Take a look at unRAID. I'm currently running it and have been for years but am now also looking at NAS4Free and wow is it waaay more complicated to setup! It's going to be faster mind you and I can use it's NFS shares for VM storage but no way would I ask someone who wasn't willing to spend a few hours to set it up to try it out. I am considering trying FreeNAS too, especially since you seem to like it's interface better, but it's going to be VERY hard to beat unRAID for simplicity IMO...

use Plex as an IOS client. Run it on say unRAID as a plug-in or on a separate computer (I run it on a VM). Plex handles the DHCP issue and the piercing of your firewall, it can also sample down the media to allow it to stream on low bandwidth connections. For storage I do unRAID for many of the reasons posted elsewhere here and it's been working great or quite a few years for me.

I too have been running this for years and years now for pretty much all of the reasons mentioned. Recently I've begun having some REAL fun and have virtualized unRAID on an ESX host and am now able to run a bunch of other VMs too. I'm fiddling around with NAS4Free as a second NAS package to store the VMs and to create a cache drive for unRAID. Let me tell you, the software setup for unRAID is child's play compared to some of the fun I'm having trying to setup this other package. It's certainly doable and it can do ZFS, ISCSI, and other things but no way in hell would I recommend it for someone who just wanted to load up some software and quickly go. unRAID really does make things very easy and while I'm having a blast with my more complex setup it's overkill for most folks even geeks like myself.

I wouldn't just do a share on a Windows or Linux machine for sure, I wouldn't do a complex ZFS thing with even more complex expansion, but unRAID? Oh heck yes - I have even given away a couple of these boxes as Christmas gifts they're so easy to maintain!

Well... I have about 20TB worth of data, mostly static media, but many many hours worth of work building it. This isn't something I can stick on a portable and lock away I'm afraid. I could certainly backup my music to such a drive, and a I do, but the rest? Yeah not so much. I do need to backup the drive holding my ESX VMs but that's not looking like cake either. I'm protected from a single drive failure and I've had them more than once. If I lose two drives I lose the data on those two drives, nothing more (unRAID). A lightning strike or fire would suck to say the least...

Not exactly useless... There's a preclear script that many unRAID users use to beat up their drives while monitoring SMART. It doesn't just look at SMART for a thumbs up or down but monitors the various parameters that SMART throws out. Users run this multiple times in a row and find bad drives fairly regularly. I will admit that I've not been running it but judging from the numbers of folks who have been finding it useful and from the fact that warranties seem to be getting ever shorter I may begin doing so. I use a decent number of the 3TB drives that are always going on sale and I'm starting to think I'm tempting fate by not testing them. I've gotten spoiled in that my unRAID box covers my ass in the even of a failure but I see too damn many reports of new drives going toes up to not be concerned. I have 3 drives sitting on the shelf waiting to be loaded and I may beat them up beforehand just to be sure they won't screw me when I least expect it...

Tineye says no go, it can't be found. Not with an URL search and not with an upload search. I too am VERY skeptical but this photo isn't being found by the tools I know to use and I also note it has no EXIF.

If your machine has FireWire ports they can be used to directly access memory and obtain the keys - it would not be safe in this case. This is a well known forensic technique for doing memory dumps. Do not allow the machine to sleep or hibernate as this will also write memory to disk where it can be examined offline.

The solar lease places sound great! They even advertise in my state, however when you call them they don't service my area. Want to bet it's lack of Govt. incentives making it too expensive for them just as it does me? I'd make the capital outlay myself but it's too damned expensive right now.

No, tax credits and incentives are a GOOD idea. Yeah, short term we break even but long term when the hardware is paid off and still producing power and more plants don't have to be built it's a win win for everyone. We need more distributed power generation, people cannot afford to do it without help.

Only if we use white panels

That's a standard grid-tie design and isn't poor design at all if you have a reliable grid - which most of us do. It's also an economical design given the costs and requirements of purchasing and maintaining a battery bank.

FALSE and FUD to boot. Solar panels return more power than was used to produce them and they do not die at the 20year mark, in fact many come with 30 year warranties and are still ticking at the end of that period. EROI is the term you're looking for and you're wrong about it.

http://www.solareworld.com/solar-learning-center/myths-and-facts-of-solar-panel-systems

Stop spreading FUD.

Now if I could just find someone like you who's levelheaded and knowledgeable about this in my area willing to design and install a system without cleaning out my account. No State incentives here but I've got a tin roof South facing with zero shading begging to be covered in the damn things. :-(

Yeah, no chance any of us have been studying this for years. I do not think you understand the problem nearly as well as you think you do.

The long view is to obviously go for solar, it makes sense in many ways. However the long view is VERY long. I pay less than $150 for my power each month, lose power seldom, and due to virtually no offered incentives would have to pay around $30K for a decent grid-tie system. If I could completely eliminate my power bill it would pay for itself in 8 years - surprisingly short actually. But what could I do with that $30K otherwise? Lots of things. This is why so few are jumping on this, I know of no one local to me that's done it. My home is ideal for this however and I'm watching this carefully hoping to do it but not if it's going to cost me $30K, that much money could be doing other things for higher ROI. Get it down to $15K or less and I'm on it. I fully agree that not having people go solar is stupid but our Govt. apparently doesn't see fit to push people that way despite the long term benefits and I cannot easily afford to do it on my own. Hell where I live no one stays in their home long enough to reap the long term benefits of going solar....

Oh and no way do I want a few K lbs of lead acid batteries in my home. Space is an issue, fumes, maintenance, and replacement costs all add up. I'd end up with them in a separate shed if I did this - yuck.