Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

The First Back Up System

Monday, February 27th, 2012

I just returned from Walt Disney World in Florida, and even there I can’t escape the world of backups!

In Spaceship Earth, a 13-minute dark ride (that) shows guests how advancements in human communication have helped to create the future one step at a time, the following scene came up after the burning of Rome:

Spaceship Earth

Rome falls and the great library of Alexandria in Egypt is burned. Much of our learning is destroyed, lost forever- or so we think. It turns out there were copies of these books in the libraries of the Middle East being watched over by Arabic and Jewish scholars. Call it the first back up system. The books are saved, and with them our dreams of the future.

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Mozy Apps For iPhone, Android

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

MozyMozy will soon release to their North American customers apps for iOS (iPhone) and Android smartphones. With the new apps, users will be able to access files on the go.

Currently, Carbonite has apps for iOS and Android, as does SugarSync. Apps to access files was the next natural step to take, after Mozy revamped their web portal.

The common use case is a sales guy who’s traveling and has his laptop stolen. He’d be able to go into the Mozy app, pull up his files and send it to another computer. Or, you’re at dinner with friends and you could share your vacation photos you backed up with Mozy and display them on your Android or iPhone.

-Dave Robinson, vice president of marketing

Mozy is also looking for customers to try out their synchronizing service, which will allow for files backed up from one computer to be copied to multiple other devices (similar to Dropbox or SugarSync)

Mozy recently stopped offering unlimited backups, a move which was essential to rolling out these new product features.

CA Online Backup App

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

CA Internet SecurityCA Online Backup has released an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.

CA Online Backup’s mobile client gives you access to your saved content anywhere at any time. This app client lets you recover or share any computer files backed up online using your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

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Internet Connection Speed Infographic

Friday, September 17th, 2010

Remember upgrading your 14.4 modem to a 56k one? Or when you first surfed the web on broadband? Here’s a comparison of popular Internet connection speeds, and more traditional means you could use to move the data:
Internet Speed Infographic

Ready to transfer 2GB of data? Try MozyHome absolutely free – get 2 GB of secure, online backup

Reticulating Splines

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

If you use Mozy for your online backup service, you’ll notice the status, “reticulating splines” sometimes appears in the application. So, just what does this mean? Well, Mozy says:

Reticulation is a process whereby a continuous function is reduced to fixed points on a lattice, or network. Splines are mathematical representations of curves determined by a finite number of points. While processing and encrypting your files, MozyHome needs to reticulate your splines.

If that’s not helpful enough, read up on this intriguing term on Wikipedia’s page on Sim City:

SimCity 2000 was the first Sim game to feature the semi-nonsensical phrase “Reticulating Splines”, which means to make a network of splines. Will Wright has stated in an interview that the game does not actually reticulate splines when generating terrain, and he just inserted the phrase because it “sounded cool.” The phrase has since been featured in SimCopter, SimCity 4, The Sims, The Sims 2, Spore and The Sims 3 (Reticulating 4D Splines), as well as being referenced by a status message in Mozy, an off-site backup solution offered by EMC Corporation.

So while Mozy is probably busy doing something when it reports “reticulating splines,” it’s probably not exactly reducing fixed points of a parametric curve on the network.

Mozy Reticulating Splines status message

A Visit to Mozy

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to fly out to gorgeous Salt Lake City and meet the team behind Mozy. What started out as an impromptu meeting turned out to be a day of great insight to what they’ve got coming up.

Fountain outside Mozy
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Who is the Mozy Girl?

Monday, April 26th, 2010

iJustine, the Mozy GirlIf you’ve seen the commercials for Mozy on cable TV, you may be wondering, “Who is the Mozy girl?” Well, the “Mozy Girl” (as she’s sometimes referred as) is Justine Ezarik aka iJustine.

