grinding the floor

After the great floor rip up, we investigated grinding off the glue.  The glue which was all that remained of the first floor that was a "direct stick" wooden floor.  That floor was replaced 10 years ago after a water issue too.

We got three quotes (as you do)  Two at around $1500 and another at over $2k.  To hire a grinder would cost $350.  So I figured we were looking at $1k tops for someone to come and do it.  Then one day Megan saw a truck with "Tim's floor stripping" written on it. (The mind boggles).  She called them, they came and quoted.  It was much closer to the expected price coming in at under $1k so they got the job.  They came today.  Did the job and vacuumed up after.  So the place is nice and smooth and clean and ready for us to work out what is going down as the new floor.

I am more than happy to recomend these guys as they did a good job.  Tim's Floor stripping Tim Matthews 0411 599 895

Google Redirect Virus

It seems my laptop has caught the Google Redirect Virus.
Sometimes when I click on a link in google, I end up with an advertisment.
Sometimes (rarely) AVG anti virus will block the actual page that is about to come up but it does not find the actual redirect virus.
Luckilly it has not leaked into virtual box so my "new" machine is uninfected.
Personal backup
I also have been trying out various backup programs and one called "Personal Backup" is on my computer and I can not get rid of it.

http://fixredirectvirus.org/?hop=lsgifts  - Costs money.  No idea if it is real or a scam  The conspiracy theorest inside me suggests that it was written by the same team that wrote the virus in the first place.
Apparantly this virus is not a virus but something that simply changes some settings on my computer and is therefore difficult for AVG to remove.
So what are those settings.?

http://www.ehow.com/how_5842581_remove-google-redirect-virus.html
suggests removing TDSSserv.sys and
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/tdssserv.sys-23624.html
agrees

So the objective now is to remove it and WHO to TRUST???
http://www.liutilities.com/products/campaigns/affiliate/cb/offer/bleeping/rb/
registrybooster  - Costs money
http://softwareindustryreport.com/report/registry-booster.html

http://www.brighthub.com/internet/google/articles/66090.aspx

• Win32/Olmarik Removal tool by ESET
• TDSSKiller by Kaspersky Labs.
• Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool by Microsoft
• BlackLight by F-Secure
• Stinger by McAfee
• CureIt! by Dr.Web. The alternative download location is in CNET.com. You need to update the detection to get the latest detection updates.

Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/internet/google/articles/66090.aspx#ixzz1HrxVdY1H

28-03-2011 Called AVG spoke to Renold.  He is sending me an email with instructions on analysing the computer and I will have to email back a file.
11-4-2011
The AVG guy never got back to me - slacko.
The problem seems to have been resolved by disabeling XULRunner 1.9.1
It is described as a Mozilla Run time package.
BTW, using  Firefox 3.6.16.
It woudl appear thatthe current version of firefox is 4.0
Time for a reinstall.
14-04-2011
Downloaded Firefox 4.0
Using Control panel>add remove programs> un installed firefox.
Installed Firefox 4.0
Lo and behold when I check the add ins there is XULRunner.
So the uninstall does not remove all traces.
Un installed Firefox 4.0
From
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_firefox
Deleted the Firefox Installation directory located here, by default: C:\Program files\Mozilla Firefox


Deleted C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox

Delete all C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch\FIREFOX* files


The Firefox uninstall will leave behind some Windows registry entries, which can be cleaned up using Windows regedit or a 3rd party registry cleaner. Normally, these extra entries are harmless, and it is not necessary to remove them. Note: registry editing is a potentially hazardous undertaking!.


Why bother having an uninstaller that does not actually un install.

So tried Simnet uninstaller
http://www.simnetsoftware.com/products/simnet-uninstaller.html
Ran it and told it to uninstall firefox 4.0.  It seems to just run the firefox uninstaller.  Hardly seems worth the trouble.  Although I am not sure whether the C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox had come back of not because it was not there are Simnet was run.

