Happy syncing and backups

Tanvi and I have been going crazy clicking pics and downloading movies and music. The HD on my laptop is already full and I have a few DVD's worth of data which I dont want to loose. I thought this warrants a external HD purchase so I bought a western digital 500GB book.

Now how best can I use this hardrive so that I never loose important data ( pics, videos, music, personal files etc ) from my PC. There are a few ways to go about this. External hardirve doesnt come with any software which synchronizes the folders so there are a couple of options such as

• Synctoy
• Second copy
• Replikator
• Retrospect

Synctoy is a MS XP powertoy which is free and easy to use. The remaining tools mentioned above are not free but quite good. Another option is to image your PC using Acronis true image and saving this image onto another hard drive so you dont spend hours installing xp or vista and have your laptop or PC up and running in few minues.

Synctoy from MS seems to be preety good and does the job. It has many flavours for synchronizing folder pairs

• Synchronize: New and updated files are copied both ways. Renames and deletes in one folder is repeated on the other.
• Echo: New and updated files are copied left to right. Renames and deletes on the left are repeated on the right.
• Subscribe: Updated files on the right are copied to the left is the file name already exists on the left.
• Contribute: New and updated files are copied left to right. Renames on the left are repeated on the right. Similar to Echo, except there are no deletions.
• Combine: New and updated files are copied both ways. Renamed and deleted files are ignored

I personally like contribute which is what I will be using as I dont want deletes to be synchronized as I will delete files from my laptop as I run out of space but still want a copy to be kept on the external harddrive

you can download synctoy from the following link below

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/prophoto/synctoy.mspx

Also a click here for a simple tutorial http://www.pchell.com/support/synctoy.shtml

confucious say " you dont backup you loose data"

Life insurance and A380

I blogged a while ago that I will be flying on the A380 to India. I have just landed in Singapore safely. A few days back I was surfing the net on how safe the A380 is and came across a few whistleblower articles. These stated that the chips which control the cabin pressure have not been tested properly and went on to describe the horrendeous end facing someone at 38000 ft. I am a bit scared of flying especially during take offs and landing. Contemplating on this article I thought I should take out a life insurance contract ( sounds funny now ) but at 1 in the morning seemed a good idea. Anyways no need for that the ride was smooth and the plane was fantastic. Going to ahmedabad now so wishing myself a safe flight.

Am I doing my work ?

In terms of behaviours during interviews we are asked more questions on our communication and team work skills. These are very important I agree however I believe there should be more focus on honesty and integrity. An interviewee must be asked about an example where he has been honest ( not to his boss or his colleague ) but to his profession and to his work.

Sometimes I raise questions in teams which annoys my teammates but these are doubts and thoughts which I posses in my mind and if I dont raise these questions and have answers to them( and there have been many times when these do change the course of action ) then I believe that I am not being honest to my work. Doing the work is my prime responsibility to the best of my abilities and not being nice and agree with people around me. Diplomacy and interpersonal communication comes second to me but what comes first is the question that have I been honest to my work and done what I am being paid for to the best of my ablitiy. If I can answer that question then I have done a good job and everything else is secondary.

A similar post of interest from a recruiter Johanna Rothman the http://www.jrothman.com/weblog/2004/03/ask-questions-about-integrity.html

Bob Marley's truce

My love for Mr.Marley has grown leaps and bounds in the last year. As I see the world a bit more clearly than how I saw it in my uni days I seem to relate to him even more. His words are music to my years and his rythms and music calm me down and bring me peace. Having bought almost all his albums my favorite being exodus I now want to venture out into books and posters and this is where my wife comes is.

You see she doesnt share the same passion as I do for reggae music and rastafarians. So when I told her that I am going to buy a framed marley poster and put it on the wall she didnt seem too happy. Actually she made it crystal clear that marley had no place in our home and on our walls. She thinks he looks a bit dirty and unkempt and like the guy who sits in the central station tunnel with a cardboard. After a lot of pleading and bribing ( handing over the remote and letting her choose the movies ) she has finally approved him to live with me in my study but no where near our bedroom or in the living room. So I get exited about this and off I go to http://www.art.com/ and find the poster above. I am going to order it as soon as I am back from India its absolutely fantastic and I love it.

"One good thing about music, when it hits you (you feel no pain) Oh, oh, I say, one good thing about music, when it hits you (you feel no pain) Hit me with music, hit me with music now " Bob marley, lyrics from trechtown rock

Why are we not as tolerant anymore?

wonder why sometimes people are so bitter and feel offended by the smallest of things. Its happened to me as well whilst doing one of the many chores of daily lfe. This however does not happen to me atleast with loved ones. People have become less tolerant nowadays. A sense of urgency and desperation seems to have gripped everyone.
The demand and desire to do many things at once as well as keeping it up with the jones has left many of us out of control which leads to irritatiblity and frustration.
It seems we need to come out of this atttitude of comparing, judging and trying to be or atleast faking ( even more dangerous ) all the time.
Social and professional demands ( the latter anytime more than the former ) are getting tougher each passing day. Communication and computers have been successful at simplifying things for us but on the other hand they have left us trying to do many tasks at once. They have instilled in us a need to instant gratification and realtime satisfaction which is making us intolerant each passing day.

I think its fair to say that we cannot get rid of this tolleranza ( intolerant towards others mistake, judgemental attitude and always time poor) completely however we can try. Some antidotes which I belive work for me are

1. Try to put yourself in the other persons shoe in that situation and behave the way you would expect other to do with you.
2. Spend some time for yourself - Each day take some time out for yourself for the things you like to do and those that make you happy. This will make you feel more fulfilled making you happier and more tolerant
3. Be positive - Dont surround yourself with negative people who always crib about their job or family. This rubs on you and makes you feel negative.
4. Do something nice each day - whether giving someone needy some change to giving way to your colleague in the lift or listening with pleasure and genuinity to your spouse even when you are tired. This will make you feel better and make you feel happy.
5. Try to live your values. Make sure you know what kind of person you are or want to be and then try to live the values rather than just think or talk about it.
6. unclutter and simplify life. There is no need to rush out and get the latest mobile phone or download the latest app. Check if it really is necessary. Keeping up with the trend is not cool be yourself.
7. Make short and medium professional goals and work on them this will leave you more satisfied professionally.

Travelling home on the A380

Lifes been a bit busy lately. Since comming back from Europe and india works been kicking ass. Three projects on at the moment doesnt leave much enerygy and time to blog. We were also busy moving to a bigger appartment. Our old one was way to small and we couldnt fit in anymore stuff. Will be going to india on march 15th so looking forward to meeting mom and dad. Wont be there for long but will enjoy each day that I am there :-). Will be catching up with some old pals as well.

I am exited as I will be flying the A380. Here's a link to a 360 view of the cockpit

http://www.gillesvidal.com/blogpano/cockpit1.htm

The next few months is going to be another murex upgrade, infrasturcture upgrade, swapswire connectivity and ubs connectivity. Its going to be a lot of work but it will be interesting and fun.

The very best of luck to myself :-)

Soo long

Some songs just bring back memories...

Some songs just bring back memories from carefree college days. Listening to breakfast at tiffanys from 97 I feel nostalgic about vv nagar days when all you needed was chai, sutta and friends.

Bennie, robin, priyesh, sumit and myself at rehmans keetli.

Those were the best days of my life