Check out these links I’ve found!
- Last.fm Goes Paid-Only for International Users, Kills Unofficial Mobile Apps [Streaming Music] – Bummer. Good thing I live in the US
- Boxee Adds Pandora, PBS, New API (and Fixes Hulu) [Downloads] –
- How Do I Setup a One-Way File Sync Backup? [Ask Lifehacker] –
- DoJ supports RIAA in Sony v. Tenenbaum three-ring circus –
- See, Nigerian Scammers CAN Be Friendly! –
- Locavore Lists the In-Season Food Near You [Downloads] –
- Interview: Meebo CEO on iPhone chat app, Push Notifications –
- Sentencing commission ponders extra jail time for proxy users – Another behavior vs. technology issue.
- Fugly Friday: The World’s Worst Website? –
- Web Developers: help rid the world of IE6 with a simple script –
- Start BitTorrent Downloads at Home from Any Computer with Dropbox [BitTorrent] –
- Safari hacked in a flash at Pwn2Own 2009, Firefox and IE8 follow – Ouch, that hurts a little doesn't it Apple?
- 85M Motor Yacht – Oh, I wish, I wish, I wish…
- Internet Explorer 8 Officially Released at Noon EST [Internet Explorer] –
- The Sun Also Sets? IBM Reportedly Looking to Buy Sun – Will IBM support open-source development? That's my biggest concern with an acquisition like this.
I’ve been contemplating how to explain data backups in a way that will communicate exactly how critical this subject really is. I have dealt with a number of computers recently that were not backed up and have suffered some form of a hard drive failure – partial or total failure. In almost every case these people have lost valuable data that they will never be able to retrieve. So listen up, take heed, and actually start backing up your computer.
First, a computer will NOT run forever; its components will begin to fail over time or with damage. A computer is composed of a vast array of extraordinarily small electronic circuits that work together to give you the computer that you use every day. One of the key components to a computer is the hard drive which physically stores your data. Depending on your type of hard drive it is either composed of a group of spinning discs or a solid medium that can be manipulated with electric impulses. Either way if this physical device becomes damaged in any way it can (and most likely will) cause a loss of data – whether that loss be partial or total depends on the extent of the damage. Damage to a hard drive can occur in a number of ways – dropping it, overheating it, freezing it, rapidly changing its temperature, an electrical spike, a power failure, or just normal wear and tear. All of these things contribute to the physical breakdown of a hard drive and eventual data loss. You should always be careful with your hard drive and do your very best to keep it from being damaged.
Second, your computer should never be trusted as the sole keeper of your data. As I stated before age or damage can cause data loss, but there is another more common way data is lost – deletion. No matter how savvy you may think you are or how careful you are to ensure you are deleting the correct files, everyone at some point makes a mistake. Whether you accidentally delete the wrong file or overwrite a file with another, data loss is inevitable. Therefore you must back up your files on a regular schedule that coincides with the usage of your files. Simply put, you should always back up your computer after making changes to your files.
Finally, data loss happens through theft or loss of the device. This is pretty simple to understand. Whether your computer is stolen, taken, or somehow misplaced your data is gone. The only recourse you have is a back up that you have created. If done properly your back ups should never be taken at the same time as your main computer.
Now that you understand just how easily it is to lose your data the next step is to back it up.
Check out these links I’ve found!
Check out these links I’ve found!
- Pillow Fight Leads To San Francisco Wanting Flash Mob Ban – Just another awesome event. I think they should flash mob the city councilmen and different times throughout the year. That would really piss 'em off!
- French anti-P2P law toughest in the world – Not good France! NOT GOOD!!! So much for the Open-Source ideals. You really can't do anything to make the world love you, can you?
- Google's new behavioral ads already raising privacy worries – I don't think it matters what my behaviors are, I'm still not going to click on adds.
- French police: we saved millions of euros by adopting Ubuntu – Way to go France! I like it.
