I’ve been a fan of Drobo since I got mine over a year ago. The little(-ish, and sweet looking, for stack of disks) device packs as many as four drives and automatically manages them to ensure the reliability of your data and easy expandability of the storage. However, Thomas Tomchak just pointed out one major flaw: if you overflow your Drobo with data, the entire device may give up and you’ll lose everything.

How do you overflow a Drobo? Most users only have a few terrabytes of storage in their Drobo, but configure it to tell the computer its attached to that it can store eight or 16 TB of data. Doing that allows easy expansion when more or larger drives are added — the attached computer doesn’t need to reformat anything, it can simply save more stuff to the device — but it also opens the door to the Drobo overflow.

From Tomchak’s post:

While on my tech support call I asked the engineer how frequently he received calls about this particular problem. After a big sigh he admitted that it was nearly every day.

One commenter on the article suggested the Drobo could “just simulate that the uninstalled part is already full of simulated read-only data,” a suggestion that makes sense, but may require the Drobo to know more about the filesystem on it than it otherwise would.

I’ve been at 90% capacity on my Drobo for a while, I think it’s time I popped another disk in there.

(CC licensed photo by Pixelthing.)

In March of this year Apple applied for a patent on technology that enables or disables features of a phone via a config file. The tech is already in use: it’s the carrier profiles we’ve been downloading recently. On the one hand this is just an extension of the parental controls that Apple has included in Mac OS X since the early days, but it also implies some rather anti-consumer thinking at the company.

One examplar claim in the patent is that the config file can include a “blacklist of device resources to be restricted from access.”

AT&T used this this technology to block MMS until recently, and uses it now to block tethering, but the description given in the patent application goes much further:

For example, a carrier may wish to provide an enhanced service which utilizes the global positioning system (GPS) functionality in a mobile device. Carrier may wish to charge a premium for this service, so it may configure carrier provisioning profile to disallow third party applications from accessing the GPS functionality in device, and instead only allow applications digitally signed by carrier (or another entity affiliated with carrier) to access the GPS services in device.

Readers may remember the Trusted Computing video by Lutz Vogel and Benjamin Stephan that spotlighted the growing interest within the computing industry to impose new and artificial restrictions on the way we use the hardware and software we use daily.

For the past year or so I’ve been wanting to design a non-bloggy theme for this site — a beautiful theme with a magazine-like front page showing the most recent post in a handful of categories. But I’m further from it now than last year, so it’s time to move on.

Which isn’t to say that I settled for my new theme. It’s based on Neo-Sapien by Small Potato. I made it a bit wider, the header a bit shorter, and the image is random-ish (random, but cached). I’m still not done tweaking it, but I’m really pleased with where it’s going. Most importantly (this one’s for you, JTPratt), you can now find easy links for things like bSuite and my other projects. And I’m also following Nielsen’s advice with the about and contact pages (though I have slightly hidden the about Casey page).

In my haste to actually finally do this, I decided to do it live. WP Super Cache, without which my blog falls over, made confirming changes a chore, but that forced me to work a bit more methodically. The fastest and easiest way to clear the cache after making a change is to either edit a post or select a new theme (and then change it back again). So if you looked at the site today, you may have found it switching back and forth between the old and new themes for most of the afternoon. And if I’d realized I’d just been linked by Lifehacker (for Sandee’s independence day daiquiri post), I might have done it differently.

Hey folks!

Good news. The Young Rapture Choir CD is now available from Raven Marching Band Records. This album is an amazing collection of songs written by Laura Veirs, and performed by a choir of school children in Cognac, France. It was recorded live in April 2006 by Tucker Martine. The packaging is all handmade and it’s a wonderful recording.

This is a lovely, limited edition cd — we only made 3,000 — so get one quick at http://www.ravenmarchingband.com/store for $15.

You can also pick one up at west coast shows in September if they last that long.

If you want to listen to a track, visit the Young Rapture Choir online.

http://www.myspace.com/youngrapturechoir

You can also read Laura’s blog about the concert at

http://journal.nonesuch.com/journal/2006/06/young_rapture_c.html

In other news, Seattle filmmaker Lynn Shelton made a music video with Laura earlier this year. Check out her film to “Magnetized” which is posted at the following link.

http://lauraveirs.com/laura/QTmagnetized.mov

And make sure to keep an eye on those west coast tour dates. They are coming up fast. We’ll see you soon.

xx clyde

http://www.lauraveirs.com

It is cutting and pasting but what other names are there now for it?? For looking at other websites, following the site and lifting off passages and putting them onto your own site–
for one reason or another??

I found bookish.dk while looking up info on Denmark about a year ago. Finally this May, lifelong wish, I finally got to Copenhagen for two days. Karen B is a Scotswoman who has
lived in Denmark for about five years. She’s now going to live in Glasgow, one of the hip
new centers of Europe, but she has a new boyfriend.

To put it briefly, I’ve moved. I’m typing this at a temporary stop – my best female friend’s flat – while I’m getting ready to leave Denmark. My belongings are in storage whilst I decide when I want to pick them up in Glasgow. I’m living out of a suitcase and all I own is what I can carry. It feels equally great and uncomfortable.

