If you’re looking to backup the most important files on your Mac in a safe, simple and secure way, then check out Mozy, a new automatic online backup system.
In addition to being safe, simple and secure, if you can keep your use to less than 2 GB of total space, then Mozy is free, with no setup fees, credit cards, monthly payments or expirations.
Features include:
- Open/locked file support: Mozy will back up your documents whether they’re open or closed.
- 128-bit SSL encryption: The same technology used by banks secures your data during the backup process.
- 448-bit Blowfish encryption: Secures your files while in storage, providing peace of mind that your private data is safe from hackers.
- Automatic: Schedule the times to back up and MozyHome does the rest.
- New and changed file detection: MozyHome finds and saves the smallest changes.
- Backs up Outlook files: Disaster-proof email protection.
- Block-level incremental backup: After the initial backup, MozyHome only backs up files that have been added or changed, making subsequent backups lightning fast.
As someone who has lost important files before, I can’t help but sing the praises of a backup solution. Plus, with an online backup solution like Mozy, your files are stored in a safe, external location, keeping them safe even if your computer ever happens to be in a fire or other natural disaster.
[Mozy]
The Uno is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.
By using gyroscope technology similar to the Segway, it balances on two wheels that sit right next to each other. The Uno goes forward when you push your body weight forward, and backwards when you push your body weight backward. The further you lean, the more the Uno tilts, and the faster it accelerates.
Apparently it’s so simple to operate that there are no controls except for an on-off switch. The gyro tells the ECU how much to accelerate automatically, and the proper amount of power is delivered to the wheels through electric motors, one for each wheel.
The body and frame are both custom designed, with a Yamaha R1 serving as the starting point. After prepping the frame, the molding took just six weeks to complete.
And if that’s not enough for you, then keep in mind that the entire thing was designed by Ben J. Poss Gulak, an 18-year-old who taught himself CAD on a home computer using Google’s free SketchUp tool to create the initial idea.
Could this be the future of motorcycle design?
[The Uno]
[Via: Motorcycle Mojo Magazine]
Chicago’s Stern Pinball is the last manufacturer of pinball machines in the world.
Hard to believe, isn’t it?
Unfortunately, an ADD age and the move towards electronic entertainment now means that just 10,000 of the machines are produced annually, and most head towards the game rooms and basements of private homes, rather than the arcades and bowling alleys of yore.
Though pinball has roots in the 1800s game of bagatelle, these are by no means simple machines. Each one contains a half-mile of wire and 3,500 tiny components, and takes 32 hours to build — as the company’s president, Gary Stern, likes to say, longer than a Ford Taurus.
Can pinball survive much longer?
For the sake of children and childhoods everywhere, I can only hope that the answer is yes.
[New York Times - For a Pinball Survivor, the Game Isn’t Over]
[Via: Gizmodo]
Blank is Like Blank is a simple site that provides the occasional analogy to live by.
With quips like:
“Facebook is like a gossipy friend with no interesting information”,
“Using Helvetica is like owning a Mac: It looks so cool that you never bother to stop and think if you really need to”, and
“Starbucks is like that crazy ex-girlfriend you still get together with: You hate yourself for going back, but the familiarity makes it convenient, and until you find something better, it’s all you’ve got”,
Justin Feinstein is firmly establishing himself as the king of the one liner.
[Blank is Like Blank]
Kipp Wettstein makes his own large format cameras as part of what he calls The Camera Project.
The cameras are designed to suit Kipp’s “operational tendencies for the singular application of mobility”, and make a “simple, elegant and accurate method to connect the lens and film planes”.
The beauty of the design is that it is built around the elegant form of the image cone produced by the lens. Not only does this design yield an attractive camera but it is extremely accurate. The lens and film planes have a parallel accuracy within the fractions of a millimeter. These designs have no perspective-controlling movements. They are small, lightweight and extremely precise.
His latest, called the 8×10 Carbon/Aluminum, is a beautiful “portable, wide-angle camera using a molded carbon fiber cone attached to a body plate machined from a solid block of 7075-T651 aircraft aluminum”. The lens is a Schneider 165mm Super Angulon, and “at four pounds, its weight nearly matches that of the camera body”.
Want one?
He’ll make one for you (or at least take your inquiry about one), but keep in mind that “ultimately, large-format photography is a costly process”.
[Kipp Wettstein - The Camera Project]
[Via: NOTCOT]
Adobe’s newly launched Photoshop Express is a very beautiful looking, though unfortunately feature poor online photo editing solution.
If you’re looking for an online Photoshop replacement, then this is not it; but if you’re looking to do some simple editing with the power of Adobe doing most of the work for you, then Photoshop Express might be just what you’ve been waiting for.
One of the coolest features is definitely the ability to take the app full screen (and by full screen, I mean FULL screen), allowing you to easily forget that you’re working in a web environment. The downside is that you’re still working in a web environment, so things slow down a bit when you’re doing processor heavy tasks.
Tools include the ability to crop and rotate, auto correct, adjust exposure, remove red-eye, tune various aspects of the image, and add certain effects that work well at times and terribly at others.
One benefit of using the service is that Adobe is providing 2 GB of complimentary storage for your photos so that you can save and share them right from the Photoshop Express app itself.
It’s definitely not perfect, but it is a good start, and worth checking out, so hop on over and see what they’ve got going on.
[Adobe Photoshop Express]
Muxtape is “a simple way to create and share mixtapes”.
It’s goal is to bring back the joy of laboring over a mixtape for hours to get everything just right, and does so by only letting you create one mix per account, and limiting your mix to just 12 songs. (Each no larger than 10 megabytes.)
When you’re done, the music is then streamed through your browser, so it’s not exactly a file sharing service, but since the only way Muxtape prevents copyrighted music from being uploaded is with a meek little warning: “By uploading a song you agree that you have permission to let Muxtape use it.” I’m guessing Muxtape is going to be dealing with a few high priced lawyers in its near future.
Regardless, it’s a nice (and simple) service that has some potential to help undiscovered artists get their start, and it relies on the “sharing is caring” motto, so I hope some sort of agreement is made to keep Muxtape around.
[Muxtape]
Drag Soccer is a tactical game of soccer where you control when players run, pass, and shoot.
It’s addictive in its simplicity, and the AI means you don’t have to worry about the other players while you give one directions, making it easy to learn as well as fun.
Drag on.
[Drag Soccer]
[Via: UNEASYsilence]
I love this comic from xkcd, titled simply “Fuck Grapefruit”.
So simple, yet so informative!
[Via: xkcd]
If you’re doing any kind of ‘for print’ creative work, it’s important to calibrate your monitor so that what you see on screen is what you see on paper.
Calibrize is a new freeware app that’s designed to help you “calibrate the colors of your monitor in three simple steps. Just download the software and follow the procedure to generate a reliable color ‘profile’ and adjust the colors of your monitor automatically.”
Are you ready to Calibrize?
[Calibrize]
[Via: The Red Ferret Journal]
