NetNewsWire Syncing

As the avid RSS users might have heard yesterday, News Gator is discontinuing its RSS subscription/synching service that's been freely available for the last several years.

Rob Griffiths details it in ComputerWorld.

I migrated last night and the lack of clippings being supported is huge, I'm really saddened by it and am going a little stir crazy as I have flagged and starred articles on 4 different computers and don't have a way of consolidating those yet, ugh!

If there were a reasonably priced pay option, I'd be on it. It's just become such an integral part of the way I get my news I'm lost without it and while I'm grateful to have a quasi-workaround with the Google Reader, I'm already in withdrawals!

If you have suggestions for a good replacement, let me know.

Aron

How to Bypass Stupid Voicemail Instructions

How to Bypass Stupid Voicemail Instructions: "Stuck listening (and paying for) inane instructions about how to leave a voicemail? Here's how to skip past that nonsense."

(Via Clippings.)

David Pogue's Top 10 Tips for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3.0 Software - The Latest Edition of iPhone: The Missing Manual is Here

Thank you, David!

David Pogue's Top 10 Tips for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3.0 Software - The Latest Edition of iPhone: The Missing Manual is Here: "The new iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3.0 software have arrived, and New York Times tech columnist David Pogue is on top of it with a thoroughly updated edition of iPhone: The Missing Manual. The latest edition covers all models with 3.0 Software--including the iPhone 3GS. Here are David's top 10 tips.
"

(Via Clippings.)

In Depth: 14 tips and tricks to buff up your Gmail skills

In Depth: 14 tips and tricks to buff up your Gmail skills: "

Gmail liberates you from your PC. Once you've set it up and redirected all your mail accounts to it (see our 40 Gmail tips article for details), your email is no longer tied to a single PC. All you need is access to a secure web browser and you're in touch with everyone and everything.

Okay, so you've liberated yourself, but what next? Read on for 14 tips for more advanced users which can simplify how Gmail works and make it more powerful and useful.

1. Back up Gmail

Once you've been seduced by Gmail, it's easy to forget that your email is now inaccessible to you whenever you're offline. Plus, of course, there's no locally stored backup of your mail, however unlikely it is that Google will lose your mail.

If you're happy playing with the command line, and you want an unobtrusive way of backing up messages to your hard drive, check out LifeHacker's excellent guide.

2. Access Gmail offline

Alternatively, back up your Gmail and access it offline at the same time by using a compatible mail client, such as Windows Live Mail or Thunderbird – if you pick the latter, we recommend setting it up via IMAP, in which case you'll also need the Gmail Account Setup add-on.

Make sure your email client is configured to download the entire message and not just mail headers: in Thunderbird check the server settings of your Gmail account; in Windows Live Mail, right-click individual folders and check what's set under Synchronization Settings.

3. All in one place

Struggling to keep up with your social networking sites and various email accounts (including Gmail obviously)? Fuser enables you to access them all through one centralised web interface.

STAY INFORMED: Access all your email and social networking logins from one central web site

4. Preview video and photos

If people like sending you video from YouTube or pictures from their Flickr or Picasa albums, make things easier by select Settings > Labs and enabling the appropriate Labs feature, which you'll find near the top of the list.

5. Quick-fire Gmail responses

Save time by creating templates for commonly sent emails. Enable Canned Responses under Labs and it'll appear under the Subject line. Type in your template text and choose Canned Responses > New Canned Response. You can then quickly insert the template into your mail from the same Canned Response menu.

FASTER REPLIES: Canned Responses enable you to set up templates for quick-fire replies

6. Send canned response automatically

You can also use Canned Responses as an auto-responder or confirmation message: just set up a filter and you'll find the option to send a pre-written Canned Response added to the list of options.

7. Choose what labels to display

Gmail recently updated its user interface to show key folders and labels on the left-hand side of the screen. Edit these from the Filters section of Settings or just enable the Navbar drag and drop Labs feature to drag-and-drop them directly instead.

8. Back up your filters

Enable the Filter import/export Labs feature and you can back them up (and restore them) from the Filters tab under Settings.

9. Send blocked files

Gmail's anti-virus technology translates into this: it'll block any file with an EXE, OCX, BAT, COM or DLL extension, even if it's ZIPped up. You can bypass this simply by renaming the file extension to TXT, but don't forget to tell your recipient what you've done, and remember you'll be breaking Google's codes of conduct, so don't make a habit of it.

10. Drag and drop

Fancy using all that spare capacity on your Gmail account as a back-up drive? Windows users should install Gmail Drive, while Mac users should check out gDisk instead.

11. Import mail into Gmail

You've got two options here, both of which require you to enable IMAP access in Gmail (under Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP). First, import – if necessary – your mailboxes into Thunderbird and then use Gmail Loader.

IMPORT EMAIL: Upload your Thunderbird mailboxes to your Gmail account quickly and easily

12. Transfer selected messages

If you only want to transfer selected messages without forwarding them, set up your Gmail account in IMAP mode alongside your existing accounts in a supported application (Outlook, Windows Live Mail or Thunderbird), and then simply drag and drop those messages you wish to upload into Gmail.

13. Use multiple Gmail signatures

GeekFG enables you to create multiple HTML signatures for different accounts or requirements. Each is stored as a bookmarklet which you just drag and drop on to the Compose mail window when you want to use it.

