BY: Andrew, NotebookReview.com Editor
PUBLISHED: 1/7/2009

The tiny 8-inch screen 1.8lb Sony VAIO P has been officially announced and is available online at SonyStyle.com with pre-orders for the $900 device starting tomorrow.

The VAIO P is about the thickness of a cellphone and Sony is claiming a weight of 1.8lbs, meaning it can comfortably fit into your coat pocket or easily slide inside a purse or backpack pocket. The screen may be small at 8-inches, but the unbelievable 1600 x 768 resolution will mean a lot of viewing real estate can be crammed into that small area -- at the cost of very small text and icons of course. The screen is a glossy XBRITE-ECO variety.

The VAIO P is crammed with wireless options, including Wi-Fi 802.11n, BlueTooth and Verizon WWAN (subscription required). Location "GPS Like" functionality is part of the mix to enable you to quickly find local restaurants and points of interest.

The VAIO P comes with an Intel Atom Z processor clocked at 1.33GHz with 512KB Cache. Built-in RAM is 2GB and the OS that comes bundled is Windows Vista. Obviously performance will be a concern, and Sony has somewhat addressed this by offering an instant-on lite OS called Sony XRoss media bar that allows you to surf the web, play music and view media files without booting into Windows.

The VAIO P will start at $900 and be available in four colors: Onyx Black, Emerald Green, Garnet Red, Crystal White. Interestingly Sony is not attaching the name "netbook" to the VAIO P. While the size would suggest this device fits into the so called netbook category, the high-end price and other features do not. This device is somewhat like the older Sony VAIO U series that has been around for a while. As with the VAIO U, a dongle is needed to support monitor out and LAN ports.

Well have a Sony VAIO P review unit in our hands soon and will be sharing more pictures and first thoughts at that time with of course a full review to follow in the coming few days.

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By: Charles P. Jefferies

INTRODUCTION

Up until this point we have reviewed only paid computer security solutions, but today we are trying something new: AVG Anti-Virus Free, which is as the name implies, free. AVG Anti-Virus Free has 80 million users worldwide and promises protection from viruses and spyware. How does it stack up against popular paid solutions like Norton and McAfee? Read on to find out.

PRODUCT OVERVIEW

AVG Anti-Virus Free is advertised to protect against viruses, spyware, adware, and Trojans. It features a Resident Shield, which provides real-time protection by actively scanning files as they are copied, opened, and saved. It also safeguards critical Windows files. AVG Anti-Virus Free includes an E-mail scanner, which scans incoming and outgoing mail.

For protection online, AVG includes two features: AVG Active Surf-Shield and AVG Search-Shield. Active Surf-Shield protects users when they click on links; it blocks threats from entering the system. Search-Shield works in conjunction with search engines; it checks the links that appear in search engines and displays an icon next to them indicating whether they are safe or not.

AVG Anti-Virus Free does not include a personal firewall, but neither do most anti-virus solutions. Instant messaging protection is also missing; all of the paid security solutions we have tested include this. Customer support comes in the form of the AVG Free Online Forum. AVG offers upgraded versions: AVG Anti-Virus Pro and AVG Internet Security, which feature enhanced protection.

It is important to note that this software is free for personal use only; it is against the license agreement to use it in a business or commercial environment

DOWNLOAD & INSTALLATION

AVG Anti-Virus Free is a 64MB download from the companys website. On a broadband Internet connection this should only take a few minutes.

Installation is painless; the process is not as streamlined as some of the paid solutions we tested but that is hardly a complaint.

After accepting the license agreements, a custom or standard installation can be selected; we chose standard, since that is what most users will do.

A free license key is already entered so simply click-through this section.

The last step is choosing whether to install the AVG Security Toolbar for IE/Firefox, which we elected to do since it defaults to "yes".

The next wizard walks through setting up the software. This is relatively simple and most users will click through.

Updates are performed once per day; the paid solutions we tested perform updates once per hour. Of course, it is difficult to complain given the price. Users can manually update the software at any time.

Users can give permission to send anonymous information to AVG about threats; we kept the default "yes" setting.

The last step involves registering; the point of this is to register for the online AVG Free Forum. Users must register in order to post, but all users can view the forums in read-only mode. The AVG Free Forum is the customer support for AVG Anti-Virus Free.

