Dawog's Blog

Copyright, Computers, Misc…

Archive for August, 2010

TPB AFK Documentary (The Pirate Bay: Away From Keyboard)

Aug 28

Posted by dawog in Copyright | Comments off

From the Kickstarter Project web page, “… this is a documentary about three computer addicts who revolutionized the world of media distribution with their hobby homepage. How did Tiamo, a beer crazy hardware fanatic, Brokep a tree hugging eco activist and Anakata, a paranoid cyber libertarian, get the White House to threaten the Swedish government with trade sanctions? TPB AFK explores what Hollywood’s most hated pirates go through on a personal level.”

The director, Simon Klose, needs financial assistance in making this documentary a reality.  The documentary home page is here.  The financial assistance pledge page is here.  Watch the video & see if you don’t think this is a WORTHY cause!  Despite many folks thinking that P2P & TPB are four letter words, I beg to differ.  I donated $100, as I want to see this documentary!

RE: Custom Orthotics…

Aug 28

Posted by dawog in Misc | Comments off

 RE:  How I Make My Own “Custom” Orthotics

Just in case you didn’t see it at the top of the “Physician” side of the Hapad web site, they provide a useful manual that addresses “Common Sense Solutions to Common Foot Complaints” and recommends various Hapad products to address your foot problem(s).  It’s titled “Physician’s In-Service Manual.”

I didn’t notice the manual the first few times I visited & ordered from Hapad, Inc.  In fact, for “Post Tibial Tendinitis” they recommend the “3/4 Length Comf-Orthotic Insole”  along with Scaphoid Pads if needed for more arch support.

As stated in my previous post, I really like the Longitudinal Metatarsal Pads with one of Hapad’s Comf-Orthotic Sports Replacement Insoles on top, but I think I’ll order a pair of the 3/4 Length Comf-Orthotic Insoles to place on top of Scaphoid Pads just to see if they feel even better.

Western Digital offers “Acronis True Image WD Edition” for FREE!

Aug 14

Posted by dawog in Computer | Comments off

Wow!  Can you believe it?  Western Digital is offering their own “WD Edition” of Acronis True Image for free download that features:

– Drive Cloning
– Drive Migration
– Drive Deployment
– Drive Image Backup
– Drive Image Recovery
— and more…

In addition, it is designed to create optimally aligned partitions on WD Advanced Format Drives (see my original post).  I visited the Acronis & Paragon web sites, and neither mention or acknowledge that they have updated their current software versions to handle Advanced Format Drives.  That means if you use either of these programs to clone a HDD to a WD Advanced Format HDD, you’ll still need to run Western Digital’s alignment utilities on the cloned HDD when you’re through  — even with Vista or Windows 7.  BUT… if you use Western Digital’s version of Acronis True Image to clone your HDD to an Advanced Format Drive, you’ll be set & won’t have to run the alignment utility.

Western Digital’s version of Acronis True Image will (hopefully) provide a complete solution to HDD cloning; migration; backup; and recovery.  I say “hopefully”, as I haven’t tried it yet.  I downloaded the 100MB file, but I already have Acronis True Image Home v11 software installed on my desktop (and it knows diddly-squat about “Advance Format Drives”).

I would assume that Western Digital’s version of Acronis True Image only works with Western Digital HDDs, but this is still fantastic!  IMHO, hard drive manufacturers should have been providing software such as this from the beginning.  We — the customers — buy their hard drives to store all of our precious data on them.  Why must we purchase 3rd party software to clone, migrate, backup & recover data from their HDDs????

Anyway’s… KUDOs to Western Digital!!!

You can download the User Manual for “Acronis True Image WD Edition” here.

Now… if they would just add a disk partitioning tool or partition manager, I’d truly be a happy man!

  • Side Note:  I originally wrote “happy as a clam” (vs. “a happy man”),  but I got to thinkin’ — what does “happy as a clam” even mean???   What does adding a disk partitioning tool to WD software have to do with “happy clams?”  I’ve been using that phrase (verbally) for most of my adult life, without a clue as to what it even means.  It was only when I typed it out here that it hit me… WTF does that even mean???  The only thing “happy” about a clam that I can think of has to do with ‘bearded clams.’  Well.. I googled the phase & found out that it really refers to “happy as a clam in high water,” which is when they are safe from predators.  Golly gee whiz!  After all these years I’ve learned yet something else!!!

Updated Western Digital “Advanced Format” HDD Alignment Utilities

Aug 13

Posted by dawog in Computer | Comments off

For those of you out there running Windows XP & dealing with Western Digital’s new “Advanced Format” HDDs, I just noticed that WD has updated their Advanced Format Alignment Utilities since I last blogged about this.  The “Acronis WD Align” utility was updated to version 1.0.0.314 on 4/26/10; the “Paragon WD Align” utility was updated to version 2.11615.6 on 7/21/10.

I visited the Acronis & Paragon web sites, and neither mentions anything concerning Western Digital’s “Advanced Format” HDDs.  If they haven’t updated their software, then you’ll still need WD’s Alignment Software if you use either of these programs when cloning a HDD to a WD Advanced Format Drive — even under Vista or Windows 7.

In addition, WD now offers “Acronis True Image WD Edition” software for (hopefully) a complete solution to HDD cloning; migration; backup; and recovery.  See my next blog post on this topic for more information.