14. Custom Gmail signatures

Fancy creating a signature that adds the latest blog post from your site? Assuming your blog has a site feed set up, just download BlogSigs, which also works with Yahoo Mail, Hotmail and Outlook.

PROMOTE YOUR BLOG: Add a link to your latest blog post to your email signature

Related Stories

• Yahoo! acquires photo specialists Xoopit
• Twitter to educate about power of 140 characters
• Google Books causing civil liberties stir

"

(Via Clippings.)

A Glossary of the Data Center

John posts a very useful and informative guideline with definitions of reliability within the data center.

A Glossary of the Data Center: "I'm serving as a subject matter expert for a panel studying the IT capabilities of the Food and Drug Administration. In preparing our report, the team recognized that many FDA stakeholders are not well versed in the terms used to describe data centers. Here's the glossary that the team developmented, which I thought you might find useful for your own reports and presentations.

Classification of Data Centers (Tier 1 – 4). The Telecommunication Industry Association (TIA) has published the TIA-942 standard for classification of data center capabilities.

Tier 1 – Basic: 99.671% Availability
Susceptible to disruptions from both planned and unplanned activity
Single path for power and cooling distribution, no redundant components (N)
May or may not have a raised floor, UPS, or generator
Takes 3 months to implement
Annual downtime of 28.8 hours
Must be shut down completely for perform preventive maintenance

Tier 2 – Redundant Components: 99.741% Availability
Less susceptible to disruption from both planned and unplanned activity
Single path for power and cooling direction, includes redundant components (N+1)
Includes raised floor, UPS, generator
Takes 3 to 6 months to implement
Annual downtime of 22.0 hours
Maintenance of power path and other parts of the infrastructure require a processing shutdown

Tier 3 – Concurrently Maintainable: 99.982% Availability
Enables planned activity without disrupting computer hardware operation, but unplanned events will still cause disruption
Multiple power and cooling distribution paths but with only on path active, includes redundant components (N+1)
Takes 15 to 20 months to implement
Annual downtime of 1.6 hours
Includes raised floor sufficient capacity and distribution to carry load on one path while performing maintenance on the other.

Tier 4 – Fault Tolerant: 99.995% Availability
Planned activity does not disrupt critical load and data center can sustain at least one worst-case unplanned event with no critical load impact
Multiple active power and cooling distribution paths, includes redundant components (2 (N+1), i.e. 2 UPS each with N+1 redundancy)
Takes 15 to 20 months to implement
Annual downtime of 0.4 hours


Cloud Computing (and Storage). Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet.

NAS (Network Attached Storage). The Network Attached Storage is file-level computer data storage connected to a computer network providing data access to heterogeneous network clients.

Reference Architecture. The reference architecture provides a proven template solution for an architecture for a particular domain. It also provides a common vocabulary with which to discuss implementations, often with the aim to stress commonality.

Reference Architecture can be defined as different levels of abstraction. A highly abstract one might show different pieces of equipment on a communications network, each providing different functions. A lower level one might demonstrate the interactions of procedures (or methods) within a computer program defined to perform a very specific task.

SAN (Storage Area Network). The Storage Area Network (SAN) is an architecture to attach remote computer storage devices (such as disk arrays, tape libraries, and optical jukeboxes) to servers in such a way that the devices appear as locally attached to the operating system. Although the cost and complexity of SANs are dropping, they are uncommon outside larger enterprises. Network attached storage (NAS), in contrast to SAN, uses file-based protocols where it is clear that the storage is remote, and computers request a portion of an abstract file rather than a disk block.

Virtualization (Server Virtualization). Virtualization is a method of partitioning a physical server computer into multiple servers such that each has the appearance and capabilities of running on its own dedicated machine. Each virtual server can run its own full-fledged operating system, and each server can be independently rebooted. (Best practice for reducing cost and increasing performance in large enterprises).

"

(Via Clippings.)

Interesting IE & Gmail Issue

Came across something pretty wild today. A user wasn't able to access his gmail account via the web interface on IE--the result was a 414 URL too long message.

There were some proxy server artifacts from the several month old Facebook bug but nothing that was still running.

I ran scans, checked proxy settings, and finally installed Firefox and we got into the Gmail fine. Still not happy with that alone, I dug around a little more and discovered some similar threads, one that said to check the date on the computer. Lo and behold his computer was set to a date exactly one month ahead. We set it to today's date, refreshed, and voila, it worked as expected!

This Google Support thread helped me track it down.

10 cool features to look forward to in Office 2010

10 cool features to look forward to in Office 2010: "

With the release of the Office 2010 Technical Preview, details are finally starting to roll in. Deb Shinder highlights some of the features she thinks might make the new version worth the upgrade.

---

Microsoft kept the details of its next iteration of Office pretty closely guarded up until the release of the Technical Preview in conjunction with the opening of the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) July 13th Now, with the software in the hands of thousands of Microsoft partners, MVPs, and other ‘selected testers,’ the cat is out of the bag. I was told by my MVP lead at Microsoft to blog about it to my heart’s content.

My first impression was that Office 2010 is going to be to Office 2007 what Windows 7 is to Vista. Although personally I liked both of them, Vista and Office 2007 inspired an inordinate number of complaints from consumers and IT folks alike. Maybe the changes were a little too drastic or maybe it’s just that the timing wasn’t right. Whatever the reasons, many people skipped the new OS and apps and stuck with Office 2003 on XP.

