[Review] Yubikey – Let’s get obscure with otp

Written by fsk141
December 22nd, 2011

I was happy to receive my Yubikey by Yubico the other day; and have been happily including it into my computer life. For those of you that aren’t familiar with Yubico, or OTP (one time password) devices; it’s basically a stateless, timeless keyfob that generates a text string based off an AES encrypted key. To verify your identity, all you need to do is authenticate with the Yubico server (they have the private AES key that will verify your public key) You can use your yubikey for a multitude of two phase authentication choices, from logging into your wordpress to your ssh servers.

Before we dive into the uses, let’s gawk at the beautiful simplicity of the device, and it’s accompanying software.

The key comes packaged in a neat little plastic sleeve:

There are two flavors of yubikey, black & white. I choose the beautiful black. It’s about as large as two quarters put next to one another.

The top (shown above) has an activator pad; in which you press to receive your otp; or if you hold for longer than 2 seconds; you’ll receive a text string of your choosing (YKPersonalization software required)

The bottom of the device has a simple identifier (Powered by Yubico), and small qrcode near the inserting end of the key.

Upon plugging in the device I loved how it matched my laptop.

One thing that I thought of soon after plugging it in is how wonderful it would be if it were just a tiny nub sticking out of the usb with the contact surface almost flush with the usb port (I can dream But the usb flash drive form factor is nice, recognizable, and very thin. Overall the design is very neat. The device is sturdy, yet very thin and light at the same time.

The companion software for the Yubikey is FANTASTIC. For arch linux I was wonderfully excited to simply run `yaourt -S yubikey-personalization-gui` & executing sudo YKPersonalization

This wonderful gui is simple to use, and provides an enormous functionality to your Yubikey.

Out of the box, the Yubikey is ready to go. There are two configurable slots available, and slot 1 is configured to use the Yubico OTP. Once plugged into the software you can reprogram slot 2 to have a static password; secret message, or anything you so desire. You can reprogram slot 1 if you would like, but it will prohibit use with Yubico OTP, until reconfigured & reauthenticated with the Yubico servers.

The first thing I tried once getting my Yubikey was to navigate to http://demo.yubico.com/php-yubico/one_factor.php and test out my device. Once inserted into your computer (Linux, Mac, Windows) the key is automatically recognized as a simple keyboard, and works as if you were just typing. You can test out otp, password/otp, otp/username/password on the demo server. It’s a wonderful place to start playing with your device.

After spending about 5 minutes playing around with the demo server, installing the software, and adding funny messages to my slot 2 of the device, and hitting the keypad a bunch of times to see a bunch of seemingly random character sets fly by; I decided to dive into actually making the Yubikey work with my day-to-day life. I started by adding & configuring this wordpress site to use otp. It’s a simple 3 step process.

Sign up for an api key (https://upgrade.yubico.com/getapikey)
Download & install the wordpress plugin (https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/yubikey-plugin)
Wait about 5 minutes (for api key to propagate), and login with your newly added otp field on your wordpress login page.

Other than just add otp to wordpress I read up on using it with gmail (not quite sure how to do it with linux just yet, but I plan to write a script that will allow me to use my Yubikey with 2 phase auth for gmail/google apps. I have a lot more to do with my yubikey, and love having a 2′nd phase of authentication to add some needed complexity to my life. I feel more secure, and enjoy the metallic tactile interface to access my websites & servers. I have a lot more that I need to write about for this wonderful device, just think of this as a teaser review.

Some great reads about the Yubikey & implementations:

https://www.yubico.com/documentation

https://www.yubico.com/openid-server

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Yubikey

[Review] Noctua NF-P14 FLX

Written by fsk141
December 21st, 2010

Product:	NF-P14
Manufacturer:	Noctua
Price:	~$20 USD
Product Link:	http://noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=33&lng=en
Manual:	http://noctua.at/pdf/infosheets/noctua_nf_p14_flx_datasheet_en.pdf

Summary:

So you’re a performance hog, and would love to have water cooling, but can’t bring yourself to the hassle. Everyone knows that water cooling is the best of both worlds when it comes to performance & silent’ness. And on the other side there are in-efficient fans, that are loud, push dust all over the place, and nick you in your fingertips when you’re tinkering. Noctua fans are an entirely different experience than the norm (minus the nicking your fingertips bit [that's just your own fault for tinkering]) The NF-P14 FLX is an amazing blend of craftsmanship & performance that I would dare to say is one of the finest fans you can buy. Noctua specializes in mainly fans & heat sinks which speaks loudly on the quality of their product due to a niche market. They have a small range of products, and make them very well. In contrast with water cooling, I’ve always gone the straight and narrow route of air cooling, and love the money I save, and the performance I can get out of a good set of fans, in a proper configuration

