Em dash, en dash, copyright, trademark and other useful ascii character shortcuts, tips and Alt key codes

First of all, did you realize you can type in characters such as those on the next line?
▐▀█▄▌— · – ♫ ♪ … ♥ ‼ » ►◄ ☺ ♦ ♣ ♠ ₪  ≡ ░░░ ▓▓▓ ™, ©, ½, ± etc

Dashes and quotation marks are among the handiest to know. But for IM and micro-blogging services like Twitter, wouldn't it be nice to know how to type ♥?

You could just bookmark an ascii example quick-reference page like this one or this one and copy and paste the characters as you need them. For Twitter or places where there is a character limit, notice the the ellipses (…) and double exclamation marks (‼) in the symbols above are each just one character (try selecting just one of those "periods!)

But there are several tricks to make them easier to access. In Microsoft Word, you can just try to Insert>Symbol and then find them from a list. Or for example, if you type three periods (...) and then press space, it will be converted into the single ellipses character in Microsoft Word. But most useful to know is how to create the em and en dashes and different “curly” quotes. (Put these on a post-it note on your computer for handy reference):

Creating an Em dash —
This works on most Windows computers: 

• On the keyboard: hold down the alt key and type 0151 on the number pad (make sure num lock is on)
• The Microsoft Word trick: With no spaces type two hypens (minus signs) after a word, type another word (or any character) and then press space. The hypen will elongate into an em dash.

Creating an En dash –
This is the slightly shorter dash. Similar tips here:

• On the keyboard: hold down alt and type 0150 on the number pad (make sure num lock is on)
• The Microsoft Word Trick: type any word, then type space hyphen space (" - ") then type another word (or any character) and then press space. The hypen will elongate into an en dash.

Curly quotes

• ‘    Curly single open quote ALT + 0145
• ’    Curly single close quote ALT + 0146
• “    ALT + 0147 (Tip: on a num pad, this uses all the keys on the left)
  
• ”    ALT + 0148

Automating curly quotes in Word

Microsoft Word automatically changes straight quotation marks ( ' or " ) to curly (smart or typographer's) quotes (’‘or“”) as you type, and you can turn this feature on or off:
1.    On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect Options, and then click the AutoFormat As You Type tab.
2.    Under Replace as you type, select or clear the "Straight quotes" with "smart quotes" check box.
 
You can also find and replace all instances of single or double curly quotes with straight quotes in a Word document. To do this, clear the "Straight quotes" with "smart quotes" check box on the AutoFormat As You Type tab. On the Edit menu, click Replace. In both the Find what and Replace with boxes, type ' or ", and then click Find Next or Replace All. To replace all straight quotes with curly quotes, select the "Straight quotes" with "smart quotes" check box, and repeat the find and replace procedure.


Other useful keyboard shortcuts:

• –   Endash … Alt+0150 (see above for Word trick)
  
• —  Emdash … Alt+0151 (see above for Word trick)
•  •   Bullet … Alt+0149 
• ·     Centered Period/dot/small bullet … Alt+0183
  
• ¼ One Quarter/Fourth … Alt+0188
  ½ One Half … Alt+0189
• © Copyright Symbol … Alt+0169
• ® Registered Symbol … Alt+0174
• ™ Trademark Symbol … Alt+0153
• …  Ellipses … Alt+0133
• ±  Plus/Minus Symbol … Alt+0177
• °   Degree/Ring Symbol … Alt+0176
• ²   Squared Symbol … Alt+0178
• ³   Cubed Symbol … Alt+0179
• µ   Mu Symbol … Alt+0181

Fun symbols:
Here's a great list you can use from your browser toolbar (follow the tip under the icons to drag the link to your toolbar). Many of these less usual ones you may need to cut and paste, unless you are in Microsoft Word.

• ♥   Alt+9829
• ☺ Alt+9786
• ► Alt+9658
• ♪  Alt+9834
• ♫ Alt+9835
• ♀ Alt+9792
• ♂ Alt+9794
• ♦ Alt+9830
• † Alt+0134

Related word processing keystrokes:
Nonbreaking Space … Esc-space-h
Nonbreaking Hyphen … Esc-(hyphen)-h
Straight Quote Single … Ctrl+'
Straight Quote Double … Esc "

Foreign characters and Math symbols

General basics everyone should know
This is from the New York Times (click the headline above). This is a very short must read. If you know it all, send the article to the people who look to you for help. It's short, and there are also a lot of great tips in the comments.