Lets check with regedit.
from http://www.tweakguides.com/Firefox_3.html
5. To remove all Firefox profile data, delete the following directories if they still exist:

In Windows XP:
\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Mozilla
\Documents and Settings\[Username]\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla
In Windows Vista and 7:
\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Mozilla
\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\
This will ensure that all remaining custom data relating to your profile, any cached files, any files relating to installed extensions and themes for Firefox, will all be removed from your system.
6. Find and remove all of the major Firefox/Mozilla-related entries in the Windows Registry. Using the Windows Registry Editor (Start>Run>Regedit), delete any of the following keys if they exist - that is, right click on their name in the left pane of Registry Editor and select Delete:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxHTML] - Not present
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxURL\] - Not present
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Applications\firefox.exe] - Not present
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mozilla] - Present - Deleted it
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\MozillaPlugins] - Not present
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mozilla] - Present - Deleted it
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\mozilla.org] - Present - Deleted it
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MozillaPlugins] - Present - Deleted it
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Mozilla] - Not present
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\mozilla.org] - Not present
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\MozillaPlugins] - Not present
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\FirefoxHTML] - Not present[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\FirefoxURL] - Not present



Note: If you also have Mozilla Thunderbird or any other Mozilla products installed, make sure to only delete entries/folders which specifically relate directly to Firefox by name. If you're not confident with using the Registry Editor, see the Windows Registry chapter of the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion for more detailed instructions.

So you wonder what the uninstaller actually does.  Given this is 2011 you would have thought it could look through the registry and delete anything called firefox.

Reinstalled firefox4.0 and wow finally no reference to XULrunner.

Flashpoint 27-03-2011 - Woman at Well. Spiritual water

Had a great flashpoint today.
Based on the bible reading John 4:5-42
The basic message we had was that just as our body needs physical water so to our soul needs spiritual water to refresh it.

Sang some songs including Jesus is a Cool dude with Dand and Jemma on Jembay.

We had a "well" as a focul point as you can see beside Natty in the first photo but the difficulty was no water so we dug another.

Here you can see Jesus and the woman "in costume".





Later the well became infested with small boys and those who wished to get wtaer from the well had to use some of it to wash out those boys.
The astitute among you will also notice a "milk bottle cross" at the bottom of the well.  We also found two wheel barrows and lots of old pieces of wood and some red letters that spelt the words "turn it up"

Science Experiment 1
Before the kids arrived, put some water and blue food colouring in a tray and let it soak up into a paper towel.  When the kids arrived did the one on the left.

The analogy is that the paper sucks up the water like our soul sucks up the living water Jesus talks about in the bible reading.

This is a pretty slow experiment so we then did the balloon experiment while this one did it's thing.

 Hold a balloon above a flame and it pops as this boy discovered.  You can see a flash of pink at the left of the picture.

 Put some water in the balloon and it does not pop.  We even had the balloon toch the flame and there were black smoke marks on this balloon after.

As with all of these demo's there is always the chance that something will go wrong and I made a comment to that effect.  Cameron helpfully suggested I should "have faith"

Eatserfest Meeting

Saturday - Frank & Megan

Went to Toowoomba for an Easterfest meeting.  Matt, Jordan, Josh, James and Cameron were able to join us.After the meeting we went and soaked up the ambiance at Queens Park.

Still looking for video crew.  So if you are interested please contat us.

Meanwhile, Marcus took Chris, Dan and Jemma to Southbank. AT Southbank, Fergus (friend of Marcus) who was travelling with them left and continued home.  Bella (Marcus's girlfriend) met them and the 5 of them went to Goma (Gallery of Modern Art) etc .

Flashpoint 26-MAR-2011 John 4:5-42 Woman at the well

Flashpoint Sunday 26-MAR-2011 John 4:5-42 Woman at the well, living water, talking to everyone.

Flashpoint is this sunday.
These are my notes.
John 4:5-42 the woman at the well.
Note that if one actually reads the bible, there is nothing derogatory said about the woman.  There is no suggestion that she is a prostitute for example. We are told that she has had 5 husbands and that the man she is currently living with is not her husband.  Jesus does not mention sin nor does he call for repentance.  So I guess he did not see that as the important message here.

The first really obvious thing is that Jesus talked to her.  A samariain woman.  Normally Jews did not talk to Samaritan women.  Jesus did.
-> Talk to everyone.
-> Live life the way God want's it and not by the rules of the world at the time.

The Message in a nut shell   could be
We all need water to drink but we need to keep drinking it or we become thirsty again.
Jesus offers 'water' for those who are thirsty on a spiritual journey.



Science Experiment Ideas - Water
Coloured Carnation
   All life needs water.
   Put food colouring in water.  Stand a cut carnation in the water.  Watch the Carnation change colour.  Takes a day.

