Simon Lau

Thecus Unveils the N0204 miniNAS Device

Simon — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:19:40 +0000

Thecus® Unveils the N0204 miniNAS Device
“The tiny RAID-enabled portable network storage device with big ideas”

Thecus N0204 NAS03/30/2009 – Big things are happening in the world of NAS devices. Today, Thecus® is proud to introduce the N0204 miniNAS device – the world’s smallest fully-featured NAS device.

Measuring a tiny 132 x 88 x 63 mm exterior, one could easily mistake the N0204 as a regular external hard drive. But look closer and you will see a very capable two-bay NAS device that fits right in the palm of your hand. The N0204 houses two 2.5” SATA hard disks, providing up to 1TB of storage. You can manage this storage with your choice of RAID 0, 1, and JBOD, making the N0204 the most robust pocketable storage device in existence. And because its drive bays are hot-swappable and feature auto-rebuild, you can change a hard disk without powering down the unit. The N0204 even comes with Thecus®’ Nsync for remote replication as well as the Thecus® Backup Utility for total data security. With huge storage, RAID functionality, and advanced data safeguards packed into a tiny device, the N0204 miniNAS is in a class all its own.

Tiny but mighty, the N0204 comes with many of the features and functionality possessed by its much larger cousins. For starters, the N0204 can function as a complete media hub with its built-in iTunes server, photo web server, and media server. With the built-in media server, you can enjoy your videos, pictures, and music with the N0204 by using any DLNA compliant media players. Plug in a USB web cam, and the N0204 turns into the world’s tiniest home surveillance server, allowing you to preview, capture and schedule image snapshots up to 640 x 480. Add to that support for both Windows and MAC OS operating systems and a whole new user friendly Windows Utility to easily set up and link the N0204 with your PC, and you’ve got some serious storage that you can whip out of your pocket and plug into virtually any network.

The N0204 miniNAS is a marvel of engineering. With advanced energy-saving capabilities, the N0204 only uses between 25~30% of the power compared to traditional two-bay NAS devices. You can even schedule power on/off for better power management. The N0204 also features whisper-quiet cooling, which means low temperatures and even lower noise during daily operation. A convenient USB 2.0 port in the front and the one-touch copy allow you to copy the contents of a USB storage device to the N0204 with a single button press. You can also copy data from the N0204 to any USB disk for data exchange. The N0204 supports USB printers, external hard disks, USB web cam, and even works with USB WLAN adaptors, allowing you to give this tiny NAS device wireless capability.

A complete NAS device in a form factor smaller than a paperback book, the N0204 miniNAS proves that great things do indeed come in tiny packages.

“When we tell people what the N0204 miniNAS can do, the most common reaction is disbelief followed by awe,” notes Thecus General Manager Florence Shih. “We’ve essentially created a fully-functional NAS device in a package that you can take anywhere. With the N0204, you can enjoy the power and convenience of NAS storage anywhere life takes you.”

For more information on the N0204, check out:
http://www.thecus.com/products_over.php?cid=12&pid=137&set_language=english
About Thecus®
Thecus® Technology Corp. specializes in IP Storage Server solutions, including Network Attached Storage (NAS) , DAS, External Storage and Wireless Media NAS (Bank ) products. The company was established in 2004 with the mission to make technology as transparent and easy-to-use as possible, and to make products that are not only the best on the market, but are accessible to experts and novices alike. With a best-in-class R&D team highly experienced in storage hardware and Linux software and with a keen customer focus, Thecus® stays close to the market to develop high-quality products to fulfill the storage Server needs of today’s world.
For sales inquiries, please contact us via email: sales@thecus.com
For marketing inquiries, please contact us via email: marketing@thecus.com

