Category: Illinois

Backup, backup, backup

I’m somewhat of a geek as you all know. I like networking, security, the interwebs, and generally all things geeky. One thing I find annoying (mostly because it isn’t fun), is backup.

No, not sleeping on your stomach – making copies of your files on a different hard drive, DVD, or even CD so that if your main computer or workstation dies in some way, you can recover in a relatively easy manner.

There are many, many ways to backup your files. There are even many different levels of backup. You could just backup your Quicken files, or your whole operating system. The level you choose is up to you, but don’t ever lose data just because you failed to prepare. Storage is cheap. Backup is easy. Don’t lose out.

A story – Some friends of mine own a local printing shop. I had chit-chatted a lot with them, and suggested that they backup their files (art, billing, etc.). In the end, they had not started backing up files a couple of months later, and then their main drive died. No warning, just a tiny puff of smoke and no working drive. About $2,000 later, they had all of their files back from a company that specializes in data recovery.

The moral of the story is… back up your files before it’s too late.

As a general public service, I’m going to provide a few different ideas and solutions. Take them for what you will, and use what you can. Email or comment with questions and concerns.

Continue reading »

Electronics? I’ll take those. – KTHX, DHS

This writing was prompted by a short bit from the Washington Post.

Isn’t there this thing called the 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution?

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

These acts by the Department of Homeland in-Security are blatant violations of the 4th Amendment.

For those of you unaware, if they take your iPod for example, and you cannot prove right then and there you legally own the albums the mp3s were ripped from or bought them from iTunes, you could be arrested for copyright infringement.

If they take your laptop away (they supposedly can), how do you know what they take off of your private effects? How do you know what they might plant?

Yes I know, all people are honest and wouldn’t do something bad like plant things. I’m just a conspiracy nut.

Also, “Just what do you have to hide?” To be honest, any damn thing I want. Everything from that hot night in STL (fictional) with my wife to the other one with me in a Speedo (ew).

I don’t commit crimes, unless you want to use the Patriot Act to accuse me of speaking out about how illegal it is according to the constitution. However, I am watching our liberties melt away, and the Prozac nation keeps letting it happen.

Thankfully, there are tools like Truecrypt that will allow you to encrypt files, operating systems, and even to have hidden operating systems that are un-detectable within a ‘dummy’ operating system.

Go check them out: www.truecrypt.org

There’s a great how-to here: http://cnettv.cnet.com/9742-1_53-50003244.html

We still need to fight the government’s tyranny, however this free product provides some great interim solutions.

Movies – To see or not to see

Last week I went to see the Dark Knight movie at a midnight showing. (horrible experience at Kerasotes that they vaguely apologized for) This week sees the new Will Ferrell movie, Hellboy, and X-Files waiting to tap my entertainment budget.

I have to say that I’m not in favor of any except Hellboy 2. Yes, Will’s movie will be entertaining and the X-Files is interesting from a nostalgic point. Other than those reasons I don’t see any need to go fork over my dollars to a facility that screwed up the Dark Knight premiere.

H2 looks to have campy humor, big villains, and the main character is a total smart-ass. Sounds like some solid entertainment. Will always puts out funny material (okay, except Kicking and Screaming), but there is nothing there to warrant the expense of seeing it on the big screen. X-Files sounds nice if you want to remember the 90’s, but it hasn’t shown me anything worth more than a rental at the video store.

Emily wants to go retro and see X-Files, so maybe I’ll get drug to that. Otherwise, is there really anything worth going to see? Not in my opinion.

Guitar Hero this Saturday at the Granada

Just a little reminder that the Jaycees will be hosting a Guitar Hero tournament Saturday, July 26th, 2008 at the Granada Center in Mount Vernon, Illinois.

Last time (our first attempt), we had over 70 participants at final count and many observers. We are limiting the tournament to 128 contestants across the 4 categories (Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert)

If you like rock music, the Granada, or Guitar Hero you should come out and see the fun. Heck, maybe you’ll even decide that you need to participate!

Come out and have a good time while supporting your community.

Jaycees Website

Taxes from every angle…

Have you ever sat down and thought about how many taxes you pay?

Think about it: property taxes, income taxes, sales taxes, gas taxes, bed (hotel) taxes, and on and on and on…

How do we survive? I mean, all levels of government keep taxing us from before we get paid, to yearly taxes on our homes, to taxes on our gas to get to our jobs, to sales tax on everything. I just keep thinking about how much money is given to the government by an average person and I am amazed.

Have you ever figured up the amount you pay yearly? It’s astounding. I did a guesstimate of what the government takes from us over the course of a year, and I was shocked. I won’t share the amount here for personal reasons, but we wound up at about 25%.

Can you belive I work 10 hours per week so our government can exist? So they can spy on me. So people can starve on the streets daily. So our borders can be wide open. So they can criminalize everything and keep Haliburton building prisons. So the prison-guard unions can keep influencing to make more laws to keep those prisons full. So we can invade other countries that have been at war for thousands of years and think we can solve it.

I’ll stop now before I really get upset.