Author: Michael Wyszomierski

On backups

After weighing my options for a day, I just signed up for Transport with a 1TB drive and 100GB/month bandwidth. After I get it all set on my machines, I’ll be sharing this with five other family members. It makes sense for what I want. I’m hoping it will be a “set it and forget it” experience, and I’ll let you all know how it goes. Thanks for watching.

Topic-specific comment spam

After I published my post on potential offsite backup solutions, I got a few comments in my moderation queue. Most of them were obvious spam, on unrelated topics such as gambling. However I did see one comment that made a coherent statement on the subject, and then recommended a site for comparing backup services. Unfortunately for the commenter, I recognized it as the same comment I saw on another blog entry about the subject. On the other blog entry, the comment stood out since it wasn’t exactly relevant to the particular type of backup being discussed, and so I assumed it was spam.

So how can you prevent these sneaky comments from appearing on your blog, without looking at everyone else’s comments? It’s easy: just go to your favorite search engine and enter a portion of the text in quotes, so it searches for the exact phrase. If it brings up results of the same comment on other blogs, you probably want to delete it.

Update: Jason also warns about compliment spam. I know I’ve seen someone fall for this until I politely pointed it out to him.

From the archives

Two years ago a marketer for an online weather reporting service asked me what they can do in mobile. I suggested cars and whipped this up in a few minutes. I still think it’s a good idea. Does it exist yet?

Mobile Weather [PDF]

Looking for a good backup solution

I think that Time Machine is one of the most important inventions of its time. There’s finally a backup system that normal users can and will use. But now that regular users are finally backing up, many for the first time, why not these backups more robust by moving them offsite? That’s the next problem that needs to be solved.

I only recently started exploring remote backup options, but never really got that far since I already store my irreplaceable files (my photos) on various online services. Everything else could be lost. I don’t really deal with local text documents, my site is obviously online, I don’t have work stuff on my personal computers, and if I lose my iTunes library I can just play the songs in my head. But what about my family? They store plenty of documents locally and don’t upload pictures online as much as I do. They’re already using Time Machine, but to local drives. It’s even worse for the laptop users, since I don’t have a wireless backup configured at home (we have an old Airport) and outside of home (college), they’re on their own remembering to connect the backup USB drive. I need something that happens online, and that doesn’t require hard-to-configure third-party software. Even if I were just backing up my own stuff, I’d want it to be easy. I’m lazy, and as soon as it gets complicated, my backups become more intermittent. So what solutions are out there, if any? Let’s take a look:

Transport
Today, I came across a service called Transport that lets you place a Time Capsule in a data center, and back up to it online. It sounds like something I would want.

A one-year contract will cost about $350, plus the cost of a Time Capsule ($300 for 500GB or $500 for 1TB). I’d have to ask my family to figure out how much space we’d need, but I’m guessing we could get away with using a single 1TB unit for all of our computers. Or maybe I’d buy a separate one for myself since I’m likely to use the most. I think this is worth it. You can’t put a price on things such as family photos, and it means more peace of mind for me since I’ll be the one who’s called if someone’s computer crashes.

In terms of security, yes, this means that private documents may be stored unencrypted in a remote facility, so it will take some evaluation to determine how much I trust the security of the service. However, anything that’s unencrypted is just as vulnerable sitting in a house or apartment, which unfortunately can also be broken into. If I really need to protect something, I’m already encrypting it anyway.

One major concern that I have (and that I forgot to ask the owner about while I was chatting with him) is that I cannot find any official documentation that Time Machine supports backups to AFP volumes. I even found a note that backups may be completely lost when the disk is full. This could certainly be a deal breaker. I’ll have to ask about this tomorrow, and if it the service is based on an unsupported hack, it should really be noted upfront! If you know anything about this, please let me know.

UPDATE: Apparently I misunderstood the AFP issue. I just got a clarification from macminicolo.net, and the hack was to get Time Machine to work with a NAS device or a drive connected to an Airport Extreme (before that support was added). Time Capsule has always supported AFP, and it’s specifically designed for Time Machine (and made by Apple). So all is good… I think Transport may be what I choose, even if it is a bit pricey compared to other options.

For now, let’s assume that I just have outdated knowledge about AFP support. I’ll be sure to check on that before making any purchases and leave an update in the comments. This seems like it should require very little work on my part once it’s set up, since it works with built-in software and happens automatically online.

Continuum
After I (incorrectly – see update above) discovered that Transport may not be as robust as I initially thought, I started searching for other solutions. Continuum, which at this point is only in private beta, has a different approach. Here’s how I understand it: Data is first backed up normally to an external drive using Time Machine, with no special hacks. Then, once a day the backup file is sent to an online storage location via the Continuum software.

Mozy
Mozy requires the use of third-party software for the entire backup process. It’s also only designed to backup certain types of files, and not the entire volume. After using Time Machine, I’d really prefer something that’s tied closer to the operating system. One major problem with third-party software is that it’s another thing to worry about with every OS update. However, it sounds really good and I might be okay with using this in conjunction with a local Time Machine backup. The pricing sounds great at first, but with an individual monthly fee for each computer that adds up quickly for a large family, and would end up costing about the same amount annually as Transport (minus the initial cost of the Time Capsule).

