I've seen very little posted online about Drobo's (first version Drobo) performance so I decided I'd post my own. This graph to the right shows Drobo1's sustained performance around 6.8 Megabytes (not bits) per second. This is on a 10/100 network using Drobo 1 and Droboshare with the latest firmware on both. It is a download transfer done on a Windows XP box from Drobo.
I'd be very curious to know what sort of speeds everyone else gets with their Drobos. I know mine will perform a lot better when it is directly connected via USB, but I don't think it will go any faster over Droboshare.
The net monitoring tool you see is NetMeter
My favorite apps is updated. After three years I've found quite a few more apps to use on Windows and I wanted to share them. Feel free to add your own favorites to the comments.
Here's a program to fix that:
Unlocker: http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/
I've used this one and it's very easy. Secondary click on your drive in explorer and hit "Unlocker" from the in context menu. It'll tell you what processes are using it and even has a button to kill them.
I've heard this one mentioned as well, but I haven't tried it: safelyremove http://safelyremove.com/
Sidenote: Here's a good thread on tomshardware about 'safe removal': http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/236841-31-safely-remove-hardware
Alt+F3 in Opera by default opens an internal source editor. If you edit the source you can hit the reload button at the top (or hit Ctrl+R) and it will reload that page straight from the source.
If you want to use an external editor (Preferences>Advanced>Programs> at the bottom) Ctrl+R doesn't work and the name for this shortcut is never stated anywhere in the keybord file. Add this to the keyboard file you use:
r ctrl=Refresh display
I'm hard on movies. I love them or hate them usually and I'm known for being one of the most critical of them in my small circles.
It lived up to all my expectations. 8.9/10
I wasn't blown away, but then again I went into it with very extremely high expectations. The movie is awesome and will blow you away if you're not anticipating it, don't get me wrong. I was not let down.
Solid performances from all the actors, fast-paced action, decent plot, no stupid old-school happy Comics Code Authority-ridden-ness, very cool action sequences. The writing for this movie is actually rather incredible, especially for an action movie. There is a significant amount of dialogue and everyone pulls it off rather well.
I got to see it in an IMAX theater. I haven't been to one in a really long time. I thought the experience would be more wrap-around horizontally, but it's actually more vertical. There are some really awesome shots the whole way through that use this format to its fullest, but like Chris Nolan I wish the entire film could've been done in this format.
I waited for three hours in line with Lauren (about 60th in line) to get in with all the other fans who were all about our age. It was fun. The IMAX here in Austin is in a really nice museum and the whole experience was extremely pleasant. I don't recall anyone even getting up to leave the theater once the movie started. Everyone was outrageously quiet the whole way through to the point that I felt like I couldn't move without disturbing the entire theater. Tickets were more significantly more expensive than the regular theaters, but just for the atmosphere and people it might've been worth it.
This part may contain significant spoilers. If you haven't seen the movie don't read these.
Issues:
- Change in the voice inflections/line delivery from the trailers - It doesn't take much effort if you've watched the trailers for this movie about a hundred times. You can easily notice that they've very much altered the way certain lines are delivered. The trailers were extremely well-crafted and I think in 100% of the changes that they used in them they should've followed up with changing them in the movie. I was pretty disappointed hearing the same lines delivered with significantly less intensity to them.
- Too many close-up action shots - this is characteristically 1995-20xx action movies, with some directors in particular being guilty, but it needs to stop. I want to see the action, not a blur! Either fill in the action sequences with a double who can do cool things or just get your actors to do different stuff.
- Two-Face somewhat disappointing - Harvey is ok. Not terrible really. Character development could've gone further. Makeup/CG on Two-Face was a little disappointing.. better than the old Tommy Lee Jones version certainly.
- "Dark" Knight explanation sort of weak - Batman becomes hated and somehow everyone magically believes he did some bad things he never would. Meh. Kind of an afterthought at the end of the movie.