Toronto Winds Take Out Backyard Tree

Simon — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 01:53:10 +0000

The morning of April 25th started out to be quite nice. It was 20 degrees Celsius around 10AM when I went for a run. By the early afternoon we had hit a high of 27 degrees. It’s amazing how quickly things can change. No more than an hour after lounging in an outdoor the pool the clouds rolled in and the winds howled as rain wicked across the windows.
100 KM/h gusts of winds ravaged the city knocking out power lines and even taking out a sign which hit a man in Scarborough, The Star.
For the second time that I could remember, my family’s home was affected by the weather. About 10 years back a storm split the tree at the back of the property and this year a different tree was uprooted. It’s no small tree either, my guess is that it’s over 24″ in diameter at the base and probably 30 odd feet tall. Looking at the base of the tree, it appears it was rotting from the inside. While it contributed to the tree’s sudden collapse, it’s still a remarkable feet for the wind to topple it.
Here’s a picture from my room on the second floor. The clean up begins now.

First Purchase of 2009….The Wii from Shoppers Drug Mart

Simon — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 01:06:02 +0000

After much talk about buying an Nintendo Wii, I’ve finally done it. The Wii would be the second console I’ve ever owned, the first being the original Nintendo NES.
I ended up buying the Wii from Shoppers Drug Mart for $269.99, after tax it came out to 305.09. I only actually had to go to two stores to find the Wii unlike some of the horror stories I’ve heard about how hard it is to find one of these things. The best part about buying the Wii today at SDM is the 20x optimum points. I ended up getting 54,000 points with the one purchase.
Immediately after buying the Wii, I went to yet another Shoppers Drug Mart to buy the Wii Fit. It retails for 89.99 but using the points I just gained, I was able to knock $75.00 off the final price, resulting in a bill of less than 30.00! A pretty solid deal if you ask me! I’m sold on how well these optimum points stack up!

Canon EOS 50D

Simon — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 00:02:02 +0000

Christmas is just around the corner but it showed up early this year! New to the house is the Canon EOS 50D Digital SLR Camera. This will replace the Canon EOS 300D which bit the dust last month. It may be salvageable but we’ll see about that. Paired with the new 50D is a Tamron AF 18-270 F/3.5-6.3 XR. It’s a pretty good one-stop shop lens.
Total price for the camera body, Tamron lens and a UV filter was 1988 + taxes. Not a bad deal and I’m looking forward to putting the camera to good use!

Dessert at Amuse Bouche

Simon — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:47:22 +0000

I first heard of Amuse Bouche in NOW Magazine’s Best of Toronto. They apparently had the best dessert in Toronto – a 7 course tasting menu for $40.
I had made reservations at Amuse Bouche with Karen to celebrate an our anniversary a few weeks early.
The original plan was to grab a quick bite of sushi before coming to Amuse Bouche for just dessert, but we were running late and decided to skip sushi all together. So instead, we went for appetizers and what dessert. I ordered the “Ontario rabbit poutine ‘inside-out’: confit, Monforte Dairy ‘Indiscretion’, sweet summer pickle” and 7 course dessert. Karen went for the “Summer Ontario zucchini gazpacho, the flower stuffed with Dungeness crab and monforte dairy ricotta, lemon balm creme fraiche sorbet” and opted for the 5 course dessert.
After the appetizer, they brought out our dessert which was laid on top of two wooden sticks, the dessert plate didn’t actually touch the table cloth. This was a bit bizarre to me. I was also hoping that they would serve each dessert individually as I thought it was a tasting menu and not a dessert platter. Irregardless, the dessert was delicious with certain pieces better than others. I don’t know if there’s a dessert etiquette that requires you to finish one before moving on to another but if there was I definitely didn’t follow it.

The above photo is a picture of my dessert. It really turned out to be 9 piece setting and Karen’s ended up being a 6 piece dessert. I can’t quite remember everything I had, but the tall glasses a blueberry jam under a bland yogurt. There was a chocolate brownie with ice cream on top, damn delicious I might add, a creme brulee with plums, a mini berry tart, strawberry mousse over chocolate cake, pear tart, peach slices over some kind of custard, and a pudding with a fruit and toffee overtop. There’s really too much to remember, so sorry for forgetting all the details.

Total bill with wine, tax and tip was just under $160. Money well spent for a special night.

