Computer Backup

13 03 2007

My-PCStart with filling in the following on what you have:

1. Mac or PC?
2. How big is your total hard drive space, excluding external drives? e.g. 80GB.
3. How much of those are used? e.g. ~50GB out of 80GB.
4. Do you have backup of what you have?

Recently, a friend had just lost his seven years worth of stuffs stored in his computer after his hard drive died on him. That got me thinking on my own computer backup. I have lots of stuffs in my home PC, 30GB of pictures, 13GB of musics, personal files, financial information, and other stuffs that will be very difficult, if not impossible, to restore should I lose it. Backing up 250GB hard drive to 4GB-each DVDs will require enormous amount of blank DVDs (Vista Backup and Restore Center says I need 40 blank DVDs!!!), not to mention that the time required to back those up, as well as my due diligence to remember to backup stuffs now and then. It’s a chore, so that’s out.

There are many alternatives that I am currently exploring, from RAID, External and Internal Hard Drive with their own pros, cons, and associated cost, but before plunging myself into one method, I would like to first survey and get some feedback from all of you for some ideas. I am looking into backing up my WHOLE computer periodicaly, so preferably, it should be cheap, reliable, easy, and doesn’t require my intervention as much as possible (did i miss anything? :p) Backing up to DVDs is certainly out, so if you have backup routine for your computer, share on what you use, the hardware, as well as what software you use?


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Categories : Technology, Windows

U3 Smart Thumbdrive

10 03 2007

To further elaborate what U3 Smart thumb drives are, as I’m sure, this will help many people realize that there are such technologies out there now. When you buy thumb drives that have U3 logo on it, your thumb drive will have autorun feature, and it is so easy to run your favorite applications on the go, wherever you go, with all your files in it, if you need it. There are lots of applications in U3 Software Download Central that have been specifically packaged to run on U3 thumb drives, both free and for sale. If you store enough applications and files in it, theoretically speaking, as long as you can find a PC, you can have your favorite applications and files. It’s a great idea, although how practical it turns out to be, we have to see :)

U3 Launchpad
My U3 Launchpad


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Categories : Technology

Second week of March

10 03 2007

It has been quite a happening second week of March, it all started with earthquake in Sumatra, tremors felt twice in Singapore. I didn’t feel the first one shortly before lunch break, although I was in 35th floor that time, I was sitting on a desk having some discussions. Probably it was because my feet were not on the floor. The second time was after lunch time, that one I felt. The following day, an airplane crashed in Indonesia after what they suspected to be the pilot fault who didn’t reduce the speed enough for landing. It simply has been a disastrous start for Indonesia in 2007, as Asen said, 1 plane accident each month.

Thursday was the start of the IT Show 2007, held at Suntec City. After looking at my calendar, I thought I couldn’t go for the show, so I asked my housemate Eko to help me buy some stuffs. It was essentially all the stuffs that I need to replace since I brought them back to Jakarta during the last Chinese New Year holiday. First, it was a many-in-one card reader. I got a simple $7 card reader. The second one is a thumbdrive. It’s a Sandisk Cruzer Micro U3 Smart - 4GB for a low $75 now. It certainly has a much better speed that Imation FlashGo! that was selling at $71, this Cruzer Micro managed to hit over 7MB/sec write speed and almost 14MB/sec read speed. Another great thing is, with U3 smart technologies, I can install lots of portable apps in my thumbdrive, and I will have those wherever I go. As of now, I have Portable Firefox for browsing, EditPad Lite for basic text editor, Trillian for chatting in MSN and Yahoo, OpenOffice for Office-related stuffs, Foxit Reader to read PDF files, IrfanView for image viewer, Avast Antivirus to ensure my thumbdrive is protected from virus and many more in my thumbdrive, such that I will all the important applications wherever I go. Superb!!! I was choosing between going IT Show 2007, tennis at Cashew Heights, or to watch 300. In the end, I went for tennis. I need to exercise, it has been a while hehe….

