Technogeekanerd http://quicksurf.com Techie, Geeky, Nerdy, & Funny Too... Sun, 08 Mar 2009 21:00:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 en The Geekinator #0041 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1390 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1390#comments Sun, 08 Mar 2009 21:00:43 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1390 Download This Show

iPod Video Format

Watch This Show

Subscribe To The Show

RSS 2.0 Main Podcast Feed

Interesting Technology Stuff Talked About During The Show

Avenues of Contact

Brought to you from Studio BR-2 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Mastered in High Resolution 24/96 Digital Audio.

]]> http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1390 The Geekinator Podcast Episode #0040 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1381 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1381#comments Thu, 05 Mar 2009 07:52:55 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1381 Download This Show

MP3 Audio Format

iPod Video Format

Listen To This Show

Watch This Show

Subscribe To This Podcast

RSS 2.0 Main Podcast Feed

Interesting Technology Stuff Talked About During The Show

Avenues of Contact

Brought to you from Studio BR-2 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Mastered in High Resolution 24/96 Digital Audio.

]]> http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1381 The Geekinator Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 Test Footage http://quicksurf.com/?p=1377 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1377#comments Tue, 03 Mar 2009 04:36:06 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1377

]]> http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1377 The Geekinator Podcast Episode #0039 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1369 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1369#comments Sat, 28 Feb 2009 21:03:17 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1369 Download This Show

iPod Video Format

HD 720p Video Format

Watch This Show

Subscribe To This Podcast

RSS 2.0 Main Podcast Feed

Interesting Technology Stuff Talked About During The Show

Avenues of Contact

Brought to you from Studio BR-2 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Mastered in High Resolution 24/96 Digital Audio.

]]> http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1369 The Geekinator Podcast Episode #0038 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1362 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1362#comments Thu, 26 Feb 2009 07:00:58 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1362 Download This Show

MP3 Audio Format

Listen To This Show

Watch This Show

Subscribe To The Podcast

RSS 2.0 Main Podcast Feed

Interesting Technology Stuff Talked About During The Show

Avenues of Contact

Brought to you from Studio BR-2 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Mastered in High Resolution 24/96 Digital Audio.

]]> http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1362 The Geekinator Podcast Episode #0037 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1359 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1359#comments Sun, 22 Feb 2009 05:18:09 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1359 Download This Show

iPod Video Format

Watch This Show

Subscribe To The Podcast

RSS 2.0 Main Podcast Feed

Avenues of Contact

Brought to you from Studio BR-2 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Mastered in High Resolution 24/96 Digital Audio and 720p video.

]]> http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1359 The Geekinator Podcast Episode #0036 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1352 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1352#comments Thu, 19 Feb 2009 06:31:50 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1352 Download This Show

MP3 audio Format

Listen To This Show

Watch This Show

No Video This Episode

Subscribe To The Podcast

RSS 2.0 Main Podcast Feed

Interesting Technology Stuff Talked About During The Show

Avenues of Contact

Brought to you from Studio BR-2 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Mastered in High Resolution 24/96 Digital Audio.

]]> http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1352 The Geekinator Podcast Episode #0035 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1337 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1337#comments Tue, 17 Feb 2009 02:06:51 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1337 Download This Show

MP3 audio Format

iPod video format

Listen To This Show

Watch This Show

Subscribe To The Podcast

RSS 2.0 Main Podcast Feed

Interesting Technology Stuff Talked About During The Show

Avenues of Contact

Brought to you from Studio BR-2 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Mastered in High Resolution 24/96 Digital Audio.

]]> http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1337 The Geekinator Podcast Episode #0034 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1331 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1331#comments Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:08:48 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1331 Download This Show

MP3 Format

Listen To This Show

Watch This Show

No video for this episode

Subscribe To The Podcast

RSS 2.0 Main Podcast Feed

Interesting Technology Stuff Talked About During The Show

Avenues of Contact

Brought to you from Studio BR-2 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Mastered in High Resolution 24/96 Digital Audio.

]]> http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1331 The Geekinator Podcast Episode #0033 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1318 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1318#comments Sun, 08 Feb 2009 09:03:53 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1318 Download This Show

MP3 Format

Listen To This Show

Watch This Show

Subscribe To The Podcast

RSS 2.0 Main Podcast Feed

Interesting Technology Stuff Talked About During The Show

Avenues of Contact

Brought to you from Studio BR-2 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Mastered in High Resolution 24/96 Digital Audio.