Specs:

Size: 140x140x25 mm
Bearing: SSO-Bearing
Blade Geometry: NF-P14 Blade Design with VCN
Rotational Speed (+/- 10%): 1200 RPM
Rotational Speed with L.N.A. (+/- 10%): 900 RPM
Rotational Speed with U.L.N.A. (+/- 10%): 750 RPM
Airflow: 110.3 m³/h
Airflow with L.N.A.: 83.7 m³/h
Airflow with U.L.N.A.: 71.2 m³/h
Acoustical Noise: 19.6 dB(A)
Acoustical Noise with L.N.A.: 13.2 dB(A)
Acoustical Noise with U.L.N.A.: 10.1 dB(A)
Static Pressure: 1.29 mm H2O
Static Pressure with L.N.A.: 0.77 mm H2O
Static Pressure with U.L.N.A.: 0.53 mm H2O
Input Power: 1.2 W
Input Current: 0.1 A
Voltage Range: 12 V
MTBF > 150.000 h
Warranty: 6 years

Includes:

Ultra-Low-Noise Adaptor (U.L.N.A.)
Low-Noise Adaptor (L.N.A.)
Adaptors for 140mm mounting
4 Vibration Compensators
3:4-Pin Adaptor
4 Fan Screws

Design:
Lets start with one of the most obscure, yet most important parts of this fan; the cabling, and how awesome it is. This first element shows the immense amount of detail that is put into one of this art pieces. First we see the common set of three wires (ground, hot, and speed), then; a splendid item that is rarely seen on fans. A device that prevents the cable from ripping out of the motor… I might be going a little overboard on just a little piece of plastic, but I’ve played with a lot of fans from a lot of different manufactures & for multiple applications, and little things like these make all the difference in a fan that lasts for a lifetime. Even if the fan is never moved from its installed location, proper routing in the case of the fan allows you to easily tuck wires every which way and tidy things up. To finish up the package the main of the wire is covered in expandable loom & capped at either end with heat shrink tubing.

The cable is about 15″ long, and is capped off with a standard 3 pin molex connector.

One thing that is easily overlooked about the fan is even though it’s a 140mm fan, you can mount it in a 120mm slot. The fan blade is 140mm standard, yet the outer mountpoints are 120mm sized. In fact I was a little dumbfounded when I went to mount the fan into a 140mm hole & couldn’t because it was too small. I realize now that I need a mounting kit, that was not included in the review sample that I received:

The branding on Noctua fans are unmistakable. From the color, logo, and sexy curves, everything is suave, and harnesses the Noctua look. The outer body of the fan is an eggshell color, and seems very strong for how light the entire fan is. The fan blade construction is fantastic, and the nine blade fan cuts through the air like a hot knife through butter. It might be hard to spot in the picture, but the notches are staggered. This isn’t just for looks, but has an acoustic benefit to make the fan more quiet, and easier to blend into ambient noise. I would definitely read through Noctua’s guide on fan blade design, it’s quite exquisite: http://noctua.at/main.php?show=nf_p14_blade_design&lng=en

One sub-thought is how the motor is constructed. Most of the time you just have to guess that there is a decent motor assembly, and hope for the best. Well Noctua gives a little outline of the “Metal Reinforced SSO-Bearing Shell & Magnet” claim on the front of the fan. The shaft is reinforced on the center inside & outside of the shaft. There are also reinforcements on the outside of the shell where the magnets go for the coil. It’s a brilliant idea when most motors use an all plastic design, and all it takes is a little misalignment to totally screw up your fan.

The back of the fan complements the front, and to be honest isn’t anything special & what I would expect from the back of a fan

Performance:

This fan screams pure awesome, in a quiet whisper. The funny thing is that even though this fan is almost dead silent, there are two more ways to make it even quieter per your application. The L.N.A && U.L.N.A (Low Noise Adapter & Ultra Low Noise Adapter respectively) which underclock your fan. The stock RPM of the fan is 1200 RPM, and you can clock it down to 900 RPM with L.N.A & 750 RPM with U.L.N.A. The only complaint that I have to Noctua is how they deal with RPM step downs. I dislike that to step down the RPM you have to add in a separate little coupler that adds a resistor. It would be ideal to have a switch on the fan that just had a variable resistor in the casing that would allow you to modify the speed on the fly. This really isn’t that big of a deal considering the Antec fans that have this feature (3 pole switch for high, medium, and low), and it’s nice, but useless for some applications. Plus I’m the kinda tinkerer that want’s to have the switch mounted somewhere flush & accessible

The actual airflow that comes out of this fan feels surprisingly low, yet it pushes a lot of air. According to Noctua about 110.3 meters^3/h. I wish I had some way to test this, but racked my brain, and couldn’t think of a way to measure the airflow correctly. All I know is that with the fan mounted in an Antec Sonata II it decreases the internal temperature of the case about 4 degrees celsius as opposed to the case without an exit fan.

