Tag: Technology

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Technology Wars

I’ve been working with computers since the beginning of time.

I’ve seen too many corporations, “killer apps” or “futures of computing” come and go to count. Hell, my resume is chronicle of the computer industry.

The devices get smaller, lighter, and to some extent smarter but the hype remains the same.

I survived the Mainframe vs Mini computer wars, Uhh the cheapest solution won…

Mini computers reign was fairly short lived because they fell to Micro-computers( aka personal computers), again in general the cheapest solution won.

Before you PC fan boys get all smug there was a time when the term PC was… well very P.C. and inclusively meant IBM, Tandy, Sinclair, a wide variety of hobbyist, and Apple machines.

I’ve listened to and occasionally participated in the PC vs Mac wars.

I’ve likened the latter to folks debating, “Which is better, a Bic or Monte Blanc?” both will write your name on a check to me just fine.

Both computer platforms are perfectly serviceable I’ve long held the thought that you should choose your computer just like you choose your pall point pen. Find something that you like and get on with your life.

The same is true of smart phones. I’ve had an iPhone, and a Blackberry, and now I’m on my second Android. I like the Android platform and the variety of phone and application choices available.

I’m platform /manufacturer agnostic, I’ll use my Mac most of the time, My Netbook (Win 7) when I’m out and about, and my Android without looking at an iPhone longingly.

All I ask of a device is that it freaking works and doesn’t annoy me or require that I perform troubleshooting exercises on a daily or weekly basis.

I think there will probably be no winner in the iPhone vs Android war. Just as there hasn’t been a clear winner in the PC vs Mac war.

I suspect that most of the pundits and wags feel the same way too. I guess they have to sell magazines and stir the pot to keep their jobs. So here’s a request. Hey guys, could you dial it down a notch?

Wake me up when the iPhone 6 is released.

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It’s a good day!

Aside from the pain in the ass nature of losing data on my server. One of my major worries was that I was also going to lose a ton of original photos.

In general I don’t ever erase or overwrite an SD card from my camera. Instead I treat the card like film negatives and just store them away.

But… And this is a BIG but, I didn’t always do that. It wasn’t until almost a year after the house fire (Where I lost everything) that I realized SD cards where actually pretty cheap and that I should just store them like negatives. During that period, I took a lot of photos and some of those were published, others made up part of my portfolio.

With the data crash I was pretty sure that I’d lost a ton of the pictures in that category.

This morning, I plugged in a portable hard drive and started browsing the data it contained. There was a folder labeled “Pictures”. Innocuous, unassuming…. AND it was a full backup of the my photo library!

There was singing and dancing over my morning coffee.

Another folder was called “Creative Writing” it contained all the writing I’d done through March 2011. So I’m a happy camper today. Yes there was some information that was lost but it appears that two of the areas I was really bummed out about… I had backed up.

I even found scans of receipts, and paystub information covering the last 4 years.

I guess sometimes being a compulsive asshole is a good thing!

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Well I was worried about space…

I’ve reconciled myself to the loss of almost 6TB of data.

I’d been kinda worried that the drive was 80% full and was wondering what I was going to have to do to address that situation.

Should I buy another Array? Should I start dumping and backing up the stuff on this array that didn’t need to be out there?

Fate it seems had a far more direct solution.

After formatting and checking each drive preforming a variety of diagnostics and surface scans, some of them taking as long as 20 hours. The drive checks out fine. There is no explanation for the failure other than some act of the cyber gods.

So I’m waiting on the final check and then I’ll have a brand new clean drive to begin filling again. This time, I’m going to be a little less cavalier with the data and make sure that I have a better backup scheme.

On the negative side, I lost a lot of data. On the positive side I saved myself a lot of money. I’m not sure exactly how balanced the equation is. Since I’d gotten in the habit of scanning financial records and then shredding them. Most of that information was lost.

I’m also suspecting that I lost a lot of photos. I’m going to wait until the drive is done with it’s last check then start searching for the original files.

Lesson learned.

I think the CD/DVDRAM burner is going to be a busy little camper over the next few weeks.

Word of advice… have a couple of backups of your data. You’ll be glad you did.