fourfridays Blogosphere » Technology

HostGator Review, It’s Personal!

Umair Abbasi — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 06:04:47 +0000

The Background

HostGator had been the host for a few of my sites for the past of couple of years now. Great service, love the ability to chat with a rep 24/7, and the hosting is great. A bit on the pricey side, was paying close to $14 something a month.

I am going to try to write this post as unbiasedly as possible and let everyone come to their own conclusions. What I do want to say is I take customer service or the lack of it personally and really don’t have patience for services that are available by the truckloads.

The HostGator Black Friday 2011 Promotion

HostGator had a BlackFriday promotion back in 2010. Don’t exactly remember the fine details of the promotion but remember them offering a significant discount. So I went ahead and bought the deal and added the package on top of my existing package I already had with HostGator. I was later notified by HostGator that the BlackFriday promotion was only for new customers and they can’t sell me the hosting package for the promotional price.

I thought to my self it would have been nice to know that if they made it someplace clear on their promotion. Something along the lines of “existing customers do not qualify.” Simple, easy, and maybe a link for those who want more answers being existing customers. But there wasn’t one.

Anyways, cancelled the purchase got the refund and continued my original package with HostGator.

Fast forward to 2011, and it’s Black Friday promotions again. This time got on live chat with the sales rep, asked if I could purchase the Black Friday promotion and cancel my existing package after I have moved my site over to the new promotional package. Got an affirmative yes on that. Was excited that the promotional goodness was being shared with existing customers. What a cool company!

Month later finally found the time to sit and go through the painful process of migrating all my sites over to the new package. Took me an entire day plus some downtime (DNS propogation). But finally had it done and was ready to cancel my old package with HostGator since I moved everything to my new package.

Opened a support ticket to cancel my old package and set off to vacation. Only to receive a e-mail that I am required to keep all packages active till the end date of the new package to keep the discounted price. What? Why would I want two similar hosting packages running simultaneously only to pay double the price of the other?

To keep a long story short, dumped HostGator and am now a customer of DreamHost. Have heard good things about them across the board on the Internet and am looking forward to a long and prosperous relationship with them.

P.S. They have an offer for one year hosting plus domain name for $9.24. And I haven’t received any communication about having to scratch my head a certain way to keep the promotion. Thanks DreamHost!

Apple Remote First Generation vs Second Generation

Umair Abbasi — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 20:11:45 +0000

At the time of writing this post, I own both generations of Apple’s remote as most Apple users around the world probably do. Here is my take on the two.

My Usage of the Remote

First things first I need to clear out that I don’t use the remote for any business functions like controlling my powerpoint/keynote presentations. The only purpose for these remotes have been for home media purposes.

I have a Plex media setup on my Mac mini connected to my flat screen T.V. and use the first generation Apple remote as my front-end interface to the media library. Via the Apple remote I can browse through my decent size of movies, T.V. shows, music library, pictures, etc. So first generation Apple remote for my living room entertainment setup.

In my bedroom I have a 27-in iMac that runs boxee which among other things does similar things I do with my Mac mini in the living room such as watching movies, T.V. shows, etc. I am using the second generation Apple remote in the bedroom.

Look and Feel

Here are some images for the looks perspective.

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I will leave it up to individual taste and preferences on determining which one is more stunning looking. In terms of feel I prefer the feel of the second generation metallic remote as opposed to the plastic feel of the first generation. Something about that temperature cool metal feel in your hand I prefer. What I don’t really care much for is the size of the second gen remote. My assumptions on the extended length of the remote are probably due to the thinning out of the remote.

You see the white plastic first gen remote is thicker than the second gen. Assuming for Apple to cramp in the same functionality in a thinner remote the reduced space needed to be migrated to some other part of the remote. In this case the resulting increase in length of the remote.

Functionality

Both remotes perform exactly the same functionality. There are no hidden eggs here that the other one does better in terms of the functions they perform. But (yes there is always a but) I have found the second gen remote much more responsive than the first gen. The response rate is much better on the first click.

