World Backup Day

Wired Buddha Post in cloud storage, data storage, security，Tags: cloud storage, data storage
29 Mar 2012
0

Pssst, hey buddy, can you spare a terabyte?

Western Digital has declared March 31 as World Backup Day.

Now, this is probably a good thing, and the timing of World Backup Day could not be more fortuitous.

Coincidentally, Anonymous, the hacker group, has stated their intention to shut down the internet on March 31.

Operation Global Blackout 2012 looks to shut down the Internet by disabling its core DNS servers, thus making websites inaccessible.

You may scoff at the idea of someone thinking they can shut down the Internet. I mean really, the Internet is huge! The security experts are pretty sure the Internet cannot be shut down. But ya know…

Ask yourself this: when is the last time you backed up your computer? Or at the very least, when is the last time you made a computer system restore point?

By the way, this is how you do make a computer system restore point in Windows 7.
Go to Control Panel. Select: System and Security and then select the category: System. On the left select: System Protection. Another windows opens. Select the tab: System Protection and select: Create. When the dialogue box (“Create a restore point”) opens I use a format of Date and Time (“DateMonthYear.Time”). This way I know I made the System Restore point manually.

My HP Pavilion AMD quad-core laptop is my main computer (until I replace the jalopy of a desktop computer). Therefore, I have many projects on my laptop and I am from the Old School way of thinking about computer data: If it’s important, back it up. If its really important, back it up twice.

Most of my important data is already in The Cloud because I often access files and data with my iPhone. This means my important files are already backed up. In fact, I use multiple services to backup my data: Google, Evernote, Dropbox, Microsoft Skydrive, and I have a Western Digital 2 TB network drive.

For my laptop I make a system restore point a few times a week. I use a Western Digital 1 TB external drive to backup my laptop at least once a week.

A little over-cautious you say? Maybe. But on the other hand, I come from the computer days of tape drives and floppy diskettes and I have lost too much computer data and files over the years. As the saying goes: an ounce of prevention…

The Wired Buddha believes every day should be Backup Day.

 
 

Spy Tax

Wired Buddha Post in C-30, post，Tags: bill C-30, tax
17 Mar 2012
0

From the WTF files.

The Canadian government is trying to pass bill C-30, a Spy Tax.

Michael Geist, “One of the major unanswered questions about Bill C-30, Canada’s lawful access/online surveillance bill, is who will pay for the costs associated with responding to law enforcement demands for subscriber information (‘look ups’) and installation of surveillance equipment (‘hook ups’). I recently obtained documents from Public Safety under the Access to Information Act that indicates that the government doesn’t really have its own answer. But apparently the police do. The documents indicate they proposed a new ‘public safety’ tax to be added to Internet and wireless bills.”

A “public safety” tax….??

So, excuse me if I’m stating the blatantly obvious – I would be paying a tax, paying the government, so they can spy on me? What if I don’t do anything wrong? Do I get a refund?

 
 

end of the world 2012

Wired Buddha Post in culture，Tags: 2012, apocalypse, calendar, Mayan
21 Dec 2011
0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

End of the world 2012

The end of the world is nigh!
Well, okay, the end of the world is a year away.
The end of the world?!
A year away?!
What’s this?

Unless you have been living under a rock all your life, you must have heard by now that the world is going to end on winter solstice 2012.
December 21, 2012.

So, glancing at the calendar, the current date is December 21, 2011.
The time: 12:21 am (I thought that was a nice touch).

One year from now the world is going to end. At least, that’s the rumours.
How is the world going to end?
Do we know?
Well… not exactly.
Will it be a ginormous burst of neutrinos that melts the planet’s core?
Will it be a mini black-hole that sucks our galaxy into it?
Will an asteroid collide with Earth?
Will we just poof into nothingness?
No one seems to have an answer. Apparently, the world will just end.

The end of the world is based on the Mayan Long Count calendar.
Apparently the Mayan were very smart. The Mayan predicted the end of the world somehow.
I can see it now – once the Mayan figured out the date, someone was commissioned to build a giant hourglass.

When the hourglass emptied, the world would end on the Mayan date of 13.0.0.0.0 (looks like an IP address).

What does it mean?
Are we sure the Mayan were right?

Actually, 2012 is nothing really but another date of the year.

