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This is a question Crap Gadgets

We wanted a monkey butler and bought one off eBay. Imagine our surprise when we found it was just an ordinary monkey with rabies. Worse: It had no butler training at all. Tell us about your duff technology purchases.

Thanks to Moonbadger for the suggestion

(, Thu 29 Sep 2011, 12:51)
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Expensive Network Attached Toaster (nickname). Or why you should spend a shit-load of time & effort on research before spending a shit-load of money on something.
A while ago I got 1 of these for about AUD$350. The idea was to put all my music, movies (no pr0n as it was shared) and as a backup on a couple of drives, plug the toaster into the wireless router then I could stream stuff to the clever tv in the lounge room.

Problem 1. - Only works with windows (bleeaugh!) and you have to download software (the install disk had an old ver. which tried to break my raid drivers) to create the partition, format (with a proprietary fs - we'll get to that later) and mount the disk (as in windows can't do that natively).
So the missus' lappy get appropriated even tho the debian server box under my desk could do a much better job. Everything installed, partitions created, formatted, disks mounted and away we go. You never know how much you miss a simple command like "mv" until you have to use cut & paste in windows. Teracopy was a bit better tho.

Problem 2. - Toaster gets seriously hot (sorry) so I had to rearrange the desk because the router couldn't sit on top of the perfectly-sized, flat top of the toaster.

3. - Seriously s-l-o-w file read, write or even access times. I'm talking inability to stream any media. Seriously. (& no that's not when it's setup as raid1)

4. - Unable to mount fs, with complex error about how fs is now corrupted. Remember "proprietary" filesystem. Apparently only these boxes can read zfs (no unfortunately not the solaris zfs - that would have been a doddle to mount, chkfs and repair but noooo!) After much forum searching, installing the google code linux drivers and eventually trying the windows only command-line tools that you really have to search for on the netgear site to no avail - why have a tool to repair a fs if it wont work? The fact that there are sites like this & this speaks volumes...

Throw away years of movies and mp3s (I'm talking back to audiogalaxy on dialup c. 1997). Reformat drives to good 'ole ntfs, put into cheap ext. hdd case, plug into back of router, configure usb page of router to setup file-server - & tada cheap easy network attached storage. :-(
Place toaster on back of top-most shelf in cupboard of crap room hopefully to be never seen again. I'm not even game to risk the bad karma by giving it away to someone let alone trying to fob it off on ebay. & yes - hindsight is always 20/20.

EDIT: formatting and this may contain traces of roasted pea from an archived response.
(, Fri 30 Sep 2011, 1:03, 3 replies)
Through years of extensive research
I have come to the conclusion that any product with the word "turbo" in the title will be a piece of shit. No exceptions. Ever.

I had a gun/explosion sound creating keyring called the Turbo Blaster. Fell apart very quickly.
I had a radio controlled car called the Turbo Panther. The suspension broke.
(, Fri 30 Sep 2011, 6:01, closed)
What about the Renault 5 Turbo - exception to teh rule?

(, Fri 30 Sep 2011, 8:13, closed)
I liked the Renault 5 Turbo
My mate had one. Nearly every weekend I'd be using my lumbering Volvo 265 to extract it from whatever tree it was stuck up. I drove it a couple of times and it was great fun, but I can see how it ended up on its side in a hedge with its engine on fire on a more-or-less weekly basis.
(, Fri 30 Sep 2011, 12:06, closed)
I clicked the link, but I'm confused:
where do you put the bread in?
(, Fri 30 Sep 2011, 8:07, closed)
Judging by the heat comment
I'd suggest just laying the bread on the top.
(, Fri 30 Sep 2011, 8:51, closed)

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