Adventure Sandbox

I’m talking about Michael Vick. Vick, in his speech today, said among other things, “I found Jesus”. I’ve heard the whole thing a time or two now and up until that point I was really believing him. But when he mentioned Jesus it sounded like such a cliché. My co-worker and I were at lunch and when we heard that we just started laughing. Other than that part, he definitely sounded sincere and remorseful.

Now that Vick has admitted his guilt, I think I can finally put my thoughts to paper (virtual at least). I know what Vick did was awful and inhumane. I think he should deserve a second chance though. He should serve his time and be allowed a second chance to play once he’s legally able to. He will have definitely paid the price (jail and lost money) and if he’s been a good citizen up until that point he should be allowed to earn a living playing football again. Some may not agree, but nearly everyone deserves a second chance and he’s no different.

Tags: Sports by Kevin
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Two siblings have a September court date for setting up a local hash in New Haven, Connecticut. While marking the trail for a local chapter of the Hash House Harriers, someone at IKEA called police which resulted in a bioterrorism scare. Laying down flour as a form of marking has been done at hashes for many years. It seems one person however has been watching too much Dateline and thought the flour was Anthrax (or some other poison) and called police. Now Daniel and Dorothee Salchow have a scheduled court date for a first degree breach of peace (a felony).

I think it’s pretty ridiculous that Daniel and Dorothee are facing felony charges. Someone over reacted and now they are paying the price. They also say in the article that the city plans to seek restitution. Restitution for laying down flour; what is that about 25 cents? My favorite quote has to be, “You see powder connected by arrows and chalk, you never know”. Yeah, because if a terrorist is laying down Anthrax I’m sure he/she would put arrows around it.

Tags: Sports by Kevin
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Backing up your computer is often not a fun and easy task. One company however is trying to make it dead simple to back up your Mac. Mozy, by Berkeley Data Systems, is a simple Mac (they have a Windows client too) application that has a menu which asks what you would like to back up. Check a few boxes for your iPhoto library, iTunes, iCal, Address Book, and a few other applications to get started (see picture below). You can also choose to backup individual folders, all with just a few clicks.

The initial backup will take a number of hours and from then on it backups your changes as you are using your computer (or at a scheduled time if you choose that option). I haven’t noticed any performance hit since I installed Mozy. They also have bandwidth throttling if you are using a slow connection and don’t want your backups taking up too much of your bandwidth. Your files are backed up using 128-bit SSL encryption during transit and there is also encryption on their servers.

If disaster strikes you have a few ways to get your data back. 1) “Simply right-click on the file or folder that you want to restore (e.g.. you want to restore a previous version) and click on the Mozy restore selection).” 2) Use your web browser and select the files you want to restore from your Mozy account and download them to your computer. 3) Request a DVD of your files which will be shipped to you for a fee.

If you don’t mind your files living on someone else’s server, give Mozy a try. You get 2GB of storage space for free and can purchase unlimited space for only $4.95 per month. I use Mozy in combination with SuperDuper as my backup solutions. I now have ease of mind in that if something were to happen to my data, at a minimum I’ll get the important stuff back with no problems.

Tags: Apple, Review, Technology by Kevin
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I recently began to actually look into a problem with iCal on my iPhone. It seemed that when I would sync events from iCal they would always be off by a day or so. I didn’t know why for weeks. Tonight I sat down and finally decided to try to figure it out. I did a Google search and didn’t come up with anything. A few syncs later and I began to notice a pattern. The sync to the iPhone was adding four hours to the start time to the events (and of course the end time). I thought for sure it had to be a setting somewhere on the iPhone. Turns out, it was! I went into settings, and then general. In the general pane go to date & time. At the bottom I noticed two items labeled Time Zone Support and Time Zone. After playing around with those settings I realized my Time Zone option was set to no time zone. I changed it to Atlanta and did a re-sync. Sure enough, my events are all correct now!

Tags: Apple, Technology by Kevin
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It seems Elton John thinks shutting down the internet would be a good idea. In this article, Elton John says, “I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span.” He goes on to basically blame the internet for hindering “long-term artistic vision.” Silly me, I thought it was the strong hold that record labels hold over artists that has crippled “long-term artistic vision”.

I guess Sir Elton John has never heard of Sandi Thom, who got a record deal after streaming concerts from her London flat. I guess he doesn’t want those iTunes royalties he’s been collecting either. Elton, go back to the piano bench.

Tags: Technology by Kevin
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