Plenty of references can be found showing the science behind 2012.
My favourite story is here:

The annotated apocalypse: Anthropologists tackle 2012

So, start planning that party folks, because it may be your last one…

 
 

Explaining computers

Wired Buddha Post in hardware, technology，Tags: AMD, hardware, technology
12 Dec 2011
0

Explaining computers to your dad.
So, here’s a bit of a dilemma…
How do you explain computer stuff to your dad when he is 76 years old?
Answer: with the patience of Buddha and the wisdom of Zeus.

Sure, my dad and his wife have a computer. My dad knows how to use the computer, barely. He knows what email is and can use it, barely. He can use Skype, barely.

When I help my dad with computer stuff, the phone call can be long…

My dad knows nothing of the new technology, of computer speeds, of what over-clocking means, about hard-drive capacity, of internet speed, of computer viruses.

Me, on the other hand, I have a natural knack for explaining computer stuff to people. My dad says I’m a computer genius. Thanks dad :)

Computer technology is a passion for me, so I enjoy explaining and teaching what I know. I love seeing the light bulb go on when people have an “ah-ha!” moment.

All this computer stuff can be very daunting to most computer users. Even the computer experts have a tough time keeping abreast of it all.

Back “in the day”, when computer technology was just beginning – a person could conceivably know all there was too know about computers. Well, times have changed a lot since 1979 when I was in high school. Now, you just pick one area, or two, of computer technology, then get very good at it.

Herein lies the problem: computer technology is moving so fast, how do you think the average consumer can keep up with it? This is where my teaching skills come in.

I tell my dad about computer CPU’s, numbers of cores in a CPU, the speeds they operate at, and CPU cooling.

None of that is going to make sense to my dad, or for that matter, most people. “It’s all Greek” as the saying goes.

My dad comes from the automotive business, so I use automotive analogies when explaining computer stuff to my dad. It works every time.

I figured if my dad can benefit from all my explanations, why not pass it on to everyone else.

So, on with the lesson…

Imagine that a computer CPU is like an engine block in a car. When you hear mention of multi-core CPU’s, this is the number of pistons in our imaginary engine block.

For the record, this is a single gear engine, it does not have a transmission, it may have an over-drive depending on the model, the block is a fixed size.

A single core computer would be a car engine with one piston. A dual core computer is a car engine with two pistons. A quad core computer is an engine with four pistons. A six core computer is a six piston engine.

Now, it doesn’t mean you go twice, four, or six times, as fast. It’s a ratio. But essentially what it means is each core, or piston, doesn’t have to work as hard to produce the same results. When a single-core computer is put under a heavy workload, that puts a lot of strain on the CPU. Would you try to race a car with a single piston engine?

A CPU with hyper-threading means the data connections between the cores are doubled. The computer thinks there are double the number of cores, therefore the information moves faster.

Or, to put it another way. If our car had a one piston engine, but the car had two drive trains, the car is tricked into thinking there is two engines. Yes, the car may move faster, but not twice as fast. The engine still only has one piston.

Okay, let’s get into CPU speed.

A car engine is designed to run at an optimum RPM. So is a computer CPU. With both of these engines you can safely increase the operating speed, to a point, and not do it any harm.

But… (you knew it was coming…)

What if you took that car engine and began red-lining, increasing, the RPM’s? Well, as the motor continues to run at a higher RPM more heat is generated.

In time, the engine will overheat, seize, or blow up. One solution to stop the engine from being destroyed is to increase the cooling system to dissipate the increase in heat.

So, taking that description, when the speed of a CPU is increased, this is known as “over-clocking”. But, same as a car engine, there is a heat issue.

A computer CPU is most often air cooled and the air cooling is designed to deal with the optimum operating speed of the CPU. When the operating speed, RPM, of the CPU is increased then more fans, larger fans, are needed in the computer tower.

Until… the operating speed of the CPU starts to reach critical limits. We have pushed the gas pedal of our single gear engine to the floor and we are holding it there.

When this happens, then a different kind of cooling system is required. This is known as liquid cooling. Yes, that’s right, a water jacket is wrapped around the CPU, just like the water cooling system in a car engine. The increase of CPU speed starts to generate more heat, just like that car engine running at a very high RPM.

Liquid cooling is not uncommon these days. Serious computer gamers push their multi-core computer systems to some pretty crazy speeds. They “feel a need for speed”.

But, because I know you’re just aching to ask, what if you want to make the CPU go faster? Then what?

Well, now we use a different kind of cooling: liquid nitrogen. Yes, you read that right – liquid nitrogen. Don’t try this at home kids. That’s crazy you’re saying. You bet it is. But when people push their computer systems to extreme speeds, then extreme cooling is needed.