PROGRAM INTERFACE

The interface is relatively straightforward; the categories in the middle display information about the status of various components including anti-virus and anti-spyware. In the screenshot above, the Resident Shield was not enabled per the red message at the top; to fix it, I needed to click on the component and enable it. I am not sure why it was not active to begin with.

Updating is done automatically once per day, though the process can be completed manually as well. To update, simply click "Update now" in the left-hand menu.

The rest of the interface is straightforward. Users can change advanced settings in the window above; I did not find it necessary to dig around in here. Average users will probably not have to open the program interface at all.

IN USE & EFFECTIVENESS

AVG Anti-Virus Free did not interfere with everyday tasks including Internet surfing. In fact, I found it helpful while surfing the Internet because it scanned all my search engine results.

The AVG toolbar works in both Internet Explorer and Firefox, and scans search results from popular search engines including Google and Yahoo.

To test the effectiveness of AVG Anti-Virus Free, I used several virus files from Eicar.org, an IT security website. The four files provided for download, which have different extensions including .com, .zip, and .txt, contain viruses. Please see the test description for extensive information on the tests. Good anti-virus software should detect these files as threats.

AVG Anti-Virus Free detected all four files as threats and eliminated them from the system. It did not detect the files during download but nonetheless, it protected the system. Many of the paid solutions we tested did not detect them until after download either.

All of the recent activity of the Resident Shield component (which detected the viruses) can be viewed from the program interface.

PERFORMANCE IMPACT

We evaluate the performance impact and system resource usage of using anti-virus software in three ways:

1. Overall system performance measured before and after installation using PCMark05, a system benchmark suite
2. Memory footprint
3. Time it took to perform a full system scan

Our test system is an Acer Aspire 5735-4744; it has the following specifications:

• Intel Pentium Dual-Core T3200 (2.0GHz/1MB L2/667MHz FSB)
• 2GB DDR2-667 RAM
• 160GB 5400RPM Fujitsu hard drive
• Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit, stock install with all updates and Search disabled
• Atheros 802.11 Draft-N wireless

Overall System Performance Impact measured with PCMark05

Prior to installing AVG Anti-Virus Free, the notebook had the following performance numbers:

After installing the AVG suite, I ran the benchmark again:

There is less than a 3% difference between the results, which can be attributed to margin of error. Very impressive - AVG Anti-Virus Free does not measurably impact overall performance.

Memory Footprint

AVG Anti-Virus Free only consumes a few megabytes of memory according to the Task Manager, which is very low. Our systems memory usage did not noticeably increase after installing the software.

Time it took to perform a full system scan

A full scan of our test systems hard drive containing 37GB of data took 40 minutes 10 seconds; this is a long time relative to the paid software such as Kaspersky, which completed a scan in about 15 minutes.

CONCLUSION

AVG Anti-Virus Free proved itself in our tests and showed that it can keep up with popular paid anti-virus solutions such as Norton and McAfee. It detected all of the test anti-virus files as threats and provided extra measures of security online. AVG Anti-Virus Free barely impacted performance at all and used little memory. The program interface is clean and simple to use.

While AVG Anti-Virus Free is not as pro-active as some paid solutions and does not include as many features, we must not forget this is a FREE anti-virus suite and a very good one even compared to paid solutions. For those desiring more than basic protection, AVG offers upgraded paid suites. All in all, we find it extremely difficult to complain about AVG Anti-Virus Free, and not simply because it is free. It would still get our recommendation even if we had to pay for it.

PROS

• IT IS FREE
• Successful detection of threats
• Minimal performance impact
• Easy installation
• Simple program interface
• Does not interfere with everyday tasks

CONS

• Not as pro-active as paid solutions
• Updates only once per day

Source

Click the link to download

Download AVG Anti-Virus Free

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Synopsis (with info from Ayat Ayat Cinta site).
Ayat Ayat Cinta is an Indonesian mellodrama movie but with a lil twists where Islamic virtues are protrayed in this love story. This movie revolves areound the virtuous Muslim protagonist who overcomes all obstacles of life maintaining pure ideals.