Niagara Falls (Ontario)

Simon — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 21:38:22 +0000

For those who live in the golden horseshoe area, the Niagara region is one you’ve heard of many times. From Toronto, you can drive to Niagara Falls in about 1.5 hours. From the US, it’s more or less considered Buffalo. To those who have no idea what I’m talking about, the Niagara Falls are massive waterfalls from the Niagara River. This river divides Canada from the United States and while there are technically 3 falls, the Canadian side is clearly the best. All three falls were created from glaciers during the last ice age. The Canadian Horseshoe falls drop a total of 157 feet (52m) and is 2600 feet wide (792m). It is an impressive sight to see as six million cubic feet of water flows over the falls every minute. It’s anticipated that 28 million visitors will visit the falls in 2009 and this year there has been 20 million. It’s an amazing sight to see during the day and you should stick around for the evening light show if it’s your first visit.

Here’s a panoramic I made on my last visit.

You can find lots of information about the falls on wikipedia or Niagara Park Fun Fact’s page.

A Sparkly Present For Her

Simon — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:48:19 +0000

I celebrated an early anniversary with Karen last weekend; our official 5 year going out anniversary is Oct 31st. As a gift I picked up a set of diamond earrings on 18k white gold. The earrings were 0.25ct total weight from Bluenile. The diamonds are rated as color grade I with a minimum clarity of SI2. The cut is rated as a good and done in a princess cut shape. To top it off, they use a screw back instead of the butterfly.

This is my first diamond purchase and the earrings look fantastic. Needless to say, Karen loved them.

I’ll share some pictures of the dessert we had a dinner once I get the pictures.

Tomorrow’s Gas Price, Today (Canada)

Simon — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 02:22:54 +0000

You probably heard about this MP in the news and today I finally took the time to google him and find his website. MP Dan McTeague is able to predict tomorrow’ gas price at the end of today by considering the market conditions. He claims it’s pretty simple but I sure as heck don’t know how to do it, and I work for a major gas company!

Anyways, check out his webpage if you want to figure out if you should fill up today or hold off until tomorrow:

http://www.mcteague.ca

Dan has calculated gas prices for the following area:

Toronto/GTA/London
Ottawa
Montreal
Calgary
Kamloops/Kelowna

I’m down to a quarter tank so I’ll be filling up tomorrow, what about you?

Cottage Trip Aug 15th to 17th

Simon — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:16:24 +0000

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted anything mainly because I’ve been pre-occupied. I won’t say too much in this post but will share a few pictures. Two weekends ago I was invited to my friend’s fiancés cottage near Minden, Ontario. It’s about a 2.5 hour north-east drive from central Toronto. In total there were 15 people up at the cottage and it was an amazing weekend. Lounging around by the lake, drinking, bonfire and lots and lots of water sports.

Here’s the view from the dock, breathtaking is all I will add.

Here’s a picture of the cottage with a few people on the docks. This was taken around noon on Saturday. There were a few of us on the boat and a couple more somewhere else doing something else.

Kevin and I riding “Bob”. Basically you sit and hold on while the driver does sharp turns and tries to throw you off.

Usually you end up in the water….

After dinner on Saturday, we headed into town for ice cream. If you ever pass by a Kawartha Dairy, stop in to get some ice cream. They give you massive scoops for next to nothing. Way cheaper than Ben & Jerry’s or Baskin Robbins and much better in taste.

After ice cream, we had a bonfire by the cabin until the wee hours of the day. Nothing like some good cold beer and s’mores!

Sunday was departure day but the weather was too nice to leave right away. So instead everyone went back into the water. “Tubing” sounds like a leisure sport….

but when you hit those waves at a good pace, the water stings! Regardless, it was a ton of fun!

I can’t wait for the next time we all go back up!