]]> http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1318 The Geekinator Podcast Episode #0032 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1309 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1309#comments Thu, 05 Feb 2009 06:02:29 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1309 Download This Show

MP3 Format

Subscribe To The Podcast

RSS 2.0 Main Podcast Feed

Interesting Technology Stuff Talked About During The Show

Avenues of Contact

Brought to you from Studio BR-2 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Mastered in High Resolution 24/96 Digital Audio.

]]> http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1309 The Geekinator Podcast Episode #0031 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1303 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1303#comments Thu, 29 Jan 2009 07:19:01 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1303 Download This Show

MP3 Format

Subscribe To The Podcast

RSS 2.0 Main Podcast Feed

Interesting Technology Stuff Talked About During The Show

Avenues of Contact

Brought to you from Studio BR-2 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Mastered in High Resolution 24/96 Digital Audio.

]]> http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1303 The Geekinator Podcast Episode #0030 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1295 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1295#comments Sun, 25 Jan 2009 05:33:45 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1295 Download This Show

MP3 Format

Subscribe To The Podcast

RSS 2.0 Main Podcast Feed

Interesting Technology Stuff Talked About During The Show

Avenues of Contact

Brought to you from Studio BR-2 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Mastered in High Resolution 24/96 Digital Audio.

]]> http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1295 The Geekinator Podcast Episode #0029 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1290 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1290#comments Fri, 23 Jan 2009 07:29:30 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1290 Download This Show

MP3 Format

Subscribe To The Podcast

RSS 2.0 Main Podcast Feed

Interesting Technology Stuff Talked About During The Show

Avenues of Contact

  • Email: geekinator at quicksurf.com
  • Visit The Geekinator online and leave a comment on the site.
  • Voice Mail Hotline: 602-466-3134

Brought to you from Studio BR-2 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Mastered in High Resolution 24/96 Digital Audio.

]]> http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1290 Adrian 3.3 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1288 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1288#comments Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:04:56 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1288 Well, it’s been quite a year. I’ve had some huge dissapointments, and there have been some priceless moments.

It’s all been a huge learning experience, which makes for a nicely aging Adrian.

So, what’s in store between now and when I turn 34 next year? I don’t know. I’ve got some personal projects that I want to work on, and a couple of issues I’ve yet to work out.

Given what’s transpired this past year, I wouldn’t mind a bit if I had some “breathe” time to just process.

I’ve just done a whole post talking about the past year without specifically mentioning anything… Well if you know me in real life, you’ll know what I’m talking about, otherwise, you’ll need to get to know me in real life because that’s just how it is.

For some of the stuff I’m working on, you’ll hear more about it later when I’ve got it closer to being ready to publicly talk about.

Till then, watch this space.

]]> http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1288 Reflections on LIFE http://quicksurf.com/?p=578 http://quicksurf.com/?p=578#comments Fri, 21 Nov 2008 04:30:24 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://blog.quicksurf.com/index.php?p=578
  • Never raise your hands to your kids. It leaves your groin unprotected.
  • I’m not into working out. My philosophy is no pain, no pain.
  • I’m in shape. Round is a shape. Pear is also a shape.
  • I’m desperately trying to figure out why Kamikaze pilots wore helmets.
  • Do you think illiterate people get the full affect of alphabet soup?
  • I’ve always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific.
  • Ever notice when you blow in a dog’s face he gets mad at you, but when you take him in a car he sticks his head out the window?
  • Ever notice that anyone going slower than you is an idiot, but anyone going faster than you is a maniac?
  • You have to stay in shape. My mother started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She’s 97 now and we have no idea where she is.
  • I have six locks on my door, all in a row. When I go out, I lock every other one. I figure no matter how long somebody stands there picking the locks, they are always locking three of them.
  • One out of every three Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of two of your best friends. If they are OK, then it must be you.
  • They show you how detergent takes out bloodstains. I think if you’ve got a tee shirt with bloodstains all over it, maybe your laundry isn’t your biggest problem.
  • Ask people why they have deer heads on their walls and they tell you it’s because they’re such beautiful animals. I think my wife is beautiful, but I only have photographs of her on the walls.
  • A lady came up to me on the street, pointed at my suede jacket and said, “Don’t you know a cow was murdered for that jacket?” I said, “I didn’t know there were any witnesses. Now I’ll have to kill you too.”
  • Future historians will be able to study at the Jimmy Carter Library, the Gerald Ford Library, the Ronald Reagan Library, and the Bill Clinton Adult Bookstore.
    • ]]>     http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=578     The Geekinator Podcast Episode #0028 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1278 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1278#comments Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:46:55 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1278 Download This Show

    MP3 Format

    Subscribe To The Podcast

    RSS 2.0 Main Podcast Feed

    Interesting Technology Stuff Talked About During The Show

    Avenues of Contact

    • Email: geekinator at quicksurf.com
    • Visit The Geekinator online and leave a comment on the site.
    • Voice Mail Hotline: 602-466-3134

    Brought to you from Studio BR-2 in Phoenix, Arizona.

