Woo Hoo! Backup Here We Come!

I'm not a salesman, but here's something you might want to consider. From now through Sunday (6/24) you can get a Pogoplug device for free just by signing up for a one-year family membership. (The total is $29 and change, which includes $9 plus a little for shipping, but still it's a good bit less than the $49.95 cost of the device itself.)

Pogoplug Classic is
about 6 inches tall.

As I wrote not long ago, I recently resolved to back up my data, and I've been looking into how to do it. Just this morning, I had an email interchange with a company that wants $20 a month for its 10GB back up plan. Even though that's their entry-level package, it's still more capacity than I need (and definitely more than I want to pay).

So imagine my surprise and delight when an email arrived this morning from Pogoplug with just the offer I had been looking for, more or less. Fortunately I checked out the technology not long ago, before they came up with their family plan, so I didn't have to start from scratch in evaluating it. (I did sign up, by the way.)

In early May I generated an "internal report" about what Pogoplug had to offer as a technology. At the time I was exploring file sharing alternatives to using an FTP site. [If you're in a hurry at this point, then jump to the end of this post. Otherwise, this background information should bring you up to speed.] Here is the report:

The Pogoplug Options
Pogoplug technology offers an easy and controlled way to make your files accessible via the Internet (i.e., cloud storage). Or you could say, the company offers three easy and controlled ways for you to do it.

Pogoplug PC is software that runs on your PC and lets you make files Internet accessible. There is a 30-day free trial after which you can pay a one-time fee of $29.95 to continue using it. There's also the option of linking this to cloud storage. This is the way I shared the photos (and Powerpoint file) [for a recent project] with you earlier this afternoon.

The advantage: Everything stays on your own PC (unless you opt for the cloud storage).

The disadvantage: Your PC has to be running for the files to be accessible (unless you opt for the cloud storage). Also, it is set up for control by a single user (or shared login).

Pogoplug also offers three devices ($39.95 to $79.95) that provide a way to connect storage that you supply (such as a hard drive) directly to the Internet. FYI, you can get a 1 TB external hard drive for $100 or a little more and hook it up this way to basically have a piece of “the cloud” in your office, but separate from your PC, for less than $200.

The advantage: You can turn off your PC and still have access to your files as long as the Pogoplug device is powered up. And again, your files are right there, under your roof and your control. You also can connect a larger drive, or other devices, as you wish. (The top-of-the-line device allows multiple devices to be attached.) The Pogoplug device simply provides the communications and accessibility interface.

The disadvantage: It costs more, but it’s a one-time cost; and it has to be powered up for your files to be available. Also set up for a single user (or shared login).

Pogoplug Team offers the ability to set up multiple users and set up and use your own branded interface. It essentially uses the software solution tooled up for collaboration. It works with either a Pogoplug device or on a PC or server which is then melded with cloud storage -- but I may be oversimplifying things.

The advantages: Multiple user capabilities allow collaboration while keeping separate control. If you use the external cloud storage option, it’s always on – you don’t have to have any devices powered up to have the files available.

The disadvantages: There is a small annual fee ($15 per user). Also, with the cloud option, your files are “out there” somewhere (but that’s not unlike DropBox or other such services).

HOW YOU GET THE FILES
Regardless of which option you select, you access your files using your Pogoplug account. You log on through a web browser to upload files, as well as to view them. You share specific files or folders by emailing a Pogoplug-provided URL for that specific thing. The company has free (and good) apps for Android, iPad and iPhone.

In my experience, Pogoplug has handled all the file types I’ve tried very well. In addition to sharing photos and documents, it also works for streaming audio and video. Here are two examples. These links are from current website posts and are delivered by a Pogoplug device:

• Video (mp4) (short): http://ppl.ug/wHWEcsVSFCM/ 
• Audio (mp3) (1 min.): http://ppl.ug/HWBYaPf8DF8/ 

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT IT
Three things about Pogoplug really appeal to me. In any of its forms, Pogoplug is basically an FTP-like technology. But unlike sending someone to an FTP site, where they typically have to traipse around through lots of different folders, a Pogoplug link sends them directly to a specific folder or file. It’s similar to DropBox in that regard.