Paper Cup of water

Cup of water and a card upside down - Really more of a trust thing

Baloon of water will not pop - The water inside the balloon gives the baloon strength to resist the flame.
Could go to town on this one with a fire and brimstone visit to the hobs of hell.
http://www.madaboutjesus.net

How about digging a well?  ..... Guess what I did at church....Dug-a-hole.
I wonder if there is a well anywhere that we could go and see?


Science Experiment Ideas - God talks to everyone
Walkie talkies

Optus

During the final quater of 2010 I started to have problems with my i-phone.  The problem was that sometime when a call was connected it just sounded like I was underwater.  I phoned optus tech support in Novemnber and again on 20-12-2010 and established it was a known problem and that their 'technicians were working on it'.  I phoned again on 4-2-2011 and was told again that it was a known issue and the work around was to switch to 2G.  (Pity then that the mapping, email and internet didn't work).

A week or so ago I received a text message complaining that my bill was over due.  So I figured I had beetter at least pay for my half baked service.  I was however in for a rude shock.  My expectation of about  $60 ($49cap + $10 for the phone) was jolted by looking at a bill for $331.77.  So I downloaded the PDF and figured a bill of that magnitude was worthy of being printed out.  It did not take long to observe that many of the calls were exactly 1:00 minutes long followed by a second call to the same number within a few minutes.  So they had been charging me a call connection fee and 1 minute of talk time for each under water call.

Ok so call the number 133 343 and do the usual wait wait wait.  Then explain all this to someone who has difficulty understanding.  They advise that someone will investigate and get back to me within 2-5 business days.  Then they put me through to an i-phone tech support guy who tells me that there is now a 'fix'.  We establish that my firmware is at rev 4.1 and I need to upgrade to 4.2.1.  So I do that and now we wait and see.
--------------------------------------------------------

20-12-2010
Phone seems to get out of sync. Receive calls sounds like under water.
'Shy'?
wants me to insert sim into another phone.
BUT its not a problem on every call.
tech support iphone advise it is a known problem and that they are working on it.
--------------------------------------------
4-2-2011
Sync problem
Spoke to 'Ran'.
This is a known issue and technical people are investigating.
Temporary fix is to change to 2G
Setting>General>Networ>Enable 3G = OFF
----------------------------------------------------------

24-3-2011  Called 133 343 Spoke to (F) 'Isah'
Invoice 408219052 dated 7-Feb-2011
Total $363.27
$274.58 over run due to calls being charged that did not work because of the underwater problem.
Someone from billing will investigate and get back to me in 2-5 business days.
then spoke to 'Damien' from iphone tech support.  He got me to check the version of the iphone softare (4.1) and then asked me to upgrade to 4.2.1 and then to keep a record of any failed calls.  He will call back tomorrow at 3pm ish.  (Which incidentally he did)

------------------------------------------------------------
29-03-2011 received phone call from optus computer adviing that the service would be blocked if I did not pay the bill by 1-April (I think)

-----------------------------------------------------------
29-03-2011 phoned optus spoke to 'graciel'.  She talked about technical problems and I talked about billing problem.  She advised the snail mail address is:- .....
She put me through to 'Lala' who agrees that it is a billing problem and the technical problem that caused the problem has now been resolved.
She put me back to the billing people
Spoke to 'Cj' (F) who said that I can ignore the notification.  She put the account onto 'hold' for 14 days.
----------------------------------------------------------
Date ???
Paid 2 x $62 payments as this is the undisputed amount for January and February.

-----------------------------------------------------------
 10-4-2011
received text message advising bill of $507.08 account 8573501500168
133 343 closed sundays.
tried 133 937  'optus care' -> Closed
Sent this by the optus web form email
1.
There is a dispute in your system regarding the Invoice 408219052 dated 7-Feb-2011
Total $363.27.
This was caused by a Fault in the Optus system whereby my iphone would not connect properly and you charged me me for a 1:00 minute call.
THIS NEEDS TO BE RESOLVED.
2
I have been sent a text message advising that I have a new bill of $507.08.  I have closed the account and moved to Vodafone.  So Please just send me the prorata bill without the disputed January bill.  You maye note that I have paid the undisputed portion of the January Bill and the Februray Bill.
3
I tried to view the bill online but it will not show it to me.  Presumably because the phone number has been moved.

