Multi- Gigabyte File Copy Operations

~ rbonini ~ 1 Comment

Copying more than one gigabyte in one operation is tedious, frustrating and agonizingly slow. Not that there is all that much you can do.

Scott Allen was having a little bit of difficulty so I’ thought I’d help a little.

Scott Hansellman has a post on 3 utilities you can use to copy files without using the windows explorer.

First, Robocopy. If you have XP or Windows Server you can easily get this in the Resource Kits. If you have Vista, it’s already in your path. That’s always nice. It’s Robust, indeed (hence, Robocopy) but it’s legendarily unforgiving

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Second, for repeatable jobs, I love SyncBackSE. It’s $30, but there is a free version with less features available. SyncBack is option-ful and literally moves nearly every important piece of data in my house around weekly.

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Last, but certainly not least, XXCOPY. It’s huge. Epic even. It’s even got a nice windows progress bar that pops out of the DOS Box. The Technical Reference is comprehensive to say the least. Here’s a summary of the features. It’ll sync directories, maintain short names, qualify by date/time, copy security info.

I’ve used Robocopy. The GUI frontend is next to useless (either that, or I’m doing something wrong).

I’ve yet to try the other two.

Hope this helps someone.

Cheering up the Original iPhone Owners

~ rbonini

Fake Steve Jobs made me laugh out loud:

Well, we’ve got a plan to restore some of that magic you felt on Day One. No, not a $200 rebate. And no, we’re not going to let you return the phone or cancel your plan with AT&T. But here’s what we’re going to do. It’s a sticker. Bring in your receipt to any Apple store or AT&T store and show that you paid full price for your iPhone, and we’ll give you a sticker that says, “Original iPhone.” Very small, very classy, black on black, made of super high quality plastic with a glossy finish. Something you’ll be proud to put on your iPhone so everyone will know that you’re not just any iPhone user; you’re one of the super smart, super cool early adopters who paid full price. You see? We’ve got you covered. I know what you want to tell me. What can I say? You’re welcome. I love you too. And you are special. I mean it.

One problem. They’re not buying it. They’re stalking el Jobso:

Damn. Last night they were out there holding a candlelight vigil and singing “We Shall Overcome.” To hell with it. I’m calling the police.

Windows Home Server and SageTv Update

~ rbonini

( You’ll catch the previous installment here)

Well, after carefully looking at the problem that I originally thought had to do with SageTv, I’ve come to the conclusion that it most defiantly isn’t. It seems to be a problem inherent to WHS (to do with opening backup images). So you can rest easy. this should be fixed in the RTM release, but I can’t be sure.

The next thing is finding a backup time so that SageTv will play nicely with WHS and find my PC’s switched on to backup. Still working on that. Its most probably going to be early in the morning.

I created a network share in the console and told SageTv to dump store all its recordings there.

Overall, it’s great.  Having the ability to have TV on my PC is great. I have BBC News 24 running in a window above the system tray – its way better than a news ticker.

Recording is great. I really dig the  intelligent recording functionality – no more missed ER episodes. I tested it with my second favorite US Comedy after friends – Scrubs. You might want to fiddle around with the Video Codec under Detailed setup. The default SageTv codec was,well, dogs vomit. Since I have Intervideo WinDVD installed locally, I chose their codec and  it was perfect playback. I’ll have to look around the forums to see if there is another fix.

Funnily enough watching the video files was impossible with Windows Media Player or Real player before switching codec, but perfect afterwards. I’m not superstitious so I’ll write that off to chance 🙂 .

The Youtube thing failed to play the files for some reason. And the weather, though it got the info, was displayed horribly.

And if you do buy a license, you’ll need a Media Centre license.

Choosing a Laptop

~ rbonini ~ 1 Comment

Its back to university in a few weeks and I’m needing a new laptop. Currently I have my eye on a Dell Inspiron 6400:

Processor: Intel® Centrino® Mobile Technology: up to Intel® CoreTM 2 Duo Processor T7400 (2.16 GHz, 4 MB L2 cache, 667 MHz FSB & Intel®  Pro/Wireless 3945 (802.11a/b/g) network connection

Operating System:

Genuine Windows Vista®  Ultimate

Genuine Windows Vista®  Business

Genuine Windows Vista®  Home Premium

Genuine Windows Vista®  Home Basic

Chipset: Intel® 945GM chipset (with Intel®  GMA 950TM  integrated graphics)

Display: Choice of 15.4-inch Wide screen displays in WXGA resolution, WXGA TrueLifeTM resolution

Video Graphics: Intel®  Graphics Media Accelerator 950TM  integrated graphics with up to 224MB shared system memory

Wireless Connectivity Solutions: Integrated Dual-Band (802.11 a/b) antenna. Integrated DellTM  Wireless 1390 (802.11b/g) or Intel®  Pro/Wireless 3945 (802.11a/b/g) network connections. The Dell Wireless 350TM  integrated Bluetooth 2.0 wireless solution is available as optional upgrade at time of purchase only

Battery Life: Be productive for up to 5 hours without re-charging your batteries

Design: Artic Silver and Alpine White design incorporating a 5-1 card reader and front-access multimedia buttons

Memory: Up to 2GB of 533 DDR 2 SDRAM provides for excellent overall system performance

Optical drives: Your choice of CD-RW/DVD Combo drive or 8x DVD+/-RW 2(supports double layer technology)

Software: Microsoft®  WorksTM  including Works word processor, spreadsheet, database, calendar and My Projects organiser

Weight: Starting from 2.8 kg (6.18 lbs) with CD-RW/DVD Combo drive and 6-Cell Battery and integrated graphics

QuickSnap Colour Display (LCD) Back: Choose from four different stylish colours to personalise your notebook

Express card slot: Please note that this system has a ExpressCard slot and support the ExpressCard format only. This system does not have a PCMCIA card slot.

The only thing they forgot is the battery time. Since I’ll be using this to take notes, among other things, battery time is very important.

Any other suggestions?

Thinking about Facebook

~ rbonini ~ 2 Comments

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Above is Shel Isreal’s Friendwheel of his Facebook Contacts . In the interests of disclosure, I’m not on it. In fact I’m not even on Facebook. And I’m exploring why in this post.

The above picture shows a true social network, pardon the term for a minute. Most people who know Shel know others in his contact list as well.

There are a few hundred contacts here, and it is a reasonable number of people to know and be in contact with. See the difference between being like Scoble who has 5000 people who happen to read his blog and having a shortlist of  “real” people that you know personally and do business with?

If you sit down and consider this for a moment, you’ll see the logic of that statement. We all have  lists of contacts, in Outlook, Messenger, in our Mobile Phones or perhaps written in a phonebook. They are there because we know these people personally and communicate with them often.

Now I would not have the email address and phone number of my readers ( assuming I have regulars who read my blog) on my mobile in Messenger or in Outlook ( actually Google Mail, now).

Why should it be any different on FaceBook???? Why do people add contacts that they’ve never met in person?

 (And Scoble, by the very nature of his work, needs to keep a pulse on the Valley – thus his large contact list. I was just using him as an example)

Now I DO concede the point that this is exactly what happens in business – people exchange cards on a whim in the hope of acquiring business or services from someone else.

Which leads us to the next question? What do you characterize Facebook as? Is Shel’s Facebook Contacts made up mostly of froends, ore mostly of people in the same line of work ( I guess its the latter)? In other words, is Facebook a social of a business contact site?

I ask since Facebook was originally a students only site.

So why am I not on Facebook? Simple. I don’t need to be.

PS. I addition to the above, where does Facebook add value? If its business-oriented how does it do this? If its Socially-oriented, how?