Online file backup service - free 45 day Trial - No Credit Card

• Author: DigitalMind
• Filed under: Uncategorized
• Date: Jun 26,2008

Sugarsync is a service for backing up your data online and sharing the same data with multiple computers.  Basically, the first 45 days are free and doesn’t even require a credit card to sign up and test.  They give you 10 gigs of storage space to upload you data and download it again when needed.

Everything you want to sync goes up to a server in the sky, and when another computer you’re keeping in sync comes online, it connects to the server to get and send the latest file updates.

Once your free trial is over, the price for a 10 gig online storage “bin” is a very fair $25 per year.  However you only need to think about that once you’ve tried it for free !

Bye bye Windows, HELLO LINUX !

• Author: DigitalMind
• Filed under: Uncategorized
• Date: Jun 24,2008

I’m almost ashamed to admit that all my computers are running WindowsXP.  Not because i’m pro-microsoft, but because it’s the most common OS and I know how to use it very well. Because of my job it’s important that I know the softwares that are most commonly used.   I’ve been wanting to learn linux and switch to that, but was too afraid of the down-time while I switch everything over and basically have to re-learn all my computer stuff.

Last Friday I decided to use a spare p3 866mhz with 360mb Ram to test out Ubuntu.   Ubuntu has a very nice graphical point and click interface that’s similar to XP and MacOS.

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Possible NEW Canadian Copyright laws

• Author: DigitalMind
• Filed under: Uncategorized
• Date: Jun 12,2008

CBC news has just posted an article about a new bill that has been proposed in Canadian Parliament in regards to Copyright Laws and regulations.

Some interesting sections :

The federal government has introduced a controversial bill it says balances the rights of copyright holders and consumers — but it opens millions of Canadians to huge lawsuits, prompting critics to warn it will create a “police state.”

I’m not surprised. Canadian Laws have been very vague as far as copyright infringment. This was bound to happen.

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Techie NATION birthday Paraphernalia

• Author: DigitalMind
• Filed under: Uncategorized
• Date: Jun 11,2008

My lovely girlfriend Marina had a hat made with the Techie NATION logo and slogan “If all the worlds a stage, then the TECHIE must be god”. I’m very, VERY happy with this. Considering I spend hours and hours every week working on this blog, it’s a perfect gift for me.

Is anyone else interested in owning a TechieNATION hat ? (Girlfriend not included)

Thanks for visiting TechieNATION !

Camera found !

• Author: DigitalMind
• Filed under: Uncategorized
• Date: Jun 11,2008

Ok so I found my camera.  Expect posts about my cool bday present coming up :  Techie Toys, Green Clothing, TechieNATION paraphernalia and Ham Radio Jackets !

Birthday Weekend

• Author: DigitalMind
• Filed under: Uncategorized
• Date: Jun 9,2008

I had a great birthday weekend that just ended.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t find my Camera the entire time.

On Friday some friends and I went to a beautiful spot by the water.  We were surrounded by the st-laurence on 3 sides of where we were.  We made a fire, we fished, we drank, made hotdogs on the fire, and we had a good time !  Thanks to everyone that came !

On Saturday my girlfriend and I drove down to blainville to visit my mum, along with my sister and her hubby who happened to be in town for the weekend.  We had an amazing LOBSTER dinner at a local bar (It’s the Lobster Festival right now) and afterwards setup camp in my mothers backyard.  (We could have slept indoors, but we love our tent, (that we call the TARDIS).   We once again made a nice big fire in my mothers outdoor backyard fire pit.  I really wish I had my camera.

My mum gave me a REALLY good quality jacket with my Ham Radio Call-Sign on the front and back.  I was also given some environmentally friendly socks !!

My sister and her hubby got me a really high end flashlight that straps to your head.  I’ve used these before, but none like this.  It has a brightness setting, and when on maximum, you’d think it’s a car headlight !   To top it all off, it’s lightweight and comes with a carry case that fits on my tool belt.   It will be very handy for all those times I need light but need both my hands to work with.   I was in the process of training a monkey to do this for me, but now I’ll let him go free since he’s no longer needed.

They also got me a Monocular.  You know, those cool one eye’d magnification devices that all the spies use in the movies ! This will be handy for geocaching, bird watching, and maybe sometimes even save me from needing to go get a tall ladder to check something in a cable that’s along the top of a warehouse !

I will be writing more in detail about these things soon.  I need to find my camera first.

Stay Tuned !

