Backing Up Your Hard Drive

Most people I know have at one point or another thought about losing all the data on their hard drive. It's not a pleasant thought and one that I had not had until a few months ago. I thought it would be nice of me to share some options with my readers so you know of all the ways you can back up your data. I thought about all the ways you could back things up and I came up with a list of a few of the most popular:

1. External Hard Drives: Easily the best bang for your buck. These are, as their name suggests, hard drives that are on the outside of your computer. Normally they would connect using a USB port (most computers have them) or a firewire. Doing some preliminary research, the most common sizes of external hard drives were between 300 and 500GB. For comparison, my laptop can only hold about 90-100GB, so if I bought a 500GB external hard drive I could back up all of my files (assuming my hard drive was full) 5 times. Desktop computers do have larger hard drives, but not too many will be over 500GB and even then, most users would not need more than that for files they want to save. The 320GB drives were between $150 and $160 at the places I looked online and the 500GB drives were between $200 and $260.
2. CD's or DVD's: These are also fairly cheap, but a single CD-R will only hold about 700MB (not even 1GB) worth of data and a DVD-R will hold between 4.7GB (single layer) and 8.5GB (dual layer). If you're only backing up a bit of information this might be for you as most CD-R's or DVD-R's can be bought in bulk for between $1 and $2 (and sometimes less). Keep in mind you would need a CD burner or a DVD burner respectively and many older computers may lack the DVD burner or both. Ask at a store if you are confused about what type of CD or DVD to buy.
   
3. Flash Drives: These are those little memory sticks that many university students now carry around instead of disks. They are typically used to transfer data from one computer to another or use as a way to work on a document on different computers (for example at home and at the computer lab at school). They are also a good option to backup data. There are many sizes (starting at 128KB and going up to about 8GB) and if you look carefully you can find some good deals. Generally you can find 2GB drives in the $40-50 range and the 8GB drives will be about $150. Note that there apparently is a way to use an iPod as a backup and that could be an option as well.
   
4. Online Backup: This is what I personally use, though some people may be wary of this as you don't really know where your data is being stored. The great advantage of this is that if your computer is stolen, there is no way they can steal your backed up files as well. A their could potentially take backed up CD's, DVD's flash drives or external hard drives and you would be out of luck. I did some research and found a few online backup sites:

• Data Deposit Box: Their site advertises a cheap rate of $2 per month per GB. That sounds low, but I worked it out. With my 20GB that are backed up, that translates into $480 a year. This sounds a bit excessive, especially when compared to the above methods.
• Mozy: Advertises 2GB of free backup. This could be useful if you only have a small amount of data to be backed up. Otherwise I would try something else.
• Carbonite: This is what I use. It was referred to me by BzzAgent, a company that lets me try out things in exchange for me talking about them – good or bad. I got a free trial and found it to be easy to use. It costs $50 (US, so about $60Canadian) a year and you have unlimited space. It does take a while to get your initial backup completed (mine took about 2 weeks), but after that, the program scans your hard drive for any new or changed files and it automatically updates your backup. The system is secure because it encrypts your data before it leaves your computer so it is safe on their servers. If you want to try it out, try the link above and if you put in the code “BZZ” you will get a free month to try it out. I was impressed enough to pay for the service after just a few weeks.

I hope this has been helpful to you. I know backing up your files can be a worrisome and terrifying experience. If anyone knows anything else they would like to add, please share and help out a friend! Remember, if you are going to buy hardware, check around in local computer shops where they will have more knowledgeable staff than at big box stores.

50 Actions You Can Do to Be Nice to the Environment

I started this list a while ago and thought it would be a good idea to share it with my readers. Some of the things are very simple while others require some work. Maybe I will inspire some readers to make some changes in their lives. Who knows? Here is my list (the last one is kind of lame as I was trying to make it a nice round number):

