Iron Wil

Recently, I have heard the likes of Leo Laporte talk about Jungle Disk and Amazon’s S3 service.

I have been looking for a ‘cloud’ back-up solution that was reasonable and viable as a solution. Yes, I know that Apple has the .Mac [now MobileMe] Service for 99$ a year; however, I wanted something a cheaper and easier to use.

You can pick-up Jungle Disk for 20$ and that includes all future updates and upgrades. Once you download and install the software package you need to enter you information. Next, head over to Amazon and the AWS site and sign in with your account information and then register for the S3 services. Once you are registered you will need to collect 2 Access Keys from Amazon. The first is your Access Key and the second is Your Secret Access Key.

With both of these, you can then connect to Amazon’s S3 service. I found it easier to add one directory at a time and let the upload take it’s time. It took 3 nights for me to upload 4 folders, Documents, Sites, Library, and Downloads. I have about 3.3GB of data from my MacBook that I have put on the cloud. It isn’t much, but it is my essential stuff.

Jungle Disk does a smart back-up.  You can schedule back-ups to run daily on down to every 5 minutes. I have mine set for 6 hours. If you have application like Mail or Firefox open it will error out on files that appear to be in use by the application. The application stays open and sits in the Dock. It would make sense for a Dashboard widget or a Menu Bar status icon to allow users quick access to the application monitor. Something like Caffeine or Time Machine.

It is worth the cost, which is on Jungle Disk’s main page here.

iron wil

Note: This will work for OS X, Windows, Windows Home Server, and Linux.

About a year ago, friend and reader, Technolust bought an 8gig Flash Drive. I was quite envious of the acquisition; however I was not willing to part with the 80$ for a new drive. I decided that I would have to wait until the prices came down enough that I felt it was a worth while purchase. Last week, thanks to NewEgg, I bought the Patriot Xporter for about 35$.

I have to say it is nice to have enough room to carry software packages I recommend and install on my clients computers. i even have all the Apple “Get a Mac” ads and half a dozen of the Heroes Graphic Novels. However, Technolust filled up her flash drive in about 2 weeks. I don’t have any idea what she has on that thing; but I am sure it is important.

If you hit my mac/pc pics pages you will get an idea of what I am carrying around on my flash drive.

Thunderbird & FireFox, ClamXav, AVG Free, TrueCrypt [Win & Mac], Filezilla, 7-Zip . . . etc.
iron wil

First of all I need to apologize to the IronKey Team, I got these devices serveral months ago and I did not test them out right away, I got them in the midst of a temporary move and put them away until we moved into our new place. That took much longer than I anticipated.

First impressions, it is huge compared to my SanDisk. The IronKey is almost 3 times it size; however, there is a reason for this SECURITY. Physical, electronic, and physical access. It is designed to withstand some physical abuse and water; electronically, the drives are not mounted until you clear the secure login; and then lastly the USB key is filled with a resin to protect the hardware which fills in every nook and cranny.

The best place to see how the encryption works is the IronKey website, they have a very good video that provides a virtual cut-away.

The usb device has a chip that handles the encryption and the software that drives the device. This chip provides full flash encryption which can kill the flash drive if the password is entered incorrectly to many times. Some people may balk at this feature; however, the IronKey team provides 2 different ways to protect against the loss of your data; 1) you can us the back-up service that comes with the device and stores it with IronKey or 2) you can create an encrypted data blob that will sit on your computer. You can recover your data if the device is destroyed after purchasing a new IronKey and then connecting to the server or running the restore option from the USB key.

Portable FireFox (FF) is the whole enchilada! I was able to move my FF profile to the IronKey and have all my plug-ins and settings take hold right away. I was also able to update FF to the latest version. As for the TOR feature [the anonymous web surfing], FireFox has a built in button that allows you to easily turn the TOR Client On and Off. I was surprised how quickly it pulled up websites and I was able to move around the web. From what I have been able to learn IronKey provides a private TOR network for IronKey users - this can be seen as good or bad . . . you will have to decide.

Overall, if you need lots of security for portable docs or you need a secure [and portable web browser] IronKey is worth the size and cost trade-offs.

I have two sets of screenshots, one is for the Enterprise Version and Personal Version.

iron wil

Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte did an interview with Dave Jevans, CEO of IronKey and they focused on the security and it works, so if you want a technical review, see Security Now #135.

I admit that I have a Skype Pro account and my wife loves it! I should probably have her write this review.

I have been using Skype for a few years and I am quite happy with it. I have friends and family making calls and we are trying to get one of my grandmothers online too. I am still waiting for the phone call to make that happen. Recently we moved into a new apartment and I am dead set against paying for services we don’t really need - like a phone line. Really, why pay 60$ a month for static? Standard cell phones have all the services that we ‘need’, including 911 - if my memory serves me correctly.

