Jordan Vs Romania
Posted on | August 31, 2008 at 6:50 pm | 9 Comments
Movie Review Sunday! I haven’t watched any movies yet this week, so I don’t have one. Maybe there will be a Movie Review Monday tomorrow. So onto another topic.
Pet Peeve of the Day: Why can’t I find a decent PC backup solution?
I’m pretty paranoid about data loss. That’s why I have an external hard drive on my Windows XP Home machine that is used only for backups. Up until now, I’ve been using Genie Soft’s Genie Backup Manager (GBM) Home 7.0 to perform the backups. (Note I have not included a link to the company website, since the last couple of times I went there, my anti-virus program detected a malicious script, so be warned.) I did a full backup once a week, which would take 8 hours or so, and an incremental once a night, that would take like a half hour. I’ve been pretty happy with it, though I’ve never had to actually use its restore capability, thankfully. However since I let Microsoft install XP Service Pack 3 on my PC, the Backup Manager has stopped working. It gets like 31% through the full backup and then it gives an MS Visual C++ runtime error. I tried installing their latest build, and still had the same problem. When I opened up a ticket with the company and sent them a log, they said they couldn’t do anything because they don’t support version 7 anymore. They wanted me to upgrade to version 8 and see if it fixes the problem. They said they’d give me a deal on an upgrade, but I really don’t want to pay for an upgrade at all just because the old version suddenly stopped working. Especially since I’m not even sure the upgrade would fix the problem. At least I could install the trial version and see if it does.
So rather than hassling with that, I decided it was a good time to try trial versions of some other PC backup packages that got good reviews. I’ve been kind of unhappy with GBM – their user interface is pretty weak. And obviously their support leaves something to be desired. I read some reviews and settled on a couple of other packages that looked like they fit my needs: Titan Backup and Backup4all.
I liked everything about Titan Backup and its UI, and it even seemed to do a full backup as fast or faster than GBM. Well, it would if it could actually finish. It got stuck in the post-copy “verifying” stage and went through the destination disk verifying every file once and then verifying every file again. After the second or third cycle of that, I shut it down. Disturbing. Makes me wonder what other problems the software has. But this may be an okay solution if I turn off “verify”.
The UI on Backup4all isn’t as good as Titan’s, but it gets the job done. I don’t like that it won’t do non-compressed backups unless you do them as a “mirror”. So you really can’t do a non-compressed Incremental Backup separate from a Full one (it merges them into one directory structure). Although maybe that would work okay for my needs – I don’t know. But the big problem with it is that it was just taking too damn long, especially on the verify stage. I don’t think a backup program should take 16 hours or whatever to backup and verify ~250 GB. I finally just aborted that one too. And, again, the UI really didn’t do it for me. It’s more difficult to specify included files by type (i.e. all extensions) than it is in Titan, which has preset filters. Also, it doesn’t backup the registry like GBM and Titan. It does have a pretty extensive free plugin system with lots of plugins available for download.
One thing I noticed that kind of disturbed me is that all of these programs come from overseas. Genie Soft is a company in Jordan, and Titan and Backup4all come from Romania. I’d prefer doing business with a European company over a Middle Eastern one (yes I have my prejudices), but aren’t there any good old American software packages for this sort of thing? Don’t talk to me about Norton – I don’t like them. Norton software has a habit of taking over your entire PC and slowing it down.
I’m not really sure what I’m going to do at this point. I’m tempted to just write my own command line script using Xcopy to copy all changed files to the backup drive every night. I’ve already got one that backs up my MP3 files to another drive (I’m very paranoid about losing all that ripping and downloading work). The problem with that is I don’t think it can copy open files, which the backup programs can do using Microsoft’s VSS (Volume Shadow Service). Although I’m not sure it’s really important I backup files in use.
Anyone have any good luck with PC backup programs you’d like to share with me?
Latre.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “i need a name for my supermarket”.
Videogame(s) Played Yesterday: Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)
DNC Report: The Aftermath
Posted on | August 30, 2008 at 4:58 pm | 4 Comments
Lessons learned from the Democratic National Convention being hosted in my town in the year 2008:
- Protesters are kind of a sorry lot these days. Where were all the riots?
- The commute was actually better during the convention, probably because a lot of people were staying off the roads in anticipation of closures and such. As soon as the convention was over, things returned to “normal”. Friday afternoon was pure chaos on the streets downtown because of the starts of Taste Of Colorado and Sniagrab.
- Invesco Field sure holds a lot of people when teams aren’t playing on the field.
- People will do almost anything to catch a glimpse of a celebrity.
- I expected there to be a lot of bank robberies and other crimes during the convention, since all the police in the metro area seemed to be concentrated downtown, and I’m surprised that doesn’t appear to be the case.
- I have no doubt a lot of downtown businesses benefited greatly from the massive influx of visitors to the area. People like to party. And Denver got a lot of decent national exposure. So overall, it looks like a win for our fair city.
