2011 – Page 53 – Macinations

April 26, 2011

The Little Engine That Could

After watching a slew of James May episodes about toys from days gone by I felt compelled to get a train set. And that turned out to be a lot harder than I would have thought. It seems model trains are nearly a thing of the past and very few stores actually carry them. I managed to find a small hobby store near me that had a meager selection. I did find a neat little train in the N Scale which is quite small but will suit my wants quite well. It’s very small track but that’s good since I plan to run it on a table and don’t need a recreation of the Orient Express, although that would be cool. It’s such a cute little thing! It was a snap to put together, no pun intended. But the track is a little small. All I have is a small oval to work with. Clearly I will need to buy […]

April 26, 2011

Can you trust the Cloud?

As we’ve seen with Dropbox (which I love by way) it doesn’t take much for your provider to open up your files and hand them over. While I think it would naive to think that no one at Dropbox or anywhere else can’t get your files whenever they want, it does beg the question, how do you feel about completely unsecured files just sitting out there? I have no doubt access is restricted to only certain employees but we’ve seen plenty of examples of disgruntled and even slightly kooky folks getting their hands on data and spewing it all over the web. How confident are you that your personal notes, work files, payroll figures, expense reports, family photos, your first novel or whatever you store out there won’t get liberated? It’s not just pirated copies of Windows you need to be concerned with. What if some jackass decides to go searching for every .TXT, .DOC and .XLS file in the […]

April 21, 2011

Get the Funk Out!

Seems everyone is talking about AV programs, Firewalls, Spyware and how to keep all that crap out of your system. Personally I think it’s pretty easy and use 3 relatively cheap apps to do it. First, all the anti-virus and firewall protection is handled by Norton Internet Security 2011. I know Norton has had some issues in the past but their latest versions have worked really well. NIS 2011 flags suspicious files immediately, prevents suspicious sites from loading and I think does a great job of keeping crap files and bad websites at bay. And trust me I’ve ventured over onto the wrong side of the tracks many a time. If you shop around you can get NIS 2011 for around $40 with a 3 computer license. I mentioned previously I got it directly from Norton for $28. That is a hell of a deal and one of the cheapest prices I’ve seen. Second, there is SuperAntiSpyware. Horrible name but […]

April 20, 2011

First Night in Minecraft

I spent the first night in Minecraft and I have to admit it was a comedy of errors. Suffice it to say my first structure was less than stellar. In fact, it didn’t get completed since I ran out of resources. I got lost. I nearly drowned. And while my friends were showing me some of the grand work they’ve done and what awaits me once I develop some skills, I fell down a shaft and died. It seems the ladder is my arch nemesis and must be avoided at all costs. On the plus side they did give me some pants to wear so that was nice.

April 19, 2011

It seems I’ll be playing MineCraft

A month or so ago I’d never heard of this game. Now, I see the name everywhere. Even MaximumPC gave it their game of the year award. It seems like a great deal of fun, harkening back to playing with Legos of an unlimited number. I even made mention that I would like to give it a try, but I suffer from a lack of the creative gene used for building. I think the best I will be able to pull off is an outhouse. With a shaky roof. But apparently my work confederates were distressed with my lack of commitment so they forged ahead and bought a copy of the game. Now I have to play lest I insult their most generous gift. And in the brief moment of playing so I could "find a safe haven for the night" I proved my ineptitude by not only not being able to open the door correctly, but by not having […]

The Little Engine That Could

Can you trust the Cloud?

Get the Funk Out!

First Night in Minecraft

It seems I’ll be playing MineCraft

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