Summary:
This fan absolutely rocks. I’ve used Noctua fans in many of my projects & PC builds, and have always been happy with the money I spent for them. Mind you Noctua fans aren’t cheap, but you get what you pay for. When you buy a cheapo fan from China-R-US & end up noticing that it’s fried or making funny noises 6 months later, you end up shooting yourself in the foot. The Noctua fans perform great, and last forever (even with a thick coating of dust The extra goodies like loomed wire, and reinforced motors end up being worth it when you go to build a new computer, and decide that your Noctua fans are still in perfect working condition. Just move them to your next build, and save money. I’ve had a paid of 120mm/80mm Noctua fans I’ve had for about three years or more, and I keep moving them between builds when I put one PC out of commission & build out a new PC.

[Review] PC-Engines alix6e1

Written by fsk141
November 7th, 2010

Product:	alix6e1
Manufacturer:	PC Engines
Price:	$85.00 USD
Product Link:	http://www.pcengines.ch/alix6e1.htm
Manual:	http://www.pcengines.ch/pdf/alix2.pdf

Summary:

I can’t speak for everyone, but I’m very picky when it comes to hardware. I will normally research a new mainboard for quite some time, until I find just the right one. Then it comes, and I’m let down by some chipset issue, socket placement issue, or other nitpicks. These little issues end up swaying my “perfect” board into something sub-par by the time I go to use it in my projects. I think that too many manufacturers today try to please everyone & end up adding too much flac to their boards, until the hardcore enthuiasts are stuck with a bunch of crap that they don’t want/need. (Onboard video, extra pci-express slots, hdmi, onboard wifi???)

I’ve had the pleasure of using Alix boards in a few of my projects so far, and haven’t had the slightest regret to spending a little extra money to get something that is perfect. Pascal (main dude [and I think only dude] at PC engines) is a genius. He holds his place in a niche market, and does an amazing job at designing these boards. Just taking a visual look at the board you can see that everything is very well thought out. I dislike boards with large chunks of PCB that are left virtually untouched; due to poor overall design. The alix6e1 is no exception to all of the Alix boards in that they are very concentrated, and the components are splendidly placed. What makes the alix6e1 spectacular is that in the same form-factor of PC Engines other boards, so much is placed to fit in the board. You get a Wan/Lan port (2x 10/100), miniPCI card, miniPCI Express card, usb, cf card slot, 500 Mhz cpu, ram, and all the extra bits to make it work. This along with a great BIOS built from the ground up, makes this board difficult to pass up, especially since they are only $85.00 USD at the moment.

Specs:

CPU: 500 MHz AMD Geode LX800
DRAM: 256 MB DDR DRAM
Storage: CompactFlash socket
Power: DC jack or passive POE, min. 7V to max. 20V
Three front panel LEDs, pushbutton
Expansion: 1 miniPCI slot, 1 miniPCI Express slot (USB only), LPC bus
Connectivity: 2 Ethernet channels (Via VT6105M 10/100)
I/O: DB9 serial port, dual USB port
Board size: 6 x 6″ (152.4 x 152.4 mm)
Firmware: tinyBIOS

Hardware:

Case (case1c1blku):

The case is absolutely splendid. Mind you it has a few “features” that some people might find unfavorable for their situation, yet everything is just perfect for me… I’d like to start with the most awesome part of this case; it’s utmost care to simplicity. I have dealt with a LOT of router cases in my time here on earth, and all of them seem to be overcomplicated (mostly plastic) pieces of crap. The case1c1blku is a no-hinge clam-shell design.

It’s takes 4 screws to mount the board, and another 4 to close the case up tight. The mounting anchor points are integrated in the case (soldered in), and seem very sturdy. I would have no regrets to throwing this router around in my bag as a mobile router due to the case ruggedness.

The punch-outs on the back for the i/o ports are cleanly punched, and there are no barbs left behind (prolly laser cut).