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Solving multimedia problems on Vista

A video production user with many Directshow filters and plugins installed simultaneously (they take video from many different formats, hack them and put them back together) found this was a huge help to them. They had to import lots of video not native to the program they needed to use, or needed to use a media splitter/demuxer to fool the application into importing the video at all.


Got high cpu loads caused by audio/video apps hanging, or related to the "Multimedia Class Scheduler?"

If you are an advanced Vista users, visit codecguide.com and after you uninstall Quicktime and anything that relies on Quicktime (such as itunes), install:

• K-lite codec package
• Quicktime Alternative
• Quicktime-itunes addon

If you edit, process, or format video for a variety of devices, this will help media apps dependent on media splitting, demuxing, or importing through directshow from hanging and using a high percentage of your cpu cycles.

Almost anyone who works heavily with media can benefit from the K-lite codec package.

I put it on virtually every system I configure or maintain. And if you've been having Quicktime/iTunes issues, codecguide.com is a good place to know about. Anyway, as Joe Glessner at asktheadmin.com says, "Never install iTunes on a Windows machine. There are other options for managing your iPod, and iTunes is a resource hog."

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Blue Screen of Death: Common Windows Stop errors and what to do

If you use Windows, one day you may see the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death," cryptic information on a blue background obliterating the screen and requiring a forced shut down.

What to do? Here's one idea: print out this list of common BSOD errors (from DailyGeeks) and  keep it handy.

Common Windows services

If you're troubleshooting, you might want to Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up the Windows Task Manager and view the processes tab to see what's running. Ditto for looking at the Windows Event Viewer when trying to see what happened. Click the link above to view the most common running services.

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Fix computers (and more?): Safe mode and cold booting

Electrical charges build up in computer and appliances that use circuit boards. Remove those electrical charges and you fix—or extend the life of—your favorite devices. It just takes seconds, here's how:

Read more

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Increase your internet speed: Really useful Windows XP and Firefox bandwidth-increasing tips

Increase your internet speed (bandwidth) by 20%

Prefer video directions instead? Scroll down…

Windows holds back a large portion of your internet bandwidth as part of it's network settings. But if you're not on a corporate network, if this is your home computer, free that up for greater bandwidth. Get that extra speed by making a very quick, simple and easy change in the Windows Group Policy editor (works just like looking through your files and folders) as follows:

1. Click START, then click RUN.
2. Type "gpedit.msc" without the quotes, then click OK.
3. Browse to the highlighted area shown above -- the folder you want is Computer Configuration/ Administrative Templates/ Network/ QoS Packet Scheduler in the left-hand pane (shown above) then double-click "Limit reservable bandwith" in the right-hand pane. The dialog box shown below will pop up.
   
4. Click the dot (radio button) for Enabled as shown below, and in Bandwidth Limit, type or click up or down until a number between 0 and 10 is shown.
5. Click Apply, and click your way out of the open dialog boxes: you're done!

The lower the number you enter in Bandwidth Limit (where I have entered a "1" in the image below), the faster your internet connection will be. However, "5" is probably low enough, though you can play with this number:

However, realize if the if the network card has a specific limit set on it in registry, this would have no impact on it.

Here is a video with directions and an example of speed increasing:




Increase Bandwith by 20%

Speed up Firefox

If you have a high-speed (Cable, DSL, etc.) connection this change will give you a very noticeable speed increase for larger web pages. Inside the address bar on Firefox (where web page addresses/URLs go) type this and press enter:

about:config

and then find:

network.http.pipelining
network.http.proxy.pipelining

and set them both to "true". This adjusts the pipelining settings. For more cool settings available in about: config, go here.)

Then find

network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

and set it to 8, as suggested by http://kb.mozillazine.org/Network.http.pipelining.maxrequests (though you can play with this number).

Finally, right-click anywhere (on any setting) and a menu will pop out: select 'new' and then 'integer'. Copy this (without the quotes): "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and paste it in as the name, and then set the value to "0" (zero). This removes the render delay. You should experience a BIG speed increase!

More speed tips

• More Firefox connection speed tips site 1 (see also: site 2)
  
• To speedup XP in general, try these tips.

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How to use voice recognition free on your computer.

