Posted by Ryan
August 5, 2009
Edit: I got everything worked out. The people over at Jungle Disk helped me out.
I lost my laptop a few weeks ago. Okay, I actually left it on a train on accident. I had hope because it was the JFK AirTrain and the people on the AirTrain generally seem more trustworthy than those on the subway in NYC*.
I also wasn’t too worried because I’m a nerd. My hard drive was completely encrypted with an insane password. There was no way anyone would ever get anything off of it.
Lost data wasn’t a worry, either, as I’ve been backing up my hard drive for years. I used to backup manually on an external hard drive and then I installed Jungle Disk which lets you store files on Amazon’s S3 service. Infinity storage! You only pay for what you use, and it’s cheap! I configured Jungle Disk to automatically backup all the stuff I cared about.
So with an encrypted hard drive and backups on the intertubes, I wasn’t too worried. All it really was was a big inconvenience. I’d eventually get a new computer and get my stuff back.
Well today my new computer arrived: a brand new 24″ iMac. I’ve been a Windows user forever and people usually assume–because I’ve argued against Apple fanboys and defended Windows–that I am anti-mac. I’m not. I just preferred Windows. I still do, actually. But I figured on a Mac I can run Windows in a VM. Now I have access to both operating systems and can do what I please on either.
Anyway, so I was all excited to get my stuff back today! I installed Jungle Disk and was very happy! I knew my stuff was safe! But! I was a bit stupid. I should have immediately initiated a manual restore of all my data. Instead, I kept installing software I needed so I could get back to work (since it is the middle of a work day).
Do you see where this is going? I should have. I noticed that Jungle Disk was doing some sort of “archive clean up”, but I couldn’t tell what that meant. I let myself get distracted away, probably installing some software or something. 30 minutes later I look again and notice IT’S DELETING STUFF. I immediately cancel it, but it’s too late. The “archive cleanup” meant “all your backups were old and so we deleted them.”
Yeah. All my stuff. Gone.
The default Jungle Disk settings were to “Remove previous versions [of files] after 30 days” and “Keep at most 10 previous versions of each file”. Actually, I’m not sure if those were default settings or just my settings. I don’t know if Jungle Disk syncs settings with its servers. Either way, I don’t see why it would have deleted my stuff. My backups were NOT 30 days old. But it did delete stuff. Almost all of it (it would have had I not stopped it, but everything I wanted is gone). All my photos. Journal entries. Everything that actually mattered. Gone.
How not to write software: don’t delete my freaking stuff.
* I was wrong. Or it’s just that the people at the AirTrain lost and found are useless. I know a ton of stuff gets lost, but all I ever got on the phone was incredibly rude people who told me entertaining things like this: “we, like everyone else, use technology. call back and leave a message.”
Posted by Ryan
September 19, 2008
A straw man argument is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent’s position. To “set up a straw man,” one describes a position that superficially resembles an opponent’s actual view, yet is easier to refute, then attributes that position to the opponent.
- Straw man argument, Wikipedia
In case that description didn’t make you think of Apple’s “I’m a Mac” ads, read it again. It should now.
In case you haven’t been paying attention, Microsoft has launched a new ad campaign to reclaim Windows’ supposed battered image. The response seems largely in response to Apple’s “I’m a Mac” ads.
The first two ads were really weird, but I have a wacky sense of humor so I quite enjoyed them. The New Family is hilarious. As funny as I might think they are, I still don’t know why on earth they made them. They’re very random and weird.
Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld: Shoe Circus
Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld: New Family
The newest ads, released yesterday, are much better. They make owning a PC look cool again. Not that I needed any more reasons. I’ve been happy running Windows for years. Barraged as I may be by Mac lovers, I really don’t see myself switching. I won’t say I won’t switch, because it’s always possible. It’s just that right now I don’t have any compelling reason to switch. They’re both good operating systems.
I’m a PC 1
I’m a PC 2
I’m a PC 3
Anyway, these ads are cool. I hope this will help people see through Apple’s straw man argument. They aren’t educating people about the truths of the PC. They are creating a misrepresentation of their competition, and then tearing it down. I guess it’s pretty common in advertising, but I’ve never liked it. I believe a company should and can tell people why they’re better than the competition without tearing anyone down.
Tearing someone else down to build yourself up is really just another way to express jealousy. I know all those Mac users out there are extremely jealous of my sweet Dell. Yes, it runs Windows. And I like it.
Posted by Ryan
March 27, 2008
In my constant struggle to have a balance life, I usually don’t have a balanced life. It usually goes something like this: read the books I want to read, read all the blog feeds I want to read, post on my blog a few times, realize that I haven’t worked in a few weeks days. Work. Repeat. After I’ve repeated that a few times I stop reading just about everything (I can never completely stop) and work a lot. After a few weeks I realize that I’m really far behind on everything I want to read so I catch up and it starts all over. And that’s why I haven’t blogged much recently (and you know I usually blog so much).
I do, for the record (whatever that means… who’s record?), believe I have improved in the whole balanced life thing this year. At least it feels that way (so it’s probably true).
A few other things:
My iPod nano locked up (all I did was push the play button on an audiobook). Wouldn’t respond. Reset procedures did nothing. I took it to the Apple store and they gave me a brand new one. No more little dents in the side!
I went to Sacramento a few weeks ago for the Sacramento lindy exchange. For the past 4 years I’ve said “I’m not driving there again!” and every year I do it again. This time I mean it: I’m not driving there again next year! The dancing was fun though. Also, we went to the Sacramento Temple! That was sweet. The weather was beautiful.
I saw Horton Hears a Who! and liked it (overall).
(I used a lot of parentheses in this post.)
Maybe I’ll post again tomorrow (don’t count on it, but you never really know).
I just had a really weird thought that will probably make everyone’s brains explode. You know how in math (and programming) you’re supposed to calculate the innermost parentheses first? Well, if a sentence were structured that way it’d be really hard to read: (I did, however, buy chips and salsa! (I haven’t bought shoes in a really long time. (except I didn’t really because (and bought some shoes (I went to the store (The other day)))))).
Yeah, I’m going to bed now. Sorry about that.