I have never received a response to this.
------------------------------------------------
27-4-2011
Received a letter from Optus titled "Final Notice" dated 14-April-2011
Demanding $299.69 immediatly. and threatening a $35 suspension of service charge and referral to a debt collection agency which comes with a 15% collection fee.

Hmm I wonder if they have investigated the disputed January bill.  Invoice 408219052 dated 7-Feb-2011?

-------------------------------------------------
27-4-2011
Called Optus 133 343.  Spoke to "Anne" from India or somewhere.
She said she could see some notes but wanted to take 3-5 business days to investigate.  Where have I heard that promise before.  She also wanted to call me back.  I demanded to speak to her supervisor.  So now I am on hold listening to musak.  Perhaps they should let me press one to listen to rock, two for classical, three for head banger.  Given that I spend so much time on hold that would be the least they could do.
Spoke to "Abraham"
.  Back on hold.  Interesting listeng to a jazz version of some christian song.
Abraham has agreed to credit the $301.27 that is in dispute.
He has agreed to email me the 2 bills that are outstanding and we should be right to pay them.
There is a early cancellation of the contract fee.  I think $143.63
Contract changed over on 4-APRIL but was slated to run till 3-JUN-2011.  Hmm.  I thought I had checked that it was out of contract.
-----------------------------------------------
29-04-2011 email to  SMBMobile@optus.com.au

Hi Andrew,

Can you reply to me to let me know that this email got through.

The issues with my account have been going on for a frustratingly long time,
you can read the long story on your system and also here
http://thomsoneu.blogspot.com/2011/03/bloody-optus.html

With regard to the two invoices you sent me - Thank you.
413911638 - No issues will pay that today $62.
419443896 -
This is the final invoice and I see on it.
Page 2
19-MAR-2011 Late Payment Fee $17.14 
I dispute this as I had been in regular contact with Optus.  You will also note that we paid the non disputed amounts of the various invoices.
I request that this amount be removed.  You will also note in the 29-MAR-2011 phone call with Optus that I was told that financial issues were on hold for 14 days.
Page 3
4-APR-2011 Contact Cancellation Fee $149.63
4-APR-2011 Equipment Payout $23.60
The contract was due to expire on 3 June
I moved it to Voafone out of frustration on 4 April.
That is 2 months. (all of April and all of May)
If I had done nothing, the monthly charges, the amount I would have paid would have been 2 x $62 = $124 vs the $173 you charged me.
How can you justify that kind of cancellation fee given the circumstances that lead to me moving away from Optus?

THE REQUEST
I request that Optus
1 Delete the late payment fee of $17.14
2 Delete the Contarct Cancellation Fee of $149.63

By My calculations the invoice should be $32.26 including GST.
Remember that the first month invoice actually included one months pre payment that is the service charges for the last month.

I will today pay by eft $32.26

	OPTUS BILL AS PRINTED (ALMOST)							What the Bill Should be
Item	Ex GST	GST		INC GST				Ex GST		GST		INC GST
Page 2 - Late Payment Fee	$    17.14	No GST !		$    17.14				$           -				$           -
Page 2 Data Credit	-$      0.71	-$   0.07		-$      0.78				-$      0.71		-$      0.07		-$      0.78
"Account Charges"	$    16.43	-$   0.07		$    16.36				-$      0.71		-$      0.07		-$      0.78
Page 3 Contract Cancellation Fee	$  143.63	$  14.36		$  157.99				$           -		$           -		$           -
Page 3 Equipment Payout	$    23.60	$    2.36		$    25.96				$    23.60		$       2.36		$    25.96
Page 3 International Calls not in cap	$       5.73	$    0.57		$       6.30				$       5.73		$       0.57		$       6.30
Page 3 Data Charges	$       0.71	$    0.07		$       0.78				$       0.71		$       0.07		$       0.78
"Total for this mobile number"	$  173.67	$  17.37		$  191.04				$    30.04		$       3.00		$    33.04
Page 1 Sub Total ex GST	$  190.10	$  17.30		$  207.40				$    29.33		$       2.93		$    32.26
Page 1 GST	$    17.30			$    17.30				$       2.93				$       2.93
Total This Bill	$  207.40			$  207.40				$    32.26				$    32.26
Note the Bill shows 17.39 GST and 207.39 Total

---------------------
2-5-2010 Sent by web form at https://www.optus.com.au/portal/site/aboutoptus/menuitem...........

