Monthly Archives: July 2008

A year later, a new iPhone. It is still a phone. A really nice phone, but it isn’t the second coming of Christ. A phone still lacking some key features. I am sure there are many websites that will enumerate what is right and wrong with it. Me, I just could never picture myself standing in line for a phone. I have a job and a family. What do people do, take vacation time to stand in line for a phone? The last time I wrote about the iPhone, Glenn was just learning to walk, now he is running, going up stairs on his own, and acting like a little boy. Too bad the iPhone hasn’t developed that much. Newer network, a little bigger storage, same shitty AT&T service. I don’t think any carriers are good. Just be good enough not to get sued is every cell phone companies’ motto.

In other news, Glenn is picking up new words like “Chip” for Dorritos. He loves those things, we have to hide them when we buy them. He really hates time out, it is a powerful tool you don’t want to abuse. He still tends to bite people more than I like. Crazy baby.

I don’t blog much about technology anymore, but here is a good tip for people who are concerned about their data. Since USB drives are very inexpensive now, and all newer computers can boot from a USB drive, why not combine your backup data with an operating system?

What I do is have a 1G USB key plugged into my computer. I back up all of my personal files and bookmarks (less than 50mb, scarily enough, I use IMAP for my e-mail) to a USB drive with Mandriva Linux USB edition installed. There are many USB Linux distributions out there, DSL and Knoppix are others. Google it. This way, if a hard drive fails, just change my boot order, and I have a working machine with my data until I can purchase a new hard drive. The performance under USB is excellent, equal to or better than my hard drives. You won’t have your 25,000 song music collection, but you will have a working computer that can do 99% of what you need to do right now. I think you can do this with Windows XP as well, but it is of little interest to me. I think this is also a good tip for business travelers. Why worry about a delicate laptop or if a client’s computer has all the software you need installed? Load it all on a USB key and keep it on your key chain. Enough geekdom for now. Back to collecting watches.

Had Glenn’s second birthday party today. Everything went very well, the food was not seriously burned and all the gifts were great. He has tons of cars, trains, fake food, art, and other stuff to play with (at least until Christmas). He is at an odd age, when 2 year old toys are boring to him, and big boy toys are not really tested with 2 year olds in mind. He is pretty good about putting stuff in his mouth, I think he is past the oral stage. All in all a good day. Lots of work, but it was worth it for our little boy.