To my great surprise yesterday I received an e-mail from my web host (1and1) stating that my account was seriously threatening the server resources. Curiously, I checked my web stats.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I had received over 20,000 hits by the middle of the afternoon, and that there were currently over 200 users on my site. Huh? This was quite a jump from my average of 40-50 hits per day. A quick glance at my referals indicated what I suspected: my site was getting hammered by the “digg” effect.
Specifically, the article I wrote last December on “Imaging Windows XP for free” had been picked up by digg.com, sending an onslaught of traffic to my “Beginner” hosting package. Apparently my site buckled and 1and1 moved me to a temporary server. Their e-mail to me requested that I consider purchasing a dedicated server. I oggled at their suggested prices and quickly declined the offer.
So, I’m back and running on a different server, this time NOT hosted by 1and1. Hopefully it can withstand the strain, since I noticed that I’ve also been picked up by Lifehacker.
UPDATE: Box.com has survived the test of time, while XDrive is no longer with us.
To continue my recent interest in using multiple computers more conveniently, I’ve been seeking a new path: on-line file storage. I recently covered a way to store and synchronize Firefox bookmarks, history, and cookies (Google Browser Sync), and a way to write and store word processing documents on-line (Writely).
Today I will share a couple of ways to store regular files on-line.
If you spend much time hopping between multiple computers, such as work/home/other, sometimes it’s just convenient to keep certain files stored on-line. You always know that there will be a copy available if you need it. Even if you do not use multiple computers regularly, on-line storage is handy for archival purposes. If your computer crashes, you can rest assured that you have backups of your critical files. Let’s face it: keeping regular backups of your files is just smart, and there’s no excuse these days for NOT having backups. Hard Drives are rather inexpensive now. One can also “burn” backups to CD/DVD. On-line storage has the advantage of being off-site; in the unfortunate event that my house burns to the ground, I *still* have backups of my critical files. Read more
The motherboard on my main machine (P4 2.66, Intel 865PE) started going south a week ago. I experienced a few hard locks and infamous blue screens (the stop errors of which are impossible to decipher). The biggest problem was that after a reboot, the mother board would start its POST procedure, count the RAM, and freeze. After a few minutes, it would reboot on its own and repeat the procedure. When the planets aligned correctly, it would boot perfectly and run for several hours before crashing again.
I need to use this machine every day for graduate work in music composition, so this kind of behavior is unacceptable. So, I decided to upgrade a few key parts. My first option was to purchase another socket 478 motherboard, but along with dwindling availablility, it did not seem to make sense to invest in such “old” tech. Also, I’d been out of the hardware loop for a while, so I had some research to do. Read more
Late 2019 Update: The screenshot images are currently broken, and I can't seem to find the originals. Sorry.
05.22.04
Greetings everyone. Believe it or not, I’m going to attempt my first Linux distro review. First, allow me to say that I have only been using Linux for about 5 months, so I’m a comparative newbie to many in the Linux world. I don’t make presumptions to know everything. With that in mind, this review is not geared toward the Linux veteran, but for people who have more curiosity than experience with Linux.
First some hardware specs:
Motherboard: MSI “865 Neo2-PFS (Platinum Edition)” i865PE Chipset
Processor: Intel Celeron 2.0GHz (Yes I know it’s lame. I care not.)
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9500 Pro
RAM: 1024MB Kingston PC2700
Sound Card: Soundblaster Live 5.1
Hard Disks: 120GB WD “Special Edition” IDE; 40GB Seagate IDE
Optical Drives: Lite-on DVD-ROM; Sony CD-RW
Mouse: Logitech MX300 (USB)
Read more
Update: I wrote this article in 2005, but it’s still receiving lots of traffic. Please see my complementary article on “ghosting” Windows for Free with Open-Source Tools.
Update 2: I recently wrote an updated version of this article, featuring Macrium Reflect in place of DriveImage XML.
Update 3: Here’s another updated version of this article, this time featuring Paragon Drive Backup Express.
12.21.05
If you have ever had the pleasure of re-installing Windows XP from scratch, you know what a hassle it can be. The idea of endless tweaks, patches, driver hunts, reboots, and scouring the web for software does not exactly fill me with glee. Did I mention the reboots? For me, the worst part is the sinking realization that when I finish the endless tweaks and software installs, I may end up doing the entire process over again from scratch six-to-eight months down the road. Why? Masochism may be one answer, but a more probable answer is an unexpected bout of spyware, a rogue virus, or a bloated registry that is causing the system to behave erratically.
Surely there must be an easier way to create that “freshly installed” feeling. Of course, you could run out and purchase Symantec Ghost(tm) or some other commercial application that will allow you to create an image of an installation and then restore from it later, but isn’t there a way to achieve the same results without spending any money? Mac OS X has Disk Utility, which can create compressed disk images of drives or partitions from which you can later restore by booting off the install CD/DVD. Linux has several free utilities such as Partimage and Mondo Rescue or even the venerable “dd” command. Windows XP doesn’t have anything like this built-in. Read more
01.19.05
The following is a list of free applications that greatly enhance Mac OS X at zero cost to the end user. I compiled this list with a few key points in mind.
I want to acknowledge that limiting myself to ten applications was difficult. Therefore, I decided to list a few runners-up at the bottom. I also want to emphasize that the items listed are in random order! All of these applications provide a different functionality, and ordering them by rank is futile and pointless. Finally, this is a subjective list; others will certainly disagree with my choices. I am fine with that. That said, here we go. This is *my* list of ten “must-have” applications for OS X.
—- (In random order) —- Read more