Did you receive the email I sent to
SMBMobile@optus.com.au
If not, read it and all the history here
http://thomsoneu.blogspot.com/2011/03/bloody-optus.html
Please contact me to confirm receipt of this message.

Note that they are promising "prompt attention".  I have never actually received a response from any of the messages I transmit by this method so we wait and see.
------------------------
5-5-2011
Received email from Optus advsing

Thank you for your reply Mr Thomson.

I have sent your e-mail to the manager who you were speaking with, Abraham, to address your concerns.

Yours sincerely,

Andrew | Support Services Executive | SingTel Optus Pty Limited | Small Medium Business | t: 133343  | f: 1300 550 891 | www.optus.com.au

 -----------------------------------
 11-5-2011
Received a text message from Optus advising
"Your latest bill of $136.08 on account 8573501500168
is read at www.optus.com.au.  If you need to pay by phone, call 1300 309 309"

------------------------------------
18-MAY-2011
Received a phone call from Abraham at Optus.
He is going to waive the outstanding amount ($136.08 I believe)
The balance of the account will now be set to zero.
Will take 2 business days to implement.
He asked if there was anything else and I suggested that Optus find a way to resolve these issues quicker and then they would not blow up the way this one did and I might still be with Optus.

hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah

-------------------------------------------------
11-JUN-2011
oops celebrated too soon.

Received a text message from Optus stating
"Your latest bill for $15.09 on account 8573015000168
is ready at www.optus.com.au
Due date of latest bill: 21-06-2011.
To pay by phone call 1300309309"


14-6-2011
Sent email to  SMBMobile@optus.com.au
Hi Andrew
...
..bla bla bla..
.

Can you
a) Reply to this email to let me know you have received it.
b) send me a copy by email of said bill because I can not access on the net as previously explained.
c) Set the amount to zero.
d) Send me an email confirming the account is set to zero.

If you have any questions then
a) Read the history - http://thomsoneu.blogspot.com/2011/03/bloody-optus.html
b) Call or email me.
frank.thomson@syndetic.com.au  or 0414 329 164

-----------------
 23-6-2011 email from Optus

Dear Mr Thomson,

 

Thank you for your reply.

• Your e-mail has been received
• The 7th of June invoice is attached to view
• I have asked Abraham if the Late Fee can be waived. When I get his reply I will confirm by e-mail.

Regards,

Andrew
Support Services Exec | Mobile Web Customer Service| SMB | Optus   

 T: 133343 | F: 1300 550 891 | 271 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
www.optus.com.au

COMMENT: What a way to run a company.  No wonder they have to employ so many customer service people.  So many complaints and every complainer has to make dozens of contacts to deal (& probably not resolve their issue).  Think how much cheaper and more efficient it would be if they allowed the front line staff to refund or forgive on the spot one issue per year per customer.

-----------------------------------------------
29-6-011 Email from Optus

Dear Mr Thomson,

  Thank you for your patience.

  Abraham has confirmed the Late Fee has been credited and will show on the next account issued.

  Regards,

Andrew

Support Services Exec | Mobile Web Customer Service| SMB | Optus   

 T: 133343 | F: 1300 550 891 | 271 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

www.optus.com.au

This email may contain confidential...

Amazing don't you think that it has taken this long!

 

Flat Pack Bicycle Helmet

Well nothings new.  I had seen the total lack of interest in Lord Campbel's bicycle's and figured that was partly because in order to ride them one has to be in a posession of a helmet.  Now ladies with handbags may dig around inside and locate one and even a spare for a friend but as for the rest of us .....

I figured what was needed was a flat pack helmet that could be dispensed from a vending machine.  My guess is you could sell a cardboard and coolite helmet for about $2-$3.

So I had a look on the net and of course it has been done before.

http://www.abitare.it/selected-by-abitare/tatoo-helmet/

It seems that the traditional makers feel a bit miffed becuase there were posts aplenty poo pooing it on the grounds of structural integrity and crash worthyness.  Something I had not considered when sitting around thinking of how this could be done.  It seems that the problem is as much a political and spin problem as it is an engineering one.  I guess the price just went up to $5 per helmet and a big BCC grant to get the inevitable "Independant test" that would be required by "a current affair"

I doubt if the hat in this photo would pass any sort of standard test except perhaps for oragami.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/07/folding-bike-helmet.php
Mind you one does wonder whether if it were made of carbon fiber and the holes were much much smaller......

