Gammalt Mediajox: Radiomedverkan

Ibland får jag vara med på radio, vilket är skoj!

(Inte jag som gjort bilden, jag fick den faktiskt mailad till mig av en lyssnare…)

Finns två inslag att lyssna på här:

P4 Café Skaraborg, 20030910.

Sommarvärd, P4 Skaraborg, 20040706.

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Backup För Hemanvändare

Av lite olika anledningar har jag fått frågor om bra backupsystem för hemdatorn på sistone. Det finns massor med käcka lösningar för det, men låt oss fundera på vad som är centralt med ett backupsystem för hemmet:

1. Det ska fungera. Det innebär alltså att det dels ska backa upp de filer man behöver, dels ska det också ske automatiskt/regelbundet så att filerna verkligen backas upp.
2. Det ska helst spara flera versioner av filerna om de ändras. Smidigt OM man får  in ett virus som förstör filen så är det dumt om de äldre (virusfria) filerna raderas i backup’en med de nya förstörda.
3. Det ska helst finnas backuper utanför den plats där datorn finns. Offsite (på annan plats/ort) är bäst. Att ha alla sina backuper på en extern hårddisk som ligger bredvid datorn är av tveksamt värde om båda blir stulna eller brinner upp.
4. Det är charmigt om det finns något skydd i det, så att inte backuperna är i klartext. Det kanske de flesta hemanvändare inte bryr sig om, men om man använder någon av de tjänster som sköter om backuper och lagrar centralt är det tryggt att veta att de kanske inte kan läsa allt man gör i klartext?

Hur får man det att funka då? Tja, det enklaste sättet att lösa det är att slänga pengar på problemet. Finns massor med eleganta lösningar, men eftersom hemanvändare tenderar att vara snåla och gnidiga kommer här ett von Anka-gnidet förslag på metod. Jag använder den faktiskt själv till min laptop, så jag ÄR också lite gniden.

Som grund för det hela använder jag Mozy. Jag har skrivit lite om det förut, men i grund och botten är det en tjänst som ger dig 2GB gratis utrymme för backuper. Dessa sker via ett Mozy-program, som sköter om det hela automatiskt. 2GB är inte mycket, men det torde räcka till de flesta kritiska filer/dokument man jobbar med löpande. Om man är klurig så väljer man noga ut vilka dokument som ska säkerhetskopieras i menyn i programmet. Är man mindre snål betalar man för tjänsten och får då MASSOR med utrymme, så man kan göra backuper på bilder och allt annat man har. Mozy krypterar dessutom filerna.
Mozy adresserar dock inte versionshanteringsproblemet, i alla fall inte i grundversionen som jag provat. Den kan man dock ganska enkelt hantera själv, med hjälp av gmail (www.gmail.com). Jag har gjort det till en vana att jag efter en dags intensivt arbete med några filer alltid epostar dem till mig själv, via två olika mailkonton. Då har jag alltid kopior av den senaste versionen av filerna på en annan dator än min.

Detta är mycket enkla åtgärder för att högst noterbart öka säkerheten för vanliga hemanvändare.
Om ni klickar på Mozy-länkarna i det här inlägget och sedan går med i tjänsten får jag en bonus i ökat utrymme på mitt gratiskonto (tjo!). Ni får det också. Alltså, både ni och jag får mer utrymme. Alla vinner. Om ni ändå inte vill delta i det, skriv bara in mozy.com i webläsaren så kommer ni dit utan att ge mig bonus.

Gammalt Mediajox: Säkerhetsprat på TV4

Jag blev inbjuden till TV4 Skaraborg för att prata informationssäkerhet. Filmen är från 2004-11-04, så inte jätteaktuell i allt, men kanske sevärd ändå…

Gammalt Mediajox: Ett boktips på TV4

Jag blev inbjuden att tipsa om böcker på TV4 för något år sedan. Jag valde att tipsa om Pullmans fantastiska Mörka Materie-trilogi. För den intresserade finns klippet på youtube nu!

