Useful stuff for small spaces

[Phil Stracchino-3]

This company:
http://www.ameri-rack.com/
is the US distributor for this company:
http://www.ably.com.tw/
Which turns out to manufacture several rather useful little items,
including this one:
http://www.ably.com.tw/pdt/viewpdt.asp?absp=2&cat=CHASSIS_PARTS
to mount two 2.5" IDE disks in place of a single 3.5" one, and this:
http://www.ably.com.tw/pdt/viewpdt.asp?absp=1&cat=CHASSIS_PARTS
which mounts two 2.5" SATA disks in place of a single 3.5" one.  The
latter is $12 per.  Don't know about the former.

The sales contact is Paul Lan, plan@....


--
   Phil Stracchino, CDK#2     DoD#299792458     ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
   alaric@...   alaric@...   phil@...
          Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
                  It's not the years, it's the mileage.
_______________________________________________
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[velociraptor]

Phil Stracchino wrote:

> This company:
> http://www.ameri-rack.com/
> is the US distributor for this company:
> http://www.ably.com.tw/
> Which turns out to manufacture several rather useful little items,
> including this one:
> http://www.ably.com.tw/pdt/viewpdt.asp?absp=2&cat=CHASSIS_PARTS
> to mount two 2.5" IDE disks in place of a single 3.5" one, and this:
> http://www.ably.com.tw/pdt/viewpdt.asp?absp=1&cat=CHASSIS_PARTS
> which mounts two 2.5" SATA disks in place of a single 3.5" one.  The
> latter is $12 per.  Don't know about the former.
>
> The sales contact is Paul Lan, plan@....
>
>

Very nice for a teeny-tiny disk-based backup system like Time Machine or
similar.

But, 320GB 2.5" SATA are still $140; Seagate 500GB 3.5" SATA's are on at
Newegg for $80 at the moment.  It's a quandary.

=Nadine=
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[Phil Stracchino-3]

Nadine Miller wrote:

> Phil Stracchino wrote:
>> This company:
>> http://www.ameri-rack.com/
>> is the US distributor for this company:
>> http://www.ably.com.tw/
>> Which turns out to manufacture several rather useful little items,
>> including this one:
>> http://www.ably.com.tw/pdt/viewpdt.asp?absp=2&cat=CHASSIS_PARTS
>> to mount two 2.5" IDE disks in place of a single 3.5" one, and this:
>> http://www.ably.com.tw/pdt/viewpdt.asp?absp=1&cat=CHASSIS_PARTS
>> which mounts two 2.5" SATA disks in place of a single 3.5" one.  The
>> latter is $12 per.  Don't know about the former.
>>
>> The sales contact is Paul Lan, plan@....
>>
>>
> Very nice for a teeny-tiny disk-based backup system like Time Machine or
> similar.
>
> But, 320GB 2.5" SATA are still $140; Seagate 500GB 3.5" SATA's are on at
> Newegg for $80 at the moment.  It's a quandary.

Indeed.  Though actually, its applicability to me is in a 3U storage
server in which I want to have mirrored boot disks without touching any
of the big SATA disks that will be its storage array, but I don't have
room to install two 3.5" disks.


--
   Phil Stracchino, CDK#2     DoD#299792458     ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
   alaric@...   alaric@...   phil@...
          Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
                  It's not the years, it's the mileage.
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[Angel Martin Alganza]

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 07:28:24PM -0700, Nadine Miller wrote:
> But, 320GB 2.5" SATA are still $140; Seagate 500GB 3.5" SATA's are
> on at Newegg for $80 at the moment.  It's a quandary.

What about power saving?  Doesn't it pay off for the difference in
price?  This is something I've been wondering about for some time now.
The same goes for other components such as TFTs vs. CRTs or the use of
one item instead of two (memory sticks, HDDs, optical drives, etc.).

What should you do if you want to go for a very little consuming box?

Cheers,
Angel

[demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature which had a name of signature.asc]
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[Peter Corlett]

On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 09:48:43AM +0200, Angel Martin Alganza wrote:
[...]
> What about power saving? Doesn't it pay off for the difference in price?
> This is something I've been wondering about for some time now. The same
> goes for other components such as TFTs vs. CRTs or the use of one item
> instead of two (memory sticks, HDDs, optical drives, etc.).