Fahri bin Abdillah (Fedi Nurli) is a poor, intelligent student who wins a scholarship to complete his graduate degree at Egypts esteemed Al Azhar University. Very disciplined and dedicated by nature, Fahri embraces his life in Cairo, completing his studies and translation of religious books with full enthusiasm, exactly according to pre-determined targets.

He has another target too - that is to get married. But this becomes slightly difficult as he mentions that his religion doesnt allow dating. And even more so when there are so many girls who are sworn over by him.

The most distinctive - Maria Girgis (Carissa Putri), an open-minded Christian neighbour who is attracted to the teachings of the Holy Al Quran.

Then there is Nurul and Noura, but he eventually married the rich daughter - German Turkish, Aisha (Rianti Cartwright).

Things begin to get complicated when he marries Aisha with cases like he going to jail, court proceedings and more.

Why You Should Watch This Movie
If you would like to see and learn the positive side of Islam through a movie. This movie imparts knowledge on reasons for Islamic values (eg on polygamy, handling situations in times of uncertainty, and many more) - giving a better idea and maybe even clearing the mind on the often misunderstood religion.

Also, this movie is uniquely set in Cairo with quite breathtaking views.

Why Not
The never ending twist & turns in the movie - a lil too many towards the end. The movie could have ended at certain points, but to allow more drama, the ending became prolonged.

Conclusion & Movie Rating
This movie is worth the money for those interested in Asian cinema and Indonesian films, despite its poor ending.

3 stars.



Apparently, this movie is based by best-selling novel with the same title by Habiburrahman El. Shirazy.

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Several years after the Adventure Company and the Future Games released the Black Mirror, adventure game featuring a number of mysteries surrounding the strange death in the small town of Willow Creek, Future Games is working hard to revive this game in a sequel. Black Mirror 2, which takes players back to the nuances of a new mystery with characters and intrigue are also new.

Set 12 years after the first game, The Black Mirror took place in Maine, and introduce you to a student who worked in a shop in a boring little hometown. The only incident was pleasant enough memorable encounter with a mysterious girl named Angelina. Strange events began to happen to him, when it killed the boss character, which automatically put him and Angelina as a suspect.

In the process of escape and the desire to prove innocence, the way you ended up in Willow Creek, which has undergone many changes in the last 12 years. Since the murders that occurred in the first game, the urban population actually uses the incident as a tourist attraction by selling tickets to the murder scene.

Minimum specifications:
- Windows XP / Vista
- Processor Pentium 4 @ 3 GHz
- Memory 1 GB
- Video Memory 256 MB
- Direct-compatible Sound Card
- DirectX 9.0c

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Man, I super hate wating for vacation. Its such an excuse to turn every free moment into a moment to screw around. Should I start a project for the class? No, not enough time to finish it before school ends. Should I get some things organized? No, itll take too long to finish; then Ill just have a bunch of crap lying out while Im gone and itll get lost.

Just nothing but excuses. Waiting for vacation is AWFUL! And whining about it is also pretty AWFUL.

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Site: http://uk.aiononline.com/

Aion is a fantasy MMORPG released by NCSoft. It features a vast and detailed fantasy world with incredible sceneries, odd creatures and great adventures.



Races / Factions
Aion world has two playable factions – Elyos and Asmodians.
The Elyos are bright people or the good ones. They are bright and beautiful people living in a bright and beautiful world. Their country is known as Elysea and their capital city is called Sanctum.
The Asmodians are the opposite of the Elyos, dark characters from a dark world. They are the “bad” guys if you like how it sounds. Their skin is pale or dusky and their eyes have a strange glow. Their world is called Asmodae and their capital city is Pandaemonium.




Classes
There are four primary classes at the game – Warrior, Mage, Scout and Priest. At level 10 players can choose a specialization. Warriors can become Gladiators (skilled with many different weapons) or Templars (use sword and shield combination and chants). Scouts can become Rangers (skilled with bow) or Assassins. Mages become Spirit Masters (summoners) or Sorcerer. Priest becomes Cleric (healer and resurrector, can be useful in melee battle with mice and shield) and Chanter (Buffer).



World / Story / Lore
The world of Aion is a devastated planet called Atreia. After a cataclysm Atreia was broken in half. Players start as inhabitants of their chosen world and don’t meet players from other fractions until they enter the abyss.



