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<title>ThingTone</title><link>www.thingtone.net/html/index.html</link><description>Mac Columns and Tips</description><dc:language>en</dc:language><dc:creator>contact@thingtone.net</dc:creator><dc:rights>Copyright 2007 Russ Ethington</dc:rights><dc:date>2007-09-13T12:01:00-07:00</dc:date><admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://www.realmacsoftware.com/" />
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<lastBuildDate>Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:22:33 -0800</lastBuildDate><item><title>Ten Best Backup Programs for Mac OS X</title><dc:creator>contact@thingtone.net</dc:creator><category>Archiving and Backups</category><dc:date>2007-09-13T12:01:00-07:00</dc:date><link>www.thingtone.net/html/about/blog/files/b6101d1cf21e7d287d8657c03b9f7889-4.html#unique-entry-id-4</link><guid isPermaLink="true">www.thingtone.net/html/about/blog/files/b6101d1cf21e7d287d8657c03b9f7889-4.html#unique-entry-id-4</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[If you are searching the Internet looking for the right backup program for your Mac, this the place to start.   These are the ten best backup programs you will find for Mac OS X for under $100 (most are under $30).   Rather than write a full review, I have summarized the strengths and limitations of each product in just a few words while providing links to the free trial for each (where available).


Also this list is limited to only those products that can back up data to your own media (CD-R, DVD-R, USB, Firewire). ...  These are listed in ascending price order, not according to my preference.   Only you can decide which of these products will do what  you need.


...	Strengths: Simple user interface, backup scheduling, and the ability to leave out files using a filter.


...You must submit your contact information to download this program.

...	Strengths: Knows how to back up system preferences and application settings and do scheduling.


	Limitations: Very limited information on web site, no author or company attribution, only a contact e-mail.	

...	Strengths: Simple to use, inexpensive, good for quick thumb drive backups of a day's work. 

...	Limitations: No file synchronization or scheduling. 

...	Strengths: Many options for scheduling, including and excluding files, copy or archive, and rules (in Synk Pro)


	Limitations: Uses incremental backup technology, too many options for most users, hard to know what was really saved.


...	Strengths: Specializes in creating a bootable backup image, explains each procedure before doing anything.


	Limitations: As a cloning tool this product lacks the ability to do targeted, or small batch, backups.


...(Note: most of these products can back up to a standard encrypted volume.)


	Limitations: No file synchronization, awkward multiple "vault" approach for archiving and encrypting.


...	Strengths: Full, versioned, or incremental backups and scheduling.


	Limitations: No synchronization, somewhat complicated user interface.


...	Strengths: Emphasizes synchronization and does an excellent job making this intuitive.


	Limitations: No straight file and folder snapshot backups, uses mirroring instead.


...	Strengths: Very simple user interface aimed at cloning a hard drive to a bootable backup.


	Limitations: Really does back up everything, with no way to target or limit what is backed up.


...	Strengths: Backup versioning makes it possible to recover older versions of files, also can do bootable backups.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>How-To: Create an Encrypted Volume on Mac OS X</title><dc:creator>contact@thingtone.net</dc:creator><category>Archiving and Backups</category><dc:date>2007-09-10T12:01:00-07:00</dc:date><link>www.thingtone.net/html/about/blog/files/d1205fa0f2ad08e35360a89bb3d4e1dd-3.html#unique-entry-id-3</link><guid isPermaLink="true">www.thingtone.net/html/about/blog/files/d1205fa0f2ad08e35360a89bb3d4e1dd-3.html#unique-entry-id-3</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[If you think encryption is only for people with something to hide, or the stuff of spy novels, think again.   In fact, if you save any of your personal data (banking statements, bill payment records, an online keychain, your social security number) on a thumb drive and it gets lost or stolen, encryption could be your best friend.   Said another way, an encrypted drive is an identity thief's worst enemy.


..."Don't I have to buy some fancy software to encrypt my data?" ...  In fact, if you have a Mac, you don't. ...  You can create new ones of any size on any disk you like. 

...Or if you already know, just skip ahead to the step-by-step instructions below.   To "encrypt" is the process of scrambling data to put it into what seems like completely random order.   This must be done in a way that no one but you can put it back into the original order, or "decrypt," the data.   It would be like taking every letter on this page, dropping them into a blender and pushing the "puree" button.   But the beauty of an encrypted volume is that your computer can use your password (and nothing else) to put everything back in the proper order. ...  Once you unlock it with your password, your encrypted volume will work for you (and all of your software) just like any other volume on your system.   Eject the volume and to anyone else it is just random scrambled letters, or data puree.


...-- Choose a location for your volume (you can save it on any drive, even a writable CD/DVD before you burn it)

-- Give the Image a name, such as: "My Encrypted Data"

...	Format: sparse disk image (this way the volume will start small and grow as you use it)

...You will be prompted to create a password. 

Unlike with online passwords, this volume will not have a "forgot your password" option to bail you out if you do forget.   Choose carefully and be sure of your password before you start saving data on the volume.   There is no way to recover data from an encrypted volume without the password. 


Open an encrypted volume just by double-clicking on it in the Finder.   Mac OS X will prompt you for the password and put the volume on the desktop with your other drive(s).   If you like, you can have your Mac store the password in your keychain and apply it automatically when you open your encrypted volume.


...You can create and use as many encrypted volumes as you need.   Now if your thumb drive falls into the wrong hands you'll be safe, not sorry.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>On Electronic Texts and Talking Book Readers</title><dc:creator>contact@thingtone.net</dc:creator><category>Books and Book Readers</category><dc:date>2007-02-05T12:01:00-08:00</dc:date><link>www.thingtone.net/html/about/blog/files/ef505afd1df5ba590e5e1f6e007be3f3-2.html#unique-entry-id-2</link><guid isPermaLink="true">www.thingtone.net/html/about/blog/files/ef505afd1df5ba590e5e1f6e007be3f3-2.html#unique-entry-id-2</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Over the last decade, you must have noticed, bookstores have not only grown in size, they have devoted more and more floor space to audio books (books on tape and CD).   Meanwhile, a growing market of handheld devices (or PDAs) and book reader (etext reader, doc reader) software have generated demand for books in electronic form for people to read on-screen.   Add to the mix the advent of online audio book services like audible.com and there's no limit to the digital books you can have--except cost, and these can really add up.

Now a new kind of software is emerging which combines the audio book and the book reader.   For lack of a better name, let's call it talking storyteller, or talking book software.   Using the latest text-to-speech technology, this software works with books in electronic form and "reads" them through a lifelike human voice on the computer.

That's not new, you might say.   Perhaps you (or your parents) can remember back to the earliest days of the Mac when Steve Jobs famously demonstrated the world's first talking personal computer. ...  What is this good for? ...  In the more than twenty years since, the voices for computer speech have become very good, just like with computer animation.

During that time, researchers and engineers at Apple and elsewhere worked out assistive technology to help the vision impaired and people with other disabilities take advantage of computers with speech recognition and synthesis.   On another front, specialized hardware devices like Braille readers and portable readers for the DAISY book format made up another kind of worthwhile (and expensive) speech technology.

Despite these advances computers still aren't doing a whole lot of talking, except--much to our chagrin--on the phone when we call for customer service and support.   There are two reasons for this.   First, the programs for reading text have not been able to overcome all of the "junk" in the text (like punctuation, outlines, numbering, etc.) making listening a tedious experience.   Second, the texts have been hard to come by.

...A few software developers, notably at ThingTone Software, are filling in the gaps through a combination of efforts.   To solve the problem of cleaning up texts for speech synthesis, texts are hand-edited with a simple mark-up language for the purpose of easy navigation by the software.   The SpeakAlong program, for example, can present very large texts (like the King James Bible) in a simple, intuitive manner by offering an interactive (and spoken) table of contents for compatible books.

Combined with an algorithm for breaking an arbitrary text into sensible phrasing for the computer voice, the talking book program can yield a spoken performance that is both remarkably lifelike, and pleasing to the ear.   As to the availability of books, various efforts (especially see gutenberg.org) on the Internet are, collectively, offering up thousands of ebook titles.   Many of these are in the public domain (no copyright). 

So it seems the time is ripe to bring many of the world's classics in literature into your home.   You could soon possess a very large personal library of books without putting up a single bookshelf.   And best of all, your computer will read them for you--to you, that is.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Getting the Most from Backup Software</title><dc:creator>contact@thingtone.net</dc:creator><category>Archiving and Backups</category><dc:date>2007-01-31T12:01:00-08:00</dc:date><link>www.thingtone.net/html/about/blog/files/21b0ebfc93c1d75f8503517bc96e81fc-1.html#unique-entry-id-1</link><guid isPermaLink="true">www.thingtone.net/html/about/blog/files/21b0ebfc93c1d75f8503517bc96e81fc-1.html#unique-entry-id-1</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[While there used to be just one kind of backup program for archiving a whole computer onto external disk or tape, there are now several kinds of software for backing up your work. 

...Full backup programs claim to be able to backup all of your files (they do this the first time and collect incremental changes thereafter), with the hope that any files or folders you lose can be retrieved and restored individually from backup.   Even at their best these programs suffer from being complicated with features, infrequently used, and therefore unfamiliar and confusing when most needed. 

...--Cloning Backup - Cloning software also attempts to capture all of the data on a computer, usually as a single "image" rather than file-by-file.   Cloning software is a great tool for administrators who need to roll out many identically configured computers or routinely conduct a testing procedure on a fresh computer.   A cloned computer image is great, often bootable, backup to have in the event of a complete hard disk failure.


...These services promise the convenience of backing up select files from your computer to a secure location, up to a usually small limit in the amount storage. 

...--Synchronizing Backup - The idea here is to keep two computers--usually home and office--synchronized so that the documents on each are always up-to-date.   This usually occurs by keeping an intermediate "synchronized" copy of the files through which the latest changes are transferred to and from each computer.   For a trusting and vigilant user with the right software, this can be a workable system resulting in good backups (since two physically separate computers hold recent copies of all of the work in question).


...It aims to promote backing up the work you have just completed, usually to a thumb drive (key drive, flash drive)  and optionally in an encrypted, compressed form.   Instant backup software works on the principle that backing up your work as you complete it will eventually result in backups that are complete (though not a full backup or clone of your whole computer).


...If you still aren't sure which is right for you, it may be that some combination of software is needed. 


...This group might benefit from doing synchronizing backups in order to bring work home, and to make extra sure those great ideas at work are getting backed up (assuming your employer's data policy permits taking work home).


Many students work on more than one computer or may not yet own a computer, relying instead on a library or lab computer and a thumb drive. ...  Also, any user who relies on a thumb drive should see the How-To on safeguarding vital data on a thumb drive.


A user who constantly fiddles with the computer to improve it, try new software, and upgrades is a prime candidate for making both cloning backups (to be able to put the machine back in working order) and instant backups (to save the work done since the last clone or major change).


Finally, most home users who are relying on a computer to build up a music, photo, and movie collection should consider some combination of a full backup solution and either remote or instant backups.   Backing up to DVD and external firewire drive are the key to keeping photos, movies, and music safe over the long haul.


...Full backups and cloning backups usually require external storage with free storage greater than the capacity of the source drive.  ...  Synchronizing and instant backups can usually rely on very inexpensive writeable DVDs or CDs and gain added convenience with the use of USB thumb drives.   These offer the least expensive backups but aren't right if you need to back up your whole hard drive.   Finally remote backups are paid for on an ongoing basis, usually monthly, and so the long-term cost is a consideration. 


As you can see, it's best to work out how you plan to back up your data before you buy the software or the media. ...  It will either be a kind of insurance policy giving you peace of mind even when you do not need to fall back on your backups, or it will save the day when you do.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>How-To: Safeguard Vital Data on Your Thumb Drive</title><dc:creator>contact@thingtone.net</dc:creator><category>Archiving and Backups</category><dc:date>2007-01-15T12:01:00-08:00</dc:date><link>www.thingtone.net/html/about/blog/files/fa754abc261f0139ff0b29ad61e5140c-0.html#unique-entry-id-0</link><guid isPermaLink="true">www.thingtone.net/html/about/blog/files/fa754abc261f0139ff0b29ad61e5140c-0.html#unique-entry-id-0</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Here are some things you can do to protect yourself against loss, theft, or damage to your thumb drive, and consequently, your data.


...There are still honest people in the world who will return lost property.


...Wearing it is cooler than putting it in a pocket and finding it in the dryer later.


3) Put it away (eject or unmount) before you take it away.   Many computers aren't done writing data until you eject a disk.


...4) Burn what you have on your thumb drive to CD/DVD once in a while.


...The thumb drive can be like your junk drawer; cluttered with who-knows-what with a bit of treasure mixed in.   After a while you will lose track of what you have on the thumb drive.   If you lose the thumb drive itself, you could be out something really important that you didn't even remember putting there, until it's too late.   Finally, burning the data is cheap and a whole lot less effort than straightening up the junk drawer.   Just burn it, write the date across it, and toss the disk...where? 

...If you keep any credit card numbers, PayPal passwords, bank records, tax stuff, or other personal information on your thumb drive you should encrypt it.   The last thing you need after losing your thumb drive is to find out later that someone invaded your privacy to either steal from you or to embarrass you somehow. ...  Most thumb drives for PCs come with some kind of data "vault" software. 


...Here's how to use encryption on a Mac for free:


...-- Choose a location for your volume (presumably your backup drive)

...You will be prompted to create a password. 

It is very important that you choose a password that you can remember.   There is no known means of recovering data from an encrypted volume without a valid password.   The Mac will offer to put the password in your keychain.   But if you plan to take your data to another Mac you will need to remember your password.

The encrypted volume is like a disk within a disk.   Anything you save to your encrypted volume will be safe and sound once you eject the volume.   No one can get to your files without the password.


Combine this technique with inexpesive backup software like GrabBack for Mac OS X and pretty soon all of those ad hoc backups on your thumb drive will start to look pretty secure--and organized. ]]></content:encoded></item></channel> 
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