At present, the marginal cost of a watt-year of power is about a pound. A
24/7 box will also typically hang around for about 2-3 years until it wears
out or becomes unfashionable. Given that, if I have to spend more than a
couple of pounds per watt of power saved, it's not worth it. For kit that's
not running 24/7, it becomes even harder to break-even.

> What should you do if you want to go for a very little consuming box?

Consider whether you can eliminate the box completely. That way you save the
power costs *and* initial purchase price.
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[Phil Stracchino-3]

Nadine Miller wrote:
> Very nice for a teeny-tiny disk-based backup system like Time Machine or
> similar.
>
> But, 320GB 2.5" SATA are still $140; Seagate 500GB 3.5" SATA's are on at
> Newegg for $80 at the moment.  It's a quandary.

Of course, for boot disks I don't need 320GB.  And NewEgg has Hitachi
40GB 2.5" for about $40ea.

Then again, at the moment I have an 80GB 7200rpm PATA disk sitting here
that's effectively free ... so there is still a quandary.


--
   Phil Stracchino, CDK#2     DoD#299792458     ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
   alaric@...   alaric@...   phil@...
          Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
                  It's not the years, it's the mileage.
_______________________________________________
rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue

[velociraptor]

Angel Martin Alganza wrote:

> On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 07:28:24PM -0700, Nadine Miller wrote:
>> But, 320GB 2.5" SATA are still $140; Seagate 500GB 3.5" SATA's are
>> on at Newegg for $80 at the moment.  It's a quandary.
>
> What about power saving?  Doesn't it pay off for the difference in
> price?  This is something I've been wondering about for some time now.
> The same goes for other components such as TFTs vs. CRTs or the use of
> one item instead of two (memory sticks, HDDs, optical drives, etc.).
>
> What should you do if you want to go for a very little consuming box?

Where I get power at the moment (Las Vegas) is heavily subsidized by the
casinos, so immediate cash outlay trumps long-term power (cash) saving
at the moment, since my finances are very tight.

But yeah, all things considered, if I had the cash, I'd much rather drop
  more on a smaller solution.  It's not just the power consumption, but
the space/noise/hassle of moving as well.

A shuttle-size box, for example, with a 1-1.5" box to fit right on top
with 8 2.5" eSata drives would be very slick.

=Nadine=
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[velociraptor]

Phil Stracchino wrote:

> Nadine Miller wrote:
>> Very nice for a teeny-tiny disk-based backup system like Time Machine
>> or similar.
>>
>> But, 320GB 2.5" SATA are still $140; Seagate 500GB 3.5" SATA's are on
>> at Newegg for $80 at the moment.  It's a quandary.
>
> Of course, for boot disks I don't need 320GB.  And NewEgg has Hitachi
> 40GB 2.5" for about $40ea.
>
> Then again, at the moment I have an 80GB 7200rpm PATA disk sitting here
> that's effectively free ... so there is still a quandary.

Buy the 2.5" and flip a few spare parts on eBay.  Quandary solved.  I'm
trying to scrape together enough this way with my own spares collecting
dust to finance the difference between the "fat" (144MB graphics) refurb
MacBook and the price my G4 Powerbook will bring on eBay.

I'm also thinking about resorting to eBay for the motorcycles I've been
trying to sell, since we've gotten nothing locally and from a couple of
our m/c forums but tire-kickers thus far.  Of course, this notion has
been further spurred by the fact that I just found a *very* cheap m/c
I've been wanting for a while on CL about 50 mi. from my mom's.

