PC Computer Backup: Mozy is superior to Backblaze (October, 2009)
By Brent Wege
We all fear the day when our computer crashes and we lose all our files, so we have to back it up. But who remembers to do that and who wants to? Messing with removable drives and remembering to do it are just some of the concerns. Also if something happens to your home, such as theft or fire, you lose everything anyway. That is just too much to deal with and too much risk.
When I found out about these online backup programs for $5 per month that backup everything on your computer constantly to an online service, I was excited but skeptical. My first thoughts were “does this really work?” and “how difficult is it to maintain?” While I love technology I hate difficulty. With technology getting smarter, easier, and simpler every day, I jump on every “set it and forget it” solution I can find.
Asking and searching around for the popular services I stumbled across Mozy (www.mozy.com) and Backblaze (www.backblaze.com). Both are about $5 per month for unlimited real-time online backup. Now that is a deal. Both were simple to install, just download and click go. As far as ease of use and getting the job done I thought both these programs were great. But being skeptical I had to do some rigorous testing of these. After all, if I am going to trust these services with all my files and data, they better work right.
I was hoping to find comparison and test information searching the internet and reading forums but to no avail. I didn’t want to sign up for both of these services and do all the research if I could find the answers I was looking for, but many tests were done a long time ago and no good recent information could be found.
Here is where I’m going to get a bit technical. You can take my word for it that Mozy is the winner and just stop here, but if you’re into computers and want to know why, read on.
Philosophy: One big difference between Mozy and Backblaze is the philosophy. With Mozy you select what you want to backup, while with Backblaze they backup everything on the computer without asking. That is great, but Mozy’s default selections showed 133GB on my computers and Backblaze only showed 99GB. Backblaze excludes a lot of files by default such as virtual machine files, ISO files, EXE files, the program files directory, and many more. I guess they are assuming that I have those files backed up somewhere else. Well you know what they say about assumption.
I am giving this to Mozy hands down. What Mozy didn’t select by default was my operating system and programs, similar to Backblaze, but they didn’t have a list of exclusions. Mozy was smart enough to detect some financial data files in the program files directory. I think power has to be given to selection here as these systems can’t possibly know everything about your computer. Winner: Mozy.
Security: Mozy automatically secured all files prior to uploading them to Mozy with a 448-bit encryption key. Backblaze requires this to be configured and used AES but didn’t offer any insight on their algorithms. I like that Mozy by default took the safer selection with security and encrypted my data. Winner: Mozy.
Speed: I thought the speed was pretty close. Both programs took about week to backup my 100GB or so. I am using a Comcast cable connection. Winner: Tie.
Bandwidth Efficiency: This was the meat and potatoes of the whole deal. I am greedy with my internet speed and bandwidth. I don’t like sharing it, especially with a backup service that is running in the background making my internet slow. So that backup service better “get in and get out” as they say. Well, let’s take a large file example. Say I have a mail storage file of 1GB or 2GB, and I put a new e-mail in there and now it is 2.01GB. The smart program will upload .01 GB in just a minute. The not so smart one will upload the whole 2GB file again thinking it is completely different, thus wasting many hours of bandwidth and slowing down the internet speed. Not to mention if you change it a lot you may never stay ahead of the backup game as it will constantly be re-uploading.
This is where Mozy’s block level file technology comes into play. I was surprised to see Backblaze upload the entire file again. Mozy only uploaded the blocks that changed. This was fast, efficient, and satisfying. Winner: Mozy.
Functionality: Remember when I said both programs did the job? Well, the devil is in the details. Let’s say you like to leave a file open on your computer. I like to use the e-mail example because a lot of us leave our e-mail open, such as Microsoft Outlook, IMAP client, maybe our favorite Excel file, financial program, or even a picture database. Well when you leave files open that usually means other programs can’t access them, such as these online backup programs. What’s even worse is sometimes you may close a program or file, but it stays open in the background and you don’t even know about it! An example of this is the MobileMe I have running by Apple. It likes to leave my Outlook process running even though I close Outlook so it can maintain synchronization between my Outlook and iPhone. This means the Outlook.exe process is still locking my files leaving them out of reach to other processes.
Thoroughly testing this, Backblaze just would not budge on my open files. It would not start backing them up until everything was properly closed. This means I had to be aware of everything going on with my PC and what may or may not be locking my files without my knowledge.
In comes Mozy to the rescue with the ability to leverage snapshots through Microsoft’s VSS (Virtual Shadow Service). This service snapshots open files and allows them to be uploaded. It even combines with the block level file technology so it can snap only the block difference in the file. This is a great combination of efficiency and functionality.
So, I may have been in the dark with Backblaze considering I leave my computer on months at a time and don’t want to worry about situations such as MobileMe and what it’s locking on my computer. I have to give Mozy the hands down win on this one too. The “set it and forget it” on Mozy is not only working, it is working smart. Winner: Mozy.
