Rdiff-backup vs Duplicati on Windows 2
I like backups. I like them more since losing many, many GBs of data over a decade ago – before I got backup religion.
Many of the long term readers know that I’m always looking for a better backup method.
I’ve been using rdiff-backup for about 3 years on Linux systems and mostly like it, but it isn’t perfect. Yesterday, I decided to check out a new way to backup my Windows7 laptop, Duplicati. I’d seen a few GUI tools for Windows that use the back end Duplicity tool. I’d always been interested in Duplicity because it does things that many other free tools do not. Things like encryption and networked backups to lots of services (Amazon S3) or just over ssh/sftp.
Keep reading for more on the different experience with Duplicati vs rdiff-backup.
Tips for Digital Photo Organization, Storage and Archival
By some standards, my 10,000+ digital photo collection is either very large or trivial. I suspect that professional photographers probably have hundreds of thousands of photos. Many of those will have different post-processing.
Organizing, backing up and archiving digital photos and images doesn’t have to be complicated to do well.
Organization
As you take the photos, place them into your organization. If you delay more than a week after returning from that once-in-a-lifetime vacation to Africa, then you probably will never perform any useful organization. Below are 8 steps to help you organize your photos efficiently.
Skype from Regular Phones at Home 8
Last year I found a few articles on how to setup Skype to work with a PBX like Asterisk or FreeSWITCH. This last weekend, I finally got Skype working using my home phones. The solution was tested on Windows and deployed on a Linux PC. I’ve deployed it on Linux as a replacement to expensive home phone service. Using Windows introduces many undesired issues for me (stability, license costs, etc).
I wanted the ability to extend this solution beyond a simple 1 line phone in the future, possibly adding a PBX and other PBX capabilities around this Skype-at-home use.
Features
- Use normal home phones just like regular phones. Making and receiving calls like you’d expect. Visitors to your home don’t need any instructions to make phone calls (except 911).
- Setup speed dial entries to both Skype and normal telephones. It would probably be useful to create 911 speed dial entries to your local police or fire department switchboards
- Cheapest home phone solution that I’ve discovered that doesn’t demand tracking of your web traffic.
- Voicemail
2010 Article Summary
I was going to create a Top 10 List of 2010 here. Then started looking through the articles and some constant themes can out.
- Virtualization For Desktops and Servers
- Disk Encryption
- Backups Rock!
- Risks and Concerns for Cloud Computing
- Quicken Runs on Linux – ’nuf said.
- Security Isn’t Easy
- Passwords – Never the Same and Use a Password Manager
- Desktop Security Tips
- Browser Security Settings
- WiFi Router Security Checklist
- Privacy Is Gone Online
- Don’t Use Adobe Software
- Windows Software to Avoid
- Free Security Tips Ebook
- Dealing with Computer Viruses
- Been Hacked?
- How To Build A Home Server – Cheap
Previous Best Articles Here
Happy New Year!
New Toy-Thermaltake BlacX Duet eSATA Dual Dock
I received a Thermaltake BlacX Duet eSATA USB Dual Hard Drives Docking Station for Xmas. I’d asked for it since almost no non-nerd would have known what it was. Today was the first day that I got a chance to plug this baby in.
First Impressions
Comcast Limited-Basic TV
So I finally did it. I cut the TV lineup from 300+ channels to something called Limited Basic because they had a deal on ISP+TV for $30/month that I couldn’t refuse.
Last week, I dropped off all the equipment at the local Comcast office. What equipment?
- Motorola HD Tuner (not a DVR)
- ETA – phone to SIP converter
- DTA – weenie digital QAM tuner to lowest quality TV coax as possible
I had the triple-play from Comcast for the last 3 yrs. TV, Phone, and ISP. It was over $150/month; unlimited North American phone calls, 300+ TV channels, and a 12/3Mbps ISP connection. No real complaints except the price. For about $120 less, I have 22/5Mbps ISP, no phone, and the Limited-Basic TV which is supposed to be local channels, 5 shopping channels and 10 local access channels. I expected a single useful Spanish language channel – not the one I wanted. I’m certain the price will be higher than the $30/month promise due to local fees and taxes. How much higher is still to be answered.
Thankfully, I have an HD TV with a ClearQAM tuner. It used to get most cable channels from 2-118 – a little over 100 digital channels plus the 8 HD channels locally broadcast in my area. Since last May, most of those channels are encrypted. I get 2-27 analog with the DTV versions of those channels. No CNN, no TV-Guide, no USA, TNT, etc … still there are a few nice surprise channels – like Telemundo (Aurora), a few other Spanish channels and 3 HD PBS channels. I haven’t counted them all, but I think it is about 25 useful channels not counting any shopping or religious channels. I’m really pleased. OTA reception of HD where I live is hit or miss, so having cable access to those HD channels will be nice.
Ultimate OSS List-2010
Datamation has published their Ultimate Open Source Software List of 2010
Lots of good things in there for anyone that likes Open Source Software – OSS. Just to clarify, they seem to mix OSS, FLOSS and even some closed source things. More than a few in the 14 page article are not free and there are huge gaps in some of the categories where the best FLOSS tool is not mentioned at all.
The list has desktop and server software.
The list has trivial things like IM software and EBR software for medium-sized businesses.
There appear to be formatting errors in the article, so some of the lists aren’t split into new paragraphs, but those are fairly minor. The article is filled with jewels worthy of the 5 minutes to scan it for new stuff.
Related, I always perform a freshmeat query when looking for software to do X. There are thousands and thousands of FLOSS projects there.
SOGo-Competition for Zimbra and MS-Exchange 1
Messaging is easy, but Enterprise Calendaring is hard. I’ve just learned about the guys over at SOGo who have a GPL/LGPL competitor to Zimbra and MS-Exchange. Sure, you pay for support, but using the server software doesn’t cost anything.
- If you want to connect MS-Outlook clients, that’s fine.
- If you want to connect smart-phones, that’s fine.
- Thunderbird seems to be their main integration client, which is nice. That’s what I use.
Anyway, go take a look.
I’ve just pulled the VM appliance VMDK down and will be playing with it on ESXi in the next few weeks. They claim it was setup for VirtualBox, but I’d rather not run this sort of thing on that VM technology. This could be perfect timing for my company – we have been planning a Zimbra upgrade and honestly, it scares me.
There are lots of search hits on SOGo on freshmeat.net – that’s encouraging to me.
Check back here later. If SOGo is great, I’ll certainly write more. If it is crap, it will be in the comments below.
This could be good, really good. I’m hopeful.
Brother HL-2140 Laser Printer Tips 1
Tips consolidated from these posts.
Below are tips to get the most printing out of an inexpensive Brother laser printer, beyond what the default setup would provide. Users are reporting 500-1000 extra pages out of toner cartridges with these tips. I haven’t used the printer yet.
