I keep coming across articles on how you should keep your data safe, backing your data up, having multiple copies of backups to have a retention of your data.. I just don’t know what to back up and what method is ideal.  Let me explain how my computer storage works.  I have 2 partitions, 1 is for data and 1 is for the OS.  The OS partition is 250GB and the data partition is a 500GB hard drive in which 300GB is used right now.  Now, do I backup my data? Or do I backup my Users directory in my OS partition?  If I do backup my data hard drive, what method should I use seeing as it’s so many gigs?

I considered doing an online backup to Amazon S3 [Amazon S3] but seeing as if I upload over 300GB, the cost will be over $50 a month, which in my opinion isn’t worth it for an online backup.  Then I considered if I were to just backup to my 160GB Firewire external with the stock Windows tools that it comes with, but I know 160GB wouldn’t be enough for my data drive but it could just as easily backup my Users directory in my OS partition.

While trying to come up with conclusions on what I should do, I did encounter an online backup company called Carbonite [Carbonite], for $55 a year they offer unlimited storage space for backups of your computer.  They even have accidental deletion recovery.  It seems like a good idea, but is $55 a year worth it just to backup all your stuff to a remote location?  Are we all just being too paranoid?  Or am I just being paranoid?

Remember the days of Doom? Where you’d input the code “IDDT” during gameplay and you’ll enter god mode in the game?  Well apparently, Windows has a similar code.

If you create a folder in Windows 7 and name it:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

your folder icon will change and upon opening it you’ll have access to many many controls confined in one window.  It’s almost handy I suppose, if anything it’s really neat.  I just like the fact that Windows 7 has secret codes to do secret things, I wonder.. if there are any other ones.. If you find any, please post and let us know!

I started a personal weight loss program about 3 weeks ago, well, 2 weeks ago.. I’m on week 3 right now by simply just changing my daily diet.  ”Portion control! Portion control! Portion control!” is what I believe my motto is.  It’s very easy to just eat everything that’s in front of you and then some if you’re still craving that extra bowl of ice cream for dessert, but just saying “no!” could make the difference between shaving off a few pounds and well, not..

It’s definitely hard, I’m not gonna lie.. I’m usually starving by midnight or so, lately I’ve just been saying no to snacks and midnight meals.  I wake up with sharp pains in my stomach due to hunger, then I have to rush to a meal to take care of that.  I suppose I’ll have to find a good solution for the nighttime to avoid waking up with sharp pains.

Overall goal: Lose 20lbs.
Timeline: 15 weeks.
Method: Portion control, minor physical activity.

I’ll be keeping ya’all updated on the progress on a weekly basis, so stay tuned! But, since the blog hadn’t been launched since I started this.. Here’s a recap..

Week 1: Lost 1lb and held it off for the entire week.  Weekdays aren’t too bad but the temptation to order large meals at restaurants and then dessert is definitely there..

Week 2: Lost 1lb.

Week 3: Lost 1lb.

iPhone tethering for me has been iffy, I haven’t been able to get the hack working with the carrier file no matter what I do.  I’m currently running version 3.1.2, but I’ve found a really good solution to iPhone tethering.  I’ve tried PDAnet as well and even bought the registered version but nothing has worked as well as iPhone Modem 3.  Of course you’re going to have to jailbrake your iPhone but it’s well worth it.

The app is available through Cydia but you’re going to need the host application as well.  It’s available for both Mac & Windows and it’s very easy to setup.  All you do is download the host application, run it, and it’ll set everything up for you on the host side.  Then when it says open the app on the iPhone, go ahead and open the app and it should automatically connect and you’re good to go!

When I ran a speed test [SPEEDTEST.NET], I was able to get about 1.9mb down and 700kbs up, which might I say.. is pretty good when you’re tethering your phone.

[iPhone Modem]

Well. The past 2 years I’ve posted shortly after midnight and I suppose I’ll continue that tradition.. I’m currently not on a computer and actually already in bed watching some 15 year old sing “One Less Lonely Girl” or something of that sort..

I know.. I know.. I stil need to set 2010 new year resolutions. I accomplished 7 out of 10 of the ones I set in 2009 though!

I think though, I want to post up highlights of ‘09 as well.

Blogging off a phone is not too comfortable, so um, happy new years!!!

Man, I haven’t posted on here in forever!

I think, more postings are to come. No promises though…

Features of the site to look forward to though are:

• Interesting code snippets I come across throughout my day
• A ton more front-end development stuff
• Photo gallery
• Facebook login to comment
• New layout
• And more..

There aren’t many good sites out there that have good video on it. There’s YouTube but that is too mainstream for this blog. Video on a site is hard to make attractive in my opinion because you must host video that the user will actually want to sit and watch, at the same time you have to make sure your server is able to handle the load of streaming videos.

The site I will be using for this blog will be http://www.hulu.com/.

This site has a very understandable layout. On the homepage you have the banner which shows popular videos, you scroll to the middle/bottom of the page and you’ll see your popular videos, popular clips, and featured videos. This draws the viewer into watching something out of boredom or coming to the site to see one thing but viewing another because it’s suggested.

They do very well on bandwidth I imagine, I’ve watched a few clips on there and they seem to download resonably fast and doesn’t lag very much. They also provide some of the videos in HD as well which is another plus since HTPC’s are becoming more and more popular these days.

So I have noticed that if I feel I look good on a day guys are more likely to be nice to me but days I look like shit girls are nicer to me since I need friends I should probably start slumming it more but since I would rather be adored then have friends cute it is fuck women they’re not gonna spend money on me

In my opinion, most sites with sound come off as being very lame or annoying. I personally find entering a site and then hearing sounds on enter very distasteful. But, if you’re able to implement sound into a site and make it so subtle that it the user browsing the site sort of expects to hear a sound, then that’s good implementation of sound.

A good example of this in my opinion would be http://www.storyville.com/.

The reason this site is so effective with using sound is the very little sound they use but the subtlety of it. For example when you hover over sections in the side menu, you get just the perfect sounding sound when hovering over. Then if you go on ahead and click on an item a box will open up, within this box if you click on items that will change the content inside you’ll get a nice transitioning sound in between content changes.

Those are just a few example from the site, there are more sounds throughout the site if you go further onto explore.

Concluding on a site that makes good use of images was quite difficult since images itself is a very vague topic, so I did the best I can on choosing a site that I felt made good use of images. I’m going to pick the site http://www.fullsail.com/. After visiting the site you’ll probably notice it’s also very animation intensive and should probably go into the animation review, but the use of images in the animations and also on the static pages were also very well done.

Why I chose this site was because of how they show you visually every point they want to make, along with text to back it up. A very good example would be their “Career Development” page. It visually shows you the stages of where you need to be to get to the top. Along with each stage, you also get a small overview about the stage. With each stage, there’s also faded out image icons that demonstrate the stages. I think this holds the user’s attention while providing them with the information they need.

Another good example is their admissions page. It doesn’t have very much text on it, but the image layout and the images they show are very attractive and presentable. It gives the viewer a nice warm feeling.

Conclusively, this site makes good use of the image element because of their image selection and mainly, image layout. Providing site users with an easy to navigate image layout and easy-on-the-eye images is a big plus.