Consideration: Mozy did not arbitrarily decide when to start my backups like its Backblaze cousin who randomly decided to back things up when it wanted to. Mozy would wait until my activity was idle for 20 minutes before starting. It didn’t want to disturb me. It also made sure my processor usage was under 60% so if I was running something and away from the machine, it would wait until that completed. Thank you Mozy I wasn’t expecting that. Winner: Mozy.
Information: How important is information to technology? VERY. I want to know what, when, where, why, and how much at all times. Similar to a bank statement – if the bank takes my money I want to know why and what for. I treat my information the same way. If I just changed a file and run a backup, there should be somewhere I can find out what just happened, how it happened, how long it took, whether it succeeded or failed, and maybe even some notes if something out of the ordinary occurred.
Backblaze shows none of this. If you run a backup you are lucky to see any information aside from a note stating “backup complete”. Where is the information? Maybe a log file? I sure couldn’t find it in the program or poking around the directory structure. I guess that isn’t important. That could make tech support easy and reduce liability I guess. I suppose if I have nothing to show for what happened, Backblaze can say it never did… or did it? That is a little scary.
Mozy more than delivers. It shows all the history, the backups that ran, the files that got backed up, the path, the size of the file (or the patch size of the file, which is the difference in the block level), the time it took to encrypt the file, transfer it, and what the internet transfer rate was at the time. It even has that little notes field I like for informational statements. Winner: Mozy.
Conclusion: These programs have come a long way. People take their data very seriously and these programs have to match up with those expectations.
Who would I trust right now with backing up my information efficiently, quickly, accurately, and securely? Winner: Mozy.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
America: Your Business Nightmare
America: Your Business Nightmare
By Brent Wege
Business shapes every one of us. We spend most of our waking hours around it, whether working or calling on business to buy products that make our lives easier, or to satisfy our basic needs. Unfortunately, I can say that a grave majority of the time the business experience is downright terrible.
All I have to do to remember this is look around me. What options do I have for fulfilling my needs and how great are they? Whatever it is I can only hope for a good experience or even better, a good attitude.
Wal-Mart is a prime example of one of America’s most popular retail establishments that have lost all the wonderful things we would want and expect from business. Wal-Mart capitalizes on cheap labor, cheap imported goods, poor attitudes, long lines, and no personal experience. America’s biggest business can truly reflect on American culture. I have had so many poor experiences at Wal-Mart I now refuse to go to Wal-Mart at all costs.
How about electronics and computers? Now there is category I can relate to as this is an industry I followed throughout my childhood. Now we all have computers and electronics in our lives. It seems like the only big choice in this category now is Best Buy. This is another Wal-Mart type operation that just doesn’t give a dime about the customer. Best Buy is also on my horrible experience list and I avoid at all costs.
There are no more little guys in these industries. The big ones snuffed them all out. America will simply not pay more for service, as they will always sacrifice service and quality to save a buck down the street. If one business has the same goods for less cost, we will always want to pay less, not realizing the long term effects or even care about what is going on behind the scenes that we can get the lower price. The internet is a good example. The internet has quelled the demand for local establishments since we can buy almost everything online from Amazon.com. This is great as now we don’t have to go anywhere or talk to anyone, we can just one click our way to satisfying our needs.
For me, I don’t like buying on the internet, and I think the internet subsidizing brick and mortar demand is a huge blow to America’s business culture. I don’t like that I can’t see or feel the product I’m buying, or no longer talk with someone about it on the sales floor. Sure there is internet chat but we all know 90% of communication is body language so that puts just another wall between us and the human touch.
This example can be applied to all sectors and all industries, not just retail or technology. Think about the business you are in and how America is buying into cheap competition that is driving down your costs and quality. It answers the question “How did we get here?” The rebirth of AT&T was such a classic example, as if the genie was released from the lamp and sucked up all the local phone companies and Bam! The Wal-Mart of our telecommunications industry was awoken from its sleep.
Let’s take a broader approach to this dilemma. Our economy shapes our business, so what is the platform for that? Capitalism. Capitalism has been the give and take of American business since the 19th century. Rather than try and define this complex term I will leave it at profits or the “bottom-line”. When you capitalize on something it sounds good when it comes to products but bad when it comes to people. If I say I’m going to capitalize on my investment, that doesn’t sound so bad. I’m going to put it to good use and get more out of it! But what if I say I’m going to capitalize on you, or capitalize on my key employees and put them to good use. Let’s say I’m going to get the most out of them at the least cost. That doesn’t sound so good.
Welcome to America, where we are capitalized upon every day. Capitalism wants the most out of us by putting the least into us, whether it is the products we buy or the services we need. We are being capitalized upon at work, at home, by the utility companies, by the businesses we patronize, and sometimes even by our friends and family! But can you blame them? Growing up in America now we learn how capitalizing works at a young age, it is engraved in our culture.
