As my collection of media grew, I started to run out of disk space (My mini only has 80GB). First, I added a USB drive to it. Then two. Then, I created a RAID array out of USB drives using an OSX RAID stripe. But, that is dangerous, because if any drive fails, you lose all the data. So I added more USB drives, and created a second stripe, to use for time machine. I currently have USB and Firewire drives connected to my Mini at the moment, due to this escellation.

It has finally gotten to the point where it really makes more sense to just build myself a multi-terrabyte file server, with proper RAID built into it. Further, while I’m at it, I want to add some additional capabilities as well. Ideally, this is something that will live on the network, and give me the following:

• Centrally store all my media files (music, movies, photos) which can be accessed from any computer in my house
• Provide a “time machine” backup location for my macs
• serve centralized home directories for any linux, mac, windows PC’s in my home
• Act as an LDAP authentication server, for single sign on in my home (yes, my home will then be enterprise-ready)
• Possibly serve a wiki and/or calendering/groupware system which my wife and I can use to sync our phones/mail clients/address book/calandar stuff (that would be nice)

Some or all of this may or may not come from the same software package. In fact, going the enterprise route, here is the solution I intend to implement:

Build an innexpensive file server based on the openfiler project. I’ve already put the order through for the components. Without drives, the whole solution, including a 12-bay hot-swap sata rack-mount case (and taxes and shipping), is about $600 for a Phenom 3-core CPU system w/ 4GB RAM. For drives, I can reuse a lot of the disks I already have running over USB (they are SATA inside), although I purchased an additional TB sata drive. Juggling the data while I’m setting up the new server will be tricky, but I should just be able to do it with the capacity I currently have.

Once the fileserver is set up, openfiler can export data as AFS, CIFS, or NFS to my mac Mini. Moreover, access will probably be [significantly] faster over gigabit ethernet than it was running RAID over USB2.

Then, I’ll install vmware on the openfiler server, and set up a virtual machine possibly running a linux distribution (TBD) to support local authentication for AD and LDAP.

With any luck, the system will be up and running by the end of the week. It’s pretty amazing that I can put together what is a business-class file server myself for under $1,000, even including storage.

Overview

The Kodak EasyShare all-in-one printer is aimed at the Small or Home Office user, or those people who need to do a little bit more than average. As far as your paper-related needs go, this device can handle just about anything — printing (double-sided), scanning (up to 600 dpi), copying, faxing (complete with phone book), and photo printing.

Most of these things it can even do without a computer attached. Moreover, it features some advanced on board software, with an interactive LCD panel, which allows you to tweak the settings. This means that you can do things like set the print quality, zoom, number of copies, or even the duplex settings of a copy job without even using a computer at all. Frankly, this device is probably worth it just for those features alone, and the fact that it can also act as a printer is just a bonus.

There only technical problem with the 5500 is that while it does have a scanner/copier document feeder, the document feeder can only scan one side of a piece of paper. So, while you can print out documents in duplex, you can’t scan them back in without some manual intervention.

I also would have liked to see a network port on the back in addition to a USB port. This would allow you to put the printer further away from your computer, and also make it easier to share with all the computers in our house or office. With all the features that the 5500 provides, you won’t be the only one wanting to use it if there are any other computer users on your network.

Unboxing

The trade off for all these features is that the EasyShare 5500 is a reasonably large device. This is probably not something you want to stick next to your monitor, unless you have one of the larger desks out there. You also won’t be able to put it on most shelves in a bookcase or desk, as it is pretty deep. The paper feeder for the multi-page copier/scanner, while an excellent feature, means that the top of the printer is delicate, and you won’t want it to be anywhere that things can fall on it (like some messy home offices I’ve seen).

Also, out of the box, the 5500 is one of the most intimidating printer’s I’ve had to set up, with lots and lots of tape to remove from delicate parts, and some reasonably forceful installation of the printer head marked “DELICATE” all over. However, Kodak does provide a nice and easy 9-step “getting started” guide. While the pictures make it very straightforward, you don’t even get to the software until step 9.