Lots of people don't realize voice recognition is already available free on their computer (if they own a recent edition of Office or are running Vista). You just have to turn it on/activate it. Or, it can be purchased for under $40 (see bottom of this post). It bothers me that there were no replies to request for help on this issue anywhere on the web--meaning few are using this great feature.



Not that many people are using voice recognition, and that's a shame. It's a great FREE feature in all the recent versions of Office until 2007 (which was removed because Microsoft put it directly into Vista). I do get asked how easy it is to use (very!!) and what you need to get started.



If you do want to start using it, a few recommendations are:

• You can start with any microphone that is convenient, but I recommend that you...
  
  


• Get a head-mounted noise-canceling microphone (as little $15). Even better is to pay more and get a USB-based noise-cancelling microphone, starting around $30;


• Go through all the training scripts (a few extra minutes of talking into a microphone);


• Set accuracy for maximum (runs slow, but better results);


• Click on incorrect words and say "correction" and choose the correct word from the drop-down list (if the correct word is shown). Helps the engine improve recognition.

Don't have it and want it? Here are three highly rated vendors you can buy it from in early 2008: $36.95 �� $47.23 �� $46.55. (The product you are buying in some cases is Works 2002 Suite with Word 2002/XP included. It's Word that gives you the voice recognition--plus you get the whole suite of Works products!)



Also, here's a tip on a minor annoyance to be aware of.

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Get (and give) free help on computer issues

If you have a friend or family member you would like to help with computer issues (Mac or PC), get a remote connection to their computer and insist they let you help them by connecting remotely. It means you will have a screen that allows you to operate their computer as if you are sitting in front of it. Who hasn't tried to help someone over the phone with a computer problem at one time? Now it's much easier.

My opinion? Family members that keep in touch with each other should set this up immediately, and encourage others to do so. You never know when a computer emergency can come up.

SUMMARY: Set up a free connection to anyone you help with computer issues, Mac or PC, allowing you to operate their computer as if you were sitting in front of it. Great for family members to help one another. Also allows you to OPERATE YOUR OWN COMPUTER WHEN YOU CAN'T BE THERE IN PERSON.

The problem with computers is that it's very hard to help someone when you aren't at the computer with them. Accidental misunderstandings are so common as to be the nail in the coffin for most people trying to help, but different experience levels, and poor understanding about how support is best provided are also factors.

But nowadays you can connect to a friend or family member's computer for free, and operate their computer as if you were sitting in front of it. You open a special window in your browser, which shows you the remote computer screen.

Options for getting started

I prefer LogMeIn Free for this, although Windows XP users can use Remote Desktop, which is built into XP, and can be accessed from Windows 95 or later. It runs in your internet browser and lets you see the remote computer on your screen. Typical uses include :

• Helping a friend with a program you use but they are new to;
• Something you know how to do but they have yet to learn;
• Experienced user helping a novice user with computer skills;
  
• Friends and family helping one another figure things out together.

Most importantly, LogMeIn Free has excellent security (best among alternatives -- whitepaper). Either create a new account and add computers to it, or add your computer to someone else's account. Part of the security is that you will need one username and password to log into LogMeIn.com, and then a second username and password to connect to a remote computer.

Sign up and usage tips

1. Be careful not to sign up for a trial of a product costing money, if what you want is the free version. Click this link for the free version of LogMeIn. Uncheck any boxes offering free trials. You just want free, period. You can always switch to a for-pay product later if you want to.
2. Have the most computer savvy person in the family sign up first, and put everyone else in the family on that same account. (You will still be able to let "outsider" experts access computers if you wish.)
3. If possible, have someone familiar with LogMeIn show you the ropes. There are buttons on the interface that allow you to Ctrl-Alt-Del and to speed up the internet connection by using less colors.'
4. Read these tech tips for fixes to some common annoyances.
   
5. Don't forget to let people who want to help you connect when you need it!

Are you giving up too much of yourself? Or will you do more with less?

An inevitable question: are you becoming more, or less of an over-connected techno-addict by doing this? Answer: less. I spend a LOT less time on the phone helping folks, even though I actually help them MORE often. I encourage people to call me so I can fix things BEFORE they get out of hand. A couple minutes connecting remotely is much better than confusing, hour-long calls that don't always even resolve anything. So, yes, I do encourage people to call for smaller things, and so far that has meant I spend LESS time and am MORE effective.

