Back it up!!! There is no excuse anymore

In the last few months I know of 5 people who have lost entire drives, all their personal pictures, work data etc... All because a hard drive crashed, broke, got a virus etc.

There is no excuse anymore. A HUGE 750GB drive - enough to hold multiple backups of your drive, like little snapshots are cheap... $129 last check.. Now you can have 2 copies of your data.. Great for 99% of the time, not if your house burns down.. solution - buy two - keep one at a friends, in your safety deposit box etc... cycle them 30 days at a time.. now you have offsite redundant backup..

Use your google, mobileme account etc - that free 5-20GB of space they give you for emails etc - a perfect place to keep some offsite backups of pictures work files etc.

And for those of you on mac - make sure your using 10.5 with Time Machine - THAT TIME MACHINE IS ENABLED and that you have the drive for it... you don't need anything special etc..

Call me if you need a hand, but for goodness sake.. don't be a dolt, back it up!

Beer Belt

The guys at Uncrate have a great item posted today - the beer belt.. imagine this fishing or at the lake.. to bad you can't take bottles to the Labour Day classic!

Stop Junk Mail

Usually "Junk Mail" makes people think of their computer, but there is that other kind - the real paper one that shows up daily in your mailbox. I found an article the other day about a little known service (I didn't know anyways) that Canada Post has to stop the spam!
www.RedDotCampaign.ca is a website started to promote this service and makes it quick and easy to setup and keep your mailbox clean and save some tree's, recycling, transport, and disposal costs!

You can read the whole article HERE.

Go to www.RedDotCampaign.ca here.

PC Horror Stories

Here is a article of a crazy experience a NY Times writer went through on their PC, and a great testament to backing up often and if you need a 100% uptime PC for work, keeping a spare PC and that external backup drive around rather than selling them off.
It cost this poor fellow $800 to get his machine working again (I'm still not sure why it was that much, but whatever). It's a great read, and will usually motivate most to go backup their PC/Mac right now!

The summary:
- Backup
- Don't use Windows Vista
- Mac's a pretty good (not just me saying it!)

Read it here.

Apple 10.5.2 update out - Time to Upgrage to Leopard?

People ask me (ok Mac people ask me) if they should upgrade their machines to Leopard (OSX 10.5). My answer has been for most, no, once 10.5.1 was out, it was OK for some, but still not for people who need their machine 100% everyday. Why? Is there a problem with 10.5? None really, but more with the applications they use, and that if your machine in working fine, and you need it 100% of the time, no need to rush!
So today marks the point where I say OK for most to upgrade to Leopard, but that doesn't mean you have to do it today, I'm sure there will be a couple new things that crop up with this update. It is a MASSIVE update as far as OS updates go, 180 to 300+ megs.
So unless you feel 100% ok doing it yourself, and suffer from can't wait syndromes like me (usually), wait, or get a tech to backup your machine 100% and let them take you from Tiger to Leopard.
If your on Leopard already, make sure your Time Machine backup is ready and get going... in a couple days :)
If you (or a friend) needs tech support, I'm available for $60 an hour.. A Steal and you get to enjoy my stunning personality too!

Health - Globe Article on Healthy Eating

This is a good read, and worth thinking about and doing some research on, especially the diet pop comments. I guess water really is the best drink alternative! Some of this we know, but it's good to get it re-enforced and remember it!

Check it out: Globe & Mail Article

The Author has a good site, with articles, Recipes etc: LeslieBeck.com

3D Holograms - Your next TV

While everyone is running out and buying HD Flat Panels like crazy, I often wonder what the next real evolution of TV will be. I adopted HD about 3 years ago now - right onto a 92" screen, double the size of most of the TV's people are buying today. The picture looks great to me, and I'm far more critical of video than MOST of the general buying public.
Top that off with the fact that most people are watching 720p or 1080i images (often not even scaled properly, which is another story, but basically it means that panel you bought isn't displaying the image as sharp or as well as it could be). The best HD out there is 1080p and I'm guessing most people won't ever get around to watching 1080p content on their set for a few years (if ever).
Just look at the yawn approach to Blu-Ray and HD-DVD to see that semi-HD quality is "good enough" for many. If your still not sure, just look at the sales of MP3 players.
I've seen the next evolution of HD - so called "4k" sets - basically double the resolution of 1920x1080p (todays best)- in simple terms. Yes they look stunning, yes they do look more "3-D". However I'm not convinced that they are anywhere near enough to make people run out and get them. Not to mention you need "4k" content.. oh boy.
It seems that slimmer and slimmer TV's like Pioneers 9mm/~3/8" thick Plasma prototype showed at CES will be what brings customers back in the door for a while.. Yawn.
So the meat of this post - well check this out: 3-d Holographic Images
Yep, that I'm guessing will be the next major revolution in TV - a long way off, but I just can't see resolution being the next big driving force.
So go get a shiny new Plasma or LCD etc.. They are great, but in the mean time I will keep dreaming of 3-D Holographics..