To assemble:

0) Add CF card now, unless you don’t plan on using one

1) Remove the com port anchor screws

2) Tilt board into case with i/o ports in their holes

3) Bend the front a little till the board snugly fits in place

4) Screw down & enjoy

One of the “features” that some people might dislike is the non-removable CF card. I see this as a security feature, just in case you don’t want someone live-tampering with your device (if in a secure environment). Another “feature” of this is that the CF card doesn’t have the ability to move around (it’s stuck next to the front of the case). So if you’re especially rough with your alix6e1 you don’t have to worry about the card falling out.

Layout:

The overall use of space on this board is astounding. The CPU is butts up next to the memory, which allows for shorter traces. The Ethernet controllers are squished underneath the dead space for the miniPCI card. Even more space is saved with the heavy use of SMC’s (surface mounted components). Even the tolerances between components seem extreme (ceramic resistors next to clock chip (to the right of sim card slot)). It’s hard to find mistakes on this board, since everything is so well though out. The only pressing issue that I could find was a missing centimeter between the miniPCI & miniPCI Express card. If the miniPCI Express card was pushed to the left a little bit, or re-positioned; a normal sized pci card would fit more easily. I’ve been informed that this is planned for the next generation of this board, so at least it’s been noted and will be fixed.

The bottom is just as pretty as the top. Many resistors, and a few smc’s are on the bottom, which makes me happy. It shows that a 2 layer design was implemented well. And based on how everything is neatly jammed into the board, the bottom compliments the top very well. It’s great to see a nice fat ground strip flowing throughout the core of the board (not a lot of backwards tracing to find a ground). And one last thing that I almost forgot to mention is a wonderful silkscreen that coincides with schematics on the site. If you are the tinkering type, and something happens to go horribly wrong; the ability to dive in, and find the problem yourself is simplified with technical documentation. The fact that Pascal releases his schematics is fantastic, and allows you to work on your hardware long after your warranty is up.

The back of the board (the side with all the goodies) is fairly well thought out. I love that there are 2 usb ports, but a lot of dongles aren’t compatible with stacking that close. It would be great if there were two single usb ports (such as on either side of the wan port) But far enough so that if you have wide usb dongles it won’t interfere. I have a large collection of usb flash drives, and a bunch of them cut it close to interfering with the Ethernet port in the current configuration. Another awesome thing to have would be and integrated PSU (or an optional module). Where all you plugin is a short 2 prong cable. That would be a dream

Input/Output:

Lets start with the basics: 10/100 Ethernet, Serial Port, miniPCI & miniPCI Express & sim card slot. Two Ethernet ports are more than enough for a 10/100 router. One WAN (who has 100Mb internet anyway && one LAN (going to hook it up to a Gb switch anyway). The great thing about the 10/100 ports is that each has it’s own Via VT6105M chips. Instead of using a cludge multiplex hack, the time and effort was put in the use two individual chips. I’m glad that there is an external serial port (I don’t know how you could get away without having one), and it’s spaced far enough from the other i/o ports that makes it easy to plug in a larger serial adapter and still have room for an Ethernet jack. The biggest mistake of some boards is that serial jacks are put to close to other component jacks which disables you plugging in chunky cables. The miniPCI slot bummed me out. It’s just a little too close (about .5mm) to the miniPCI Express card slot which disables you from using full size miniPCI cards. You can still use full size miniPCI cards, but they will bow a little bit from hitting the top of the miniPCI Express connector. I tried to get a good picture, but couldn’t get a good angle, sorry. I never like to bend boards, or force anything, but it is a very minor bend. In the long run if you ran a full sized miniPCI card; you wouldn’t have any issues, it’s just not perfect. The miniPCI Express slot is a minor letdown; in that it only supports usb miniPCI Express cards. (kinda hit/miss if your card is usb or native minipci express). You would have to look very closely at the documentation of the card you are planning to purchase to make sure that it’s a usb card & not native. And most of the time there isn’t sufficient documentation I didn’t have a sim card to test the sim card slot with (since I use verizon (cdma)), but I can’t see it being hard to recognize/setup.