Look at this recent housing bubble. Wall Street and America’s banks capitalized on Americans that couldn’t repay their loans. Some companies refused to write those mortgages because it made them sick to their stomach. Rare is the white collar American that will take a fall for what he believes in, let alone the greater good of society. Some of those CEO’s companies went bankrupt or barely held on while the looting was taking place. The shareholders cried sour -- their mob mentality screamed while watching others profit, they didn’t care! They wanted the almighty dollar at all costs! Well look who is bankrupt now. There is no reward for foresight, especially if it costs someone money. The companies that did give in, that had to do it to keep going, they were just another business left holding the bag.
I will say what is great about America is we are free enough to band together when it gets too bad, as with unionized labor. Of course unions are getting a bad rap now with the auto industry tanking but we know unions are a necessary evil, as companies back in the day were working people horrible hours with horrible pay, capitalizing excessively on their labor pool. Now the unions have pulled a reversal on the companies with lazy employees and excessive pay. Both sides are trying to capitalize on each other in this lose-lose situation.
So, here is the real bottom line. America is bad for business. Conducting business a majority of the time is more of a hassle than it is a pleasure. Buying things is par at best and rarely pleasant. I will put some kudos out to Apple computer stores and products, which have been pleasant. Also, to the small shopkeepers that pride themselves on going against the tide, thank you. It’s too bad you make up such a small percent of our economy as it is only a fraction of the time we can enjoy your services.
Are there answers to these questions? Is there a greater socioeconomic philosophy we can follow that will pull us out of this mess? Will the words capitalism and healthcare ever stay far apart where they should be? Sure there are lots of ideas but our individualist society is far from collectively pulling together to make them happen. I will say the Obama factor was a surprise – I think we can all agree this was a cry for help and a call for change.
By Brent Wege
Business shapes every one of us. We spend most of our waking hours around it, whether working or calling on business to buy products that make our lives easier, or to satisfy our basic needs. Unfortunately, I can say that a grave majority of the time the business experience is downright terrible.
All I have to do to remember this is look around me. What options do I have for fulfilling my needs and how great are they? Whatever it is I can only hope for a good experience or even better, a good attitude.
Wal-Mart is a prime example of one of America’s most popular retail establishments that have lost all the wonderful things we would want and expect from business. Wal-Mart capitalizes on cheap labor, cheap imported goods, poor attitudes, long lines, and no personal experience. America’s biggest business can truly reflect on American culture. I have had so many poor experiences at Wal-Mart I now refuse to go to Wal-Mart at all costs.
How about electronics and computers? Now there is category I can relate to as this is an industry I followed throughout my childhood. Now we all have computers and electronics in our lives. It seems like the only big choice in this category now is Best Buy. This is another Wal-Mart type operation that just doesn’t give a dime about the customer. Best Buy is also on my horrible experience list and I avoid at all costs.
There are no more little guys in these industries. The big ones snuffed them all out. America will simply not pay more for service, as they will always sacrifice service and quality to save a buck down the street. If one business has the same goods for less cost, we will always want to pay less, not realizing the long term effects or even care about what is going on behind the scenes that we can get the lower price. The internet is a good example. The internet has quelled the demand for local establishments since we can buy almost everything online from Amazon.com. This is great as now we don’t have to go anywhere or talk to anyone, we can just one click our way to satisfying our needs.
For me, I don’t like buying on the internet, and I think the internet subsidizing brick and mortar demand is a huge blow to America’s business culture. I don’t like that I can’t see or feel the product I’m buying, or no longer talk with someone about it on the sales floor. Sure there is internet chat but we all know 90% of communication is body language so that puts just another wall between us and the human touch.
This example can be applied to all sectors and all industries, not just retail or technology. Think about the business you are in and how America is buying into cheap competition that is driving down your costs and quality. It answers the question “How did we get here?” The rebirth of AT&T was such a classic example, as if the genie was released from the lamp and sucked up all the local phone companies and Bam! The Wal-Mart of our telecommunications industry was awoken from its sleep.
Let’s take a broader approach to this dilemma. Our economy shapes our business, so what is the platform for that? Capitalism. Capitalism has been the give and take of American business since the 19th century. Rather than try and define this complex term I will leave it at profits or the “bottom-line”. When you capitalize on something it sounds good when it comes to products but bad when it comes to people. If I say I’m going to capitalize on my investment, that doesn’t sound so bad. I’m going to put it to good use and get more out of it! But what if I say I’m going to capitalize on you, or capitalize on my key employees and put them to good use. Let’s say I’m going to get the most out of them at the least cost. That doesn’t sound so good.
Welcome to America, where we are capitalized upon every day. Capitalism wants the most out of us by putting the least into us, whether it is the products we buy or the services we need. We are being capitalized upon at work, at home, by the utility companies, by the businesses we patronize, and sometimes even by our friends and family! But can you blame them? Growing up in America now we learn how capitalizing works at a young age, it is engraved in our culture.
