|
Redo Backup makes it super easy to backup and restore your computer. Many backup programs are filled with complicated bells and whistles that make the process confusing and intimidating to new users. That’s a shame since these are the users who are often most in need of having their stuff backed up. That’s why I’m always looking for simple backup programs to recommend. Plus it comes in handy as a rescue tool since it can be used as a Live Linux based boot cd with a built in web browser. (Works with Windows or Linux).
Redo Backup has the most features coupled with the simplest, most user-friendly interface:
- Easy graphical user interface boots in less than a minute
- No installation needed; runs from a CD-ROM or a USB stick
- Saves and restores Windows and Linux machines
- Automatically finds local network shares
- Access your files even if you can’t log in
- Recover deleted pictures, documents, and other files
- Internet access with Firefox to download drivers
- Download size is less than 75MB
I have dreadful fears of the dentist, so whenever I read about new tooth technology that potentially eliminates the dentist drill I get a bit of a smile on my face. The latest future innovation that is currently working in mice was just documented in Popsci.
It is (drum roll please) a hormone gel that when applied to a tooth with a cavity causes the body to heal the rift in about a month. That’s not the end of it either, if applied deeper to damaged roots, it also heals those eliminating the need to have a root canal. Yay, team scientist, raise the roof!
Sometimes when you buy a computer with Windows pre-installed you just don’t receive all the disks you need for an emergency recovery if Windows just can’t find some of the files it needs to run. NeoSmart is offering a free download which can be burned to disk and used to rescue you in just this kind of bind if your Windows 7 goes kaputt.
I don’t know if it will work with Windows 7, but Western Digital is currently offering its Acronis True Image drive cloning tool as a free download. This looks like excellent software with many of the features you would want for backing up your files and OS before a migration or for a quick restore after a drive failure. From the Western Digital site:
Key Features of Acronis True Image WD Edition Software:
- Drive Cloning – Copies the source drive to a new WD drive, leaving all data on the source drive.
- Drive Migration – Erase the source drive after the new WD drive has been imaged.
- Drive Deployment – Enables users to prepare a WD drive so that selected folders or partitions can be excluded from the destination image.
- Drive Image Backup – The long-term usage of the Drive Kit software will be to provide full drive image backups of a source drive at any time. Backup drive images will be stored as a file, which can be copied to any direct attached drive, network attached storage drive or optical media (CD/DVD).
- Drive Image Recovery – The Recovery Manager enables users to restore a drive image from a direct or network attached drive. The Recovery Manager can also either erase just a portion of the drive to be used for the restored drive image, or all of the previous OS.
- Create a Bootable Standalone Recovery Manager – With the Drive Kit software, users can create a bootable ISO image file, which contains the WD Drive Kit Standalone Recovery Manager software.
- Recover a Drive Image from the Bootable Recovery Manager Software – The bootable Standalone Recovery Manager enables users to recover a drive image from either a CD/DVD drive, a direct attached drive, or a network attached drive.
Mathway is a simple website that just would have saved me in high school. Just enter your math problem, tell mathway what kind of math you are doing and poof it solves the problem. If you sign up for a free account, they will even email you the step by step details on how the problem is solved. I’ve been thinking about brushing up on my outdated and under used math skills and this might be a good tool to keep in mind to help me along.
It is not unusual for friends to ask me for help when they are tossing out an older computer and don’t want to leave their data out there for some identity thief to pick up. These friends are smart enough to know better. Most people don’t. If you pick up a used computer or used hard drive off of Craigs list or ebay, more often than not the old user’s information is still there. Maybe they through the real incriminating stuff in the trash first, but this is often easily recoverable to anyone with a little know how. If you want to protect your information you need to remove it with something like DBAN, Darik’s Boot and Nuke. This free, simple software gives you several options, all of which will leave you comfortable that your data will not return to haunt you. Check it out before you toss it out.
When I want to do a new OS install on my laptop, one of the things I hate is reinstalling and re-updating my drivers. I was just reading about a free piece of software called Double Driver that makes it easy to back up all of your drivers to a USB flash drive and then restore them back to your computer right after your clean install. Well, as far as I’m concerned that is just the Bee’s knees of a piece of freeware. Good for them for coming up with such a handy little App. Haven’t tried it yet, but I definitely will on my next install.
 I pretty much started ignoring information about the Kindle. I don’t like the policies, the equipment doesn’t seem to quite be there yet, and it is still on the expensive side. I just kind of put it out of mind. Until I happened to read David Pogue’s article in the NY Times this morning. Turns out all sales on the Kindle aren’t final. Even after you buy something, Amazon can change its mind and just delete it from your Kindle. This is what happened to buyers of 1984 and Animal Farm. The publisher changed its mind about selling electronic versions of Orwell’s books so Amazon, without warning, snuck onto people’s Kindles and deleted the books. Sure, I imagine they provided a refund. The money isn’t really the point here, it just re-emphasizes the danger of electronic posessions. You rarely actually own anything from “the cloud”. You are just borrowing it indefinitely. All your rights can be changed after the fact, turns out that even includes your right to possess it at all.
I love technology, that’s the whole point of my blog, I just love the new and the cutting edge and I like to write about it – I hate that cloud computing can’t develop to its real potential because you can’t trust the safety of your information and you can’t make informaed consumer decisions when your rights can be revoked retroactively.
Thanks to David Pogue for bringing this to everyone’s attention.
Adam Savage has an article up on Gizmodo explaining that electricity doesn’t kill us by frying us like an egg but just sort of short circuits us. It’s a fun read.
Do you know your fonts, do you want to point at things and shoot them? Then I recommend trying out the font game at deep.co.uk
I used to be in pre-press, so a few years ago I would have done pretty good on this. Out of practice though, so my score was only a little over 43,000. I invite you to comment here on how badly you beat me. Regardless, if you deal with design or layout, this can give you some bragging rights with your cohorts.
Props to Kye at All Graphic Design forum for pointing out the game to me.
|
|