    Mastered in High Resolution 24/96 Digital Audio.

    ]]>     http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1278     The Geekinator Podcast Episode #0027 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1264 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1264#comments Sun, 19 Oct 2008 05:28:05 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1264 Download This Show

    MP3 Format

    Subscribe To The Podcast

    RSS 2.0 Main Podcast Feed

    Interesting Technology Stuff Talked About During The Show

    Avenues of Contact

    • Email: geekinator at quicksurf.com
    • Visit The Geekinator online and leave a comment on the site.
    • Voice Mail Hotline: 602-466-3134

    Brought to you from Studio BR-2 in Phoenix, Arizona.

    Mastered in High Resolution 24/96 Digital Audio.

    ]]>     http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1264     The Geekinator Podcast Episode #0026 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1255 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1255#comments Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:30:10 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1255 Download This Show

    MP3 Format

    Subscribe To The Podcast

    RSS 2.0 Main Podcast Feed

    Interesting Technology Stuff Talked About During The Show

    Avenues of Contact

    • Email: geekinator at quicksurf.com
    • Visit The Geekinator online and leave a comment on the site.
    • Voice Mail Hotline: 602-466-3134

    Brought to you from Studio BR-2 in Phoenix, Arizona.

    Mastered in High Resolution 24/96 Digital Audio.

    ]]>     http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1255     The Geekinator Podcast Episode #0025 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1250 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1250#comments Sun, 05 Oct 2008 05:39:44 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1250 Download This Show

    MP3 Format

    Subscribe To The Podcast

    RSS 2.0 Main Podcast Feed

    Interesting Technology Stuff Talked About During The Show

    Avenues of Contact

    • Email: geekinator at quicksurf.com
    • Visit The Geekinator online and leave a comment on the site.
    • Voice Mail Hotline: 602-466-3134

    Brought to you from Studio BR-2 in Phoenix, Arizona.

    Mastered in High Resolution 24/96 Digital Audio.

    ]]>     http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1250     The Geekinator Podcast Episode #0024 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1246 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1246#comments Fri, 03 Oct 2008 06:54:06 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1246 Download This Show

    MP3 Format

    Subscribe To The Podcast

    RSS 2.0 Main Podcast Feed

    Interesting Technology Stuff Talked About During The Show

    Avenues of Contact

    • Email: geekinator at quicksurf.com
    • Visit The Geekinator online and leave a comment on the site.
    • Voice Mail Hotline: 602-466-3134

    Brought to you from Studio BR-2 in Phoenix, Arizona.

    Mastered in High Resolution 24/96 Digital Audio.

    ]]>     http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1246     The Problem With Apple’s Hardware Line http://quicksurf.com/?p=1013 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1013#comments Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:00:18 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1013 Note: This article has been in my archives since last year. I thought with all the rumors swirling around about new Apple hardware coming out this month, I’d push it back up to the front of the line where everybody can read it again - Adrian.

    I was reading a post (via GeekNews) about Apple hardware, and it just hit me that Apple does have a huge gaping hole in their product line-up (at least they do from my perspective).

    The Missing Mac

    They need to sell a desktop system between the iMac and the Mac Pro. Right now, they don’t really have an in-between system. You’re either a home user and an iMac will do you just fine, or you’re a Professional and you get the Pro products. What about a Home Power User? Some one at home that would use some fairly major league computer horsepower?

    Since I’ve purchased my Macbook Pro and started using it as my main computer for web, email, pictures, video stuff, and other things I’ve come to the realization that it’s fine for all that, but more often than not, I end up leaving it home in the mornings because the night before I started it working on some big video encoding job, or something similar to that kind of usage (I’ll talk about that when I’m ready to) and it wasn’t finished yet, and I had no easy of of pausing it long enough for me to put it to sleep and start it back up when I got to work.

    I have a need for dedicated 24×7x52 processing power at home to work on big jobs. In my mind, an iMac does not cut it for such a need. At home, I do a LOT of video work, audio work outside of just my podcasts, programming, and other stuff that most people would consider high performance computing at a crazy level. I’m talking big processing guns, like several 8 core Mac Pros at least.