Future Reviews of new things I own

• Author: DigitalMind
• Filed under: Uncategorized
• Date: Jun 6,2008

Today is my birthday, and my wonderful girlfriend Marina has gotten me all kinds of cool things that I plan on writing about. I’m currently too lazy to take the pictures necessary and put them online, so i’m just going to give everyone a heads-up about things to come in the days that follow :

• The worlds first TECHIE NATION hat ! With the [Techie NATION] Logo and tag line “If all the worlds a stage, then the TECHIE must be god”. Wow, what a present, I LOVE IT ! In fact, i’m considering having a bunch made and giving out the first 50 or so hats. (Why not, they’re nice hats, and it’s some publicity)
• Coghlan’s Portable Foldable Stove with 2 cans of “Heat Source”. This will be handy for minimalist camping that I plan on doing a few times this summer, and will be permanently in my Emergency “Go-Kit.”
• Escort 12X12 foot Screen House! Oh yeah, this will be a great thing when camping at OKA during bug season. (Which is most of camping season I might add) Tarps are all that is needed to protect from the rain outside while camping, which is great, but this will also keep all the bugs away while we’re eating ! (And it’s a lot more pleasant looking than a series of tarps)
• My Mother has given me my first piece of environmentally friendly clothing. A T-Shirt that is made of Crab Shells !! (Feels and looks a little like silk)

Stay Tuned for these posts !

The Daily Dilbert

• Author: DigitalMind
• Filed under: Uncategorized
• Date: May 28,2008

For those of you who hadn’t noticed, there’s a NEW Dilbert cartoon that appears every day on this site.  It’s in the right sidebar near the bottom.

Dilbert is a great office humour cartoon.  It’s the only one I like.

Firefox. It’s time for all you internet explorer users to discover it.

• Author: DigitalMind
• Filed under: Uncategorized
• Date: May 14,2008

Considering this site is mostly for Techie’s, there’s an abnormal amount of visits from people still using Microsoft Internet Explorer. I’m not sure where to begin with this, other than saying if you’re using explorer you have computer issues. (It’s not your fault, you just don’t know better) I should also mention that this is NOT a sponsored post, and this is what I truly believe.

Explorer is made by Microsoft. Microsoft has bugs and problems : always. Lets just say Microsoft is actually a good company, the fact of the matter is Microsoft Explorer is what lots of virus’s and ad-ware attack. You shouldn’t be using it. There is a better option and it works BETTER. You are not giving anything up for switching. It’s free. It’s developed by the internet community.

Firefox is the answer to all your web problems. I have been using firefox for over 3 years now. Every once in a while on someone else’s computer I use Explorer and am reminded of why I love firefox so much. Firefox is great at stopping pop-ups and virus’s from infecting your computer. It’s a very noticeable change when you switch to firefox.

Mozilla, the makers of firefox, also made a great email application called Mozilla Thunderbird which I have also been using for years and replaced Outlook with it. To be honest, they’re both very good email applications. I just prefer to support Mozilla over Microsoft when it comes to equal products.

The Power Techie’s have to help the world go Green.

• Author: DigitalMind
• Filed under: Uncategorized
• Date: May 11,2008

Techie’s have an enormous burden and responsibility that most don’t even realize they bear. Most technological things use power and contain harmful chemicals. When business’s decide to buy new technology, it’s the techie that shops for it and makes the recommendations. We (The Techie’s) need to start taking into considering the ecological factor of the products we recommend.

Things techie’s need to take into account :

- CRT monitors draw more than twice the power of LCD monitors the same size. Don’t let a cheap employer fill up an office with CRT monitors just to save some money in the short term. Don’t tell them it’s an option, only suggest LCD monitors.

- Data centers take a LOT of power. Lots take more than they really need because of how they’re set up. Did you know there are lots of GREEN webhosting companies that either power almost everything with wind / solar power or off-set their emissions with Renewable Energy Credits ? Help save the environment by hosting your website with someone who is doing the same.

- Computer Power Supplies draw a lot of power. Now days, with the high end computers that are available at affordable prices, you often don’t need to have all your servers in separate boxes. Put your mail server, web server, SQL server, whatever you can really, into ONE REALLY GOOD server computer. You can install VMWARE to keep it as if they were all seperate computers. You’ll help a lot by having only a fraction of the servers you would in the past in your server room.

- RECYCLE TECHNOLOGY PROPERLY ! Don’t let your customers or people who depend on you throw out their towers, monitors, cell phones, batteries, etc into the regular garbage. A lot of these things contain harmful and dangerous chemicals and need to be disposed of properly. Don’t get me wrong, your 1 AA battery in the garbage won’t blow up your street, but what happens once it’s in the landfill and there are LOTS AND LOTS of batteries in there slowly starting to leek their dangerous chemicals. Staples has started a recycling program for technology.

- Make sure the computers you setup are configured to go to sleep after a few hours of inactivity.

The bottom line is, think about the environment before making decisions. People listen to you and take you seriously. I’m not asking you (or me) to give up on technology, but if there’s a greener way to get the same thing you should go that route even if it’s a little more expensive.

Please take the time to read how to be green at the office, and how to be green at home !