Category: Reviews

Review: Linksys NAS200

Posted by Inferno – December 6, 2008

Linksys Network Storage System with 2 Bays (NAS200)

Linksys Network Storage System with 2 Bays (NAS200)

while ago but only a few posts ago I discussed how I had ordered a Linksys NAS200, and I had high hopes, which were a bit downed by poor reviews by others but I was pleasantly surprised with it’s performance.  The price is a bit more than an external USB encloser but I wanted storage that would be network-wide and easily upgradable.  The NAS200 is just that, it supports two drive bays, with SATA2 and SATA backwards compatibility (be sure to move the jumper on your harddrive, as most are set for just plain SATA out of the box).

Some Cool Features (The Good):

  • Network attached, so you don’t need to find some crazy way to hookup a USB network or filesharing through another PC that has to stay on in order for your storage to work.
  • Supports the addition of USB2 drives, for additional storage to be added to your network.
  • Supports FTP and HTTP protocols over the network and Internet for easy off-site filesharing.
  • Built in media server, so you can share media to UPnP AV digital media adapters  (like the Xbox 360, so I can access my movies, music and pictures).
  • Web based management for easy setup and the less technically inclined.  Also worth noting this can be managed off-site, great if you need to add storage to your parents network that you can safely watch over and backup.
  • Price is very competitive.
  • Supports individual, JBOD, RAID 0 and RAID 1.
  • Comes with client backup software.

The Bad:

  • Seems slow to wake-up, when opening windows explorer it’ll hang for about 5 seconds while the NAS’s drive spins up.
  • Slower data transfer rate than I expected from Linksys.  People have clocked it at 3.9mb/s at best.  It’s never really been an issue for me though, but just FYI.
  • During disk scans and power up the NAS will be unresponsive for several minutes.  Not a big deal if you don’t power it off regularly, or schedule disk scans at bad times.
  • Additional USB disks need to be reformatted before they can be mounted.

That’s about it.  Overall I’m quite happy with my purchase, I do feel Linksys dropped the ball though on not adding polish and fixing that data transfer rate.  I use to think Linksys was a good name for quality consumer networking appliances but since their apparently lack of effort on the NAS200 and their failure to update the Linksys router firmware which lead me to using Tomato firmware I’ve changed my mind.  I’ve never had issues with my D-Link hardware.

But I digress.  If you need an affordable backup NAS and don’t mind the slower speed of the transfer rate and the minor kinks, you really can’t go wrong with using the Linksys NAS200.  If you have extra cash to burn for no other reaosn than to get something shiny, or you need quick write-speeds then maybe it isn’t for you.

More Images:

Linksys NAS200 Front Panel.

Linksys NAS200 Front Panel.

Linksys NAS200 Back Panel.

Linksys NAS200 Back Panel.

Review: DD-WRT Vs Tomato

Posted by Inferno – December 5, 2008

Linksys WRT54GL: New Heart of My Network

Linksys WRT54GL: The new heart of my network.

Since I bought my new Linksys WRT-54GL router (one of the three new goodies I picked up, reviews and news coming soon) I’ve been using DD-WRT. Originally I was a bit worried about mucking around in the firmware, since the router was working quite well. That was until I tried to grab some stuff off bittorrent, and noticed the speed was incredibly slow, which turns out to be a linksys firmware bug they never fixed. Instant courage.

I was quite overwhelmed with all the cool new features of my router, and was even thinking about setting up an free (possibly ad-sponsored) wifi hotspot. However I was still disappointed in the performance of the router, and DD-WRT seemed large and bulky.  However I had it working to the point where I rarely had an issue, and was pretty happy with DD-WRT unless I thought about it too much.

A few weeks ago though, I’ve found Tomato.  It was in some unrelated Reddit discussion about bittorrent destroying the Internet because they’re using UDP instead of TCP now, you know, garbage.  Upon reading up on Tomato firmware though it seemed to be much more sleek and performance orientated than it’s DD-WRT cousin.  It contained all the basic features you’d need to run a nice personal network or even a small business network (depending on your needs) and not really any useless filler.  This was precisely what I wanted, I’ve always been a performance over features sort of guy anyway.  So I downloaded the firmware AFTER reading the manual and FAQ which is a good idea if you’re upgrading from DD-WRT, it’ll save you a headache when you attempt to login for the first time.