Look at this recent housing bubble. Wall Street and America’s banks capitalized on Americans that couldn’t repay their loans. Some companies refused to write those mortgages because it made them sick to their stomach. Rare is the white collar American that will take a fall for what he believes in, let alone the greater good of society. Some of those CEO’s companies went bankrupt or barely held on while the looting was taking place. The shareholders cried sour -- their mob mentality screamed while watching others profit, they didn’t care! They wanted the almighty dollar at all costs! Well look who is bankrupt now. There is no reward for foresight, especially if it costs someone money. The companies that did give in, that had to do it to keep going, they were just another business left holding the bag.
I will say what is great about America is we are free enough to band together when it gets too bad, as with unionized labor. Of course unions are getting a bad rap now with the auto industry tanking but we know unions are a necessary evil, as companies back in the day were working people horrible hours with horrible pay, capitalizing excessively on their labor pool. Now the unions have pulled a reversal on the companies with lazy employees and excessive pay. Both sides are trying to capitalize on each other in this lose-lose situation.
So, here is the real bottom line. America is bad for business. Conducting business a majority of the time is more of a hassle than it is a pleasure. Buying things is par at best and rarely pleasant. I will put some kudos out to Apple computer stores and products, which have been pleasant. Also, to the small shopkeepers that pride themselves on going against the tide, thank you. It’s too bad you make up such a small percent of our economy as it is only a fraction of the time we can enjoy your services.
Are there answers to these questions? Is there a greater socioeconomic philosophy we can follow that will pull us out of this mess? Will the words capitalism and healthcare ever stay far apart where they should be? Sure there are lots of ideas but our individualist society is far from collectively pulling together to make them happen. I will say the Obama factor was a surprise – I think we can all agree this was a cry for help and a call for change.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Hacking your Old Hyundai for use with iPod / iPhone
Hacking your Old Hyundai for use with iPod / iPhone
by Brent Wege
A combination of things came together to make this blog possible:
1) High regard for crisp music quality from my iPod / iPhone
2) Having and old car
3) Having never worked on or in a car before
For those of you that know me I have quite a passion for technology and have been working with it my whole career, so finding a way to enjoy my iPod / iPhone in our 2005 Hyundai Sonata should be cake right?
Wrong.
We have been using the Monster tape deck for quite some time and it annoys the heck out of me -- the constant spindling noise from the tape deck, the wire hanging all over the place, the poor quality -- it was time for a change. I knew enough from friends to stay far away from those iTrip FM radio receivers so I only had one option left –- to plug this bad boy directly into the car without redoing our whole sound system, but how?
Like many of you old car owners nobody thought of external MP3 players when putting your car together so there was no way to do it. Hyundai simply isn’t supporting this feature on their older cars. Calling around to dealers for some ideas they give me a big “huh”, or a “what’s that”. So that left a nice factory solution out. Having had many custom sound systems in my life I decided to avoid the car hacking Best Buy or flea market outfits to spare myself all the expense and time, not to mention how awful those 3rd party tape decks can look in your car. Nobody makes them to blend in like the already installed factory solution does.
So that left me and the internet. Searching forums a bunch of old posts came up from many years ago when owners bought these cars new, but not much since. A few owners had banded together to have some custom shop in Korea make it happen, and it was a success because they made a bulk purchase and divvied out the adapters, but I was years too late for that party. The solution they had was to have an adapter build that would plug into the CD changer port in the back of the stereo, tricking the car into thinking your iPod was the factory approved Hyundai CD changer (btw, it still surprisingly costs $800 to get a Hyundai CD changer, who would do that today?). Well it worked for them!
Having no Korean connections I turned to eBay. Searching Hyundai CD AUX yielded a bunch of results! It seemed like one seller was unloading a ton of them for $6.99 each, his handle was im4capa. He had 97% feedback, it was worth a shot.’
Here is the adapter I bought from im4capa:
I received the adapter and was ready to hook one end into the car stereo and the other in my iPhone, simple enough it seemed. Googling around I found some step by step instructions, but I ran into a couple problems that car noobies will probably want to hear.
Before I go into the installation process I want to mention the adapter I got from im4capa didn’t work. Maybe it was too cheap but it just didn’t work. This can be frustrating because his initial response to my complaint was that my car wasn’t compatible. Having no way to prove this wrong I almost had to believe him. But I rolled the dice and bought another adapter from hy502342. He was someone I read about in the forums from years ago that was involved in the Korean creation of these. Perhaps he still had the connection and was selling working adapters. Only thing was his price was $24.99 which was four times the price of the one I bought. Also I couldn’t even "Buy it Now" -- I had to bid on it -- which is annoying for small price stuff, but that is just an eBay peeve of mine. Anyways, at $24.99 still worth the gamble I thought -- so I bid on it and won the auction at the $24.99 price.
