Almost weekly I am confronted with an individual who is asking questions about their beloved computer data. There are a great many misconceptions of hard drives, and data backup by the average consumer, so let’s address some of these.

There is a surprisingly large number of people I talk to who don’t keep any backup whatsoever of the data on their computer. Some of them “mean well”, and talk about how they need to start doing a backup, but most aren’t aware that they need a computer backup in the first place. Now most of these people haven’t ever had a crash, which resulted in the catastrophic loss of all their family photos, etc. But surprisingly, a great number who still don’t backup their data after they have already lost all of their data at one  time.

Here’s the deal… The Hard Drive, is where everything is stored on your computer. It is the most volatile part of your computer because it has more moving parts than anything else on your computer. The fact of the matter is that every hard disk drive will crash at some point in its life. It may do so after a week, or after a decade you just never know. So to stake all your personal data, family photos, and business data on one singular hard drive is quite a big gamble. You may never witness the death of your hard drive, and may never have to deal with the sudden loss of your entire digital life, but then again, it may happen sooner than you may think.

So what do I do to make sure I never loose all of my precious data?

First of all, you must come to this realization. You data is not backed up, unless it is in two places at once. Simply moving your data to another location does not lessen your chances of having a data loss catastrophe.

Second, you must choose a backup option. Today you have several options:

1) External Backup

2) Online Backup

3) Internal Backup

External Backup

External Backup usually involves a USB device of some sort. It could be simply a key chain flash drive, or small 2.5″ usb hard drive, or a full size 3.5″ hard drive. The external device you choose depends on several things: How much data you need to back up, the portability you want to have with your backed up data.

Please note that external backup devices are not meant for storage, they are meant for backup.

Cost: $10-200

Online Backup

Online backup is the process of backing your data up onto a source located away from your home and network. My #1 Recommendation is Mozy.com . One thing you need to consider when choosing an online backup solution is the company. Many online backup companies have come and gone through the years, so you want to pick one that will have a better chance of being here tomorrow. This means a company that has roots elsewhere in the Technology industry, and a service that isn’t free.

Mozy is a subsidiary of EMC, one of the largest Technology companies in the computer industry. Additionally, we’ve all heard the statement ”Nothing is free”. And when it comes to something as important as your data, nothing could be truer. Data storage isn’t cheap, and a great number of companies providing free online storage of anything, are now history. Expect to spend money for good online backup solution.

Internal Backup

Internal backup is a more advanced line of defense to protect your data. Most of the time, a computer will come with a single hard drive where your operating system, and files are stored, however, a more advanced option is to go with two hard drives in your computer, and to configure them into a RAID configuration so that multiple drives can be used together for various reason. The main home application of raid is something called “RAID 1″. This is when two drives are taken, and setup in a mirror configuration, so that any changes made, are mirrored to both hard disk so that if a hard disk fails, you computer stays up and running with all data in tact. Again, RAID is a more advanced solution for the consumer market, and a professional should be consulted with setting this up.

How do I backup?

With the online backup solution, whatever company you choose to go with will provide software which automatically backups up your data deferentially, which means the first time you backup will take a while, but every subsequent backup will only back up files that have been modified or changed.

With the External Backup solution, you will be responsible for setting up the backup, and choosing software to do so. If you are running windows vista, life is easy. Simply navigate to start, control panel, backup & restore center, and follow the instructions.

If you are still running Windows XP, life is not as easy. There is a built in NT backup program, but for the average computer user is a little complex to use, and has issues with automation. However, I have stumbled upon another cheap solution recently:

http://download.cnet.com/Second-Backup-Free-Edition/3000-2242_4-10405044.html

Second Backup is a simply backup software that copies selected files to wherever you want to back them up. You can purchase the full version for $35 to enable to automatic features which allows you to setup automatic backup of you files, however often you want them backed up, and can even setup an email notification once the backup is complete. This software title also lets you configure the backups as “differential”, so that it doesn’t have to backup all the files every time, and even supports compression your backed up files to that they don’t take up so much space.

Conclusion

Whichever backup method you choose, will always be better than no backup at all. Take a quick browse through all those family pictures from years past, and imagine them disappearing. This will be just a glimpse of the feeling you will have the day you wake up, and all is lost.

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The year is 2009. We are experiencing one of the worst economic recessions in a great many years, and everyone single American has been effected by it. We can sit here and debate who’s fault it was, and say would’a, should’a, could’a. Or we can see our situation for what it is, and come up with a solution for the problem.

