Publication Date: February 25th 2004
ISSN 1445-1360
In this issue you will read:
Editorial: February 25th 2004
Software Review: Backup Plus
Definition: Bonza
Project Gamer: The Parts
Quotable: George Tooker said...
Web Site Review: PCTOYLAND.com
The Great Australian Joke
G'Day Blokes and Sheilas!
I nearly died Sunday night. I thought my primary hard drive had died. In hindsight I do not know what I did to fix it. I am assuming it was just a loose wire. Nonetheless I am happy that I didn't loose my NetBloke subscriber list. Which was not part of my automated backup routine. Needless to say it is now.
So the lesson I have to convey to you all is to backup your data as often as possible. Weekly at the least. If you read nothing else this issue learn this lesson!
I blogged on my swap over to satellite TV. So far so good! Extremely worth doing and no regrets. The PVR alone is worth it, but saving money and getting the better customer support add to the experience too.
On another note Casey and I have started taking Sydney to obedience school. So far so good. She is a smart dog and will do well. Actually I have to get this issue finished so I can take her out for a lesson.
I popped in an Aussie computer parts retailer into this weeks Web Site Review too.
Have a bonza day!
Nathan Allan
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My good friend Eric put me on to Backup Plus. This program is great for automating your backup schedule. It is so basic to use, and includes a Wizard if you want to make it even easier! You simply select the files or folders you want to backup and the destination of the backup. On my system I have a spare hard drive set up in a portable firewire enclosure. However you can use any type of storage including floppy disk, ZIP, JAZ, MO, CDR/CDRW/DVDRW. The program really comes into it's own when you set up your backups to run automatically at a certain time. I have mine backup all my data at 2am on a Friday, and the important stuff nightly at 3am. To make things even better there is a restore option as well, that thankfully I have not needed to use yet. Name: Backup Plus License: Trialware: $39.95 to buy. Version Reviewed: 7.1.2 Supported Operating Systems : 95/98/NT/2000/ME/XP TOP
I thought I better define "Bonza" for those of you who have not heard it before. For starters it can also be spelt "Bonzer". It can be swapped for words such as great, superb, outstanding, impressive and grand.
So like I said have a Bonza day!
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For a quick recap I am building a cheap yet effective gaming machine. Basically a mod of the last upgrade I did.
As I had some experience with the board and it reviews well, while being affordably priced I have chosen the Shuttle AN35N. It costs around $65 from most retailers.
For memory the board takes up to DDR400 and I figured at least 512Mb is needed. You are looking at least $80 for this amount of memory, unless you find a great deal somewhere.
For the CPU I am going for a AMD XP processor. Simply because the price difference between this and Intel is so great. I believe taking price and speed into consideration something around the 2400 will do the job nicely.
The last important ingredient is the graphics card. For around $100 I found an eVGA e-GeForce FX5200 AGP 8X 256MB DDR Video Card w/TV-Out & DVI
This should give us the guts of a machine. The rest of the machine is to be salvaged off other machines. Of course we are using my favorite cheap case again!
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Painting is an attempt to come to terms with life. There are as many solutions as there are human beings.
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I touched on this site last week when I found the case I dearly want to build my ultimate portable gaming machine. I offered myself as a "slave for the day" if anyone wanted to buy it for me but alas there were no takers.
With all the offering out there like PCTOYLAND there is no reason you can not build a fashionable yet affordable computer that will blend in to your decor more than the bland beige boxes of old.
What I think is great about this site is the selection of silent and home theater PC components. However everything on the site will have someone who wants a mod PC drooling.
Aussie's looking for a retailer who sells all the bits and pieces for computers, may like to try out Computer World. I have had experience with them in the past. Their prices are very low, yet their service lacks speed. Be prepared to stand around for half an hour going through the sales process!
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A police officer saw a car speeding down the highway. He started chasing after the speeder . When he got close he's saw it was a blonde woman who was actually knitting while driving.
The cop yelled, "Pull over!"
The blonde shouted back, "No! It's a jumper!"
NOTE: A Jumper is a Sweater Aussie style.
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