Here is the one I bought from hy502342 which was much more authentic looking:
This was the right thing to do as it paid off. Installing his adapter in the car works great and I can enjoy crisp clean stereo from my iPod / iPhone. The Hyundai sound systems are really great as they didn’t cheap out on them when building the car, and I am happy I don’t ever have to replace it with a custom one!
--
Here are some instructions and pictures I created on how to install it in your Hyundai; this works with older model Hyundais because they all used similar sets. You just have to make sure you have an 8 pin DIN connector on the back of your stereo for a CD changer so this adapter will work, you should check it out before ordering one.
Install Instructions:
1) First disconnect the battery by removing the grounded (negative) terminal first then the positive terminal. I mistakenly forgot to do this the first time and shorted out the whole electrical system while working with the stereo! Luckily a fuse fixed it from Pep Boys but Heather gave me some funny looks while we didn’t have automatic door locks and were forced to use Celsius temperature controls, along with having no door lights, radio, or clock. Googling around I eventually found the fuse to replace but don’t make this mistake, it’s easily preventable!
2) After the battery is disconnected push up on the console clips at the bottom of the console face. Use a cloth with a screwdriver so you don’t scratch anything up. Just push up and out on both clips it will come out.
3) Now pull back gently on the console face it will come off. Just watch out for the wires in the back.
4) You can disconnect any wire harnesses you feel are in the way but I recommend the two top ones, they have clips on the bottom, just push up and pull out, this will free up the face so you can work on the stereo.
5) Here I am laying the console face down on the passenger seat leaving the bottom harnesses connected freeing my way to the stereo.
6) Unscrew the four screws holding in the stereo and pull it out.
7) Plug in the one side of the adapter into the back of your stereo.
8) Now if your adapter came with an RCA M/F extension wrap some electrical tape around those connectors. No other forums mentioned this but those exposed connectors can cause a short if they touch anything metal; that is what happened to me when I left the battery connected. Now run the cable down the opening next to the ash tray.
9) Screw in the stereo, plug back in the harnesses and snap back in the console face, notice how snug the wire fits into the ashtray.
10) Closing the ashtray drawer you can’t even see the cable anymore, this is nice. Notice that black cable running down from the tape deck; that is the monster tape which is about to RIP.
11) Now reconnect the battery and start up the car. Hook up your iPod / iPhone to the audio cable and press the CD button on your radio, voila instant crisp sound!
12) One annoying quirk everyone forgets to mention is your car will reset with Celsius temperature controls, to get back to Fahrenheit, hold the AMB button down then hold down the blue down arrow for about 10 seconds, you will see Fahrenheit come back and you can release.
Enjoy your new iHyundai! Streaming some high quality commercial-free Pandora radio in your car never sounded so good.
by Brent Wege
A combination of things came together to make this blog possible:
1) High regard for crisp music quality from my iPod / iPhone
2) Having and old car
3) Having never worked on or in a car before
For those of you that know me I have quite a passion for technology and have been working with it my whole career, so finding a way to enjoy my iPod / iPhone in our 2005 Hyundai Sonata should be cake right?
Wrong.
We have been using the Monster tape deck for quite some time and it annoys the heck out of me -- the constant spindling noise from the tape deck, the wire hanging all over the place, the poor quality -- it was time for a change. I knew enough from friends to stay far away from those iTrip FM radio receivers so I only had one option left –- to plug this bad boy directly into the car without redoing our whole sound system, but how?
Like many of you old car owners nobody thought of external MP3 players when putting your car together so there was no way to do it. Hyundai simply isn’t supporting this feature on their older cars. Calling around to dealers for some ideas they give me a big “huh”, or a “what’s that”. So that left a nice factory solution out. Having had many custom sound systems in my life I decided to avoid the car hacking Best Buy or flea market outfits to spare myself all the expense and time, not to mention how awful those 3rd party tape decks can look in your car. Nobody makes them to blend in like the already installed factory solution does.
So that left me and the internet. Searching forums a bunch of old posts came up from many years ago when owners bought these cars new, but not much since. A few owners had banded together to have some custom shop in Korea make it happen, and it was a success because they made a bulk purchase and divvied out the adapters, but I was years too late for that party. The solution they had was to have an adapter build that would plug into the CD changer port in the back of the stereo, tricking the car into thinking your iPod was the factory approved Hyundai CD changer (btw, it still surprisingly costs $800 to get a Hyundai CD changer, who would do that today?). Well it worked for them!
Having no Korean connections I turned to eBay. Searching Hyundai CD AUX yielded a bunch of results! It seemed like one seller was unloading a ton of them for $6.99 each, his handle was im4capa. He had 97% feedback, it was worth a shot.’
Here is the adapter I bought from im4capa:
I received the adapter and was ready to hook one end into the car stereo and the other in my iPhone, simple enough it seemed. Googling around I found some step by step instructions, but I ran into a couple problems that car noobies will probably want to hear.
