Category: 沒有類 / Uncategorized

USB Disk Enclosures

I’ve been pretty into USB external disk enclosures for a while now. They are a pretty cheap and flexible way to do something with those old hard disks that are still big enough to be useful, but small enough that you’ve already upgraded the internal drives to something bigger. And with USB 2.0, performance isn’t much of an issue any more. I have a few of them now, but I’ve never quite been completely happy with the features until now. Today I bought a Fotocom CD 350 enclosure that’s just about exactly what I want in an enclosure:

Fotocom CD 350

(Unfortunately while the Fotocom website has an English version, it only has this item in the Chinese section.)

So before I mention why I like this one, let’s review what I don’t like about others:

– Plastic: Most enclosures are mostly or entirely plastic. This probably makes it cheaper, but it makes it feel cheap, and plastic doesn’t act as a heatsink like metal does. The metal ones I’ve seen usually lack some of the other critical features.

– Inconvenient power switch, or no power switch: Surprisingly, many drive enclosures don’t have a power switch at all. If you want to turn it off, you unplug it. Those that do have power switches usually put them on the rear of the enclosure. Then they compound this problem by making the switch small and difficult to turn on/off unless you pick up the enclosure and turn it around. There’s relatively few drives that actually put a switch on the front on the case.

– No power/activity lights, or poorly placed ones: One of my enclosures has the power/activity light at the rear side of the enclosure, which makes it hard to see. Some enclosures don’t have any indicator lights. One of my enclosures goes overboard by having four LEDs on the front panel for power, hard disk activity, usb link, and fan power.

– Wimpy fan or no fan: Taiwan gets hot in the summertime, and disk drives can put off quite a bit of heat. So it is surprising that a lot of enclosures don’t provide any active ventilation. Those that do have a fan usually have a tiny one that’s less than an inch big, that can’t possibly move all that much air through the enclosure.

– Inflexible orientation: Most enclosures are designed to either stand vertical in a stand or lie flat on the desk, but not both.

So here’s what I like about the Fotocom CD 350: The majority of the case is cast aluminum. It has a big 8cm fan for cooling, and you can actually feel the airflow coming from the vent. It has a front panel power switch, and a front panel LED that shows both power and disk activity (solid on when powered and idle, blinking when there is disk activity). It also has feet for horizontal orientation AND a cast aluminum stand for vertical orientation. Besides that, it also looks cool without being garish. As for drawbacks, because of the larger fan, the case is noticeably thicker than others. Also the screws on the side are hidden by rubber covers that seem a bit flimsy. And it costs a bit more than other USB enclosures. I bought mine for just under US$45.

(They also make variations: the CD 351 includes a security dongle which must be plugged in to be able to access the drive; the CD 352 has both USB and Firewire capability, and the CD 350 Ultra has a backlit LCD temperature display on the front panel. Because many Taiwanese products are produced as OEM items, this may be sold under different brands and model numbers.)

Pandas will solve everything

One of the tangible results of KMT party chairman Lien Chan’s recent PRC trip was an offer of a pair of Pandas for the Taipei zoo. Offers of the rare and endangered animals has been a popular diplomatic tool for the PRC government over time, so it’s interesting to see them try to use it in what they call a domestic issue.

Meanwhile, nuttiness abounds over on this side of the strait. When Lien Chan embarked on his trip, protesters practically had a riot at the airport on the basis that Mr. Lien was committing treason by going to talk to Chinese Communist Party officials. While the ruling DPP party has softened their stance (supposedly under US pressure), the TSU party continues to slam the trip as illegal. Though, even on the DPP side, Premier Frank Hsieh has recently characterized peace talks as illegal.

All in all, there’s way too much antagonism on the part of the various parties here. If the KMT can go and talk to the PRC, the DPP should try to go one step further instead of trying to just fling mud. And if the KMT manages to negotiate some good benefits, those benefits should be welcomed, not rejected because you don’t like the negotiator. And calling progress towards peace illegal is just plain nutty.

Change in weather

The weather is getting hot. I’ve had to actually start turning on the air conditioner, though mostly at night. I have trouble sleeping at night if it’s too hot, but I can usually stand a bit of heat during the day when I’m up and around. I’ve had a bit of a runny nose and watery eyes for a few days. I think it must be allergies because that’s the only symptoms I have. It’s also been raining pretty heavily in the late afternoon and evening. Last night and tonight we’ve had some pretty good thunder and lightning along with the rain.

I had to go around and fix some of the air conditioners tonight because their IR sensors got out of alignment. They’ve actually been that way for a while, with the result that you need to go put the remote right up to the sensor to change the settings. So much for the convenience of a remote. But one of them stopped working completely, so I popped off the top and found out the problem, and once knowing how to fix it, I had to go around and fix the other ones as well. Also one of the remotes got busted because the reset key got wedged. So now I know a little about air conditioners.

But the good news about the warm weather is that it is now Mango season. Man, I love mangoes. The last couple of days my wife has made mango juice and I think I’ve been drinking about 3 large glasses a day. Mostly because I haven’t had mango for months, so I have to make up for lost time a bit. And man oh man are Taiwan mangoes good! Mmm mmm.

And before I forget again, I thought I’d mention I’ll be in the US May 17-June 1. See you then!

Personal urinal

I recall having a conversation about this somewhere. Wouldn’t it be great if you had a urinal at home in your bathroom? No more issues with whether the seat is up or down or whatever, no issues with aiming correctly, and you can save time too! Well, yesterday we went to visit my wife’s friend’s new house in Taoyuan. And what do you know, in their main bathroom they have both a toilet and a urinal. And not only that, but it was one of those fancy kinds with the auto-flush censor. If I ever have the opportunity to remodel or build a house, there’s gonna be a urinal in at least one of the bathrooms.

Asian countries promise to get tough on spam

On Wednesday, several Asian countries got together and signed a multilateral MOU (memorandum of understanding) pledging them to cooperate in cracking down on spam. While there’s not much beyond a general agreement, this is a positive step.

http://www.minister.dcita.gov.au/media/media_releases/asia-pacific_cooperation_on_spam

F&SF fixes things

Hey look, they changed it to TAIWAN REPUBLIC OF CHINA:

—

April 28, 2005

James Lick
52, 1F Zhong Yuan Street
TAIPEI 104-69
TAIWAN
REPUBLIC OF CHINA
jlick@drivel.com

Dear Mr. Lick:

Thank you for letting me know about the error.

We’ll send replacement copies of your March and April issues and we’ll fix your address in our system. Sorry about the error.

Sincerely,

Andrew Grossman
Circulation Manager
Fantasy & Science Fiction