On the first gen remote I find myself sometime doing the ever so familiar wave with my arm trying to get the IR-receiver to accept my clicks. But (yes another but) of course this is no determination on second gen is better than the other in terms of sending IR signals to your IR-receiver. A true scientific reasoning would be trying the same remote with the same device under the same conditions. Please forgive me to say, I am not very inclined in delving that deep.

Conclusion

I love the first gen remote. It’s just the perfect size and grip. The buttons on the first gen are more protruding that it enables much easier functionality without actually having to look at the remote to see what you are clicking.

I love the feel of the material on the second gen remote. The buttons are flat and I have found myself many times having to look at the remote to see what my finger is clicking on.

I would have really preferred it if Apple had taken the material from the second generation remote and applied it on the first generation without changing anything else. Well, maybe making it a wireless/bluetooth remote instead of IR would have been a decent addition too.

Thanks for reading and feel free to vent in the comments section.

Home Media Server

Umair Abbasi — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:50:17 +0000

Click on image above to play video & then read below on how I did it

Introduction

I have always been a big movie buff, and over the years had been collecting hundreds of DVD’s. The whole aspect of keeping track of the DVD’s, searching through the DVD case for a movie really bothered me ever since I started my collection. Years down the line I have found the perfect solution that I am beyond content with.

A little background

I used to use this really well built software for the Mac called DVDpedia. Be sure to check it out if you are looking for a way to keep track of the movies you own, owed out to your friends. It comes with Front Row/Apple TV Integration. What that means is, you can tell DVDpedia the accessible location of your movie on your hard disk, that way when you click on the movie in DVDpedia it plays the movie from your hard disk. Once you have added the movie information into DVDpedia, it will automatically fetch the thumbnail of the movie from the Amazon database. It’s a really cool software priced at only $18. Give it a shot.

The Research

When I set out to build my home media server I already knew based on my past experiences with switching to different movies what I would like the server to do.

The first step was to decide on the software I wanted to use. This means beta testing out the various options out there and see which one applies to my needs best. My needs were simple, an interface like no other, support for maximum number of different codecs (something like a vlc player built into iTunes coverflow) YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, MTV, and any other video sites out there that I could jump on at a later stage.

Second, an always available network attached storage server hosting my movies to my Television via the above interface. An easily expandable location where I feel my movies are safe. Further, the server needs to be able to store all digital data including movies. Safe was the key word here, plus the ability of expansion.

Third, based on the above findings putting the machine together part by part. My first objective when looking for the hardware was to go beyond just a single purpose server. I thought of buying a server from which I could host various virtual machines using VMWare ESX. That way I have an instance of Windows Server running that I would like to play with for learning purposes, a cocktail of Windows XP, Windows 7, RedHat (and other Linux flavors), plus my network attached storage server. With this in mind I thought of going for the HP Proliant ML350 G6. But with the parts blunder I faced (read my blog HP Proliant ML350 G6 Server Review) and budgetary constraints, I had to drop the whole idea of virtual machines and stick to a single network attached storage server instead.

The Final Product

Based on all the research I did I chose the following components for my system. I initially chose Boxee but then moved on to Plex. I found Plex to just work. It will do what you ask it to do, the only difference is, it does it in style. With Boxee there is very limited interface management. With Plex you could view your movies in various layouts (view movie at the top).

Second with Boxee I was having a hard time getting it to recognize some of my movies. It just wouldn’t plain recognize the existence of some movies on the server. With Plex the movies that even Boxee failed to recognize just appeared with no tinkering on my part. But not to take away too much from Boxee, I would advise to test out both platforms and pick the one that suits your preferences the best. They are both well built software and require all your support to stay in existence.

There were two hardware platforms I had to consider purchasing for the setup. One would be the server hosting the movies, and the second the device connected to my TV fetching movies from the server and showing it on my TV using Plex.

I first considered Apple TV with a hack to run Boxee. Just when I was about to click on buy now I realized reading some reviews that with Apple TV having limited RAM it would not run Netflix. According to the reviews, Netflix required Mircosoft’s Sileverlight to run, and that itself required a higher amount of RAM than what was available on Apple TV. Instead I decided on Apple’s Mac Mini.

For the server I decided to run FreeNas as my network attached storage. I can’t write enough good things about FreeNas. The developers have done an excellent job putting this software together.I have to write a separate post about my praises for this software. Oh and did I mention it is FREE!!!

