Category Archives: Technology

CrashPlan+ Slow Uploads

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I use CrashPlan to back up my computer.  They’ve been my backup solution of choice for about the past 2 years.  I love them!  They’re great, relatively inexpensive, and super easy to use.

There’s just one recent problem: my uploads to their service are deathly slow, like 150Kbps slow! I used to easily get 2Mbps, over 14 times faster.  Now, I’m lucky if I can even get 200Kbps.

So what about the 24 GB I have to upload?  CrashPlan says it will take 15 days. Aye Ya!

I did an internet speedtest, and was able to consistently get 20Mbps down, and 4Mbps up.  I ran the tests again while uploading to CrashPlan, and the results were the same.

Speed test results

Not happy with the performance, I logged a ticket with their support. Here’s what I got back:

Hello Brian,

Thanks for contacting CrashPlan Support.

We are aware of recent issues that some of our CrashPlan+ users are seeing with lowered upload performance. We are looking into the scope of this issue, and pursuing all available avenues to improve performance for affected users. Unfortunately, I do not have more details to provide at this time. Support is receiving updates, and will inform you as soon as we know more and can provide further information.

Regards,
~Jon

Well, at least I know it’s not just me. I’ll update if I hear anything further.

Thoughts on your new TV

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According to “Your New TV Ruins Movies“, we should all buy plasma TVs and for our LCD/LED displays, we need to turn off the motion smoothing function.  We have a Samsung LCD/LED TV.  And to be quite honest, I never liked the look of motion smoothing to begin with.  I’m not sure how the pro’s describe it, but to me, the picture “looks so real, you can tell it’s fake.”  What I mean is that the lighting, makeup, CGI, etc. all seem to become more apparent.  Not sure how else to describe it, but perhaps the article accurately captures the reason: it ruins movies.

I do have to say that the color on the sample Inception screenshots looks pretty awful.   Leonardo DiCaprio looks more like Hellboy than Jack Dawson.  However, I really do like the sharpening and brightness.  The buildings in the background are significantly sharper, and the columns in the mid ground are more 3 dimensional to me.

WordPress Tips

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I’ve been working on WordPress sites a lot lately.  The other day, it was Charlene’s blog.  Today, it was the CCF Alumni Foundation website, of which I’m the Chairman.

Since the early days of the web, I’ve often used the JavaScript Enkoder form by Hivelogic to obfuscate my e-mail address in order to protect it from spammers.  The problem is that because it’s based on JavaScript, it’s not super-compatible with WordPress pages and posts.

Fortuitously, I ran across a PHP plugin version written specifically for WordPress.  It’s called PHPEnkoder.  So now, any plaintext e-mail addresses as well as any mailto: links on the website are now automatically encoded using the Javascript Enkoder.  Fantastic!

This is what my e-mail address looks like when it’s been “enkoded.”

<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
<!--
var x="function f(x){var i,o=\"\",l=x.length;for(i=0;i<l;i+=2) {if(i+1<l)o+=" +
"x.charAt(i+1);try{o+=x.charAt(i);}catch(e){}}return o;}f(\"ufcnitnof x({)av" +
" r,i=o\\\"\\\"o,=l.xelgnhtl,o=;lhwli(e.xhcraoCedtAl(1/)3=!97{)rt{y+xx=l;=+;" +
"lc}tahce({)}}of(r=i-l;1>i0=i;--{)+ox=c.ahAr(t)i};erutnro s.buts(r,0lo;)f}\\" +
"\"(5),5\\\"\\\\{w`qyjj'.x\\\\-\\\\\\\"n\\\\ZZOT\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\VTwOTXA]7P01" +
"\\\\\\\\22\\\\0s\\\\14\\\\0q\\\\21\\\\0N\\\\]FSA06\\\\07\\\\00\\\\\\\\77\\\\"+
"1L\\\\~p|5|sv`baI|disj34\\\\0F\\\\25\\\\04\\\\01\\\\\\\\32\\\\05\\\\03\\\\\\"+
"\\23\\\\05\\\\03\\\\\\\\0L6W01\\\\\\\\03\\\\06\\\\02\\\\\\\\\\\\[email protected]\\\\`?px8" +
"8$7>'f=*2-'_K\\\\U\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\(\\\"}fo;n uret}r);+)y+^(i)t(eAodrCha.c(x" +
"deCoarChomfrg.intr=So+7;12%=;y++)y55i<f({i+)i+l;i<0;i=r(foh;gten.l=x,l\\\"\\"+
"\\\\\"\\\\o=i,r va){,y(x fontincfu)\\\"\")"                                  ;
while(x=eval(x));
//-->
//]]>
</script>

The other problem I solved this afternoon was the implementation of a prayer requests form for the CCFAF.  It’s built on Google Docs technology, which I then embedded using an <iframe> into the WordPress post.  The problem wasn’t creating the form, that’s easy enough.  The problem was figuring out how to get notified each time the form was filled out.  But I ran across this article, and now we should be good to go.

Go try it out!  When someone fills out the form, I automatically get an e-mail notification.  Then I can either pray for it directly, or have someone from the Board pray for them.  Excellent!  Technology at its finest: serving the Kingdom of God.