The Printer Experience

When first powering on, the 5500 lets you choose a language for its on-screen menu, and goes through a calibration routine. This involves it printing out a photograph, and then scanning it back in to check its work. This is much better than single-purpose printers, for which you have to manually correct the heads.

Another interesting note is that this printer didn’t come with a USB cable in order to connect it to a computer. This was a pretty glaring omission, as they couldn’t include an inexpensive cable on a several hundred dollar product.

The computer-less operation is really a breeze. You can print or scan items to a built-in compact-flash or SD-card slot, utilize the Fax or photocopy features without missing a beat. You can also connect your digital camera to one of two USB ports on the front.

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to like the 2 GB SD-card I tried with it. It seemed to hang on “Reading. Please wait…” whenever I inserted it.

The OS Experience

Windows XP

So, I plugged the printer in without installing the provided CD. I let Windows check the “Software Update” site for the driver, and it found it and installed without problems. It shows up as 3 devices in Windows XP: A still camera, a scanner, and a printer.

Printing worked totally fine on the first try. One interesting thing to note, though, is that the printer will try to print on photo paper if the photo paper tray is pushed in — regardless of what you are trying to print. To print on 8 1/2 x 11, just pull out the photo tray.

Printing double-sided is a wonderful feature on a printer, and its entertaining to watch the printer spit out a completed page, only to suck it back in so that it can print the reverse side.

Although Kodak claims that the 5500 can get up to 32 pages per minute in black-and-white, I found that using the default settings (medium quality, “normal” ink drying time, double-sided pages), it was more like 6 or possibly 8. Even at “medium” print quality, however, the 5500 did an excellent job. I was unable to see any pixels or artifacts in printed Word document fonts with the naked eye. Ink Jet printers have come a long way — the quality of the 5500 easily rivals laser printers, and the ink was completely dry by the time it finished — no smudges.

Linux

Unfortunately, the Linux experience with the Kodak EasyShare 5500 was not as smooth. I tried it on a fully updated Ubuntu 7.04. Linux only recognized a digital camera, with no photos on it it import. It did not recognize it as either a scanner or a printer.

This wasn’t an auspicious start, and frankly, I haven’t run into a product which isn’t supported on Linux this blatantly in nearly 10 years. After some Internet searching though, it looks like Kodak just couldn’t care less about Linux support. Shame on them.

Mac OS

Although the Mac does recognize the printer from the print-menu, it doesn’t have a driver for the 5500 specifically. Installing the supplied Kodak CD will allow you to print and scan using Mac OS X.

For Home / Home Office

For Small Office / Business

However, for the price of the all-in-one 5500, you could only get a very basic networked printer, without most of the color and scanning capabilities. Ultimately, if the issues related to sharing and Linux don’t dramatically affect your office environment, the Kodak EasyShare 5500 is the printer to get.

Photos

Ballmer’s latest fiasco is to claim that Open Source projects violate “over 235 patents,” and to then threaten lawsuits for any company using Linux or other open source software. Turns out, Steve was quoting a study produced by the Open Source Risk Management Group. However, the author of the study has claimed that Microsoft has it all wrong — the study’s conclusions were that those were only “potential” infringements, and that not a single one of those patents had ever been held up in court. In addition, not all of those patents were even held by Microsoft!

Further, Microsoft has refused to specify which patents they are even referring to, or specifically where they think the infringement has occurred. Starting to sound familiar? *Cough*, SCO, *cough*, *cough*. It should. Microsoft quietly provided $86 million to support SCO in it’s legal battle against Linux, under which they have not won a single count in 3 years. It seems that Steve Ballmer has decided to come out and play in the open, now that his proxy SCO has nearly completely self-destructed. Oh, and if this sounds like a hypocritical claim on Microsoft’s part, that’s only because they had to pay out $1.53 BILLION last week for violating Lucent patents.

