Mozy.com offers free off-site backups for your crucial data

Jun29

Mozy.com offers free off-site backups for your crucial data

After a really catastrophic and expensive experience when my old laptop recently died on me and I was stuck sans-pc in the middle of two big projects for a week and a half, I'm now deadly serious about making daily backups. A hard-drive crash, complete system fail or theft is inevitable, guaranteed, and ask anyone else who has experienced this, it WILL happen at the worst possible moment. So be prepared. Don't be a nincompoop like I was.

I recently purchased the MAXTOR OneTouch II which quietly does scheduled daily backups for me. It can be customized to backup all the computers on your network, making either duplicate copies of all your files, or offering a comprehensive backup where you can restore your files from various restore points.

But what about hardware theft or fire? Making off-site backups is more time-consuming but probably even more important.

Mozy.com offers 2GB of free space with automatic encrypted backups to their server. For just under $5 a month you get 30GB. Mozy has received praise from bloggers all over the world, and was PC Magazines Editor's Choice just a few months ago.

"How safe are my files?" you may ask... When you use Mozy, your files are encrypted on your PC using 448-bit Blowfish encryption and then transferred to the Mozy servers using 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption. You have the option of using a Mozy key, or your own private key to encrypt your data.

I'm signing up for my free account today.

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Jun29

Google Desktop Gadget Contest!

"The contest runs until July 31st, 2006 and, while supplies last, each developer who submits an approved gadget will receive a limited edition Google Desktop Developer T-shirt and have their gadget shown to millions of Google Desktop users around the world. A panel of judges will also award three prizes based on popularity, visual appeal, use of new features and creativity. We'll award $5,000 to the first place winner, $2,000 for second place, and $1,000 for third place."

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Jun29

Google Checkout launches today

Today Google launched its buying service, Google Checkout (known previously by Google-watchers as GBuy).

Check out Google! News.com: It is going to make purchasing easier for Web users. You'll just enter your credit card billing and address information once, and then on any commerce site you go that's Checkout-enabled, you won't have to enter your data again.

This is not much of a competitor to eBay's PayPal, as some have predicted. Checkout is designed for serious merchants more than for individuals unloading old Star Trek snow globes on eBay. To be sure, the few merchants that are considering adding PayPal as a payment option (and that don't already have it), might divert their energies to signing up for Checkout, however there's no reason a commerce site couldn't offer both PayPal and Checkout if it desired. (more...)

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Jun28

Tony Blair – my favourite bus driver

Today I was treated to a bus ride home by a guy who I could swear is Tony Blair if I didn't know any better. He looked identical. He had a huge big cheesy but genuine smile the whole time and sparkly eyes. As I approached the bus door to get off I noticed a metal pail hanging over the railings near his seat, poking right in the direction of passengers as they would board. I was thinking this is a novel new way to get tips from passengers and as I was passing him on the way out I thought I might give him a tip just for looking like Tony Blair. But then I glanced inside the pail and it was filled with lollypops and assorted colourful candy! Clearly he had bought these from his own pocket just for us.

What a great bus driver!

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Jun28

Regarding expensive old churches

On the bus ride today I was really enjoying the views of my Shadyside neighbourhood. So many huge gothic mansions, wide Victorian houses covered in ivy and those cute wooden bungalows with the traditional American swing chairs on their porches. These were interspersed between abandoned buildings and garbage ridden parking lots, where Im hoping someone will redevelop some time. Some of the oldest and most beautiful buildings I saw on the journey were huge majestic Anglican churches. They were all so well cared for, most had a small, pretty garden, or hanging flower baskets and well trimmed hedges. The one on our corner has the most luxurious velvety green lawn. I always wonder how they manage to make it look so 'Photoshopped'. It never has a bad hair day.

So anyway, the other day a friend of mine commented on how she would like to join a church in the area but she doesnt agree with how they spend so much money, so visibly, on their buildings. (more...)

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Jun23

Tristan Davidism of the day

Tristan: When Star Trek 5.0 comes out, guess what it's going to be like!
Olivia: Better than Star Trek 2.0?
Tristan: Much better than 2.0! Its gonna be better than any O!

Tchort watching Star Trek
Darth Tristan watches over Star Trek

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Jun23

New BitTorrent Client Works with ISPs for Faster Downloads

blog.wired.com:
Although ISPs are quite excited about all the broadband upgrades that have been made in recent years, P2P file sharing continues to drag on their bottom line. Why should that matter to you? Because they're taking measures to slow down P2P traffic, which can translate to slower download times once they figure out that you're uploading twenty copies of Ernest Goes to Camp every day.

BitTorrent released a new version of the BitTorrent client which attempts to alleviate the bandwidth problem for both ISPs and BitTorrent users, by including a protocol that will help ISPs cache BitTorrent traffic transparently. In other words, the file you think you're downloading from another user could start coming from your ISP's cache of popularly-traded files instead. This teamwork is evidently legal, due to current laws on network caching which allow for temporary copy of any file to be cached by an ISP without having to pay the copyright owner for that copy.

Download BitTorrent 4.20

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Jun22

Groovy!

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Jun22

Help spread the word

From the INBOX:
"Go to this link and order your free bracelet (free as in costs you absolutely nothing!). For every one that is ordered, Merck Pharmaceuticals donates $1 for cervical cancer research. It only takes a minute and is legit.

It would be great to get Merck to donate the "up to $100,000" they have agreed to!"
~ Cait

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Jun20

limn is just so tasty

www.onalimn.com/blog/

This is one of those blogs you could easily want to visit every day. limn has grown hugely in character and in quality articles in the few months its been around. I find it hard to imagine how much better it could possibly get over the next year.

Thanks lady limn for introducing me to the phat jams of goldfish.

My two favourite articles of the week are:
Nectar - how drinking coffee may shield the liver from the worst ravages of alcohol and Why I smoke.

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