Simon Lau

Thecus Unveils the N0204 miniNAS Device

Thecus 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

. 19 May 09 | Contests | Comment (1)

Toronto Winds Take Out Backyard Tree

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.

Tags: high winds, storm, Toronto, tree

. 26 Apr 09 | Miscellaneous, Toronto | Comments (0)

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

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!

Tags: Nintendo, SDM, Wii, Wii Fit

. 03 Jan 09 | Technology, shopping | Comments (2)

Canon EOS 50D

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!

Tags: 50D, Canon, EOS, Tamron

. 20 Dec 08 | Photography | Comments (2)

Dessert at Amuse Bouche

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.

Tags: anniversary, dessert

. 15 Oct 08 | Photography, fine dining | Comments (0)

Niagara Falls (Ontario)

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.

Tags: Niagara Falls, panoramic, photos, Travel

. 12 Oct 08 | Photography, Travel | Comments (2)

A Sparkly Present For Her

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.