1. Compost Food Scraps

2. Plant a Tree

3. Turn off your lights when you're not using them

4. Take the bus instead of driving when possible

5. Walk, Run or Bike when possible

6. Turn off the tap when you're brushing your teeth

7. Pick up recyclables that people have thrown on the road and put them in a blue box (or bring them back for money)

8. Have shorter showers

9. Don't have so many hot showers

10. Don't have a shower unless you need to

11. Use soaps and cleaning materials that are biodegradable

12. Recycle paper, metal, glass and plastic

13. When buying a car, consider the mileage that it gets

14. Use energy efficient light bulbs

15. When possible, eat organic foods

16. When possible, eat local foods

17. Use leftover water from boiling/cooking food to water plants instead of pouring it down the drain

18. Put your computer on standby or hibernate when you're not using it

19. Unplug appliances such as televisons, stereos and dvd players when not in use (they still use electricity)

20. Put on warm clothes instead of turning the heat up

21. Open the window instead of turning on the A/C (for cars and houses)

22. Collect rain water to feed your plants or put in your toilet

23. Vote for leaders who have the environment in mind

24. Ask your energy provider if they have renewable sources of energy

25. Switch to renewable sources of energy

26. If your energy provider doesn't have renewable sources of energy, ask them why not?

27. Write to your government representatives in support of carbon taxes

28. Run for office and promote policies that show respect to the environment

29. Tell your friends and family members to do the things on this list

30. Talk to local children about this list

31. Grow your own food

32. Support businesses that try to make themselves sustainable

33. Don't drink bottled water

34. Buy clothes made from organic fabrics

35. Learn as much as you can about sustainability and share that information with others

36. Use better insulating windows to keep your house warmer

37. Invest in environmentally friendly companies

38. Don't use paper unless you need to

39. Eat less meat

40. Use reusable containers and bags if you have to bring a lunch

41. Switch to a low-flow shower head

42. Reuse plastic containers instead of buying tupperware.

43. Don't put apples, oranges, etc. into plastic bags when grocery shopping

44. Bring cloth bags when grocery shopping

45. If you have to use plastic bags, find ones that are biodegradable

46. Submit assignments electronically when possible

47. Scan things instead of photocopying them

48. Wash plastic food bags as well as zip lock and reuse them

49. When washing dishes, instead of using the tap to rinse every dish and spoon, fill up your second sink to rinse the dishes off.

50. Remember that we only have one earth. If we destroy it, there's no second chance.

I realize this is not quite a comprehensive list, therefore I'm asking all of my readers to add their own. There is a prize (some nice high quality chocolate - I'll come back and revise this post with specifics soon!) for the person who gives me the most unique ways to help the environment. The criteria is that it must be an activity that an individual is able to do, and the activity has to be reasonably easy and affordable to do. I'll evaluate them on a case by case basis.

All responses should be posted as comments to this post and your name MUST be included. The deadline for responses will be Tuesday April 10th at 11:59pm PST.

Good luck!

Problem of the Day: Part I

Being a teacher, I have several “Problem of the Day” lists and I thought I could do some sort of contest on my blog. This is how it will work. Each Tuesday I will post a question on the blog. Anyone who thinks they know the answer can guess what the answer is. The first person to get the right answer each week will get one point (or one point for each question asked). I will keep a running total within the blog (I may even post it on the sidebar if you're lucky) and at the end of a few months I will give a prize to whomever is leading. You will need to mention your name when posting your responses. Since this will be a long running contest, I will have to think of a good prize. I will work on that, but I wanted to get the contest started this week. So here is the first problem:

We start with patterns. The following letters and numbers represent a logical sequence. It is your job to figure out what that sequence is and to give me the next two letters. I am giving three problems this week, so three points are up for grabs.

1. o, t, t, f, f, s, ____, ____

2. j, f, m, a, m, j, ____, ____

3. 8, 5, 4, 9, 1, 7, ____, ____

Please explain how you came up with the answers or you won't get the points.

Good luck!

Raffi: Beyond Beluga

Most people my age or older will probably remember Raffi as the guy who brought us Baby Beluga and other great hits. Those who will be graduating with me in June will probably also remember Raffi as the guy who welcomed us to our program three years ago. But what most people do not know is that Raffi has found new ways to enrich this world since he first started singing for children.

His ideas now revolve around the idea of Child Honouring. According to his website,

Child Honouring is a “children first” approach to healing communities and restoring ecosystems; it views how we regard and treat our young as the key to building humane and sustainable world. (It’s not about a child-centered society where children rule, nor a facile notion of children being all things nice; and it has nothing to do with permissive parenting.) It is a global credo for maximizing joy and reducing suffering by respecting the goodness of every human being at the beginning of life, with benefits rippling in all directions.

Child Honouring has nine principles: Respectful Love, Diversity, Caring Community, Conscious Parenting, Emotional Intelligence, Non-Violence, Safe Environments, Sustainability and Ethical Commerce. They are fairly straightforward and most teachers probably buy into each of the principles already. Recently I took a class where we talked about these principles. We made projects that encorporated the ideas and some of them will likely find their way onto this page.

Raffi, along with co-editor Dr. Sharna Olfman, has put together an anthology which explains Child Honouring: Child Honouring: How to Turn This World Around. The book includes a forward by H.H. The Dalai Lama. The link contains a phone number to order the book, but here are links to find the book at the libaries (sorry, just the Victoria library, apparently Hamilton does not have it!):

• Greater Victoria Public Library
  

I have not yet read the book, but many of my friends have and I have heard nothing but good things about it (perhaps one of my friends would like to share their thoughts).

Songbird: A Media Player for the Future

This being Monday, it's time for another post relating to Music. I thought that instead of talking about a band (like I did last week), I would talk about a program that will help you enjoy your music better than any other program out there. The program I am talking about is called Songbird. What's that you ask? Well, it's currently in development and the available version of the program is not that great, though it does appear that it will be the Firefox of media players once the final full version is released (one day I'll do a long post explaining what Open Source Software is).

So what makes this media player so special? For starters it does the same things that iTunes and Windows Media Player do. The big change is that it is something of a web browser itself. The player comes complete with links to well known mp3 blogs and a feature to download the music right into your library without having to open a new window.

Like Firefox, Songbird supports add-ons and already has many written for the program already, including a way to use your ipod with the player. The player is currently going through the developmental stages, but you can download a simple version of the player to try it out. I have this version and it's not quite up to par with Winamp or Windows Media Player, but it promises to be quite a bit better than both.

So if the program isn't finished quite yet, why would I talk about it? So that all of my readers are on the cutting edge of course! If you want a more detailed explanation of the features of this media player, check out the video they made. I'm just waiting for some features to be updated in new versions (like a play count, and maybe even the non-crucial album art) before I make the switch.

Check it out and keep your ears open for it to be released in a better version. No doubt if you keep following this blog, I'll let you know when something big happens.