A few months ago he current Administration passed a “stimulus” bill. Before this bill was passed there was an outcry by the president and members of congress was “We cannot wait to pass this bill, we have to do something NOW before it gets worst! And therefore the bill was passed without most of our congressmen, or even the president reading the entire bill… over $700,000,000,000 GONE. Where did all the money go? Look a few articles below, and you can find out. Anyways, this “stimulus” bill was claimed by the president, to be the savior of our economy. HE claimed that it would keep the unemployment rate below 8%. Well here we are well into the fall, with the current unemployment rate hovering at 9.6%.

The current congress and president also signed into law a “cash for clunkers” bill giving you and me the opportunity to trade in an old worthless car for $4500 towards a new vehicle. After two days in the program, all $2,000,000,000 alotted was GONE… and the current congress and administration claimed this “cash for clunkers” program a great success. They claimed that giving away $2,000,000,000 of our money was a success.

Right now, the economic downturn just seems to be getting worst. The current Administration claims success for their stimulus bill, but the economic figures say otherwise. They say, “we saved jobs that would have been lost”, a statement that conveniently cannot be proven.

And now, for the main event, Healthcare…. and I present to you, the current healthcare bill…

http://sweetness-light.com/archive/what-the-health-care-bill-actually-says

The current congress, yet again state that “this cannot wait”. And are currently on the road to passing their healthcare reform as quickly as possible. Why? Why dont you hear about any of the specifics here? Why such a rush? why is there outrage across the country about this healthcare reform?

In one answer… Control. If the Federal Government has control over your health and mine. What don’t they have control over? If our Federal Government as control over whether we live or die, what don’t they control? This my friends is what the heated debate is about. This my friends is why you wont hear any specifics from the current congress, administration, and main stream media for that matter. This is why they are trying to ram it into law before you and I know about it. This is coming from a liberal movement that is nothing new.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRdLpem-AAs

MY question is this:

Why now?

With the economy in shambles, and national debt soaring to unherd of  levels. Why is the focus of the debate in our country right now healthcare? Of course my own question is rhetorical, we know why. The current approval polls of both congress and president obama continue to decline. Why? because the country wanted change, and are now realizing what kind of change they are getting. Because the current congress and president know, this. But they also now that the control of healthcare in the country is control of one of the most basic freedoms a human can have. The country was founded on the search for “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”. And Right now, with the current healthcare “crisis”. Our freedom of Life is now up for grabs. And those who are currently in control of the federal governement. Want to take that freedom.

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http://www.darkhorizons.com/films/237/District-9

So this weekend I went and saw district 9…

Before I went, I began to rummage through some movie reviews on the web. What I began to notice, is that there were many who really, REALLY hated this movie, but there were also those who really liked it. To be honest, I was a bit discouraged about seeing it, but headed out to the theatre anyways.

the movie begins as a pure documentary, about this parallel universe where basically, an alien life raft has shown up at earth’s doorstep. The aliens are soon put into a camp “district 9″, and a worldwide conglomerate called “MNU” takes over the task of managing and maintaining this operation. It doesn’t take long for you to realize that MNU is just a government run bureaucracy, that looks and feels alot like the UN. MNU is more interested in weapons technology, and money than it is in anything else, and so goes the mystery of “District 9″.

There are several main things I love about this movie:

1) There were absolutely no actors that I recognized in this movie. They went outside the norm and found simply solid actors to work with.

2) It’s not America Based. I don’t know about you, but most films are all based on Americans, and the United States. It’s nice to see a film like this based somewhere else on the globe.

3) The Documentary filming style was very original, and did alot to make the story feel real.

Graphics: Were nothing less than excellent. I was worried that with Peter Jackson’s involvement, they would take the “handy cam” actions scenes to the extreme leaving me vomiting in my seat, but on the contrary, the actions scenes were well shot.

On top of all this, the alien CG was perfect. They felt real, and alive. They gave the aliens depth allowing for the audience to identify with them, and sympathize with them.

Plot: There was little back story to fill you in as to what was going down with the aliens, you were kind of thrown in to the middle of this “situation” from the point of view of a documentary. However, as the situation progressed, character depth was found, and was an enjoyable ride.

