Blog/March 2011/Mar 4th

Mar 4th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

More new/old friends; Sarah's job prospects; popcorn and peanuts; backing up is hard to do...

This week, Esther's boss sent her to represent him at a seminar for non-profit organizations in Yaffo. Though she wasn't excited about going, she joined forces with one of our friends who was also going there, and spent the day in that interesting town. The event was hosted in the Nalaga'at Center, a unique place. Besides listening to lectures and passing out her boss's business cards, she encountered friends of hers from 25 years ago, who recognized her! So now two weeks in a row, we've been uncovering re-acquaintances. Israel is a really small place!

Last week we mentioned Sarah was considering two possible jobs for next year's sherut leumi. She was accepted to both, one in Jerusalem and one in Beit Shemesh. But since her good friend was not accepted for the Beit Shemesh job, she decided to accept the Jerusalem one -- and so, B"H, she will be moving back to her suite at chez Aaron next year. She also went to see the Cameri Theater troup for 10NIS (about $3), with friends of hers. She's at the point now where she can watch a play in Hebrew and understand most of it -- better than I can do!

For years my family has claimed that "nobody makes popcorn like you do!". So I've been stuck making popcorn; and since we don't have an air-popper, I've been making popcorn the "old fashioned" way. A pot and a bit of oil -- it's a messy and slightly dangerous experience. But this week, Esther had the amazing revelation that we can make popcorn in the microwave, without buying the (disgusting) microwave popcorn! Here's how: take a small paper bag (not a wax or plastic-lined one, just plain paper). Put a little less than a quarter-cup of popcorn kernels in it. Add a tiny amount of oil, and salt if you like. Fold over the top of the bag three times, and shake it around to distribute a slight oil film over the kernels. Then, put the bag in the microwave for three minutes. You'll end up with a nice portion of perfectly popped popcorn, with hardly any "duds" -- and without all the nasty chemicals the commercial microwave popcorns have in them.

Backing up is hard to do, which is why people don't do it. But neglecting to make proper copies of your important data is a good way to lose years of happiness. Here I'll give you a few hints on how you can make sure you don't have to perform seppuku just because you've lost your corporate data:

First: don't forget to actually do a backup. Whatever else you do, if you don't have a backup, you cannot restore your data! So please, make sure to back-up your important data frequently.

Second: do not back up everything. There is no need to make backups of programs you've installed, since you can reinstall them. You really only need to keep your data safe, and that means (in most cases) a relatively small amount of information. Backing up only what is necessary also helps ensure you will follow the first rule, which is to do a backup.

Third: keep redundant copies. This is the easiest way to back up. Buy an external 500G hard disk, they're cheap nowadays. Simply copy your data to the other disk. Now, if your main computer's disk dies (it will, someday, count on it!) you can restore your vital information quickly and easily.

Fourth: keep offsite copies. In the event of a fire or theft, you could lose all the data on your computers, with no possibility of recovery. So put your information on a high-capacity USB key and keep it in your pocket, and keep another copy of your data on another key, and put it in a bank safe-deposit or a friend's house. You can also keep your data in an online 'vault' -- there are a number of places which will give you 2G of free storage place, like myDrive (located in Switzerland), or Dropbox (located in the USA). These are convenient, free and pretty secure. If you are paranoid about your government's free and easy ways with your data, keeping copies out of your country of residence can be good insurance against that sort of problem, as well.

Fifth: keep your data encrypted. If your computer is stolen, anybody with any technical savvy can read your information. Likewise with your external disk or USB key -- and myDrive or Dropbox do not guarantee that nobody accesses your information! So you will want to encrypt whatever you store. Fortunately, this is simple. Encrypt your hard disk (on Ubuntu you can simply tell it you want your 'home' directory encrypted -- this is highly recommended. Windows has a similar facility). On your external backup media, I suggest using TrueCrypt to create an encrypted 'virtual' hard-disk, which you can copy to USB key or external hard disk, or upload to myDrive or DropBox or whatever. If someone gets hold of your data now, they will be unable to access it at all -- but of course, you will be able to.

Enough for this week. Just keep in mind my First Rule above: don't forget to actually do a backup!

We've got friends coming over for dinner this shabbat (the first time in living memory that we'll have more men than women at the table!). We'll avail ourselves of: butternut-squash soup, BBQ ribs, roast chicken, baked potato salad, roast eggplant salad, black lentil salad, radish salad, braised fennel, zucchini and carrot bake, guacamole, home-grown olives, chocolate chip sticks.

Until next week,
shabbat shalom!

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