Troy-Bilt TB32 EC string trimmer

PROS / TROY-BILT TRIMMER lets you add attachments for other landscaping activities, besides simply eliminating weeds.

CONS / This device tends to vibrate quite a bit during operation.

VERDICT / This does not come with a shoulder strap or anti-vibration construction, but this gas trimmer helps you whisk away annoying grass, weeds and other unwanted vegetation.


If you have plenty of lawn care chores to do, the Troy-Bilt TB32 EC Straight Shaft Gas String Trimmer can be a big help clearing away annoying weeds and grass. In addition, if you add optional attachments, you can transform this into a versatile lawn care tool that lets you trim hedges, sweep away debris and even cultivate the soil in your garden.

This weed eater has easy-to-find controls and an adjustable handle. Perhaps one of its most noteworthy features is its useful and large 17-inch cutting radius, which means you do not need to keep going back and forth over the same area to mow down weeds and tall grass. A wide cutting radius is a real timesaver.

You get a debris shield with this string trimmer that prevents any bits of vegetation from flying around and ending up on your face and clothes. You can easily extend the trimmer line simply by bumping the head on the ground to produce additional string.

Although it certainly presents advantages, there are a few items lacking in this gas weed trimmer. At 12.4 pounds, this is the second-heaviest strimmer we tested. It also takes some time to assemble once out of the box.

In addition, it is not outfitted with anti-vibration features to protect your hands, wrists and arms. When we tested it, the Troy-Bilt got the second-lowest Vibration Score. Exposure to heavy vibrations can cause fatigue and muscle strain in the short term and permanent damage if your hands experience this extensively over a long period of time.

When it comes to warranties, the Troy-Bilt TB32 EC Straight Shaft Gas String Trimmer is protected by the industry standard, which is two years for parts and labor and two years for the drive shaft.

If you need assistance, you can first check the online manual. If that does not work, you can call the manufacturer or take the weed eater to a service center. Unfortunately, this is one of two weed whackers in our product lineup that does not offer email support.

Data Robotics Drobo Pro

The iSCSI support isn't the only card the Drobo Pro has up its sleeve. It also supports RAID, and in a way that makes it absurdly simple to manage compared to alternative products, using a technology that Data Robotics calls BeyondRAID.

The best way to explain what BeyondRAID has to offer is to describe how we configured the Drobo Pro in our Labs. The first step was, clearly, to add some storage to the empty box — but, unlike other storage arrays, you can use any SATA drives you like, and in any combination of capacity and spin speed. We grabbed some drives left over from previous reviews and simply slid them into place. Furthermore, we didn't have to configure anything — just plug in the bare disks and leave BeyondRAID to handle that side of things.

Start with two drives, and BeyondRAID will mirror them. Add more and it automatically upgrades to RAID 5 striping, with the data rebuilt and the array reconfigured in the background while you carry on working. There's no need to power down, and you don't need a screwdriver or special disk carriers. Plus, if you run out of storage space all you have to do is either slip in an extra drive or replace an existing disk with a bigger one.

The only time we had to do any work ourselves was to protect against two disks failing at the same time (RAID 6). Even then, it involved little more than a tick-box option on the bundled Dashboard management tool, and this can be just as simply turned off again if the extra space required becomes an issue.

To access the storage, we used the cables provided to connect the Drobo Pro directly to a PC, just like attaching an ordinary external hard disk. Networking was just as easy — simply a matter of attaching the Drobo Pro to the LAN then firing up the built-in Microsoft iSCSI initiator on the Windows servers and workstations we wanted to connect. A custom initiator for Apple Mac systems is also provided.

Either way, it's then just a matter of creating the Smart Volumes that you want to host on the array. Here, again, the Drobo Pro takes care of all the hard work, assigning blocks to these virtual volumes as required rather than pre-allocating storage in advance. Known as thin provisioning, this means you configure up to sixteen Smart Volumes, each up to 16TB in size, even though the biggest SATA disk available at present is just 2TB, limiting the physical array to a maximum of 16TB until bigger drives are released.

We found it all incredibly easy to use, with no need to get involved in management other than the odd glance at the LED indicators on the front. These show how much free storage space is left, and warns you when to consider changing a disk for something bigger, and when to leave well alone because the Drobo Pro is busy optimising your data.

There are faster and more expandable disk arrays on the market, but the Drobo Pro has enough capacity for most small to medium-sized companies, and is certainly no slouch. Performance will depend on a variety of factors, not least the speed of the disks you use and the way you connect up the Drobo Pro. As such it's probably not a good idea to use old disks like we did, but start with brand-new drives and go for fast spin speeds across the board.

If you do decide to mix disk capacities, bear mind that BeyondRAID will need to reserve the capacity of the largest drive for parity (the largest two drives if RAID 6 is enabled). Data Robotics provides a handy online calculator to determine usable capacity for different drive configurations. In our tests, iSCSI networking gave the best results, and we'd recommend steering clear of the USB interface for direct connection as it could easily become a bottleneck.