- PG-13 and lack of darkness - This movie was dark and the Joker was scary. I think there are a lot of things that could've been done to make him much more horrifying though.
The PG-13 rating I understand for marketing and getting the kids to see Batman and all, but really I'd like to see what they would've done with the violence more fully depicted. Joker talks about how evil he is and everyone else does too, but we never really see it in action. Even one cold-hearted, blood-ridden scene would've helped. - Rather predictable - I'm usually the one, when watching a movie, to think at the end "Wow I didn't see that coming". Not so in this movie. I knew everything that was going to happen the whole way through I think. I know it's based around comics (which all sort of do the same thing and can be rather predictable), but with the amount of artistic differentiation Chris Nolan has pulled one might think it would extend into this realm as well.
So I've returned. I stayed the weekend in a crappy hotel and saw just about everything there is to see in the rest of the city. London bridge, Tower bridge, Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, walked along the Thames, British Museum. I got horribly lost on the way to the museum. I swear the signs were ALL pointing the wrong direction. One was even an arrow and was in the complete opposite direction that it should've been.
In summary:
- London is somewhat dirty like any other city
- Traffic didn't seem to be that bad
- The Tube will take you just about anywhere you need to go, but schedules are somewhat unreliable. Seems to get made fun of a bit in London too. Understanding the tube is incredibly easy though. The signs explaining routes are incredibly descriptive and easy to read. They announce stops over an intercom system as well. You will very unlikely get lost on it.
- London is expensive.
- Continental is a pretty cool airline in comparison to American
- I've never felt safer in a large city. It has its bad parts though and I went through a bit of that briefly. Like many big cities if you just stay where all the real business happens or tourists are then you'll be ok.
- Things you must do if you go:
- Go on the London Eye
- See Trafalgar Square
- Walk along the Thames near Big Ben and the London Eye and up to the Tower Bridge. There are tons of London things to see and there are plenty of signs.
- Eat local food. Maybe avoid getting butter on your sandwich though.
- Ride the tube! It's not scary. If you're there for any length of time get an Oyster card.
So I've been here a few days now. Everything continues to be expensive as hell. CNN lists it as #2 most expensive city in the world back in 2007. New York is 15th.
I went on the London Eye and checked out Big Ben as well. Saw the Albert Hall and the exterior of the Natural History Museum.
Everything is small here. Small people, small chairs, small rooms, small tubs, small meals, small cars, small roads.
I love my camera. You'll notice a few night shots. Many of them are taken when it is nighttime and without a tripod.
http://forums.wireless.att.com/cng/board/message?board.id=international&thread.id=6928
Took me awhile to find this, so I thought I'd share with everyone. The real trick for me was the + sign bit. I couldn't figure out why my voicemail shortcut (press and hold "1") was working, but when I dialed it by hand it didn't work. Press * twice to get the + sign.
I'm in London! Gonna be here for about a week. I'm here for a Vignette customer project. This is my first time over the Atlantic and first time anywhere in Europe.
So far the trip has been rather successful. I was up for about 36hrs straight yesterday to try and cope with the jet lag. Unfortunately I got up with only about 5hrs of sleep and that's why I'm posting right now.
I'm going to try to keep the photo gallery updated incrementally, but I dunno if that will actually happen. Take a look at the photo on the right here. The poster reads "I think I'm being watched" on one side and then "Oh boy, what a wonderful city!" on the other. Apparently they have a somewhat different attitude about surveillance over here - or at least the government wants them to see it that way. I did some research after seeing cameras everywhere:
CCTV - Closed-circuit television
...based on a small sample in Putney High Street, estimated the number of surveillance cameras in private premises in London is around 500,000 and the total number of cameras in the UK is around 4,200,000. The UK has one camera for every 14 people.
Other than that not much all that interesting. All the houses here are together. Despite the fact that the structures are connected people update all the stuff separately so all the roofs have shingles colored different on each side and even different bricks on the main exterior walls. Everything here is also very old and very small compared to the states.