In late 2008, Mozy signed iJustine to record 3 commercials, and she remains an endorser for Mozy online backup.
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(More Than) 10 Things to Look For in an Offsite Backup Provider

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

Great post over at TechRepublic on 10 things to look for in an offsite backup provider. Their list is:

  1. Reliable software
  2. Storage plans that meet your needs
  3. Stellar reporting tools
  4. An approachable backup application
  5. Simple recovery
  6. Secure file transfer
  7. 24/7 support
  8. Free trials
  9. Version tracking
  10. E-mail alerts

Commenter JohnCameron3, an IT Consultant from Idaho, adds recovery time to the list:

Another thing to keep in mind is the time it takes to get all of your data back. It could take many hours to restore all of your files. Are you willing to be without your data for that long, especially in a business environment?

Downloading a couple of GBs of data won’t take too long, but what if you have 100′s of GB of data? Your backup provider should offer data delivery via USB drive or DVD (Backblaze and Mozy both offer this service).

Another common request in a backup provider is support for multiple platforms. If you’re an IT worker in charge of backups, I can see where this is a valid concern. However, for most home users, they’re only concerned with backing up whatever type of system they’re using (Mac or Windows).

Some of these items can be easily added to any provider’s service (such as E-mail alerts) while others require quite a bit of overhead and work (ex: 24/7 support).

So what are you looking for in an online backup provider?

Backup Solution for Dummies

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

cnet recently wrote a piece on HP’s SimpleSave, calling it a backup solution for dummies. One commenter on the article states:

I am pretty sure this is meant for your average computer user who has no (sic) mozy exists.

While the HP SimpleSave may be a backup solution for dummies, I believe this comment implies you have to be techno-savvy in order to use Mozy. This is completely false.

Mozy is incredibly easy to use. After signing up and downloading the software, you walk through the configuration wizard and Mozy takes it from there. In fact, from signup to backup, it only takes about 10 minutes.

So while HP claims to have the backup solution for dummies, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to use Mozy.

Mozy vs. Carbonite on theAppleBlog

Friday, July 17th, 2009

Mozy vs. CarboniteI just read a post on Mozy vs. Carbonite by Dave Greenbaum posted on TheAppleBlog, and I’ve got some big disagreements with what Mr. Greenbaum says.

Round One: Staying Power
Greenbaum makes some good points here, but doesn’t even mention that Mozy is owned by EMC? With a 27.66 billion-dollar market cap, EMC has the finances to keep Mozy alive. Plus, Greenbaum glazes over iJustine as simply the “Mozy gal”

Round Two: Setup and Installation
Greenbaum starts with, Carbonite cleans Mozy’s clock in software design, but then the next sentence says Carbonite is Intel only. Well then, doesn’t sound like Carbonite is a clear winner there.

Further, the article states,

Neither program will back up external media. Mozy claims it does, but if you detach it, it forgets the configuration. Carbonite flat-out refuses to back up externals.

So Mozy DOES backup external media, and Carbonite doesn’t at all. Again, doesn’t sound like Carbonite is cleaning Mozy’s clock.

Round Three: Restoration
Greenbaum says nobody wins here, but the restore actually WORKED with Mozy, whereas Carbonite failed via the web, and backups froze when they did a restore using the client software. And sure, Mozy’s DVD option isn’t cheap, but at least they offer it as an option.

Round Four: Support
I agree with Greenbaum’s statement, Neither company wins this round and both deserve an upper cut for lousy tech support. Sorry… you get what you pay for.

Round Five: Security
Maybe Carbonite beats Mozy here, in their imaginary scenario. But if your email account is compromised, you have bigger problems. Not to mention you can create your own private key, and the encrypted data can’t be accessed by anyone without the key. In addition, with everyone on Facebook & sharing their lives on Twitter, answering Carbonite’s “security questions” isn’t a challenge.

Round Six: Cost

Carbonite is less expensive, but Mozy does offer the free version. We’ll score this round a draw.

Again, I have to disagree. If you purchase a 2-year agreement, Carbonite is $3.20 cheaper (after using 20% off discount codes on both Mozy and Carbonite). But since Mozy offers a monthly agreement, I would say it’s more affordable, as not everyone can drop $80 today, but most people can afford $4.95 / month.

With a 4-1/2 star rating, it’s obvious we prefer Mozy.

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