=Nadine=
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[Mark Benson-2]

On 15 May 2008, at 01:14, Nadine Miller wrote:

> Phil Stracchino wrote:
>> Nadine Miller wrote:
>>> Very nice for a teeny-tiny disk-based backup system like Time  
>>> Machine or similar.
>>>
>>> But, 320GB 2.5" SATA are still $140; Seagate 500GB 3.5" SATA's are  
>>> on at Newegg for $80 at the moment.  It's a quandary.
>> Of course, for boot disks I don't need 320GB.  And NewEgg has  
>> Hitachi 40GB 2.5" for about $40ea.
>> Then again, at the moment I have an 80GB 7200rpm PATA disk sitting  
>> here that's effectively free ... so there is still a quandary.
>
> Buy the 2.5" and flip a few spare parts on eBay.  Quandary solved.  
> I'm trying to scrape together enough this way with my own spares  
> collecting dust to finance the difference between the "fat" (144MB  
> graphics) refurb MacBook and the price my G4 Powerbook will bring on  
> eBay.

MacBooks have bad Karma. I wouldn't recommend one personally. Nothing  
wrong with them functionally as computers, but the cases are really  
poor quality, and all plastic. The first ones suffered with the  
plastic on thepalmrest and trackpad discolouring (permanantly, like  
you can't clean it say you wanted to). The more recent models have  
started suffering cracked plastics along the edge of the palmrest, and  
along the sides of the keyboard, with slivers even cracking right off.  
Apple are aware of both issues and will repair them most likely FOC, I  
think provided they can't find evidence of obvious abuse, but reports  
on that are still a little confused and it might take talking to a  
store manager or a supervisor if the 'Genius' you see isn't going for  
it. Now that means that it's okay right? Well you have to think if  
they've started doing that on the outside, then what is the structure  
of the MacBook doing on the inside every-time you move it? It's the  
age old 'cheap = plastic = not strong enough" problem. iBooks used to  
suffer badly with it too.

> I'm also thinking about resorting to eBay for the motorcycles I've  
> been trying to sell, since we've gotten nothing locally and from a  
> couple of our m/c forums but tire-kickers thus far.  Of course, this  
> notion has been further spurred by the fact that I just found a  
> *very* cheap m/c I've been wanting for a while on CL about 50 mi.  
> from my mom's.

Wow, you even ride a motorcycle? You couldn't be any cooler (IMHO) if  
you tired ;).


--
Mark Benson

My Blog:
<http://markbenson.org/blog>
Visit my Homepage: <http://homepage.mac.com/markbenson>

"Never send a human to do a machine's job..."
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[wa2egp]

> MacBooks have bad Karma. I wouldn't recommend one personally. Nothing  
> wrong with them functionally as computers, but the cases are really  
> poor quality, and all plastic. The first ones suffered with the  
> plastic on thepalmrest and trackpad discolouring (permanantly, like  
> you can't clean it say you wanted to). The more recent models have  
> started suffering cracked plastics along the edge of the palmrest, and  
> along the sides of the keyboard, with slivers even cracking right off.  
> Apple are aware of both issues and will repair them most likely FOC, I  
> think provided they can't find evidence of obvious abuse, but reports  
> on that are still a little confused and it might take talking to a  
> store manager or a supervisor if the 'Genius' you see isn't going for  
> it. Now that means that it's okay right? Well you have to think if  
> they've started doing that on the outside, then what is the structure  
> of the MacBook doing on the inside every-time you move it? It's the  
> age old 'cheap = plastic = not strong enough" problem. iBooks used to  
> suffer badly with it too.

Not just Macbooks.  I have an HP zv6000 series which is literally falling apart.  Plastic is falling off the front and the touch pad has the same problem.  I'm switching over to a Powerbook (Pismo) for a while.  For a 10 year old machine, it's in a lot better shape than the HP.  Shame.

Bob
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[Ethan O'Toole]

> Not just Macbooks.  I have an HP zv6000 series which is literally
> falling apart.  Plastic is falling off the front and the touch pad has
> the same problem.  I'm switching over to a Powerbook (Pismo) for a
> while.  For a 10 year old machine, it's in a lot better shape than the
> HP.  Shame.
> Bob

My work machine is a macbook. Someone mentioned the palmrest
discoloration. The Mr Green cleanbar (some sorta odd sponge stuff) is
rumored to re-whiten them. Wait, I've seen it work. It did work :-)

I'm still jonesing a thinkpad. I think ThinkPads are my favorite laptops,
even though I don't own one yet.