Microsoft’s goal, like SCO’s, is to provide FUD — Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt about their competitors. Unfortunately, this tactic tends to work against them. Its surprising that they haven’t learned this lesson from what happened to SCO — since they began their lawsuit tactics, SCO’s market share has dropped exponentially. Like SCO, however, Microsoft is finding itself in a position where its competitors are out pacing it. Apple is growing far quicker than Microsoft, and is able to deliver bother hardware and software products at profit. Linux is advancing quickly, and the press is starting to tout it as a “Vista alternate.” It doesn’t help that Vista has virtually no new features for users, unless you count being more expensive. It appears that Steve Ballmer has lead Microsoft down the path of other companies which can’t deal with change: SCO, RAMBUS, the RIAA, the MPAA. All these companies probably know that customers will not purchase their product just because they threaten to beat them with a stick. But they don’t know what else to do (hint: build *good* products, and you won’t have this problem. Microsoft knew how to do this at some point).

It seems as if ever since Bill Gates left the helm, Microsoft hasn’t been able to steer itself in the right direction. Take a look at Steve Ballmer, the guy he left in charge, and draw your own conclusions why:

• Steve Ballmer — high on himself and screaming like an idiot. Video.
• Steve Ballmer — issuing death threats. Article.
• Steve Ballmer — brainwashes his kids. Article.
• Steve Ballmer — stuttering? Video.
• Steve Ballmer — cheap car salesman. Video.
• Steve Ballmer — out of touch with reality. Video.

The next time I visit at their house, I’ll take a look and see what the problem is with Windows, and if they’re actually using Linux or not.

Since being outpaced by HP in total sales, and knocked down from it’s #1 spot in new computer sales, Dell has launched IdeaStorm, a website where users can suggest ways for Dell to make money better cater to its customers. This is actually a great site. You can create suggestions, and then vote on which suggestions you think are the best. With over 50,000 people voting so far, Dell gets a pretty good idea of what people are interested in, and can tune their product line accordingly.

Now here is the most interesting part; 4 out of the the top 5 suggestions are to load Open Source software on shipping Dell computers:

1. Provide a Linux Multiboot option
2. Provide pre-installed Open Office
3. Provide Linux Singleboot for laptops
4. Ship with no OS
5. Install Firefox as the default web browser

While this feedback does show how far Linux and other open source software has come in public awareness in the past few years, it should also come as a wakeup call to computer manufacturer: Try providing software to users that they actually want.

It’s worth noting that the next most-popular feedback Dell received is to stop pre-loading new computers with “crap-ware.” This is something that all current computer manufacturers are guilty of today, and if you’ve bought a new computer in the past few years you know what it means.

I don’t care how hip desktop search is in the media — I’ve never (not even once) had the need for Google Desktop. Nor for any other program that wants to run in my system tray, or add menubars to my web browsers. The only thing these programs do is slow down my [brand new] computer, so it’s slow even before I install anything.

Dell (et all), if I want to install RealPlayer — I will! Besides the fact that it provides no useful function, I do not buy a computer so that you can pre-sell it’s hard disk to software vendors.

In case you’re wondering, I don’t let the dealer put their stickers on my car when I buy one either.

As it turns out, this particular computer happened to be slow and old to start with, although it is definitely fast enough that it should be able to do the basics of web browsing, word processing, and playing mp3’s without any problems. In reality, it would literally take around 15 minutes to completely boot up, and then another 5-10 minutes from when you click on Internet Explorer to when it actually comes up (along with about 3 billion popups). I’m not exaggerating, and I didn’t believe it either until I took a look and timed it.

My first idea was to simply install Linux on their computer, and switch them over. Unfortunately, I ran into some problems with that: Ubuntu didn’t seem to have the right drivers for their PC. I could have worked around this by booting to a prompt instead of X Windows and installing it that way, if it weren’t for another issue. Being as their computer was fairly ancient, it only had 128 MB or RAM. Here’s a tip: running off a Live CD with only 128 MB of RAM is a bad idea! Every thing you do takes it forever, and it wasn’t really practical to spend 6-8 hours just to install Linux.

