I discovered a sweet little Windows app that makes arranging open windows a breeze. Previously I was using Madotate to spead out the mess, but over at CyberNet they’ve done a brief review of some freeware called Nubs:
It essentially puts tabs (which the program calls Nubs) around the border of your screen so that you can quickly access all of your applications.
You can read the details over at Cybernet, so I won’t go into them here. It does require Net2.0.
Update September 2009: My MadDog enclosure has died. I’ve replaced it with this.
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Update March 2009: It looks like MADDOG itself has expired. Warranty service appears to be non-existent. Calls to their hotline go unanswered and emails get no response.
Link here, and here to Rip-off Report (this takes a while to load).
My MADDOG hard drive enclosure is still working fine, but I can no longer recommend any of their products.
In my opinion, stay away from MADDOG and AcomData.
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Since last week’s AcomData fiasco, I’ve had an eye on obtaining another 3.5-inch hard drive enclosure. For ten bucks more than the AcomData, I discovered the MADDOG MegaVault version – Model MD-AEN350COM. It’s a nice little package with a black anodized case. The huge power-on indicator is up front, and the switch and connectors are located on the back.
It comes with USB2.0 and Firewire 1394 support. Power and both interface cables are included. For those of you still using Win98, a CD with drivers is included for USB1.1. The manual even shows how to format and partition the drive if you’ve not already done that.
After the simple task of installing my hard drive (don’t forget to set the jumpers to “master”) into the MADDOG, I plugged into the desktop, powered up the MegaVault, and voila! The drive appeared. If I want to use the drive with Firewire on my laptop, I’ll need to get a 6-pin to 4-pin FW adapter. That’s not a major problem since it also supports USB2.0.
The drive can be stored flat, or on edge with the supplied clear plastic stand. The stand isn’t the greatest, but it works. I’ve noticed that the hard drive appears to run substantially warmer when on its edge, so I set the drive flat on my table for the coolest running. I’ve had the drive running for a couple of hours now, and there’s no excess heat buildup since laying it flat.
I’m happy with it.
Yesterday morning/afternoon I lost my WP database. Completely. Entirely. In total. Everything gone! Fortunately, because I’m such a computer expert dumbass, I learned to always make a backup. I know. I know. Nobody makes backups. Well, I do. Do ya think maybe that in the past I’ve had similar disasters, perhaps of greater magnitude? Yup! And I learned my lesson a long, long time ago.
Thankfully, the good man at Il Filosofo has a plugin that he is managing for just such a purpose. I had it installed, and it was emailing me the backups on a weekly basis. Yes, that’s right, you can schedule backups weekly, daily or hourly, via email, server save, or direct download
After a phone call to lunarpages.com I was back up and running with a re-install of my WP database. Only one post was missing – yesterday’s – which I replaced. Thank you, lunarpages for your fantastic customer service. The entire fiasco lasted only an hour or so, no big deal time-wise.
Following my restore, I immediately set my backup schedule to daily. You may call me silly paranoid if you wish.
Consequently, I’ve been doing some investigating regarding backup plugins, and I’ve discovered another very useful backup routine by GaMerZ called WP-DBManager 2.10 for version 2.1 of WordPress. It puts a Database menu selection on the Dashboard. As of this morning it’s installed and running well. I didn’t even have to tweak it. The interface is simple and easy to understand, and has options for email, download and restore. You can even optimize your database. It does not provide for automatic backups, but that’s all right. I’ll run it in conjunction with the other. In fact, I already have.
I use another plugin from GaMerZ. It’s WP-Ban 1.10. It permits me to ban users by IP or host name and even allows a customized ban message to be displayed to the bad boy (or girl). So far, I’ve not had reason to use it.
As I have discovered, the WordPressWorld is diverse and varied. By means of search engines I’ve been able to discover and make use of a wide variety of plugins to save my ass help me manage this newfound interest. There is an entire net full of themes and plugins to satisfy my every whim.
Thanks to all of you.