As at start of 2011 helmets must meet AS2063:2008
http://www.productsafety.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/974624

http://infostore.saiglobal.com/store/Details.aspx?DocN=AS0733789315AT
$AU 53.00

Apparantly a US standard Snell B95 is similar.  Given that SAI Global make a profit from selling standards, it may be easier to actually find a copy of the Snell B95 document.


So far I have not been able to find a copy of either standard nor what would be even more interesting would be a description of the actual testing.

I note however that recently the Lord Mayor has embarked upon a cunning alternative plan to save his bicycles.  Get elected to state parliment and repeal the stupid helment law and free up those bicycles from almost mandatory detention.

Homework

Chris practicising Muzak.

Look closely at the computer though


Can't be bothered - Mee neither.  It's on facebook and close at hand so Chris can respond quickly.

Now what is Marcus doing.



I guess when your mobile give you unlimited voice calls, unlimited text messages and 1GB data then why not try and bankrupt the carrier.

Swimmingly

This afternoon was the Boys Brigade swimming carnaval.

Gordon Irwin (Mr Irwin to you) took Daniel out for the Juniors and Megan, Frank, Chris and Jemma drove out at 3:30pm for the Senior carnival.

There were only 3 boys there from the Oxley Boys Brigade (17th Brisbane).  I guess this is a comment on the slack society we live in right now.  Anyway it did not take long to establish that we were the winning team.  Us parents congratulated ourselves on our sucesses and displayed our ribons promenently and continued to cheer loudly.  Basically if one of our kids was in a race they won it.  In fact they won lots and lots of races.  We did get one second and what a close race that was too.

The 4x25m relay proved an exciting challenge.  Nathaniel Chapman started and did back stroke for the first leg.  Then Alex started back on the second leg (Butterfly).  He was doing so well that he was half way down the pool before Nathanial ran past with much encouragement from us cheer leaders.  Nathaniel only just made it to the starting blocks in time to dive in for a leg of breast stroke.  Then Chris took over for the final leg of freestyle.  We then suggested that they swim another couple of laps to let the other teams catch up.

In the end

Nathaniel - U15 age champion
Alex - U13 age champion
Chris - U12 age champion
Oxley Team won the comp.

On the way home, dropped into Hungry Jacks and loaded up with carbs, sugar and fat and now I do not feel hungry anymore.

Backing up

The recent crisis with megan's laptop has prompted me to consider getting a decent back-up regime going here at home.

In my view the basic requirement is that the backing up process needs to occur automatically.  As we all know, no one ever backs up.  Well they may do once or twice but to be sure they do not do it regularly.

So today I wandered down to Office Works to see what they had on offer.

One option was a Seagate Black Armor NAS110 for $199 including some version of Acronis backup software.
I was tempted.  Single box ready to go solution.  Somewhat concerned that if it does not do wat I need then I would be stuck.  Also concerned because they seem to have locked it up physically and so if the internal had disk were to die then it could be hard to replace.

Decided instead to purchase a 3" external USB hard disk 2TB for $128.

At home, pressed an old desk top carcas into action.  It has XP on it and a small hard disk of its own but only 2GB of free space.  Good enough for a start.

Plugged on the new external USB disk.
Downloaded the free version of syncback from http://www.2brightsparks.com
Loaded it.

Set Megans's C drive to shared.
Observed the clock on the new desktop was wrong and that it would not sync with a internet time server.  Gave up and set the time manually.
Enetered a "profile" to back up Megan's entire C drive.  Set it running.

Set my "my documents" to shared and I am about to go and see if I can get it to back up mine as well.

Need to work out a way to put passwords onto the shares I create so that when Megan takes her computer elswhere and hooks onto a LAN somewhere like at church that her files arn't visible to everyone.

UPDATE 21-3-2011
Have decided that sharing disks on each laptop  is not the way to go as it opens up a can of worms regarding security.
Now looking for a backup program that can be installed on each computer that will quietly check if the laptop can see the back up disk and if it can then it will do the backup task.  This way only the back up disk needs to be shared.