After using Office 2010 extensively for the last couple of weeks, I’m finding more and more to like about it. One big change is that this version of Office comes in a 64-bit version, so those running a 64-bit OS can take full advantage of 64-bit performance and stability. Keeping in mind that this is beta software and some things could change before the final release, here are the top 10 features that I think will make Office 2010 worth the upgrade.

Note: This article is also available as a PDF download and as a photo gallery.

1: The Ribbon

Why would I list the Ribbon as the number one new feature in Office 2010, when the Ribbon was introduced in Office 2007 — and in fact, was the feature that caused the most controversy? Although some of us loved the new Ribbon interface, many others hated it, so much so that third-party developers soon devised programs to restore the old familiar menus. An example is Classic Menu from Addintools.

Office 2010 not only keeps the Ribbon; it has now been added to all the Office programs, including Outlook and OneNote. But don’t panic: The Office 2010 implementation is Ribbon Done Right. The difference is that now you have control over your Ribbon and what items appear on its tabs, and you can even add tabs of your own and put your favorite commands on there. No more despair because a favorite command that was on an Outlook 2003 menu can’t be found anywhere on the Ribbon.

All you have to do is right-click the Ribbon and select Customize The Ribbon. This opens a dialog box from which you can make new Ribbon tabs and add or remove commands from the tabs, as shown in Figure A.

Figure A

The Ribbon in Office 2010 applications is completely customizable.

2: Office button options

Office 2007 users are familiar with the Office button, the big round button in the upper-left corner of Office applications, from which you can select a variety of tasks and options. Figure B shows the Word 2007 Office menu.

Figure B

The Office button in Office 2007 provided a number of options.

The Office button in Office 2010 has a new look, and it’s been added to Outlook and OneNote, which didn’t have it before. Figure C shows what you see when you click the Office button (now implemented as a Ribbon tab) in Word 2010.

Figure C

The new Office menu has a whole new look and layout.

You’ll find many of the same options as before, along with a number of new ones. For example, in the Sharing section, you’ll now see options to save the document to SharePoint or change the file type, as you can see in Figure D. The Back button at the top of the page returns you to the document itself.

Figure D

You’ll discover some new options on the menus.

3: Outlook improvements

Outlook is the Microsoft Office program I use most often. It’s the first application I fire up when I sit down at the computer in the morning and it’s the last application I close when I shut down for the night. And I’m checking my mail and calendar and looking up contacts every 15 minutes (or more often) throughout the day. This makes changes to the Outlook interface very important to me — I want it to work better, but I don’t want to have to relearn everything and I don’t want to lose functionality.

The Ignore button that’s been added to Outlook is just what those of us who belong to lots of email discussion lists have been waiting for. It allows you to get rid of conversation threads that you aren’t interested in. Not only will it delete all messages in your Inbox that belong to the thread, but it will automatically delete any messages pertaining to that thread that come in later. Highlighting a message and clicking the Ignore button displays the dialog box shown in Figure E.

Figure E

The new Ignore button in Outlook makes it easy to bypass entire conversation threads.

Outlook 2010 also makes it easier to manage conversations. When you view messages in Conversation View, you can right-click a conversation title and select from a number of actions that you can perform, as shown in Figure F. If you select Clean Up Conversation, redundant messages in the conversation will be deleted.

Figure F

You can perform more actions on a conversational thread, including clean up.

Another great new Outlook feature is Quick Steps. This is a section on the Ribbon’s Home tab where you can create single-click links to perform tasks that normally require multiple steps. For example, if I want to forward a message to my husband, instead of clicking forward and then typing his address into the To box, I just click the To Tom link and the forwarded message appears with his address already entered. Figure G shows the Home tab of the Ribbon with the Quick Steps section highlighted.

Figure G

The Quick Steps section of the Ribbon lets you perform multi-step tasks with one click.

4: Easier screenshots

If you’re a tech writer, you’ll appreciate a new feature in Word 2010 — the ability to capture screenshots from inside the application and paste them into the document, all in a couple of clicks. The Screenshot button has been added to the Insert tab of the Ribbon, as shown in Figure H.

Figure H

Inserting screenshots into Word is easier than ever.

When you click the Screenshot button, you’ll see the available screenshots, and you can click on the one you want to insert into the document. After you insert a screenshot, the picture tools will automatically appear to allow you to perform photo editing.

5: Photo/video/graphics in Word and PowerPoint

The photo-editing tools have gotten more sophisticated in Office 2010. Now you can apply artistic effects, similar to those available in third-party photo editing programs, such as PhotoShop, from within Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. You even get a thumbnail preview of what the effect will look like when applied to your picture, as shown in Figure I.

Figure I

You can now apply artistic effects to photos from within Office programs.

In PowerPoint, you can apply artistic effects, reflections, shadows, etc., to both photos and videos, as shown in Figure J.

Figure J

You can apply artistic effects to pictures and video in PowerPoint 2010.

The Office 2010 applications also include several new SmartArt designs, to make it more likely that you’ll find one that fits the needs of your document or slide, as shown in Figure K.

Figure K

Office 2010 includes a number of new SmartArt designs.

