Gang, can you believe it’s only a week until Christmas? That must mean it’s Rob B’s birthday! Happy birthday dude.

i got my first present of the season yesterday, a much-needed new wallet from Kristian, Charlotte, and James. It’s very dapper and I look quite sophisticated now. Thanks much!

I’ve been thinking, lately, about backups, and that’s the subject of today’s ramblings.

Let’s all agree that backups are vital, especially as we move more and more into a paperless society. Business documents, photos, music collections - it’s all becoming little more that 0s and 1s arranged on a disk. Hard drive failure, in particular, is appallingly common, and people persist with little or no backup solution.

To my way of thinking, there are two kinds of backups: an “image” backup solution, in which a snapshot of an entire drive or partition is written to an “image” file; or a file backup solution, in which important individual files are copied to a backup location. An image takes up a lot of disk space, and is pretty slow, but is complete. Norton Ghost is one image solution, but requires the user to reboot the machine for a backup to occus, wheras Paragon Drive Backup does not, so is better for most applications, imo.

Then, when it comes to the file backup, things are even more complicated. Windows 2000/XP comes with backup software already, such as it is, but I recommend JAM Software’s SmartBackup, because it has better features and more options available. However, researching more into a side-issue I have with SmartBackup, I discovered that while it can compresses your backup files into an archive, once the archive is too big, you often can’t open it, which makes it therefore useless. A ha! That’s why Dad’s backups have been erroring.

To backup to hard drive, you need a big destination drive. Preferably dedicated purely to serving backups. And that’s when I had a few more ideas. Bare minimum is a seperate drive in the same machine. But that’s moderately risky: fire, for example, will destroy your original AND your backup; if the OS interacts with your backup drive, it can get infected with viruses etc. A better solution is to have the drive located in another machine, but who can afford another machine purely for backups? Noone, which is why NAS (Network Attached Storage) is such a great idea. For $146.70 (at Price Point, of course) you can get an appliance, which when installed with a hard-drive becomes a dedicated file-serving solution, ideal for backups. You’re still prone to the reduced risk of two drives failing at the same time, but for $447.70, Thecus have a RAID-1 NAS device, which provides two mirrored drives in one appliance to negate this risk in favour of a much less likely 3-disk failure.

If you write your own “backup software” - a scheduled task that copies your data directory to “data2″ or something, you might also enjoy this little piece of code:

@Echo OFF
IF EXIST %1 (
FOR %%V IN (%1) DO FOR /F “tokens=1-5 delims=/: ” %%J IN (”%%~tV”) DO Rename “%%V” %%L%%K%%J%%~xV ) ELSE (echo “Nothing to rename”)

which I call “datetime.cmd”. You add another scheduled task that runs “datetime.cmd data2″ and it’ll rename data2 to the more useful yyyymmdd format.

Dudes,

Secret santa details have been sent. Let me know if you don’t receive it.

Ok, here it is, a flash of brilliance encountered never before on these pages.

Group Christmas Party @ Conrad Jupiter’s, on the Gold Coast
this Sunday, 10th December

I have a poker tournament that weekend, and this is the perfect opportunity to whip up an event. Here’s the plan, not at all set in stone, but just an idea:

If there’s enough interest, I will hire a bus. This probably won’t need to happen, it’s just a numbers thing, but let’s say it does. Bus leaves Brisbane Sunday morning, dumping attendees at an agreed upon location
I need to register for my poker tournament at 11am, so I will go and do that.
We all meet up shortly after 11am at Food Fantasy @ the casino, for their $22.50 brunch buffet.
I have a room at Jupiter’s booked, so that people can change/wash before/after visits to the beach, or lay about groaning after lunch, or use the pool at Jupiter’s, walk around in a fluffy robe, whatever.
My poker tournament starts at 1pm, and I’ll play that until I get out. People are welcome to come and watch if they want. (note: fully acknowledge this will have more appeal to some than others …)
I’ll then come back to join people in more merriment.
Head home when the fun’s all done, or the kids are too tired to make it fun anymore, whichever comes first.