JungleDisk
JungleDisk also requires third-party software. Have you used it? Let me know what you think.

CrashPlan
CrashPlan is a creative idea. Instead of backing up to a some data center, you just back up to any other computer you have control of, even your friend’s computer. As long as the other computer is in a different building, I’d call that an offsite backup. What’s nice about this is if your computer crashes and you need to restore the data, you can just grab the backup drive from the remote location and restore via USB in minutes instead of downloading gigabytes of data over a DSL or cable connection. This would require some coordination, but it might be a nice solution. Of course this also falls under the unfortunate third-party software category.

So before I take the plunge and commit to one of these services, I want you to share your thoughts in the comments of this post. What do you think about the services? Are there questions I should ask first? Is there something else that’s just as easy but cheaper? Should I hold off for a better solution? Remember that I am in California and my family is in Pennsylvania, so this has to be something that I can set up once (remotely) and then forget about it.

 

Airline passenger pet peeves

I’m sitting in the Philadelphia Airport waiting for my flight and I thought I’d test out posting via email with a couple of pet peeves related to air travel. They all focus on selfish passengers not caring about others. Of course these people are everywhere (ever seen a crowd told “no flash” or “only take one item” without enforcement?), but for some reason I notice them the most when traveling.

1. Lining up at the gate before one’s zone/row is called. It’s seriously gotten to the point where by the time they announce pre-boarding, the entire room is standing around the door. I sometimes have to ask, “Are you standing in line or next to the line?” As a result, people end up boarding in a random order and it can take 45 minutes to get everyone seated.

2. Putting small items which could fit under one’s seat in the overhead bins.  This causes delays and inconvenience.

3. Headphone volume so loud that it may as well be playing through the P.A. system. The worst part is these people can’t take a hint, even if the “hint” is “Your headphones are too loud.”

4. Grabbing on to my seatback as you walk down the aisle. This has interruped my sleep, pulled my hair, and sent me into a general state of annoyance. If someone can’t make it down the aisle without assistance, they should raise their hands another couple feet and use the bins. Just like the flight attendants.

Note: Post by email did not work. Getting PHP errors.

Packaging solutions

Earlier, I complained about plastic clamshell packaging. Seth Godin has figured it out. I hope people also pay attention to the sticker thing. The first thing I do when I get a camera is remove the stickers and turn off the beeps.

And in case you were curious, here’s the reply I got from the toothbrush manufacturer after complaining:

[We] recently started enclosing replacement heads in PETG plastic so customers could “see” what they are purchasing. The plastic, which is approved for recycling, also ensures retailers that our products are secure. We do realize, however, that the plastic packing can be difficult to remove, and we are continuing our effort to develop packaging that is “friendly” all around-to the consumer, the retailer and the environment.

We want you to know that our customers mean a great deal to us, and we take your feedback seriously. I will forward your comments to the appropriate department.

Please follow the below steps to open the package of the heads.

1. Hold package with front of package facing you. Using a sturdy pair of scissors carefully cut at the bottom right hand corner on the left side of the sealed edge going up.
2. Once you cut over the edge and about two inches up, insert lower blade of scissors between the opening that separates the package front and back.
3. Continue cutting the single layer of plastic in an upward direction until you pass the top of the toothbrush.
4. Then, turn and cut in a single layer across the top of the package to the left.
5. Now separate the front and back of the package layers to remove the brushes.

Let us know if we can help you in the future.

iPhone to the rescue

I will be sitting in an airport tomorrow night when the season finale of The Office is on. After arriving in Philly, I will only be home for a short time before a 2.5 hour car ride. I’d love to kill some time in the car watching The Office. At first, I thought this wouldn’t be possible due to lack of an Internet connection and the fact that the show is no longer on iTunes.

But with my iPhone, except when I’m on an airplane, I always have an Internet connection. I’ve emailed from a chairlift in Colorado. I’ve read book reviews on Amazon in a bookstore. I always have the world’s information at my fingertips.

But, you say, there’s no Flash! How will you get it from Hulu or NBC.com? Well, fortunately it does support QuickTime (big surprise), and NBC has a special mobile site formatted specifically for the iPhone. Try visiting NBC.com from your iPhone (or change your User-Agent) and you’ll be automatically directed there. On the site, they have full episodes of The Office encoded in iPhone-compatible videos. So that’s what I’ll be downloading at EDGE speed on my way from Pennsylvania to Poughkeepsie.

I tested out a download (over Wi-Fi) and was disappointed by the video quality. The video is letterboxed 320 x 240 MPEG-4 in a 3GP container at 15 fps. The iPhone can support pretty decent video, but what NBC uses is blurry and the audio and video are out of sync. I can deal with the blurriness as they’re probably optimizing for lower download times. I’m not a huge fan of the fact that at the same time they’re wasting data and creating distracting artifacts around the edges by encoding black pixels with letterboxing, but that happens all the time and I’ve learned to accept it. It’s the sync issue that makes it a truly frustrating experience for a video geek. However, I’ll probably be tired enough when I watch on Friday that it won’t bother me.