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Linksys NSLU2 versus ????

We put a Linksys NSLU2 in place about 4 months ago with two 500GB drives attached. One drive is meant to mirror the other for backup purposes. (See Small Business – Server & Backup)

Things have not been perfect. At least a few times in the last month I’ve had to reboot the NSLU2 because it could not be seen on the network. In most cases pulling out the power cord, plugging it back in, and powering on the device solves things, but really, should we have to do that? Shouldn’t the thing just work?

NSLU2 We’ve also had some weird permission problems. We’re a Mac-shop, and most of the files don’t really rely on having their unixy-permissions correct, but some do, like the files that go onto the web sites. A file on my Mac set to -rw-r–r– gets copied to the NSLU2 and is then set to -rwx——. This is bad bad bad! If we try to upload files directly to a web site, or even to our Macs, and then to a web site, they can’t be viewed, as the permissions are hosed.

I’m also not happy about the fact that we can’t plug the NSLU2’s drives into a Mac and get to the files. I’ve tried using Mac OS X Ext2 Filesystem but it didn’t work. This means if the NSLU2 dies, we would have to get another one to get to the files.

I think the NSLU2 is a nice little device for the hacker to play with, or maybe for a home network of Windows machines, or even Macs, where file permissions don’t matter, but I’m just not sure it can cut it for a small business.

AirPort Extreme

I know other companies make NAS devices that may fit our needs, but looking at the Apple AirPort Extreme, it just might fit the bill. It probably doesn’t have some of the nice features of the NSLU2, but we could easily add a USB hub and our external drives and be up and running. I trust Apple hardware to be reliable, easy to use, and work seamlessly with our Macs. The price is about double the NSLU2, but it may be worth it.

We have two other options right now. We could install Linux on the NSLU2 and see if that fixes the problems. My reservation there is that NSLU2-Linux is a hacker project and I’m not sure what we’d lose/gain by switching what is running on the NSLU2.

The second option would be to take an old iMac running Mac OS X and attach the drives to it. This should take care of our permission problems, and also make it easy to attach the drives to any other Mac as needed. The downside here is that the iMac is older and since it would have to be running all the time it could fail. It also does not have some of the features of the NSLU2, but I can probably add them with a few cron jobs and Perl-fu.

So right now we may stick it out with the NSLU2 as is, but I’m always looking for better solutions.



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Stevenote 2007 Now!

Wow, I am so hyped about the Macworld 2007 Keynote!

I don’t know what products will be announced today, but I’m 50% sure that in about 4 years, I might be able to afford some of them. Used. On ebay.

Awesome!

(P.S. Dear Mac people, please don’t cause the interweb to meltdown today, some of us have work to do…)



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Windows Home Server (for, um, Windows!)

Didn’t I recently mention that I’m not a fan of Microsoft?

That said, the Windows Home Server actually looks cool. I mean, the concept is cool, but from what I can see so far, it’s (get ready) only of any use to you if you use Windows. So, for a home network consisting of computers running Mac OS X and Linux, it has no place…

But for folks running Windows and nothing else, hey, it looks pretty nifty!

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Web414 Meeting: Thursday, January 11th, 2007

Just a reminder folks, the next Web414 meeting is this Thursday, January 11th, 2007 at 7PM. (Also listed on Upcoming.org)

I haven’t had much time to work on the Web414 site lately, but hopefully I can find a bit of time, or spur some folks into action before the February meeting. (Who knows, maybe Mike can even kick out a logo or two by then.)

I also need to work on promotion, and getting in touch with people in Milwaukee about the new group. Oh, here is what I came up with for a mission statement:

Web414 – Milwaukee’s Web Community: The Web414 group consists of amateurs and professionals interested in building and improving the web today and in the future. We are a diverse group including designers, programmers, publishers, and entrepreneurs – all with a common interest in creating the new web.

If you know any folks in the Milwaukee area who might be interested in this, please tell them about the group, or just pass them on to me. Thanks!



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iTunes, Playlists, Sharing, Recommending…

I was thinking about music recommendation sites/engines (which seem to be all the rage nowadays) as well as the proliferation of iPods (and iTunes users) and the fact that the Zune thinks it’s so cool because it does some sort of simple sharing (which is supposedly “social” in nature.)

So if it really is “all about the playlist” (I think Lucas Gonze said this once, so I’ll give him credit) why doesn’t Apple follow through… Here’s my thought:

If you’ve got an iPod, chances really good that you use iTunes. iTunes does playlists. It can even do things like make a smart playlist of tracks you have recently played, and feed them back to a service like last.fm, which can show you neat stuff like what you listen to the most, what your friends are listening to, who your musical neighbors are, etc. last.fm doesn’t really feed back to iTunes or your iPod though – here’s where Apple could step in…

Let’s say that your iPod feeds back to Apple’s iTunes Music Store the tracks you’ve played, and does the “people who like X also like Y” thing, but then also provided samples (low bitrate, 30 second preview, whatever) back to you as downloads in iTunes (heck, they could be automated, podcast-style) which then get synced to your iPod. So each day you sync and get something new, of which you might want to purchase.

This is just a rough idea, I’m sure Apple could create a good experience for sharing playlist data, and recommending music.

I know there are sites that do somewhat similar things for podcasts (AmigoFish, GigaDial) but they require some sort of manual labor on the user’s part. Automation and simplicity would be the key though, provide benefits to the users without forcing them to do any/much work.

Thoughts?