Lets finish off I/O with usb, power, cf card, and optional ports… I kinda wish that the usb were oriented a little differently to accommodate more usb options. In the current configuration you are allowed two thin usb devices. It would be nice if the usb ports were oriented differently to allow more variation with usb dongles. The cf card slot is perfectly placed & it’s horribly placed (depending how you look at things) For one it’s secure. To access the card you have to open the case, pull up the mainboard & only then can you remove/replace the cf card. On the other hand if your a hacker that wants to constantly change/hack & break your router OS & swap out cf cards; you’ll have no luck with the current configuration. The one last dream of this board would be to have the included optional components well not optional. The internal mini-ide port would be killer for a little extra storage, and internal usb would be spectacular for a nice little flash drive that doesn’t stick out the back of the device. I know they are optional for a reason, but I wish the reason was NULL & they were included

Power Consumption:

I’m using a 12V 1A PSU brick & am consuming on average 6watts. I could probably optimize OpenWRT to save a half or maybe even a full watt, but for now I’m fine with 6 watts.

Benchmarks:

I’ve been working on true benchmarks for a while now, and am going to outline everything in another post with OpenWRT due to so much entanglement with the OS. The quick benchmark is what you would expect from a 10/100 Ethernet connection (not any faster or slower) && the processor is quick & performs VERY well for the application. Everything is robust, yet power efficient & cool. No fans are needed whatsoever even with full load; since the CPU & accompanying chips are cool to touch & don’t overheat.

Software:

BIOS:

The BIOS is streamlined, and non-cluttered. It’s a perfect fit to the overall design of the board. It was built from the ground up for the alix board series. A quick attachment via usb serial converter && a `screen /dev/cu.usbserial 38400` (default baud rate) gave me the goods I was looking for.

A little run down on what’s shown on bootup:

1) BIOS version (this is the newest for the board)

2) Base Memory

3) Extended Memory (aka. usable memory)

*) All the rest is initiated by hitting the letter ‘s’ on your keyboard (to startup the config menu)

- The menu allows you to change the baud rate (beware that some baud rates aren’t supported by grub/custom router OS’s)

- CF card mode modification

- MFGPT workaround (timer hack)

- late PCI init (fix for lousy pci cards)

- enable/disable serial console

- PXE (pixie boot is so 1337)

- xmodem (upload binary [usually used to flash bios])

– More information can be found in the manual (http://www.pcengines.ch/pdf/alix2.pdf)

&lt;br /&gt;
PC Engines ALIX.2 v0.99h&lt;br /&gt;
640 KB Base Memory&lt;br /&gt;
261120 KB Extended Memory&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;01F0 Master 848A SAMSUNG CF/ATA&lt;br /&gt;
Phys C/H/S 4065/16/63 Log C/H/S 1016/64/63&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;BIOS setup:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;(9) 9600 baud (2) 19200 baud *3* 38400 baud (5) 57600 baud (1) 115200 baud&lt;br /&gt;
*C* CHS mode (L) LBA mode (W) HDD wait (V) HDD slave (U) UDMA enable&lt;br /&gt;
(M) MFGPT workaround&lt;br /&gt;
(P) late PCI init&lt;br /&gt;
*R* Serial console enable&lt;br /&gt;
(E) PXE boot enable&lt;br /&gt;
(X) Xmodem upload&lt;br /&gt;
(Q) Quit&lt;br /&gt;

Choice of Router OS:

I choose OpenWrt for now. I’ve been using dd-wrt on my wrt-350n for the longest time, and would like a change of scenery. Especially since there are a few really stupid quirks to dd-wrt that bug me. (Like why the hell isn’t IPv6 support compiled in ) The installation went flawlessly. I just `dd if=openwrt-x86-generic-combined-ext2.img of =/dev/disk3` (something like that on my mac), and started up the board, and bingo, everything was ready to go. The BIOS had no issues with my CF card, and OpenWrt has amazing support for the alix boards (x86 version of OpenWrt). I’ve been running it for a while, and it’s been chugging along with no issues. I plan to have an OpenWrt tutorial in the future, so I won’t go into much detail about OpenWrt, but expect more in the future.

Summary:

Other than a couple little quirks (usb only miniPCI Express ; miniPCI -> miniPCI Express gap & cf card spacing) this board is fantastic. It draws very little power, is powerful, and runs cool & quiet (well silent). The case is a simple clamshell that is easy to assemble, and feels very sturdy. The BIOS rocks with a perfect amount of features. The overall potential for this board is amazing (diy mifi device); I’m sad that I won’t be taking full advantage of the mini-pci express slot; since I use my Droid Incredible for a mobile hotspot. I guess the one and only big letdown for me is limited support for mini pci-express slot. Since it only allows usb cards (a couple gobi devices, novatel, and some others) you are forced to purchase a mini-pci card for wireless. It would be wonderful to be able to choose between mini-pci && mini pci-express in the future since mini pci-express cards are more widely available & cheaper. I would & do recommend this board to any diy hobbyist that want’s a great board, for cheap, with plenty of features to chew on.

