Saturday, February 06, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
The Best Off-Site Backup Solution
I did some research on backup solutions recently, so I thought I would share some of what I learned.
I already had some processes in place for backing up my files locally. Of those, I think Norton Ghost is the best, and PC Backup is lousy. Of the free solutions, GBridge is interesting.
But with all my backup data in the same house as my primary data, I was worried about losing everything in case of a fire, power surge, or some other catastrophe. So I checked out some options for off-site backup. I found a number of options that look like decent solutions. But I ended up signing up for one called IDrive.
I have 100 Gigs or so of data that I wanted to back up. It's all on a local network drive that I share among various local computers. IDrive will let you back up and store up to 150 gigs of data for only $5 a month! It's supposed to be $5 for one computer, but they support network drives, so you can put all the important data from all of your local computers on a network drive or drives, and then you can run the backup from one computer that has access to the network drives, and that way you'll back up everything important from all the local computers.
$5 a month was a lot cheaper than most of the other ones I looked at, and it seemed like a no brainer, although I've since read that Mozy will provide unlimited backup for $5 a month, which seems crazy. I don't know if they allow for backing up of network drives or not. I've also noticed a few other comparable options in that same price range, so I guess IDrive wasn't quite as far ahead of the pack as I initially thought.
But for now I'm definitely sticking with it since I've already got my data uploaded. It took me over a week to upload 100 gigs of data. It was not entirely painless. I was running the uploading application on an old computer with 384 Megs of RAM, and the application kept freezing. I upgraded to 1 gig of RAM, and now it works much better. After getting all the data uploaded initially, I now have it set to update new or modified files once a day. You can also set it to back up continuously, but I haven't tried that out yet.
Accessing the backed up data on idrive.com is straightforward, although it takes a couple of minutes to load (at least for my account with 100 gigs in it). But once it's loaded everything is pretty snappy. The files are displayed in an intuitive hierarchical manner like Windows Explorer, and you can save or open them by clicking on the file name.
The one thing I haven't tried is doing a full Restore. Hopefully I'll never have to.
UPDATE: Since posting this, I heard from a reliable source that "Live Drive is the best". Looking at the livedrive website, it does look like they have a pretty unbelievable deal: $7 a month for unlimited data, AND I think they're indicating unlimited computers! (I'm not for sure on that.) I haven't tried it out but it looks pretty sweet.
I already had some processes in place for backing up my files locally. Of those, I think Norton Ghost is the best, and PC Backup is lousy. Of the free solutions, GBridge is interesting.
But with all my backup data in the same house as my primary data, I was worried about losing everything in case of a fire, power surge, or some other catastrophe. So I checked out some options for off-site backup. I found a number of options that look like decent solutions. But I ended up signing up for one called IDrive.
I have 100 Gigs or so of data that I wanted to back up. It's all on a local network drive that I share among various local computers. IDrive will let you back up and store up to 150 gigs of data for only $5 a month! It's supposed to be $5 for one computer, but they support network drives, so you can put all the important data from all of your local computers on a network drive or drives, and then you can run the backup from one computer that has access to the network drives, and that way you'll back up everything important from all the local computers.
$5 a month was a lot cheaper than most of the other ones I looked at, and it seemed like a no brainer, although I've since read that Mozy will provide unlimited backup for $5 a month, which seems crazy. I don't know if they allow for backing up of network drives or not. I've also noticed a few other comparable options in that same price range, so I guess IDrive wasn't quite as far ahead of the pack as I initially thought.
But for now I'm definitely sticking with it since I've already got my data uploaded. It took me over a week to upload 100 gigs of data. It was not entirely painless. I was running the uploading application on an old computer with 384 Megs of RAM, and the application kept freezing. I upgraded to 1 gig of RAM, and now it works much better. After getting all the data uploaded initially, I now have it set to update new or modified files once a day. You can also set it to back up continuously, but I haven't tried that out yet.
Accessing the backed up data on idrive.com is straightforward, although it takes a couple of minutes to load (at least for my account with 100 gigs in it). But once it's loaded everything is pretty snappy. The files are displayed in an intuitive hierarchical manner like Windows Explorer, and you can save or open them by clicking on the file name.
The one thing I haven't tried is doing a full Restore. Hopefully I'll never have to.
UPDATE: Since posting this, I heard from a reliable source that "Live Drive is the best". Looking at the livedrive website, it does look like they have a pretty unbelievable deal: $7 a month for unlimited data, AND I think they're indicating unlimited computers! (I'm not for sure on that.) I haven't tried it out but it looks pretty sweet.
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Why Won't Firefox Remember My Username?
I was about to get a little bit miffed, but I finally figured out why firefox wouldn't remember (auto-complete) my username on a couple of sites that I use constantly. Turns out that if you have more than one username saved for a given site, then firefox doesn't know which one to fill in, so it doesn't fill in anything. That doesn't explain why it wouldn't do the normal auto-complete (after I typed a few letters of the username I wanted and then hit the down arrow), but it's good enough that I can stop gnashing my teeth for the moment. To get rid of the unwanted usernames, go to Tools -> Options -> Security -> Saved Passwords, and then find the username you don't want and delete it.
PS... Boise State is the national champ! Not only do I not recognize the BCS "champion", but I disqualify them from consideration for taking part in that tainted monopolistic nonsense! On another note, I can't believe Colt McCoy got knocked out and cost me my College Bowl Mania championship!