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My new Sandisk Cruzer Micro 4GB, retractable somemore, made a great keychain :-D

cruzer micro read speed
Its read speed almost hit 14MB/sec

cruzer micro write speed
Its write speed also not dissapointing at over 7MB/sec

My colleagues and I went to Tonkichi Japanese restaurant for lunch at Shaw House. I had a very nice Salmon Teriyaki Ju with a very very nice Mochi ice cream. :-D Friday evening was some more choices, either going for drinks with colleagues or going to IT Show. I chose the latter. After IT Show, we dropped by tcc for drinks. I had tcc Ice Minty Mocha. Nice!!!
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Lots and lots of balloons that says “Childrens Week” in Orchard MRT on lunch time. They are all free to be taken.

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Food at tcc and all the long words of tcc


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Categories : Personal Ramblings, Technology

The i’m Initiative

4 03 2007

Windows Live Messenger (a.k.a MSN Messenger) is holding a initiative for a worthy cause, and everyone of us can be part of the them. Just by putting an emoticon on your nick name, every message that you send on your chat from now on, will help to raise some amount of money for charity organization of your choice. At first, it sounded like those chain emails that says I’ll get millions dollars from Microsoft if I forward the email to 10 or 20 friends, but this one is a legitimate information.

How does it work?
1. Use Messenger 8.1
2. Add the i’m emoticon to your display name by entering the code of the cause you would like to support (hint: I suggest adding it at the end of your name so you still appear in the correct alphabetic order in your contacts list)
3. Send and receive IMs
4. A portion of the advertising revenue generated by your usage of Messenger will be donated to your cause. So the more IMs you send and receive the more money will be donated to your cause.

What are the i’m emoticon codes and causes?

So, what are you waiting for, join in the initiative, and together, we can help to raise funds for the needy :-D Not to mention now you have a good excuse for chatting in the office haha… :p

i’m Home
i’m Initiative and FAQ


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Categories : Technology

Watching Ice Hockey Live

4 03 2007

I was planning to go for ice skating after lunch time today, so we went for lunch at Pizza Hut then to Fuji Ice Palace ice skating rink in Jurong Entertainment Centre. To our surprise, instead of seeing amateur like me skating and falling, we saw about 20 pros skating around in ease with their huge outfit, helmets, and sticks. Apparently, they are warming up for the ice hockey match soon. We came in time to watch their warming up and the game from start to end, which lasted about an hour or so.

hockey match
The equivalent of free kick in soccer

hockey scoreThe guest team scored first early in the first half, but the home team equalized the score midway through the first half. It was really fun watching live game like this, the only drawback was there were no replay for the goals haha… In the second half, there were decent amount of chances for both side, notably the home team hitting the frame of the goal with a shot, but they were not to be denied moments later, as they summoned up a counter attack one minute before the end. One of their player took one touch to handle the clearance from his side of the rink, second touch to bring it forward one-on-one with the goalkeeper, third touch to move the “ball” wide to create space, and fourth to score the goal which ultimately proved to be the winner. Brilliant !!!

It was a pity I couldn’t play at all, but nevertheless, I truly enjoyed my first moment of watching ice hockey game live :-D


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Categories : Personal Ramblings

Crazy morning jam

2 03 2007

It was raining this morning, so I thought I’ll just take bus to Clementi from my house (near Jurong East). It was 8.15 AM. The bus came before 8.20 AM, and in normal days, I should reach Clementi about 8.30 AM or worst case 8.35 AM. Unexpectedly, this morning, the traffic jam was so bad that it took the bus full twenty minutes for two bus stops!!! I reached Clementi at 9.25 AM!!! A horrendous one hour later for a journey from Toh Guan (near Jurong East) to Clementi. The MRT reached eight minutes after that, and I reached office well and truly late :(

Asking around, a colleague told me that there was an accident somewhere in AYE near Lower Delta Rd that causes the normal four-lane traffic to be congested into one-lane. Somehow, the jam over there propagates so far until Clementi and Jurong East. What a day, hopefully this doesn’t happen often, and I do wish the person involved in the accident are okay :)

So, were you affected by the jam this morning?


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Categories : Personal Ramblings

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