The Lance J. Technoweb

For years I've had an RSYNC backup solution for my immediate family's computers. Each computer would perform a remote RSYNC over SSH to my home Linux box on a daily basis. It worked great, but it was a pain in the butt for a few reasons: Lots of parts to maintain. A lack of on-disk encryption. No easy restoration process. Required me to have a server powered up all the time. Recently, I stumbled upon a Mac and Windows internet backup solution for the grand price of Free. It's called Mozzy Home, and its pretty darn good for the following reasons: It's free for the first 2 GB of storage It supports encryption - Mozy can't even see your file content (but it does appear that they can see your filenames and directory structure) It is super easy to set up The client software is pretty good, and supports easy restores. You can get a free Mozy Home account here (shameless referral code attached): https://mozy.com/registration/free The biggest limitation with the (free) M...

We now live in the age where part of your life is spending time and money maintaining and repairing things like your car keys . My Porsche's remote key was getting weaker and weaker, until one day it stopped operating altogether. Keyless remote without the remoteness. Not so good. I was a bit fearful spending a sizable chunk of my time and money at the dealership to have such a small problem addressed, and so I decided that I would try to replace the battery myself. Items required A clear work surface A small flat blade screw driver. A quality lithium CR-2032 Battery, available here. Procedure The following video shows how I successfully opened up the key without breaking it, and replaced the alarm remote battery. In short, from the vantage point of the key's steel part facing away and the buttons facing up: I take a small screwdriver and press on the little plastic tab on the left side.  At the same time I use my fingers to start to pull the two halves apart.  From th...

Some Globe-style CFLs are sucky. As you know from reading my blog, I'm a fan of not throwing away my hard-earned cash. So it was obvious for me to replace my incandescent bulbs with much more efficient CFL bulbs. My conversion saved me quite a bit of money, but there was one trouble-spot: the CFL globes I installed in the bathroom. I have one of those old-fashioned bar fixtures in the bathroom, designed for a set of three exposed globe-style bulbs, and so only globe style bulbs would look right in the fixture. I use my bathroom quite a bit, and the fixture with incandescent bulbs would normally require 180 watts to power (3 bulbs @ 60 watts each). Replacing them with CFLs seemed like an easy target for reducing electricity costs. "No problem!" I thought, since globe CFLs are readily available in retail stores. My 1980's Style Bathroom Light Bar with Globe CFLs. GE CFL in the center, Sylvanias on each side. I bought a set of three 14 Watt "Commercial Electri...