Category Archives: Hardware
Fatal flaws with TalkSwitch TS-850i IP phones
I was initially excited at the chance to install and configure a TalkSwitch 240vs PBX phone system. With twelve TalkSwitch 850i cordless phones spread across four base stations, I figured I would have my work empire bathed in telephony goodness. … Continue reading
fdisk problems with large partitions
I recently upgraded my 3ware 9550SX-8LP RAID5 array from 250 GB drives to 1 TB drives. After the lengthy RAID initialization process, I tried to create a partition using fdisk. Unfortunately, fdisk seemed to only create a partition size of … Continue reading
Dead EMACS R3U-6460P power modules
Following a power outage that outlasted our UPS’s, I noticed that two out of the three modules (MIN-6250P) in one of our server’s EMACS R3U-6460P power supply were dead. And the fan on the one module that still had an … Continue reading
My favorite technology of the aughts
The 2000s have been the first decade where I’ve actually had some serious purchasing power. While I rarely splurge, I have managed to accumulate some excellent technology over the past ten years. Here are my favorites from each year: 2009… … Continue reading
Slow printing to Lexmark C522 from OS X 10.4
After a user complained that a 28-page PowerPoint document was taking an hour to print on our networked Lexmark C522, I narrowed the problem down to OS X 10.4 (in my case, 10.4.11). Solution: use this PPD. In other words: … Continue reading
Software RAID performance on various IDE configurations
I have two 500GB IDE drives that I will use to create a software RAID1 (mirrored) array. How should I connect them to maximize performance? I’ve used software RAID on my personal file servers for years and ask myself that … Continue reading