I also like the fact that you have the files right there (unless you use cloud storage, which of course does have other benefits). Maintaining control of file location is all relative, of course, but I personally like having it there.

The third thing is that all of the Pogoplug interfaces (browser and app) seem to work well. I’ve used the Android app on a smart phone, the iPad app, and the browser interface on a number of different PCs. All work well, and I don’t hesitate using this tool to share data with anyone.
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So now there's this fourth Pogoplug option, and it sounds good to me, particularly considering the price. Watch for a fresh link here soon (I'm sure I'll find something to share) so you can see for yourself how well it works.

The Word of the Day is Karst

There are a lot of words I don't use very often that are still pretty important. Consider, for example, the word karst. It turns out that karst refers to terrain that started out as (relatively) solid rock - usually limestone or dolomite - and portions of which, over time, have become riddled with holes.

In some cases, these holes are small, giving the rock the ability to hold water like a sponge (without the squishiness, of course). In the U.S. this is the case frequently enough that 40% of our drinking water comes from karst aquifers. (There’s another word for another day.)

The void spaces in karst can also be pretty large. Ever been to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky? Or perhaps you’ve visited Marvel Cave at Silver Dollar City (included in the park’s admission price) in Branson, Mo. It turns out both were formed from karst, although they represent different aquifers. (As an aside, my wife and I visited Luray Caverns in Virginia on our honeymoon a few years back. It’s hard to determine from the USGS map whether they’re in a karst formation, but it was a nice place to visit anyway.)

I learned about karst last week as I was writing about a project that consists of surgically inserting a deep, new cutoff wall into the Wolf Creek Dam, in south-central Kentucky. It turns out the dam was built on a karstic formation and has had seepage issues ever since it was completed, which was the same year that I was born. A little leakiness here and there is no big deal. I've heard water dripping in every cave I've ever visited. But when it’s dissolving away the very foundation of the dam, it does become more of a concern.

(original construction photo, from the Corps' Fast Facts brochure ) 

Suffice it to say, experts in foundation engineering are working with the Army Corps of Engineers and this wall, when it’s completed in the middle of next year, should do the trick. At that point Nashville, some 200 odd miles down the river, and all the smaller river towns in between should be able to rest a little easier.

Also once the project is completed, the Corps expects to be able to let Lake Cumberland to fill up again, which will make a lot of marina owners, etc. (to say nothing of the 4.9 million visitors who show up every year with boats and fishing rods), very happy to get their shoreline back up where it’s supposed to be. After all, Lake Cumberland is the largest manmade reservoir east of the Mississippi and the ninth largest in the U.S.

Another interesting feature: one of the reasons the dam was built in the first place was to generate hydroelectric power. Ordinarily the pool elevation behind the dam is 720 above mean sea level. However, for most of the time since March 2005 it has been at about 680 feet, which seriously reduces how much electricity can be produced. For an interesting example, check out this TVA schedule. (When it was going full blast, electricity generation at the Wolf Creek Dam was bringing in $77 million a year.)

So yes, Virginia, or Kentucky, or whomever is asking, there is a word called “karst” and it’s pretty interesting stuff.

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The Corps of Engineers' Fast Facts brochure is available online at http://www.lrn.usace.army.mil/wolfcreek/pdf/Wolf%20Creek%20Dam%20Brochure.pdf

Here are some additional related websites, if you’re interested in pursuing more information.

http://heartoflakecumberland.com/lake-cumberland/history/

http://www.lakecumberland.com

http://www.lrn.usace.army.mil/wolfcreek/

Katie Couric video segment about living just downstream from the dam, from August 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gn5nTyUXbc&feature=topics 

Corps video about the project: http://wn.com/WOLF_CREEK_DAM,_KY

Clean Install = No Fun

Well, that was not fun! For some reason,  the computer decided overnight it wasn't going to start this morning, so it "sent" me a text:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
(Windows root)\system32\hal.dll
Please re-install a copy of the above file.