Latre.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 60°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Here Comes A City” (The Go-Betweens)
- “Something In You” (The Orange Peels)
- “I Saw Jill” (Palindromes)
- “We Were Wrong” (Audible)
- “The Clock” (Thom Yorke)
- “Wild Miracle” (Pleasure Thieves)
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “coke phobias”.
Videogame(s) Played Yesterday: None.
DNC Report: Day 4
Posted on | August 29, 2008 at 6:32 am | 2 Comments
Well, whadoyaknow, I actually have something to report today. I walked over to the 16 Street Mall during lunch yesterday and snapped a few pix. They’re in my Flickr set here. When I got up to the Hard Rock Cafe, I found I couldn’t go any further. There was a crush of crowds there blocking the way. They had even spilled out into the “street” so that the mall shuttles couldn’t get by. (FYI, only mall buses and other city vehicles are allowed on 16th Street downtown.) There were many bouncers in front of the restaurant preventing people from entering. I saw one gray-haired gentleman in an expensive business suit repeatedly bump heads with a bouncer (literally) as he tried to get in there. The bouncer just smiled and kept blocking his way. It was hilarious. Wish I’d got that on video. I heard later the HRC was closed off because that’s where a lot of the celebrities in town for the DNC were lunching that day.
The crowd reached all the way across the street to Earl’s, another restaurant, where it was said other celebrities were chowing down. Then at one point the earth opened up and swallowed the city whole the cops, bouncers, and bodyguards opened up a path in the crowd from Earl’s to the HRC, and the celebs flowed like expensive bottled water from one eatery to the other, trailed by a lot of microphones and video cameras. I saw Spike Lee in that river (or someone imitating him) and maybe the top of Oprah’s head. People around me said that Anne Hathaway was in there too. The Celeb Train made it inside the HRC, and then I stood around there some more while actor/director Tony Goldwyn came out and talked to those people with the mics and cameras. I only vaguely recognized him -at first I thought it was actor Steven Weber- but couldn’t place the face or recall the name. I just knew him as one of those character actors with a distinct face that you see in lots of shows and movies. Then the woman next to me kept going “It’s the bad guy from Ghost!”, so that helped in my identification. Eventually he went back inside and I turned around and headed back to work. So much excitement for one day! Whew. I almost couldn’t take it.
As for the convention itself, I heartily enjoyed Obama’s acceptance speech, even if I wasn’t one of the 84,000 people there in person. I thought it was hard-hitting and inspirational, and I just hope it’s enough to sway the swing voters (and that they actually saw it). And maybe even make some converts? I thought the pre-speech video dipped into cheesiness at spots, but it served its purpose.
Latre.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 58°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Paul Sez” (Mind Reels)
- “Battle Scars” (Dear Leader / Taxpayer)
- “Down in the Shacks Where the Satellite Dishes Grow” (Judybats)
- “Eros Arriving” (Bill Nelson)
- “Life’s A Bitch” (Rock Kills Kid)
- “Accretions” (Shriekback)
Pet Peeve of the Day: I was in the HOV lane of Santa Fe today, going to visit my Dad after work during rush hour, using my Hybrid HOV exemption, when a giant red Hummer suddenly cut into the lane in front of me. And you guessed it, it wasn’t making a left turn and there was no one besides the driver in it. That’s gotta be one of the all-time most arrogant prick acts. I’m sure he didn’t have an exemption! “Look at me! I’ve got a big old gas-guzzling mini-tank, and I’m going to skip the traffic and illegally cruise right by all you suckers!” And then to make matters worse, we passed a cop who didn’t even go after him.
So then I’m driving home after the visit, going north on Santa Fe after rush hour, and there’s a guy driving a scooter in the far left (non-HOV) lane. He’s going like 30 in a 45 MPH zone, blissfully ignoring all the cars trying to get around him and the drivers giving him dirty looks. Sometimes I wonder if people are evil or just stupid. If I hear he ended up getting splattered across the road, I’ll guess stupid.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “mud banana”.
Videogame(s) Played Yesterday: None.
DNC Report: Day 3
Posted on | August 28, 2008 at 5:58 am | 5 Comments
I still don’t have anything to report on the Democratic National Convention. I was going to walk downtown with my camera during lunch yesterday, but I didn’t have time. Maybe today. I still haven’t caught Jon Stewart or John Oliver wandering aimlessly around town, or Oprah eating at Benny’s. And I really haven’t even been inconvenienced much. The commute has actually been better this week than it was last week. I think that’s because people are staying off the roads to avoid the closures and disruptions. Woo hoo! More asphalt for the rest of us. Anyway, I enjoyed Joe Biden’s speech last night, and ol’ Billy Boy Clinton wowed the crowd, as usual. He sure knows how to work ‘em into a frenzy. Makes me remember the good old days when a President could actually… you know… talk.