The Abyss
After spending some time leveling players can enter and fight in the Abyss. The Abyss is a PvP zone, where players must fight players from the opposite fraction. Players receive special points called Abyss Points for defeating players from the other race. The Abyss rank of the player is calculated according to these Abyss Points. Also special weapons and armors can be purchased with them.
The guild or clan equivalent in Aion is called Legion. Legions can control special fortresses in the Abyss. The control over a fortress is obtained after a siege war (mass PvP war) where players fight against another players or NPC characters.



Specifics
You can’t really experience PvP or dungeon fight until level 25-30. Also you have a quest story line and the quests are very important for your character development.










Places and beautiful sceneries:






The trailer:

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Metasploit Pro 4.5.0 delivers completely new capabilities for running full-featured social engineering campaigns as well as significant improvements to the web application scanner. Metasploit Pro users can run sophisticated social engineering campaigns leveraging techniques like phishing and USB drops, watch results in real-time, and present reports containing clear risk analysis and remediation advice for the human attack surface.

Metasploit 4.5.0 includes 95 new exploits, 72 new auxiliary modules, and 13 new post modules over the 4.4.0 release, for a grand total of 180 new modules, all of which are detailed below. In addition, 56 reported bugs were resolved between 4.4.0 and 4.5.0.

Modules that are new since the 2012112801 update (the last update in the 4.4.0 line) includes modules targeting the Tectia SSH server, Metasploit, Nessus, Eaton NSM, Nexpose, Microsoft Windows, SIP, Adobe Indesign, Apple Quicktime, BlazeVideo, and Ektron. They are listed immediately below.

The update for 4.4.0 to 4.5.0 will be published shortly after the release of the 4.5.0 installer, and these release notes will be updated to reflect that updates availability.

https://community.rapid7.com/docs/DOC-2108

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As much as I am enjoying Metroid Prime, there is one game that I am looking forward to, a lot more. That is Brawl. Every day I check the website for new updates. Today, a Map Editor was announced. Not a little on the fly thing a la Halo, a full blown(ish) map editor. You can choose from all the backgrounds and then there are what looks to be a large selection of shapes, all of which can be coloured and skinned. Furthermore there are all the normal items you would find in a game of SSB. It really does look amazing.

Whats more, you can send your maps to friends and save them to SD cards (so no need to worry about size) But if this wasnt enough, you can submit a map (once per day) to Nintendo. Then every day, a new map will be sent to your Wii, created by someone else. You are then able to play on it for that day. Then the day after, the map will have changed. Apart from that being simply amazingly cool, that will be quite a technical feet also. As the Dojo says, "With a feature like that, won’t I be able to play this game forever?!" You can read all about it here...

Brawl is currently set to release in the UK at the end of February. And yes, I will have a counter.

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If you have 512 MB or more of RAM, you can increase system performance by having the Windows XP Core kept in the RAM instead of paged on the hard disk.

Go to Start -> Run - Type regedit and press enter - On the left hand side tree, navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory Management

- On the list on the right side, look for an entry called DisablePagingExecutive
- Double click it
- Press 1 on your keyboard
- Click OK
- Exit regedit and reboot the computer

To revert to the default setting, follow the same steps as above, but this time, press 0(zero) instead of 1 on the keyboard.

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Description
The Empire of Tamriel is on the edge. The High King of Skyrim has been murdered. Alliances form as claims to the throne are made. In the midst of this conflict, a far more dangerous, ancient evil is awakened. Dragons, long lost to the passages of the Elder Scrolls, have returned to Tamriel. The future of Skyrim, even the Empire itself, hangs in the balance as they wait for the prophesized Dragonborn to come; a hero born with the power of The Voice, and the only one who can stand amongst the dragons
Epic Fantasy Reborn. Skyrim reimagines the open-world fantasy epic, pushing the gameplay and technology of a virtual world to new heights.
Live another life, in another world. Play any type of character you can imagine, and do whatever you want; the legendary freedom of choice, storytelling, and adventure of The Elder Scrolls is realized like never before.
All new graphics and gameplay engine. Skyrim’s new game engine brings to life a complete virtual world with rolling clouds, rugged mountains, bustling cities, lush fields, and ancient dungeons.
You are what you play. Choose from hundreds of weapons, spells, and abilities. The new character system allows you to play any way you want and define yourself through your actions.
Dragons return. Battle ancient dragons like you’ve never seen. As Dragonborn, learn their secrets and harness their power for yourself.


