Searching for an affordable freelancer/SOHO backup solution? I think I found one on the weekend. I use JungleDisk for offsite storage of *really* important stuff that I would quite literrally die if I lost, but in this day and age of huge media files, the need for vast amounts of reliable, fast, storage is present. After a previous Maxtor drive started making some horrendous whirring and high pitched electrical whines a replacement needed to be found.

A Saturday morning Google turned up that desktop external HDD’s with RAID arrays are now actually affordable, and realistically the only option for a backup drive. Most external drives seem to be configured in RAID0 (data is split across drives effectively doubling capacity, but the upmost worst for reliability). However some drives are available with configurable RAID settings. The LaCie 2big Triple is one such drive, I found one that was within driving distance in downtown Toronto @ Vistek.

So off I went and picked one up. Should you be south of the border it’s significantly cheaper on Amazon, I paid just under $CAD469+tax - whereas Amazon it’s $US329: LaCie 301254U 1 TB 2big Triple 2-Disk RAID Hard Drive

Unboxed it, set it up. It’s a fairly attractive little unit, the aluminium blending in with any respectable SOHO.

Oh the humanity of it all! On my way to work this morning I was stopped in my tracks by two Ariel Atoms parked outfront of an events place just round the corner. Instant parallel thought trains rocked through my mind, how the hell are they road legal in Canada ? and how the hell do I get myself in the passenger seat ?. Then a 360 Modena rocks up, along with a Porker. What’s going on ? Finally I look out of my Atom induced haze to see the XBox 360 signage everywhere. Aha. Makes sense…Project Gotham Racing 4.

Righto so I rock back to the office. Get dressed so I look more professional than bike courier, rock back and start talking to various people. 5 mins later I’d managed to wangle a potential ride later in the day after telling my true tale of woe that I left New Zealand when an Atom track day was going down and missed out on the drive of my life. The clock strikes 4 (after hearing the Ferrari opening it up many times during the afternoon… Torture! Torture I tell you…). I jump up, grab camera, rock round the corner. “Oh No”

The Police. (with a heavy weighting on the period there)

Who would’ve thought that would’ve happened? No cars were going anywhere. Period. However the silver lining is at least I’m on the list for a track day for next summer, which gives me a good 10 months to work out how to justify the money for it to my S.O.

The Golden Rule

Always isolate your speakers from whatever they’re sitting on (be it floor, bookshelf whatever). It’s just the golden rule in life. You must do it. Well, I built this new desk**, and completely forgot the rule, I was just so happy to have somewhere for these puppies to sit on. I happened upon some 8mm strips of rubbery packing foam - night and day difference, event at low volumes it makes a difference. I’m not sure the maple was really adding to music

Just listening to some Ben Harper and it sounds GORGEOUS. No more annoying little bass resonances. Put on some Vivaldi and we get bone chilling clarity. Nice - that’s what studio monitors are about, reproduction (this is a moment of triumph, I bought them 5-6 months ago and haven’t really had a chance to *use* them until now).

And now for something completely different. Old news if you already have heard about it…

Quite a few years ago, like many a young IT guy, I had a too little responsibilities and too little common sense, which resulted in a daily driven, highly modified, 450HP Twin Turbo 300ZX gracing my garage - including no less than a Formula 1 derived Launch and Traction Control system… $2000 sets of tyres were dispatched on semi regular occasion, and I learned how to throw a ton of metal and fabric round a racetrack at insane speeds.

Now I’m atoning for my environmental and financial sins by daily riding a 0 HP 2 LP 0 Emission mountain bike turned commuter (with some ugly 1″ wide slicks). Which does amazing things for your fitness, and is absolutely great for venting any frustration you may have had in the office during the day - there’s always a dimwitted motorist who will pull out on you and be needing gentle reminding that you too have a legal right to be on the road.

However. It’s just not the same really…

Then this came along. Built by a fellow expat New Zealander Ian Wright. The Wrightspeed X1. Based on an Ariel Atom, a viciously fast car with one mission in life, to do everything fast, very fast. But this one has a twist. It’s called Lithium Ion. Packed with batteries, electric motors and not a drop of smog producing fuel* in sight I’m in technology-love.

Tannoy nearfield active monitors. Let’s face it churning through documentation or code, can sometimes be mind numbing, no matter how much delegation you do you still have to deal with it and the only way to keep your mind in check, and sometimes to speed things along is to be bathed in your favourite music.

Now I have a penchant for all things musical, whilst I don’t spend 40k on audio gear at home, I also can’t stomach the $50 computer speakers. A previous fan of Klipsch systems I decided it was time to step up the game. Enter these bad boys. “Nearfield active monitors” = speakers designed to be on a studio recording desk, up close to your ears versus across the living room floor. As they’re monitors they’re designed to be very neutral and flat sounding, allowing the detail of the music to present itself, not be coloured like most residential systems. So you won’t have bass or mid range heavy music. To my ears, at low volumes everything is very crisp, tonnes of detail I’ve picked things I’ve only heard with Sennheisers on my head.

All this comes at a cost, these clock in at $800 retail CAD, before taxes, if you know where to look. However eBay came to the rescue and I found a pair and won the auction for under half that, now they’re gracing my desk getting burned in.

Nice. (with a capital N). Not Pants.