The Best Way to Backup Your MacBook Pro (Apple Laptop Computer)
Jul 26, 2010 Uncategorized
I’m someone who has experience going through hard drive crash hell with my MacBook Pro. The last time it happened to me was in 2006 and it cost me several thousand dollars to recover most of my hard drive data. Soon after that happened, we wrote about how to backup your Mac intelligently so we could help other people avoid what I had to go through. Although that article is still relevant today, new services and software have come out that make backing up your Mac even easier.
A good backup plan involves having two copies of your data — one local and one offsite. A great plan involves having three copies! I’ll show you how to have either one.
1. External Drive + Time Machine
This first example is a no brainer. If you’re running the latest version of Mac OS X, then you already have Time Machine. All you need is a FireWire or USB 2.x external hard drive, which you then plug in (at least once a week) and you’re good to go. I recommend getting at least a 500GB hard drive. Having a bigger hard drive means you’ll be able to save more versions of your files, which means you’ll be able to recover files after they’ve been changed multiple times or were deleted a long time ago.
2. Online Backup with Backblaze
Online backups have finally come into being for the Mac. The first viable option was introduced by Mozy — a tool I’ve used for quite some time. However, a new service has emerged that is even better than Mozy called Backblaze.
Mozy throttles your upload connection, uses an unreasonable amount of resources, and can occasionally get in your face with application messages. On the other hand, Backblaze allows you to upload your files as fast as your connection will allow, appears to leave a very small footprint on your computer when it’s running, and runs completely in the background (I have yet to see a message pop up from it.)
Backblaze costs $5/mo (same as Mozy) and backs up everything quickly. When you download and install Backblaze, make sure you go into Preferences, click on the Settings button and turn the Throttle up (to the far right) in order to upload files quickly.
3. Online Backup with Carbon Copy Cloner + S3
This third option makes a good backup plan a great backup plan! This example is a little more time-consuming, but is one of the very best ways to truly backup your entire hard drive and have a secure offsite copy of it.
You will need an additional computer, like a Mac Pro, iMac or MacBook Pro, with enough hard drive space to save a copy of your laptop’s hard drive or an external hard drive.
Install Carbon Copy Cloner on the additional computer. Then, with your laptop turned off, connect both computers via FireWire. Turn on your laptop, but make sure you hold the “T” key when you do it. That will turn on FireWire target disk mode.
Once you see your laptop’s hard drive appear on the additional computer, open Carbon Copy Cloner and create a disk image of your hard drive. After you finish making the disk image, upload it to Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3). You can easily do that by signing up for S3 with your Amazon account and uploading it using Transmit, which supports Amazon S3.
Doing this third backup step will ensure that your data is always backed up and restorable. However, if the third step is still too much for you to do, the first two steps will still do the trick just fine. With the availability of Time Machine and Backblaze, there’s really no reason why you should ever lose your data again.
Determining Your Best Poker Cash Strategy
Jul 26, 2010 Uncategorized
One of the most enjoyable things about the game of poker is that, while there are certain things a player should endeavor to accomplish and other things a player should endeavor to avoid, there are really no rules as to what is the best way to play the game. The game of poker is part blind luck and part chess match. The game requires knowledge of strategy above all other things and, for each individual player, a poker cash strategy that turns out to be the winning one may be different than it is for other players, even for players of the same level of skill and experience.
One of the most amusing incarnations of the poker cash strategy is seen in what’s termed The Maniac. The Maniac is the individual who makes bets which most people would describe as downright crazy. They raise the pot on lousy hands, raise on the blind, and generally try to intimidate their opponents into folding their hands. This individual, depending on their level of skill, may be a very successful player. They may also be a convenient way for more skilled players to enrich themselves due to the somewhat transparent nature of the strategy.
Another popular poker cash strategy is that of becoming a master bluffer. This is an individual who is completely unreadable, who displays no tells, and who retains an air of quiet calm whether their hand is an obvious winner or complete air. Developing this strategy is very difficult in a live situation but, where online poker is concerned, one need only make certain that the actual strategy displayed to other players is not completely readable. Learn to play the game and avoid using automated features to make certain that other players cannot guess anything about one’s intentions or one’s position.
One’s best poker cash strategy will also depend on one’s position where finances are concerned. For instance, if one happens to have the shortest stack at the table, it is not the time to get overly-aggressive and certainly not the time to become The Maniac. This is the time to; either pick out smaller fish and pick them off or to make very conservative bets and wait for the best hands to come along. The situation is radically different if one happens to be sitting behind a very tall stack of chips.
As is the case in the business world, those individuals who fail to see an opportunity and, thus, fail to take advantage of it when it presents itself are the same individuals who will inevitably fail when they may well have succeeded. When one has a large stack of chips it’s time to take out the smaller players. Being in the dominant position at the table means that it’s an excellent time to use bluffing, intimidation, and even blind raising to force other players into positions that make them too uncomfortable to carry on and which will cause them to fold.
One’s poker cash strategy must not only depend upon the finances they have in front of them at the table, but on the finances they can reasonably afford to bet on any given game. One needs to keep in mind that, if they have too much riding on the game, they will not be playing at their most efficient or effective level. The Maniac and the bluffer will both reveal that a player who is scared and nervous is an easy mark. Set sensible budgets and make sure that the total amount that one is willing to wager does not cause a hardship in one’s life. Above all other things, poker should always be fun.
A good Poker Cash Strategy does not mean being a one-trick pony. It means adapting one’s strategy to the situation at hand and to the level of play with which one is presented by one’s opponents. Good players master all of the strategies. Sometimes they’re maniacs, sometimes they bluff, and sometimes they just sit back and relax and let the other players fall victim to their own lack of skill. The last strategy, of course, requires that the player spent a lot of time at the tables.