This is not one of those classic “Mr Hero wins in the end” types of movies, but you don’t leave the theatre feeling dirty, or bad about the ending either. IT’s a good change of pace to the classic Hollywood movie.

Action: The action scenes in this movie were incredible. Well shot, well performed, and VERY satisfying. It’s not a TOTAL action-fest like many other releases this summer, but In my opinion was a good mix.

conclusion: After seeing a sci-fi movie like this, I couldn’t help but think about how crappy the Tranformers 2 movie was. Transformers 2, to me was less of a well developed sci-fi movie about aliens from outer space, and more of a self-indulgent cheese-fest, which included the likes of Jive talking jar-jar binks characters, and sexy woman decepticons.

District 9 adds to the revitalization of the sci-fi genre. Teamed with Star Trek, they seem to give the 2009 sci-fi releases a good name in spite of and mess that was transformers 2.
If you are looking for the classic, Action filled, Johny hero saves the day movie, this is not the one for you. But if you want a true Sci-fi, thought provoking film, that is different from anything you have ever seen. This is the one for you.

Rating: 9 out of 10

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Interested in the next Windows OS? Plenty of info can be found here:

http://news.cnet.com/windows-7-news/?tag=mncol;pm

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So my wife and I had the opportunity to go see Dave Barnes at yearly music festival here in Chattanooga, TN called Riverbend. He’s an incredible artist, here are lyrics from a great song of his…

 

Grace’s amazing hands, they hold me.
They are soft as a feather bed.
They would never strike or scold me,
Cause they know the words that will work instead.
I always thought that love was frightening,
I always thought it’d be so rough.
Love has sent me down an angel, baby
I knew it was Grace, just by a touch.
Just by her touch.

Grace’s amazing hands, they’re ugly,
They’re bruised by the blows that I have blown.
She knows well I don’t deserve her,
But she laughs and says, That’s the way love goes.

I always thought that love was frightening,
I always thought it’d be so rough.
Love has sent me down an angel baby,
And I knew it was Grace, just by her touch.
Just by her touch.

What did I do,
What did I say?
For love to smile down on me,
And show me amazing grace.
C’mon and show me grace

Grace’s amazing hands are they’re ugly,
But they are soft as a feather bed.

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My life has been changing. I was once in a place of comfort. Typical days at a typical job, comfortable schedule. Day after day, dealing with the same people, doing the same things. I went to work, I made the money. The solution to every problem was for ME to do something. I was definitely in a place of self reliance.

Then, the day came. I was let go from my job. Let go from what had become my identity. Let go from comfort and thrusted out into the world once again. The transition is not easy, but it didn’t take long for my studies to bring me to the life of Moses.

Moses as we all know, the baby in the basket, flowing down the Nile, discovered by the pharaohs daughter who raised him as an Egyptian. One day Moses saw an Egyptian guard beating one of the Hebrews, his own people. He killed the guard buried the guy in the desert, and ran away from Egypt.

Moses years later found himself talking to a burning bush. God spoke to Moses, telling him that he was going to use Moses to deliver his people out of Egypt. WHAT?! I’m sure Moses thought… I’m just a shepherd, the God of the universe is asking ME to go back to Egypt and save his people?! Does God not know that I’m not exactly the most popular person in Egypt right now? I mean pharaoh tried to kill me!

There Moses was, living his comfortable life, regular schedule, waking up to see the same people every day. He was… Comfortable, and here comes God barging in.

But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

Now this is the point in which Moses is probably expecting his PEP talk. I mean, I would, wouldn’t you? Well God wants me to do all this work for him, time for him to tell me how great I am. Time for God to reveal the greatness of Moses, time for him to build Moses up, but what does he say?…

And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

So Moses says who am I for you to ask this of me? and God Replies… I will be with you. Wow. What a wake up call. God basically tells Moses, this is gonna happen, and it’s gonna be ALL ME.

Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

 God said to Moses, “I am who I am .  This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ “

So then Moses basically asks, who are you? And response is incredible. I AM. That’s all you need to know. All the false idols of the world have their names and purposes, but THE GOD of the universe is gonna let you be a part of his story. HE was, IS, and IS to come. HE is I AM.

We live our lives as humans with our own story in mind. We are all authors of our own scripts for the movies about or lives. We raise our kids the same way. We raise our kids like the world as we know it didn’t exist before them. We say with our actions…

 ”Hello Child, our lives, and the world as we know it is about you. You can do anything you set your mind to, and accomplish anything you want to.”