I had thought the story would end there. However, I recently was able to help them get their hands on a slightly used E-Machine. While not top of the line, this 512mb Celeron was 3-4 times better than what they had before. Before they used it, I set it up as a dual-boot machine.

They have an install of Windows XP Home Edition, with all the free protection money can buy; AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition, Microsoft Windows Defender, Firefox is the default browser, and Windows Firewall is activated. This is about as good as you can get with Windows, without spending extra money. And let’s face it: you really shouldn’t have to spend lots of money on “protection” just to be able to use your [already very expensive] computer.

They also have an install of Ubuntu Linux 6.10. I installed Automatix2, which will set it up with everything from DVD players to file sharing. All of Ubuntu’s nifty software is present too, like Firefox and OpenOffice. I also set up Ubuntu to auto-login, and changed the /etc/sudoers file so that it doesn’t ask them for a password for admin stuff. While lowering physical security a bit, this makes the end-user experience similar to what they would expect from Windows XP Home. Basically, the Linux install can do everything that the Windows one can, and about as hassle-free. Readers unfamiliar with linux would also be interested to know that this Linux install is completely free. You can download everything you need from the links in this article.

While I’m a huge fan of Linux myself, I hadn’t thought it was really ready for the average person until recently. Ubuntu Linux 5.04 was the one that changes my mind, and 5.10 is an even better release. Still, I don’t realistically expect them to use it …. at first. Human nature includes a certain resistance to change, and as long as their Windows installation remains usable, I don’t think they’ll do anything differently. However, it is reasonable to assume at this point that whatever it is they are doing that gets their computer infected with spyware will happen again. And when it does, they’ll have the option of either booting into a defunct Windows session, or a functional Linux one.

Now, here is the real meat of this experiment:

1. How long can a Windows machine, configured relatively securely and with full antivirus software last when connected to the Internet (there is no router or firewall, their computer goes right to the cable modem)?
2. Once that happens, and they try out Linux because it won’t be spyware-encumbered, will they be able to use it, or even switch to it as their preferred OS?

This is a fairly good experimental setup. There are plenty of people out there looking for answers to both of these questions (myself included). Can you really survive without paying for an anti-virus or spyware software? If you don’t have a Linksys router, or other firewall type of device to protect you? Can average people use Linux? Would they choose to use it? Is it viable to set it up for people who’s computers constantly get infected?

I’ll be checking in with my friends every now and then. I’ll post follow ups every few weeks to track the experiment.

You can permanently attach the Monsoon hard drive to your computer for storing extra music, video, and photos. The Monsoon is also small enough that you can carry it with you so you can share your files with your friends. While its not as small as an iPod, this version I got is 320 GB, which holds 4 times more than the largest iPod. Accessing your files will also be much faster due to the high-performance 7200 RPM disk.

There are lots of hard drives out there, and only a few things which differentiate them. The main factors which should cause you to choose one over another are the included accessories, and the build quality (of course, price helps too).

The EZQuest comes with both USB and Firewire data cables. There is a plastic stand which you can use if you want to stand your drive vertically. They include a Quick Install Guide / product catalog. We have the hard disk itself, and the power brick. Finally, they include a quick instruction card for Windows users, which we’ll talk about in a bit.

This is a pretty complete set of attachments, and there isn’t anything else they could have reasonably provided. If you plan on using firewire, you’ll notice that there is a firewire pass-through port. This means that you can connect up more drives through this one. Suprisingly, not all external drives support this, and its a nice feature.

One thing you’ll notice is that the drive is heavy for its size. The case of the Monsoon is made out of aluminum, and is much better quality than the cheaper plastic cases sold by some of their competitors. Aluminum also transmits heat much better than plastic, which means that the Monsoon doesn’t need an active fan. Consequently, the Monsoon runs much quieter than a plastic drive with a fan.