    What I want to do with all that processing power is fodder for another post (if you know me at a personal level at all, you’ll know that I’m as hardcore of a geek as they get, and the programs I write for me at home are hard for a lot of people to understand at a technical level), but several years ago, I had several personal projects I was working on that at a computational and mathmatical level had entered the realm of brain busting. I put them to rest because I decided that then modern computing power was not sufficient for what I was trying to accomplish. Fast forward to now, I still don’t think modern computing power is sufficient, but I’ve gotten some new ideas and want to try them out.

    This is the problem. Mac Pros would be great, but because this is a personal project, I just can’t justify spending that kind of cash. Even if I scaled my hardware needs way back (at the expense of execution time), the entry level Mac Pro is out of my budget.

    What I need (and I Apple hope fills) is a desktop that sits right between the iMac and the Mac Pro. Something where I have a box that I can stuff 3 or 4 hard drives in, put in my choice of PCI Express video card in, put a Core 2 Duo or a Core 2 Quad (or the extreme variety) and for $1500 to $2000 have a dual or quad core Mac desktop based on the Core 2 Desktop processors.

    Apple could take their existing Mac Pro case, put an Intel desktop motherboard in it, and give us the choice of video cards, processors, ram, and storage. That would probably cut a solid $800 or so right out of the cost, and I’d get something relatively affordable and relatively high performance enough to quench my processing needs for my personal projects.

    Alas, Apple is not likely to do that, so I’ve been finding myself at Newegg.com scouring the site for parts to build myself a desktop computer that I can dedicate to long term processing projects. I would love to run OS X with this, but alas, that won’t be the case either if I build it myself…

    I can either get the Mac Pro and stay with OS X, or go with a Windows box and save several hundred dollars.

    I wish it didn’t have to come down to that.

    ]]>     http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1013     Best Newly Discovered Site: National Geographic http://quicksurf.com/?p=1235 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1235#comments Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:36:21 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1235 It happened by accident. I was trolling for news and links to talk about on my podcast and I stumbled upon National Geographic’s website. I’d been a huge fan of the magazine when I was a kid. My parents always made sure there was a subscription and new issues of the magazine showing up at our house, but as I got older and moved out, National Geographic fell by the way-side and I’d never really given it much thought. Even now, it makes sense that a magazine of such caliber in this day and age would have an online presence, however, when I stumbled upon the website, I was very pleasantly in for a huge re-awakening and re-introducing of what had once been a childhood favorite.

    Initial Impressions

    So lets talk about my initial impressions of the site. First off, there is a lot packed into the home page, but it’s very manageable and not overly busy. The thing that struck me the most was the production quality of the imagery and the content. It had been a while since I’ve actually read the printed version of the magazine, so I don’t know if the content on the website is also in the print version or not, but either way, the pictures and overall look and feel of what you see is almost spellbinding. It looks like the vast majority of the content is contained within several sub-sections of the site, and there is a list of links to each one running down the left hand side of the home page and subsequent sub-section pages. I’ll talk about each sub-section individually below.

    Animals

    If you’re an animal lover, this is the place to be. You can spend hours in this sub-section alone. The sub-section has a list of links running across the top that further breaks down by animal type and also gives you the option of browsing A-Z style if you like. There are lots of very well done pictures as well as Feature articles for most animal types. Again, lots of content, and a great resource of information for quite a bit of the known animal universe.

    Daily News

    This is the section I originally stumbled upon. It’s sub-divided into Animal News, Ancient World, Environment News, Cultures News, Space/Tech News, and a section simply called “Weird”. From what I’ve seen of it thus far, it’s updated pretty regularly and it’s obvious that they put some effort into everything they post there. Pretty top notch stuff.

    Green Guide

    This sub-section is very quickly becoming my favorite place to hang out. It offers a green buying guide, a bunch of blog content, tips & tools, green living information, and a lot more. There’s a lot of content in this section that is well done, well organized, and easy to use.

    History

    This sub-section is probably the most sparse of the sections. There is more news content here than any information, however, there is quite a bit in the way of pictures and video that I’ve not perused. I’m not much of a history buff, so I don’t have much else to say other than it’s still worth checking out.

