The Drobo Advantage

A while ago I decided it was time to take my data storage and backup seriously. Having a few machines, PCs and Macs, laptops and desktops, a couple of external drives, a Time Capsule for my Time Machine backups, I just thought, “enough is enough!”

Having come to the conclusion that my data storage was getting out of control, I started exploring my options. Broadly speaking they were these:

• More large external drives & mirror the data.
• RAID
• Online backup (link coming when I’ve decided who to recommend)
• A Drobo storage robot

More hard drives would of just added to the clutter and confusion, though I might still invest in a few so that I can create bootable copies of my critical drives.

A RAID set up was a tempting solution, but although I’m more tech savy than some, I fear this would of eaten up a lot more of my time than I was willing to invest.

The next option is something I’m still considering. Having an online, offsite backup of all my data sounds like a great idea. Whilst the initial backups would most likely take huge amounts of time and might anger my ISP, I think this is something I’ll definitely be utilising in the future and have several reviews of services to get through before I make a decision/recommendation.

A Drobo. I had been hearing good things about Drobos for a while through tech podcasts and decided to take a look at the details. Working in much the same way as RAID, but with less input from me, it sounded like the perfect solution! You can insert 1-4 drives of any capacity and when using 2-4, it will automatically stripe your data across the disks to protect it in the event of a drive death. You can even hot swap the drives to add capacity when you’re running out of space.

I’m currently running 2 x 1.5 TB drives in my Drobo and whilst I still have a long way to go in getting all my data organised on it, I’m confident that it will be worth the effort.

It now also comes in 4 models, Drobo (version I own), Drobo S, Drobo Pro and Drobo Elite, adding varying degrees of more protection against disk failure, server versions which can be rack mounted and faster connections.

Rather than listing the many features of a ‘Drobo storage robot’ here, head over to the Drobo website and have a read through if it sounds like the sort of thing that you’d find useful. Trust me, it’s the best solution I’ve found, truly proving to be ‘plug-in peace of mind’.

If you have any questions, or want to share your own experiences with a Drobo, I’d love to receive your comments

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= Here!

That’s right, I’ve got my first product in the shops… Actually on shelves! In an Apple store of all stores! Exciting times

Well, to say it’s my product is a little strong, I didn’t start it, but I finished it off. The next bunch will be even more exciting, the one’s that I’ve worked on from start to finish, the Brothers in Arms: Double Time and Mini Ninjas of the mac gaming world. Watch this space

I’ll leave you with this:

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Whilst the sun has decided to shine on the UK at last, all it seems to have done for me is make me a little less comfortable in my chair at work, instilled a yearning to go outside, and made me a little more sleepy.

However, time has been ticking on, so let’s have a little catch up on what’s been happening since Calm before the Storm:

• Writing some posts about useful things I’ve found and learnt.

^ Started a couple, but not quite finished any.

• Re-building my freelance site using WordPress for the back-end.

^ Complete! design-is.co.uk is now a lot more professional looking with a lot more content – head over and have a look.

• Getting up-to-date with admin.

^ Pretty much there, although getting it all organised would be a good thing to do next.

• Getting approval on an improved website (previously mentioned).

^ Unfortunately the corporate cogs haven’t quite found the time yet.

• Contacting existing clients.

^ Hot on the heels of my renovated freelance site came the first instalment of ‘design-is: updated‘, my newsletter to clients and prospects. I foresee this becoming a vital touch point, allowing me to easily inform readers of new offers and services.

• Following up leads.

^ Progress made, but an unending tasks when leads keep coming.

• Investigate post-grad certificate.

^ I wasn’t overly convinced that Birkbeck University knew what courses they were running when I attended their open day, but assuming I can find the cash, I’ll be looking into their offering more thoroughly as the months progress.

Other recent events include the Apple WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) 2009, in which they gave a nice little bump to their laptop range, took us through the latest features of their upcoming operating system Snow Leopard, and released the iPhone we all wish they had released the first time around. Yes, having upgraded from my first generation iPhone, I am now the proud owner of an iPhone 3GS. Now boasting both media messaging and video recording capabilities along side its (slightly) improved camera, this new hardware is the perfect accompaniment to their new OS 3.0 software.

Other noteworthy events include a couple of completed websites (see Case Studies on new design-is.co.uk) and attending the exhibition of finalists for the Young Designers Competition at Dulwich College. Whilst there I caught up with Luke Riggall, the young designer I recently completed a portfolio for who has made quite an impact on the ‘blogosphere’ with his advanced product designs.

Luke Riggall on Novanta, his 'designers desk'.

I hope you’re all enjoying the summery weather that has finally arrived on the wonderful island of Britain!

(If your not in Britain, I hope you’re having lovely weather too ).

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Although WordPress has peeked my interest lately, I wanted to mention another Open Source CMS that has proved invaluable to my services. Where WordPress, Joomla or Drupal present an overly feature rich environment, this offering from Scratch Media fills the gap perfectly.