We were a little disappointed to find that the USB port can't be used to take backups of the array, and as already mentioned there's no NAS sharing. We also had to dig a little to find out what powers the Drobo Pro — if you're interested, it's a dual-core Marvell ARM processor running the VxWorks OS. But that doesn't really matter. What does matter is that the Drobo Pro is a business-class storage array that does exactly what the company's marketing claims — manage itself.

FIRST TIME TRAILCAM BUYERS GUIDE

Trail Camera Picture Quality

Don't be fooled by high megapixel counts. Companies will trick you by advertising a camera with a high mpxl. In reality, they use a low-quality lens which reduces the quality of the picture.

The best way to judge the picture quality from a MOULTRIE M-999I MINI GAME CAMERA is to look at the sample photos from our game camera reviews. We judge day pictures by their clarity, color, contrast, and resolution.
Trail Camera Detection Circuits

The detection circuit of a trail camera is what actually detects the animal. Trail cameras trigger based on a combination of heat and motion. We judge detection circuits based on:


Trigger Time


Recovery Time


Detection Zone

Trigger & Recovery Time

Trigger time/speed is the amount of time elapsed from when a MOULTRIE M-999I MINI GAME CAMERA first senses motion until it captures a photo of whatever caused said motion. Recovery is how quickly a camera can store the first picture and be ready for a second photo. If you would like to view the trigger and recovery times for different cameras, go the Trigger Speed Showdown.


Detection Zones

The Detection Zone is the area in which a camera is able to sense motion and trigger a photo The two factors which determine the detection zone are Detection Width and Detection Range. For comprehensive data on Detection Zones, please review our Detection Shootout.

Below is an example of what a detection zone would look like.
Trail Camera Battery Life

We test the battery life for each MOULTRIE M-999I MINI GAME CAMERA to determine how long the camera will last in the field. Cameras with long battery life will save you money over the life of the camera.

Advantages of Nimh rechargeable batteries:
They save you bushels of money in the long run.
They increase your battery life in the cold winter months.
Fewer batteries in the landfills = cleaner environment for you and your kids

Lithium Batteries give you the longest battery life and will be the most reliable. If you are interested in the current draws of the cameras, read the Battery Consumption Test.

Putting it all Together

What we've covered in the First Time Trail Camera Buyers Guide so far is just the beginning. Game cameras are incredibly complex and each camera is unique in some way. Don't stress, let us walk you through the buying process.

Some of you have very specialized needs or concerns. Maybe you are looking for a cellular trail camera, a camera for cabin security, a wildlife camera, or some other variety.

5 reasons to Consider Subscription Model for Your Business

As Internet access becomes a more and more indispensible commodity, new ways of doing business have also emerged. As a society, we’ve experienced ecommerce boom and on-the-go shopping with mobile apps. As Internet usage grows, it’s logical to think that the focus of online businesses would be on increasing the volume of transactions proportional to the number of online shoppers. However, the exact opposite seems to be unfolding: innovative businesses are leaning more towards fewer transactions.



It seems counter-intuitive, yet it makes perfect sense. By abandoning the traditional retail model and shifting towards a subscription-based system, companies are reaping benefits that have not existed in the past. Pioneers such as Netflx, the Dollar Shave Club, Salesforce and Menguin have all captured large chunks of their markets en route to exponential valuation.

What is the Subscription Business Model?

The subscription model is hardly a new concept. At its core, the model is about having people commit to pre-buying products which will be released or accessed periodically. It makes sense to the buyer due to the elimination of hassles and the lower cost of subscription compared to the accumulation of single purchases. To the seller, the model works because of the certainty of multiple purchases over a period of time.

Do You Really Need a Big Office to Run Successful Business?

There’s often a great debate on whether or not you need a big office to run a successful business. Many people swear that you need to upgrade to a large office if you want to improve your chances of continued success. They say that big offices provide you with more space, helping you expand your workforce and provide better storage options for you too. Also, they argue that inviting clients to a big office will gain far more respect than inviting them down to a small one.

However, there are many arguments that show you don’t really need a big office to run a successful business. A lot of industry experts say that it depends on the type of business you’re running. In this article I will look at this age-old debate and see whether or not you really do need a big office to run a successful business.



First, let’s look at the argument that you need a big office because it provides you with extra space. In truth, this argument is pretty invalid as there are ways you can operate a large-scale operation from a small office. Below, you will see two ideas that can help you run a big business from a small office:

5 important Skills Your Sales Team Needs to Have to Grow Business

While every part of your business is a vital cog in the wheel, if you are a company that relies on the power of selling products to customers, you need to be sure that your sales team is the best they can be. These people are your first line of attack, and they need to be capable of fine attention to detail and be a dab hand in the skill of psychology. While this may sound like an overblown statement, the best sellers are people who know when to speak, to not speak, and to gauge the winds in any given situation. There are some basic skills that you need your team to possess, and here are some key ones.

Understand the Buyer

This is numero uno. The ability to identify the type of experience the buyer wants is a key to getting them to make a purchase. Every buyer has a set of expectations when they wish to make a purchase, the sales staff needs to exceed those expectations. So by going to the customer and getting a feel for buyer needs, and being sensitive to those needs, will have a positive impact on them. So many sales people use the “something in common” approach and will push this point home, as if this is the tool to closing the sale. It isn’t that at all.