As always, click the big blue call me button in the sidebar, or leave a comment if you'd like some help. Once you are comfortable with the LogMeIn interface, encourage others to get connected. It's a better world when we all help one another!

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Deleting or editing Autocomplete (drop-down) entries in Outlook or Explorer

This is my favorite reason emails are not received—an autocompleted typo!

Ever begin typing an email address or web site name and find the wrong address showing up in the drop down (Autocomplete) list? Probably from a previous typo, but how do you get rid of (delete, edit, remove or erase!) the darn thing?

So easy! Just one step:

Keep typing until the only item in the drop down list is the WRONG one—the one you want to delete. Press the Delete key on your KEYBOARD. It's gone! (Some have reported that you also need to hover over it—don't click!—with your mouse.)

If you don' t have the correct item showing now is a good time to type it in, so the next time you need it it's there! If it's an email address, you'll need to send a test email; it won't be added to the drop-down/autocomplete list until you have actually typed in something that was used in a sent email.

Not the tip you needed?

There are a variety of ways to delete history and favorites/bookmarks depending on your browser and the outcome you really want.

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Voice Dictation problem/error in Office XP Speech recognition: "Dictation paused" or "Dictating" balloons block normal operation.

Microsoft Speech/Voice Recognition really makes life easier for bloggers and anyone who will take the few minutes to start using it. You might already have it free on your computer and not know it: Microsoft Office XP and 2003 have it. Office 2007 does NOT have it, but it is built into the Windows Vista operating system, which many Office 2007 users have.

If you don't have it, I recommend getting it with Word 2002/XP. But don't buy Word 2002 alone: the Works 2002 Suite often costs less and includes Word 2002 and voice recognition in the suite of products. Here are three high-rated online vendors you can buy Works Suite 2002 from: $36.95 · $46.55 · $47.23. (The Works Suite 2002 includes tools for scheduling, finance management, picture editing and organizing, the Encarta encyclopedia and a mapping application.)

For Microsoft Office XP and 2003 users there are small annoyances to using voice recognition efficiently. As of early 2008, amazingly, there are no solutions to these issues anywhere on the web, other than the workarounds I'm going to share here.

First, make sure the program you want to dictate into has focus. Just click anywhere in it's window to give it focus. That solves some problems.

Have you ever noticed the bar sometimes gets stuck showing "Dictating" (or even "Listening") but nothing works? See Workaround #3 below to fix this one.

PROBLEM WITH KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

But the problem that bothers me the most mainly occurs when using keyboard shortcuts such as the Start+v (windows start button held down while pressing the "v" key) shortcut to toggle voice recognition off. I like to turn off the microphone from the keyboard so I can keep my hands where they're the most productive. The voice bar then sets to "Dictation Paused" before turning off the microphone. This can also happen if you use the "Alt+th" keyboard shortcut.

The least problems seem to occur for users that turn the microphone off and on using a switch on your hardware, or by using the mouse to click the language bar. However, Workaround #3 will fix the "Dictating" but nothing works problem that seems to crop up sometimes for almost everyone.

And if you at least turn dictation off without using a keyboard shortcut (Start+v or Alt+th) you'll have less problems. You can then turn the microphone on however you prefer.

WORKAROUNDS:

Workaround #1: Use Start+vtt to turn on the microphone for dictation. (Hold down the Windows Start button and press the letters v, t, t) This turns the microphone on, and toggles to voice command mode and then back to dictation mode. Don't type the letters too fast or you might end up in voice command mode. Just type Start+t once if you accidentally ended up in voice command mode to get back into dictation mode.

You might sometimes still get stuck with the bar saying "Dictating," but nothing is happening. Use workaround #3 in this case: leave the microphone on, switch to (open if you need to) another document, switch back, and you should be working normally.

Workaround #2: Use the mouse to turn off the microphone for dictation. Then you CAN turn it on with the Start+v shortcut.

Workaround #3: AFTER turning the microphone on, switch to another document of the same type (such as Microsoft Word), and switch back. You'll need to always have another document open to switch to after opening your primary document if you want to use this workaround.

Using this method also stops the frustrating "Dictating" balloons from blocking normal operation.

THE STRANGEST THING THAT CAN HAPPEN:

Finally, let me point out that the existence of keyboard shortcuts means you (or your cat) can accidentally activate dictation or voice command mode. If typing ever appears on your screen "out of nowhere" check the language bar first! Even if you're not wearing your microphone it may be picking up and trying to interpret whatever sounds it picks up.