    Kids

    This actually leads to whole other site (kids.nationalgeographic.com), and I’m amazed at how much content is actually here that’s geared towards kids. It’s clear that a lot of effort to get the younger generations engaged and interested is being invested here, which is a good thing. If you’ve got kids, this is a kid friendly place for your young ones to hang out and get their learn on. Totally worth checking out.

    Maps

    This is more like another site and not a sub-section. I’m not a mapping guy, but if you’re into maps, this looks like a pretty neat place to hang out. One item to note: The mapping machine is pretty cool, it lets you go to just about any place on the planet, then search for and print historical, weather, population, and other maps of the area of your interest. All in all, pretty neat stuff, and if you travel a lot, is pretty useful for checking out places where you may (or may not) be heading.

    Music

    This section was actually un-expected, but there’s quite a bit of world music in this sub-section. The tag-line for it is: “listen to the world”, and while I’ve never heard of most of the artists featured here, this is definitely worth doing some exploring. It will be at least a horizon expanding journey. From the precursory look I’ve taken at it so far, it doesn’t look like you can actually download any free music from here, but you can listen to and buy music.

    Photography

    Back in the old days when National Geographic was just a print magazine, much of what made it so great was their eye popping photos. They were never short of really great pictures. Well, I’m glad to say that this sub-section proudly continues that tradition of providing a lot of really awesome photos. You can spend hours here and still not see it all. And the best part of it all is the Print Store, where you can buy prints of many of the best photos in sizes ranging from a 10″ gallery print to a 30″ gallery print either framed or un-framed. Obviously the prices for the framed photos can range into the several hundred dollar range, but most un-framed prints can be had for less than $100.

    Science & Space

    This sub-section really appeals to my inner geek. There is quite a bit of quality content and a nice A-Z browser that lets you troll through it by subject. It’s almost like a scientific encyclopedia, there’s a lot here and most of it looks like it’s kept fresh.

    Travel & Cultures

    If you want to see places around the world, this is the sub-section to go to. I’m not much of a traveler and I still was impressed with what was here, for example, on the continents area, all of the major continents are listed out and as you drill down into each one, there are loads of facts and figures and photos. If you’re a travel buff, there is a lot of great information here.

    Video

    This sub-section looks like it’s just a collection point for all the videos on the web site. There is a lot here covering a pretty wide range of subjects, and from the looks of it, the production quality is pretty high. A pretty good place to spend a few hours watching what they’ve got here.

    So all in all, I think there is a recurring theme when it comes to National Geographic’s website. They have really high quality content, and lots of it. If you like the magazine, then you’ll undoubtedly like the website. I’m bookmarking it and I’ve added the news sections RSS feed to my feed reader.

    ]]>     http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1235     The Geekinator Podcast Episode #0023 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1229 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1229#comments Tue, 30 Sep 2008 05:52:42 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1229 Download This Show

    MP3 Format

    Subscribe To The Podcast

    RSS 2.0 Main Podcast Feed

    Interesting Technology Stuff Talked About During The Show

    Avenues of Contact

    • Email: geekinator at quicksurf.com
    • Visit The Geekinator online and leave a comment on the site.
    • Voice Mail Hotline: 602-466-3134

    Brought to you from Studio BR-2 in Phoenix, Arizona.

    Mastered in High Resolution 24/96 Digital Audio.

    ]]>     http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1229     Goodbye Newsvine http://quicksurf.com/?p=1227 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1227#comments Mon, 29 Sep 2008 23:51:56 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1227 Well, I used to like Newsvine. I used to heavily use them, but went about 6 months or so without, and just started up using Newsvine again. Well, that is coming to an end.

    My past mode of operation was every time I wrote something new or did a new podcast I’d seed a link on Newsvine. Well, apparently, the Code of Honor no longer allows self seeding. You can post an article that you normally would have had on your website, but you can’t just link to it? Doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose of having your own website where you write articles? If the goal of Newsvine is to share information, then what is the difference between self seeding and someone else seeding me? If the purpose is to share, then I fail to see one.

    Given my only other real option is to cross post articles, I’m left with a decision. I’m sorry, but I am not going to cross post articles. All that does is create a walled garden in Newsvine and is confusing to anybody who wants to comment because now there are multiple places to comment at (and multiple copies to maintain if you every need to change anything). If that is really the intent of Newsvine, then I wish them well, for I will not be participating in that sort of environment.

    I will be shortly deleting my account from Newsvine and I wish them well.

