Yesterday was one of those holidays that makes people love Fry’s. Bunch of one day specials, like a free Belkin 802.11g wireless router (in store $30 with $30 rebate) and five DVDs for $13 (although the selections all came from a pool of truly horrid movies). I was hoping to get one of the routers but they were gone by the time we got there around 11:30. I did get an Olympia 5.8GHz phone that was also free on the $30 upfront with a $30 rebate.
I also picked up a really cool network attached drive from Ximeta; price was $179 with $70 in rebates (I’ve seen it today on the web priced at $149). That is, the thing lives on the network and attaches directly to the router meaning that, unlike our printer, the files on it are accessible to either computer even if the other is turned off. The device also sports a USB connection so that if I need to take it on the road I can connect it to the laptop and still have simple connectivity.
After the recent upset with my laptop losing its hard drive, I’ve been working on a strong, practical backup scheme for LittleSteven and Twiggy. I’m giving Eazy Backup a good workout in anticipation of some very nice features (particularly synchronization) in the version due very soon. The stuff is simple, works well and the developer is very responsive–a definite plus to patronizing small developers.
When I saw the deal on this drive, the attraction was instant. I had been using TS1’s Twiggy as my backup drive, with mine as her’s, but this seems like a better choice especially if there’s a need for taking the files away. A little bit of an issue with the removal of some adware on her PC and older drivers on the Ximeta CD which needed replacement by one found on their support pages and that was that. Very nice.
BillSaysThis 