6: Drag-and-drop navigation pane

One of my favorite features in Word 2010 is the new drag-and-drop navigation pane. It’s a little like the Word 2007 document map — on steroids. Whereas the document map only gives you a view of your headers and document sections, graphics, etc., the navigation pane lets you rearrange your document easily by dragging and dropping within the pane. To turn on this feature, click the View tab on the Ribbon and in the Show section, check the box labeled Navigation Pane, as shown in Figure L.

Figure L

Go to the View tab to display the new drag-and-drop navigation pane.

Want to move that third first-level heading (and all the text under it) up above the second one, without having to copy and paste it? No problem: Just drag the heading where you want it in the navigation pane, which displays to the left of your document, as shown in Figure M.

Figure M

You can move whole sections of text by dragging and dropping the headings in the navigation pane.

7: Open in Protected View

When you open an existing document for the first time in Word 2010, if you try to start editing it, you may be surprised to find that nothing happens. If you look more closely, you’ll see that the Ribbon is hidden. What’s up with that? The document has opened in Protected View, as shown in Figure N.

Figure N

The first time you open a document in Word 2010, it opens in Protected View.

As you can see, a red box across the top of the document notifies you that you’re in Protected View and tells you that the file originated from an Internet location. This gives you the opportunity to determine whether it’s safe to open. If you click the Enable Editing button, the document downloads, the Ribbon appears, and you can make changes to the document as usual.

8: Excel sparklines and slicers

The most notable additions to Excel 2010 are two new features called sparklines and slicers. Sparklines are tiny charts that fit into a cell, as shown in Figure O.

Figure O

Sparklines are charts that fit into a cell on an Excel spreadsheet.

The sparklines shown in the figure use the line format, but you can also create column or win/loss sparklines. You can edit the design of the sparklines, too, as shown in Figure P.

Figure P

You can edit the design of your sparklines.

Slicers are objects you can use to filter the data in pivot tables, which you can move around or resize on the screen. When data in the pivot table changes, the slicer is automatically updated. Both sparklines and slicers are created via the Insert tab on the Ribbon, as shown in Figure Q.

Figure Q

You create sparklines and slicers via the Insert tab on the Ribbon.

To see a demo of the new Excel features, check out the video at http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/

9: OneNote improvements

OneNote has been a bit of a forgotten stepchild in previous editions of Office, perhaps because it only came with the ‘lowest’ and ‘highest’ editions of Office 2007 — Home and Student edition and Ultimate edition. Most Office users have the Standard, Small Business, or Professional edition. Microsoft obviously wants to get more exposure for OneNote. According to early reports, Office 2010 features will follow the same pattern as Windows 7; that is, each successively more expensive edition will contain all the applications of those editions ‘below’ it, and more. That means OneNote will be included in all editions of Office 2010.

The most obvious change to OneNote, as with Outlook, is that now it sports the Ribbon interface, as shown in Figure R.

Figure R

OneNote, like its Office-mates, now sports the Ribbon interface.

In OneNote, however, the Ribbon is minimized by default. Just click the small arrow near the Help icon (blue question mark) in the upper-right part of the window to maximize it.

The new OneNote includes a number of improvements to simultaneous multiple-user editing of notebooks. New content that was added (or changed) by another user is now highlighted, so you immediately see what’s new. There is also color coding to indicate the author of content that was written by someone else. Searching has been enhanced, as well.

Another interesting feature is linked note taking. If you put OneNote in linked mode, it will automatically link your notes to whatever you’re viewing (Web page, selection in Word, a particular slide in a PowerPoint presentation, etc.). Then, when you hover over the link in OneNote, you see a thumbnail of the material to which it’s linked and you can click it to open the original.

For editing, OneNote now supports basic styles. You can also add math equations, and there is a miniature translator that provides a tooltip in your language if you hover over a foreign word. Finally, on Tablets and other touchscreen PCs, OneNote supports touch gestures, such as finger scrolling and panning and pinch zoom.

10: Simultaneous editing

Here is another favorite of mine. I often leave a document that I’m working on open on one computer, and then need to open and work on it from a different computer. I get the familiar ‘file in use’ dialog box that gives me the option to open a read-only copy, create a local copy to merge later, or receive notification when the original is available. Office 2010 does away with that annoyance.

Now I can pick up where I left off, or two people can edit a document simultaneously. A notification in the status bar tells you who else is currently editing the document, and where they’re making changes. Very cool!

Word can also cache shared documents so you can edit them when you’re offline, and any changes you make will automatically be synchronized with the original on the server when you come back online. Now you don’t have to remember to merge your document when you get back.

Summary

Office 2010 still has to go through a public beta (expected later this year) before we see it in its final version, but what we’re seeing in the technical preview looks promising. Whether you’re using Office 2007 or you’re still using Office 2003, Office 2010 will offer enough new and improved features and functionality to make it worth considering the upgrade.

"

(Via 10 Things.)

10 outstanding Linux backup utilities

10 outstanding Linux backup utilities: "

A dependable backup tool is not a luxury - everyone needs to have one. But that doesn’t mean you need to spend a fortune to get the feature set that meets your needs. Jack Wallen introduces some great Linux backup solutions, including a few that are cross platform.

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Whether you’re in the IT industry or you’re a computer power user, you need to have a backup tool at the ready. With this tool, you will need scheduled backups, one-time backups, local backups, remote backups, and many other features.