--
05 REM Signature
10 PRINT " Ethan O'Toole "
20 PRINT " FLICKR ", " http://www.flickr.com/photos/ethanotoole "
30 PRINT " YOUTUBE ", " www.youtube.com/user/telmnstr "
40 PRINT " HOMEPAGE ", " users.757.org/~ethan "
RUN
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[Robert Darlington]

I deal with the more modern thinkpads, day in and day out.  T40, 42,
42p, 43, 43p, 60, 60z, etc.  They're solid machines, very much unlike
the older systems.  The old systems were what I consider to be junk,
and I remember at one point you were basically a sucker if you bought
them over some of the toshibas or dells that were out at the time.
The butterfly keyboard comes to mind here.  Surely they made some good
ones though.

The only problem I ever have with these T40-T60 models is the fans die
after a few years.  I was able to repair one this week with a shot of
WD-40, but it might be easier to just buy a used fan assembly
(heatsink and all) for $20 or less on eBay.  I realized I spent about
an hour on the repair, which would take me an hour anyway if I was
installing a new one.

I tried this repair on another unit and it failed.

-Bob

On Fri, May 16, 2008 at 7:35 AM, Ethan O'Toole <ethan@...> wrote:

>> Not just Macbooks.  I have an HP zv6000 series which is literally falling
>> apart.  Plastic is falling off the front and the touch pad has the same
>> problem.  I'm switching over to a Powerbook (Pismo) for a while.  For a 10
>> year old machine, it's in a lot better shape than the HP.  Shame.
>> Bob
>
> My work machine is a macbook. Someone mentioned the palmrest discoloration.
> The Mr Green cleanbar (some sorta odd sponge stuff) is rumored to re-whiten
> them. Wait, I've seen it work. It did work :-)
>
> I'm still jonesing a thinkpad. I think ThinkPads are my favorite laptops,
> even though I don't own one yet.
>
> --
> 05 REM Signature
> 10 PRINT " Ethan O'Toole "
> 20 PRINT " FLICKR ", " http://www.flickr.com/photos/ethanotoole "
> 30 PRINT " YOUTUBE ", " www.youtube.com/user/telmnstr "
> 40 PRINT " HOMEPAGE ", " users.757.org/~ethan "
> RUN
> _______________________________________________
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[Steve Sandau]

Robert Darlington wrote:
> I deal with the more modern thinkpads, day in and day out.  T40, 42,
> 42p, 43, 43p, 60, 60z, etc.  They're solid machines, very much unlike
> the older systems.  The old systems were what I consider to be junk,
> and I remember at one point you were basically a sucker if you bought
> them over some of the toshibas or dells that were out at the time.
> The butterfly keyboard comes to mind here.  Surely they made some good
> ones though.
>

I have a T23 that I think is great. It was about $200 on eBay, and I put
a 100G drive I had into it. It's been very reliable. Beyond that, I like
the 1400x1040 resolution, and I love the third mouse button since I run
Linux (Slackware) on it.

Steve
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[velociraptor]

Ethan O'Toole wrote:

>> Not just Macbooks.  I have an HP zv6000 series which is literally
>> falling apart.  Plastic is falling off the front and the touch pad has
>> the same problem.  I'm switching over to a Powerbook (Pismo) for a
>> while.  For a 10 year old machine, it's in a lot better shape than the
>> HP.  Shame.
>> Bob
>
> My work machine is a macbook. Someone mentioned the palmrest
> discoloration. The Mr Green cleanbar (some sorta odd sponge stuff) is
> rumored to re-whiten them. Wait, I've seen it work. It did work :-)

I can personally verify that it's not a rumor.  They're made of melamine
foam, which is microporous. I use them on just about everything these
days--MacBook, Powerbook, walls, doors, etc.  They also work really well
on anodized aluminum, so they clean up iPod Minis very nicely (most
looks totally crappy because people don't clean them, and anodization
holds dirt well).

Just don't put any soap or cleanser on them, they don't work as well
when you do that, in my experience.  Also, if you are using them on
small stuff, cut them into smaller pieces.  I sliced one in half
longways so it was about 1/4" thick, then cut those in half.  That gave
me 4 ~1.5" squares about 1/4" thick, perfect for iPods, mice, trackball,
and other small computer bits.  I also used this stuff on Heathkit
equipment chassis; they work pretty well on textured surfaces.

