So, you’ve always wanted to backup your computer’s content, but never took the time to do so. Whether it’s because you don’t have the time, or simply don’t know how to do it, Clickfree is likely the perfect solution for you. The backup system doesn’t require any software install or hardware to configure. Just plug it in and it’s ready to go. Truly that simple.
The Clickfree storage solution comes in either 120 (HD701) or 160GB (HD801) versions and can be attached to your computer via USB (1.0 and 2.0). The first time you plug it in, it will do a full backup of your content, which can take a while. But once that has finished, the system will only do incremental backups, only saving files that have recently been changed or added to your computer.
Once your backup has been done, unplug the device, and voilà! Your files have all been saved to the drive. Need to refresh the backup? Plug the Clickfree unit back in, and it will automatically update itself.
Hat tip to Nelson Dumais (French) for the great find.
Here’s a pretty fun way to start the day: An ad promoting Linspire, one of the many Linux distributions to grace the world. Yeah, I know, this one is pretty old, but fun nonetheless… and good luck getting the tune out of your head! Lyrics after the jump.
If you love podcasts as much as I do, you’re probably already familiar with Ask A Ninja. The Ninja’s helpful tips on how to survive everything from college life to meeting women always work really well for me. Or rather they would if those tips didn’t result in one or more deaths, at a minimum.
Now The Ninja has put out a secret Ninja Handbook filled with instructions on how to make your life as Ninja-like as possible. While the transfer from video podcast to physical book might seem a bit of a leap, they’ve provided an intermediary step for you. The Ask A Ninja team has created an audiobook complete with professional voice actors and, of course, The Ninja himself. Better yet, the producers have so much confidence in their masterwork that they’ve put upslightly under an hour of the book up on their website.
I’ve listened to the two samples and it is absolutely fantastic. There are lots of rediculous quotes, stern warnings of impending peril, and concise bullet points for easy learning. I suggest you give the samples a try and if you like it, go ahead and order yourself a copy.
For a while now, I have been playing with Jaiku, which is Google’s equivalent of Twitter. You can use it to update your status, chat to other Jaiku users and microblog on the web. It is still in closed beta, and until recently. invites were strictly limited. But a few weeks back, Jaiku allowed existing users to give away unlimited invites, so a colleague gave one to me and I started playing with the service to see if it was a Twitter killer or not.
Once upon a time, sometime in the early 70’s, a bunch of geologists were working in the Karakum desert, right in the middle of mother Russia. So while digging a hole for God knows what reason, they stumbled on a huge natural gas deposit, and afraid that the substance might poison the air of the region, they had the brilliant idea of setting it on fire. The result? Check it out below.
Who knew that a punch in the face in slow motion could look so fun? Hmmmm, I wonder how much these people had to get paid for them to accept this? I guess we’ll never know!
So, you’ve always wanted to learn everything about the history of computing, but never had the time to do so? Fear not my friends, the “SuperBrothers” have cooked up a cool little music video explaning the whole thing in under 4 minutes.
Following an early morning status check of their vintage electronic equipment, two computer engineers “throw down” in an awkward dance-off that seems to (innacurately) echo the development of information technolgy and the internet from 1951 up to the present day (!?).
Google Street View debuted almost four months ago, and has already landed in legal trouble. Though really, there shouldn’t be much surprise that taking pictures of people without their permission has raised some major privacy concerns. Google has already dealt with some of them by implementing a a system so that images can get flagged and taken down, but of course as soon as the site launched, so did websites devoted to re-posting amusing pictures found there. So even if you do find that picture of yourself sunbathing in your underwear on your own balcony on Google Street View and ask them to remove it, by that time it’s probably already making the rounds on the web.
Of course, recently Google has encountered something more concrete than privacy in general: trespassing. One of their camera cars drove right up someone’s driveway, past a “No Trespassing” sign and a guard dog, and took pictures that were posted on the website. The owner of the house is not happy. Google’s defense: well, if cars turning around in driveways or UPS delivery trucks don’t get in trouble, then why should we? Forget the legal analysis; this doesn’t even pass the common sense test. If I needed to turn around in a driveway, I probably wouldn’t pick one with a big “No Trespassing” sign posted out front, not to mention that I certainly wouldn’t be taking pictures once I got up there. And delivery vehicles are invited there by the house owners.
