My blog is not based on Wordpress or Subtext or any of the others. Its something custom which I put together and occasionally add to or modify to suit my needs as they change. However, its written in PHP and as much as I like PHP for inspiring me to get into web development, in my opinion it has gotten a little tired. I intend to patch a few missing-but-essential features into the current version whilst I rewrite it completely based on Rails 3.

However, some would say I'm foolish for taking this route.

Recently I bought a Drobo, a storage device which takes up to four SATA hard drives and combines them together to form a large volume whilst at the same time providing protection against drive failure or corruption.

Drobo comes with the ability to connect locally like any other storage device via USB or Firewire 800. It is also possible to connect it to your network using a DroboShare. I chose this option and bought the Drobo and DroboShare bundle from Ebuyer.

Last night I was given a sharp reminder that having a backup strategy for any content you value is important. I know it has been said many times before and will continue to be said many more times in the future but even if you don't read any further, just do yourself one favour: make sure your backup strategy is in place and is working.

Like many other developers from around the UK, I was at Microsoft's Reading campus on Saturday for DDD8. I have already had the chance to read several blog posts reflecting on the day and I echo the sentiments - it was (as always) a positive experience with interesting talks and the chance to meet people in real life and put a face to a (twitter) name.