    Hasta La Lasaguna, Don’t Get Any On Ya’

    ]]>     http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1227     My Confidence in Seagate Has Been Shaken http://quicksurf.com/?p=1202 http://quicksurf.com/?p=1202#comments Mon, 29 Sep 2008 07:33:27 +0000 Adrian Bacon http://quicksurf.com/?p=1202 Failed Seagate 750 GB Hard Drive

    About a year ago, I purchased four Seagate 750 GB hard drives (model number ST3750640AS to be exact) for a storage upgrade I was performing at the time.

    Right out of the gate, one of the four was DOA. I went through the process to get a new replacement through the supplier I originally purchased them with, and when it came in I was up and running.

    For about 6 months, everything hummed along and was fine and dandy. Then, the replacement drive failed. I went through the RMA process with Seagate and got a factory refurbished replacement drive, which thankfully also came with the same 5 year warranty as the drive it was replacing. Everything was fine for about a month.

    It was at that time that a second of the four drives failed. Since I was outside of the 90 day return period with the original supplier, I had to go with Seagate’s RMA process and ended up with another 750 GB refurbished drive, that also came with a 5 year warranty.

    Everything seemed OK for a month or so, until the refurbished drive that replaced the replacement of the DOA drive failed again, the picture of which you see to the above left, with the serial number magically Photoshopped out. I’ve once again gone through the RMA process with Seagate to get another refurbished replacement drive. You would think that at some point they would give up and just send a new drive instead of one that obviously had previously failed, has been “worked on” and failed again.

    During all this time, a third drive out of the original four has starting popping up SMART errors every couple of weeks. I predict that I will be getting a replacement drive from Seagate for that one before the year’s end.

    Now, I should point out that I have a superb back-up scheme (when you have as much data as I do, it really helps to make sure you have at least one copy of everything you don’t want to lose on more than one physical device).

    Now, seeing the number of problems that I’ve been having, it’s been pointed out to me by others that know of the ongoing situation that perhaps there’s a problem that is germane to my particular system that is causing my drives to die really fast. I haven’t totally ruled it out, but, I doubt it.

    You see, the computer that the drives are in, has a Maxtor 300 GB drive that has been in there for a couple of years, a 500 GB Maxtor drive that also has been in there for a couple of years, a 1TB Western Digital Green Drive that is newer, but has still been in there for a while (I bought it right when it came out), and another Maxtor 1 TB hard drive that has been in there for a while as well.

    None of the other drives have failed, two of them are more than a couple of years old and have been in that same system for a while, the two terabyte drives are newer than the 750s, but have still been in there since at least June of 2008 or longer.

    Another reason I don’t think it’s my computer that’s causing the failures is because I’ve seen this same thing happen with a bunch of 300 GB Seagate hard drives that a friend of mine had. He went through about a year or so where all he was doing was replacing hard drives, and he had nine 300 GB drives. Ironically enough, he can now buy three new 1 TB drives and merge his current collection down into three drives, or once Seagate actually starts selling their new 1.5 TB drives, do it in two drives. Kinda scary having that much data on one device. I digress.

    At any rate, Seagate in my opinion is seriously hurting their reputation here. Their only real saving grace is that they are the only drive manufacturer that offers a 5 year warranty for both new and replacement products. That and they seem to be the only game in town that is even being kind of aggressive in pushing out really huge drives, which for storage nuts like me, is desirable. Now if they can just get the failures under control, they’d be ready to totally stomp everybody else in the storage arena.

    So, how about the audience? Has anybody else had any recent large drive failures? How about any shining examples of stellar up-time in a big drive? Hit me up in the comments on the website.

    Update: A Seagate rep has contacted me and we’re playing phone tag, I’ll have more details later.

    Update 2: I talked with the Seagate rep who originally contacted me and Seagate wants to resolve the issues I’ve been having. I have to give them Kudos considering that I wasn’t expecting much more than a refurbished replacement drive. So here’s the deal: I have to send them the serial numbers of the four drives that I have, and they are going to replace them with new drives. I’ve also been given access to a higher level of support if I have problems with the newer drives as well.

    As a point of interest, the Seagate rep let me know that Seagate recently moved their tech support back into the US from India, so if you’re having problems, by all means call in, you’ll get a guy that speaks understandable English (this by the way is one of my pet peeves when it comes to customer support… I don’t care where the call center is located or who is answering the phone, but I must be able to communicate and understand the other person without struggling).

    Update 3: I’ve sent the serials to the Seagate rep.

    Update 4: The replacement drives have been shipped.

    So that’s the experience so far in a nut shell… I’ll obviously be posting updates as things develop.

    ]]>     http://quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&p=1202