Read more: http://www.itcpedia.com/2012/06/elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-update-9.html
(Source ITC Pedia - Free Download Game)

Minimum System Requirements
* OS: 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
* CPU: Dual Core 2.0GHz or equivalent processor
* RAM: 2 GB
* HDD: 6 GB
* Graphics: 512 MB card
* Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
* DirectX: Version 9.0c
* Internet for Steam activation

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Two random things that just make no sense (like the law against suicide- what is the point?)

Went in to Game after school today and saw they had changed the 360 bundle I was planning to purchase (the games included) The games it now includes were 2 games that I didnt want. So I asked if it was possible to swap the games, and this is their policy:

"No we are not able to do that, however, if you dont open them, after a week you can swap them for any game in our stock"

So I asked, isnt that just the same as just giving me the games when I buy it? Yes, but there isnt anything we can do. What is the point?! I am going to go home, set up my 360, add some friends, try to set up silver live and then wait a week, playing on my Wii. Seriously...that literally makes no sense.

Second thing, today the Brawl update is about friend codes. They are different from your Wii codes. So you have to add the same person twice to get them both on your Wii and Brawl. Why? Why would you do that, it is obviously possible to do MP games (Endless Ocean) so what do these separate codes add? You can read the update here

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It has been announced today that Dawn of War 2 has been completed and is now moving in to production phase. The current release date is February 19th. I havent quite decided whether I am going to get this. On the one hand, I know they are going to bring out loads of expansion packs which I will end up buying because I want to use the Imperial Guard and I should just wait for the box set. Plus, Starcraft is coming out soon also. However, I really enjoyed Dawn of War and what they are doing with the campaign sounds really interesting.
One of things that did interest me in the press release was this:

"Disposable units will become a thing of the past as gamers feel the intimate brutality of war and develop a personal connection with fully customizable squads."

It is one thing to have customisable squads, but to actually make players care... Also, if you have spent ages levelling up a unit players will fear losing it. However, this could just mean that disposable units play an even bigger part, as you cannot risk your good units and so just chuck rubbish units at the enemy and only use your best units in the worst case scenario.

The campaign sounds really interesting as you have control over a very small number of units and there is no base building. This reminds me of a game I really enjoyed a while back based on the film Platoon. The problem I can see though is Platoon was built for this. However, in Dawn of War, the game has to be able to take standard base building skirmishes too. It will be interesting to see how it all fits together. It is easy to see how customisable units can work in the single player campaign, but in the skirmishes, will you have access to them?

What I would quite like is if you had a persistent army (tied to your GFWL[Game for Windows Live] Profile) As you won games, you could purchase upgrades.

For example, when you build a standard infantry squad, if you have upgraded one standard infantry squad to start off with grenade launchers, then the first one would have grenade launchers. All units would be standard after that, unless you had purchased identical upgrades, so you could have more than one unit starting off like this.

The possible problem with this would be balancing, if you win more games, you just become unstoppable. Perhaps to get around this, choosing your army would constantly require trade offs. Yes, you can upgrade all your units to have grenade launchers, but one of your tanks wont be available at all. This could actually work quite well as new players would have a well rounded army to suit any strategy, but then as you hone your strategy, you could hone your army to fit it.

And to think this was meant to be a quick post! Coming up, more on Fallout 3, got in to it and I am loving it. I have only done like the first part of the story, I just keep wandering off in to the wilderness!

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Official Site: http://www.globalmuonline.com/
Download: http://www.globalmuonline.com/download_client.php

Mu Online is a fantasy MMORPG by the Korean Company Webzen.
Like many other games from this genre Mu Online has customizable characters, wide variety of different monsters and items. It has special outlaw(pk) and hero system for the pvps otside duels. The game has its Guild System that allows the players to join together and take participation in different sort of events like Guild Wars, Training and Battle Soccer.
The Chaos System is represented by the Chaos Machine. It can combine and upgrade items.

