It’s been roughly a month since I started using Mozy so I thought I would do an update. It works great for me still, though there are some niggling issues (what program doesn’t have them?) and thoughts I want to make people aware of. Firstly I should point out that Mozy mirrors your content and can’t be used for just storing files.

Mark in the comments brought up a few good points related to this. Most importantly the free version only backs up the last 30 days worth of data. This isn’t personally a problem in my lifestyle, but if you are away from home/work regularly, it’s useful to be aware of it.

Mozy was not always detecting my internet connection too which meant automatic backup didn’t happen (though this may be because of my dodgy router rather than an actual bug). However if you go to configuration and select the option to attempt backups even if no connections are detected, this should fix any problems.

The way to get your backups is to select them via the Mozy website and they will email you when the files have been prepared for you to download. The backup process is done via their website rather than the actual program. It’s great if you need to access a file from another computer, however it’s not the fastest process, and do you really want to be downloading an entire hard-drive via this process? Next time I partition my PC I will get the chance to really test it.

If anyone is looking for online backup and storage options then may I suggest Mozy. I downloaded it at the beginning of the week and have been impressed (at least so far). The free service provides 2gb of space which is decent enough (not the best but certainly not the worst). What’s made me like the system is the fact it can be setup to automatically backup files, either at specific times or when your computer is not in use. I am typing this post on my laptop and right now on my idle desktop the Mozy program has just popped up and is backing up (and encrypting) some files. I’m all for low-bloat, low-hassle programs! If anyone has tried it or use any other online storage options then leave a comment and share your thoughts.

There are two approaches concerning the look of your desktop in terms of productivity. Have it as simple as possible, which speeds your system up and you end up with less visual distractions, or beautify it up with fancy themes, effects, wallpapers etc. It makes your system more personal and nice to look at but can all these fancy features take your focus away? I’d like to hear your thoughts on that one.

Personally, I’ve swapped between both approaches a few times over the years and I am currently in a “good looking desktop” mood. It can be quite easy to spend too much time looking for the perfect wallpaper which is a big no-no, so I have just the one site which I refer to called Socksoff. Below I’ve picked out 5 of my favourite wallpapers from the site.

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Normally I don’t care for tech news and releases but I felt I had to mention about the latest release of Ubuntu Linux. I’ve given Hoary Hedgehog (5.04) and Dapper Drake (6.06) a try in the past and while I was impressed I still felt it wasn’t a fully polished package and combined with the hard work it took to get it set up even remotely how I wanted it, I decided to leave it for a while.

This new release, however, shows how far Ubuntu has come. I can now see myself using it in the near future, maybe one or two more releases down the line. I was able to set up my wireless network on it relatively easily (compared to not be able to do it all with the previous release) and I was able to access my Windows shared folders straightaway too. Having Ubuntu and using the Google apps (Gmail, Docs, Calendar etc) through Firefox would be quite an interesting approach which I may have to try when I get the chance. Any readers out there take a similar approach with Ubuntu (or Linux in general?)

If you are interested in giving Ubuntu a try then you can visit their site and download the relevant file. There is an excellent, huge guide to using it here.

It seems that mind mapping is a hot topic at the moment with a lot of sites discussing it. In contrast to this, having covered my own experiences of mind mapping recently I have now hit a brick wall. Beyond doing rough scribbled mind maps in my notepads for brainstorming purposes I have not had any other practical use for it. My hope was to implement mind maps in my GTD system. For instance, I would have a sheet of paper for each project with a mind map of all relevant next actions. However, I found that nothing beats a simple to-do list.

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