on any parts of the job I should know. They don’t expect 100 percent but you need to have a good handle on most things. It went quite well for me. The co-worker I carpool with went before me and it was getting close to the end of the day so I think they really wanted to get out of there. They asked me some tough questions but didn’t get into other things I was prepared for.

So now instead of being an Associate Technical Specialist, I am a Technical Specialist! That means a raise plus the raises I get from my certifications will go into effect. Maybe I can finally stop paying bills and save / spend some of my money on fun stuff! Like building a NAS.

On another note, I’m heading to New York this weekend for the official launch of Vista and Office 2007. My first time in the city and I’m practically staying in Time Square. I’ll most likely be working the whole time so not much time to play but I’ll write about it when I get back.