I started using Backblaze about a month ago. Backblaze is an offsite backup service. While I try to back things up to DVD every couple months, and I have Time Machine running and backing everything up to an external hard drive, I still felt it was a good thing to also have my stuff backed up offsite. This way if something awful happened, like a robbery, fire or some natural disaster; my important files will have been backed up away from my house.

The service is pretty painless to set up. I started with a free trial, and I saw the upload speed was nice, so I went ahead and signed up. It’s $5 a month for unlimited back up, or $50 a year, so you save $10. If the unthinkable happens and you need to restore your files you have the following options.

• You can download a zip file, which is the free option. I don’t know how they break up the zips, maybe each file is zipped up; otherwise you’d have a pretty big zip file to download. My initial backup was 46 GB.
• You can have your files sent over night on DVD(s). This option will run you $99.
• You can have your files sent on a 160 GB USB Hard Drive. This option will run you $189.

The back-up was painless, and I got great speed, but that also comes from my having the high speed Comcast internet connection. My biggest problem was remembering to leave the computer on so the back-up could take place. I’m used to putting the machine to sleep when it’s not in use.

Tags: apple, mac, software

When we first upgraded to the .NET 3.5 framework, the one feature I wasn’t the biggest fan of was LINQ. My main reason for the dislike is the way the syntax stands out from everything else around it. It reminded me of when I was a COBOL developer, and the code would have inline DB2 or IMS logic, which stood out from everything else. It may be powerful, but it just doesn’t look or feel right.

Well, over time I got over it. We have used LINQ a lot in this Silverlight project I am working on. The main use is for getting a distinct list of items, or to quickly filter or sort. It works great for this. The other day I found an even greater use.

Let’s say you have an object that looks like this:

public class TitleRight
{
    public Guid ID { get; set; }

    public List<Territory> Territories { get; set; }

    public List<Language> Languages { get; set; }
}

Now, let’s say you have a list of TitleRight objects, and you want to find the ones in the list that have a certain TerritoryID and a certain LanguageID. In the past, one way you would accomplish this would be to iterate through the list of TitleRights, and for each one, you would then iterate through the list of Territory and Language, and try to match on the ID.

Now, in .NET 3.5, with the help of LINQ and Lambda expressions, you can do the following

var query = from tr in TitleRights
            where tr.Territories.Find(t => t.Id == territoryId) != null &&
                  tr.Languages.Find(l => l.Id == languageId) != null
            select tr;

So, what is this code doing? It uses the List<T>.Find() method to search the list for a match, returning NULL if nothing is found. It took a little trial and error for us to figure this out, but in the end I think it truly shows the power of LINQ. This accomplished in 4 lines of code, something that would normally take probably 2 - 3 times as many.

Tags: .net, development

My gift from Paige this past Christmas was something I had been wanting for a while, but have never gotten around to purchasing. Since I am cursed with a beard that grows in fast, I have to shave often (it should be daily, but that doesn’t always happen). I’m not a fan of all the new disposable razor blades, with 4 blades on them and costing a lot for refills. I was always a fan of the shaving kits you would see in the old movies, where you lather up a badger hair brush and use a safety razor to shave. This was my gift from Paige, and I love it. She got me the following:

Omega Shaving Soap



This comes in its own handy bowl.

Old Original Badger Hair Shaving Brush



Parker Safety Razor



I purchased a 10 pack of double edge steel blades at CVS for $4.99; which is a lot better than the price of those disposable blades I used to buy for my Mach 3.

The first time I shaved with the safety razor was a scary experience. That’s a pretty freakin’ sharp blade, but I made it through unscathed. Once my face was lathered with the shaving soap, the blade just glided across my face. I made sure I didn’t apply a lot of pressure. At first I couldn’t even tell it was actually removing my beard it moved so effortlessly, but I stopped and looked and ran my hand across it, and it was super smooth. If you want a manly shave, get yourself these products. After the initial investment, which isn’t all that bad, you only have to get yourself the blades; so in the long run you will save money. The shaving soap lasts a while, as will the brush, as long as you take care of it.

Tags: personal, shaving

Tags: mac, apple, software

I finished Tomb Raider: Underworld earlier today. It was enjoyable, and the story was very interesting. My only gripe about the game is the controls weren’t all that great. There’s just some games that don’t translate all that well over to the Wii controls.