- Creative Commons Add-In for Office Inserts Open Licenses Easily [Downloads] –
- Send Later for Thunderbird Adds Custom Quick-Delay Buttons [Downloads] –
- Songbird 1.1 Grabs Album Art in One Step, Runs Lighter and Faster [Downloads] –
- P2P judge smacks down "frivolous" motions from Harvard prof – I'm glad to see the judge is not taking sides. Let's hope for the best.
- Social Networking, Blogging Overtake E-mail as Chief Time Wasters –
- YouTube Pulls All Professional Music Videos In The U.K. – It's just getting worse.
- Norway's public broadcaster launches BitTorrent tracker – Rock on Norway, ROCK ON!!!!!
- Norway's public broadcaster launches BitTorrent tracker – Rock on Norway, ROCK ON!!!!!
- A week of Law & Disorder: talk like a pirate edition – Wow, at some point we're going to need to stop the legal battles and decide what we as a nation feel is right. I hope that means that Big Content doesn't get much of a say…
- Hulu kills Boxee support… again – Again, way to go Big Content. We only hate you more.
- Hulu kills Boxee support… again – What are they thinking?!?!?! Big Content continues to just piss off the customer. If it was any other market, we wouldn't put up with this crap.
- Give Up Texting For Lent, Archbishop Urges – It's an interesting plea. I definitely think balance is important, but I don't think the virtual world is that bad so long as you understand it is only possible because of real people.
- Security admin, botmaster sentenced to four years in prison – Ouch. Guess it doesn't pay to run a botnet.
- Blackout Ireland rallies support against P2P disconnections –
- MediaSentry weighed in the balance, found wanting –
- If you pirate a movie, do the terrorists win? –
Last.fm and Pandora are my two absolute favorite streaming music players. Pandora set the standard for streaming, near commercial free, music and Last.fm has brought a social networking aspect to the same service. As I develop my Internet presence, I have come to prefer Last.fm for its social networking services. I have linked my Lifestream to my profile to pull down my scrobbled tracks. It also allows others to see what songs and artists I have enjoyed. The one downside to Last.fm (and Pandora, for that matter) is the web browser controls. I hate having to leave a browser tab open to keep the music streaming and then when I want to change the station or skip a track, I have to navigate to that window and make the change. So I went hunting for a Last.fm client for my Mac and I stumbled across this article by Download Squad about Amua – a Mac Last.fm client. Of course I downloaded Amua immediately, entered by Last.fm credentials and started listening to music. So far I am very pleased with Amua; it hides in the menu bar nicely, the controls are simple to use, and I can quickly access it. The one major downside is it links to Last.fm via iTunes, which means you have to have iTunes open. Thus if you aren’t an iTunes user, or you like to keep it closed since it is a terrible resource hog, Amua probably isn’t for you. Check it out on the Amua Sourceforge page.
Check out these links I’ve found!
Mac OS X has built in screen shot capabilities, but those capabilities are very limited. I spent quite a bit of time testing different screen capture software and when I had finally had enough I found that Skitch was the easiest to use, most functional screen capture program out there. Skitch is currently in beta, but from what I have experienced it is an extremely stable beta. I have yet to have Skitch crash on me, nor has it ever given me any sort of error. I honestly like Skitch better than its competitors because of a couple very handy features which I use practically every day (all screen captures I display on this site have been taken with Skitch).
First, and absolutely most important, Skitch allows you to easily integrate your screen captures with any program – the goal of screen captures. At the bottom of the Skitch window there is a simple “Drag Me” button that allows you to drag your current screen capture into another program or in a folder instantly saving it. You can save in six different file formats .jpg, .png, .tif, .pdf, .svg, and .skitch and Skitch automatically keeps a history of your most recent screen captures. Second, you can quickly and easily doctor your screen captures inside the Skitch window with a variety of tools including arrows, shapes, text, and a pencil tool. It took me literally 20 or 30 seconds to create the screen captures below. Finally Skitch flawlessly integrates with OS X simply overriding the built in capabilities. Based upon user preferences the Skitch icon sits in the Dock, the menu bar, or both. When you minimize Skitch it disappears into the menu bar and will reappear when clicked on. Hotkeys make quick screen captures quick and easy.