Now, keeping that extreme computer cooling in mind, let’s go back to computer cores and speeds.

In October of this year, AMD came out with their 8 core “Bulldozer” CPU. Remember our imaginary single gear car engine? Well, it has 8 pistons now.

Out of the box the AMD Bulldozer CPU runs over 3 gigahertz (3 billion RPM). The CPU speed can be increased to over 4 gigahertz (4 billion RPM) with substantial air cooling. Fast? Just a little.

But wait, there’s more…

A team of “over-clocking specialists” from AMD decided to see just how fast they could push their 8 core CPU. With an abundant use of liquid nitrogen the team pushed the CPU speed to 8.25 gigahertz (8.25 billion RPM). With that, AMD claimed a spot in the Guinness Book of Records.

But wait, there’s more… in the tech world there is always more…

A computer user decided to see if he could beat that. I suppose he had some liquid nitrogen lying around. Well, apparently he beat the AMD team and pushed the speed of the 8 core Bulldozer CPU to 8.4 gigahertz.

But wait…

This fellow was apparently not content with his results. A week later he went one better. He succeeded in pushing the 8 core Bulldozer CPU
to 8.58 gigahertz. Fast? Yeah, stupid fast!! The CPU is running at speeds it was never intended to operate at. The RPM of our 8 piston
engine has doubled!!

So, the next time you want to increase the RPM of your car engine, you could consider liquid nitrogen. I’m kidding. Seriously, don’t do it.

There probably won’t be any need to over-clock your computer anyhow. It is just a matter of waiting until the new Intel 50 core CPU hits the consumer market.

Yes, that’s right – 50 cores!! Remember our imaginary single gear engine? Well, now it has 50 pistons in the same size engine block. By the way, this is equal to over 9,000 Pentium II processors from 1997. All in one chip. Don’t get too excited, you won’t be seeing these 50 core beasts any time soon.

–
The RAM in a computer is the carburettor in our imaginary car engine.

There are two functions of the carburettor we want to look at:
- how much fuel the carburettor can hold at any given point.
- how much fuel can be pumped through at any given point.

The RAM in a computer does essentially those things – holding as much data as possible before it gets to the CPU, as well as pulling the data from the hard-drive as fast as possible so the data can be fed to the CPU as fast as possible.

The amount of data computer RAM holds is measured in gigabytes (read my post on data storage).

These days, RAM needs to hold at least four gigabytes of data. Our computer carburettor should hold at least four billion litres of fuel.

The speed of the RAM is measured in megahertz (millions of kilometres per hour).

So, let’s take a look at our computer cpu/car engine analogy:
1) the more cores, pistons, the better
2) the faster the operating speed, RPM, the better
3) the bigger the RAM, the better
4) the faster the RAM, the better

Yes, there are a few more factors, but I’m keeping it simple.

Just as a comparison, my old desktop computer has a single piston engine running at 1.5 billion RPM. The carburettor holds a paltry 1 billion litres of fuel. The one piston, one core, is responsible for running everything in the computer engine.

My laptop is a quad core (four pistons) running at 1.4 gigahertz. The CPU has an overdrive (auto-turbo) to 2.3 gigahertz (2.3 billion RPM) But I can rev up the engine (over-clock) the engine to 2.8 gigahertz. The carburettor holds 6 billion litres of fuel and it can pump 800 million litres of fuel at once.

To give you an idea of what I can do with my HP Pavilion G6/AMD A6 quad core laptop – I can run a video Skype call, browse the web, convert video off my network drive, while running an online game on another monitor.

See the difference in performance?

Or to put it another way – my desktop computer is a clunker with a misfiring piston and oil leak.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My laptop is racing in NASCAR.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The video card in a computer is the entertainment system in a car. Video cards also have a CPU and RAM.
So the same analogy applies – faster processor, more RAM, faster RAM.

These days, with software requiring lots of computing power, you seriously want to consider a quad core CPU with 6 GB of RAM and video card with at least 1 gigabyte of memory.

Spend the extra money now on a good computer system and make it last you a few years.

Any questions? :)

 
 

Western Digital Cloud Storage

Wired Buddha Post in cloud storage, data storage, hardware, network, review，Tags: cloud storage, data storage, hardware, network drive, review
08 Nov 2011
1

Review: Western Digital My Book Live Personal Cloud Storage

WD My Book Live

Long ago in a time long forgotten,  computer data would be stored on a local computer. If you needed files from that computer, but you were not at that computer, then you were SOL.

