Did that get your attention? With a recent release of AOL unveiling Xdrive's 5GB free storage for Mac, I just wondered how much free space would it take for you to sign up for one of these services?

5GB is good, but it really is just a teaser.

Granted, you can purchase additional storage but what does it get you? You can upload, download, and share files all you want.

But what do you really want?

Wouldn't you really want to be able to run applications while accessing this storage. Wouldn't it be cool if I could access a small embedded database? Wouldn't it be nice if I could run an application of my mobile device and access this external storage just as if it were local?

One of these days corporations will start issuing laptops and personal computers without USB drives, CD burners, and connectivity to the Internet for file transfers.

Case in point: It is just too easy for employees to steal sensitive data as can be seen by the recent incident at the former Countrywide Financial Corp. Where an employee admitted to taking customer data on a flash drive and then selling it. FBI: Flash drive used to steal Countrywide customer data

I personally don't know the solution here other than total distrust for all employees. I know one bad egg doesn't mean the other eleven are bad but what are our corporations going to do to safeguard your data and mine?

Sound off! I'm lost!

So you've paid some big bucks for your iPhone and you actually use it. Now you are finding that the 16GB of storage it comes with just isn't enough because you are constantly thumbing through your pictures and mucis all the time.

Now since that iPhone can and should be always connected to a network. After all, how are you going to utilize the phone if you're not. And so, you should be able to virtualize your iPhone storage through the network. Sounds like a pretty cool idea to me.

Take a look at the plans at an article published titled: Apple looking to infinite iPhone and iPhone 3G storage capacity - Stream media from desktop iTunes library. WOW! that's a title :).

What I like about these awards is that they were given out by the editors, analysts, and reviewers at InfoWorld. The Bossies are awarded to the best free and open source software, in their opinions, that they have used. Here are the categories and winners, in no particular order.

Network Backup - Amanda
Storage Server - FreeNAS
online backup - Free Online Backup
File Management - WinMerge
Disk Monitoring - Smartmontools
Storage Administration - StorageIM

As always, if you are looking for storage solutions, these companies just might be the palce to start. For the complete write-up on the awards and the companies, go to Best of open source software awards: Storage

I don't have a MAC yet. Windows and various Unix(s) have been my flavor of O/S beast. So I guess I never really noticed if there are many external drives that can be used for both.

Regardless, NewerTech came out with a new external drive that packs 1TB of storage into a pretty nice package. Some of the features I like on this drive would be the following:

• Large 8MB, 16MB, or 32MB data cache
• Oxford 934 - High performance FireWire 400 and USB 2.0
• Compact 6.5" x 6.5" x 1.5" size
• Three Firewire 400 ports (1 uplink + 2 additional)
• Four USB 2.0 ports (1 uplink + 3 additional)
• Intelligent thermal monitoring activates fan only when needed to reduce power consumption and minimize noise output
• Fully bootable via USB or FireWire

But what I thought the coolest feature was the adding of this miniStack to an Airport Extreme wireless network. Doing so enables you to share files and other networked devies through the miniStack's integrated hub and USB ports.

Storage is complex...Stay out in front of your storage needs.



Here is a funny video that will make your weekend. Especially if you happen to be working storage issues.

The video takes a look at the increasing need to purchase more storage, supersize me! Only humongous and genormous bytes here. Environmental concerns? Why worry. Power is always available, somewhere. Compliance? Trust us, it's here somewhere. data security? Keep it close at hand, on a laptop.

I watched it a few times.

Are you a tree-hugging-energy-efficient-miser or are you a oil-guzzling-performance-magician? A very, and I mean very interesting article cropped up that I think everyone should read. This is one I'll have to bookmark, re-read, and re-evaluate at least one more time over.

Go to The Data Center's Green Direction is a Dead End.

This article takes a look at the direction of the storage industry if we continue to try and push our green-tech too far. The storage industry can only grow by actually consuming more power, not less. Basically, without ample power we are putting a ceiling on where the storage industry can grow. What is really needed, is not green-friendly storage, but cheaper, cleaner, and more efficient energy sources.