Running and Passing.

The World’s Greatest Head Massage is a video that I’ve come back to a number of times over the past few months. It depicts a traveler in Pushkar, India receiving a head massage from a barber/masseuse named Baba. Apart from Baba’s comment to “Go Back, Go Back, Go Back, Relax”, the video is devoid of any dialogue. The music and ambient street sounds flow together with the application of cosmic energyto greatly enhance the performance.

Mirror Neurons: A neuron that fires both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another. Thus, the neuron “mirrors” the behavior of the other, as though the observer were itself acting. (via Wikipedia:Mirror_Neuron)

If you dig around in the comments, you’ll find viewers claiming a general state of relaxation and occasional attempts to tie in the theory of mirror neurons. It’s worth noting that a high number of commenters claim to be are repeat viewers.

Other things that I find relaxing or mesmerizing include…

• people water gardens
• street sweepers (white noise)
• leaf blowers (white noise)

Being a multimedia producer/consumer, I maintain a extensive audio+visual collection. I shoot RAW, listen to hi-fi audio files and download HD video. I have above average storage and backup needs.

I was looking backup/media storage solution and initially thought a Windows Home Server based setup would suffice, but found them to be overpriced and a bit too Windows Media Center/Microsoft centric. I then explored the DIY option of building an Intel Atom based Mini ITX system and running the popular FreeNAS operating system. However, most small form factor setups have only 1 HD bay and the cost difference between a custom build and a pre-configured unit was negligible.

I researched some pre-built systems from the usual suspects (D-Link, Iomega, Netgear), but decided to purchase a Synology DS210j and equip it w/ a 2 TB Western Digital SATA Drive. The DS210j features 2 drive bays (currently supporting up to 2x2TB SATA drives), 3 on-board USB ports, and a 10/100/1000 Ethernet jack.

The device can provide local network access to Windows, Mac, or Linux system and stream video, music, and images to a wide range of devices. I recently shared some locally hosted files with my father in Ohio via a DynDNS account and the DS210j’s web enabled file station app.

I’ve been using the DS210j as a backup device for my primary PCs and as primary storage for all completed projects and archived work. Utilizing one of the three on-board USB ports, I have setup the the Disk Station Manager to automatically backup select folders to an attached 1 terabyte Western Digital My Book.

I’ll spare you a more lengthy spiel. If you want more info, I recommend you checkout the DS210j’s complete feature set on Synology’s website then read the reviews on Newegg.

Bonus Level:

• Initial setup was a cakewalk. The Synology wiki has an excellent start-up guide and the company host’s an active forum.
• The AJAX based management system and File Station are responsive and full featured.
• Optional software RAID.
• Low operating power and additional energy-saving options.
• FTP and HTTP(s) (w/ php + MySql) server for Internet file sharing and/or simple hosting.

Cons:

• Lack of guide/documentation regarding the generation and importation of custom SSL certificates.

** Outlook ** Datacenter clouds and p2p systems will compliment each other as they continue to grow. Casual users and business interests will likely live in the cloud, but for content producing local groups, power users, and media center enthusiasts we are still in the era of the network/home server.

For guides+reviews on home and small business networking check out smallnetbuilder.com.

In keeping with my 20lb harvesting plan, I went blackberry picking on Friday and Sunday. I picked between 2-3lbs each day. If I venture out twice a week for the next 2-3 weeks, I should have no problem meeting my goal.

The goal is more than a number.

In June, I joined members of my family on two week visit to Poland. We toured the parts of Warsaw, Lubin, Krakow, Zakopane, and my grandfather’s hometown of Borzechow. Eating and basking in the glory of your return to the “old country” can be quite tiring. My grandfather is a master of the nap.