Supernifty - nifty stuff

For some time I’ve held an interest in Buddhism and Zen, and have read a number of books on the subject. I’m also a reader of Zen Habits, by Leo Duchovny, David Duchovny’s younger brother.

I would argue that Leo’s blog has very little relationship to Zen (*cough* false advertising *cough*), and in fact I would suggest that a more appropriate title would be “Nice guy habits”. But that doesn’t really have the same ring to it.

Zen isn’t really about being nice, or being organised, getting things done, being productive, or any of that hoo-ha. Why do people even care so much about these stupid things? Being productive? Woohoo, way to go, mark that down as your headstone quote.

Zen, without the Buddhism, is simply about living in the present moment, and meditating a lot to get good at that.

So, with that out of the way, Supernifty will now, as is the fashion in blogs, preach with a list of ways to be awesome.

1. Be nice
No.

Ever hear the saying, “nice guys finish last”? Well, it’s true. This means that being nice results in a double whammy of suckfullness. First, you have to be nice. Second, you come last.

Being grumpy, and bad, is the alternative personality to aim for. Grumpiness is fun, and helps you live longer. Also, grumpy people are pretty funny. John McEnroe for instance. His grumpiness gives him an ongoing income stream: every time someone says “you cannot be serious” on commercial television, he gets a dollar.

Girls love bad. You just have to watch TV to know this. There’s even scientific evidence indicating as such.

Unfortunately, if you are too bad, you might end up in jail. Supernifty life tip: avoid jail. This means aiming to be in the smart bad end of town, the guys that don’t get caught. If you think you might be in the stupid bad category, maybe you should just be good instead.

2. Patience is a virtue
No.

I’ve spent a lot of time waiting around for stuff and generally, it’s a waste of time. Time is the one thing you can never get more of in your life so don’t spend it being patient. Seize the day, and don’t wait another moment to go fix yourself a big sugary treat.

3. Only the good die young
Actually no, it’s mainly the bad guys dying young by killing each other, and themselves. Drinking, smoking or shagging themselves to death. Not taking care of themselves, driving too fast, taking stupid risks. All that stuff is the domain of the baddies.

But doesn’t it sound like fun? You only live once, do you want that one life to be the boring, long, life of the nice guy?

4. Live in the moment
Zen tells us the only moment is now.

So forget the past, and forget the future (i.e. consequences of your actions). Do whatever the hell you want, and do it right now.

* Please don’t take all aspects of this article seriously. I actually quite like Leo’s blog.

Backups are an essential feature of any IT installation.

You’ve got to have backups. Not backing up is a ridiculous, unnecessary risk.

The average hard drive has a 20% chance of failure each year. How would you fare if your computer was stolen, or melted in a fire? If you don’t have a plan for data recovery, you are asking for trouble.

Try to put a value on losing everything on your hard drive, and remember that fires, robberies and hardware failure are all out of your control.

For instance, a friend recently lost all his photos. Over 10 years worth of memories, gone forever! Man, he was sad.

These days there are great, inexpensive options for backups.

Option 1: buy an external hard drive.
This is a big improvement on not backing up at all, however, there’s a problem. If you keep the external drive with your computer, you’re not covering all the bases.

Any localized event, such as a natural disaster or robbery, will render your backup solution useless.

If you copy your data off your computer, then take your external hard drive away to another location, then this is a fine solution. Otherwise, it’s not recommended.

Option 2: online backup
In recent times, some very competitive options have sprung up. This stores your data safely away from your computer, so this is a winner - you can’t lose both in the one event. The main factor in my opinion is security.

• Mozy - unlimited storage for $4.95/month.
• Carbonite - unlimited storage for $49.95/year.
• Amazon S3 - incremental storage of 15c/GB/month. This is not on its own a backup solution. You need a user-friendly client to connect you to their backup service. For instance, JungleDisk.

I chose S3 and JungleDisk, primarily for security reasons. Most solutions tell you that your data is safe and encrypted, but that they can recover your data if you lose your password.

This means that if the company is hacked, or if you don’t trust company employees, your data is vulnerable. JungleDisk has the option to encrypt your data before it leaves your computer, and cannot be decrypted without your password.

It’s worth pointing out, that with Amazon’s incremental pricing, if you only need to backup a few gigs, then you’ll be paying less than $1/month to keep your data safe.

It’s a tiny price to pay for the guarantee that your data will not be lost.

A tutorial on how to use Audio Tuner Mobile to tune your musical instrument is now available.

If you can’t see the embedded video, watch it at YouTube