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On multiple occasions, I’ve stressed the importance of backing up your files and documents. I’ve also reviewed Mozy as an online backup solution. However, there’s a new competitor in town called Dmailer backup and it gives Mozy a good run for its money. Well, it’s not exactly new as the company has been around since 2001 but I’ve just recently found out about it.

What is Dmailer Backup?
Dmailer Backup is a piece of software that lets users automate the backup process, providing continuous incremental backups for specified files. Incremental backups means that you can ‘go back in time’ to previous versions of a file, not just the latest one. This is especially useful for anyone that does any sort of programming as debugging is made tons easier by comparing old versions of files to current ones. Now Dmailer Backup itself is used to manage backups, but you still need to provide a destination to backup to — for example, an external hard drive or usb key.

A handy feature is to select only specific types of files to backup.  For example, for most people, the important files that require backing up are .doc and .txt files.  For a web developer, one could simply add .php, .html, .css to the mix.  This avoids wasting valuable backup space on those large HD movies (unless you wanted to of course).

Also, Dmailer Backup is a single executable file that does not require installation and works perfectly with U3 usb devices, perfect for that portable web development usb key.

What is Dmailer Online?
Dmailer Online is essentially an online storage space that can be utilized by Dmailer Backup.  Upon sign-up, you are provided with 2GB of online storage. Rest assured, the storage is both password protected and encrypted with one of the strongest encryption algorithms available, 448-bit Blowfish. Like some other backup services, the first 2GB is free.  In fact, Dmailer were the first ones to offer 2GB for free, setting the benchmark for backup services everywhere.  Although this is enough for most people, those that have a lot of multimedia to back up may prefer to pay $35 per year for 30GB or $70 per year for unlimited storage. That works out to less than $3 and $6 per month respectively!

The great feature about Dmailer Online is that the files can be accessed simply from a web browser, so you can access your backups from any computer without having to install any software first.  The web user interface for file access is a search engine that’s intuitive, fast, and easy to use.

Mac Compatibility
There aren’t many online backup solutions out there that support platforms other than Windows. Cross-platform support is greatly appreciated by myself and other Mac users. There’s no Linux support yet, but I’ve been told this is a feature in the works, so Linux users can feel included soon.

Mozy vs Dmailer
There are a few similarities between Mozy and Dmailer. Both offer 2GB of online backup storage for free, both are automated and encrypted, and both run on Mac. Unlike Mozy, Dmailer are the pioneers of “‘dual backup”, which can provide you with an offline backup solution in addition to an online one, all from a single interface. Online backups are safe from things like break-ins and local disasters, but offline backups are easier to access and quicker. If you accidentally deleted a large file that you want to recover, it may take a while to download the backup from an online server, so it is always handy to have an offline backup as well.  So I think Dmailer provides a good integration of both types for maximum ease of mind.

Popularity: 1% [?]

A couple years ago, I wrote a brief review of the book Hacking Vim by Kim Schulz. The publisher, Packt publishing seemed to like my review so they sent me the second edition of the book, Hacking Vim 7.2 to review as well.

The latest edition of the book, released just earlier this year, has been revised and expanded to address some new features of Vim 7.2. The good thing about buying such a book is that Vim releases are infrequent and always backwards compatible. There’s very little chance of this book becoming redundant and outdated, unlike that Visual Basic 4 bible you have sitting on your shelf.

What is Vim?
For the uninitiated, Vim is an open source editor that has been used by programmers and developers for many years. Although it doesn’t look fancy, it is actually one of the most powerful pieces of software out there in terms of customizability and flexibility. However, unlike your basic text editor, it is difficulty to just jump in and start using it as there is a bit of a learning curve. This book is not for beginners, as it assumes an understanding of the basic editing modes of Vim. If you’ve never used Vim before, the book has a few suggestions on getting up to speed — most noticeably, by going through the vimtutor program that comes with most installations of Vim.

Topics Covered
The first part of the book gives a fairly complete history of the Vim lineage, from the original UNIX based ed editor to Vi, to it’s derivatives, and finally to the Vim we now know and love. Then the book dives right into basic personalization tweaks with an overview of the different configuration files — what they do and where they go. I consider these simple tweaks essential for any semi-serious user of Vim to create their own personalized .vimrc file.

For a lot of readers, the first two chapters may already been enough of a customization but the real meat of the book lies in the latter chapters, to help moderate users become power users with navigation tweaks, recipes to help with code completion and project management. If one follows all of these suggestions, Vim can turn into a full-fledged IDE.

With the sheer number of recipes and scripts, I would suggest implementing them a little at a time in order to get used to using them. Going through all the changes at once may be a bit overwhelming.

The last few chapters of the book teach take Vim customization to the next level by giving a tutorial on how to write your own scripts and configuration files. Most may not need to go into this much detail but if there is functionality that you can’t find a script for, then writing your own may be the only choice. The good news is Vim scripting is not too difficult, especially with the tutorial provided in this book, which is one of the reasons there is such a large community supporting it.

Recommendation
If you’re a user of Vim and would like to work more effectively and become a Vim guru, this book is definitely for you. If you’re already a Vim poweruser but feel there is some functionality lacking, this book is a great place to learn how to write your own Vim scripts to contribute to the Vim community.

If you’ve never used Vim before but would like to start using it, this book may not be your first choice; you may wish to try out Vim for a bit first to see if you actually enjoy the style of editing, and if so then pick up this book to go to the next level.

Popularity: unranked [?]

I recently built a Home Theatre PC (HTPC) to drive my new LCD TV.  The benefit of using a HTPC is that it can replace many components of a traditional home theatre system while adding the benefits of having a full fledged computer system in your living room.

I plan on keeping this system running 24/7 so it makes sense to make it as energy efficient as possible.