Tomato's basic network settings.

Tomato's Basic Network Settings

Tomato's Bandwidth Monitor (Realtime view)

Tomato's Bandwidth Monitor (Realtime)

As you can see, bittorrent is working.

As you can see, bittorrent is working.

So after installing the Tomato firmware (which was extremely painless, just a straight firmware upgrade through the web GUI) and a reset to default settings then  I was up and running.  I was giddy at this point, scrambling through all the pages admiring the awesomeness of the power I had (I’m sure any geek who gets a new gadget knows what I mean; never lingering on any one feature till you’ve seen them all).  After I calmed down a little I started configuring options, including Quality of Service (Qos), Port Forwarding, DNS addresses and Access Restrictions (to block sites I waste time on when I should be working) etc.  Then I was done.

I’ve now been running Tomato firmware for a few weeks, I have yet to have any issue.  I’ve setup a samba share for it to save it’s bandwidth logs, because I love graphs and it has a built in Common Internet File System Client (CIFS) built-in making it easy.  I’m in love with this firmware, and anybody using anything else really has to give it at least a shot, and if you like it donate to them.

Download Tomato Firmware.

More screenshots:

Tomato's Wireless Survey Tool.

Tomato's Wireless Survey Tool.

Tomato's Qos Graphs. Mmmm...

Tomato's Qos Graphs. Mmmm...

Tomato's QoS Classification Settings

Tomato's QoS Classification Settings.

I Love PBS’s Nova TV Series

Posted by Inferno – November 13, 2008

For those of you who have never heard of the science-based show that airs on PBS, Nova is the end-all of all science shows.  I’ve known about it for years, and even watched several as a kid but didn’t start really appreciating it until about a year or two ago.

Nova's Logo

Nova's Logo: A Symbol for Quality Science Television

I think the reason why I’m drawn to it so much, is the fact that they give you a lot of information, perhaps too much at times, but they do so without a bias.  I think I really fell in love with Nova when I saw their episode on “Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial“.  I had just started to really begin getting into Religious Studies, watching the Atheist Experience every Monday before work.  This episode was right up my alley, and was more than a great test for bias in ideaology, scientific method and investigation or dogma and ignorance.

When it first started, and they discussed Intelligent Design, they made it seem like Dogma (which is is) but they didn’t counter any of the arguments, although it would have been easy.  I began to question the nondiscriminatory unbiased nature of the show I had come to expect, but decided to stick it out as I was curious if maybe I was on the wrong side of the fence on the issue and could learn a thing or two (in case I was being the one who was bias).  In the end though after 30-45 minutes or so, they began to expose all the flaws that really broke the failed hypothesis of Intelligent Design (Most of which were in the courtroom as to remain on topic as you could devote a lifetime to debunking Intelligent Design and it’s genre of false science).  My ‘faith’ in the show was restored.

This was a serious turning point for me, as I started an automatic recording of the show on my DVR.  I’ve seen every episode since the November showing.  Everything from Fractal mathematics to Bose-Einstein Condensates.  I owe a lot to this show in just this small amount of time.  The best part being that it’s on PBS a Non-profit Broadcasting network, who accepts donations!  Unfortunately I haven’t had any spare cash to donate as of yet, mostly because my life is in a bit of a bind with me trying to figure out my overall goal in life, and trips to see my wife’s family but this is another story.

If you haven’t seen the show, or for whatever reason you haven’t been watching it as religiously as I have, I urge you to pick it up.  You can even watch their shows online if you can’t get them on TV and I’m sure you can get torrents of them (which I may do to see back-episodes).

There is so much about this show that I enjoy that I know I’m rambling quite chaotically.  For insatnce during the show on Hugh Everett‘s son called “Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives” they talk about how Mark Everett has all these boxes in his basement with his father’s things he’s never gone through.  They show them digging through some boxes, and on the bottom right, they invite you to view some original documents by visiting PBS.org which I’ve linked to here.

Nova is a great way to gain at least a basic knowledge of almost any topic.  They give you the tools and instructions to increase your knowledge on said topic, if you feel you want to, and its non-profit and seemingly unbiased.  I can’t think of anything better.  Good job guys, keep up the good work.

Also, don’t be afraid to search for Nova on Google Video, for some great stuff!