The wife wanted a handset, why when she has a cell and can Bluetooth the Skype Pro account on the iMac - I don’t know. So, I convinced her that we just need to get a phone for our Skype account. I was surprised that she went for it, but at about 90$ a year for the phone number and unlimited US calling why not!

So, a few weeks later the Philips VOIP 841 arrived. I bought it through the online Skype store, since I wanted to go back to them and complain if it didn’t work. Not only does it work, the wife is very happy with it, her only complaint is that it doesn’t have all our phone numbers in it [yet]. My only complaint is that each handset runs off 2xAA batteries. They don’t seem to last more than a day or two if you are making phone calls.

They are super easy to setup and I had the main handset and base station setup in about 10 minutes. It took a few days for the second handset because I hadn’t read the directions. The second handset automatically links to the registered [Skype] account and the handsets sync through the base station, unless the account is actually managed there [which is my thinking].

Overall, the system is a buy, just remember that you don’t have 911 service and you can’t video chat.

iron wil

I have a Logitech MX3100 which has been replaced by the MX3200, and I really enjoy the mouse, it is fantastic!!! It is a large and comfortable mouse to use. I also have a Microsoft Trackball, yeah it is 5 years old, but it is large and comfortable to use. I am a man and I have standard man-sized hands. So I prefer to use a larger mouse than the typical user. This last November, I found a really nice looking Bluetooth mouse. The design in very nice and pretty straight forward. It has 5 buttons and an on/off switch. It comes in black and I really wanted it, in fact, it made it on the TechnoLUST list.

I was not sure if I really wanted to order the mouse or not; but every time I went online RadTech kept popping up and so I ordered the BT600. I was notified in the order process that the mouse was back-ordered. I decided, it must be pretty popular.

About 2 weeks ago I finally got my BT600, disappoint set in as soon as I opened the shipping box. The write up on the website said full-sized mouse. It didn’t look full-sized to me in fact it looked more like the wife’s notebook mouse I had been using [and am still stuck with]. As you can see in my picture that the BT600 is larger than a micro-mouse and smaller than my MX1000. I was saddened by this fact.

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Earlier this year when D-Link came out with The D-Link Xtreme N™ Gigabit Router (DIR-655) I snapped one up and paid the 165$ premium to get it. It worked great with the matching PC card if there were no walls between them. I have not been able to get the security to work, not even the WEP! I tried with my PC [when I had one] and it didn’t work. I tried with my new MacBook and iMac. No way!

I was surprised that it didn’t work. Security is all the rage, especially for wireless. I have not seen any updates for this device and I am sure it must be user error - although I still can’t figure out what is wrong. It looks great and in the open it was fast. I didn’t have any connection problems in the open either.

The interface is quite complicated, definitely not for the standard home user. I prefer a much simpler configuration utility, this seemed more like IT Guy playing at home than Average Joe. There are two wizards to assist you with configuring the Network and Wireless settings. They were okay, but still no security. I finally gave up on it. We live in a rural area and would see anyone War Driving because they would have to pull down the driveway to get close enough.

It is getting all sorts of positive reviews from different organizations and companies. Personally - Junk. I like my new Wireless router a whole lot more, my little sister could probably configure it.

iron wil

A few months ago I started doing research for a new Bluetooth headset. My first was a Plantronics Explorer 320, I got it two years ago when I got my Treo 700p. It worked very well until I broke the ear hook off playing on the floor with my boy. I went a long time without getting a new one because of the cost. I just couldn’t justify the cost.

I have struggled in the decision of getting a new one. At first I was not sure what I wanted, but then in my research I came across the Z9. This headset is small enough to fit into my fifth pants pocket [or change pocket]. It can connect to three different devices, it has memory banks. I have paired mine with my Treo, my Mac, and my wife’s phone. I have had a little trouble with getting it to connect with my iMac every time. I have not had any trouble with the phones.

The physical features include a thin clear plastic ear hook, which works with my glasses, and a small ear bud that rests on the inside on my ear. The main body might be an inch long and half an inch wide and maybe a 1/4 of an inch thick. The Z9 has three buttons, on/off and volume up and down, there are many different button combinations that will allow you to perform different actions, including turning of the blue flashing light. Another small feature is a shirt clip on the inside of the headset.

It comes with two charging cords, one for USB and one for the wall socket. The cable connects into the back of the ear piece between the main body and the bud.

I give it 4.5 stars.

iron wil

Notes:

BlueAnt Website

Plantronics Website