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As for the hardware here is what I got:

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Things I could have done without. The Cosmos case. I could have selected any simpleton case to house the components. I did extensive research on the cases out there, but with my past favorable experience with the Cosmos 1000 (read my blog on Cosmos 1000) I just kept coming back to this monster. With space for expansion, 6 hard drive bays, and potential to extend it up to 10 hard drives, I couldn’t resist.

The 24 port Raid Controller. I could have bought a 8-12 port controller instead. I got a really special price deal on eBay for this part and was just too good to overlook. Lets just say what I paid for a 4 port on NewEgg I got a 24 port for it with a one year warranty. 3Ware as per my reading is the best when it comes to their products even out of warranty. If its not something they can fix, they will just send you out a replacement.

Configuration

I would have to write a separate post or several posts on the detailed configurations for each software and hardware component of the setup.

In short I have 6TB of storage with the option of expansion to up to 10-20TB on what I call my datacenter running on FreeNas. I have the server configured as a Raid 6 configuration what this means in the end is, if 2 of the hard drives fail on the server my data will remain intact. All of it. No hiccups, no sluggishness, absolutely no performance degradation. All I would need to do is remove the failed hard drive/drives and replace them with the same model hard drive. That’s it. The server will recognize the replacements, start using them just as it was doing before.

For expansion I need to add same model hard drives and the 6TB would increase in space to just about as many new hard drives I have connected to the 24port Raid controller. The 6TB I mention are 6 separate 1TB hard drives performing as a single instance to provide 6TB. Of course for data retention and to preserve data in the event of a hard drive failure the Raid controller takes quite a large gulp of your 6TB. But after the 6TB mark, the additional hard drives you add, the Raid controller doesn’t take as large gulps as it did with the initial 6 hard drives. To calculate the minimum number of hard drives required plus the actual usable space on a Raid 6 configuration, you could use this calculator.

Seeing it in Action

I can turn my TV on, switch to my HDMI channel, pick a movie from my movies on the server and hit play. I could stream videos from HULU, YouTube, Netflix, MTV, BBC, and various other Internet channels.

The server hosts my movies to my iPhone as well. I use Air Video Server on the Mac mini to stream movies to Air Video Player on the iPhone. The Mac mini simultaneously could be showing one video on the TV to a user while at the same time stream a different one to my iPhone.

The server whilst doing all media related tasks above, does wireless Time Machine backups for two Macbook Pro’s, Torrent downloads, remote access to files stored on the server via afp or smb protocol, streams iTunes music library to iTunes authorized client machines, FTP server for remote file uploads and downloads, Windows 7 image backups, auto emails containing the health of the system at the end of every month , and acts as my vault for my Aperture 3 library. This is close to half of what the server is capable of doing, the other half would be, rsync (off site remote backups to another machine), Active Directory integration, and Webserver capabilities to name a few.

HP Proliant ML350 G6 Server Review

Umair Abbasi — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 04:56:56 +0000

I had bought the HP Proliant ML350 G6 about 2 months ago from Newegg. My objective was to run VMware vSphere4 with initially 3 virtual machines – FreeNas (Media Server), Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7 Professional Client. Before I start the review here is what the custom upgrade was going to be:

Upgrade the processor from the supplied 2.0 GHz Quad Core Xeon to dual Quad-Core Intel Xeon 2.4o GHz (E5530)
RAM Upgrade from the initial supplied 4GB to 12GB
4TB Hard Drives (Note to hard drives or hard drive cages are supplied)

I had the RAM upgrade in place with 12GB and the hard drive upgraded to 2TB.

My initial impressions, the server is a solid built. Its gorgeous to look at from the outside and on the inside. The cable management is spectacular. Nice neatly tucked away cables on the interior, fantastic upgrade options on the server such as dual Quad Core processors, memory upgrades to a maximum of 12 GB with one processor and 24 GB with two processors using 2-GB single- or dual-rank UDIMMs, redundant power supplies, just to name a few.

Server wise this machine performed magnificently but when it came down to upgrading the processor that is where the trouble started.