Once I was finished with Tomb Raider I collected all of the games for the Wii and my Nintendo DS that I have finished, and I took a trip up to GameStop to trade them in for store credit. I currently have a little over $250 in store credit. GameStop was crowded, so I didn’t bother spending time looking for a new game. I figure I can survive on Guitar Hero: World Tour for a while. I’ve finished the game, on Medium, but I haven’t achieved 100% on all the songs.

I also recently finished another book, “Plague Ship”, by Clive Cussler and Jack Du Brul.



Clive Cussler is the author of the Dirk Pitt series of books I used to read. Once the Dirk Pitt series finished he branched out into a series of books with Jack DuBrul which encompass the “Oregon Files”, named after the ship that the characters reside on. He also started a series with Paul Kamprecos which is the “Kurt Austin” adventures. He recently teamed up with his son, Dirk Cussler to pen the new Dirk Pitt series, which is about Dirk Pitt Jr, the son of Dirk Pitt from the original books. All of these have a couple things in common: they take place around water, they have the over the top, taking over the world bad guys, and they are meant more for a fun read that anything else. I don’t know why, but I’ve found that I enjoy these stories. Plague Ship ranks as one of my favorites from the Oregon Files series.

Tags: wii, video games

Anyone who has read this blog knows that I like to check out the bundles of Mac OS X software that show up every once in a while. I find it to be the best way to find new software, and get software for a great price. One of the first bundles I ever bought was from MacHeist. This was a few years back. I received an e-mail the other day stating that a new MacHeist bundle is approaching. Hopefully there is some good software in this years bundle.

Tags: apple, mac, software

Paige and I enjoyed a nice dinner at Agave Restaurant to ring in the new year. It’s that time of year again, time to make some resolutions.

I think this year instead of making some big overall resolutions, I’m going to list some things I’d like to start or continue doing.

• I got myself out of debt earlier this year, and have done fairly well at keeping myself out of debt. I do still use my credit card to pay for stuff online or for our trips we take, but I make sure to pay it off either at the end of the month, if I can, or within a month or two if I need the time. This year I plan on continuing to stay out of debt.
• When I was younger I used to draw all the time. I have a lot of great drawing tools lying around, and I really need to get back into it.
• I haven’t been playing the guitar as much as I used to, so I need to get back into doing that.
• While I have been good at not getting into debt again, I haven’t been doing all that well on putting money into my savings account. I’ve set up automatic deposits to try and resolve this. I have two big expenses coming up this year, my lease on my car runs up in September, as does the lease on the house I am renting. I have been renting this place for 3 years now, and am thinking of either looking into getting a place of my own, if I have the money and the housing market allows it; or at least move somewhere else and rent, for a change of scenery.
• I’d like to live more frugally this year. Just because I can afford to eat out often, or get Starbucks coffee daily, doesn’t mean I have to. I’m going to try to stick to eating out on weekends or during the week for special occasions, and cook meals at home during the week. I’m also thinking of cutting out the trips to Starbucks, or at least cutting it down to once or twice a week.
• Through exercise and monitoring myself using the Wii Fit I was able to lose 15 pounds this past year. Now, I have gained some of that back over the holidays, so I need to get back into working out and keeping the weight off. I also need to broaden my exercises beyond aerobic and get some strength training in too.

Tags: new years, resolutions

Shortly after I finished Lego Batman I purchased two new games for the Wii. Call of Duty: World at War and Tomb Raider Underworld. I finished Call of Duty yesterday and have now started playing Tomb Raider Underworld.

Call of Duty: World At War



I’ve been playing the Call of Duty games since they started coming out for Playstation 2 many years ago, only missing Call of Duty 4 because it wasn’t released for a system that I own. Call of Duty: World At War is a first person shooter that takes place in the final days of World War II. You play two characters, an American and a Russian, whose stories intertwine. The American conflict taking place with Japan, and the Russian conflict taking place in Germany. Just like Resident Evil 4, I found this game perfect for play on the Wii. This game supports the Wii Zapper, but I found it too hard to play that way because you have to be able to press the buttons on the WiiMote, which is hard to do when it is in the Zapper. Using the WiiMote to aim your weapon gives you better precision than using the joysticks when playing the game on other systems. This game has online play, but that’s something I’ve never been interested in, so I didn’t play that part, just the single player campaign mode. It’s a great game, definitely recommend it if you are into first person shooters.

Tomb Raider Underworld



Tomb Raider is another game I have been playing since it first started, back on the original PlayStation. I haven’t started playing this yet, so I won’t have a review until I’m finished. Most of the Tomb Raider games have been good, but there were a couple that felt thrown together just to release another title in the franchise. Hopefully this one isn’t one of those.

Tags: wii, video games