Thank you for sending your Seagate E-mail inquiry.

The device what you have a linux software on the drive.So you can not replace the drive with a other drive it will not work.

Seagate have a new Network device Where you can replace the drive if it go bad. The device is Called BlackArmor NAS
hire is the link for the device
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-gb/products/external/blackarmor/

If you have any additional questions, let me know.

Actually, I do have a question. How can a customer service response, including trying to sell me a replacement, be so badly written? Seriously?

At least it makes my decision easier. ZyXEL here I come…

Play.com sell more than just DVDs, CDs and games – they also sell books, electronics, computers, gadgets, phones and clothing. And all with FREE DELIVERY.

In both cases, I have added the ability to pass an API key, user name or password to the URL shortening service.

Simple Social Bookmarks also has new default options and user specific icons are now stored in the theme folder, rather than the plugin folder¹. If you have used either of these options, please review the instructions for potential changes that you’ll need to make.

1. this is because automatic plugin updates were removing these folders

One of the UK’s best-known and trusted electrical retailers, Dixons offer a wide selection of over five thousand low-priced electrical products.

Thomas Mackenzie alerted us to a problem where logged in users can peek at trashed posts belonging to other authors. If you have untrusted users signed up on your blog and sensitive posts in the trash, you should upgrade to 2.9.2. As always, you can visit the Tools->Upgrade menu to upgrade.

And here are the links…

The official WordPress announcement

Change Details

A list of the modified files (between WordPress 2.9.1 and 2.9.2)

Download 2.9.2 (entire installation)

Download 2.9.2 (just the changed files between 2.9.1 and 2.9.2)

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Talk To Me
This is a language translator, which uses both text and speech facilities. Sadly, it needs Android 1.6 onwards.

HootSuite
HootSuite, an online Twitter client, have had an iPhone app for a while. Now they’ve released an Android version, but it only currently works for Android 1.6 onwards. Thankfully they’re working on a 1.5 version…

Google Apps
There are 3 recently launched Google Android apps – Google Buzz, Google Goggles and Google Earth – that only work with Android 2+. Funny that their own fun, the Nexus One, is the only Android phone currently using this version…

Swype
This is a superb keyboard replacement which gives you the ability to type by moving your finger across the keyboard without lifting them between letter. It provides a far quicker typing speed as a result. Others are available but Swype works particularly well.

Unfortunately, it’s not yet available as a standalone application (they’re having it bundled with new phones) and even then it only worked for higher resolution phones (they’re apparently working on a lower resolution version).

Twidroid Pro
After reviewing lots of Twitter apps, I decided that Twidroid Pro was the one for me. Sadly, I can’t get it on the Marketplace for reasons that are yet unknown to me. I’m told it’s “Google security”, but that’s all I know. If anybody knows how I can get hold of it (legitimately), then please let me know!

Now I wish someone could create a driver for my iGo bluetooth keyboard…

Update 3/3/10 – Seriously Google? Now they’ve launched Gesture Search. For Android 2+ onwards.

One of the UK’s best-known and trusted electrical retailers, Dixons offer a wide selection of over five thousand low-priced electrical products.

I haven’t linked to any of the apps, as they should all be searchable in the Android Marketplace.

Oh, and I haven’t listed games (they’re a lot more of a personal choice, I find).

Information

The BBC news widget is particularly useful, providing easy access to the various BBC news feeds.

Movies, by Flixster, uses GPS to good use by displaying nearby cinemas and listing for their current shows. However, when viewing other information, such as trailers, it does appear to have constant network issues and this feature therefore doesn’t appear to work. A shame.

Google Sky Map is a fascinating educational tool that lets you point your phone heavenward and view the stars and planets whilst moving around.

ShopSavvy is a barcode scanner that will then look the product up to try and find prices. Useful for when you’re out shopping.

WikiMobile provides a mobile interface to Wikipedia.

Media

Until an official BBC iPlayer app appears, beebPlayer will help – it will let you view iPlayer TV content, along with listening to live Radio. Sadly, there’s no iPlayer radio content available.

Amazon MP3 provides access and purchasing capabilities for MP3 tracks from the Amazon website. They also have free tracks, although it’s best to look these up on the main Amazon site and then search for them on the app, as there’s no option on the app to list free tracks.

Last.fm is a streaming music player for the popular website, whereas Simple Last.fm Scrobbler will send details of all the music you’ve listened to, to the very same site for statistics purposes.

And for those who haven’t come across Shazam before, it may come as a bit of a revelation. The next time you’re at the pub and can’t identify a piece of music, simply use this app and it will work it out for you.

Lastly, I come to Podcasts. I initially used Google’s own Listen app but that simply failed to pick up new episodes of subscribed “shows”. I’m now trying out BeyondPod, which is only free for the first week. So far, it seems to work nicely.

