the last word

I’m just a glutton for punishment. Last week, I struggled with getting a USB-attached Drobo to allow a server to boot properly. Yesterday, I unpacked a new Drobo FS. I’d like to tell you about it. The Drobo packing is not in the Apple league for style and elegance, but it’s darn good. They printed… [Read More]

This is a fascinating product. It’s probably the harbinger of a new highly useful class of devices between palmtops and notepads. Still, it is clearly a first generation gadget, with some annoying deficiencies. It is already the best way to read books and periodicals. The Kindle iPad app is a nice piece of work, and… [Read More]

Problem: server service hangs in Windows 2008 Server with Drobo attached. See previous post for background. I called Drobo tech support. I explained the problem and immediately asked for escalation. The tech politely ignored that. As usual in conversations with Drobo, as with most tech support organizations, the first order of business was to bring… [Read More]

Warning: don’t bother to read this unless you care about the intricacies of Microsoft Server, or you are running a Drobo attached to one. Last August, I began to have problems with my Windows 2008 server. After OS updating, Active Directory would stop working. I would take out the updates one of the time until… [Read More]

Did you ever play Myst? It was a 1990s-era computer game that took place on an island stocked with a bunch of strange machines that you had to figure out. The look of the machinery was that of top quality laboratory or industrial equipment from the 1890s. The overall effect was a weird combination of… [Read More]