And if you've got a better workaround or a solution for these annoyances, let me know! Read this if you'd like more info on getting started with voice recognition.

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Protecting your PC from malware such as viruses, rootkits, spyware, etc.

Things have changed in the last year, and change is accelerating. Many PCs with current, up-to-date anti-virus and spyware protection are actually infected. And people are getting more and more confused, causing both under- and over-protective responses.

This is just a brief overview to get you started. Post a comment if you need help and I'll try to respond quickly. I'll dig right in with some recommendations first:

Consider running a free Prevx scan to find any infections that have bypassed your existing security. If Prevx finds an infection, call me and I can help you remove it without having to buy Prevx, although I do recommend their product. Also run a full scan using whatever antivirus product you have installed, and install and run the free SuperAntiSpyware (popular with some anti-root kit tech support professionals)---even if you alread have an anti-spyware product. Realize that SuperAntiSpyware will pick up what are to most people unimportant advertising cookies, more a report rather than a warning.

If you don't use an anti-virus product from either (1) ESET, (2) Panda or (3) AVG/Grisoft, I recommend switching to one of these three. That means download a free trial of their product, disconnect from the internet, uninstall your current product, install the new one, and reconnect to the internet. Then I recommend purchasing the product within the free trial period. (Grisoft has replaced Sophos as one of my top three recommendations.)

If you use ESET NOD32 Anti-Virus, I recommend upgrading to ESET NOD32 Smart Security.

If you want to read news about how things are changing, here is an article about how a bunch of companies were outed this summer as being infected despite having up-to-date anti-malware protection installed. Or read about the rise of rootkits.

I'll add to this article as time permits.

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Installing Google Earth to a different hard drive location.

Install programs other than Google Earth (sample video) to a different hard drive/folder location is easier: Often as simple as selecting advanced options (or similar) when installing your program, and specifying a location. (Note that some files will still likely end up under C:Documents and Settings though.)



For Google Earth, I've heard some different methods for this, all revolving around setting the %ProgramFiles% Environment Variable to a different path---the location you want the Google Earth files to be installed instead of the path C:\Program Files. (If you don' t know why you would want to do this, here are some funny cat pictures.)



Here's what works best of the different methods to change the install location for Google Earth:

1. Shut down any running programs;


2. Modify the ProgramFilesDir to your desired path (see below);


3. Install Google Earth;


4. Change the ProgramFilesDir back to C:\Program Files (what it was before you changed it);


5. Restart your computer and then work normally.

Regarding editing your registry: you can badly break your computer if you make a mistake. Don't do it if you aren't confident and methodical about it. (Again, if this isn't your cup of tea, here are some humorous cat pictures.)



Simpler, safer way to edit the Registry/regedit



Using this method, you will put your desired changes, as well as the current state of the registry, into text files, and then change their filetype so they will cause their contents to be entered into the registry when double-clicked. By first saving the current state of what you are changing, you can easily go back. Here's how it works:



In step 2 the easiest way to modify your registry is simply to cut and paste these four lines (one is blank) into a text file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00



[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion]

"ProgramFilesDir"="C:\\Program Files"

(Note that "Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00"---without the quotes---means you are using either Windows XP, Windows 2000, or Windows Server 2003).



Once you've saved that text file somewhere (remember where!) make a copy of it. In one of the copies, change C:\\Program Files to wherever you want the program to install, for example

"ProgramFilesDir"="Z:\\Software\\Install Folder" (or wherever you want---ALWAYS USE TWO BACKSLASHES \\ wherever there was one backslash before.)

Be sure that Windows Explorer Tools-->Folder Options-->View "Hide extensions for known file types" is unchecked before you do this next step: rename each text file from whatever.txt to whatever.reg (the "whatever" part can be anything you wish).



The file with "ProgramFilesDir"="C:\\Program Files" in it you'll use in step 4 to restore the setting, and the one with your chosen path you'll use to change the setting in step 2.



Once the files have been named with the .reg extension , all you have to do is double-click them (as if you were trying to open them--they will ask you to change your registry instead of opening) to change your registry. Rename them back to ".txt" files instead of ".reg" if you want to edit the contents (or drag and drop the filename into an open text editor).



