Way back in the hazy days of August, I ran out of storage.

Again.

My desktop looked like a bad set from "Swordfish". A 1tb Firewire 800 drive, a 1tb USB2.0 drive, and a few errant 500gb USB drives. With each new device my computer booted slower, the noise increased, my precious desktop real estate declined, and juggling data got that much harder. I needed to do something dramatic.

But there was good news: Data Robotics just released an updated version of their hyped Drobo , and the intertubes buzz was all positive. It supports Firewire 800 and up to 4tb of storage (16tb theoretical). After weighing my options, I decided to take the plunge. I bought one.

Fast Forward several weeks, my shiny new Drobo was here. Giddy with excitement, I followed the (simple) instructions to a "T". I installed the drives, I installed the software, I hooked this bad mamma jamma up... and nothing.

The software didn't recognize the device. Console showed an arcane error that seemed vaguely relevant to Firewire and mysticism. But nothing. Zip, zero, zilch.

I went through the predictable troubleshooting steps. Replaced the cable, rebooted, tried reconnecting my previous Firewire 800 drive, tried daisy chaining them, failures all.
Everything pointed to the Drobo.

I decided to connect it via USB 2.0, ta-da! It worked perfectly. But it was working on USB. Which was not acceptable, at all. The only reason I opted specifically for the Drobo was I wanted to move away from USB for my mass storage needs.

I contacted tech-support. I was hopeful that they would have a fast miracle solution. "This is a known bug, we have a super secret beta-tastic firmware right here to fix you up!" they would say.

Trouble ticket filed, I waited.

And waited.

A week later, I finally got my first response. They needed more information. Of course. I happily gave them all the details, included the diagnostic output from the Drobo Dashboard software. Things were finally looking up.

Then I waited.

And waited.

Eight days later (today in fact) I got a response. It was from Steven, a Tier-3 Support Engineer.
Bad news it seems, the Drobo itself was in fact defective.

Unfortunately, I live overseas, and their RMA process will only handle shipping to/from the US. I would need to send the Drobo back to the states on my dime, then ship the replacement back here (including duties, again) on my dime.

While this is a perfectly reasonable policy, it still sucks.

With a heavy heart I responded to Steven. I thanked him for letting me know, I explained that I understood the RMA policy, that I felt it was reasonable. And I explained that reasonable or not, by the time I got done shipping this unit back, the replacement unit, coupled with duties and the original cost of shipping and duties, this Drobo was going to cost me $970. Nearly double the price of a brand new Drobo. It just wasn't cost-effective, time to cut my losses and run.

I expected that to be the end of it. Or will it?

As I wrote out the trials and tribulations of my poor little Drobo, Steven e-mailed me. He's going to talk to his boss about the shipping issues.

As a sane adult consumer living overseas, I have no reason to expect Data Robotics to pick up the tab on this. But it would be pretty freakin' sweet if they do.

Regardless of the outcome, dear interweb, if there is only one lesson I've learned while living outside of the USA and shopping online, it's Caveat Emptor.

Since it's been several months, I figured I would update the site.
Just, you know, for giggles.

Astro, the MINI, has been here for a few months.
We've upgraded his wheels to glorious König Zero's

We've put a Mac Mini in, complete with touchscreen, GPS and 3.5g data. Astro is using an interface called Neon Boombox . It's lacking a little polish, but it's a work in progress.

I took roughly 1.2 babillion pictures of the install, and jotted down notes and thoughts. Ostensibly all of this would be molded into an article for "Shuffle", but alas it's just never made it that far.

I nearly bought a house in Conway, SC. In the end I had to walk away from the deal, which is too bad.

Tyler, Chuck, Cathy, Joe, Jenny and I took a cruise. Specifically, a KATG cruise. Good times were had by all, although my liver is thankful it's over.

This month is Ramadan here in the Gulf. Which means, well, google it. It's not too bad, just a little inconvenient at times.

Speaking of inconvenient... I (and everyone I work with) fell victim to Credit Card Fraud. They made off with about $1,400 , which sucks. What sucks even more is that all of my cards were compromised (as were all my co-workers), which means none of us has any freaking money to do anything with right now. Still waiting for Aramex to deliver my replacements. Hopefully another week.

Speaking of Aramex... I ordered a Drobo and 4× 1tb drives. Hopefully this gets me through this TV Season.

Which reminds me: If you haven't been watching "Weeds", start. It's a wonderful show, although the first two seasons were a lot funnier.

Well, Astro MINI should be in the port this afternoon...I am very, very excited about that.

Instamapper is a really awesome service, and it's completely free.

I can't even get out of bed in the morning without my Blackberry, and I've always been impressed by the GPS chipset the 8800 uses (very accurate, weak signal lock, etc), so the two seem to be a perfect combination.

Stalk me here

Anyone know of a good, "Free" PLM system? The few I've looked at seem to be poorly maintained or otherwise "lacking".

Adam and Melissa were married this weekend past, too bad I couldn't have been there. Congratulations to both!

I'm eager to find out if they like our gift.

My brother David and Tyler's sister Courtenay just left the UAE. They visited us for ten days, which was a great excuse to get out and see and do a lot of things I've put off for too long. Pictures on Flickr

I've got about a dozen programming ideas burning in my brain, but after work I can only seem to find time to play my PSP Slim before bed.

Oh, and Rob is spinning up a new project for us, http://factory-default.com . Details to follow, but it promises to be fun and interesting.

Speaking of, have you seen Linode yet? Check it out. I am trying to find the motivation to move Superimposable.org from it's current hosting on The Planet to Linode. I've been really happy with The Planet, but it's too expensive for my needs, and Linode offers a ton of really great features.

A few moments ago I discovered a bug in the way twitter handles protected updates.

Apparently, if you search for a username, it will provide you with that users most recent tweet. This could easily be exploited through scrapes to provide a "feed" of a users "protected" updates.

So much for privacy. One more reason to hate twitter.

For the curious, here is how it's done,

Simply enter the URL in this format:
http://twitter.com/tw/search/users?q=USERNAME

This seems sporadic with the "normal" twitter, but the mobile version showed the last update 100% of the time (that I tried, about a dozen from a few machines)

The mobile url is:
http://m.twitter.com/tw/search/users?q=USERNAME

You will need to be logged in for this to work.

I just got my new messenger bag / laptop sleeve from Working Class Heroes.

I can't rant or rave enough about these goods. The bag itself is soooo wonderful. I actually fondled the bags leather the entire way home from the post office. Before a few weeks ago, I'd never even heard of "aniline leather".

Today, I'm in awe. I didn't know leather could feel so..nice.

The sleeve for my beloved (albeit dinged) Airbook is a great fit. I doubt the two will be far separated. And wool felt. Who would have thought?

I do have one complaint though: The Working Class Heroes website stated that the "unfold" bag would accommodate a 13" laptop horizontally. Accommodate might be a little bit of a stretch. Yes, my Airbook fits, horizontally, but it's pretty effin' snug. And there is no way I can fit it, and the wonderful case I bought, in together.

Otherwise, super happy pleased.
Now, admire the leather: