I needed a simple and free backup program for a single purpose PC that chugged along day in day out.  It ran Windows XP Professional and had a total used space of 8 GB on a 40 GB hard drive.  For convenience I installed a second 40 GB hard drive that would hold the backup files. Since it was always running the program would need to use the volume shadow service and be able to back up open files.
Macrium Reflect Free Edition fit the bill: it would create a single …

Just finished the February 2010 issue of PC World.  They had an article called “The State Of Windows 7 Satisfaction” about early adopters of Windows 7 and their general feedback about installation and features.  Information was gathered from 615 people at www.technologizer.com.

Something really jumped out at me: 64% rated themselves as Windows experts and 41.3% had to resolve driver issues.  To me any Windows expert would search out, verify and download all drivers for a new operating system before installing it.  That was certainly the case when I installed the …

We don’t eat out a lot, but when we do with our little children we mostly get something along the lines of fast food; a burger or sandwich.  Now that they’re getting a little older and can sit for an hour or so we’ve been going out to middle of the road sit down restaurants: places in Southern Ontario like Casey’s, Montana’s, Kelsey’s.  Two things struck me when we went back to these types of restaurants: they’re not cheap and the food isn’t that good.  We can do better by …

Was perusing a discount book store and came across Top Ten Book 1 trade paperback from America’s Best Comics, a DC imprint.  It collects the first seven issues of the series and includes character designs as bonus material, 208 pages in total.  The first issue is available as a PDF preview.
I remember the individual issues coming out and not being that interested.  There was buzz around the title because Alan Moore wrote it but I wasn’t taken with the art.  Since it was at a deep discount I decided to …

I buy all my spices whole and in bulk or loose form from a few stores in my area including The Bulk Barn and Fortinos.  I also like to get my dry goods in the same format in manageable quantities.  Whole spices last longer than ground and everything benefits from an airtight a container as possible.

I tried a variety of plastic containers until I settled on glass canning jars.  In my area they come in sizes from 250 ml  to 1.5 l with the classic metal lid; they all come …

Let me start off by saying until I purchased this book I had never heard of Harold “Hal” Foster or Prince Valiant: they were off my comics radar.  I’ve never been a fan of newspaper comic strips and had limited exposure until Prince Valiant Volume 1: 1937-1938 started getting amazing reviews.  Here’s the publisher’s blurb:

HAROLD FOSTER’S LEGENDARY MEDIEVAL EPIC, FINALLY IN ITS DEFINITIVE EDITION
Universally acclaimed as the most stunningly gorgeous adventure comic strip of all time, Prince Valiant ran for 35 years under the virtuoso pen of its creator, Hal …

Sunday February 28th there was a one day show in Toronto at the Metro Convention Centre., put on by Hobbystar.  It was in a smaller room that was packed with local dealers and tables with artists.  I was at this event last year in the same room and experienced the same issue: everything is packed too tightly!  They’re keeping the legal aisle way space but dealers have items for sale so a row now has people searching bins on both sides so you can’t get by.  Add in two rows …

Picked up a Super Micro P8SCT motherboard for practically nothing and had it sitting in my pile of spare components for a few years.  I recently decided to set up a new Windows Home Server and wanted to press this motherboard into service since it has four SATA ports: they’re only SATA 1.5 but since the storage will all be accessed over my network that’s not a concern.
It’s a low end ATX server board supporting one P4 CPU, four DDR2 DIMMs, two 10/100/1000 NICs  and one PCI-X slot.  The CPU …

I came across two new online book sellers, or at least new to me.
The Book Depository ships the items from their warehouse in Gloucester, United Kingdom within 48 hours free worldwide.  Their prices are comparable to Amazon and with free shipping it’s hard to go wrong if you don’t meet Amazon’s $39 minimum for free shipping.  They also have over 11000 free eBooks.
Abe Books deals in used and rare books: items you’re not going to find at Amazon or The Book Depository.  A huge selection makes them a great choice …

Steam is a great service: log in on any PC and play the games you’ve paid for.  The only downside is the download; modern games are between one and five gigabytes, which makes for a long download.  Or after you reformat your system and go to start playing games but have to wait a day for Steam to download them all again.
Luckily steam has a backup feature: right click on your game in the Steam Games menu and select “backup games files”.

You’ll be prompted for a location: I’m saving my …