technology and audio matters

My backup theme continues. Thanks to a generous relative I’ve inherited a modern (but not so green) AMD dual core PC. A lot of watts for normal running (120+) but it has 500G of disk space.  So how about turning into a remote (read out of site) controllable backup drive?

i) The pre-requisites are turning on the PC remotely using Wake up on LAN. A good introduction here:

http://www.lifehacker.com.au/tips/2008/01/25/access_your_computer_anytime_and_save_energy_with_wakeonlan-2.html

ii) Then you need a small application to wake it up, I’ve found this to be neat:

http://www.fusion-online.com.ar/en/products/wol/

iii) I’ve elected to install http://www.tightvnc.com/ as a service in order that I can shutdown the PC when I’ve finished uploading my files using Synback http://www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html

That’s it really, sound more complex that it really is.

The final part for me is to install in a suitable location? Might need to invoke some networking over mains technology. Best I look back at some of my earlier posts

When shut down the PC draws about 9W , not perfect I admit but better than running all day at 15-20W with the addition of noise and heat.

Thanks to a colleague at Pure Digital for the initial project stimulus.

** Update 17/12/2008

Well it’s installed and running! What’s a little disappointing is that the mains networking (Solwise 85Mbs home plugs runs at only about 16M b/s.  perhaps better than a marginal wifi signal I know but still not as fast as I might of liked.)  In spec I’m assured by the manufacturer  considering the distance covered. But of course these means an average data rate of approx. 2 Mbytes/second. So be careful if you’ve lots of large files to support.

Recently changed my network encryption from WEP to WPA (long overdue) But have now found that the radio consistently fails to reconnect to the last station tuned! Dont’ really want to change back to WEP so now a little bit frustrated as everything else seems to work well. I’ve historically tried to bypass the wifi and use a direct Ethernet connection via one of the forum recommended USB  to Ethernet adaptors but that didnt’ work for me It’s got the latest firmware so don’t what to do now. Andy advice?

If you’ve got time , check out www.ted.com

There’s some fabulous stuff including:

Jeff Han – Touch screen technology

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jeff_han_demos_his_breakthrough_touchscreen.html

Hans Rosling – The best stats you’ve ever seen.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html

Enjoy