Before I go into the installation process I want to mention the adapter I got from im4capa didn’t work. Maybe it was too cheap but it just didn’t work. This can be frustrating because his initial response to my complaint was that my car wasn’t compatible. Having no way to prove this wrong I almost had to believe him. But I rolled the dice and bought another adapter from hy502342. He was someone I read about in the forums from years ago that was involved in the Korean creation of these. Perhaps he still had the connection and was selling working adapters. Only thing was his price was $24.99 which was four times the price of the one I bought. Also I couldn’t even "Buy it Now" -- I had to bid on it -- which is annoying for small price stuff, but that is just an eBay peeve of mine. Anyways, at $24.99 still worth the gamble I thought -- so I bid on it and won the auction at the $24.99 price.
Here is the one I bought from hy502342 which was much more authentic looking:
This was the right thing to do as it paid off. Installing his adapter in the car works great and I can enjoy crisp clean stereo from my iPod / iPhone. The Hyundai sound systems are really great as they didn’t cheap out on them when building the car, and I am happy I don’t ever have to replace it with a custom one!
--
Here are some instructions and pictures I created on how to install it in your Hyundai; this works with older model Hyundais because they all used similar sets. You just have to make sure you have an 8 pin DIN connector on the back of your stereo for a CD changer so this adapter will work, you should check it out before ordering one.
Install Instructions:
1) First disconnect the battery by removing the grounded (negative) terminal first then the positive terminal. I mistakenly forgot to do this the first time and shorted out the whole electrical system while working with the stereo! Luckily a fuse fixed it from Pep Boys but Heather gave me some funny looks while we didn’t have automatic door locks and were forced to use Celsius temperature controls, along with having no door lights, radio, or clock. Googling around I eventually found the fuse to replace but don’t make this mistake, it’s easily preventable!
2) After the battery is disconnected push up on the console clips at the bottom of the console face. Use a cloth with a screwdriver so you don’t scratch anything up. Just push up and out on both clips it will come out.
3) Now pull back gently on the console face it will come off. Just watch out for the wires in the back.
4) You can disconnect any wire harnesses you feel are in the way but I recommend the two top ones, they have clips on the bottom, just push up and pull out, this will free up the face so you can work on the stereo.
5) Here I am laying the console face down on the passenger seat leaving the bottom harnesses connected freeing my way to the stereo.
6) Unscrew the four screws holding in the stereo and pull it out.
7) Plug in the one side of the adapter into the back of your stereo.
8) Now if your adapter came with an RCA M/F extension wrap some electrical tape around those connectors. No other forums mentioned this but those exposed connectors can cause a short if they touch anything metal; that is what happened to me when I left the battery connected. Now run the cable down the opening next to the ash tray.
9) Screw in the stereo, plug back in the harnesses and snap back in the console face, notice how snug the wire fits into the ashtray.
10) Closing the ashtray drawer you can’t even see the cable anymore, this is nice. Notice that black cable running down from the tape deck; that is the monster tape which is about to RIP.
11) Now reconnect the battery and start up the car. Hook up your iPod / iPhone to the audio cable and press the CD button on your radio, voila instant crisp sound!
12) One annoying quirk everyone forgets to mention is your car will reset with Celsius temperature controls, to get back to Fahrenheit, hold the AMB button down then hold down the blue down arrow for about 10 seconds, you will see Fahrenheit come back and you can release.
Enjoy your new iHyundai! Streaming some high quality commercial-free Pandora radio in your car never sounded so good.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Need vs. Want
Need vs. Want
By Brent Wege
This is a fascinating topic because it is so simple, yet involves so many complex ideas. Why do we need things versus why do we want them?
A lot of time we think about need vs. want when it comes to buying things. Such as “I need to buy food today”, or “I want a new TV”. What we don’t think about so much is why we need and want when it comes to the intangibles in our lives, like our friends, our family, our jobs, and our feelings.
Ask yourself what you need and what you want when it comes to these things. Do you need your friends and family, or do you want them? Do you need your job or do you want it? Do you need to feel happy or do you want to?
A lot of times we feel we need things, or feel that things are needed of us, when in fact they should really be wanted. A necessity isn’t always a good thing. Nobody likes someone who is considered “needy”, right? Sometimes needs can be considered negative, and wants can be considered positive. Do you want ‘to be needed’ for who you are or what you do, or do you want ‘to be wanted’ for who you are and what you do? These are two very different ways to look at things. You are probably thinking, “Duh!”, of course wants are better than needs; but, do you apply this in your life? Do you want everything you have, that you do, or that you strive for? Or do you feel that you need it?
Let’s look at our jobs. This is a great example to look at because we are the least emotionally attached to our job compared to our family and friends, yet we probably spend more time at our jobs between all of them. Talking to many people in passing they want to feel “needed” at their jobs. They want “job security”. They want to know that their company has to “keep them around” or things will go awry. This desire to be needed has a great feeling to it. “They need me!” you think to yourself.
What if I told you this was horrible. What would you say?