Some More Words On Switching to Mac

I’ve had a couple of weeks now trying to adjust to use the Mac. To this point I am overwhelmingly positive to the experience.
I?ve started out using both my old windows XP machine and OS X machine in parallel, waiting for the external hard drive and extra memory to be delivered. Turned out that it was really quick getting used to OS X in general, and not I?ve been using the iMac exclusively for a week. My old PC is donated to my mother. Ah, the life of hardware.
But, there are a couple of things I dislike. The most notable is Finder. There are a couple of really strange design choices there. One is that you cannot move files to other disks by drag and drop. You?ll end up copying them. In fact, you cannot cut and paste files either. Now, I understand the logic for this choice, but it still means that I?ll end up doing extra work when moving files. Frustrating. Oh, and speaking of moving folders, that is something you should be careful with in OS X if you are used the workings of windows. If a moved or copied folder exists in Windows, Windows neatly merges the content of the two. In OS X it replaces. Sure, you get a warning, but still, I don?t see why that would ever be more useful than the merge feature in Windows. It just wastes time (and files, perhaps).
I have not used office 2004 for Mac all that much, but it is useful enough. Things are not always where I want them to be, but that is mostly up to learning stuff. Shouldn?t be a real problem.
There are some free applications that I am missing from Windows, however.
Irfanview is a spectacular piece of software for managing image files, and doing batch conversations of them. Highly useful.
Picasa is very, very good when it comes to handling your digital photos, and uploading them to the web.
Myphoneexplorer is good for handling your (Sony Ericsson) cell phone, backing up contacts, SMS etc. Sure, iSync works well, but I miss being able to backup my SMS.
Luckily, I can run Irfanview and Picasa without any problems on a Windows XP installed using VMware, so that is no big deal. Still frustrating, though.
Myphoneexplorer doesn?t really work well under WMware, however, so that is one piece of software that I am missing.
Other than that? Well, things just work. It took a lot of work to get album covers on most of my albums on itunes. But it looks neat now, both on my Itunes and on the ipod. I like it. Itunes is far better in OS X than in windows, for some reason. Still not sure if I like it or not, but there really aren?t any good alternatives in OS X so I?ll better just bite the bullet and get used to it.
Oh, yeah, I am rather frustrated that Apple hasn?t yet released an update for the problem that the Imac hangs occasionally. Mine hasn?t hanged more than once or twice but still, it bugs me. Had another couple of instances where I?ve had to reboot too, and while reboots are far quicker on OS X than on my old XP machine, I still dislike it.
One of the great things about the Imac is that is rather quiet. Not super-quiet, but quiet. I hear it, but I am hypersensitive when it comes to noise, so that is to be expected. The built in speakers are surprisingly good, works well for music when working.
The single best thing about the machine for me, however, is just how neat my desk and office has become. Almost no cables, almost no clutter. Just two screens (yeah, I use my old 20? Dell as a second monitor, works without any hassle) and a wireless mouse (a Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer II, the mighty mouse is HORRIBLE) and the amazing Apple wireless keyboard. It looks beautiful, at least to me, now that I am free from clutter?

Ok, Sometimes Microsoft Gets Stuff Right (Or so it Seems)

One of the things I tend to spend a tremendious time doing is managing references. Yes, I know there are tools for it, but at times I am horribly lazy, something that hurt me in the long run.
It seems that Microsoft has finally realized that there are a lot of students actually writing academic papers using their software and added features for it.
Have a look here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/microsoft_office_word/archive/2007/10/22/final-paper-time.aspx

Smart stuff. I hope it will be included in Office 2008 for the Mac too!

The BIR 2007 Presentation

I’ve just held my presentation at the BIR 2007 in beautiful Tampere/Tammerfors. The conference has been nice, the food has been spectacular (at least the dinner yesterday) and all in all I am quite happy.

For those that are interrested, you can find the .pdf of my presentation here: The BIR 2007 presentation
I’ll try to put the presentation itself online in a couple of days.

A Quick Review Of The Bestskinsever-Skin For The Ipod Classic.

So I got a new ipod classic 80 GB. Beautiful machine. In fact, beautiful enough to warrant me thinking about getting some kind of cover. I normally tend to frown upon using covers, as I see electronics as something that should be able to handle some abuse, and I don’t really frown upon small scratches. Therefore I’ve never used a cover or protection for my cell phones, and just a simple screen protector for my old Archos gmini 200. That screen protector is pretty horrible, but works. Got it for a dollar at a Radio Shack in SF, but it’s really nothing I’d like to recommend.

As the ipod is notoriously prone to scratches, I wanted to protect the whole thing. Covers where right out, as they make the ipod look ugly, and are bulky. Therefore a full ipod plastic cover sounded precisely what I wanted.

I did buy a “complete cover kit” from a Swedish store, called screenguard.se. As it turned out, this was far from a complete cover kit, as it only covered areas of the ipod, so I returned it and got my money back (nice company, by the way). Then I decided to order a highly rated cover, from abroad. There are basically two companies selling high class covers, www.bestskinsever.com and Shildzone. According to what I’ve read online, they both use exactly the same material, made by 3M, so the actual quality is the same. Shieldzone offers a warranty, and is three times more expensive, while bestskinsever is… cheap. Me, being… cheap, opted for the bestskinsever product. I ordered one complete protection set for the ipod, one skin for my PSP and a “DIY-skin” for future use. All in all it cost about $19 including delivery to Sweden. Delivery was surprisingly swift, less than a week. The covers arrived in an ordinary letter.

Application of the cover on the ipod was tricky. It requires some care in order to not mess it up. I did manage a decent result, but there are some slight bubbles that has not gone away, and sadly some dirt/bubbles on the screen itself. Nothing that really bothers me, but do note that application requires a bit of time, set an hour aside for it and you’ll probably have time to spare. Follow the instructions carefully, though, and use more water than you’d think in order to keep the parts “floaty” on the surface.

The end result is good, however. It gives the ipod a different look, somewhat more shiny, but it still looks quite nice. The level of protection should be more than adequate, according to other tests. I do think the scrolling is somewhat affected by the skin, as it doesn’t really feel the same as before, but it should be OK when I get used to it. The backside of my ipod managed to get scratched from lying in its original plastic cover, unused. Amazing. I should have gotten a skin as soon as I ordered the ipod.

All in all I am very happy, and would not hesitate to recommend bestskinsever.