Inside the Monsoon is a standard ATA hard drive. The one I received was a Hitachi Desk Star, but you may get a different one depending on what production run you get. Because it is a standard ATA disk, you can upgrade the drive in the future. Please note, however, that opening up the case will void your warranty.

An interesting thing about the EZQuest is that it comes formatted for Macintosh computers. Most disks come formatted for either Windows or Mac, and I think its a shame that they it that way. If you have a Windows PC, you’ll have to reformat the disk so that you can use it. This doesn’t take long, but Windows will only let you format it in a Windows-specific way. If you want to be able to use your Monsoon on any computer (Linux, Windows, or Mac), you’ll need to format it as Fat32. You can find instructions to do so for OS X, or Windows.

Overall, the EZQuest Monsoon drive is a compact, high performance drive. It has good build quality, runs quietly, and can work with any sort of personal computer. If you are looking for an external hard drive, this one should be on your short list.

This is the Intel Core Duo 1.6Ghz Mac mini. This is the latest Mac Mini available as of today. The product line can be a little confusing — be careful about which reviews you read, as earlier Mac Mini’s were based on the PowerPC chip, and later on single-core Intel chips. The current line is significantly faster than those earlier models.

Some other improvements from earlier versions are that it now has 4 hi-speed usb 2.0 ports, in addition to a Firewire 400 port for connecting additional devices. Since you can’t really upgrade this computer, you’ll use these ports to connect any addon devices. While there are plenty of ports, I am a little disappointed that the Mini does not yet include a Firewire 800 port, or an external SATA II port. Since the first thing people will add is an external disk, the faster interfaces would have been a nice addition. Still, for the Mini’s target audience, the supplied firewire and USB ports are completely sufficient.

While I would consider myself a “power user,” I’m using 3 external hard drives, a wireless keyboard and mouse, and an Elgato EyeTV Hybrid to watch HD TV. I use the external drives mostly for DVR video storage and music. I have a single 500GB drive (on Firewire), and 2 250 GB drives on USB set up as a RAID Stripe using OS X’s built-in software RAID. I was a little bit skeptical about using software RAID over USB, but it works flawlessly. Moving the drives to different USB sockets doesn’t affect the RAID. Another interesting drive tidbit is that the Firewire port is much faster than USB for disks. If you have a choice, use that.

So, what has it been like using a Mac? One thing I found surprising coming from the PC world is that most of those apple ads are actually true – most things “just work.” Its something that you can hear, but not really appreciate until you try it. For example, menus and configuration choices for almost all programs are a lot simpler than they are on the PC. It isn’t that they are less capable, its just that things don’t need to be tweaked as much as they do in most PC applications. It’s definitely been a pleasure to use, and I’m looking forward to when I have to replace my next laptop – it’ll probably
be with a Mac.

While this was the main reason I bought it, I was happy to find that the Mac Mini makes a perfect Home-Theater PC. One reason is that it can attach to a lot of different outputs. With a small adapter, it can use VGA, DVI, svideo, or RCA, although it only supports one output at a time. No matter which inputs you have free on your TV, you’ll be able to connect your Mac Mini to it.

Another great aspect of the Mac Mini is that it’s extremely small. That’s probably why they call it “Mini” . For example, it’s only marginally bigger than my external hard drives. It’s even smaller (although slightly taller) than just about any laptop, and easily fits into a component shelf in your TV stand. It can also be mounted behind your TV, and there are companies which sell brackets to do so. The Mini is also virtually silent, an important aspect of a device going into your entertainment cabinet. If you put your ear to it, you can just barely hear the fan. I’ve never been able to hear it from the couch, even with the TV off.

The final touch for the home theater PC case is the software: Apple Front Row. This application is driven by a remote which comes with your Mini. The remote is attractive, in classic Apple fashion, and quite useful. Using Front Row, you can browse everything in your iTunes collection right from your couch – including Music and Videos. If you have an Ipod, this’ll be very familiar to you, as they’re almost identical.