Review: WhatPulse

Posted by Inferno – August 8, 2008

Not many people know about WhatPulse, and I’m not too surprised.  I can’t even remember how I came across it, however I’m glad I have.  Whatpulse is basically a keylogger or rootkit, except it doesn’t actually care what you type (as this information is not recorded), only the fact that you clicked the mouse, or pressed a key.  It then counts all these clicks and key presses and generates stats.

WhatPulse generates a running total of clicks and keypresses into different categories of your choosing.

WhatPulse generates a running total of clicks and keypresses into different categories of your choosing.

It’s quite amazing how many buttons I push on the average day, and I find it interesting to follow along and use these statistics as a basic form of productivity tracking.  Although it leaves much to be desired.

Seeing as how the program uses practically no resources, that it allows teams and lets you have categories such as ‘blogging’ and ‘forums’ the possibilities are near-endless.  It’s definitely worth a look if you’ve ever wondered on your wordcount or in this case, keycount or if your just stress-testing your keyboard out of boredom.

On an related note, feel free to join the Freedom-Uplink Team.  It has no real purpose (much like Freedom-Uplink itself), but would be interesting to see.

Review: Atheist Experience

Posted by Inferno – March 28, 2008

The Atheist Experience is a live weekly call-in public access television show broadcasting from Austin, TX that has been taking up a lot of my time as of late. Mind you since you only really need the audio, you can turn it on and go about your business while still fully enjoying the program.

While the show is geared towards explaining the atheist stance to theists, a lot can still be learned and entertainment is to be had as a hoard of religious and non-religious callers alike call in to explain their stance on the whole “debate”. Week after week, all the callers failing to provide any proof or substance to the reasoning behind their blind faith.

The show generally begins with a brief overview of material of the day’s topic from a variety of co-hosts. Then the phone lines are opened for rebuttals or just general chit-chat and usually hilarity of some sort will ensue. However don’t be fooled, this show isn’t completely about entertainment but for education for those who don’t understand the atheist stance (Simply: Atheists don’t BELIEVE in God). It’s also a great tool for atheists who wish to learn more about holding ones ground when debating with a theist (as if it wasn’t easy enough already).

Although the circular reasoning and the never ending barrage of the same questions over and over can become tiring, it’s all made up for by the people who call in to honestly ask why is it that we don’t all die when the sun goes down, and the fact that we don’t is adequate proof to justify the existence of a God. Another gem from the same caller is why we don’t get electrocuted when we take a shower if in fact our body creates energy from the food matter we eat, as he believed we were powered by God.

I’ve decided to include a YouTube clip of just one caller who seems to believe that it takes just as much faith if not more to not believe in God, than it does to not believe. We’ll see what happens, I might also note that the YouTube Comments are quite entertaining as well.

All in all it’s a great show, and after just a few episodes I’m sure you’ll be just as hooked.

Website: http://www.atheist-experience.com/

Blog: http://atheistexperience.blogspot.com/

Edit:

A lot of people viewing this post ahve been looking for the clip of the caller who tried to argue why we don’t all die when the sun goes down, and also brought up why we don’t get electrocuted in the shower because our bodies store energy in them:

Review: Portal

Posted by Inferno – January 8, 2008

I have finally finished Portal which is one of the five games included in Half-Life 2′s Orange Box. If you haven’t picked up a copy, I strongly urge you to either buy it, or at very least rent it. It’s unlike any game you have played and has quite unusual gameplay that makes for a very entertaining experience.

For those of you unaware of the plotline it goes as follows:

You awake to find yourself in a room, a computer talking to you stating that you have been selected to run through some tests. Once the tests are completed you will be bathed, then there will be cake. You are then given a gun, that allows you to shoot an entrance and exit portal, and you proceed to solve increasingly complex puzzle rooms.
Pretty simple, and although the plotline is not very deep and you can guess that everything doesn’t go quite as planned, it makes for a very memorable game. Who doesn’t like delicious cake after all?

One of my favorite parts of this game however is the end credits. I feel that the way they display them and give a sort of epilogue at the same time is genius to say the least, and what makes it even more awesome, is that it’s all expressed in song. It really shows Valve had fun making this release.

I have included a video of the end credits, however it does contain spoilers, and although I don’t feel that they ruin the gameplay experience at all as the plot is so transparent, you may want to decide to play through the game to see them, as it’ll probably make them seem that much better.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.