[Review] Pogoplug v2 (Pinkie)

Written by fsk141
February 3rd, 2010

General Information:

Company: CloudEngines
Product: Pogoplug V2
Price: $129
Product Link

Summary:

I remember when SheevaPlug arrived on the scene last March around my birthday. I was busy with all kinda little distractions, and was working on a not too shabby NAS based off Open Solaris (ZFS). Well after spending hours upon hours building that alliteration of what I now call FailNAS (my v3 homebrew NAS); I looked into other low cost energy efficient solutions, and came across <insert prefix>plug. After the “launch” of Sheevaplug many people/companies jumped at the idea to develop a platform suitable for the ‘end user.’ Pogoplug was one of the first people I asked for a review unit to examine, and pick apart… Well almost a year later I received my review unit Initial setup was one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had setting up a network device. I was then lead to a wonderful web interface, and plenty of options on how to access my files (mac, linux, windows, android, iphone(don’t have one to test on _) I was then let down by a no local access option (need to be connected to the internet), multi-file transfer throughput, and a few other quirks that nibbled away at my “perfect” introduction to the device. Follow along with me on a wonderful journey to the center of the Pogoplug & back again …

——

Jump to the good part

Summary
Specs
The box (…and what’s inside)
Aesthetics
Performance/Interface
Conclusion
Pros/Cons

Specs:

Power requirements
- 100-240V, 50/60HZ

Drive connection
- USB 2.0

Drive Formats
- NTFS, FAT32, Mac OS Extended Journaled and non-Journaled (HFS+), EXT-2/EXT-3

Network connection
- Gigabit Ethernet

Web browsers
- Safari, Firefox 3, IE 7, IE 8, Chrome

Operating Systems
- MS Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Mac OS X 10.4 and above (Intel and PowerPC), 32bit kernel only, Linux
Extended Specs (Provided by Plugapps)

The Box (…and what’s inside):

Pogoplug
Power cable
Ethernet cable
Quick start guide
Limited warranty

Onto the good bits (the pictures)

Front:

Nice pretty picture of whats inside. (At this point I’ve let the Pogoplug sit; alone; haven’t touched it. I’ve had to setup my lightbox, and prepare for a mini-shoot before I can open it.)

Back:

Bunch of information, and hay look, an iPhone! Too bad I only have a Motorola Droid

Oh wait, there’s an app for *that* too.

Top:

Bottom:

Left:

Right:

This is the most important side of the box. It includes the “includes.” It also gives a basic spec rundown.

Basic Setup Guide:

Warranty:

Cables:

I was happy to see that the cables included with the device matched the overall design of the plug. Most companies would settle with the black plug, or the blue network cable because it’s a few pennies cheaper or something.

Aesthetics:

Overall the look of the packaging is very attractive. It’s the hue of pink that promotes happiness, and makes you excited of what’s to come when you open the box…

Ohh, ahhh! It’s nice how they framed up the pogoplug against the black backdrop. What sucks is that the material the black stuff is comprised of is felty & sheds all over the device. After I pulled the device out of the box I had to thoroughly clean all the blackness off of the plug. It might not bother some people, but I believe that when you take a device out of the box it should be in its cleanest/mintist condition it will ever be in

Aside from this minor trifle I was impressed with the look/construction of the device. It looks pretty, and keeps the pink theme, and has a nice white/glossy finish.

The Front of the device is stunning. It includes the pogoplug logo lit up with green (not pictured). Then the pink accent sweeps to the rear of the device. It doesn’t stop there, the designers added some more plastic, and added a cable loop. When you’re selling a device that is supposed to have a bunch of usb devices plugged into it; it’s nice to have some kind of cable organization built in. The back of the device is very simple. 3 usb, ethernet, and a wallwart plug. What’s spectacular is that the PSU is builtin to the device. Meaning there is no un-stylish boxy wallwart. It’s just a plain white cable that plugs into the back of the device.