Wouldn’t you want your job or your clients to want you, rather than need you? But of course! However, when one of your clients says “I don’t need you anymore”, it doesn’t feel so good. Perhaps many of the Detroit auto workers are feeling this way right about now, or many of the people who have been laid off or lost their jobs.
Surprise! We should be happy for this! We should be happy the automakers are doing whatever they can to stay in business. We should be happy they are finding ways to compete in this global marketplace and stay profitable. Bottom line, when your company or your clients say “I don’t need you anymore”, this is one of the best things you can ever hear.
Now if you haven’t figured out the positive here yet it’s probably a good sign you have been a victim of the need syndrome for quite some time. Wherever you are not needed, you are wanted somewhere else. Just like the plumber who just fixed my sink – my signing the bill was my tacit expression of “Hey pal, I don’t need you anymore. Bye!” We all have some plumbing in our lives where we have to flush out the needs and bring on the wants!
I don’t need my wife -- I want her in my life. I don’t need kids, I want them! I don’t need to do the work that I do, I want to! Whatever your needs are, seriously evaluate them and always strive to want to do everything you do. You feel better, you have a better attitude, and you can be happy you are doing the things you want to.
To give you some more examples of this, my wife Heather and I recently moved out of a large house and into a small apartment. I really thought we needed that house. I didn’t know how we could downsize so much. What I realized is I just wanted a cozy home, not that I needed a big house. We also went from two cars to one. I thought for sure this would drive me crazy. “I need my own car!” I thought to myself. “There is no way I could share it with someone else!” What I realized is I just wanted a reasonable way to get around and one car seems to satisfy that for now. I always thought I needed to make a million dollars! But the more I worked to make it happen, the more I realized I only wanted a simple life full of adventure and challenges, regardless of the end result. It’s easy to get pulled down by needs, like all the junk in the closet we feel we “need”. I say I need it now but when I finally go through it I’ll realize I don’t “want” the half of it.
This is when selling those needs at the garage sale happens and the room for wants suddenly opens up. We need to move on. The question is -- do you want to?
- Brent
Friday, August 7, 2009
Twitter is the Extreme
Twitter is the Extreme
by Brent Wege
We all know about the “extreme” side of things, the side where a few people stay and a lot of people wonder about. A lot of people like to mountain bike, but only the extreme people buy the $2,000 bike. Just like a lot of people like to swim, but only the extreme people buy a $500 swimsuit. Extreme or niche markets top out faster and have a limited growth curve.
This is why I’m predicting Twitter, in its current form, will never pass 50 million active users. Yes it is a unique service, but what does it really have to offer? Randomly keeping up with hundreds or even thousands of people’s every day activities real-time is something only the extreme will do and a place where only the extreme will stay. Not that there is anything wrong with being extreme about anything. Lance Armstrong has done a pretty good job at extreme conditioning and sports competition, and it has worked wonders.
Where extreme draws the line is when everyone predicts it is the next big thing or the niche tries to be the mainstream. Mainstream ideas don’t have that much passion or desire to get to the top -- they just happen, and it sort of surprises you, like Facebook with its over 200 million users strong. Nobody expected this college bulletin board to grow to be the 4th most popular website, not far behind #1 Google.
Recently, I signed up to Facebook. I expected another Twitter like application (which I had slowly abandon), but I was pleasantly surprised and realized why it is so popular. The technology behind it is so well created and easy to use. It allows you to move at your own pace and share things quickly in a variety of ways. It appeals to so many audiences. Facebook is the obvious older brother of the once popular MySpace as people demanded more and Facebook delivered.
Retention is the key to building mainstream staying power, which is why so many businesses are quick to lose market share. Twitter’s biggest problem is, according to Nielsen reports, more than 60% of U.S. twitter users fail to return the following month. It does not go into further abandonment rates but when you enter a niche market for free, there is no guarantee you will stay there. You surely wouldn’t start out with a $2,000 mountain bike or $500 swimsuit, so are you really ready for Twitter?
The internet seems to work fine for many people, and Twitter seems more and more like just another random extension of the internet. Who can really keep up with so many real-time events? When I Google for something I may read 10 or 20 articles quickly about a topic paying no attention to the author, unless I am really struck by the material in which case I make a mental note. But as with many articles that free information is absorbed and forgotten. Similar to Twitter as just another blip runs across the screen it is quickly forgotten and replaced by the next one.
Bottom line -- 10 people walking in the door are better than 1,000 people just passing by. Especially when the news is a sad or tragic event, 990 Twitter users will have to quickly absorb and forget that information to keep up with the next round.
- Brent
by Brent Wege
We all know about the “extreme” side of things, the side where a few people stay and a lot of people wonder about. A lot of people like to mountain bike, but only the extreme people buy the $2,000 bike. Just like a lot of people like to swim, but only the extreme people buy a $500 swimsuit. Extreme or niche markets top out faster and have a limited growth curve.
