I’ve been waiting a long for a networkable storage device that accepts “IDE”:1 or “SATA”:2 hard drives… and finally one is here (or at least will be here shortly). Introducing the Netgear SC101 Storage Central.

Engadget has a “post”:3 on it as does “Tom’s Hardware”:4. Not much detail on the specs yet, but it looks like it will support two hard drives and will support a couple of flavors of “RAID”:11. The *BIG* turnoff is that it’s a Netgear product. I’ll probably never purchase a Netgear product again after what I “went through”:10 with my old Netgear wireless router — the WGT624 (v2).

Of course, there are lots of options besides the SC101’s bring-your-own-hard-drives option. Linksys makes the “NSLU2″:5 that accepts USB-based drives instead of IDE or SATA drives. Asus makes the “WL-HDD2.5″:8 that is a wireless data storage device that takes 2.5″ IDE drives. However, it only takes one drive so no RAID, and 2.5″ (laptop) drives are rather expensive and limited in storage (when compared to desktop 3.5″ drives). “Mirra”:9 also makes a highly-rated NAS solutions that include(s) the drive(s), but are somewhat more expensive. And finally, there is the Buffalo Technology 1 TB “TeraStation”:6 at about $1000 — if that’s not enough storage, they also offer a 1.6 TB TeraStation!

Regarding networking any of these devices with Windows, “Jeff”:7 recommends using IP address to avoid the Windows Networking hell of Windows domains/workgroups. Yes, it’s 2005 and Microsoft still can’t get networking right.

Oh, anybody know what the heck the device pictured below is? I found it on Linksys’ site. It’s the graphic that leads you to their mini-site on NAS devices. It sure looks like a NAS box that accepts drive caddies. If so, I want one!

!/img/Linksys_NAS.gif!

_*Update: 2005-06-11*_
Rob in the comments notes that the mystery picture is a “Linksys EFG80″:12. I don’t know if they are still selling it, but “here’s”:13 a review on it from January, 2003 (in a quick search, I couldn’t find it online). I’d be stoked if Linksys were to update it, and add stuff like an automatic backup.

[13(Network World review)]http://www.networkworld.com/net.worker/reviews/2003/0120networker.html

[12(Linksys EFG80)]http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=35&prid=447

[11(Wikipedia on RAID)]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks

[10(Zoingers hellish experience with Netgear router)]http://www.zoinger.com/archives/2005/03/31/16.43.58/

[9(Mirra home page)]http://www.mirra.com/index.html

[8(Asus WL-HDD2.5 site)]http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=12&l2=44&l3=0&model=460&modelmenu=1

[7(Jeffs no-post blog)]http://www.analconsumer.com

[6(Some big storage from Buffalo)]http://www.buffalotech.com/products/product-detail.php?productid=97&categoryid=19

[5(Linksys network storage products)]http://www.linksys.com/products/group.asp?grid=35&scid=43

[4(Toms Hardware on the SC101)]http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sections-article98-page9.php

[3(Engadget on the SC101)]http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000057043399

[2(Wikipedia on SATA)]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sata

[1(Wikipedia on IDE)]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDE

I can’t remember how I found this, but you might want to check out “TaskSwitchXP”:1 if you are interested in a highly-customizable Windows XP _alt-tab_ replacement. I installed it today, and I think I’m gonna keep it loaded. It’s small and fast and generates a preview window of each application as you scroll through the list like this:

!/img/TaskSwitchXP.png (TaskSwitchXP preview windows screen shot)!

TaskSwitchXP is really fast… so fast it “feels” like the normal _alt-tab_ utility — and not like the Microsoft “PowerToy”:2 replacement which is really slow. TaskSwitchXP also has about 1 gillion things you can “customize”:3 on it, is “distributed very free” and is open source… so what’s not to like?

[3(Things you can customize with TaskSwitchXP)]http://www.ntwind.com/taskswitchxp/config.html

[2(Home of Microsoft PowerToy Windows XP add-ons)]http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

[1(TaskSwitch XP home page)]http://www.ntwind.com/taskswitchxp/index.html

“Scintilla”:1 is an open-source freeware code editor that I use a lot when editing CSS and HTML files. In fact, I use it in conjunction with Firefox’s “ViewSourceWith”:2 extension to view the source of pages. Why is Scintilla so useful? Well, for one, it makes the source of a page much more readable than Firefox’s built-in source viewer or applications like Windows Notepad. In addition, it has a bunch of advanced features like:

bq.. As well as features found in standard text editing components, Scintilla includes features especially useful when editing and debugging source code. These include support for syntax styling, error indicators, code completion and call tips. The selection margin can contain markers like those used in debuggers to indicate breakpoints and the current line. Styling choices are more open than with many editors, allowing the use of proportional fonts, bold and italics, multiple foreground and background colours and multiple fonts.

p. Here’s a screen shot that shows how readable Scintilla’s rendering of a page is:

!/img/Scintilla_screen_shot.png (Sample Scintilla view source output)!

If you do any kind of simple code editing like CSS or HTML or PHP, Scintilla is a great, lightweight application that will greatly increase your productivity.

[2(Zoinger post on ViewSourceWith Firefox extension)]http://www.zoinger.com/words/archives/2005/05/01/viewsourcewith-yet-another-handy-firefox-extension/

[1(Scintilla home page)]http://www.scintilla.org/

I’ve been posting a few screen shots lately from Del.icio.us and other services on the web. I generated these screen shots using an awesome program called “SnagIt”:2 which is written by the folks at “TechSmith”:1. I’ve been using SnagIt for years now, and it keeps getting better and better with each release.

SnagIt can capture images, text, web pages, video and printer output (although I just use it for image capture). In addition, it has a basic image editor and browser and can do batch conversions. Heck, they even have a Firefox “extension”:3 for SnagIt.

Overall, it’s very easy to use — even its more advanced features (like edge effects) are super simple to use. If you’re looking for a great screen capture utility, I highly recommend TechSmith’s SnagIt.

[3(SnagIt Firefox extension)]http://www.techsmith.com/products/snagit/firefox.asp

[2(SnagIt home page)]http://www.techsmith.com/products/snagit/default.asp

[1(TechSmith home page)]http://www.techsmith.com/

If you are running Windows XP and have an LCD monitor, you should be running Microsoft’s “ClearType”:3. Microsoft’s description of ClearType says:

bq.. With Windows XP, ClearType delivers improved font display quality over traditional forms of font smoothing or anti-aliasing. ClearType improves readability on color LCD displays with a digital interface, such as those in laptops and high-quality flat panel displays. Readability on CRT screens can also be somewhat improved.

p. Before, you only had the option to use the web-based ClearType “tuner”:1 which required IE (since it uses ActiveX). Now you have the option to download the new ClearType Tuner “PowerToy”:2. It allows you to adjust the settings locally, and has an alternative adjustment UI in the _Advanced_ tab.

[1(ClearType tuner page IE only)]http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/Step1.aspx

[2(Download page for ClearType Tuner PowerToy)]http://www.microsoft.com/typography/ClearTypePowerToy.mspx

[3(Microsoft's ClearType page)]http://www.microsoft.com/typography/ClearTypeInfo.mspx