Cool New Toy – Zalman VE-300

January 16, 2013 in Gadgets, vHersey

Check out this handy little USB external harddrive enclosure, the Zalman VE-300.

zalmanve300

The Zalman VE-300 can be mounted as a USB Harddrive and any ISO stored in the _iso directory on the drive can be directly mounted as an optical device.

ESXi-ISO

Recently used the Zalman to do a new ESXi 5.1 install and it worked great. Just connect it up, select the ESXi 5.1 ISO, boot from CD-ROM device, and away it goes.

The enclosure itself can be had for around $50. The enclosure comes with a case, a screw driver, and a USB cable; just add a 2.5″ hard drive of whatever size you desire and you have a handy portable data CD/DVD library. I picked mine up from NewEgg.com and added a 500GB drive.

Picked Up a Bluetooth Keyboard for my iPad

May 17, 2011 in Gadgets

Just a quick review of the keyboard I picked up for my iPad. I was not looking for any thing special, it just had to work, I wanted it to be (or nearly be) full size, and I did not need (or necessarily want) it to be part of a case. I was not looking for a keyboard that was mobile or portable. I really just needed something for when I am at my desk. Things like updating documents or blogging can be kind of cumbersome when using the on screen keyboard.

I was in Best Buy looking at a number of different models ranging in price from $59 for a Taurus keyboard, to $69 for the Apple keyboard, to the $99 Zagg. These were all specifically designed to be used with the iPad. All of them are nice and will probably do a fine job but I noticed a Bluetooth keyboard on an end cap for just $49, the Microsoft Bluetooth Keyboard 6000. The helpful Best Buy employee didn’t think it would work – I mean it didn’t say so on the box – but I did a quick Google search on my phone that returned results from others using it without issue. I also found that I could have got it for a few bucks cheaper online, but I was already in the store so it went home with me.

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