I didn’t prepare much in the way of blog topics this week because I thought I’d have more to write about the DNC. Or at least some pictures to post. But it’s not turning out that way. Or maybe I’m just burned out. Sue alerted us all to this interesting article about blogger burnout. It talks about how people who blog daily (or more) often suffer from stress and other issues caused by the eternal pressure to keep posting. (Maybe those people need to read my 20 Tips for Daily Blogging!) Of course, they’re mostly talking about “professional bloggers”, people who actually have something to say and who have lots of readers/commenters, rather than the amateurs like myself who really have nothing to say but just keep up the daily blogging for personal or OCD reasons. But hey, we experience the same sorts of issues as the professionals. Maybe even more, because a lot of those people do blogging as their jobs, or at least their source of income. Whereas I’m just doing it in my spare time for no revenue whatsoever. Sure, the stress is internal and self-imposed and I can quit or rest any time I like (really, I can!), but that doesn’t make it any less real.
I like this quote:
“I never can post something and say I’m done for the day,” said Zuniga, “because I’m always thinking about the next post.”
That’s totally true for me. It seems like I can never derive enough satisfaction from posting an entry, because right away I’m thinking about what I’m going to write for the next one, and how soon I’ll have to be doing that. I think I must be paying for something bad I did in a former life.
Latre.
Props of the Day: I’ve been noticing a new series of RTD advertisements on the back of their buses lately which are interesting. One had an Albert Einstein quote about thinking in new ways, which I’m too lazy to look up right now. But my favorite one says “If you can read this, you’re in the wrong vehicle”*. Cute! The problem is, I get so wrapped up in enjoying the ads I forget to drive properly. I don’t want a repeat of my December incident!
* – This doesn’t work if you’re reading it from another bus!
Videogame(s) Played Yesterday: Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)
DNC Report: Day 2
Posted on | August 27, 2008 at 6:07 am | Comments Off
Nothing happened yesterday that I witnessed. Oh, I did think Hillary’s speech was pretty good though.
So instead I want to talk about the third season finale of the Venture Brothers, which aired on Sunday night. Great stuff as always! [Major Spoiler Alert!] It was almost as action-packed as the first part of the finale last week, and featured an all-out donnybrook between the Monarch’s henchmen, O.S.I. agents, and naked Venture clones. However, in the ensuing chaos, one of my favorite characters was killed. And even though people have come back from the dead (or seeming dead) on this show, I don’t think it’s going to happen this time. Just thinking about it makes me tear up. Goodbye #24, we’ll miss you! Why, oh why, did it have to be you?? You thought you were invulnerable. We all did. But wow, that death was really final.
I was a little disappointed in the finale, since it didn’t really answer the big questions, which I posed in my last Venture-related post. I guess since they knew when they were making the third season that there was going to be a fourth season, Doc and Jackson decided to wait until the fourth to address the big issues. As one of the Adult Swim bumpers before the show said, “The fourth season will pick up the breadcrumbs left scattered by the third”. Things are definitely not in a good place for the characters now, so there’s certainly much to be resolved. Will Brock return to the family fold? Will the Monarch find new henchmen? Only time will tell.
But I don’t know if I’ll be able to watch it next season without the calming presence of #24, he of the “Ray Romano voice”. It’s just not right!
Latre.
Videogame(s) Played Yesterday: Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)
DNC Report: Day 1
Posted on | August 26, 2008 at 8:06 am | 4 Comments
Oh man, you would not believe what’s been happening around here! Day 1 of the Democratic National Convention yesterday was off the hook. I don’t even know what bit of excitement to start talking about first.
Okay, actually, there’s not much going on in my neck of the woods. The most exciting thing to happen to me was that I was questioned by two security guards because I was parked in a parking lot near the capitol. But I had a legitimate reason for being there, so it was all good. There’s TV vans and a huge police presence everywhere downtown, and some streets and lanes were blocked off here and there. More pedestrians than normal. Very few protesters, though I did see a few people carrying signs. Even the commute into work in the morning seemed quicker than usual. Hopefully things are just beginning to ramp up and the partying will commence.
One of my co-workers jogged downtown during lunch and spotted Joe Biden at the 16th Street Mall. He was surrounded by men, SUVs, and motorcycles, of course. So it’s not like you could go “Hey Joe! How’s it going? Sign my water bottle?” I guess the senator was on his way to (or from) lunch at Boney’s.
So, that’s it. Denver is Excitement City. All I know is want the mailboxes to come back!
Latre.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 62°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “To Wild Homes” (The New Pornographers)
- “Smile” (Buzzcocks)
- “Shitloads Of Money” (Liz Phair)
- “Gonna Never Have to Die” (Guided By Voices)
- “You Wanted Me There, Right?” (From Bubblegum To Sky)
- “I Was A Teenage Ringpiece” (Wanker)
- “Seven Horses” (Icicle Works)
Hair-Splitting Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “deliciously eating or eating deliciously”.
Videogame(s) Played Yesterday: None.