The Trouble with Terabytes

by John C. Dvorak

I filled a terabyte drive with crap; now I need another terabyte drive. That means within the last few years I've accumulated 3 to 4 terabytes of data, much of it redundant from sloppy backup procedures and paranoia.

About a year ago one of my 500GB USB drives blew up, so now I'm backing up everything on both a second drive and DVDs. I've moved to dual-layer DVD+R disks: 8GB, which isn't enough for anything. I need 30GB Blu-ray or something bigger.

One of the problems everyone has is that since hard disks began to double in capacity every 12 months, we've become complacent with the knowledge that we'll never fill them up. But multimedia files and other downloads chew up space quickly, especially since everyone has gotten on the high-quality bandwagon. Downloading a movie? It has to be HD. Downloading an MP3? It has to be at a high bit rate.

My downloaded movies consist mostly of files off the Comcast DVR where I keep recording old classics from TCM. They build up, so I burn them on the DVD recorder before transferring them to a hard disk using HandBrake, the excellent video ripper. Then I watch the movies on a laptop when I travel. Of course I never watch anything, and they start to accumulate. 

On top of this useless collection of crap are my digital photos. I've upgraded to the 10MP Olympus 520, which offers me the opportunity to shoot RAW and JPEG formats at the exact same time. So instead of accumulating thousands of shots just mildly compressed with JPEG, I now save that exact same JPEG along with a huge RAW file. This will worsen when I eventually move to 12-, 14-, and 16-megapixel cameras. 

The worst aspect of this photography hobby is that the longer you do it the more likely you are to take numerous redundant shots. Instead of one cool pic of the street corner you take two, three, four…just in case you wiggled a little. I can easily shoot 300 to 400 shots on this camera before the battery drops dead. So I may as well shoot 300 to 400 pics. I promise myself that I'll sort them out later. And I eventually will, but in the meantime they chew up hard disk space like nothing else.

Right now the best solution for backup is a second hard disk. It's the cheapest way to do it. But things get complicated when you overflow a terabyte drive with junk.

M'sia inflation hits 7.7%, a 26-year high

MALAYSIA'S annual inflation rate jumped to a 26-year high of 7.7 per cent in June due to a substantial rise in fuel rices, according to official data released on Wednesday.


Tan Seri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, second finance minister, had already said that a 41 per cent hike in subsidised fuel prices last month was set to boost inflation in June and July.

The figure came as something of a surprise as economists had predicted June inflation of 6.6 per cent. -- AFP

Berita Gempar- An evening with an ‘accomplice’

malaysiatoday | .....Today, in the spirit of my fifth criminal charge, I am going to make another ‘seditious’ or ‘criminal defamation’ allegation against Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, in the spirit of what Anwar Ibrahim said to CNN last week (see the CNN report here: http://72.47.236.85/2008/content/view/10077/1/ ). And this allegation is that Najib met Saiful to discuss the sodomy allegation against Anwar and for no other reason other than that -- and certainly not to discuss the young man’s future career or scholarship.

This time I am going for broke. This time I am prepared to go to jail for a long, long time just to make sure that Najib is not going to become Prime Minister of Malaysia in June 2010. Yes, I know I am headed for a fall, but I am going to bring Najib down with me. We shall both hit the dirt and become history, side-by-side.

And how will that happen? Well, this time I video-recorded a ‘confession’ session. And the video recording is now in a safe place, ready to surface during my trial when they charge me for this newest ‘crime’, whatever that crime is going to be.

The gist is as follows. When Saiful went to meet Najib, he brought a friend along. And this friend has confessed to the entire thing in a video recording, which I now have in my possession. So bring it on. Give me all you’ve got. Charge me and let us see what happens in court.

Yes, Najib met Saiful to discuss how to fix Anwar on a sodomy allegation. No doubt, at first Najib denied all this. At first he said he never met Saiful, not even once in his life. Then he admitted meeting Saiful but said he met Saiful to offer the young man ‘career guidance’ and to discuss his future, scholarship, and all such matters. The first statement was a lie. The second was also a lie. Najib met Saiful to discuss the sodomy allegation against Anwar.

If Najib can lie so many times with regards to his meeting with Saiful, would he not also be capable of lying about never meeting or knowing Altantuya? What would Najib say if during my trial I adduce a military intelligence report dated when Altantuya was still alive which confirms that he was involved romantically (or ‘involved sexually’ would probably be the more appropriate word to use) with Altantuya?.

MATJEM: VIDEO RECORDED?....bior betui.......hish aku video-video ni tak berapa percaya sgt.

Free rear seat belts for 431,000 Perodua cars

PUTRAJAYA, July 22 —Owners of 431,262 Perodua cars which are without rear seat belts will get to install the safety belts for free from next year. 

Transport Minister Datuk Ong Tee Keat said the local carmaker had allocated a total of RM41.8 million to supply and install the rear seat belts for its Kancil, Kenari, Kelisa, Kembara and Rusa models.

Speaking to reporters, he said for security reason, however, the installation could only be made at Perodua service centres.

Earlier, Ong witnessed the signing of memorandum of understanding between the Road Safety Department and Perodua to implement a community-based automative safety programme.

The government had made it compulsory for rear passengers to wear seat belts from Jan 1 next year but cars registered before 1995, which are without the safety feature, were given a three-year grace period from June 1 this year to install the belts.

Ong said last month that apart from Perodua, several other car manufacturers would provide free installation of the seat belts.

He said members of the public were becoming more aware of the benefit of wearing rear seat belts, rising from one per cent previously to 17 per cent at the moment.

"Of course we still have a long way to go and this is just an average figure. In some small towns and suburbs, the percentage is even lower. But there has been a steady improvement," he said. — Bernama

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