Plenty of proprietary solutions are out there. Some of them are minimal and cost effective, while others are feature-rich and costly. The open source community is no stranger to the world of backups. Here are 10 excellent backup solutions for the Linux operating system. In fact, some of these are actually cross platform and will back up Linux, Windows, and/or Mac.

Note: This article is also available as a PDF download.

1: fwbackups

This is, by far, the easiest of all the Linux backup solutions. It is cross platform, has a user-friendly interface, and can do single backups or recurring scheduled backups. The fwbackups tool allows you to do backups either locally or remotely in tar, tar.gz, tar.bZ, or rsync format. You can back up an entire computer or a single file. Unlike many backup utilities, fwbackups is easy to install because it will most likely be found in your distribution’s repository. Both backing up and restoring are incredibly easy (even scheduling a remote, recurring scheduled backup). You can also do incremental or differential backups to speed the process.

2: Bacula

Bacula is a powerful Linux backup solution, and it’s one of the few Linux open source backup solutions that’s truly enterprise ready. But with this enterprise readiness comes a level of complexity you might not find in any other solution. Unlike many other solutions, Bacula contains a number of components:

• Director — This is the application that supervises all of Bacula.


• Console — This is how you communicate with the Bacula Director.


• File — This is the application that’s installed on the machine to be backed up.


• Storage — This application performs the reading and writing to your storage space.


• Catalog — This application is responsible for the databases used.


• Monitor — This application allows the administer to keep track of the status of the various Bacula tools.

Bacula is not the easiest backup solution to configure and use. It is, however, one of the most powerful. So if you are looking for power and aren’t concerned about putting in the time to get up to speed with the configuration, Bacula is your solution.

3: Rsync

Rsync is one of the most widely used Linux backup solutions. With rsync, you can do flexible incremental backups, either locally or remotely. Rsync can update whole directory trees and file systems; preserve links, ownerships, permissions, and privileges; use rsh, ssh, or direct sockets for connection; and support anonymous connections. Rsync is a command-line tool, although front ends are available (such as Grsync<http://freshmeat.net/projects/grsync/>). But the front ends defeat the flexibility of having a simple command-line backup tool. One of the biggest pluses of using a command-line tool is that you can create simple scripts to use, in conjunction with cron, to create automated backups. For this, rsync is perfect.

4: Mondorescue

Mondorescue is one of those tools you have around for disaster recovery because one of its strengths is backing up an entire installation. Another strength of Mondorescue is that it can back up to nearly any medium: CD, DVD, tape, NFS, hard disk, etc. And Mondo supports LVM 1/2, RAID, ext2, ext3, ext4, JFS, XFS, ReiserFS, and VFAT. If your file system isn’t listed, there is a call on the Mondo Web site to email the developers for a file system request and they will make it work. Mondo is used by large companies, such as Lockheed-Martin, so you know it’s reliable.

5: Simple Backup Solution

Simple Backup Solution is primarily targeted at desktop backup. It can back up files and directories and allows regular expressions to be used for exclusion purposes. Because Simple Backup Solution uses compressed archives, it is not the best solution for backing up large amounts of pre-compressed data (such as multimedia files). One of the beauties of Simple Backup Solution is that it includes predefined backup solutions that can be used to back up directories, such as /var/, /etc/, /usr/local. SBS is not limited to predefined backups. You can do custom backups, manual backups, and scheduled backups. The user interface is user friendly. One of the downfalls of SBS is that it does not include a restore solution like fwbackups does.

6: Amanda

Amanda allows an administrator to set up a single backup server and back up multiple hosts to it. It’s robust, reliable, and flexible. Amanda uses native Linux dump and/or tar to facilitate the backup process. One nice feature is that Amanda can use Samba to back up Windows clients to the same Amanda server. It’s important to note that with Amanda, there are separate applications for server and client. For the server, only Amanda is needed. For the client, the Amanda-client application must be installed.

7: Arkeia

Arkeia is one of the big boys in the backup industry. If you are looking for enterprise-level backup-restore solutions (and even replication server solutions) and you don’t mind paying a premium, Arkeia is your tool. If you’re wondering about price, the Arkeia starter pack is $1,300.00 USD - which should indicate the seriousness of this solution.  Although Arkeia says it has small to midsize solutions, I think Arkeia is best suited for large business to enterprise-level needs.

8: Back In Time

Back In Time allows you to take snapshots of predefined directories and can do so on a schedule. This tool has an outstanding interface and integrates well with GNOME and KDE. Back In Time does a great job of creating dated snapshots that will serve as backups. However, it doesn’t use any compression for the backups, nor does it include an automated restore tool. This is a desktop-only tool.

9: Box Backup

Box Backup is unique in that not only is it fully automated but it can use encryption to secure your backups. Box Backup uses both a client daemon and server daemon, as well as a restore utility. Box Backup uses SSL certificates to authenticate clients, so connections are secure. Although Box Backup is a command-line solution, it is simple to configure and deploy. Data directories are configured, the daemon scans those directories, and if new data is found, it is uploaded to the server. There are three components to install: bbstored (backup server daemon), bbackupd (client daemon), and bbackupquery (backup query and restore tool). Box Backup is available for Linux, OpenBSD, Windows (Native only), NetBSD, FreeBSD, Darwin (OS X), and Solaris.

