I recently bought a USB hard drive docking station and it totally changed the way I backup my files. Previously, I had a mish-mash of external hard drives, multi-bay drive enclosures (for JBOD), and a RAID array. It was getting very unwieldy: storing the drives was difficult since most had different form factors and they couldn't be stacked on top of each other, I always ran out of trays for the multi-bay enclosures, and finally keeping all the AC adaptors together with the right external drive was a ...
Archives for March 2010
Bryce Canyon National Park Landscape
Bryce Canyon is one of my favorite locations in the southwest. The alien landscape with rows of hoodoos (thin spires of rock with variable thickness) never fails to amaze me. I grew up in Ontario, Canada and there is nothing even remotely similar to the unusual rockforms in Bryce. Taking this picture was relatively easy and the primarily skill involved was patience in terms of waiting for the sun to set. Basically, Show up before sunset at Bryce Point and walk along the rim to find a position that ...
HP Designjet Z3200 vs Epson Stylus Pro 7900
A reader sent me an email asking why I chose the HP Z3200 printer as opposed to the Epson 7900. This was a difficult decision for me to make and I debated with myself for a long time over which printer I should get. Ultimately, both printers can produce superb quality prints and my decision was made based on other factors: HP Z3200 Pros Spectrophotometer. The Z3200 has a built in spectrophotometer allowing me to create my own ICC profiles easily with the press of a few buttons. There is ...
Inca Construction and Earthquake Resistance
During my visit to Peru, the most amazing thing I saw were the ancient Inca stone structures present in areas such as Cusco, the Sacred Valley, and of course at Machu Picchu. In these areas the original structures are still standing today, hundreds of years after their construction. This is a tremendous testament to the skills of the Inca engineers since Peru regularly experiences strong earthquakes that score over 7.0 on the Richter scale. In these earthquakes modern buildings are completely destroyed ...
Peru Travel Tips
Expect delays when traveling internally by air. During my travels, I had to make three internal flights one of which was delayed by a whole day because of mechanical difficulties and the inability of the carrier to get a replacement airplane. My experience was not unusual and many people that I met had at least one segment of their tour delayed by at least a day. I met a church group who was delayed by a whole day three times while traveling. Bring your own toilet paper. In many places, the public ...