A Bristol Geek » Danbo

Take a step Back!

jamesakadamingo — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 20:16:00 +0000

Don't drop your backups!

It’s something that we all wish for on occasion, to be able to take a step back in time, perhaps after making a ridiculous internet purchase or saying something stupid whilst under the influence! We have all been there and we will all be there again I’m sure (regardless of how hard we try!). How many times have you deleted a file by accident, how many times have you saved your work only to realise that you deleted a paragraph without realising? I spent today restoring thirteen years worth of backups to recover about 16,000 files all of which were less than 13kb! No worry at all, and no risk of data loss, because we spend thousands of pounds a year on very high-end backup appliances and test our backups regularly. How do you backup your files?

In not to distance times people kept their personal documents at home in a drawer, their family photos in a posh leather album on the coffee table. There was always one risk, fire. A fire at home could destroy those personal moments for ever and cause you untold trouble next time you needed to open a bank account (birth certificate, passport, etc all up in smoke!). There lies the beauty of the digital world you may only have taken the photograph once, but you can store it in as many places as you wish! The question is how will you protect your digital memories?

Last week I spent an unfruitful evening trying to recover 100 or so gigabytes of files from a friends USB Hard Disk. He used the disk to store his backups, the time came when he needed to recover his files. Unfortunately my friend dropped the USB disk when he was fetching it from it’s hidey hole, hard disks don’t like to be dropped! The disk was that badly damaged that I didn’t manage to restore any of the file contents: Fate 1 – 0 USB. So can you always trust your backups? Should you trust your precious files to just one backup? I use a mix of two solutions, one manual at home and one automatic all the time!

I use a piece of software called Carbonite, it costs me a little over £40 a year for unlimited backups. The software sits on my computer and silently backs everything up, you tell it which folders to backup and it does it. If you add a file to a folder that is in your backup it just uploads the file to their secure servers. Even if the house were to burn down (and lets hope it doesn’t) I can still restore all my files, I could even restore them to a new laptop from the other side of the world if I really wanted! My second backup solution is a portable hard disk (that I make a point of not dropping!) that I synchronise with my laptop (photos, music, documents, websites, etc) every few days using a program called GoodSync and then keep the drive safe in a cupboard. As much as an on-line backup system is great, if I need to restore all my photos (60+ gigabytes) it’s a lot quicker to get the majority from a USB drive.

I can’t stress how important backups are in the modern age, you would be lost without all your MP3s or your photos. Try the trial of Carbonite (give me a shout for a referral code), or at the least buy a good portable hard disk and keep it safe!

Danbo did however find a way to turn back time!

Oh and if you buy GoodSync, please click on this first!

Thank you to purplemattfish for releasing the image used at the top of this post under the CC licence.

Danbo goes to the fiesta and makes a friend!

jamesakadamingo — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:18:53 +0000

Danbo at the Balloon Fiesta, a little shocked!

It seams that Danbo snuck into my camera bag on my recent trip to the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, he wanted to see what all the fuss was about. He was a little daunted by the balloons at first, being as they are so much bigger than he.

I managed to find Danbo a perch on the fence surrounding the fiesta arena where he could watch as the balloons were inflated, and so that he could get a front seat for the events unfolding around him.

The photo on the right was taken early on before Danbo got used to the strange things going on, he was a bit frightened of the big flames. Although that is understandable as he is a living cardboard box after all!

Whilst we were there Danbo made a new friend, it seams that another small person had taken a trip to the fiesta with us. @Cath_Bendy88 ‘s friend Mr Spock had come along, he and Danbo hadn’t met before but they soon became best of friends and watched the fiesta together.

Danbo and his new friend Mr Spock

Danbo enjoys a Beer whilst listening to a concert at Bristol Zoo

jamesakadamingo — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 21:23:53 +0000

Danbo enjoys a Beer whilst listening to a concert at Bristol Zoo

Taken at Bristol Zoo during an evening event, Danbo decided that he wanted to join me in a Beer (thanks to @BathAles ). Unfortunately the pint was a little to much for him to finish, so I had to help!

Little Danbo comes to play

jamesakadamingo — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 22:33:37 +0000

A little friend arrived in the post today, and here he is.

Danbo was a bit scared when I first opened his box, it was dark and he didn't know where he was.

The side of the box was a little to high but he managed it out in the end

More photos of Danbo can be found in my photo section.