Category: Tech

Two, two, two drives in one

I really like USB disk drives. At first I used them for backing up files from the C: drive on my desktop computer, but now I keep as little as possible on the internal drive; so backing up became a matter of manually copying from one USB drive to another. I knew there was a better way, but it took a while for the hardware to become affordable.

It’s called disk mirroring, otherwise known as RAID 1. With RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) mirroring, my two 500 GB disks appear in Windows as a single 500 GB drive. This is because everything that is saved to a single logical drive is automatically written to two physical disks. Another approach is RAID 0 striping, where two 500 gigabyte disks appear as a single 1 terabyte drive. This diagram shows how data is written with RAID 1 and with RAID 0.

The nifty product that makes this possible for home use is Western Digital’s My Book Mirror Edition. Here’s a review.

The current WD Mirror Edition model has two 1 TB disks, and it sells for $200 or less. It comes out of the box configured for RAID 1, and is formatted for Windows, which is exactly what I want. WD has a utility program for those who aren’t looking for data protection, and would rather have the full capacity of both disks, along with the performance advantage that comes with RAID 0. Move your mouse over the picture below to see WD’s RAID Manager options.

When 500 GB solid state drives reach the consumer market this technology will seem bulky and clunky, but for now it’s nice to have.

‘Lost’ returns

Being a big fan of The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, a campy note-perfect send-up of old B-grade sci-fi movies, I couldn’t miss a chance to see the sequel, The Lost Skeleton Returns Again. It was shown in the comfortable 45-seat video screening room at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Boston, as a double-bill with another recent Larry Blamire (BLAM-ear) movie, Dark and Stormy Night. With a full house and an enthusiastic audience, I was there with son Eric, along with friend Bismo and his son Chris. It was an extra fannish evening, thanks to the presence of actor Robert Deveau, who played the doomed farmer in Lost Skeleton.

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Deveau introduced both movies, and answered questions afterward. Eric asked how the DVD sales have been for The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, and Deveau said he wasn’t sure, but he knows they’ve earned back the cost of making the movie. Also in the audience was Blamire’s son Cory.

The Skeleton sequel is full of fun, and it was great seeing the cast reunited. I think my favorite moment was a truly inspired twist on the expression “run for it!” The Boston Globe has this review of The Lost Skeleton Returns Again and Dark and Stormy Night, and I more-or-less agree with it, but I’d give the latter movie three stars, because I enjoyed the large ensemble cast very much, all the way through, and I’m fond of the genre. While watching Dark and Stormy Night, I was reminded of The Old Dark House by James Whale (with Gloria Stuart, who turns 100 on the 4th of July). Something else that came to mind was Tex Avery’s 1943 cartoon Who Killed Who?

BTW, both movies will be out on DVD in August. Tech note: The DLP video projector at the theater reminded me of why I have a 3-LCD projector at home. I can live with its panel mis-convergence, but I can’t stand DLP’s “rainbow effect.”

YouTube on speed

My FiOS 25 Mbps service is so reliable that I don’t bother checking the speed much anymore, but when I do I use Speakeasy. Now YouTube is offering its own interesting speed test. Right-click on a YouTube player to try it, or go to this link.

Lately, I’ve taken to channeling YouTube through the player installed on this site, which provides several advantages for me. The videos I create myself need about 750 Kbps to play smoothly, which is no problem for a broadband connection, but pushes a DSL link hard. I am hoping to add a feature that will automatically detect a slower connection and compensate for it.

Audio’s magnetic personality

Magnetic recording tape. Perfected by the Nazis, it is one of the most important innovations in the history of audio, along with Edwin Armstrong’s invention of frequency modulation. These two technologies changed everything.

Magnetic recording in studios, and vinyl microgroove records for homes, first appeared at about the same time — 1947-1948. The transistor was also created in 1947, but it wouldn’t be established in high fidelity audio for another 20 years.

The first tape recorders were brought to America from Germany after World War II by a man named Jack Mullin, who modified one of the units and demonstrated it for Bing Crosby’s technical producer. The tale is told at the end of this link, with the fascinating story of the development of videotape.

Jack Mullin, Frank Healey, Wayne Johnson, Bing Crosby

On October 1, 1947, two takes of Philco Radio Time with Bing Crosby were recorded magnetically by Mullin, and edited into a single, seamless show. The audio player has a minute of that historic program, preceded by a minute of how Bing sounded on January 29 of that year, using disc recording technology. You may recognize the name of Bing’s guitar player, whose son had a successful career as a record producer and musician, and be sure to catch the name of Bing’s arranger-conductor, who would later have a connection to the Peanuts TV specials.

With Crosby’s financial backing, Ampex began manufacturing tape recorders. One of the first production units was given to Les Paul, who had played guitar for Bing. It’s impossible to overstate the influence of what Les Paul did with his tape recorders.

Here are a couple of captivating videos of Les with Mary Ford, performing two of their best known numbers, taken from films of TV shows. Ironically, Ampex wouldn’t perfect magnetic videotape recording until Les and Mary were off of TV. In the second clip, Les kids around before getting to the real demonstration of how he and Mary did what they did so beautifully. These are worth watching twice — first, for Les, and then for Mary. I eat up this stuff like ice cream.

These clips are being streamed from Oobleckboy on YouTube. The comments are his.