 We were created with an incredible love for our offspring, but what  disservice we are doing them. The message I wish to send my son is this…

“Hello son, we love you very much, and are very glad you are here. Welcome to the story that i already in progress”

But what story we are talking about makes all the difference in the world. If it’s the story about us, we are still missing the point. I can live my life, and ty to do everything right. I can give all my money away to those around me, and glorify myself, but in the end, my life will have amounted to nothing.

OR

I can realize that the GOD of the Universe, I AM is inviting to put the script of my own story aside, and become a part of his Story. The Story that was, is, and is to come… forever and ever.

AMAZING.

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After all the countless stories of out of control government spending, Obama wants us to believe he’s cutting the budget, but Mr. Obama, you cant have it both ways.

 

April 21, 2009 | By Nathaniel Ward

Barack Obama, Budget Cutter?

On Monday, President Barack Obama announced his plan to cull $100 million in spending from the federal budget. While cutting down bloated federal spending is always a good idea, and $100 million is certainly a lot of money, this cut fails to effectively address overspending.

A Heritage Foundation graphic makes clear why a $100 million cut is small potatoes:

Writing on National Review Online, Heritage budget expert Brian Riedl puts the budget cut in context. “Out of a $4 trillion in spending this year,” he explains, “this is the rounding error of a rounding error.”

• It is 1/40,000 of the federal budget;

• It is 1/7,830 the size of the recent “stimulus” bill;

• It would close 1/1,845 of this year’s budget deficit;

• It is the amount the federal government spends every 13 minutes; and

• For a family earning $40,000 annually, it is the equivalent of cutting $1 from their family budget.

“So why bother?” Riedl asks. “Because it may enhance the president’s ‘budget-cutter’ image. Seriously.”

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Many years ago, our ancestors, and our fore-fathers sacrificed their lives for the hope of freedom. They wanted a brighter future for their children. A future free from the oppression of despotism across the globe for the people who came to the new world to seek out that freedom. They had dreams of Liberty,the dream that a free people could govern themselves without the giant weight of despotism, and oppression over their heads.

Most believed in a small central government, that was governed by the people, for the people to protect the rights of the people. They also defined that our rights as humans come from God, our creator, not anyone, or anything else. This is very important when you talk about government, because accepting the premise that any rights as humans come from any other source changes our view of government completely.

The Declaration of Independence stated:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Abraham Lincoln Recognized this idea completely. Many of the founding fathers believed in God, and believed this idea, but fell short when it came to the idea of slavery. But during the civil war, during our darkest hour, Lincoln recognized the conflicts of this idea. He recognized that if all men were indeed created equal. Slavery simply could not stand…

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

The founders of our countries believed that government was only to be there to protect the rights of the people, and that the government was to be governed by the people, but the last few decades have shown drastic shifts. As the war against Christianity in government has continued, so has the idea of our rights from God. If Christianity is irrelevant in today’s process of being governed, then who or what do our rights come from? Today’s U.S. government dictates that our rights as human beings come from them. That any freedoms and liberties that we have or do not have, can and will be dictated by U.S. law.

So how does all of this affect me, a US citizen?

True freedom and liberty can only come from God. If it is said that it comes from any other source, it will fail and falter. A government based on the ideology and merits of man, will always fail.

Today we see the government take over of the banking industry, and many other areas of our economy. We are witnessing a massive shift of more government control over ever aspect of our lives. We watch helplessly as a majority of our citizens choose the safety and security of the social welfare state over our God given rights, liberties, and freedoms as humans. Those in office tell us how much money we can make, how much is to much, and they begin to redistribute the so called “excess” to the rest of the population.

Right now, with the current Administration, a GREAT effort is taking place to increase government control over all areas of the United States of America. With all of these things taking place under the shallow slogan of “hope and Change”. More and more liberties are being taken from you and I under a promise of security by the government.

Be Careful fellow citizens. Think before you vote next time.

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Since I’ve posted last, many things have occured in my life…

I lost the job I had for 8 years, was unemployed for a month and a half, and got a new job, and am back at work.

…Life changes have been taking place, and so far, it has all been for the better….

Much, MUCH more to come right here on my blog.

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Now that the so called stimulus plan is up to 93% pork, and 7% stimulus, we now find socialized healthcare in it…

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_mccaughey&sid=aLzfDxfbwhzs

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