The D-Link DNS-323 network attached storage, what a fantastic device. With it’s ultra 500 Mhz ARM processor, 64 MB of memory, Gigabit Ethernet controller, and two SATA 2 3.5″ drive bays all in a little box about the size of a 360 power supply (that ugly brick) *kawaii!!*.

Any who. With a little tweaking, this little box can do so much more than just act as a: samba, ftp, iTunes, uPnP Audio/Video Server, and DHCP server. With a little effort you can go ahead and install yourself a copy of Debian on it and do… well… anything on it. But for those who aren’t as ambitious to void their warranty, you can still use a huge collection of ‘fun_plug’ programs instead.

I’m currently working with the chroot method of installing Debian, if I can avoid flashing a custom firmware and potentially having to install a serial port, both of which void your warranty, I’ll be thrilled.

I have Debian Lenny, Apache 2, and PHP5 currently installed. I’m just working on disabling a few things to get all of the above to work smoothly together.

Oh yes, 60Hz, my favorite vertical refresh rate, but why I wonder?

Well for starters it’s the best and easiest way to get a headache. I have a 52 inch Sharp LCD TV (LC52D64U) and it’s max refresh rate at 1920×1080 is 60Hz, which makes it fantastic to watch while playing anything high definition. Since I use it as a monitor, and the only way it looks decent is at 1080p, I’m currently stuck at 60Hz.

So I suppose it’s time to buy another TV… or an actual monitor for the mean time.

QQ

I’ve already written a few articles about my tablet laptop, the Toshiba M200, and I’ve been incredible impressed by it’s durability, adaptability, and overall functionality. So what have I forced it to do now? What other feat has the M200 surpassed? Two words: Windows 7. I decided to install Windows 7 RC 1 on my tablet for a few reasons, including: It’s free, … it’s free, and… I have a SSD. So far I’m quite impressed at the tablet’s ability to run Windows 7; the actions are very smooth, it’s responsive, fast in booting up and loading applications. The only thing I’ve noticed so far is that Aero doesn’t work at all, even if I try forcing it to start Aero I end up having to reboot as the screen just gets stuck in an endless flicker. But I can live with no Aero, considering it’s overall functionality is awesome.

So conveniently on the day after I lose my phone my computer’s Hard Drive dies, there goes 130GB of personal data. Although I did make a recent backup since I had to send in my motherboard for repair which only came back to me about a week prior. At the moment I’m running my desktop computer with an old old old… old 80GB Maxtor drive which I figured I’d use to try Windows 7 RC while I wait for my hard drive to come back.

So what are my first impressions of Windows 7?

Well… it’s very… blue. I changed as much of the colors that as I could the second the install finished. But so far it seems decent, although my old HDD isn’t attributing anything good to the overall performance. What are my performance ratings?

Processor: 7.3

Memory: 7.5

Aero GFX: 6.1

Gaming GFX: 6.1

HDD: 4.3  (awww……)

Anyway I’ll see how much of it all improves when I get my other HDD back.

I lost Samsung u740 two days ago and I’ll be honest… I feel mildly useless with out it. I mean I didn’t store anything incredibly important on it besides my contacts, but still! I’ve already run into situations while on the road or away from home where I’ve needed a phone… so terrible. But to top things off, I burnt myself on a Shindaiwa T230 trimmer on the same day!

But on the bright side I bought a HTC Touch Diamond on eBay for like $200, which is pretty damn good considering my retarded cellular company sells them for well over $400. What I did find the most interesting about those retards is they only use the location feature to find your phone in the case of an emergency (normally for the paramedics to find you) and it requires a court order. But I have to wonder… why do I (the owner of the phone) need to have an emergency and a court order to find my own phone? Their response: Wut?

I did however learn something from them about the streaming radio issue I previously had with the Samsung u740. The other cellular company they were partnered with provided an RTSP relay in the network which solved the problem of not being able to use RTSP streaming. Since they are no longer partnered… no more relay, but is my cell company going to fix it? Apparently there is no estimated on a fix for the ‘issue’. Fantastic.