Also, there’ll be SECRET SANTA!!! I need numbers for that ASAP please, so I can organize it. Minimum and suggested maximum on the gift is $10.

c’mon folks, it’ll be awesome. RSVP already.

Awesome. My tickets arrived, and I’m happy as a pig in excrement.

Australia won the toss, elected to bat. That’s good news.
It’s 1/109 at lunch, Ponting on 11no, Langer 68no. Hayden out for 21.

I’ve had this in my head for days and days now, and I’ve got no idea why:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjvt6xqKwV8

It’s driving me insane.

Last night, Blacky and I went to Ashes to Ashes. It was pretty good, highlights (for me at least) were Mat the Bat, Ritchie Benaud, and believe it or not, Michael Pope. Yes, the lame “primary school kids show” host on channel 7, now apparently works for 9, and did a great job as an “audience warm up guy”.

Today, HOPEFULLY, my ticket to the Ashes arrives. I won an auction on ebay that I really shouldn’t've. (whoa, double contraction. I hope I used it correctly). So there was an auction to days 1-4, sitting by yourself, and I put a laughably low bid on, and won. Dad and I already had tickets to Day 4, which will be a monster imo, so I’ve given the “by myself” ticket for Day 4 to Blacky, and I’ll meet him at the bar for a few drinks in advance. My prediction: Australia wins, 4th day, by more than 5 wickets.

[10:45] Dean W: do you know Rolando Potts?
[10:45] (*) Lates (*): no
[10:45] Dean W: he sent me an email
[10:45] Dean W: “Midget F%$*ing message from Rolando Potts ”
[10:45] (*) Lates (*): oh
[10:45] (*) Lates (*): Rolando
[10:45] (*) Lates (*): yeah
[10:45] (*) Lates (*): forward it through
[10:45] (*) Lates (*): been waiting for that

Survey says “Yes”.

bash.org agrees with me on this one.

This is a macro I made this morning to delete every second row in a spreadsheet. Use at your own risk, it’s mainly here for my reference:

Sub Macro1()
‘
‘ Macro1 Macro
‘ Macro recorded 9/11/2006 by Dean Winter
‘

Dim A As Integer

A = 2
‘ A is the row on which to start
Begin:
Rows(A & “:” & A).Select
Selection.Delete Shift:=xlUp
If A = 500 Then GoTo Fin
A = A + 1
GoTo Begin:
Fin:

End Sub

That’s what I needed. A fresh start.

I’ve had a rough time since getting back from Europe, stressed and depressed. Things are looking up in the last couple of days, and to commemorate that, today I am clean shaven. And my, so handsome!

What else? Last night, dinner with Dave Cook, Lates, Blacky and Bek, in our own “pseudo-reunion” before Dave “ships off” to the shores of Europe. And what’s this I hear about Brek not coming back from Asia early next year, it being merely a stepping stone on their own voyage afar? You read it here first peoples.

Today I have lunch with Vivienne, and tomorrow is Friday. Glara are out for SLC this week, so it’ll have to be extra-awesome to spite them. I say we got somewhere lavish and flash, that means Bek’s choice I guess? :p

But personally, i find it a bit boring. That’s right, today’s the Melbourne cup, and to be honest, I couldn’t really give a crap. I think I know of two horses, one of which was scratched this morning, so that’s not very efficient at all is it? Mum and Dad are having some people over for a sweep, and I think people are supposed to wear a novel hat. I’ll pick something when the first person arrives I think.

It’s been a slow few weeks. On the weekend, I went over to Chris’s place with my bass, to have a jam with his new guitar. He also invited another mate of his to bring his keyboard. We weren’t terribly productive, but we had a listen to the CD of Morgan’s originals that we’ll try and have a play of in the band that we’re going to start. I don’t know if I’ve written about that, but yeah, we’re starting a band.