=Nadine=
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[Steven M Jones]

Robert Darlington wrote:
> I deal with the more modern thinkpads, day in and day out.  T40, 42,
> 42p, 43, 43p, 60, 60z, etc.  They're solid machines, very much unlike
> the older systems.  The old systems were what I consider to be junk,

For me the TP 600E circa 1999, and especially the 600X P3/500 I
bought, was a breakthrough machine -- I could actually take that on the
road and be fully functional. The typical Dell laptop of the time was,
IMHO, a total piece of crap by comparison. Not to say the TPs were
perfect -- just look at the many, many, many complaints about the
battery (mis-)management.

When I moved up to a T23 P3/1.1GHz with the hi-res 1400x1050 display I
wasn't just functional, I was carrying a desktop workstation equivalent.
The plastic did get brittle after about five years on the road, and
losing bits of the case is the primary way I rationalized a new T61p
this year...

> The only problem I ever have with these T40-T60 models is the fans die
> after a few years.

Guess I've been lucky -- no fan problems I've noticed on any of my
ThinkPads from the 600X on.

--Steve.
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[Curtis H. Wilbar Jr.]

Steven M Jones wrote:
>
> For me the TP 600E circa 1999, and especially the 600X P3/500 I
> bought, was a breakthrough machine -- I could actually take that on the
> road and be fully functional. The typical Dell laptop of the time was,
> IMHO, a total piece of crap by comparison. Not to say the TPs were
> perfect -- just look at the many, many, many complaints about the
> battery (mis-)management.

I loved my 600X... still have it.... (no good batteries for it... but I
have the
laptop :-) ).

I upgraded the processor to an 850mhz too...  (after I stopped using it....
it just sits....  I probably should pull and sell the processor MMC-II
850mhz cpus still fetch a decent amt on ePay (for a P3 processor anyway)).

-- Curt
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[Bill Bradford]

On Fri, May 16, 2008 at 08:44:49AM -0600, Robert Darlington wrote:
> I deal with the more modern thinkpads, day in and day out.  T40, 42,
> 42p, 43, 43p, 60, 60z, etc.  They're solid machines, very much unlike
> the older systems.  The old systems were what I consider to be junk,
> and I remember at one point you were basically a sucker if you bought
> them over some of the toshibas or dells that were out at the time.
> The butterfly keyboard comes to mind here.  Surely they made some good
> ones though.

I have an A20p that was a hand-me-down from a former employee here in 2002,
used it as my desktop machine for two years, used it as my traveling laptop
for a few after that, and it's STILL going.  When they bought me its
replacement (HP NC6220, which is okay) I took the Thinkpad home with me.
8-)

As for the MacBook discoloration, I had that happen (spent a week in bed on
doctor's orders last year, my comforter was red.. hey, the macbook's
turning red!).  Called AppleCare, they sent a box, I had a MacBook with a
new top case back in three days.

Bill

--
Bill Bradford
Houston, Texas
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[Sridhar Ayengar]

Bill Bradford wrote:

> On Fri, May 16, 2008 at 08:44:49AM -0600, Robert Darlington wrote:
>> I deal with the more modern thinkpads, day in and day out.  T40, 42,
>> 42p, 43, 43p, 60, 60z, etc.  They're solid machines, very much unlike
>> the older systems.  The old systems were what I consider to be junk,
>> and I remember at one point you were basically a sucker if you bought
>> them over some of the toshibas or dells that were out at the time.
>> The butterfly keyboard comes to mind here.  Surely they made some good
>> ones though.
>
> I have an A20p that was a hand-me-down from a former employee here in 2002,
> used it as my desktop machine for two years, used it as my traveling laptop
> for a few after that, and it's STILL going.  When they bought me its
> replacement (HP NC6220, which is okay) I took the Thinkpad home with me.
> 8-)

If you like the A20p, you should check out the A31p.  15" 1600x1200
screen and space for two UltraBay devices.  I'd bet the machine would
run for quite a while with three batteries installed.

Peace...  Sridhar
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