Lots of publications do a ‘Best of the Year’ feature, so for my blog post I’m going to do the same. I don’t want you to think that it’s an easy option or anything like that. Because it isn’t*. And I think you may find it useful.
Here are three products that I used in 2011 that I think are worth recommending.
1. Chillblast
I needed a new computer. Which is always a difficult decision. You don’t wake up one morning and think ‘I need a new computer’. Well, maybe you do, but I don’t. It’s a bit like being in a bath that slowly gets colder. You don’t want to get out, because you know that it’s not going to be nice. But neither do you want to stay in because the water’s getting colder. I’m not going to extend the analogy to computers, because I’m sure you can see where it’s going. So in December, it was time to get out of the bath, and get a new PC. I did my research and found that Chillblast were regarded, in the trade, as a good brand. So I sen t them an email detailing what I would use my computer for and hoped that they would reply with a sensible specification.
And they did. Someone called Ben replied with a well-thought out solution and it wasn’t anywhere near the most expensive option he could have come up with. It did cost £730 but I wanted it to be able to manage video editing. Delivery isn’t quick (it took about a month) but the computer is very good, it’s good value for money and when it went wrong (which it did, albeitwith only a little problem – the processor had been ever so slightly overclocked or undercooked or something like that ), the guy on the Chillblast helpdesk wasvery good, and sorted it out without fuss. And you can’t ask for much more than that.
So Chillblast, I recommend you. Which I appreciate is not like winning an Oscar or getting the Queen’s award for industry, but a satisfied customer is not to be sniffed or sneezed at.
2. Dropbox
A friend of mine recently had his laptop stolen. I could hardly bear to ask him if he had backed up his stuff. Of course, I asked him anyway (I couldn’t resist) and he hadn’t. Which brings me to dropbox, which is a good place to store your stuff. You get a bit of space for free, but it’s almost certainly not enough for your needs, so pay them to get extra. I pay about £40 a year for 50GB and have, to date, used 66% of my storage space. I like the fact that your storage space can (if you wish) appear on your computer, like an actual drive. This can take up quite a bit of space, so I have ours on external drives. It’s good if you back up a number of computers, or if you have a mixture of macs and PC’s.
I would like it to have an automatic way of syncing files, but if you use your dropbox as your ‘my documents’ file then this problem doesn’t arise. I however, don’t want to do this, for reasons that are too involved to mention here. So I have to use SyncToy to keep my files synchronised with my dropbox (and for matters of accuracy I should say that I use Chronsync on the mac).
Anyway, just let me say that Dropbox is good, and if you don’t have anywhere to backup your files, I would recommend it.
3. LG N2A2 NAS Drive
A NAS drive is a Network Attached Storage Drive. A hard disc that many computers can access over a network. In our office, everyone saves their work on the NAS and so all files can be accessed from all computers. And it makes it easier for me to backup all the files in the dropbox. NAS drives are great if they work and can be a nightmare if they don’t. Because we use a mixture of macs and PCs, this can be extra difficult. I wish we didn’t, but we do and that’s not likely to change in the near future, as the mac user is the one who wields the power and she’s probably going to realise if I replace her mac mini with windows 7.
Our last NAS drive was a Lacie and while it’s a fascinating tale, I’m going to say that I’d rather have root canal surgery than buy another Lacie and leave it at that.
So again, I did my research and bought an LG NAS drive for about £180. It’s quiet, you can set it up reasonably easily and it only went wrong once, whereupon the help desk was very good. It’s not perfect as some of the dates of files are wrong when you look from one computer, but I think if I updated the software then this would be fixed.
If you need an inexpensive NAS drive, you can do worse.
So there you have it. Chillblast, Dropbox and the LG NAS. As Basil Fawlty once said, “A satisfied customer. We should have him stuffed.”
*It is a bit.
- John