10: Kbackup

Kbackup is a simple backup utility that backs up locally to any media (hard drive or mounted device) that can be written to. It’s designed to be a backup device that ANY user can take advantage of. To that end, it is simple and doesn’t have a long feature list. Outside of being able to back up files and directories, the only other feature is that the user can save backup profiles that can be opened and backed up quickly. Kbackup uses the tar format to restore backups, which is as simple as using ARK as a GUI for unpacking the backup files.

Backup of choice?

Did we over look your favorite Linux backup tool? If so, tell us what it is and how you deployed it. As we all know, a good backup solution is worth its weight in code.

"

(Via 10 Things.)

10 Endearing Habits of a Geeky Spouse

Wow, this is surprisingly accurate. #5 is my favorite, #1 is my area to work on, I wish #3 was me a bit more, I'll have to practice.

10 Endearing Habits of a Geeky Spouse: "Many of our geek attributes are not, to put it mildly, magnets to the prospective spouses. But some of our traits are endearing to 'others.' Hey -- Even Mr. Spock's dad married a human ...

"

(Via Clippings.)

How to Behave: New Rules for Highly Evolved Humans

How to Behave: New Rules for Highly Evolved Humans: "

Ask a Basterd: Am I a Jerk if I Dump Our Sucky Rock Band Bassist? Minimum Waiting Period Before Revealing a Spoiler If Your Call Drops, Call Back Don't Google-Stalk Before a First Date	'	Don't Blog or Tweet Anything With More Than Half a Million Hits Ask a Basterd: Should I Ask My World Of Warcraft Wife if She's Really a Dude? Delete Unwanted Posts From Your Facebook Wall Meet Online Friends in the Real World
Texting in the Company of Others Is OK If You Can't Buy It Online, Feel Free to BitTorrent Never Broadcast Your Relationship Status Don't Lie With Your Facebook Photo	'	Seek Out Your Coworkers on Facebook Leave Your Wi-Fi Open Elements of Viral Video Ask a Basterd: Is It OK to Look at Porn at Work?
Balance Your Media Diet Ask a Basterd: Can I Post My Wife's Butt on Twitter Without Asking? Online Conversations Are Not All About You Excuses for Calling in Sick	'	Ask a Basterd: If I Exaggerate My Salary on Online Dating Profile, Should I Fess Up? Be Mindful of Your Personal Space There's No Such Thing as Too Many Friends You Can Reinvent Yourself Online
Friend Your Boss But Not Your Boss's Boss Ignore Your Ex on Facebook Ask a Basterd: Can I Talk on the Phone While Taking a Whiz? Ditch the Headset Choose the Right Ringtone	'	Don't Hesitate to Haggle on Craigslist Ask a Basterd: Can I Answer My Cell at a Movie if It Seems Urgent? Don't Work All the Time — You'll Live to Regret It Never Unfollow Someone Just Because They Unfollowed You Holsters: A Style Guide

"

(Via Clippings.)

Monitor (and improve) your car's performance

Monitor (and improve) your car's performance: "If you're looking to monitor your car's performance or simply repair it yourself, you've come to the right place. We've found some apps that will help you do just that."

(Via Clippings.)

Seven Ways to Improve Your E-mail Messages

Seven Ways to Improve Your E-mail Messages: "You are judged by the writing style, tone, language, and mistakes in your e-mails every single day. We're all so optimistic we believe people will overlook our e-mail typos and mistakes, while at the same time we privately label those who send us sloppy e-mails as careless, confused, or ineffective. A free e-mail service, GMX, did a survey and found the majority of Americans (58 percent) think less of people based on their e-mail content. Let's look at seven ways to help your e-mails label you as smart rather than stoopid."

(Via Computerworld Breaking News.)

Office 2010, The Movie

This is a great promo video, if only it was so exciting to use Office ;-).

Madsen Bikes

These are pretty cool utility/functional bikes!

Trent Reznor: 'So you want to make money on the Web'

Trent Reznor: 'So you want to make money on the Web': "In a post that could easily explain the emerging open-source software business model, Nine Inch Nails lead details how to make money in music."

(Via Clippings.)

Gever Tulley on 5 dangerous things for kids

My wife sent me this link earlier today and I can't begin to tell you how much I recalled from my childhood.

I hate to give too much away but I remember getting my first pocket knife and how empowering it felt. I carry a knife with me and use it at least a half dozen times. I break them somewhat regularly because they get so much use.

The other one that really hit home was taking an old appliance apart. I think I first started disassembling things at home when I was about three. I discovered my dad's tools, namely a Philip's screwdriver and promptly disassembled the neat little school desk I had. I didn't quite get the idea of putting things back together at that point but I did soon enough. My 2 year old daughter, if you ask her what I do, she knows that I 'fix stuff.'

There are lots of other good bits in the video and TED is a really neat and inspiring organization so that's worth a look too.

Have a great weekend!

Force links to open in new tabs in Safari

Force links to open in new tabs in Safari: "One of the reasons I like Firefox is that it has a built-in setting (in the Tabs section of its preferences) to force links that want to open new windows to instead open in new tabs. I really hate 'window proliferation' while browsing, and this setting makes it such that links which try to force a new window to open--such as the links on our own Mac OS X Hints Pick of the Week page--open in a new tab instead."

(Via Computerworld Breaking News.)

In Depth: 18 great forgotten features of OS X

Good reminder of cool things you can do with OS X out of the box...

In Depth: 18 great forgotten features of OS X: "

OS X is a superb operating system.

