FreeNAS Mini XL, 8 bay Mini-ITX NAS

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Catching up on email, I saw a Newsletter from iX Systems announcing the FreeNAS Mini XL (the irony).  On the new FreeNAS Mini page it looks just like the FreeNAS mini but taller to accommodate 8-bays. Available on Amazon starting at $1,500 with no drives. Here’s the Quick Start Guide and Data Sheet. The pictures show what appears to be equipped … Read more

Ting Fiber Internet in Sandpoint

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  We’re Getting Fiber in Sandpoint!  Thanks Ting! I just pre-ordered 1 gigabit up / 1 gigabit down! After years of being in the dark ages in rural North Idaho with nothing but slow DSL, high latency cable, with the only reliable option being Verizon Wireless.  We now have real internet! Sandpoint is finally getting … Read more

YubiKey Two-Factor Authentication

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Last year I started looking at 2FA (Two Factor Authentication) solutions and came across YubiKey which is a fantastic little device.  I ordered a few NEOs to play with.  There are several models, I opted for the NEO since it supports the most features and has an NFC chip that Android phones can use.  It’s $50 on Amazon or … Read more

Hoppin’ John

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I didn’t get a chance to make my annual King Cake this year for Eli’s birthday since I was away most of the day.  But when I got home Kris surprised me by making not only gluten-free dairy-free King Cake …but also Hoppin’ John! A popular New Years’ meal, Hoppin’ John was traditionally eaten in … Read more

Merry Christmas 2015

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Merry Christmas!  Looks like a white Christmas for us… It’s been snowing almost non-stop for the last few days. One of the things I’ve started to understand more this year is Christ’s humility, not only in dying on the cross to offer us salvation, but also in leaving heaven and revealing Himself by stepping into His creation and … Read more

TracFone on Verizon MVNO Review

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We’ve been using Ting for Kris’s phone the last 3 years, it’s been great (see my Ting Review)–but at our new house Sprint’s signal isn’t that good–it can’t really pull in a 3G signal consistently.  In rural North Idaho the best coverage is indisputably Verizon, so I limited my search to Verizon MVNOs which have … Read more

Nexus 5X Review

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The stock ROMS on Verizon/Samsung phones are awful.  The phones come shipped with Samsung Touchwiz which makes the UI ugly and a half a dozen apps that you can’t uninstall—some eating up battery, some sending telemetry data to Samsung (using up your data), some changes Samsung does introduce vulnerabilities not to mention it takes Samsung … Read more