Home of the World Famous Home Office Setup
A little while ago Sallie asked me to check out and test (well, review, really) Mozy 2.0 for Mac OSX. Since I had recently added Apple hardware (for initial experiences read this post)to the home office it made sense to give it a quick test. In retrospect it wasn’t a quick test but a rather long one because judging an online backup application requires some time to really look at what it’s doing and how it’s doing it.
The original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of all these models is Clevo, a company with a long history in creating some of the most powerful and amazing laptops you’ll ever see. They come with a somewhat high pricetag (almost 4200 Euros / US$5900 for the above configuration) and considerable weight and bulk but you certainly get a laptop that can compete with many a desktop and workstation. Especially considering that these laptop use the Intel i7 desktop processors and will support up to 3 harddisks (or SSD’s) and up to 12GB of RAM!
I have very little need for a SAN (Storage Area Network), because every single system is already loaded up with many terabytes of fast RAID storage. A SAN, regardless of the size, speed, and cost, would always be slower than the local storage of each system. However, if I wanted to centralize the storage for the systems in the network, whereby the systems themselves were smaller, less top-heavy computers, I would certainly be looking at something like StarWind Server or StarWind Enterprise Server (probably the latter because I like the replication features).
There are numerous websites and blogs out there that highlight Synergy while linking to my site and the pictures of my home office as an example. I am happy that I’ve been able to point out this incredibly useful software keyboard/mouse switch but the time has come to start pointing out the utility that is eclipsing Synergy and that tool is called Input Director. Development of Synergy has been on a long hiatus since April 2006 and there’s no sign of a new version. Combined with my experiences where Synergy randomly stops working when a Windows 7 slave system is part of the configuration has led me to give Input Director a try.
Two days later the second of these small APC backup UPC devices, an identical model, decided that the battery needed to be replaced (what, not even 3 years after initially installing them?). Except this UPS decided it wasn’t just unhappy but extremely pissed at me because instead of just sounding the beeping alarm and flashing the error lights it decided to temporarily, for about 5 seconds, pull the power from the server it was providing with current (it wasn’t running on batteries but on pass-through current).
OK, this is not really a restaurant review but it’s a place worth visiting if you’re ever in El Cerrito, California. What do you do for coffee in California? Go to Peets, of course. Unless you don’t care about coffee and how it should taste, in which case, people like that go to Starbucks. However, a rather interesting coffee place in El Cerrito, called Central Perk, is definitely worth a visit. The entire shop is filled with all sorts of toys, fun stuff, decorations, everything including a kitchen sink, basically. And everything you see in the store is for sale. Care to get one of those huge Sully characters from Monsters, Inc., well, at Central Perk you can. The place has closed since we’ve been there. Maybe we’re cursed?!
Cafe Maddalena, located in Dunsmuir’s historic district, was a very pleasant surprise while we were staying in Dunsmuir. We arrived early in the evening and went hunting for a place to eat and just by sheer chance ended up in front of where one of the locals passed by us and said the place was “always very good”. Personally I consider that an understatement because it was more than good. It was GREAT! The food was excellent and the staff was extremely kind and helpful. I’m not surprised that some food critics have said that Cafe Maddalena was one of the best restaurants in Northern California. I would definitely agree with that and that’s why they get the #2 spot on my personal favorites list. The presentation of the food had a lot going for it but the deserts were real works of art that tasted even better than they looked and I can tell you, they look amazing! I’m not a big fan of fish but the way that Cafe Maddalena did their grilled swordfish almost turned me into a fish lover, instantly.
This place was a surprising discovery that turned into a very pleasant one. While driving in the city we decided to just look for a place for dinner by doing a spot-check of “hey that looks good, let’s try it”. After driving around and feeling hungry while looking for a place to park we ended up at David’s Kitchen, a hole-in-the-wall place that didn’t have any clear ambiance or characteristics… other than the menu that looked to be interesting. Well, those are famous last words because the food was simply great and the ambiance is created mostly in part by it being a small place with a small kitchen with one cook (David) who works his butt off to create very tasty fresh food. According to David a lot of the locals know of the place and those make up the bulk of his customers and that he has some help from his sister and his mother when things get busy (you will have to be patient but it will be well worth it). I started off with the Half Moon Wraps which were Enoki mushrooms wrapped in thinly sliced beef in a black pepper sauce. Very very tasty!
By now you may figure out that I like Italian food a lot. And lots of it! Tonno Rosso was this incidental find we ended up for dinner at while being at the Embarcadero because we had planned to go to the Slanted Door (which unfortunately had a 5-week waiting list for reservations!!!). The food was very good and the service was prompt and quick. The place uses waiters and runners so when you ask for a another glass of wine the runner will tell the waiter who then comes over to the table again. This process may work out well, logistically, for the restaurant but does seem a little odd when the restaurant isn’t completely full. The food was good and the service was decent and effective. Not a place I will go out of my way for but definitely a place that should be on my recommended list… and so it is. Unfortunately, it’s now closed.
Roy’s is a Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine. A very innovative, surprising, and excellent place to go for food that is quite different. All food comes as a presentation of a work of art where a lot of effort is put into the balance between looks and taste. Lots of good medium priced wines and really interesting and tasty food if you want to try something you may not have had before. The ambiance lacks the romantic feel but the overall feel fits in perfectly with the food.
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