Performance/Interface:

Lets start with a few transfers (Network Throughput):


fsk141@FailNAS:/ambry/Media/Photos$ time scp -r 2005-Car-My_Room root@10.0.0.106:/tmp && time scp -r 2005-Car-My_Room 10.0.0.100:/tmp

# Pogoplug

020.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|   974 KB    00:00
012.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|   929 KB    00:00
015.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|  1005 KB    00:00
004.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|   941 KB    00:00
003.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|   902 KB    00:00
014.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|   514 KB    00:00
013.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************| 56584       00:00
021.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|  1245 KB    00:00
002.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|  1212 KB    00:00
005.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|   833 KB    00:00
006.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|   859 KB    00:00
001.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|  1181 KB    00:00
008.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|  1106 KB    00:00
019.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|   975 KB    00:00
010.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|   832 KB    00:00
017.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|  1211 KB    00:00
022.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|  1429 KB    00:00
025.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|  1424 KB    00:00
009.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************| 32202       00:00
007.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|   876 KB    00:00
024.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|  1020 KB    00:00
023.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|  1048 KB    00:00
016.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|   983 KB    00:00
011.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|   888 KB    00:00
018.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|  1149 KB    00:00

real    0m5.975s
user    0m0.527s
sys     0m0.121s

# Storage server
020.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|   974 KB    00:00
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015.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|  1005 KB    00:00
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003.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|   902 KB    00:00
014.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|   514 KB    00:00
013.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************| 56584       00:00
021.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|  1245 KB    00:00
002.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|  1212 KB    00:00
005.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|   833 KB    00:00
006.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|   859 KB    00:00
001.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|  1181 KB    00:00
008.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|  1106 KB    00:00
019.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|   975 KB    00:00
010.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|   832 KB    00:00
017.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|  1211 KB    00:00
022.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|  1429 KB    00:00
025.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|  1424 KB    00:00
009.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************| 32202       00:00
007.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|   876 KB    00:00
024.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|  1020 KB    00:00
023.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|  1048 KB    00:00
016.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|   983 KB    00:00
011.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|   888 KB    00:00
018.jpg              100% |*************************************************************************************|  1149 KB    00:00

real    0m0.730s
user    0m0.403s
sys     0m0.053s

The speeds are 8.18 times faster to my storage server that the pogoplug. BTW the reason I’m using /tmp and not a connected device is so that I can get the most clean results. It’s nand flash, and should be the fastest. Plus there is no abstraction layers that would complicate the transfer process…


fsk141@FailNAS:/ambry/Media/Photos$ time scp 2005-Car-My_Room.tar.gz root@10.0.0.106:/tmp && scp 2005-Car-My_Room.tar.gz 10.0.0.100:/tmp

#Pogoplug
2005-Car-My_Room.tar 100% |*************************************************************************************| 23544 KB    00:05

real    0m5.742s
user    0m0.474s
sys     0m0.108s

#Storage Server
2005-Car-My_Room.tar 100% |*************************************************************************************| 23544 KB    00:00

Single file transfer speeds are eggzactly the same, with a little better performance due to a fraction of a second speedup on multi-file transfer.

This is a big disappointment Although most users don’t care if it takes a while to transfer a file, I do. My time is precious, and I don’t want to have to wait for extended periods of time for my files to transfer over to *any* device.

——

Onto the CPU:

The ARM9 cpu is great, but it seems like pogoplug is pushing the capabilities a little far. For example, by default the pogoplug will auto encode your video/music files for streaming. This is great, since a lot of my files are in *great* quality & need to be compressed to allow smooth streaming. The only problem is that it takes upward of 2 hours to encode a 30 minute (160MB) .avi file. I guess it’s nice that it *does* encode video, but that it takes that long is kinda a bummer. It would be kewl if you could have a few pogoplugs that would work together & process your stuff (shared resources). [On a side note I'm working on a hack to allow this, but it's not supported out of the box]

Onto the web interface:

The Pogoplug (web interface) is simple to setup (6 step process). Basically all you need to do is plug in your device to your network, plug in some storage, and head over to http://my.pogoplug.com to start the registration process. Once finished you are greeted by the following:

A nice little greeting of what’s to come…

After you’ve plugged in your storage device(s) you have access to them in almost any way imaginable. It’s just a matter of installing Pogodrive on your computer, which will give you access to your drives on your pogoplug:

The drive acts as if it was plugged in locally (minus the slower transfer times). I didn’t take the time to delve into the program too deeply to see if it deciphered between you being in a local/outside network to determine what path would be fastest to transfer files. I suppose it’s a hybrid process that will use the fastest route.

