Jon L. Jacobi

Born in southern California to a Marine Corps family, Jon had traveled through much of the U.S. by the time he was eight years-old. A twenty year residence in Stamford, CT with four years commuting to Juilliard in NYC, was followed by a move to San Francisco, where he still resides. His involvement with computers started with a family friend's punch card entry job, an IMSAI 8080, then every personal computer made by Atari, Commodore, Apple, and IBM. Since joining PCWorld's (then PC World) freelance writing team in 1995, his writings have been published too many times to count in that worthy journal, as well as CNET, Computer Currents, Forbes, Wired, and many others.

What is RAID 6? Good Speed, Good Protection

RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) is the combining of multiple disks to mimic a single hardware storage device. Depending on the type, or "level", RAID increases performance, capacity,...

TrueNAS vs. FreeNAS: What is the Difference?

Alas, dear reader, the title of this article is a bit misleading. There is no longer a NAS operating system named FreeNAS, nor one named simply TrueNAS. They exist...

What is Thin Provisioning? Use Only What You Need

No, we're not talking SlimFast here, or a forced hike on limited rations (don't ask). We're talking about yet another computer term that doesn't completely clue you in on...

Zyxel Armor G5 AX6000 (NBG7815) Wi-Fi Router Review: 802.11AX, 10/2.5Gbps Ethernet, Forced Cloud Setup

Zyxel's $349 Armor G5 AX6000 (NBG7815) had me happily anticipating a smoother, faster, Wi-Fi and Ethernet experience for my local network, which is currently mired a couple of generations...

Kingston DC500M Data Center SATA SSD Review: Up to 7.68TB of Reliable, Balanced Performance

Kingston's DC500M Data Center SATA SSD is exactly what I've come to expect from the company over the years--a good, stable performer with top-shelf, reliable components. For its intended...

Latest posts

Small business owner reviewing security checklist.

A Practical Guide to Small Business Network Security in 2025

This article provides a clear roadmap for implementing crucial cybersecurity measures to safeguard your company's digital assets.
What is BTRFS file system linux kernal

What is Btrfs? The Better (than most) File System

Btrfs may be a "better" file system next to everything except ZFS, but what Btr actually stands for is not "better", or "butter", but...
Mac floppy disks

A Brief History of the Floppy Disk

Ah, the floppy disk. How I miss thee. How I don't. There was a certain tactile pleasure to inserting you into your drive, and...
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How to Install ZFS and Create a ZFS Pool on Ubuntu

ZFS is a stable, robust, and fault-tolerant file system with built-in RAID-like properties and drive pools. We show you how to create a ZFS...
UnRAID array with parity and caching drives

What is UnRAID? Outstanding Capacity with Parity

There are a number of NAS operating systems out there, including several based on the BSD (Berkeley System Development) operating system. Most are proprietary...