But its simplicity belies its depth; there are plenty of excellent features under the surface.

We've covered everything from using voice control to using Terminal to fine-control the configuration of your system and automating your common tasks.

Check these - and other great features - out below.

1. Sort out your user accounts

A computer can be an expensive and potentially space-filling device. Most households are only likely to have one Mac, but if you don't want everyone knowing what you've been up to, or someone else would like their privacy, or just simply, you like your Mac to run in the way you like it (with the Desktop you want and the settings you like) then User Accounts is a great feature.

You can create ordinary accounts as well as administrator accounts that have the rights to make big changes to your Mac and install software for everyone. To create more than one account, go into System Preferences, pick Accounts and create a new account in the same way you did when you first set up your Mac. It's also a good idea to switch off automatic login at this point, to avoid anyone using the default account and so they don't have to keep logging out as soon as you start up your Mac.

2. Activate your Keychain

Keychain saves you having to remember passwords, while keeping all your data secure. Available through most programs that access the net, including Mail and Safari, whenever you type in a password, you can save it in your keychain. When you return to that site, want to use the email server again or need to decrypt something, the keychain provides the password – providing you've authorised it – meaning you won't have to type it in.

Keychain Access in Utilities allows you to edit your keychain, find out what a particular password is and specify your security settings as you wish. You can also set the keychain to lock after five minutes of inactivity by using Edit > Change settings for keychain login.

3. Invoke your Dashboard

A simple press of F12 or a click of Dashboard in the Dock or the Applications folder will reveal the exciting world of widgets. These are handy little applications that give you access to things like weather forecasts, your calendar, and your Address Book without the hassle of having to launch the bigger applications like iCal.

PRESS F12: Dashboard has thousands of useful applications available with just the touch of a button

But, on top of these, there are also thousands of widgets that you can download for free, which perform an incredible range of tasks including games, file converters, webcam viewers, flight updates and lots more. And Dashboard also comes with a built-in widget manager to make sure things don't get too cluttered.

4. Enter the Time Machine

Making sure you have a backup of all your important data is vital. And that's not just your emails – don't forget all those purchases from the iTunes Store, your iPhoto library and every document you've got in your Documents folder. But remembering to do it is another matter. Time Machine is designed to make backing up and recovering your files easy.

Just plug a hard drive into your Mac and it'll ask if you want to use the hard drive for backing up files. Leave it on overnight and your Mac will save virtually every file it has onto the hard drive. Then, every hour afterwards, it'll scan to see if you've changed any files and if you have, it'll save those as well, without deleting the other copies it's already made.

Then, if you need to recover any of the previous versions of the file, just click Time Machine in the Dock or the Applications folder and locate the file you need – Time Machine will do the rest.

5. Get smart with Parental Controls

Once you've set up a separate account for your kids, you can – if you want – decide what they can use on the computer and how they use it via the Parental Controls (available from System Preferences) settings for their account. This can make it easier for your child to use your Mac, by giving them a simpler Finder to use.

But if you're worried about what they're using it for, you can restrict access to particular applications as well as websites in Safari; hide the swear words in the OS X Dictionary; limit who they can chat with and who they can email; limit how much time they spend on the Mac and when they're allowed to go on it; and keep logs of what they've been browsing, what they've been using and who they've been chatting to.

6. Automate your tasks

Automator lurks in the Applications folder and, as its name suggests, is designed to automate regular tasks. It's a bit like sticking bits of Lego together: want to grab everything on your Desktop that isn't a folder, move it to another folder, hide the Dock, then start playing a track in iTunes?

Then you can stick together all the parts of the process from the library of Automator functions – many applications now come with their own Automator actions as well – save the completed action and then every time you double-click or run it from a contextual menu or menu, your Mac will repeat that Lego collection.

7. Sync between Macs

MobileMe is Apple's 'in the cloud' system for storing information and syncing it between computers. Available almost everywhere on your Mac but configured primarily in the MobileMe pane in System Preferences, MobileMe provides users with gigabytes of online storage for sharing files.

Other features include an email account, software for backing up files to the internet or another medium such as a DVD, as well as a way to keep your contacts, calendar, keychain items and other information in sync. Programs such as Transmit and Microsoft Entourage can use MobileMe to sync their own information, too.

8. Run OS X and Windows

If you have an Intel-based Mac, Boot Camp gives you the chance to experience both OS X and Windows on the same machine. When you run it (find it in the Utilities folder) it'll split your Mac's hard drive into two separate chunks: one for Mac OS X, the other for Windows (this can be either Vista or XP SP2).

Then, providing you have a full installer CD or DVD, you'll be able to boot off the installer, install Windows on the chunk of the hard drive you've set aside, and also be able to choose which one you want to use whenever you start up – just by holding down the Option key. If you ever decide you don't want to use Windows any more, you can use Boot Camp to delete it off your Mac and restore the hard drive so that OS X can occupy all of it again.

9. Encrypt your Home folder

Although you can password-protect your Mac to stop people gaining access to your documents, if it is ever stolen, they can still take your hard drive out and read the data.

FileVault, accessible through Security > FileVault in System Preferences, encrypts everything in your home folder so that if your Mac is ever stolen, the thief won't been able to read the data. It will be seamless, so you won't notice it working. If you're worried about passwords getting lost, set a password for FileVault that will unlock any FileVault account on your Mac.