Character Classes - Player can chose from:
Dark Knight
Dark Wizard
Fairy Elf
Magic Gladiator
Dark Lord

Castle Seige

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I slept very well, but the combination of nervousness and anticipation of improved oxygen flow has me up bright and early.

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I was at a theme park the other day, and I decided to test some interaction theories I have. I was riding a small ferris wheel and while it was unloading, I was bored. The thing can only unload a few cars at a time, and the rest of the riders spend quite a long time waiting. My two year old son sat next to me, also bored, so I reached out to a strut next to the ride bucket and pushed, causing us to swing. It wasnt too long before the ride attendant noticed the motion and shouted out.

Hey, why are you swinging? By which she meant that I was not allowed to swing my bucket.

I said, Hey, I really dont know. You know I think the people in the bucket above me did something to set me swinging. By which I meant that there was nothing she could do about it. There was nothing the people in the next bucket could do that would remotely affect my ride, much less start me swinging. Nothing. The idea had no credibility at all. The attendant knew it. I knew it. The people in the bucket above me knew it.

But I said it implacably, unhesitatingly. It was impossible to contradict me. As difficult as it is for most people to lie, it is even more difficult to challenge a lie put forward confidently, no matter how obvious the lie is. Often an obvious lie is more powerful than the truth, because the truth is reasonable. Truth can be challenged, where lies must simply be endured.

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Nigeria, on Friday, was formally presented with the 2013 Emerging Market Europe and Africa best sovereign bond award by City Bank group following the country’s successful issuing and over-subscription for the $1 billion Eurobond last year to finance infrastructure in the country.

The $1 billion, with the allocation proceeds of 90 per cent going to power infrastructure financing and the balance to aviation projects, was specifically designed to improve power supply and partly bridge aviation sector infrastructure funding gap.

While presenting the award the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minster of finance, Dr, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, yesterday in Abuja, the Chief Executive Officer, (Europe, Middle East and Africa) of City Bank group, Jim Cowles, said the choice of Nigeria for the coveted award, was informed by Nigeria’s bracing the odds and volatility prevailing at the global market at the time and making huge success of the exercise.

In her remarks, Okonjo- Iweala described the award as the reward for hard work and due diligence of the management of the Debt Management Office (DMO).

She said: “This comes at a very unique time. Just yesterday we were trying to calm market stability in view of changes that happened at CBN. This is coming at a unique moment. We often do not celebrate our success.”

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The Mobile Frame Hangar will be open for registration from 12 noon to 5pm Eastern Time on Friday (4/12/13).  Notification e-mails are still not working so please inform me here or on one of the other sites -- Facebook, Flickr, G+, etc. -- what username you registered under and Ill activate it manually.

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I was just uploading the images from a nice walk at the marina and breakwater at Dick Bell Park today and thought it would be a good idea to back up my files. I thought there might be almost a thousand new files since the last back up and that would be heart-breaking to lose.

It’s running right now, and I was shocked to see how many images I have shot or processed in the last 3 or 4 weeks. OMG!

So remember to back up your images more regularly. You will regret it if you have a sudden crash and no second copy.

---

What I do for backups:

I have a 1TB Seagate Free Agent drive on a USB 2 port for backing up my email and all my files. I have everything I have ever written or received (that mattered) going back more than 14 years.

I have a 2TB Lacie Porsche drive on a USB 3 port for image backup. It took a while to get the drivers right on my USB 3 ports, but that’s working now and it was well worth it. Especially for image copy with my new USB reader.

I run a utility called “AllWay Sync” which is very inexpensive for the Pro version. It performs incremental backups and the jobs can be set up with any type of synchronization you desire. I use a one way copy with deletion propagation for images. I am very careful when I delete though, so if you are rather cavalier, I would suggest that you do not propagate deletions.

It is really that simple. I do  not have AllWay Sync running all the time, as it eats a lot of memory. But I could afford it now, so I might let it watch t6he file system and propagate in real time. That way I am protected within a 30 second window.

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HGUC 1/144 Silver Bullet  (Releaed in Japan, Price: 2200 yen)

GG INFINITE: ORDER HERE

Images of Box Art & Manual via HobbySearch

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