Backup programs 24-3-2011

GFI Backup
I did a full backup and then set it to do an incremental backup each hour.  I got to work and of course it could not see the back up disk. and it told me so.  I clicked every check box I could find but still every hour it popped up and let me know.  So it was uninstalled to save my sanity.

Syncback (Free)  http://www.2brightsparks.com/download-syncback.html
Does not do versioning.  Changed files over write old ones.
Does just copy in normal windows file format.  No special proprietary file format and no special restore tool required.

http://backup.comodo.com      ->Did not understand the user interace

EVACopy   -> Did not understand the user interace

Ace backup
have to use proprietary file format if versioning required
Dont know how to specify which directories to actually back up

personal backup   www.personal-backup.ratlev-home.de
This is a bit of a dangerous one as it would not uninstall.  After I ran the uninstaller, it was still there.  I rebooted and it tried to do a backup on shutdown.  After I managed to reboot, it was not present in start>programs etc but it was present in the system tray at the bottom right of the screen.  It was not present in Control panel> add remove programs.  Its still not actually removed but I have stopped it from starting.

http://www.freebyte.com/fbbackup/

Syncback SE    ($50)  http://www.2brightsparks.com
Looks like we will try this.

Forgive me Father for I am about to Sin

Bunnings show

Tempted by the advertising - the promise of food and entertainment Dan, Jemm, Liam, Ewan and myself walked down to Bunnings.

The show was slated to go from 5:00 till 9:00pm.  We arrived around 7:30 and it was all over red rover.

The boys from BCL were dismantling the stage.  The astitute among you would of course recognise it as one of Steve Claris's stages.

Jemma and Ewan lined up for a snow cone and got the last two and they were delivered in pop corn buckets and so got rather soggy.

Dan and Liam lined up for baloons.

Did you notice DBAV on the road case.  (Don's)

Megans Laptop Recovery

Monday evening Megan reports blue screen of death.  (of her computer)
It is real hot so I figured that there was a problem with the cooling so I turn it off and let it cool.  Some hours later when it is nice and cold, switch on and the booting process freezez on a black screen with a line of text of some kind advising of a failure.  Ohhhh Sh........ me thinks  (quietly ofcourse) (knowing full well that like everyone else that there is no recent backup).

But it could be the computer.  Luckilly Chris has an identical laptop (which incidentilly I repaired on the weekend) so the drives are swapped.  Unfortunately the problem followed the drive.

8:30pm - Nip down to office works and buy a 500GB External USB drive $69.00.
These days the manufacturers do their best to make it difficult to get into them but finally with some assistance from Mr google and a sharp flat blade screw drive we have the drive apart.
The USB adapter board was disconnected and the drive fitted to the laptop.
Using the information from the previous post regarding booting from USB, the laptop is booted and Ghost run.  Quite fortutiously I had created a Ghost image of the machine when I last rebuilt it in 2009.  This image was convieniently stored on a external USB hard disk.  On it went and up it came.
Another good decision was to route all Megans email through gmail with an IMAP connection.  This meant that after a good delay (like all night) her email just re appeared as Mr google had convieniently kept it all for her.

In the mean time, the crashed hard disk was connected to my laptop with the USB adapter board retrieved from the new drive.  I connected it a couple of times and sometimes the drive was seen by Windows but when I tried to access it, everything would freeze up.  Searched the net for free hard disk recovery programs with no success.  Tried
convair
Easus
PCinspector smart recovery
Disk Investigator.

I resorted to trying paid progranms that would provide some limited functionality in demo mode.
The only program that would see anything was
Recover Data for FAT & NTFS from
http://www.recoverdatatools.com
With considerable moral agony I forked out my $69 US (whats with the $69 number?) and purchased the program.

Interestingly I found that I could only get anything to happen if I held the drive vertically and then plugged it into the USB.  Then wait for it to spin up and then turn it upside down.

The recovery tool spent an hour scanning and wot not.  Then after clicking boxes etc started to copy the files.  I went to bed.
Got up this morning only to be greeted with the blue screen of death again!.
Re booted.
Had a look some but not all files copied.
Then noticed that windows could see the drive so manually started to copy directories one at a time.
Ahh what a relief.
went to work.

should add a photo of all pile of devistation and
should get a decent automatic back up system going like we have at work.

Not all drives are created equal.  This is a Western Digital "Elements" disk that contains the life saving ghost image.  Note that the drive has the USB built in.  No adapter board.