Media comsumption: one book – a frothy, fluffy, frivolous Regency romance tidbit of no great merit. A great deal of bad TV – but to be fair, Blackpool was unexpectedly great (then again David Tennant singing and dancing to The Smiths is as Ms Bookish-ish as you can get). A few films – A Cock & Bull Story was as delightful as I thought it’d be, for instance. Music – mostly Danish radio which ranges from harmless to damn awful, but I did find time for a bit of Guillemots.

Made the mistake of complaining about Bruce’s new album. I knew I was risking the age thing, and sure enough–

I downloaded finally, with too much anticipation, Bruce’s new Seeger Sessions. I haven’t heard B much lately but his voice sounds like its shot?? Seeger did his work with such a rich voice, deep and subtly modulated. This album is beautifully produced, the backup band is greatvoice and nearly too much. b’s voice sounds bad and not at all knowing what folk music is all about. Sounds too much
like Dylan at times too??? I like the arrangements and interpretations (We shall overcome as a sweet spiritual is maybe the best piece on there?), but the shouty
and harsh singing seemed like not very good singing.

my old New Jersey hand let me have it — he lives in Bruce’s hometown or/and birthplace so what else could I expect

ah, bruce…what can i say…i love that raw, stubbly chinned voice of his…i guess i’m not comparing to Seeger but rather hearing these tunes with fresh ears…so in that way, i guess your historical perspective leaves you vulnerable to the age question…but i wouldn’t worry about it…i want to buy Seeger CDs now because of the world of music B opened up with this record…i have seen him do these songs and more in concert twice…really moving and powerful performances…yes, the band is wonderful…and in all the B shows i have ever seen, he has never looked so much like he is having the time of his life than now…so i guess that is good energy in the end…

Every so often you want to know more about real gypsies.  This film is where to start when that time comes round again.  Romanian gypsies portray themselves in Gajo Dilo.  The crazy stranger in question is not a gypsy but a visiting young Frenchman, played by the wonderful Romain Duris.

Are we ahead of Turkey?

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verse style of Robert Lax
sentence by Rory Stewart

This weeks free i-tunes down load is the song ” Are You With Me?” released by the band Vaux. I like the song, it’s a little hardcore for my tastes but I can see my self mosh pitting to this. It’s not my favorite music but being a fairly open minded person I can find a place for it in my musical library. I give this song an 6.8 on pies listening pleasure scale.

Snakes on skateboards
would not wear helmets
nor would they swing
hatchets, but snakes on
snowboards might
if they had just visited
Love Land’s Phallus Garden

While listening to my favorite radio station 92.1 FNX, I discovered my new favorite band. The Arctic Monkeys is a new band that comes from the UK, and their popularity is rocketing. Their new album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, has sold more than 360,000 copies which makes it the fastest selling debut album in UK history. Having heard them months ago I was pleasantly surprised to see the Arctic Monkeys perform there hit single “I bet you look good on the Dance Floor” on MTV.

I had my friends listen to them and they all rushed out to buy the album. In comparison to a lot of CD’s that I purchase, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not has many good tracks and not just one. My personal favorites are, “When the sun goes down“, and “Riot Van“. I am very happy to see this band get the spotlight they deserve.

French vexillographers circulate the national library,
protesting flag desecration, too many windows, and cardboard
sunscreens. Fireworks on the Fourth of July promise.
Celebrate Independence Day With A Drink.

tags: banana, bananas, blueberries, blueberry, flag, fourth of july, fruit, independence day, july 4, july 4th, patriotic, patriotism, raspberries, raspberry, red white and blue, stars

Today’s terms
tags: , concert, music, political criticism, politics, show, the sun, they might be giants, tmbg
echo through pine walls
stretch sun along desire’s coast

Is there a term already for what I am about to do?
OK, here goes:

bad knockoffs of cheap pop
Oops! I Did It Again
Richard Thompson
strange sense of humor
Last.fm, despite the suggestion here
stream it from NPR, go buying.

KCRWmusic
Toxi
The Chapin Sisters
Top Tune
Britney Spears
episode 175
Coverville.

Britney in wax at Madame Tussaud’s
pretending to do hard math
some fan with a Brit photo on his refrigerator

Now here we have what we might call in the poetry world “Plunderverse” www.poetics.ca/poetics05/05betts.html
except that I haven’t used the stolen phrases to make something
new of yet. I’ll work on that for tomorrow. The question today
is will these terms alone generate some traffice to this
brand new site??

Don’t these Mainich Daily News editors think they’re the shit when they get to combine “bondage” and “rope” in the same headline.

Yes, as it turns out, “freedom of expression®” is a trademarked term. And, yes, as it turns out, somebody’s been cease and desisted for using it.

Super heros gotta go too, ya know?

Steve Jobs Demos NeXTSTEP

crucifixion

Ryan pointed out that the titles for Thank You For Smoking are pretty interesting, then he followed up with a pointer to some font spotting at Typographica.

Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s 4. more.

Sparklines are “intense, simple, wordlike graphics? so named by Edward Tufte. In lieu of a more detailed introduction, Professor Tufte’s site has an early release of a chapter on sparklines.

Cool. Here’s a PHP library and accompanying documentation wiki.

A person will do certain things for money.