Sounds simple enough. You know me -- I'm always up for a troubleshooting challenge. I even found the XP reinstallation CD that came with the computer five years ago, so I was feeling pretty good.

A few words of wisdom from a couple of computer experts (it's good to have a second computer around to help you with the answers), a few attempts at reinstallation, and suddenly it was one o'clock. Figuring it's time for desperate measures, I begin a clean reinstall. But then I got cold feet -- did I really want to risk obliviating the half of my data files that I haven't gotten around to backing up properly? Time to call a real expert.

"Hello, Dell? I have a problem."

Roughly three hours and $135 later, Sachin came back on the speaker phone (he had been reworking my files remotely from who knows where, although I have a guess) and said all I had to do was wait for the file cleanup operation to finish, then restart the computer. Quite a relief to see that my precious data seemed to have weathered the storm.

Then reality set in. Yes, you've got your data. However, you're otherwise starting from scratch. Go get all your other program CDs and get comfortable, because a clean install is just that. Time to rebuild.

The moral of this story: I am going to figure out a backup strategy, and I am going to do it. Enough of this halfway, haphazard stuff. And maybe, just maybe, it might have something to do with "the cloud."

Stay tuned, particularly if you like to learn from other people's mistakes.

Watching Venus in Transit

Well that was fun! Throughout the day I've both learned about the Transit of Venus and watched it, too. Thanks to a late-night email yesterday from my brother Mark, I knew to check out this rare occurrence. (The next time it happens will be in 2117.)



There was plenty of information on the web, of course. My favorite sources started at National Geographic (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/06/120604-transit-of-venus-2012-sun-planet-hubble-space-science-how-when/), then spread to NASA for a visibility map (http://venustransit.nasa.gov/2012/transit/viewing_locations.php) and transitofvenus.nl/wp, which led me back to NASA's live video podcast - or "vodcast" - at www.ustream.tv/nasaedge (shown above). Their coverage began at 4:45 p.m. here (Central time) and continued for the 7-hour transit.

Fortunately the sky was clear and my brother had also suggested a live viewing technique. He said he had been able to see the last one, in 2004, by letting the sun shine through a reversed pair of binoculars and focusing the image on a card. Well, it worked for us, too. I was even able to share the event with a couple of my wife's piano students and the next door neighbors before the sun dropped behind the trees. Funny - it looked just like the image from the NASA video stream, with a bit less detail.

Two “morning after” observations

My favorite thing about the NASA broadcast, besides being able to actually see the little spot crossing the face of the Sun, was the in guy in the parka with a yellow ski cap. It was cold at 14,000 feet on Mauna Kea; there had even been the possibility of snow the night before the transit. He and his wife of one week were there on a honeymoon/business trip, and she had given him the cap complete with a quarter-size black dot that they moved throughout the vodcast, just like Venus traversing the Sun.

The other thing that sank in over night is a sense of the common relatively instantaneous experience we shared with humanity around the globe, and the way it connected each of us with people from an earlier time. We saw this event in a way that was very different from the way humans observed Venus’ previous transits. The history section of the transitofvenus.org website lays it out this way (with my added commentary):

1639 Transit – A Most Agreeable Spectacle (its first recorded scientific observation)

1761 & 1769 Transits – Global Expeditions (that’s when Captain James Cook sailed to Tahiti to observe it)

1874 & 1882 Transits – Age of Photography (remember, this was a technology that had not been available for the previous Transit)

2004 Transit – The Digital Era (and even so recently far fewer of us could have observed it; what a difference today's streaming video technology made in sharing the 2012 Transit)

My new friend Fabio, who recently returned home to Argentina for a few weeks of R&R, happened to be in the “No Transit Visible” part of the world (see http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/transit12.html). But through the marvel of modern technology, he, too, could observe the phenomenon. How cool is that!