Month: August 2007

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COOL WEB SITE: Mozy.com

Backup, backup, backup… How many times have you heard a computer guy talking about “backing up your data”? Well, there’s a good reason for it – computers can crash, and when they do they can take down a lot of your personal data. Priceless information like pictures and financial data can all be lost in an instant. Sadly, most of the time it takes a crash with the complete loss of data for people to see the light.

Mozy.com is a website that offers a free backup service for people that use Windows and Mac. The free service offers 2GB worth of storage space, which should be plenty for most people’s truly important files. Mozy also offers an “unlimited” version for just $4.95/month.

To use the service, all you’ve gotta do is sign up on Mozy’s site, then download the backup software. Once installed, the software will automatically choose the most crucial elements to back up, or you can opt to manually choose which files and folders Mozy will back up. Backups then happen in the background whenever files are changed (you can also opt to have Mozy back up on a schedule you set). You can access your files through Mozy’s website, and also manage all of your settings and computers from the site also. Mozy also offers a lot of features that other backup sites either don’t offer or only offer with paid plans, like the ability to back up locked files, the ability to restore files from within Windows Explorer, and support for 3GB (or larger) files.

Mozy is easy to use and is free… so start backing up your data today! Check it out here.

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COOL PROGRAM: Google Browser Sync

There are a ton of “bookmark synchronization” extensions for Firefox out there. Many of you might have a favorite, but I recently decided to give Google Browser Sync a try… and I love it! As you might guess from the name, Google Browser Sync synchronizes your Firefox bookmarks between different computers. So if you use Firefox at home and work, you could have a unified set of bookmarks between the two computers. Which is cool and all… but Google Browser Sync also has the ability to synchronize your cookies, history, saved passwords… even your open tabs and windows! Imagine sitting at your desk at work. You’re surfing the Internet, but it’s time to go home. If you have Google Browser Sync installed, you just close the Firefox window. All of your open tabs and updated bookmarks will be copied automatically to Google’s servers. So when you come home you open Firefox… and start right back where you were at work! Neat, huh?

The Google Browser Sync extension for Firefox is free.

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COOL PROGRAM: EasyBCD

For years, I used a program called Bootpart to add non-Windows NT operating systems to the NT boot loader. When I played around with Linux, for example, I’d skip installing GRUB or LILO; instead I’d boot into Windows and use Bootpart to add the Linux partition to BOOT.INI. Since I never really got the hang of Linux – or had specific issues with specific distros – I was always going to want to boot into Windows by default. By using Bootpart I could continue using the NT Boot Loader; when the time came to uninstall Linux, I only needed to delete the Linux partitions and make a couple of tweaks to the BOOT.INI file… and Linux was gone!

Sadly, Bootpart hasn’t been updated in ages, and is not compatible with Windows Vista’s new bootloader. So last night, when I installed Windows XP on a system with Windows Vista already installed, I needed some way to add XP to Vista’s bootloader. Enter EasyBCD. This handy (and FREE!) program can add entries for NTLDR-based Windows operating systems (Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP) to the Vista boot loader, and also supports adding Linux, Mac OS X and BSD installations as well. It’s fast and easy, and it does what it says it’ll do. If you need to add a new operating system to your Vista bootloader, EasyBCD is the way to go!

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I’ve Been Simpsonized!

Check me out:

Simpsonized Jim

You too can be “Simpsonized” – just go to this site and upload a picture of yourself. The picture needs to be at least 640×480 and for best results it should be a close up of your face. You can also add a “Springfield scene” to the background if you wish. Registration at the site is not mandatory, but registering will allow you to save your image online and come back to it at a later time.

So – what do you guys think of the Simpsonized Jim?

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The “Numbers Station” Mystery

For years, shortwave radio enthusiasts have noted a curious phenomenon: radio stations that seem to pop-up out of nowhere, read a list of numbers, then disappear… sometimes forever. Because the sole purpose of the broadcasts is apparently to read lists of numbers, shortwave junkies started calling them “numbers stations”… although as we shall see, other names might be appropriate.

No one seems to know when the “numbers stations” started broadcasting. No one seems to know who’s behind them. Shortwave enthusiasts assume that someone somewhere knows the purpose behind the stations, but as far as I or anyone else knows, that purpose is a mystery. In fact, there’s not a lot about the numbers stations that we do know. In fact, all we can say for sure is:

– The stations are sometimes transient, sometimes not: Some numbers stations appear to broadcast once, then disappear forever; others appear in certain places on the shortwave dial with clockwork regularity. In fact, certain stations appear with such regularity that broadcast schedules are posted on shortwave enthusiast websites.

– The stations broadcast for hours… or minutes: Some numbers stations repeat their “messages” a few times and then sign off; other stations might repeat their messages for hours and hours.

– The stations broadcast in many languages: Recordings and verified “sightings” have shown that numbers stations are broadcast in English, French, Spanish, German, Russian, Chinese, Hebrew… and just about every other major language you can think of.

Continue reading “The “Numbers Station” Mystery”