I bought my Quad processors from eBay for an awesome deal. Very close to half the price for both the processors combined. I was just dying to see the server in action with all that power under the hood. So I open her up to see what is involved for the upgrade. I required 3 parts to perform the processor upgrade. One was the DIMM baffle for second set of DIMM slots next to the second processor slot. Second was the heat sink for the processor. Finally a case fan to cool the second processor and the DIMM’s.

I obtained the part numbers from the already installed parts in the server. Searched on HP and every other site on the Internet for the parts but with no luck. Called HP Parts store, their authorized and unauthorized dealers, used 3 different set of part numbers supplied from 3 different HP manuals, went down to G5 parts to see if any of those parts were compatible but nothing. Basically what HP was telling me was if you want to upgrade the processor, you need to buy the processor kit from us. My argument was, alright so if my Processor heat sink needed to be replaced for some reason or the other you (HP) are going to make me buy another processor instead of just selling me the heat sink. There were a lot of aahhss and ummss. I have had a call from the Support manager, the product manager all assuring me they are working on the issue.

This was in June 2009, and I have yet to receive a call back from HP’s managers. My advice Do Not Buy this server from HP. I don’t know if things have changed since then, but if this is the support you are going to receive for a brand new recently release server from HP you might want to reconsider buying anything HP. Since then I have returned the server for a full refund (thank you Newegg). Following is an actual excerpt from my still open (to date) URGENT case below:

I just recently bought the HP Proliant ML350 G6 Entry level tower LFF. The Produ
ct number is 487932-001. It originally came with 1 processor. I have bought 2 E5
530 XEON Processors for the server to create a 8 core server.

The problem I am having is I can’t find the parts for this server anywhere on th
is planet. Specifically here are the parts I am looking for:
DIMM Baffle 512109-001
AC 1200W 498152-001 (I have had some luck finding this)
Fan Assembly 92mm 508110-001
Heatsink 499258-001

I got the parts numbers off HP’s Illustrated parts catalog for this specific ser
ver. I have called HP Parts center, 2 of HP’s authorized parts dealers and searc
hed extensively on the Internet including eBay. The parts are not to be found an
ywhere. HP’s Parts center, the authorized parts dealers and HP technical support
all have tried to find parts of G5 server that they may be substitute with for
my G6 but were not sure if those parts would fit or work.

This has been a frustrating and very disappointing experience so far and am hopi
ng HP has a solution soon before I decide to ship the server back and extensivel
y market my experience with HP support so far. Thanks.

Comments added: Jun 10, 2009 4:57:17 PM CDT

Hi Joshua,

A very good morning to you.

This is with reference to the case ID 3606226460 logged to inform about the unavailability of the spare parts for an HP ProLiant ML350 G6 Server.

Customer has checked with HP Parts Store as well as with Parts dealers however did not find the spare parts. He’s a bit frustrated on this. Finally he contacted the e-Sol support team for help. I tried ordering the parts through wfm too but couldn?t. Please refer to the case# 3606226460.

I alled the customer to know why he requires these many spare parts. He replied that he is trying to install one more CPU. As this is a brand new server and to keep up the customer satisfaction, I have informed him that I will be following up this case till the issue gets resolved.

From the given TSG link (http://intranet.hp.com/tsg/WW2/ISS/Pages/PIT/pitpm.aspx), I understand that you are the product support manager for HP ProLiant ML350 G6 Server. Hence seeking your advice and assistance in this matter.

Please revert for any further information you may need.

Comments added: Jun 15, 2009 3:36:30 PM CDT
Called 1-800-731-5544 after escalating the case. Got Maynor on line.They informed they are not the right person to handle the case as this is a hardware issue. Also informed to forward the case to MC team as they are the right team. Also he gave the direct number 1 800 314 1873 of MC team.

Comments added: Jun 16, 2009 9:55:48 PM CDT

Hi Umair,

This is regarding the Case: 3606226460

Thank you for your patience.

I have escalated the case to higher levels and they have come up informing that as the parts are not setup and the server is being built by subcontractor, we cannot get the parts right now. Customer should be directed to go through sales.

Hence I suggest you to contact the Parts Store.

