Carl's Corner :)

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Carl wrote: Without sounding to pesimistic they can collapse as well, but I guess if you have a few options it would highly unlikly for all of them to fail, so yes I'm going to buy an external drive, but first I'm trying to save up for a new camera which is not going well bills keep eating into anything I try and put away

Also, burn any zip files you have with said files onto dvd or cd's. If you're paranoid about your flat/house being robbed or set on fire then you could keep a copy of those discs at friends/families houses.

I have several copies now of everything, but I would like to get a fireproof box eventually to put one copy of everything in.

Whatever you do Carl, do not go to the urban dictionary and look up baboomba... ...

DO NOT click this link!

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define...m=baboomba

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Carl wrote: we didn't slap you around behind your back yesterday

I'm sure you will make up for it..... .....

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ahimsa wrote: BTW...Steve...SLAP! Luv ya!

Ah, a slap and a hug to start the day..... .....

Glad you are feeling better!!!

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ahimsa wrote: Now why on earth would a wedding cake cost nearly $1,000?

I watched Martha make a wedding cake. It had so many little details that it would have be worth every penny. That was years ago and I still think about that cake.

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Illumini Project wrote: In this situation I would back-up all my files and data, write down all the settings on a sheet of paper

My secondary internal SATA drive is a duplicate (image) of my primary. I can swap them without opening the case (in BIOS) so 'theoretically' I should be able to cut over in minutes but like Carl mentioned whatever corrupts one could corrupt them both so it's not very solid. In recent thunderstorm I unplugged my computers but left the modem plugged in to the phone line - sure enough it came through and fried my modem. Fortunately the modem was external and it did not cross over to the PC but it was close.

i'll add some tips here on backing up. buy the external drive and leave it off most of the time. get a firewire or usb type with a power switch. back up your files on a given day of time of day if you're one that backs up every day. turn your external on before that time and back up to it. then turn it off till the next time you're ready to back up. that's about the safest on-site backup. there is still some question about backing up to cd's and dvd's and how long they'll keep. harddrives dont hardly degrade.

buy only 5 year warranted hdd's.

buy an uninterruptable power supply (ups) device, one that has many outlets and phone and ethernet cable capability. yes, lightning can fry pc's through the modem. usually, it will only fry the modem whether internal or external, but why risk it... get an uninterruptable power supply. they all come with good surge and spike protection as well as the battery backup.

most 'fried' drives can be recovered. it's fairly rare for a drive to be so badly damaged that the data stored there cant be recovered by one means or another. there are data recovery services out there and software for retreiving lost files, corrupted organizing tables and so on.

consider using an online backup service. there are quite a few out there any more. you simply upload your data to an archival service and if it gets lost somehow at home or work, you simply download it back from the archival service. generally, these are fairly inexpensive.

there is only one exception i've found to the cd/dvd thing about too short a life. a while back, my friend, TosaInu, from another web site, found a japanese company making archival cd's. these had a MUCH longer shelf life than normal cd's. i dont have the link to that company any more, but it shld be google-able.

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ronviers wrote: How much?

50 gb

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Kraellin wrote: archival cd's

sound interesting I'll have a look

Short story - A friend had a fire in his flat a couple of year ago burnt the inside of his lounge room, all the cases on his CD's melted but surprisingly the CD's didn't, after cracking off the cases most still played

http://www.blu-ray.com/info/

Hey if you want to see something cool take a look at the new DisplayPort protocol.
It allows you to distribute dual 5000x3200px resolution outputs across two montitors on one port. Thats four monitors on one single port card! I'm currently getting less than half that on my dual port card on two monitors.

http://www.cgw.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid...77259A3129

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ronviers wrote: only 6000usd

wow that would probly be ten grand here

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Kraellin wrote: http://www.blu-ray.com/info/

whoops no E on blu-ray they do sound pretty cool

it not just the dollar it's the tarriffs/ import duties / taxes etc - music cd are around $30 games $100

lick a cane toad today and you won't care about tarrifs taxes etc

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ronviers wrote: you're protectionists

most countries are, usa when it comes to farm produce is shocking

ron, having farmed for over 20 years, i beg to differ a bit. the small farmer does need a certain amount of protection, but only in lean years when there's a market glut and prices are ridiculously low. that's when the subsidies kick in and ONLY when they kick in. i've watched the newpaper ads during lean years and it would scare you how many farms get put up on the auction block in those years.

right now, the market is up, way up, so farmers are doing ok, for the most part, and there are no subsidies in place, at least not in row and grain crops. but it wasnt very long ago that prices were so low you couldnt hardly afford to plant.

now, i dont know a thing about the animal farmers. we dont raise any, so cant argue that one.

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Kraellin wrote: i beg to differ a bit

Best not to take me too seriously.

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ronviers wrote: my new favorite noise?

cool I can see good stuff coming from that - have you got a colour version

Here the little farms get gobbled up by corporation which has a flow on effect of less people in the little towns so they eventually die unless they can find another source of revenue, alot are turning to art tourism which is good for people like us, I have been involved in a couple of sculpture programs like this

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Carl wrote: I have been involved in a couple of sculpture programs

Are you a sculptor!?

Hm. it was called Sam's Bone Worms - I don't know where that ij came from.

Enough ff-ing around for me - back to skinning.

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Carl wrote: meaningfull items [ historical and personnel ] which were embeded into the resin

That sounds extremely interesting. Do you have a photo?
I wish you would get started in Maya - I just know you would love it.

you know, there is a lot more intimacy with maya than you may be thinking. I have not tried real sculpting but I bet it has a lot of similarities.

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Carl wrote: it seems you have to commit a large amount of time to it and have a big brain

No, my brain is very small. Plus, most people specialize in a single area of interest - like modeling, rigging, animation, texturing, dynamics or lighting. Because of my remote location, and situation otherwise, I have to cover more areas so it's taking longer.

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Carl wrote: if you would lend me your brain Big grin

Deal! you will have access to my brain throughout the process.

I am but your not

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Carl wrote: I'll have a look at it

I think you will like modeling and texturing. If you want I will rig and skin your models. Eventually I will be able to provide basic animation too.
Let me know if you need any links to get started. I have a ton of tutorials that I have downloaded. If you want I can copy them to DVD and drop them in the mail.
Good luck!