PS... Boise State is the national champ! Not only do I not recognize the BCS "champion", but I disqualify them from consideration for taking part in that tainted monopolistic nonsense! On another note, I can't believe Colt McCoy got knocked out and cost me my College Bowl Mania championship!
Friday, December 25, 2009
A PLAN for replacing the BCS
When I recently wrote about BCS-Gate, I was really just venting my anger at the ridiculous monopolist weasels that run the BCS, rather than providing solutions. But Dan Wetzel over at Yahoo Sports has done a little better, not only presenting a plan for a college football playoff system (which has been done before), but also providing great answers to many of the bogus BCS arguments against a playoff system. Hopefully this will get us one step closer to the demise of the ridiculous farce known as the BCS.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Project Implicit Results
I took Harvard's Project Implicit test, which is supposed to measure your religious biases, and the results are below. Interestingly, the results are what I might have guessed beforehand, but after taking the test I would have been pretty sure that I did not betray any bias towards anything. So I guess that means the test was able to burrow into my subconscious and get at my true feelings. Or maybe it just assumed that's what I would think as a WASM ("White Anglo Saxon Mormon").
Click on the image to see a larger version:
Click on the image to see a larger version:
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Under Armour Review
I've been meaning to buy some Under Armour for a while, and I finally got around to it last week. I checked it out at the mall first, and thought "Ouch, $65 for an under shirt!" Then I looked online, and really didn't find anything too much cheaper. I ended up getting this long sleeve shirt on ebay for $49 including shipping.
What's so great about Under Armour? It's supposed to be "sweat-shedding performance apparel" that will "wick" perspiration away from the skin to an outer layer where it will evaporate.
The reason I wanted to try Under Armour is for playing ultimate in the cold. Usually when it's cold out I wear a cotton T-shirt and a sweat shirt over that. It keeps me warm, but then I get sweaty, and then the sweat gets cold, and then I don't want to move because movement causes the cold sweaty shirt to come into contact with my back. Cold. Sweaty. Uncomfortable. I hope that was a graphic enough description for you. Anyway, it's a little hard to play ultimate without moving, so I wanted to see if Under Armour would solve all my cold sweatiness problems.
When I was at the mall looking at expensive Under Armour I also bought a Reebok T-shirt labeled "Play Dry". It looked like something similar to Under Armour and it only cost $10 so I figured why not give it a try. It was made out of 100% polyester, but it felt kind of like cotton, which was interesting. But the "Play Dry" should have been "Play Dry as long as you don't sweat at all". That thing absorbed sweat worse than a cotton T-shirt. No wicking. Completely useless. But it only cost $10 so oh well, add it to the collection.
Anyway, back to the Under Armour. I just got it in the mail a few days ago, and tonight was the first night it was cold enough to try it out. 50 degrees. Yes that's cold here in Phoenix. I was kind of excited to try it out. We played for about an hour and fifteen minutes, so enough time to be a good test, and the Under Armour definitely came through! It didn't magically "wick" ALL the sweat away, it still got damp, but somehow it never got cold damp. I'm not really certain if it worked because it was wicking sweat away. It may have helped that it fit a little more snugly than most of my T-shirts. But anyway, it worked, I'm sold.
The Under Armour is made of 95% polyester and 5% elastane, aka spandex. So I guess the magic is in the elastane. Or possibly the way the fabric is put together, who knows. I don't know why it works, and I don't really understand their weird commercials, but I do recommend the Under Armour product.
What's so great about Under Armour? It's supposed to be "sweat-shedding performance apparel" that will "wick" perspiration away from the skin to an outer layer where it will evaporate.
The reason I wanted to try Under Armour is for playing ultimate in the cold. Usually when it's cold out I wear a cotton T-shirt and a sweat shirt over that. It keeps me warm, but then I get sweaty, and then the sweat gets cold, and then I don't want to move because movement causes the cold sweaty shirt to come into contact with my back. Cold. Sweaty. Uncomfortable. I hope that was a graphic enough description for you. Anyway, it's a little hard to play ultimate without moving, so I wanted to see if Under Armour would solve all my cold sweatiness problems.
When I was at the mall looking at expensive Under Armour I also bought a Reebok T-shirt labeled "Play Dry". It looked like something similar to Under Armour and it only cost $10 so I figured why not give it a try. It was made out of 100% polyester, but it felt kind of like cotton, which was interesting. But the "Play Dry" should have been "Play Dry as long as you don't sweat at all". That thing absorbed sweat worse than a cotton T-shirt. No wicking. Completely useless. But it only cost $10 so oh well, add it to the collection.
Anyway, back to the Under Armour. I just got it in the mail a few days ago, and tonight was the first night it was cold enough to try it out. 50 degrees. Yes that's cold here in Phoenix. I was kind of excited to try it out. We played for about an hour and fifteen minutes, so enough time to be a good test, and the Under Armour definitely came through! It didn't magically "wick" ALL the sweat away, it still got damp, but somehow it never got cold damp. I'm not really certain if it worked because it was wicking sweat away. It may have helped that it fit a little more snugly than most of my T-shirts. But anyway, it worked, I'm sold.
The Under Armour is made of 95% polyester and 5% elastane, aka spandex. So I guess the magic is in the elastane. Or possibly the way the fabric is put together, who knows. I don't know why it works, and I don't really understand their weird commercials, but I do recommend the Under Armour product.
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