The Mini has lots of other software too. You can download a free office suite called “Neo Office,” which is a version of Open Office adapted to run on the Mac. If you haven’t tried Open Office or Neo Office yet, you absolutely should. It is basically a free clone of Microsoft Office. It provides almost the same exact functionality as Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint but is completely free.

For web browsing, there is Apple’s native browser called Safari, or of course, you can download Firefox. The Mini also comes with Apple’s creative suite called iLife, which has applications for making movies, DVD’s, cartoons, and music recordings. iLife is what I use, for example, to make my video reviews.

About the only thing that the Mini doesn’t do so well is play the latest PC games. First of all, most games will only run on Microsoft Windows anyway. However, one of the ways they got the Mini to be so small is by skimping on the graphics hardware. It’s plenty fast for HD video editing, but it’s terrible at any kind of 3d game.

Overall, I’ve found the Mac Mini to be an exciting introduction to Apple’s computer products. If you’re still not convinced you might be glad to know that you can install either Windows or Linux on the Mini. After using it for a few days, however, you’ll probably find that you have no reason to.

Although I am a huge Linux fan myself, I hadn’t thought it was really ready for the average person until recently. So, here’s the experiment: install Ubuntu Linux 6.10 on their computer as a dual-boot solution, and see how it goes. My friends are a perfect test case: they know how to use a computer but aren’t programmers or system admins. I think that Linux will work just fine for them, and solve all their spyware and “slow computer” problems.

If you’ve never tried Linux, or haven’t in a while, now is a good time to. I recommend Ubuntu specifically — It’s great for both beginners and experienced Linux users. It has very cool eye-candy (if you computer is new enough), a simple user interface, and a helpful user community. You can find videos of the installation online if you’re worried about what to expect. Also, a big benefit is that you can run Linux withough even installing it, or alternatively, you can install it so that when your computer boots you can choose whether to go into Windows or Linux (which is how I’ll set it up for my friends).

Today, Linux can do just about everything Windows can … the question is whether it can do it simply enough to not cause trouble for the average Windows user. That’s what I’ll find out after this weekend.

Here is why investors are wrong, and Red Hat really has nothing to worry about.

First of all, whether Oracle’s goals are to support their customers running Oracle on Linux, or to undermine Red Hat, the fact remains that Oracle really hasn’t been a player in the OS support business. More importantly, they don’t have a lot of experience contributing and working with the Open Source community. This is an area where personal contacts (like those built up by Red Hat since their inception) are the most important commodity.

You can go to lots of other web sites and read all about that sort of stuff, though. Want to know the real reason why Oracle won’t be stealing all of Red Hat’s business? Well, Oracle plans on taking Red Hat Enterprise Linux, stripping out all the logos (which is what Red Hat uses to enforce their licensing), and sell it as a renamed product, for less money.

But, here’s the interesting part. You can get the same exact thing for free already! The CentOS project exactly fits that description. They even provide all of Red Hat’s latest updates and security fixes, usually within hours of Red Hat releasing them. And yet, Red Hat is still around, despite the fact that this lower-cost competitor has been around for years. This shows that cost alone isn’t enough for customers to leave Red Hat, which is the critical hinge of Oracle’s strategy. Let’s not mention the not-very-well-thought-out logic that companies willing to pay for Oracle’s database software (which isn’t cheap) are not going to compromise on their Linux support just because of a few hundred dollar price savings.

Further, there are nothing but unknowns associated with switching to Oracle’s “Unbreakable” Linux. For example, they don’t support the full gamut of Red Hat products, like JBoss, GFS, or Directory Server. Companies requiring this functionality are out of luck, and would no longer have the option of even using them in the future. More importantly, given Oracle’s uncertainty with its Linux strategy in the past, who knows how long it’s going to be until they just scrap the whole product line, leaving their Linux customers who-knows-where? The smart CTO will stay away from this product offering.

So what does this news really mean? First, Larry Ellison is still unpredictable. Second, he seems to have some sort of grudge against Red Hat. And last, with their stock dropping 25% for no real reason, this is a good time to pick up some Red Hat options