Review - Brunch at the Castle (Delta Bessborourgh)

The Castle - Saskatoon's best know landmark and probably one of the prettiest settings for a fairytale hotel in Canada. While the "the Bess" is known for it's character, weddings and receptions and great location, it's also a great place to eat. We often think of the Samaurai and it's great Japanese, but I've always wanted to try the sunday brunch at the Garden Court Cafe I hear so much about at. Well today was the day... MMM MMM Good!

I trucked down and found a good parking spot close to the hotel, it was a beautiful day out, so driving along Spadina and taking in the review views was a nice start to the day.

The cafe is a great venue, bright, open, quiet (a nice break compared to some Sunday breakfast places). Service was good etc etc..

The Buffet is great.. lot of fresh fruit and salads, omlete bar, sausage, eggs, pancakes etc etc. The juices are great and not your usual cheap and non-tasty fair! The Egg Benedict was fantastic.

One dish that stood out to all of us was the Banana rum topping - sliced bananas, brown sugar, butter and Rum all heated for a delicious looking topping for your pancakes, omlette or whatever! I didn't indulge, but one of my dining companions Trish did and loved it.

All in all a great place to have a relaxing morning breakfast with friends and chat. You'll leave full and happy I'm sure!

Where are they all coming from?

So building is booming, rental units are non existent... where are all these people coming from? Well one place I never thought of until reading an article yesterday is DIVORCE. Makes sense when you think about it, we all know the stats.. 1 in 2 marriages 5 years and under and another 1 in 2 of the remaining by 10 years if memory serves. So that divorce rate means 2 buyers and livers rather than one co-op unit of a family.
The thing we don't think about is the environmental impact this can have, now there are 2 homes, 2 furnaces, more driving, two of everything bought etc etc. By two people who 20-30 years ago would have had a smaller footprint.
I'm not saying stay together for the sake of the environment, but we need to look at city planning, housing sizes etc etc and plan accordingly or the waste and cost in $ and to our environment may be more than we can bear in the future.
Combine this with our desire for bigger, better, nicer and wanting it faster than any generation before us and the problem seems to compound itself beyond comprehension!

Something to think about anyways.. Post your comments and let me know what you think...

Mac Buyers Guide - When is a good time to buy a new Mac/iPod

We have all done it before, gone out and bought something only to have a new better model come out 2 weeks later. It sucks and usually we can't do anything about it after the fact, however there is no law against being an informed consumer ahead of time.
With buying Apple products, a great site to help you out is the Buyers Guide on MacRumors.com. Based on product life cycles and average time for sale, you can see if it's a "good" or "bad" time to lay down your hard earned cash.
If you don't need it today, you can sometimes wait and get a new better model when it's brand new. What do you get - Faster machines, newer generation chips, more RAM and Hard Drive space, newer cosmetics etc.
One big thing you get if you are waiting on a "2nd" gen platform is fixes to glitches, product design issues etc that the first gen may have had. An example is the iPod Nano. The first gen had a beautiful acrylic front, however this scratched up easily and made the product look worn before it's time. 2nd Gen Nano fixed this with some different styling and materials. This does 2 things for you - makes you feel better & increases your resale value. Imagine buying that first gen 2 weeks before Gen 2 came out :( I would wait the 2 weeks.
Now this is all estimations - sometimes stuff comes early, sometimes it is seriously late. If it's your year end and you need to buy for this year for tax reasons go ahead.. but if you can wait and it's not a great time to buy.. Why not wait.

So check out MacRumors.com Buying Guide if your thinking of buying a new Mac or iPod.

I'm sure buying guides for other products exist too - just spend some time on Google. An informed consumer is a better consumer!