That is the complete jest of it so far. Ofcourse I am planning on returning the server, any lawyers out there want to get in on this? Its like selling a car and not having any parts for it.

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Configuring Novell Groupwise Calendar with Apple's iCal

Umair Abbasi — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:27:18 +0000

The organization I currently work at is still using Novell Groupwise Calendar. There is going to be a transition to the Exchange Server somewhere down the line but till then as an Apple user I would love to just use my iCal so I can have it sync with my iPhone Calendar app. To get this to work I went through the following roundabout method.

You will need the following tools:

A free Google Calendar Account (calendar.google.com)
gMigrate
BusySync

Here is how it works. You upload your calendar from Groupwise calendar using gMigrate. Once all your calendar items are uploaded to Google Calendar use BusySync on your mac to subscribe to your Google Calendar account. This will fetch the calendar events from your Google Calendar into your iCal.

BusySync is a 2 way sync, so whenever you insert something in your iCal, BusySync will automatically upload that event to your Google Calendar too (depending that you have BusySync set to auto sync at certain intervals).

Unfortunately gMigrate is not a 2 way sync so it would not take your calendar event from Google Calendar and insert them into your Groupwise Calendar. But really this shouldn’t be a problem, you are just concerned about getting your calendar events that others might have proxy access to and may have inserted in your calendar to transfer into iCal.

What about sharing your calendar with other users? The method I chose was to set my Google Calendar as a public calendar and share the URL with whomever needed access to my calendar.

The second way is to publish your calendar from iCal to a free account you can setup at iCal Exchange and then provide your URL to the calendar to whomever needs access to your calendar.

Drawbacks of this system:

gMigrate has to be manually run for whatever interval you would like information pulled from your Groupwise Calendar into your Google Calendar.
Your calendar users would have to access your calendar in a different method because you are special.

dd-wrt vs Tomato

Umair Abbasi — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 17:05:14 +0000

Let me start with explaining what dd-wrt is. It is a firmware for supported hardware routers to increase the number of features you can get out of your $30+ router easily turning it into having the same features and capabilities as a $600 router. Some prominent features include Kai Daemon for the Kai Console Gaming network, WDS wireless bridging/repeating protocol, Radius Authentication for more secure wireless communication, advanced Quality of Service controls for bandwidth allocation, and software support for the SD-Card hardware modification.

I have extensively used dd-wrt for a fairly long period of time. More precisely I would put it in between somewhere 2-3 years. The last version that I had used was dd-wrt v24 Special Edition SP1. I really had no complaints. My router a Linksys WRT54-GL v1.1 remained stable even at the highest usage times. There were rarely any crashes. It made my router extremely secure, especially with options such as using https protocol to log onto the router, option to limit logging into the router as admin only via ethernet connection, hence disabling any traffic sniffer to be able to log on to your router via wireless connection and changing access levels to his/her liking.

But what brought about my interest in Tomato was when I was searching for a way to record the logs to an external mySQL server through rflow. I got rflow working to the point where it was receiving all the netflow information and showing it to me in a nice graph or list view.

I feel rflow is too hyped up to be more than what it is. I wish there were tools more extensive that could use the information being sent through the router and elegantly show number of bytes being used by a connection, activity being performed on the connection and henceforth. Maybe rflow does have that option somewhere in there and I just haven’t been patient enough to look for it. Regardless I still feel there is a need for a better netflow software tool for the routers.

Whilst searching for a more robust netflow tool for my router I came across Tomato. The reviews were off the chart. The most prominent difference what I can feel, sense, observe is the faster connection speeds I am experiencing. Webpages are loading much more faster, and QOS is working like the way it should.

The setup was really easy, even moving up from a dd-wrt to a Tomoto firmware was seamless. It didn’t break anything. I found the layout of the configuration page so much more refreshing and far less overwhelming. The graphs are a pleasant addition to the whole firmware, where they show you different options such as real-time monitoring, last 24 hours, daily, weekly and monthly options.

The QOS on this firmware is just amazing. I have 2 laptops running vuze downloads, watching YouTube, browsing the Internet, chatting on MSN Messenger and everything is running without a hiccup. No single laptop is sucking up all the bandwidth, the router is distributing the requests efficiently and effortlessly. Below is a screenshot of an example of potential number of rules you can create for your setup.

