As I have mentioned previously one of my great passions in life is films. In fact, whenever my wife and I get the chance we love to visit the cinema. However, with a young child sometimes the choice of movies can be restrictive. One of my favourite modern day films is the 2004 classic ‘Sideways’, which is essentially the story of two friends bonding through fine wine tasting journey of all things. Even though the protagonists have many unresolved personal issues the back drop of the Napa Valley is absolutely spectacular. Certainly it paints a beautiful picture of the Californian lifestyle and why people choose to reside there. It also explains why innovators like Apple, Facebook and Google have established their headquarters here.
A few months ago I was fortunate enough to speak to Greg Brewer ,the owner of a progressive company called Prosoft Engineering . Essentially their core business is data recovery and supporting software. However, they have diversified and recently developed some pretty cool hardware. In particular, I am talking about a wonderful new hard drive with 1TB of storage appropriately called the BlackOps.
The BlackOps was developed in collaboration with innovative designer Mathew Kim, who founded DarwinMachine. Even though there are many high quality hard drives currently on the market there is nothing quite like this. For instance, this device has the strongest chassis currently available on the market and is constructed from aircraft grade 6061 aluminum. Even the hardware beneath has been manufactured from reinforced heat resistant steel. Interestingly Prosoft Engineering did many durability tests (mainly for shock resistance), which involved dropping the product from a 2 story building and driving over it.
Aesthetically the BlackOps (in my opinion) is the best looking hard drive on the market. The design of the product draws inspiration from fighter jets and Formula 1 cars. It ties in perfectly with the projects Mathew Kim has developed for DarwinMachine. Ultimately his primary objective is to effortlessly combine art with cutting edge engineering. This isn’t a mass produced electronic device made in China but a meticulously handcrafted exclusive hard drive manufactured in California. That is why the appearance of this architectural (almost sculptural) data storage unit won’t date as quickly as other hard drives.