Messaging

Meebo is a good, all-purpose instant messaging client.

And, if you find the default text messaging software a little bland, you could try Handcent, which includes speech bubble style conversation threads and is generally, well, a little more inspiring.

By default, reminders on Android are a bit lacking – you get a text or a missed call and you don’t get to hear about it after the initial reminder. Missed Reminder will keep nagging you and has a plethora of options, from LED colours to flashing the trackball.

Network

3G Watchdog is an excellent way of monitoring your data usage (you just need to know what your data usage  limit is and when it runs to/from).

In an attempt to preserve battery power, the phone will automatically drop wi-fi connection when the phone is in standby. This option can be changed via the settings, but you may want to be able to switch this on/off as required. Wi-Fi Lock is a useful widget to do just that.

Office

AK Notepad is, well, just that – a useful note facility. However, if you want to stick a note on your screen, then I’d recommend Sticky Note.

Integrating with my existing online services, Quick Save will add a facility to quickly add links to Read it Later, and Astrid will synchronise and allow me to update my Remember the Milk to-do lists.

A more recent find is cloudList which allows you to create “tick lists” which can be accessed on both your phone and on their website.

WordPress have released their own app, WordPress for Android, which allows the quick editing of posts.

Sadly lacking is an app for Google Reader.

Social Networks

Facebook have their own App and, for eBay, Pocket Auctions works well.

I’m not mentioning a Twitter client right now, as I’m in the middle of reviewing a number – more on that in a later post!

Tools

Advanced Task Manager provides quick lists of running apps and ways to quickly “kill” them. There’s even a widget to perform an instant kill.

For file management, I’d turn to ASTRO which, erm, does just that.

Profilechanger is not very pretty but does exactly what I want – allows me to change profiles at certain times of the day – in my case, it goes silent overnight.

One the facilities sadly lacking in Android is the ability to backup your data and your apps. MyBackup Pro does just that – both onto your SD card and online. However, unlike most of my other recommendations, this isn’t a freebie. Give the trial a go though!

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The other week there was a strange power failure in my area. After that my NAS (a Maxtor Shared Storage II 500GB device) started making clicking and general drive noises that weren’t, well, healthy. They’ve now stopped but it’s not a good sign.

One thing I didn’t check when I purchased it though is how to replace the drive when it’s out of warranty. The answer is… not very easily. In fact the NAS runs Linux and requires the NAS’ operating system installing onto any new drive. Oh, and it’s not very easy to even get at the drive.

So, I’ve decided to look for a replacement – and this time I’m going to get one where I can easily swap the drive, if I need to.

The best option appeared to be the Buffalo LinkStation Pro LS-XHL. This comes with a drive built in and, after asking on their forums, it would appear that replacing the drive on that is not easy either.

I’m now looking at the ZyXEL NSA210 which, although not the quickest, is the one recommended by PC Pro. And, more importantly, comes diskless and is therefore easy to swap drives (I’ve read the online documentation to confirm too!). I’d probably stick in it a 1TB Western Digital Caviar Green.

I’m just awaiting Maxtor (sorry, Seagate) to get back to my customer query, before I give up on my existing NAS.

Upgrade your computer memory for like-new performance today with Crucial! The Crucial Memory Advisor Tool takes the guesswork out of upgrading.

1. Enter about:config in the Firefox address bar
2. Right click in the main screen area
3. Select New -> Boolean
4. Type extensions.xmarks.hideStatusBarStars and press Enter
5. Select the value true

This will forever banish the stars. If you want to bring them back…

1. Enter about:config in the Firefox address bar
2. Find the value extensions.xmarks.hideStatusBarStars
3. Set it to false

One of the UK’s best-known and trusted electrical retailers, Dixons offer a wide selection of over five thousand low-priced electrical products.

The idea is to give back to those who provide useful, free plugins for WordPress.

What they’re asking is that anyone that has ever gotten even the slightest benefit from a WordPress plugin to say thank you today by making a small donation to the plugin/developer of your choice.

Yes, I’m one of those people, but this blog is also enhanced thanks to the plugins for others so I’ll be donating as well.

Hopefully this will make you feel as good as it does me – they deserve our gratitude.

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I’ve therefore created my own plugin to do all this and more. Simple Draft List allows you to display a list of draft post/page titles – you can specify the type (post and/or page), the sequence and maximum number to list. You can also specify individual post/pages to omit by the simple use of a character in the title.

Full details are on the official WordPress page or on the page on this site.

Play.com sell more than just DVDs, CDs and games – they also sell books, electronics, computers, gadgets, phones and clothing. And all with FREE DELIVERY.

Upgrade your computer memory for like-new performance today with Crucial! The Crucial Memory Advisor Tool takes the guesswork out of upgrading.