This is why I’m predicting Twitter, in its current form, will never pass 50 million active users. Yes it is a unique service, but what does it really have to offer? Randomly keeping up with hundreds or even thousands of people’s every day activities real-time is something only the extreme will do and a place where only the extreme will stay. Not that there is anything wrong with being extreme about anything. Lance Armstrong has done a pretty good job at extreme conditioning and sports competition, and it has worked wonders.
Where extreme draws the line is when everyone predicts it is the next big thing or the niche tries to be the mainstream. Mainstream ideas don’t have that much passion or desire to get to the top -- they just happen, and it sort of surprises you, like Facebook with its over 200 million users strong. Nobody expected this college bulletin board to grow to be the 4th most popular website, not far behind #1 Google.
Recently, I signed up to Facebook. I expected another Twitter like application (which I had slowly abandon), but I was pleasantly surprised and realized why it is so popular. The technology behind it is so well created and easy to use. It allows you to move at your own pace and share things quickly in a variety of ways. It appeals to so many audiences. Facebook is the obvious older brother of the once popular MySpace as people demanded more and Facebook delivered.
Retention is the key to building mainstream staying power, which is why so many businesses are quick to lose market share. Twitter’s biggest problem is, according to Nielsen reports, more than 60% of U.S. twitter users fail to return the following month. It does not go into further abandonment rates but when you enter a niche market for free, there is no guarantee you will stay there. You surely wouldn’t start out with a $2,000 mountain bike or $500 swimsuit, so are you really ready for Twitter?
The internet seems to work fine for many people, and Twitter seems more and more like just another random extension of the internet. Who can really keep up with so many real-time events? When I Google for something I may read 10 or 20 articles quickly about a topic paying no attention to the author, unless I am really struck by the material in which case I make a mental note. But as with many articles that free information is absorbed and forgotten. Similar to Twitter as just another blip runs across the screen it is quickly forgotten and replaced by the next one.
Bottom line -- 10 people walking in the door are better than 1,000 people just passing by. Especially when the news is a sad or tragic event, 990 Twitter users will have to quickly absorb and forget that information to keep up with the next round.
- Brent
Cash is a Bad Place
Cash is a Bad Place
by Brent Wege
I’m not predicting the stock market, nobody can – but one sure thing is that we are printing money like it’s going out of style, and that means a weak dollar. I could easily go into the Democratic Congress and Government spending philosophy here, but I won’t because we really have no control over that now. What we do have control over is what to do with the greenbacks we have left, or in many cases, are saving.
We see it in the interest rates being offered at many banks -- what used to get us 5% on our money (beating out the 3-4% inflation) in savings accounts is now 1%. We see it in the expensive euro -- what used to buy us a whole pizza in Europe now only buys us a cappuccino. We see it thanks to the Federal Reserve continuing to pump the cheap money. Printing our way out of problems magically restores all the money that was lost, but makes us feel empty and less wealthy, because what we worked so hard for is now diluted for the greater good and stability of our economy. So you can see we don’t have much control over how our currency is valued, similar to our having no control in how much we pay at the pump, or how much our electric bill changes each month.
This is because like the electric companies and the oil companies, the Federal Reserve gets to decide how much that money in your pocket is worth, similar to the way Monopoly decides how much their money is worth, and how much it costs to put hotels on Park Place. Now I’m not saying this is a bad thing. Put the general public in control of our money and you have panics and bank runs and all kinds of mixed emotions and herd effects that caused the Great Depression. Every operation needs a CEO and our cash is just another example.
The problem is too many of just don’t care what is going on as we are too busy to worry about the economy. We just work and spend and roll with the punches. We leave this stuff to our friends in the Government and on Wall Street and when things start to go awry (a.k.a. - they get too greedy), our economy crashes and we lose our jobs. Only then do we start to mind and the media zones in it because we are concerned now. This cycle just repeats as we get lazy and elect bad politicians, relax our homeland security, and watch our dollar spin out of control. It is the American way – “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. We aren’t a fan of preventative maintenance -- it’s just not in our culture. I see it every time there is a problem somewhere – at some point someone was told to get X fixed, but they don’t, and it breaks causing all sorts of problems, and everyone wants to say “I told you so”, but they don’t, to be nice.
Anyways, back to cash. The bottom line is, at 1% savings rate you are losing money, whether you like it or not. The dollar in your pocket is slowly burning away due to inflation and government spending, and you can’t save it to help yourself. Which is why now is the time to look for investment at every opportunity. Real estate, stocks, bonds, businesses, friends, family – whatever your investment strategy, don’t forget about it and hold on to your money because you are scared, cash is a losing game. Diversify and have fun, because when you are losing 2-3% per year, you don’t have much to lose on an investment you feel good about. Nobody likes to sit around and throw their cash into the fireplace, but that is what’s happening.
Always remember to keep an emergency fund in case problems arise or unexpected events occur, the one good thing about losing money in cash that it’s right there when you need it.
- Brent
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