If you needed to transfer files from one computer to another then you might have used flash drives. I still use 8 gigabyte flash drives because I store diagnostic software on them. Other than that, flash drives have just about gone the way of the Dodo bird.
These days you can store your data in “the cloud”. Using *free* storage services (examples: Google Docs, Picasa, Dropbox and Evernote), your data is accessible twenty-four-seven. All your data can be had at the click of a mouse, the touch of a screen. You can be on the go, never step foot in an office, and yet, get your work done. For that matter, my iPhone is my virtual office in the cloud (I wonder if I can claim it as a business expense…?)
So far, sounds like a win-win situation, right? Well, hold the (i)phone…
The “cloud” is not some etherial realm between layers of reality. Sorry to disappoint you. The cloud is just a collection of other computers. Yup, that’s right – your data is stored on a computer, just like the one you have at home. Well, okay, maybe not exactly like the one you have at home, but a computer nonetheless. So you’re saying to yourself: “what’s the point then? I could just bring my files with me on a flash drive and that will work on any computer.” Close… but no cigar. For example, this post was composed on my iPhone (using Evernote) and I don’t see a USB connection for a flash drive on my iPhone (well… actually, there is such a device).
There is also an issue of security when using flash drives. Nasty, malicious viruses have been spread by flash drives. The security on the computer of an average user is extremely lacking. When files are stored in the cloud, the security is left up to the professionals. Believe me, this is better security than what most people have at home. Hence, viruses do not (should not) get spread. Still, your data resides on other computers, which might be a concern if you’re worried about privacy (note: always read the fine print in regards to storing data in the cloud).
However, there is a downside to free cloud storage solutions. The big one being limited space. Most often you will get 2 gigabytes (sometimes more) of cloud storage. Depending on how you use that cloud storage, 2 gigabytes can get used up real fast. Although, you could always pay more for cloud storage (and that’s the catch). So, inevitably you need to do some house cleaning once in a while. Basically, you’re just using the online storage for working files. There are some workarounds though – you could always open another account, and another, and another, for more free cloud storage. Okay, that could work. But holy cow, how do you keep track of all that? Files would be spread between multiple accounts. How would you remember which account you stored files? Not exactly a practical solution.
So, what to do? You want and/or need a huge amount of cloud storage, but you want to get it for free as it were. Well, I offer you a very practical solution: a network drive – your personal cloud storage. Do I have your attention yet?
These days many a household has a wireless router because, hey, we need to be free from wires but still want our Internet connection. A network drive connects directly to the router – in other words, cloud storage for every computer on the network. This cloud storage is local physical drive however, not on some remote computer in the middle of BFN, providing cloud storage to your local Wireless Area Network. But in this instance, you are not limited to just 2 gigabytes of cloud storage (so yesterday). How does 2 terabytes of cloud storage grab you? Yes, you read that right, *2 terabytes* of personal cloud storage. Every computer (desktop, laptop, iPhone, etc) on your Wireless Area Network (i.e. Wi-Fi) would have access to it, as well as the ability to access it remotely. Now do I have your attention? Getting interesting, is it?
Early this month I bought a Western Digital My Book Live 2 terabyte network drive. The 1 terabyte external drive for my aging desktop computer was getting very full because I used that terabyte drive for everything. The problem is that only the desktop computer had access to it. With the Western Digital My Book Live Personal Cloud Storage network drive, my desktop, my laptop and my iPhone has access to 2 terabytes of personal cloud storage. I can also access my personal cloud remotely with my laptop and iPhone.
Do you have multiple computers? Laptops? iPods? iPads? iPhones? Kids? :) Then a network drive would be a great solution for storing movies and music. The Western Digital My Book Live works with PC and Mac computers.
Installation was a breeze. Connect the power to the unit and plug in the ethernet cable to the router. I installed the software on my desktop and laptop computers. In half an hour I had both computers and iPhone accessing 2 terabytes of cloud storage. Only that, this time, this cloud storage is mine :) There is a password to access the network drive remotely and there is a code to install for the iPhone app.
How long will this last amount of cloud storage last me? How long before I fill it up with movies, music and pictures? Only time will tell. When that time comes though, I will just add another 2, or maybe 3, terabytes of personal cloud storage.
Conclusion: well worth the investment. Wired Buddha gives the Western Digital My Book Live Personal Cloud Storage network drive 2 Buddhas.
 
 
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