In all honesty at the time of this writing I have only had the router running for less tha 72 hours. But the last 72 hours have proven to be promising. I think I am going to indefinitely stick to Tomato until the next better firmware comes around.

On a side note I still haven’t found a netflow software to my liking that would work with Tomato.

Update (02/23/2010): It has now been almost 12 months since my installation of Tomato and its still going strong with ZERO hiccups. I have never had to worry about resetting the router. Tomato is a winner in my books.

Free The Airwaves (Update x1)

Umair Abbasi — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:08:42 +0000

Have you always found yourself sitting on the sidelines during those ‘Oh My God’ moments going man I wish I was part of that. Ladies and Gentlemen this is one of those deals. Even though the world will never know you were part of the movement, maybe you don’t care, maybe you do, but the right thing to do is watch the video on their site, and make your own decision whether to sign the petition or not.

All I have to say is, if rivals like Google and Microsoft can come together on this agenda then why can’t we support it.
Practice your freedom of choice.

UPDATE X1

11/12/08 Thank you to everyone who signed the petition and became part of the next big thing.

“FCC votes to Free the Airwaves

On November 4, 2008, by a vote of 5-0, the Federal Communications Commission agreed to free the unused TV airwaves for unlicensed public use.

This is a tremendous victory for Internet users.

Thanks and congratulations to the more than 20,000 of you who signed the Free the Airwaves petition to the FCC. This historic vote would not have been possible without your effort.

And thanks to the Commission for showing great leadership on this issue.”

Unlock, Jailbreak & Activate iPhone 1.1.4 w/ just one click

Umair Abbasi — Sat, 10 May 2008 21:12:19 +0000

ZiPhone 3.0, a one click solution to unlock, jailbreak & activate the iPhone up to the current version 1.1.4 as at the time of writing this blog. I don’t remember how I came across this solution, but ZiPhone does exactly all 3, or it can do any 1 of these solutions you like with just the click of a button. You are not required anymore to have 3 different applications to be able to make your iPhone free from AT&T. Additionally ZiPhone also jailbreaks iPod Touch with the click of a button.

There are 2 different versions for Mac and Windows. You can download the files using the links below. For more information visit ziphone.org.

For Mac version of ZiPhone download here.

For Windows version of ZiPhone download here.

Macbook Air Hands On Review

Umair Abbasi — Sun, 04 May 2008 23:43:37 +0000

Things arriving DOA (Dead on Arrival) is starting to be a bit of a regular theme in my experience with computer hardware. First it was the Cosmos S casing (see: Cooler Master Cosmos 1000 vs Cosmos S) and now the Macbook Air. Well in full justification I can’t label the Macbook Air as DOA since it did turn on. It was the non functional keyboard and trackpad that had me going furious. Here I have a marvel of a machine and can’t type or browse anything without using my external Keyboard and Mouse.

My experience with Apple Support though removed the bitter taste out of mouth. Called in on Friday, told them the trouble I was having. Did a simple step the Support technician asked me to perform, still had the problem. Filed in my case on his computer and dispatched a DHL box for me to place my Macbook Air in. Box was delivered to me by Monday with simple instructions enclosed on how to send the Macbook Air back to Apple for repair. Placed Macbook Air in the box, scheduled a pick up with DHL online for Tuesday. Box was picked up by DHL on Tuesday delivered to Apple on Wednesday, repaired by Apple by Thursday and my Macbook Air is back in my lap Friday. For the whole experience all I had to do was make a phone call and not pay a single cent. The turn around time was 5 days, excluding when the call was placed.

Apparently there was some problem with my keyboard and track pad, basically the whole top cover, which was replaced by Apple for no additional cost. Since Friday I have had plenty of time to play with the Air and have to sum it in one word, AWESOME. This is truly an amazing machine.

The setup from scratch via the provided Leopard DVD was a bit on the slow side, but that was tolerable for me. I was doing the setup via wireless link to my hackintosh Mac Pro’s DVD drive using a Linksys WRT54GL router. This is a G router, assuming those of you who have a N router will have a faster experience than I did. I took me about 1hr and 15mins to install Leopard’s essential system files and iPhoto. All other options such as additional fonts, garage band, printer drivers were unchecked.

