Published at July 7, 2006
in general.
As I amount more and more digital information my thoughts have often turned to, “When I have a hard drive crash what data can I live with losing?” Taking an inventory my computer does not contain all that much ‘critical’ information — but what it does have I do not want lost. This amounts to (in descending order): photos I’ve taken, movies I’ve created, music I’ve collected and documents I’ve written. The photos have been looked after in a round-a-bout way as I use flickr to share my images with the world, and through flickr I have the ability to ‘download’ them if I ever need them (the catch being I would have to do it in 2gb chunks, as that is the monthly bandwidth limit). My documents are rather small and have been backed-up to DVD, but I do not do this as regularly as I should. This leaves the large footprint files: music and movies. At close to 50gb there is no easy solution for backup around the home, and even if I did manage to squeeze the data onto 10 DVD’s, the data is still not safe from flood, fire, theft, or any other earthly occurrence. So what are my options?
Today I read about two new services that seem to offer legitimate offsite back-up services via the internet for a reasonable price. Mozy (still in beta) offers 2gb free, and 60gb for $110 per year. That seems like a reasonable amount to safe-guard my data. Carbonite is $5 per month for unlimited storage. Both options seem interesting, and with simple user interfaces, and one click back-up, they make life a lot easier then trying to use gmail or box.net as back-up solutions. This data may still not be entirely safe from ‘acts of God’ but at least it’s safe from my ageing hardware.
What are other people doing to safeguard their data from computer failures, accidental deletion and other catastrophic events?
Published at July 7, 2006
in asides.
A more in-depth take on the TurnHere website from a advertising angle. Get local filmmakers to shoot ‘commercials’ about stores in an area and stylize them as ‘documentaries’. Seems okay to me.
Published at July 6, 2006
in asides.
eBay bans Google Checkout. Did anyone not see this coming? Don’t fear though, you can still cash in your Canadian Tire money for that new/used item you didn’t know you needed.
Published at July 6, 2006
in asides.
Some Canadians would bet mortgage in poker hand. A new study published by a gaming site in Canada has found that plenty of people would gamble with their debts if they could. 45% said they’d try to go double-or-nothing on their credit card bills, while 18% of people said they’d do the same on their mortgage. [via Techdirt]
Back in February I attended The Trews concert at the Opera House in Toronto. As mentioned they were filming the show for what may be a DVD (hopefully) but currently is available on MSN videos. If anyone knows a way to play these files in media player (not in the web window) on with XBMC please share. It’s a great show, so check it out.
Published at July 5, 2006
in asides.
Oh my gosh, it’s a flying boat. The hydroflyer is a boat and a plane that will also work on the road or grass. Watch the video at their website.
Published at July 4, 2006
in asides.
Ads of the World is an interesting site that compiles the best (mostly) print ads from around the world. There are some fantastic examples of thoughtful advertising on this site.
Published at July 4, 2006
in asides.
An interesting phone-app called SCANBUY Shopper allows you to type in a products barcode number while standing in a store to see what it might cost on the internet. It will also show you reviews of the product. I find this to be the best feature becuase I love to compare based on reviews. Think you’re getting taken? Now you can know for sure.
I’ve searched now and again for a method to stream my mp3 collection over the internet, so that I can access it from other locations. The most common situation for this product occurs while visiting a friend and a need washes over me to share this crazy new song that will blow them away. The best solution I had found previously was orb, but is solution required the use of media player and did not support playlists well.Today I ran across Vibe Streamer a simple to use and highly functional web-based mp3 streaming solution. It is dead simple to set-up and low on resource usage. It lets one set-up playlists, and it streams inside the browser via flash with a top-notch design.
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