10. Securing your Mac

Keeping your Mac secure against sneaky thieves can be very easy, thanks to OS X's built-in functions, such as FileVault and Keychain – although you're going to have to decide how much inconvenience you feel like putting yourself through.

There are some features of the Security pane in System Preferences that are no-brainers if you're worried about people playing with your Mac's settings while you're away, as long as you don't mind having to enter passwords now and again. Requiring a password to wake a computer from sleep or a screensaver should always be your first move.

Anyone can press Cmd + CTRL and the power key to restart your Mac instantly, so if you disable automatic login this will prevent them getting in that way. Another option you could consider is Use secure virtual memory. This is probably for the more paranoid but is worth considering if you are worried about security. There are many security settings on your Mac, although some will make you work harder than others.

11. Turn Sharing on

Your Mac is a pretty powerful machine, and there might be a whole range of things you want to share with others, such as your files, any printers you've connected to it or even its net connection. The System Preferences > Sharing pane lets you share many functions of your Mac – both with Macs and Windows PCs.

NETWORKING: You can turn your Mac into a wireless router so that you have a network wherever you go

The most popular option is File Sharing, which lets you share either your whole Mac or just folders on it. If you click on the Options button, you can choose whether to share files using AFP (other Macs), FTP (anyone with a special FTP program) or SMB (Windows and Linux). Your Mac will then appear in the Finder sidebar of any other Mac on the network.

But it also gives you some remote control functions, allowing you to connect to it over a network and take charge of it. If you know UNIX, you can use Terminal to access your Mac and issue it commands by activating the Remote Login function; you can also allow other Macs to take over and control your Mac (but only if they have an account) using the Screen Sharing function.

If you have a MacBook Air and didn't buy the optional plugin DVD player, you can still access DVDs over a network by sharing another Mac's DVD drive using DVD or CD Sharing. And if you feel like it, you can turn your Mac into a web server as well with Web Sharing.

12. Create an AirPort network

If you want to link two computers together but you don't have any cables to hand (or there's no available WiFi network nearby), you can make your own network instead. All you have to do is simply go to the AirPort menu bar item, click Create Network…, accept the default settings and click OK.

Once this has been done, any other WiFi-equipped computer will be able to see your Mac's network. They can then join it and you will be able to use it as you would on any other network for sharing files, printers and so on.

13. Use Back To My Mac

If you did buy a MobileMe subscription and the gods of computer are looking favourably upon you, Back To My Mac will allow you to connect from any other Leopard-equipped Mac back to your home Mac (providing you've left it switched on).

You'll need to start it in the Back to My Mac tab of the MobileMe pane in System Preferences first, and then configure the Mac you're on with your MobileMe account details. But once you do, and if everything's going according to plan, you should be able to see your Mac appear in the list of devices in Finder's sidebars. You will now be able to grab files from it or take it over making it do whatever you want.

14. See all the keyboard shortcuts

Locate the Keyboard & Mouse pane in System Preferences, select the Keyboard Shortcuts tab and you'll see a list of all the existing shortcuts. Double-click on a shortcut to change it or click on the checkbox next to it to deactivate it. You can add new shortcuts by clicking on + in the window, selecting an application and then choosing the menu command you want to add a shortcut to.

15. Use Universal Access

If you have a disability, Universal Access, which can be found in System Preferences, will make your Mac easier to use. As well as providing access to VoiceOver (also in the Utilities folder and reads out the Mac's screen contents for those who have trouble seeing the Mac's display), it also makes the Mac's screen easier to read by changing the contrast.

It can also make the keyboard and mouse easier to use, if you have trouble with them. If you're deaf or work in an environment where constant beeps would be irritating, then you can use the Hearing tab to make the screen flash whenever there's an alert.

16. Get smart with your regional options

Although you may not need to run any of your applications in a foreign language, the International pane in System Preferences still has some useful functions. Formats lets you tell your Mac what languages you'd prefer to use. If you want to add British English, note that it isn't on the list so you'll need to click on the Edit List button to add it. You can then drag it to the top of the list.

By default, OS X's built-in spelling and grammar checker uses these preferences so changing this will ensure your spelling remains on the right side of the Atlantic. The Input Menu tab also provides a way to help those who haven't yet mastered all the key presses on their keyboard.

As well as giving you a way to switch between the keyboards for different languages, the available layouts include a Character Palette for embedding rare characters in documents and a keyboard viewer for seeing what happens when you click a particular key.

17. Use Terminal

Housed underneath OS X is the power of Unix. If you know your 'awk' from your 'grep', you can use Terminal in the Utilities folder to take charge of what's under the Mac's bonnet.

18. Activate voice control

Amazing though it may seem, it is possible to control your Mac just using your voice alone. The Speech System Preferences pane will enable you to activate this feature. Then, depending on how you've set things up, you can give your Mac orders, just by pressing a key to let it know you're talking to it.

The orders you can issue out are called Speakable Items and you can see a list of them by clicking on the Commands tab, then clicking on the Open Speakable Items folder.

However, do bear in mind that your Mac can't work miracles, so you will need to train it to recognise your voice. It'll also help to use a microphone if you want the best results.

Once you've got Speech working the way you want it to, you will be able to expand it to include even more sophisticated controls to help you out. If you wish, you can enable the Front Window and Menu Bar command sets so you can trigger menu options using your voice.

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"

(Via Clippings.)