One last note about Skitch is the social network that is being built to function with the program. To download Skitch you must join the Skitch network which is a place to host your screen captures for sharing with friends or simply for access later via the web. So far I have not found any real use for the Skitch network, probably because I have so many other places I can save images. However, the idea is an interesting one, and I am intrigued to see if there will be much user support of the Skitch social network.
If you are interested in Skitch, take a look at a couple screen shots below and visit their site.
Check out these links I’ve found!
While I’m on the subject of customizing the OS X desktop environment there is another nifty little piece of software that can do great things for you. Tinker tool is simply a graphical user interface (GUI) that allows access to a wide variety of neat customizations not available through the standard OS X GUI. Tinker Tool is completely safe because it does not modify the OS in any way. It simply accesses the the apple .plist files (preference files) and modifies the defaults. The functionality is already built in, Apple just has not made it available to the general user. The same functionality that is made available through Tinker Tool is also accessible using .plist changes from the Terminal – very doable, but if there is a GUI why mess around?
I’ve used Tinker Tool for quite some time now and have found a few customizations that I really hate to function without. My favorite customization by far is in Finder and causes the selected items path to be displayed in the title bar of the Finder window. Another great customization deals with sheets – the dialogues that pop up when you click print or save. Tinker Tool allows you to prefer expanded save sheets and expanded print sheets, which saves me the extra click needed to expand the sheet so I can save to the location of my choice. A couple of changes that make Leopard slightly less annoying are the ability to remove the “always in foreground” preference that is default with the Help dialogue box and the ability to keep Time Machine from always asking if you want to use a newly connected drive for backups. One last change that I make is adding the Develop menu to the menu bar in Safari (the Develop menu is where you find the console for debugging in Safari – a must for web development).
If you like the sounds of it, Tinker Tool is available from Marcel Bresink’s site.
I’m always trying to find ways to customize my Mac so it and I can work efficiently together. I use Exposé and Spaces to spread tasks out across three desktops, but one application I try to avoid at all costs is the Finder. It adds windows to my workspace that I then must either work around or close. I usually opt to close them and less than a minute later have to open another one to pull out another file. Don’t get me wrong, I much prefer Finder of Windows Explorer, but my goal is to get away from launching new windows when accessing my most used files and folders. Stacks has helped greatly in making those files and folders readily accessible by placing them in my Dock, however I still feel that there must be a better solution available.
The latest piece of software that I have been testing to see if it will integrate well and solve this issue is called MaxMenus. This handy little piece of software creates colored activation points in each of the four corners of the screen. When clicked, these colored corners display a menu that contains the content you specify in the MaxMenus preferences (located in System Preferences). At first I was a little hesitant because the corners of the screen are Exposé’s activation point. Exposé allows me to view and select from all my open windows or my desktop by simply pushing the mouse to the corner of the screen (Exposé offers more customization, those are simply the two functions I use all the time). I can then access anything on my desktop or select the open window that I want to work in next. So, as I said I was hesitant of using a program that might encroach on Exposé. But after some use and much customization, I’ve found that MaxMenus allows me to have quick access to the files and folders I use most with minimal interaction with Exposé. I now have the upper and lower right corners of my screen dedicated to Exposé and the upper and lower left corners of my screen dedicated to MaxMenus (the activation points still show in all four corners, but that I simply ignore them). The one downside to MaxMenus is the inability to move files and folders around within the views – that functionality is still relegated to the Finder. Ah well, can’t have everything I suppose.
Take a look at a few screenshots which show MaxMenus in action. If you like the looks of MaxMenus there is a free download on Version Tracker.
MaxMenus Preferences Pane
MaxMenus Activation Point
Recent Documents in upper left corner
You can set folders to be in expanded view (like “JS” above)
Tim Seymour lives in Washington, DC. He works as a Systems Administrator for 
