Hot Products

Newest Drobo Storage Device from Data Robotics

Posted in Hot Products on April 7th, 2009 by admin – Be the first to comment

Data Robotics’ Drobo “storage robot” has proven to be a hit among consumers, with the company selling more than 60,000 of the automated storage devices during the past 18 months. Now Data Robotics hopes to capture a new audience–creative professionals and IT managers–with the latest addition to the Drobo line.

Announced Tuesday, the DroboPro offers more drives, more capacity, and more versatility to the user than the original storage device. The new eight-drive system can connect to your computer via USB 2.0, FireWire 800, and now iSCSI. Dual disk redundancy, “smart” expanding volumes, and new triple interface versatility also highlight DroboPro’s features.

Data Robotics has steadily improved each iteration of Drobo with every launch. The original Drobo unit offered only USB 2.0 connectivity; the company added FireWire 800 connectivity to the 2008 model. This new addition to the Drobo family sports an Ethernet port to allow for an iSCSI connection between the DroboPro and your Mac’s Gigabit Ethernet port or to a network server.

Unlike the DroboShare, a companion product that allows you to share your first- or second-generation Drobo as network-attached storage (NAS), you can’t directly share the DroboPro over your network. But you can share the DroboPro’s drives over your network through a host computer.

According to Marc Fuccio, Data Robotics’ senior director of products and markets, the Drobo dashboard program will install an initiator and configure the DroboPro for Mac quickly and easily. The DroboPro’s iSCSI connection is designed to allow for fast block level data transfer between a Mac and the DroboPro. No special cable or card is required.

The DroboPro also offers “smart volumes,” a feature aimed at small businesses and IT managers who worry about properly estimating departmental capacity requirements during setup. When you create a volume on DroboPro, it will start small and grow as needed, eliminating capacity guesswork. Users won’t have to resize or migrate volumes. Instead, smart volumes pull storage from the common pool of disk space rather than a physical disk allocation. A light will turn on when you need to feed the Drobo a new drive to further grow a volume.

Drobo uses a simplified RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) technology to protect against drive failure. The device has slots for up to eight Serial ATA (SATA) hard drives that are hot-swappable, self-monitored, and self-managing.

The DroboPro can store up to 16TB of data. Drives do not have to have matching capacities, so you can pop in virtually any drive you have laying around. If a drive were to fail, you can swap in a new drive without losing any data. With a click of a button, the new DroboPro allows for dual disk redundancy and protection against two simultaneous drive failures. The DroboPro fits on your desktop or can be rack mounted with the optional DroboPro Rack Mount (3U).

DroboPro retains its predecessors’ easy-to-understand light system. A blue LED display tells you in 10 percent increments how much storage space the Drobo has left.

Data Robotics sells the DroboPro in its base configuration without drives for $1,299. You can also buy a DroboPro that comes prepopulated with drives of your specification, though that’ll cost you more.

Fuccio sees the DroboPro as ideal for professional users who have large amounts of video and audio data, and therefore ever-pressing storage needs. In fact, he credits the “continued demand from the creative community” as one reason why the Drobo line has been so successful.

The company is taking orders now, with the DroboPro shipping shortly.

The Keyring Breathalyzer

Posted in Hot Products on April 7th, 2009 by admin – Be the first to comment

Times are very hard for most of us now, and we have to find ways of making our money stretch. That does not mean that we have to stop spending altogether, we just have to become cleverer at what we buy and when we buy it. Each day we will search for some great deals, which we will call a recession antidote. Our first is this Ashley Collection 2419-7 Protocol Keyring Breathalyzer.

As we work harder to make our money, we always need to go out and let our hair down, it is a great way of dealing with stress for some people, I would not know that, as I do not drink alcohol. For those of you who do worry that you could be over the limit, and not know if it is safe to drive home.

If I did drink I would always choose not to ever drive home, it is just not worth the risk. For those of you who feel that you have just had a little alcohol and worry if you are over the limit or not, then the Keyring Breathalyzer is ideal.

The device measures the amount of alcohol on your breath, this is done with its oxidized semiconductor that measures blood alcohol content (BAC) in seconds. All you need to do is blow in the sensor for around 3 seconds. The device will then report if f your BAC is low (less than .05%), borderline (.05% to .08%), or legally intoxicated (greater than .08%).

I bought a drobo and three seagate 1.5tb drives.Dorbo website says I need to upgrade the firware on the drives?

Posted in Hot Products on April 6th, 2009 by admin – 1 Comment
Geoffrey R asked:


I have only laptops in the house.Can I update the firmware on the hard drives while in the drobo and connected to my laptop?

Can i install an OS on my drobo?

Posted in Hot Products on April 4th, 2009 by admin – 1 Comment
Don Carlo asked:


I have a Drobo and I was wondering if I can install anOS on it and STILL use it as what it’s meant for.

GM Segway / GM Puma a very interesting vehicle

Posted in Hot Products on April 2nd, 2009 by admin – Be the first to comment

General Motors Corp. is teaming with Segway Inc., maker of the upright, self-balancing scooters, to build a new type of two-wheeled vehicle designed to move easily through congested urban streets.

The machine, which GM says it aims to develop by 2012, would run on batteries and use wireless technology to avoid traffic backups and navigate cities.

The struggling auto maker, surviving on a government lifeline, is looking to generate enthusiasm for its increasingly uncertain future ahead of the New York auto show this week.

GM has slashed product-development programs, advertising and spending on auto-show events. But it will take to the streets of Manhattan on Tuesday to show off a prototype of the vehicle, called PUMA, for Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility.

The Segway Personal Transporter was launched with considerable hype eight years ago but practical issues prevented the scooter from becoming a mass-market product, including its relatively high cost and restrictions on its use in many jurisdictions.

GM is betting PUMA’s more car-like traits — an enclosed compartment and top speed of 35 miles per hour — will lead to better results. GM didn’t say how much the machines would cost, but research chief Larry Burns said owners would spend one-third to one-fourth of the cost of a traditional vehicle.

PUMA would have a range of about 35 miles. GM said it aims to use so-called vehicle-to-vehicle technology to avoid traffic problems and potentially have it navigate itself through city streets.

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