One point that Google makes is a good one–a great deal of the privacy that we think we enjoy is indeed an illusion. Still, it seems to me that we need to draw a line somewhere, and if it’s not at that “No Trespassing” sign, then where is it? All I know is I won’t be sunbathing on my balcony anytime soon.
So my question to you is: how much privacy are you willing to sacrifice for cool technology like this?
An Italian judge has used a 1948 law to convict a local historian and author of the crime of “stampa clandestina”. This is basically the crime of running a newspaper without first officially registering with the local authorities. But by convicting him, the judge has also opened the door to a much bigger Pandora’s Box.
What was this newspaper that Carlo Ruta was running? His blog. The judge ruled that since his blog had a headline, that qualified it as a newspaper and since he hadn’t registered it, he was guilty of “stampa clandestina”. Simple. Guilty as charged. He was fined and told to take down his blog. Next case.
Ruta simply took down the blog and put up a new one. But now he is a convicted criminal and he has lost all his original blog material which is obviously a big deal.
Italian bloggers are understandably outraged and are also asking why prosecutors are bringing cases now. There are potentially 5 million Italian blogs out there and Ruta was the first one to be charged. Blogs were folded into the “stampa clandestina” law back in 2001. Why was Ruta now singled out after 7 years? Was it perhaps because his blog is all about links between politics and the mafia? Hmmm…
The “stampa clandestina” law was actually set up back in 1948 with good intentions. It was just after the end of the war and the new government, with the help of the Allied occupation forces, wanted to stop Fascist sympathisers from starting up their own publications to stir up trouble. So they forced all new publishers to register with the local authorities so they could control things. But obviously now 60 years later, with the internet bursting onto the scenes and the likelihood of Fascists seizing power in Italy diminishing to zero, that law is becoming increasingly unworkable and needs to be revised. Plus let’s not forget the fact that Italy is a member of the European Union and freedom of the press is enshrined in the EU.
This conviction, if allowed to stand, is a dangerous legal precedent because it suggests that all Italian blogs are illegal because they are not registered. If anyone blogs anything in Italy that someone doesn’t like, a judge can order that blog to be shut down immediately under the “stampa clandestina” law. Plus if the Italian government starts demanding that blogs be registered, will bloggers comply? I sincerely doubt it.
I hope you got a chance to see Casey’s Geek Guide for the Fall TV Season. On it she lists some of the new shows that should be real winners for the geek crowd. After finally catching up with all the pilots, one show stood out for me that sadly didn’t make the list. Let’s make up for some lost time!
The Mentalist is one of the least hyped shows of the Fall. Aside from commercials that reminded me of The Dead Zone, the pilot received almost no attention. At first glance it looked like a rehash of an old idea (the hyper-observant detective) that might fall somewhere between Monk and Psych. When I was planning my “premier week” watching schedule, I didn’t even add The Mentalist to my list. In fact, I only remembered it after its pilot had already aired, forcing me to find it on the internet. After viewing it last night, I have to say that I was pretty impressed.
The premise of the show is that a one-time psychic uses his powers of observation and manipulation to solve intricate mysteries. If you ever saw Crossing Over with John Edward, the protagonist, Patrick Jane, was pretty much that guy until a tragedy occurred in his family. After that, he quit his career as a cold reading con-man and began helping the California Bureau of Investigation with their major cases. To say much more about Patrick Jane would give away much of the plot, but let’s just say that it’s certainly no clone of Monk and it’s a far darker story than Psych. In fact, the last scene of the pilot is very dark and really ties together the whole episode. Consequently I’m hooked for the rest of the season.
I was completely prepared for this show to be either terrible and over-the-top or dry and boring as paste. It turns out I was completely mistaken. If you saw the pilot, share your expert opinion in the comments!
So, you’ve always wanted to backup your computer’s content, but never took the time to do so. Whether it’s because you don’t have the time, or simply don’t know how to do it, Clickfree is likely the perfect solution for you. The backup system doesn’t require any software install or hardware to configure. Just plug it in and it’s ready to go. Truly that simple.
If you love podcasts as much as I do, you’re probably already familiar with 
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