It’s a fact that when it comes to hi-tech toys you will eventually be behind the curve. Sometimes it can take a year to fall behind. Other times it can be weeks.

I was reminded of this when I read Gizmodo this morning. I found out a new version of Drobo came out. I only bought mine three weeks ago. Should I send back the old one (if I can) and get the new improved one? Actually it would be too much of a pain to do so. I would need to offload the tons of data I already stored on the hard drives, then box up the unit, go to UPS and pay the shipping. I would then be without a unit for some time.

It’s like when I bought the iPhone, or the iMac, or the Powerbook - I knew something better was going to come along. But you can’t wait on your purchase. If you need that hi-tech device, buy it after doing the research. It just needs to do what you want it to do. Waiting isn’t going to stop a newer and better version from coming out after your purchase. Just do it.

Other notable behind the curve moments for me:

• iPhone - Purchased September 2007. New version July 2008
• 24" White iMac - Purchased late 2006. New aluminum version mid-2007
• 12"  PowerBook G4 - Purchased October 2005.  New Intel MacBook Pros release February 2006.

All I can say is keep up with the read the reviews and keep up with the news before buying.

The reasons haven’t changed why I bought the Drobo in the first place. I was tired of buying external hard drives and wanted a simple and secure solution that Drobo offers. So what if it’s only USB 2.0. I did my research and knew this fact going in.

If you haven’t seen this, it explains all there is to social networking.  So many online friends, so little time.

My website is down for the second time in about six months.  The reason my hosting company gives is hard drive failure - again!  Two times, on two different servers, in six months.  I think it may be time to make change.

So does anyone have a suggesting for a web hosting company? I’m looking for about 5GB of storage (for a small photo program I maintain),  PHP and mySQL, and not much else.  I’m not looking to break the bank on monthly fees, but anything under $25 is worth considering.  I’m currently with Midphase and have been with Hostgator (who wasn’t bad at all).

If anyone has a suggestion I would appreciate it.

Anyone check out [http://maps.a9.com/], the Amazon map search engine?  If you haven’t, pop on over there and see if you can find where you live.  There may be a photo of your front door!

What?

The thing about A9’s map engine is that it shows street-level photos. Steven says he can see his place on the map, and even a local merchant walking on the street!  I guess a rolling van drives by taking digital images of the street.  So watch out!