CMS from Scratch, as it’s known, is a lightweight, database independent system which can be applied to any static website. The process is fairly straight forward and the guide on the publishers website is simple and easy to follow. A video is also provided demonstrating how to convert your existing site for those that want to see it in action.

The system offers easy text editing via the integrated FCK Editor and the ability to upload files and images to the server, which can then be linked to via the FCK interface. Navigation and galleries are easy enough to construct with the Sets feature and a separate log-in can be provided for clients which will only allow them to access the bits you want them to be able to edit.

Support for the CMS is provided via their forum and the creator of the system, Ben Hunt, is frequently on hand to offer solutions or point you in the right direction. This is also the place to follow the slow, but sure, evolution of the package, as Ben often posts fixes and additions directly to the forum.

I find this the perfect solution for small to medium brochure and marketing websites, providing the client an easy editing function without the complications associated with the more powerful packages.

Being Open Source, there is no charge and it can easily be skinned with your own brand. Their website even offers a white label user guide as a word document which you can amend as you wish and pass on to clients.

You can download CMSfS from it’s google code page.

If you give it a go, let me know what you think with a comment.

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I’ve recently completed a new website for a skilled carpenter and general handyman based in Norwich, Trevor Waters.

The brief was to create a showcase for the craftsman’s work and allow clients to get in touch to request quotes and / or more information.

TSWcarpentry.co.uk is my first site to run solely on the WordPress Blogging / CMS platform. The client already had a template in mind that he wanted to use, but a certain amount of customisation was needed to fulfil his requirements. In addition to this, several existing plugins were introduced to bring the full effect together.

More and more I am finding WordPress to be the platform of choice for developing sites which require a little more ‘omph’ than a simple page structure.

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So, I have finally given in and signed up to another social networking tool. Twitter.

After leaving my Myspace account to rot, and barely touching Facebook since registering, I feel I’m not really the social network entrepreneur’s target customer…

I had put it off for a long time, under the misconception that it would take time to figure out what to do and how to set it up. This is not the case! Within minutes I could update my status and had invested in the Tweetie application for my iPhone (upon Paul Boag’s recommendation).

Not only is it easy to use, I can use it to save myself the bother of logging onto Facebook to update, as it has the ability to suck my status’ straight out of twitter’s API.

Since signing up, I have found it to be a veritable font of knowledge – proving countless useful links to excellent articles throughout the web and allowing priceless insight into the minds of those I admire.

Feel free to follow me on twitter, or simply see the sidebar for my latest tweets (My Twitterverse), thanks to WordPress’ wonderful Twitter for WordPress plugin.

Happy tweetings!

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As mentioned in my previous post, Push Forward, I have the opportunity to make some vast improvements to the structure and coding of a new website that my employers are launching. Unfortunately, I’ve been instructed to complete the site as it is first, and worry about this stuff later – mainly due (I think) to the people in charge’s lack of understanding surrounding the advantages of designing and building to web standards.

I have therefore been scouring the Internet for ammunition to backup my argument when the time comes to put my case forward. There are a lot of useful articles out there, but for my purpose, this short presentation from boagworld.com sums it up excellently:

Many thanks to Paul Boag, who encourages everyone to download and use this presentation to spread the word about standards based design & development. Feel free to use this information in whatever way you wish:

• Download this presentation as a powerpoint (3.55mb)
• Download this presentation as a PDF file (1.07mb)
• Download this presentation as a MP3 audio file (22mb)

If you’ve seen a useful article which could be used against the forces of evil, please post a link and share

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So, we are now well into the year 2009.

Unfortunately my aim to finish this and my freelance site over the Christmas holiday period was thwarted by the flu pandemic which seems to of hit the majority of the UK. However, all is not lost! I have now got my freelance site, design-is.co.uk, to a stage where I’m happy enough to push forward and get some stationery printed up and flyers/business cards handed out.

This site (dougbarned.co.uk) is nearing a similar stage – it’s construction is complete, but it’s not quite full of the intended content yet. I’ll be working on this over the coming weeks, hoping to populate the work and miscellaneous sections with wonderful things.

I am also about to get stuck into a new site which has been partially designed, and built, but is stuck in the dark ages of web design with an antiquated table based layout and JavaScript powered roll-overs. I think someone had too strong a liking of Dreamweaver. I hope to remedy the situation.

In the technology arena, the year is already turning out to be an exciting one. Having avidly followed the process of the Macworld 2009, I can honestly say I would love to know what Apple have in the pipeline. I keep up-to-date on the latest rumours on MacRumors.com, but somehow it’s never quite enough. To prove this point, my favourite appearance at Macworld has to be from Axiotron, an Apple Premier Developer. They are responsible for the much sought after ModBook launched last year. This year, they begin shipping their new ModBook Pro. This machine looks to be a thing of dreams – the closest thing to digital paper a designer can get. I can’t wait until Axiotron start trading in the UK.

The ultimate tablet computer

As a closing note to 2009′s opening post, I would like to say how much I am looking forward to the finalization of CSS 3 and in particularly hope for a good implementation of the new multiple columns and text flow features.

Thanks for reading, I intend to be a bit more active with posting from now on.

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