Here’s a quick list of the components used:

• Processor: AMD Athlon II X2 250
• Motherboard: Gigabyte MA-785GMT-UD2H
• Memory: Corsair XMS3 2×2GB DDR3 Dual Channel Kit
• Hard drive: 1TB Seagate Baracuda 7200.12
• Heatsink: Scythe Ninja Mini Rev. B with Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Paste
• Optical drive: Samsung DVD-RW
• Case: Antec NSK2480
• Speakers: Logitech Z-Cinema Advanced Surround Sound System w/Media Center remote

Motherboard
You might notice that I don’t have a graphics card listed, which may seem strange for a PC that’s built for high definition video playback.  The reason is because I’m using AMD’s new 785g chipset that was just released earlier this month.  This features an integrated Radeon HD 4200 GPU which is capable of smoothly decoding 1080p video.  This 785G chipset really has everything you need for a HTPC and is highly recommended in reviews by TomsHardware and AnandTech.

CPU
The AMD Athlon II X2 250 is one of the best value CPUs out there.  One can be had for about $70-$80 while providing two cores at 3.0ghz.  The best thing about it is that it is rated at 65w, making it one of the more energy efficient CPUs.  I could have opted for the 5050e which is only rated at 45w but I figure the extra processing power may come in handy for 1080p decoding.

Case and Heatsink
For the rest of the system, I decided to keep it as quiet as possible, opting for a passive heatsink cooled only by the case fans on the NSK2480 chassis.  The Antec NSK2480 case was designed by Antec in conjunction with SilentPCReview to give it the best airflow.  You can read a full review of the case here but let me just say, it is just beautiful and the attention to detail really sets it apart from other cases.  It’s also fairly inexpensive at around $100.

The case comes with a 380W power supply that’s 80+ certified meaning high energy efficiency.  Although the PSU isn’t that large, the low energy footprint of the individual components means 380W is already plenty.

Problems
The RAM that I got came with their own heatsinks which adds to the size of the modules.  This increased size coupled with the fairly large Scythe Mini Ninja CPU heatsink meant that the first two DIMM slots were not usable.  Luckily, Gigabyte arranged the DIMM slots so that the dual channel pairs were together.  As a result, I could put my two sticks of RAM into the 3rd and 4th DIMM slot while maintaining dual channel capability.  This means no more memory expansion though unless I get a smaller heat sink or memory modules without heat spreaders.

I’m also still missing a TV tuner to receive Over-The-Air HD transmissions.  I’m waiting for a nice one to go on sale.

Windows 7
For my operating system, I’m using a release candidate of Windows 7 which is simply amazing for a HTPC setup.  The Windows 7 media center is probably the best Microsoft product I’ve used so far and I haven’t found anything that really compares.  It’s highly moddable and coupled with the media center remote from the Logitech speakers, it makes for a very nice HTPC experience.  I recommend using the free media browser extension for extra eye candy and features.

Total Cost
I already had some of the parts so I only had to spend about $500 on this system.  Yes you can build a quad core system for $500, but you can’t get this type of HTPC experience whilst staying green!  All the components together, I’d estimate the final cost to be around $700.  If you wait for deals and bargains, you might be able to get it for less but many of these components are already fairly competitively priced.

Do you have an HTPC setup? What components did you end up using? Let me know in the comments!

Popularity: 4% [?]

Yahoo! Developer Network has posted a great article on 34 ways to speed up your website.  They divide these 34 methods into 7 categories:

• Content
• Server
• Cookies
• CSS
• Javascript
• Images
• Mobile

Some of the practices are a bit advanced and hard to implement for most people.  For example, setting up a content delivery network is by no means a trivial task and is probably unnecessary unless your website is serving tens of thousands of visitors per day.

Other tips are quite simple and are things that any seasoned web developer should already be doing, i.e. putting stylesheets at the top of the page and optimizing images.

This is a great article to keep bookmarked if you’re starting a new project or if you’re looking to improve an existing one!

Popularity: 8% [?]

With the new year just around the corner, here are a few books you may want to consider reading as part of your New Year’s resolutions.  I’ve read/own these and can fully recommend them from personal experience.

The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master by Andrew Hunt, David Thomas

For anyone that spends a significant amount of time coding, this book is definitely a must have.  It will give you a new way of looking at the way you design and code, essentially turning it into an artform instead of just a routine task.  Being pragmatic means being practical and efficient.  Spend a few hours skimming through this book and you’ll save hundreds of hours later on. You can read my book review here.

Beautiful Code
Beautiful Code is a collection of short case studies written by lead programmers from around the world.  Anyone that likes learning by example will love this book.  What better way to learn than from other people’s mistakes and experiences?

Code Complete by Steve McConnell
This book is similar to Pragmatic Programmer in that it talks about a lot of the same stuff.  No harm in reading both though since they offer a slightly different slice of the same pie.  I strongly believe that computer science courses should teach these concepts to all programmers so that programming can become anyone can love doing.

Regular Expression Pocket Reference
This one isn’t just a must-read, it’s a must have! Regular expressions are a mixed bag for programmers.  Most will find that they are extremely useful when needed and can make a complex problem very elegant.  However, most will also find that they don’t practice them often enough to fully master them.  This is why I find this pocket reference to helpful.  It includes examples in all of the popular languages APIs (Java, PHP, .NET and C#, Python, vi, JavaScript, Ruby etc.)

The Case of the 500 Mile E-mail
This last must-read isn’t a book but rather a very funny and interesting story of a campus E-mail administrator who comes across an impossible problem.  I won’t ruin any more of it, but definitely read it for a good laugh!

What other good books (not necessarily computer related) would you recommend as a must-read for a programmer?

Popularity: 6% [?]