Doug Kent's Ramblings

Mozy Backup is awesome!

Doug Kent — Fri, 11 May 2007 00:39:00 +0000

Mozy is officially the easiest way to backup your personal and company data. I tried Amazon S3 for a while, but I’m finding that Mozy is the simplest. We are using it at LicketyShip now for our database backups. I’m using it to backup all my personal data as well. Mozy gives you 2GB of space free for personal accounts. That’s more than enough for most people. Mozy saves versions, so you can retrieve a backup you made 2 weeks ago if you happened to delete or write over a file.

Mozy is meant to be used as a backup, not as an online file store. If you want to store your files online for access from another location, you might consider using Box or Omnidrive. I plan to get going with Omnidrive in the next month.

Been sick the last couple weeks. Hopefully I’ll get back on these projects by the weekend.

First try at Google Picasa Web Albums – Disappointed

Doug Kent — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 14:56:52 +0000

I downloaded Google Picasa yesterday. I was initially disappointed when it automatically started indexing my pictures. I’d like to be in control of that. I don’t like it searching my drives for every possible piece of media. After organizing a couple albums, I tried to upload to Picasa Web Albums…no luck. I searched the forums and couldn’t find much to help. Some people said I had to open up some ports on my firewall. Why would it need open ports on my firewall? Shouldn’t this just be some kind of simple web service at Google?

I plan to try out Flickr tonight. I guess Google gives you 1 GB free vs 100 MB/month on Flickr. Also, Flickr has limitations as far as number of photos in their “photostream”. I don’t know many people using Picasa. It seems that everyone is using Flickr. If I like Flickr, I might eventually fork out the $25/yr for a family account. I know my folks would like to get their pictures online.

Portable Apps

Doug Kent — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:27:37 +0000

By the end of May, I plan to be free of desktop applications (as much as possible). I want to use web apps for nearly everything. I should be able to jump on any computer and access my files, music, and email. However, there are times when I’ll need to use specific software. For example, I don’t want to use Internet Explorer. I want to use Firefox with all my extensions. That’s where Portable Apps come in. PortableApps.com has special version of Firefox, 7-zip, OpenOffice, etc. that you can carry with you on a USB key. This is really handy for when you’re on the go, and you want a little more for your “desktop-free” lifestyle.

Intersection. Green light. Left turn. Pull forward. Wait for traffic. Yellow Light. Red Light. Oncoming Traffic Stops. Take the turn. Legal or illegal?

Doug Kent — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 18:16:49 +0000

In Colorado, where I grew up, this is pretty straight-forward, but I guess the law varies by state. At an intersection, one car is allowed to pull forward into the intersection on a green light while waiting for oncoming traffic to clear (or stop) before taking a left turn. Often, this involves pulling forward on green and waiting for the light to turn red, so that oncoming traffic stops. At that point, you can take the left turn. Traffic from the sides must wait for you to clear from the intersection before proceeding. This is not considered running a red light. Running a red light involves entering an intersection while the light is red. If the light is green or yellow, you are allowed to enter the intersection. If you remain in the intersection and block traffic, you can get cited from blocking an intersection. As long as you clear the intersection when the light turns red, you’re just fine. This is the recommended way to drive in Colorado.

However, I’m finding out that not every state works this way. I believe California works this way (or at least people drive that way here). It makes sense. Often, in San Francisco, there is no green arrow and pedestrians start crossing immediately when the light turns green and keep going until red. The ONLY time you can make the left turn is when the light finally turns red. At least one car can make it through.

I believe there is a scene in L.A. Story with Steven Martin, where he is training his 16 year old son how to drive. The son gets nervous and just hangs out in the intersection after the light turns red.

Gas grills have a safety device

Doug Kent — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:51:08 +0000

I started the gas grill last night on my patio. The flame wouldn’t adjust past the lowest setting. I finally went to Weber.com to learn that the regulator has safety device to restrict flow in case of a gas leak. When you turn on your propane tank, you’re supposed to wait a few seconds for the pressure to equilize before turning on the grill.

Anyway, I shut off the grill and closed the tank for a minute. I think opened up the propane tank, waited about 30 seconds, and then turned on the grill. Worked like a charm.

Gettin it going and keeping on keeping on

Doug Kent — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 22:22:12 +0000

I finally got this blog up. I tried a year ago but got bored after a week. We’ll see how this one pans out. So far, I find using wordpress is a lot easier than installing your own blogging software. I’ll probably add a CNAME to my current hosting to point dougkent.com here.

Anyway, my goal over the next few months is simplification. Technology should be a lot easier to use. Here’s a list of projects for the next few months:

Get everything backed up to Amazon S3 using Jungledisk.
Use Omnidrive for my most commonly used files. (I might also look into box.net)
Get rid of my mainstream music mp3s and start using Yahoo Music Unlimited To Go for my music. No reason to buy CDs or actually own anything. Just pay a monthly fee for as much as you want. I’ll buy a new portable music player that can handle subscription music.
Migrate all my email to gmail. Google allows you to point your mail records (MX) to gmail. Instead of using outlook and having it stored on my local drive, I can just push the existing messages to a dougkent.com email account and go from there. I haven’t used gmail much, but with all the Firefox extensions and tweaks, it seems incredibly usable.
Use Google Docs and Spreadsheets. I rarely need the advanced functionality of Word or Excel. Google Docs and Spreadsheets seems to be clean and simple. I don’t think I can need anything more.
Get rid of software I don’t need.
Organize the software that I do need. If my machine dies, I should be able to easily recover by installing a handful of apps over a couple hours. I should have everything ready to go. Also, I’d like to have my most common items (such as Firefox extensions) on a USB key.
Move all my photos to Google Picasa Web. I compared Picasa with Flickr, and I think Picasa is just what I want. I don’t care much about tagging.
Personal media center. I’m looking at an open source project called Media Portal. It’s like Tivo, but it runs on your computer. You can record TV and play it back later. You can record a show while watching another show. You can also take your own videos (possibly ones you downloaded from the net) and watch it on your TV. I’d like to be done with DVDs and physical media. With common compression and large hard-drives, you can have hundreds of movies and shows available on demand.
Actually use my delicious account for bookmarks. I don’t bookmark anything anymore. I really should get back into it, as I surf a lot.
Organize my life with Google Calendar and the Get Things Done methodology. I got the GTD book. I just need to read it and start getting things accomplished.
No more papers in the filing cabinet. For nearly all documents you receive, especially bills, you can just scan them and file them online. There are few documents where you need to have the original copy.
Trim down my personal belongings. I can get rid of at least half of my clothes. I have tons of books that are just collecting dust. I have a bunch of random crap. I should be able to move in a single car trip. If my place burns down after an earthquake, I shouldn’t be worried about “my stuff”. I can always replace it. As long as my data is stored somewhere else, I’m not concerned.

That’s probably enough for post #1.