Archive for January 30th, 2011

Slowly getting back into shooty goodness…

January 30th, 2011 / / 8 comments

My shooting activities have been next to non-existent since before we sold our old house. I let my range membership lapse (hadn’t been happy since they brought in that mandatory “buddy-system” rule) at the Guelph Rod and Gun Club and had only been out shooting a few times as a guest of others who had range memberships.

You’ll be pleased to know that I am now again a member at a gun club, and am also in the process of learning the ins and outs of reloading.

As a consequence I’ll be selling off a few of my boomsticks to finance the acquisition of a more accurate long gun, and appropriate scopes for both it and my Norinco M14S.

At the moment I’m thinking my VZ-58, Mossberg 500 and the S&W Model 14 on the way out, and a Remington 700 in .308 on the way in, along with some name brand glass.

More on that as items actually disappear from the gun cabinet.

NAS – WLX652R USB Network Server

January 30th, 2011 / / 5 comments

WLX652 USB Network ServerA stand alone NAS using multiple USB HDDs, providing UPnP/DLNA service and a bit torrent client for under $50CDN, the WLX652 USB Network Server bills itself as the piece of hardware for the job, but is it?

At a cost of $40CDN shipped the units description suggested it would easily deliver all the features that I needed right out of the box with no hassle on my part. Sadly the reality entirely failed to live up to the promises, and worse the units hardware had been “upgraded” and the firmware could no longer be easily updated with a third party solution.

The unit appears incapable of running for more than 48 hours without requiring a manual power cycle to clear some sort of catastrophic failure.

While it does what it says, and it required much less hacking than my “in use” NAS, the reliability is just not there. I would not recommend this unit to those shopping around for options.

(annoyingly detailed information on this NAS below the cut, continue at your own peril)

» Read more..

Got the home network admin blues…

January 21st, 2011 / / 2 comments

I was about ready to trash the Network Attached Storage devices and their attendant media servers when I observed a strange message flash on the corner of the screen while I was playing a PS3 game.

“The network cable is not attached”

Over the two hours I was playing the game the same message flashed twice more. Now as I was not playing online I really wasn’t concerned about internet connectivity issues (which is what I believed this was), but as I went back later to resolving the stuttering and freezing issues with multimedia playback it occured to me that this random disconnection issue was probably exactly what I was hunting for.

You see the backbone of our home network is a 2wire 2701 modem/router arrangement, and while this has carried the burden for a few years now I supposed it is possible that it is starting to give up the ghost.

I still have a couple of Dlink routers in my random electronics box, and I’ve just ordered another DSL modem, so I’ll swap the pieces around and see if there is still a problem.

Might be able to leave the NAS stuff as it is after all.

Ethical Business Practices, or not…

January 17th, 2011 / / 3 comments

I spend some time trolling the inter-webs looking at alarm stuff, and I’m always pleasantly surprised to find people helping others, like at the DIY Alarm Forum. Of course the other end of the spectrum isn’t hard to find either.

For example, take a look at Canada Home Alarm Reviews, browse for thirty seconds and it’s clear that in the words of Sesame Street, “One of these things is not like the others”.

Lets review:

  • ADT Dealer – MHB Security – 16 reviews, most of them 5 star
  • Voxcom Security – 4 reviews, all three stars or lower
  • Sears Home Alarm – 1 review, negative
  • The Monitoring Centre – 1 review, negative
  • Reliance Protectron Security – 5 reviews, all negative

See a pattern here? Yeah, it doesn’t take an expert to see that site is hardly an impartial review site as it presents itself, rather it looks like a shill site meant to direct traffic to MHB Security.

The reviews appear to be taken from Alarm System Reviews, but strangely any positive reviews from each of the non-MHB providers are absent. It seems clear that the reviews have been “cherry-picked” to cast the non-MHB providers in the worst possible light.

An alarm company advertising it’s own services is not unethical, but creating a site that appears to host “impartial” reviews is questionable at best, and downright sneaky at worst. I’m sure their ethical shortcomings are limited to their advertising practices however, and not their business dealings.

Right?

Uh, this is going to end well.

January 6th, 2011 / / 2 comments

So like 10 points for community spirit, but like -100 for good planning, no?

Interac – The easier way to get hosed.

January 4th, 2011 / / 2 comments

I haven’t used my debit card for POS purchases in years. When I did use it regularly my card was compromised three times, with one instance resulting in my HSBC account being frozen for thirty days and my having to swear an affidavit at my own expense attesting that I did not make the withdrawls myself.

I no longer do business with HSBC either as a result of this incident.

This commercial bothers me because as a consumer we do not have any protection when our bank cards are compromised. Read the fine print carefully, and it is clear that should the bank decide to wash its hands of your case they can (the fact that they typically make good on losses is customer service driven, they DO NOT have to as your PIN is considered your electronic signature).

Unlike credit cards which typically have a zero liability guarantee in the case of fraudulent transactions, debit means your bank account (along with your pre-authorized debits, direct deposits and cheques) may be interupted, frozen or closed due to an incident.

It happened to me because I was an uninformed consumer. These days I’ve taken pains to compartmentalize my banking, and to limit my exposure in the event my information is compromised.

Home Network – Sorting the Clutter

January 1st, 2011 / / 6 comments

So, as we enter a new year in our new home the level of civilization is approaching a more comfortable level. The walls are filling with a variety of cables, and the main distribution point in the basement is filling up quick.

Of particular concern is the networking corner, where clutter is rapidly becoming an issue.

Home Network

1 – 2TB Simple Drive External HDD
2 – VoIP Modem
3 – DSL Modem
4 – Media Server / NAS
5 – 1.5TB WD External HDD
6 – 8 Port Network Hub
7 – Media Server / NAS (Testing)
8 – UPS

Things are becoming a little cluttered, and I’m trying to figure out a more space effective means of storing these items. At the moment I’m simply looking at a two shelf arrangement from Home Depot.

I really didn’t think I’d have to explore rack mounted options for my little home network.

Any suggestions?

 
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