I recently received a courtesy upgrade to a software product I already owned and used, DiskAnalyzer Pro.  I am excited to review the software because it has really come a long ways.  The version I am reviewing is 3.4.

From their website: “The software helps you to find largest folders and files on your hard drive.  Get hard disk space consumption report grouped by file size, file types, ownership, file date and attributes.   Quickly drill down to folders consuming most of your hard disk space.”

As soon as the program launches, it asks you which drive you would like to analyze.  Once you pick the drive it quickly analyzes it.  It did my 500GB drive I chose in about 20 seconds.  The program then presents its main work interface.  The primary area is a row of tabs that lets you sort the files by different criteria.

DiskAnalyzer Pro Tabs

You can click any of those tabs to quickly sort/ group files by that criteria.    For instance, you can click file types to quickly see how much storage is being taken up by every file type on your drive (by extension).  Wondering why you have so many rich text files?  Just double click the “rtf” extension folder.  A new window opens called the “File Viewer and Explorer.”  This view list all the rtf files on the drive with the associated metadata.  To the left is a window to quickly sort further by any of the file attributes.  Date searching even has a handy pop-up calendar to assist in choosing the dates you need.  (Very useful when you are lost in programming, and lost your orientation to time and place!!)

File Explorer View

Double-Clicking any of the files in the file viewer will launch the associated program to view the file.  For some of the simpler file types there is the option to launch and internal pre-view within the application.

A very nice feature if you need to report to someone else what is where, is the ability to export an HTML or CSV report of files located.  This is very useful for quick inventories after a data recovery or computer forensics job.  The same can be done with computer forensics software, but it is more time consuming to set up.

I can also see it be very useful for network IT professionals trying to find out what or who is taking up all the space on the server!

Overall, I find this to be a very easy to use and cost-effective utility.

I have had web sites for 13 years.  I have to warn others that using GoGrid hosting has been my worst hosting experiences.    Deciding to accept there “free” $100 dollar credit offer to sign-up was a bad mistake.  One of my earliest budget providers based in India was a better experience.

I accepted their offer to evaluate their service for use as back up servers for some of the commercial websites for which I am the system administrator.

To start with their interface is clunky and far from ready for actual commercial use.  It is confusing, lacks useability, help, and documentation.

There customer service was slow and largely unhelpful when I had issues.  They left me feeling that they thought I was stupid because I didn’t know every aspect of their system.

Worst of all is their billing.  They tell you that you are being billed for RAM hours used.  Well their gottcha trick is how they define your RAM hours.  Their claim is that a server that is turned off is using RAM hours.

Well we all know that the whole idea of “cloud” computing is to lower costs because the provider can use the actual physical hardware for another client when you do not have your server on.  Well GoGrid claims that your server is still using RAM when it is off.  If there is still RAM actually alloted to your off server, then that is not cloud computing.  It is FAR cheaper to use a traditional hosting provider than to  pay GoGrid for RAM on your server that is not even running!

I had to request my account to be closed multiple times, before they finally complied.  Requests to refund my money were never fulfilled.

The traditional hosting providers, such as Liquid Web, also provide FAR better customer support at a much lower price.  Liquid Web, for example, provides a much more polished interface for the user.  After this very unfortunate, and personally costly, experience with GoGrid;  I love Liquid Web even more than I did previously.

I hope this review saves other business owners and Tech workers from a costly mistake like mine.

I am very pleased to announce that I testified as an Expert in Computer Forensics and Cybercrime.  I was on the stand for about an one and one half hours.  The material of the case involved the receipt, possession, and distribution of child pornography.

I was happy to learn that the case agents, attorney, and jury were very happy with my testimony.  Everyone told me that I was very clear and did an excellent job of making highly technical material understandable.  Being technically accurate and at the same time understandable, I believe, is one of the greatest challenges to anyone testifying as a computer forensics expert.  Throughout my training I have always tried to ask myself, “How would I explain this to a jury?”

The entire case was a great experience from working with the U.S. Attorney, investigators, criminal defense attorney, and everyone else involved in this case.

I am proud and happy to have accomplished my goal of being recognized as an expert in state and federal court.  I look forward to continuing to learn in this field, and hope I have a long and successful career in it!

Well, in a very ironically Orwellian move, Amazon reached into users Kindles and deleted content.  This was content that the users thought they had already purchased.  This move was hugely disturbing.

I had seriously considered buying a Kindle.  There is absolutely no way I will buy one now.  In my opinion, Amazon just killed their product.

Great move in bad economy Amazon!

I am not a big fan of “tooting” my own horn, but I have to publicize the accomplishment of a long time goal.

Yesterday, in the Rhoden v Rhoden in the 8th Judicial Circuit of Florida I testified as an expert witness in “Computer Forensics and Cybercrime!” 

Since there is not a universally accepted gold standard in computer forensics certifications, testifying as an expert in court is about the only standard that indicates you have entered the top tier of the field. 

I very pleased to have accomplished a goal I set for myself in 2006.  Hopefully this is just the mid-point of great career in computer forensics.