Before my hands on experience with the machine I was under the impression based on the configuration of the Air that I would have some sluggish performance issues I would have to get accustomed to over time. I presumed the sluggish performance based on the 1.6 GHZ processor and the 4200 RPM hard drive. But to my surprise if there is a sluggishness issue, I haven’t experienced it yet. I have the machine setup exactly the way I would like it to be and haven’t had a slow response from it yet.

As an example, at the time of writing this blog, I have VLC media player playing a movie off my Mac Pro’s shared hard drive on to a Epson Projector connected via the micro DVI out cable , Azureus downloading two torrents, a Word document opened in Word 2008, Apple Mail opened and myself typing away on my Firefox browser with 3 open tabs. This machine is taking it with no hiccups.

The Macbook Air is setup exactly the way I want it, meaning I have all the applications I would need minus Adobe Photoshop CS3, Dreamweaver CS3, InDesign CS3 which I would be installing tomorrow. But with all my required applications installed, I have 59.79 GB of space still remaining. Mind you though I haven’t transferred my 8 GB of photos and music over to the Air. I still foresee no space issues in the near future. I am assuming by the time the problem does arrive, technology would enable us to have bigger hard drives in the same form factor which I can then later purchase and upgrade on my own.

I wish I could think of something negative to say about the machine, but have nothing as of writing this blog. If something does come up will update the blog with the new information. For the time being enjoy the pictures.

P.S. The glossy effect you see on the top lid and the bottom of the laptop is not how the original product is. I have applied a skin to protect the two layers from scratches. The skin I used was purchased from Best Skins Ever. They use the same material as Invisible Shield only are considerably cheaper. I have used their skins in the past on my iPhone, Macbook, Macbook Pro, and have been VERY satisfied with their product.

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Cooler Master Cosmos 1000 vs Cosmos S

Umair Abbasi — Sun, 04 May 2008 22:19:39 +0000

I built my hackintosh PC with the Cooler Master 1000 casing and am still loving it. It is a solid build both quality and looks wise, with nice little touches inside the case. And then came the Cooler Master S. With the level of satisfaction I had with the Cosmos 1000 I only assumed that the newer model Cosmos S would just increase the experience to the next level which is what compelled me to go ahead and make the purchase. I still had a few days remaining on my return policy on the Cosmos 1000, so getting rid of it was not a problem.

The Cosmos S arrived at my door step nicely packaged in its box with the brown sack holding the casing inside. Seeing just the addition in packaging to the previous Cosmos I had further started anticipating the casing to be a thing of wonder. After 2 hours of transferring my components from my old case to the new one I was ready to power it up. With all the cables connected to the back of the computer and ready to experience the casing in all its glory, click. That was it. A few more clicks, rubs against the touch sensitive power button the computer would refuse to power up. Luckily the Intel Bad Axe 2 comes with a manual power on button on the motherboard via which I was able to power up my computer. That was issue 1.

Issue 2 was even though the casing was lighter than the Cosmos 1000 and the black color with the red touches gave it a sporty look, the fine touches of class that I found inside the Cosmos 1000 were apparently missing in the Cosmos S. The Cosmos 1000 has white rubber like material around the edges through which the cables pass so as to prevent cutting them and even at the same time prevent you from cutting yourself. Secondly the dust filters included with the Cosmos 1000 on the back and the cooling fan on bottom were both not present in the Cosmos S.

Here are a few more things to consider:

On the 1000 when you raise the lever at the back the side panel pops out a bit. This one it doesn’t, you actually have to pry your finger in a bit
Took the tape off from the handle bars on the Cosmos S and the paint came off
The Cosmos S does not come with the cool box with tools, cable ties that come with the 1000
The side panels on the Cosmos S are so much harder to put on, and when you do manage to get one in, it sounds like something is breaking. Scratched the corner of the casing easily just because the panel will not go in easily

After playing with the Cosmos S for a day I decided to return it and keep my Cosmos 1000, which I feel has the better built, look, experience than the Cosmos S.

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