this is not the droid you are looking for.

/stupid pun

so… the fanboys have come out of the closet proclaiming the death of the iphone. hell… even verizons ads are taking shots directly at apple. so… whats all this crap about?

simply put… hardware specs. it has some of the best specs in the business. arguably, even better than the jesusphone iphone.

so… naturally, being new tech… i was interested. but no way im switching back to verizon (the people shouting from the rooftops about verizons “best network” are full of it. they have taken a big sip of the verizon cool-aid. i was with verizon for 3 years….. the coverage is a myth. they have the same shortcomings EVERY carrier does.)

so, i have a buddy that works as a regional rep for verizon… and he is CONSTANTLY showing me phones that are slated to be the next iphone killer. and all have failed. but today….guess what i was “privledged enough” (i write that with a small dose of laughing) to put my hands on today? thats right… the precious iphone slaying “droid”.

one word sums it up better than anything else i can think of, and this is a completely subjective take… all apple fanboyism aside……

FAIL.

and its for one simple reason: the keyboard is not only fucking horrendous… its just flat out unusable. if you have even medium sized hands, you will not be able to type AT ALL on this thing. within 5 seconds of use, i was already about to throw it through the wall. there is no forgiveness with the physical keyboard… it cant predict what you meant to type like a soft keyboard can. so immediately, well over 50% of the phone weight (and it IS heavy for a phone) and bulk are ruled out as garbage.

but… taking it further than that… ive heard all about “multitasking” and how great it is. yep… except, the droid doesnt truly multitask. it gives the impression that it does… meaning that background services can run, but as i was sitting there, my buddy got a call. i was browsing when the call came in. i hand him the phone to answer, and he denies the call and hands it back to me. my browser window = gone. it doesnt even remember what page i was viewing when i open it back up. how exactly is that multitasking?

the soft keyboard is decent…. but nowhere near as forgiving as the iphones. but, im sure with some getting used to… it might work. but then… if you are wanting this phone, its probably going to have a little to do with the physical keyboard.

verdict: its not going to make anyone jump ship from their current carrier the way the iphone has. no way. no how. if you are on verizon though, its worth a look. its the best smartphone they have. however, compared to the rest of their “smart”phone lineup… thats like being the fastest kid at the special olympics…. you’re still retarded.

but, thats just my opinion. feel free to tell me im wrong. (ps: you’re wrong).

so… i was in dire need of expansion. we’ve gotten a lot of new clients in the last couple of months, and as a result, have increased the amount of crap i have here stored. i have plenty of internal storage… but up until this point, was running half as live, and the other half as onsite backup.

so.. the issue: i have 6tb of internal storage to backup (right now… that may soon grow)… and needed to build something large enough to encompass it all with room to grow. at the same time… not cost me a fucking arm and two legs.

the goal: find something that would give me TONS of space (minimum 8tb, preferably expandable), for less than $1500.

so i started researching last week. i looked at a drobo first (as well as a drobo pro)… there are just too many issues that ive seen with it and time machine to be a viable option. as well, ive got a real hangup about using a proprietary system that only THEY can restore. no thanks. added to that… fw800 is the fastest thing available… and its just a no brainer… pass.

then i started looking at other external drives… the only other thing i could find in a ‘prebuilt’ solution was the lacie quadra (and quadra stack). it has a lot of pluses going for it… removable drives… no proprietary bullshit… simple, effective, and ready to go out of the box. the ONLY downside…. the price tag. to just get by with enough space, i would have to go with the 8tb 4big model… and the avg price on that thing online is around $1700. ouch. i would still have to buy an esata controller as well (or run it through fw800… which is ok, but moving that much data, its just not feasible)

so i decided i was going to have to build my own array. i started looking at all the options out there… external raid arrays in all shapes and sizes. the end result: a sans digital tr5m1 towerraid. there are bigger options out there (they have an 8 bay model) but most limit to 5 drives in the array, and more than that starts to put too much load on the controller anyway. but it fit my needs… 5 bays, esata, quiet, and hot swappable. its best feature… the pricetag. only $199 at frys. the only issue: the supplied controller is shit. it runs off of a sil3132 chipset that has spotty 64bit support, and ZERO snow leopard support. but, at $199, it was still a good deal, even without the controller.

so… i started looking around at the options for esata controllers. there were only two to choose from that stated explicitly they supported 64 bit, and more importantly, snow leopard. sonnet and highpoint. after looking at the specs and speed comparisons, i went with the highpoint rocketraid esata for mac. it works perfectly.

so… after all the components were decided upon, i went after my plan. purchased the sans digital 5 bay enclosure, the highpoint controller, and 5 x 2tb hard drives:
raid array, raid controller, and hard drives. (all links point to items at newegg)

grand total: $1,340.92

so i saved around $550 over the lacie option, and got an extra 2tb worth of storage in the process. and, should i need to in the future, i can duplicate this process using the same card, for right at $1k (giving me 20tb of storage).

it may not be the most “professional” solution… but it accomplished my needs, and did so WELL within the budget i wanted. mission accomplished.

it seems someone is doing something right… while someone else, is not.

yesterday, microsoft announced much lower than expected returns, and is struggling to keep afloat. they blame the economy.. but vista cannot be ruled out either. either way… its going to cost them 5,000 jobs. 1,400 of which were laid off yesterday.

ballmers email:

As part of the process of adjustments, we will eliminate up to 5,000 positions in R&D, marketing, sales, finance, LCA, HR, and IT over the next 18 months, of which 1,400 will occur today. We’ll also open new positions to support key investment areas during this same period of time. Our net headcount in these functions will decline by 2,000 to 3,000 over the next 18 months. In addition, our workforce in support, consulting, operations, billing, manufacturing, and data center operations will continue to change in direct response to customer needs.

and you would think that the economy would be killing just about everyone, right? not so. apple just released their quarterlies, which set a company record.

so what do we take from this? while the economy is definitely in a detrimental state… quality still reigns supreme. people are still willing to save up, and buy products that actually work.