——
As far as the web interface goes…

It needs polishing. Oh I forgot to mention that the uploader uses flash. Not javascript/ajax/hybrid. It uses FLASH! This really eeeks me. I know that web uploads are last resort, but I really wish it wasn’t flash . Anyway there is a lot that I wish was in the web interface, and wish there were a lot more things to configure. Supposedly there will be an update in March that will address my hopes and dreams (until then I wait & hack away with plugapps)
Epic disappointment:

There is no local access to the device at the moment. You have to be connected to the internet for your device to work & authenticate with the Pogoplug servers. So if your internet access goes down, well your screwed. You can always go and detach your devices and plug them into your machine; but who wants to do that? I would really like to see an update that allows for failover in the case of loss of internet connection. (To access the device via ip address)

Conclusion:

Meh… The Pogoplug has wonderful potential, but it seems like the software is lacking where the hardware has the capability to shine. Then again the device will still be held back by the network bus. I wanted the review to be as stock as possible so I didn’t hack the device to add on testing programs (that would be cheating). In the future I will test to see if the device even has a wide enough network bus to allow for true Gigabit speeds. It seems like it *won’t*, but maybe with some optimization I can get it to perform? Overall the Plug is a decent consumer device, but I would hold off on recommending it to anyone until an update address’ some issues (configurability via web config, local access, network bus throughput optimizations, [easy] extensibility, remove flash uploader) What it boils down to is the device has a great setup, and is tailored for dummies. But when an advanced user goes to use the device they are left in the dark…

Pros:

Super easy setup
Web interface
4 usb ports (way better that other plug devices that require you to have a usb hub
Win/Linux/Mac/Android/iPhone Support

Cons:

Slow (encoding, network throughput [ ])
Limited configurability
No local access (via internal IP address)
Flash file uploader in web interface
Packaging leaves black stuff all over the device

Review Mozilla Weave

Written by fsk141
October 13th, 2009

moz-weave

Mozilla Weave isn’t too old, yet it’s not new either. I’ve known about Weave for some time now, and thought it was a wonderful idea. When I first tried Weave a while back it was glitchy, the UI was horrible, and it didn’t do anything worth having. Up to now I’ve been very content with Xmarks. It’s very simple to use, the UI is amazing, and it even has a web interface. It’s everything one could dream of for bookmark/password sync. Back to Weave… I decided to give it another shot, and see if it has progressed into something usable? Weave is touted to be “secure”, and to “transport your browsing experience across all your devices.” These sound like wonderful features, lets see if Weave meets its promises.

Install:

The install was very simple, straightforward, and concise. It gathers all the information needed, in very few steps, and proposes what will happen in simple English.

Step 1 (Do you have an account?):

I like sites/services that are taking this approach as opposed to the all too common login/register approach.

Step 2 (username/password/email):

Again I’m impressed with how clean the page is. Along with three tidbits of collected information there is a captcha.

Step 3 (Secret pass for password sync):

Step 4 (Select services):

Sync-able services include:

Bookmarks
History
Tabs
Passwords
Preferences
Forms

Xmarks handles bookmarks/passwords, but not tabs, history, preferences, or forms. The major plus to Weave is that it handles Preferences. I can’t verify that all the kinks are worked out, but it seemed to work alright with some of the basic settings.

Step 5 (Fin):

This took less than two minutes, and everything “should” sync up between my browsers… The syncing works with a little pushing. I tried Weave on a few different systems, and one worked right away, and the other required me to manually “sync” before it automagically started working. This is simple, it’s a matter of clicking the Weave logo at the bottom of your browser, and clicking sync now.

Settings Menu (Sync that sucker):

Other than that the hiccups weren’t that bad. Seems like the UI is too minimalistic compared to Xmarks. There is no web interface, or simple way to change settings.

Dropdown 1:

Sign out is self explanatory.
My account – lets you change email/password.
Sync now – SYNCS NAO!

Dropdown 2:

It’s interesting to look at the debug log, but not very useful to me.

Summary:

Mozilla Weave seems like a promising product, yet I just can’t commit to it yet. I used it a couple days, and it works as advertised, yet the UI is very basic. It would be nice to have some more options in the dropdown that allow some more finite account tweaking. Also it would be great to have a web UI to check out your settings/bookmarks. Or at least a simple way to integrate with a current service such as Delicious.

I wish that Mozilla Weave was more refined, yet it will prolly take some time until it’s a viable alternative to Xmarks. I can’t wait till I can feel that Weave is secure, bug-free, and has decent features that I can replace Xmarks.

Fsk141

/me elsewhere

Last.fm

Categories

[Review] Yubikey – Let’s get obscure with otp

[Review] Noctua NF-P14 FLX

[Review] PC-Engines alix6e1

[Review] Pogoplug v2 (Pinkie)

Review Mozilla Weave

Install:

Summary: