Yes, it’s true.  Finally a way to get your personal files on each machine you work with that gets backed up online without any worry of who is rummaging through your data when you aren’t looking!  It’s the secure online backup you were looking for!

Windows? Linux? Mac? No problem.  Installers are available for all three systems.

DropBox (a glorified subversion system for the rest of us) has finally worked its way out of beta and will become the backbone for our project.  Transmission of data to DropBox is via HTTPS, so we at least have half the problem resolved.

The second problem is DropBox’s STORAGE of my files.  If they defect to the goverment faster than AT&T did with the NSA, then you can be sure your private key and personal bookmarks to porn sites will be used against you.  I wanted the storage of my files encrypted. Since I couldn’t trust DropBox, I turned to my good old friend, TrueCrypt.

The solution here is to create a TrueCrypt volume inside of your DropBox folder.  Even though DropBox has a 2GB folder limit, you shouldn’t use all of it for your TrueCrypt drive.  Unfortunately, TrueCrypt creates the encrypted partition to it’s maximum capacity, which means if you create a 1GB encrypted volume, it actually takes up 1GB on the harddrive even with nothing in it.  And transferring a 1GB file many times for little to no content isn’t the best plan.

Since the volume is filled out to maximum filesize even with no data, it’s best to create a few smaller drives (in the 256MB range) as DropBox has to upload the entire file at least once and you have to download the synchronized file on every computer.  TrueCrypt can mount about 12 volumes automatically, so my recommendation is to keep the volumes small and increase the sizes for volumes you don’t modify often.

Don’t feel guilty about using encyption.  Don’t be guilted into the “If you have nothing to hide” mantra; privacy is your right as a human, exercise it.

The only good thing about Tom Brady tearing his ACL in the Week 1 opener is the crying of all those fantasy football players.  The screams of agony of thousands of “virtual coaches” as they watch their No. 1 draft pick get sidelined for the season.  Do not feel sympathy for them; these are the same bunch of jocks who thought playing Dungeons and Dragons was queer.  Now 30 years later, when their wives won’t give up the balloon knot, they have to sit in some guy’s living room in a circle around a table and fantasize they are something they are not.  Delicious irony.

I love my little Macbook.  It’s so cute.  And this coming from a guy who has Windows experience back to 3.1, and whose primary job responsibility is to support and manage a Windows domain and hundreds of clients.  So why is my Macbook so nice?

For one main reason: it’s polished. That critical “step-back” after everything is done to say “what can we improve now?”  This is something that Microsoft and companies who build Intel PCs are seriously lacking.

Read the rest of this entry »

One of my favorite songs of all time is the timeless hit “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” as recorded by Margaret Whiting and Johnny Mercer (although written by Frank Loesser). Despite it’s popularity during the winter holiday season, I have found it quite enjoyable all year round because of it’s theme.

The duet is one of music’s best, second only to Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong’s version of Summertime.  While the characters in the song do not have names, the female voice is called “The Mouse” while the male is “The Wolf”.   Here’s where it gets interesting.

The song is a back-and-forth duet of the male persuading the female to stay with him for the duration of the night after their date; her indecisive protests clarify that while she is obligated to go home, she is tempted to stay. That was the polite interpretation.

Upon closer inspection, the wolf employs classic teenage bargaining techniques in order to guilt his prey into staying “the night” and slowly persuades her through potentially-ruffied alcohol.  While the song ends before you know her decision, the wolf’s final statement is a lingering “Ahh, do that again…”

Some of my favorite lines:

• The Mouse, “Say, what’s in this drink?”
• The Wolf, “What’s the sense in hurting my pride?”
• The Wolf, “How can you do this thing to me?”

The thickly-veiled references to sex were very popular throughout music during and before the 60s, but this is the first reference to date rape I can find.  I just hope you think about this song and its intended meaning when your mother and father get up to the karaoke machine, eggnog in hand, and share the mic with this holiday classic.

Sometimes I wish a natural disaster would occur just so people would be distracted and I could get items on eBay much cheaper.

NBC has the Olympics this year (as they always do) and without any doubt, they have failed to produce a useable TV schedule.  In response, someone has done the work for them, and created a Google Calendar version of the schedule.

http://www.google.com/calendar/htmlembed?src=olympics_%257e_01039895__10003%23tv%40group.v.calendar.google.com

I didn’t see an iCal version anywhere of the Olympic schedule, but if I find one, I’ll be sure to update this post.

Read the rest of this entry »

One would think since Activision is using the same damn engine, they could’ve either tweaked the game slightly or added in something useful.  As predicted in an earlier post, Activision fell on their face with their latest release.

One of my favorite new features is audience involvement.  In this version, the audience CLAPS while you are using your star power.  Sound fun?  Think you’ll be hyped?  Until you realize the audience DOESN’T CLAP ON BEAT!!

Since the set list is seriously underwhelming, playing songs that don’t even belong on “Deep Tracks” on XM, another suggestion not out of the realm of possibility is fixing the sound.  To their credit, they did fix the Dolby Pro Logic issue that plagued Wii users, however you are still reaching for the remote to lower the sound between game play and the ending “You Rock” Animation, as there is a +10dB difference.

They even politely included more crap to interrupt your game play:

• 2 additional intro videos to click past before you even get to the main menu
• A “who cares” interview video as you open each level in their career

Even as a fan of both Guitar Hero and Aerosmith, I have to say it is a lackluster game in terms of content but I was biased as I grew increasingly irritated by the off-beat clapping during my favorite songs.

For those of you who do not know, Gary Gygax, the father of D&D, died at 69.

Like many great people throughout time, he did not invent something from scratch. He created the world of Dungeons and Dragons from the archetypes that J.R.R. Tolkien imagined. This in no way diminishes his achievements, for millions of lives have been affected.

To me, and plenty of other kids who preferred brain over brawn, he gave us an outlet for our creativity. He created a world where the only limit was your imagination. A world where guidelines were given, you fleshed out the details, and was created with a simple 5-word magical incantation; “You are in a bar…”

I’m sure there will be many other posts like this (but this one is mine) around the Internet today, and my self-serving nature merely wants to contribute. Boring you with details on how he affected my life would be completely pointless; those of you who played Dungeons and Dragons understand, those of you who didn’t, won’t.

To Gary, let’s just hope the deity you meet in the after-life isn’t begrudging you for being left out of Deities and Demi-Gods.

We’ve all played Guitar Hero. Press a few buttons, flick the strummer. But why all the over-hype on a game that simply rules on its own merit.

Activision has released their press junket to the pre-order sites with these statements:

• Challenges you to perform the music of the legendary Aerosmith
• Take on the roles of Aerosmith members Joe Perry, Brad Whitford and Tom Hamilton
• Experience the career trajectory of a band becoming more and more popular

Really? I can take on the roles? Does the package come with an 8-ball? Can I hit a groupie after I’m done my set? I don’t understand all this hype, who is buying this game honestly thinking they can “Experience the career trajectory” of Aerosmith.

Read the rest of this entry »

Peter Callesen has done some magnificent artwork using only a single sheet of paper.  Check his entire catalog for some very creative ideas.

I’d say more, but anything else would ruin it.