If instead, you'd like to edit the registry directly, read on. Otherwise, you're ready to complete the process. Here's how to finish up (this is a repeat of the steps listed in the beginning of this article):

• Step 1: Shut down any running programs;
  
  


• Step 2: Run (by opening) the .reg file you created with the new/changed path. Your registry now has a new install path;


• Step 3: Install Google Earth;


• Step 4: Run (by opening) the other .reg file you've created, the one with the original path in it. Now the registry is returned to its original state;
  
  


• Step 5: To finish, restart your computer and work normally. Ta-Dah!
  
  

Using the registry editor to edit the registry directly



If you want to change your registry the old fashioned way and edit the registry directly, go to Start-->Run and type "regedit" (without the quotes) in the box, click OK. Then navigate in regedit to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion and double click ProgramFilesDir and type in your new path.



Better than other methods for Google Earth?



Changing the registry works better than other methods. Mainly, I found some other methods of changing the %ProgramFiles% Environment Variable to a different path (such as using SET at a command prompt) didn't work well. And leaving the path changed breaks some programs already installed, notably Outlook Express (although changing it back and restarting will bring OE back to life).



In checking out the options for modifying this install, I noticed a lot of confusion and people looking for a workable method, so link to this post if it works for you so others can find it.



Other great Windows tips:

• Fix computers (and appliances?): Safe mode and cold booting


• Increase your internet speed (bandwidth) by 20%


• Protecting your PC from malware such as viruses, rootkits, spyware, etc.


• Get (and give) free help on computer issues

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Pennies a year for the average user to save AND QUICKLY RECOVER important files? It's ALREADY HAPPENING.

I'm updating this blogpost: David Pogue's New York Times article about using online backup services has convinced me the main players in online backup are now a better deal than when I originally wrote about S3 (original article follows) when you have 40+ gigabytes to backup, and if you have only small amounts. S3 is still a great deal for the 5-30 gigabyte range.

Here are the main players as outlined by Pogue:

• Mozy
• Mediamax
• Xdrive
• Carbonite

Here's my original blog about the S3 service:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
It took me a few seconds to save all my most important files yesterday. The cost? 5 cents. And it's so secure and reliable, Amazon.com uses this same service to manage their website files around the world!

While losing files when something goes wrong with your computer (because they're not backed up well enough) is the worst computer problem for most people, almost as important is to be able to get files you've backed up QUICKLY. You want to keep working--you need those files today! What good is a backup when it takes the average user hours or days or lots of $$ to get the files back?

If all your files were stored on the internet somewhere, you could just reconnect (on another computer, at work, an internet cafe, Kinko's, a friend's house, etc.) and keep working on the file. Or send it to someone. But until recently it's been too expensive.

But now there's online storage that is super-secure, super-safe, and super-fast .. and super-cheap. For simplicity of understanding, here's a summary of what you get if you back up 200Mb of files for one year:

Here's what you could store for 40 cents a year:

• 3,000 Microsoft Word Files (figured by looking at 100's of my own files)
• 5 1/2 hours of video (700 pixels wide mpg)
• 1,000 photos big enough to be the background image on your computer desktop
• 400 large high quality photos from a super megapixel digital camera.

It's 4 cents to copy them into storage, and 3 cents a month to save them. I've been using Windows XP and the Jungle Disk interface to backup my data onto Amazon's S3 service. S3 is the key to this. It's the same service giant companies with huge storage needs use. And you can run Jungle Disk from as many computers and locations as you'd like.

Beside Jungle Disk, there are many other interfaces available --- another one that could be even easier to use is sync2s3. There is even an online backup interface called filicio. All any of the interfaces does is connect you to the S3 backup service so you can save your files there.

If you want to try it out, sign up for s3, (typically you would choose to have an account debited monthly) check your email for your two passwords, download an interface (Jungle Disk, filicio and sync2s3 all seem like good choices) and copy or drag-and-drop files you want backed up to the web folder created by the interface (or I think with sync2s3 you can use their interface to select files to backup, and filicio is online, and allows file sharing with others--but only if you want it).

Let me know what you think---is this a good way to backup data? (For credibility, read what Gordon Mohr recently said about this service--2nd post on the page)

I think this is perfect for those of us who are the "go-to" person for technical support for our families and friends. Get the people we support backed up and make everyone's life better. When they go down we could even access their files remotely for them.

People are starting to write about this around the web. Here's a few links:

Cheap, reliable, secure off-site storage
Why I Started Using Amazon S3

What are all these icons?

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