Vinney and I went out to get some groceries to make lunch with, and as we pulled into my driveway I noticed a Ford Explorer pull into my driveway behind me; two people were in the car.

A lady gets out of the Explorer and tells me that she is with the N.C. SBI, the State Bureau of Investigation. She and her partner immediately apologize for interrupting and said something along the lines of the following:

"We know this isn't you and it's really embarrassing that we have to do this, but we have to follow up on all calls we receive so here..."

At which point the lady shows me a piece of paper with a picture of Amer El-Maati on it. The lady and her partner both say that it's clearly not me, which I affirm, and go on to explain how they received a call that this man was spotted in the area. They were very embarrassed about the whole thing and were very nice about it, so I responded in kind. We all laughed about the situation, and I did my best to cooperate and make them feel like I wasn't offended (I wasn't). I will say that it's something that's never happened to me, but it was funny enough to share.

I understand that they were just doing their job and I appreciate their demeanor about the whole thing. There were a million different ways they could've handled the situation, and I think they picked the best one. Just thought I'd share :)

Now let's get to business. The storage suite is very close to being done and I'm quite impressed with it. It's the first real-world suite I've seen and the results speak volumes. I've got one more test that I'm going to try to devise tomorrow, and then figure out how I want to measure noise levels before heading off to Taiwan. I plan on having all of the testing done for this introductory article done by tomorrow, and I'll probably write the piece on the flights over to Taiwan.

There's a bunch of stuff happening during Computex, so expect to see lots of show coverage as well as new reviews, especially at the beginning of next week.

I've finally got Dothan up and running here, but the review will have to wait until I get back from Computex as I'm only about halfway done with the testing. I'm slowly but surely getting back into the mood of testing on a regular basis; I've just gotta get more systems up and running concurrently.

I've gotta get back to testing, after I post this first storage review (sometime next week most likely) I will ask for what drives you'd like to see reviewed next so start coming up with a list.

Take care.
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  • Brandon Hum - Saturday, May 29, 2004 - link

    It's funny and kind of reassuring to what happened. It shows that the government is atleast taking every call seriously enough to follow up on it...even though like in this case it obviously wasn't the person in question.

    If anything, now you left the country for Taiwan the day after this encounter which isn't suspicious at all.

    ;)

  • jliechty - Saturday, May 29, 2004 - link

    I'm not sure whether my Raptor is having fun or not. I hope it's not sweating... I have it in the drive cage in the front of my Lian Li PC-60 with two fans blowing over it, so it should be ok. ;-)

    That was entirely in jest, BTW, in case your sarcasm-o-meter didn't pick up on it. I know that the 74GB Raptor, not to mention any 15kRPM SCSI drive, will kick its behind, but I also know that I can't afford any of the above.

    Eh, and sorry to clutter this comment section with useless stuff. I'll shut up now.
  • Anonymous - Friday, May 28, 2004 - link

    I'm sure your raptor will do just fun :rolleyes: :)
  • jliechty - Friday, May 28, 2004 - link

    Someone was reported to the police (and subsequently checked out) for having a Canon DSLR and 600mm f/4 lens (a big white monsterous thing, like what you see at sports events). Evedently the idiot that reported them thought it was a machine gun.

    I'm glad to hear that your experience wasn't so bad, though. It's refreshing to hear that there are a few reasonable individuals working for the government. ;-)

    And whatever you do, please don't make my Raptor look too pitiful... I'm still recovering from the cost of that thing, and don't want to be motivated to buy yet something else in the storage realm. :D
  • Gage - Friday, May 28, 2004 - link

    don't blame the authorities, they have to check every lead. Blame the idiot that reported it!
  • Anonymous - Friday, May 28, 2004 - link

    Socket 9399999999999999999999!!!!
  • Anonymous - Friday, May 28, 2004 - link

    Feeling like an American today?

    Bastards!
  • Prince-Xizor - Friday, May 28, 2004 - link

    Interesting...nice to see you easing your way back into the swing of things...I look forward to your articles!

    P-X

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