On Sunday I went flying at Shornecliffe. A bunch of guys were out there with their planes in the tepid winds, which made it a bit of a challenge. Even the guys who work at the hobby shop were having trouble. I spent a considerable ammount of time climbing up and down the cliff or climbing trees to fetch my plane. I had a few good take-downs, and there were about a dozen planes some times, but from all that climbing, my legs are a bit sore
This morning I had an interview for an apprenticeship at a kitchen factory at Brendale. I was there bright and early and had a bit of a look around. I’ve gotta give em a call back middle of next week to see. I’m hopeful but not counting on anything, so I’ll keep my eye out and my ear to the ground, my nose to the stone, a stiff upper lip, and while I’ll look like a bloody goose doing so, I’ll keep applying for more until somebody wants me. The people at work are very supportive, wishing me luck and stuff. It was always going to be a temporary thing at work, but it will still be sad to leave them, cos they’re a great bunch.

Til next time.

The title says it all really. I could blabber on for ever on this here blog about the things I’ve been doing since my last post (which seems like so long ago!) and probably not a lot to show for it In fact, in the aforementioned time since my last post, I’ve gained a year. That’s right, I’m now 22. “Over the hill”, as some have called me. I don’t know what that makes people who’re older than me; plummetting into the abyss? Who knows.

As I recall, Candice had just gone to America. She has since returned triumphantly, with some lovely presents for yours truly. She had a great time on their whirlwind trip, thanks for asking.

I had my birthday on 23/09, with mum and dad returning from the coast, and Bryce returning from South Africa on the 22nd. Deano came over for tea, and we went to the newly discovered (and closer) Pizza Napoli. Quite enjoyable, despite my inexplicable tiredness.

Shortly after everyone came home, they all buggered off again. Bryce went to Canberra, Mum and Dad went to Airlie Beach, and Dean went to Europe. I must smell pretty bad or something though I did have some visitors.

John and Sandra Grantham came down for their nephew’s (I think) wedding and stayed for a few days, and Jake came down from Rocky with his mum and girlfriend “Ai” pronounced “eye”. He, however, was also departing the country; off to Japan for 10 months on scholarship.

Also of note whilst on the topic of leaving the country, Sam left for South Korea, via the freshly overthrown Thailand for a week. Fortunately for him, it was peaceful.

What else happened… I dunno.

I’ve since bought a remote control radio pack, which I’m fortunate enough to get half of for my christmas present (and get to use it early), as I have taken up the hobby of remote control gliding. “Slope Soaring” to be precise, flying something called a “Zagi“. Steve (the 4th door neighbour) was kind enough to give me his old one, presumably on loan until I get my own which I’m keen as proverbial mustard to fly. We will hopefully get a chance to fly on Sunday. I can’t wait - I’m TOTALLY pumped.

Also, my friend from high school, Morgan and I are starting a band, potentially with Chris. I’ll be playing the bass, and I’ve been playing it at just about any given opportunity. Though in sadder news, Morgan’s old band is apparently in a spiral of self-destruction, leading to the formation of this new band. It’s kinda been an ambition of mine to be in a band with Morgan since about grade 9, and so for it to finally be coming to fruition, I’m pretty excited. Chris and I have also often said (with nothing ever coming of it) that we should start a band, and so it’s as though two pathways are combining. Worlds coliding! Deary me. It’s all happening.

Candice and I went to the Indy on Sunday with MANY thanks to Berny. He’d been down there since Thursday (I think) with work, and so didn’t find the spare passes that had been mailed to him until Sunday upon his return, and I was fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of the phone call offering them to me. So we made a brief but enjoyable journey down there with some time to see the champ cars do half a dozen laps, and then the final V8’s race. It’s quite impressive how fast they go around such small quarters.

In other news, I’ve interpreted recent personal events as life giving me a “wake-up call”, if you will, that I need to get myself an aprenticeship. So, I’ll have to start making some genuine in-roads, as opposed to the half-arsed ones that I didn’t really actually make in the first place.

I’ve only had work on Monday this week, so I’m going a little stir-crazy. I’m going to a halloween party tomorrow night after Cebs which should be fun. I’m not sure what to dress up as yet, but we’ll see. I’ve been scouring the net for some ideas, and most of em are a little boring, or if you’ve ever been to Cockeyed.com, some of em are just too dam hard for a holiday we don’t really celebrate.

I think I’ve crapped on enough for now. Part of the reason it’s been so long between blogs is becauuse I lost/forgot the password to login to write, and Dean had to reset it. Teehee. Ah well. Til next time - don’t hold your breath.