Summerlicious at Café Moroc

Simon — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:44:10 +0000

Twice a year many of Toronto’s top restaurants participate in winterlicious and summerlicious. This year there were 130 establishments offering a special 3-course prix fixe menu to give you the opportunity of sampling their delicious food. You can go for either a lunch or dinner with some places just offering dinner seating.
This summer Karen and I decided to go to Café Moroc, an establishment at 49 Front Street East. They have a $15 lunch and $25 dollar dinner. You can spend upwards of $35 for dinner at some places.
Café Moroc is one of two restaurants inside a single store, they are also known as the Sultan’s Tent. The difference is ambiance. Café Moroc is a little more casual and Sultan’s Tent is a little more private. At the Sultan’s Tent, the staff will teach you how to belly dance. The food is the same but the prices are more expensive at the Sultan’s Tent. They were not on the summerlicious menu.
Arriving for a 5:30 dinner, here were our options for ordering:
Appetizer:
Harira: A hearty tomato based broth, with chickpeas, kidney beans, lentils and a blend of Moroccan spices
or
Sliced Smoked Duck Breast Salad: Baby lettuces, dressed with a Champagne pomegranate vinaigrette, tossed with fresh fine cut vegetables, cherry tomatoes and sliced mango, finished with parmesan, asiago and romano cheese
or
Maftoul: Hand rolled “Moroccan Cigars”, hot crispy pastry stuffed with a mixture of mildly spiced beef, cashews and raisins, topped with chipotle aioli
Main
Moroccan Beef Ribs
Tender fall off the bone beef seasoned and glazed with Moroccan spices, served with sweet potato and carrot purée and roast garlic mashed mini reds, accompanied by grilled vegetables
or
Keskesu Casablanca: Moroccan seasoned couscous and tagine sauce* topped with oven roast fresh carrot, parsnip, zucchini, summer squash, tomato, red onion and sweet peppers
or
Mango Glazed Salmon: A pan seared 8-ounce fillet of salmon, glazed with mango chutney coulis, served with saffron basmati rice and traditional Moroccan root vegetables
or
Chicken Marrakesh: Supreme of chicken stuffed with chorizo sausage and Herbes de Provence, served with sweet potato and carrot purée and roast garlic mashed mini reds, finished with roast chicken demi glace, Accompanied by traditional Moroccan root vegetables
or
Braised Lamb Feast: Slow braised lamb shank served with tagine* seasoned couscous with a rich prune demi glace, topped with preserved lemon and toasted almonds
Dessert
Moroccan Treats: Traditionally made Moroccan cookie and pastry accompanied with Latshin, a light and refreshing traditional dessert of fresh orange slices sprinkle with powdered sugar and cinnamon
or
Creme Brulée: A rich and flavourful crème brulée

I ordered the Maftoul, Moroccan Beef Ribs and crème brulée. Karen had the Sliced Smoked Duck Breast Salad, Braised Lamb Feast and crème brulée.

The appetizers were delicious. The maftoul had a good spicy kick to it and was thoroughly enjoyed. I would have definitely enjoyed an extra cigar with my appetizers but it is only a starter.The duck breast was tender and the mango’s complimented it very well as part of the salad.

Coming quickly after we finished our appetizer was our main course. The ribs were no small order. There were four pieces of meat packed ribs and just looking at the picture makes me hungry again. The meat fell off the bone and the glaze and spice gave it a sweet taste. The sweetness of the sweet potato and carrot puree matched the flavour of the ribs and the roasted garlic mashed mini reds and grilled vegetables rounded off a very filling meal.

The braised lamb was made to the same quality as the beef. The meat fell off the bone and had a distinct but delicious lamb taste. Despite being a summerlcious meals where some restaurants often serve slightly smaller portions to keep costs down, the dinner at Café Moroc certainly filled us both.

To round off our meal, we both had crème brulée. The sweet light custard was a good change to the heavy meat dishes we just had. There was a good golden crust on the brulée clearly created by a torch.

While the service can be flaky at times, the dining experience at Café Moroc was one that won’t be easily forgotten. It took a while to get the bill after dinner and we had to ask for refills of water. However, the food was great, the ambiance while more casual than Sultan’s Tent was still very nice and well kept.

If you have the opportunity to visit there for summerlicious or winterlicious, I’d definitely give it a try. At $50 + tax and tip, it’s definitely a good deal.