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1326

General Software Discussion / program/trick in file manager to count number of files in a folder (recursive)

« Last post by urlwolf on March 14, 2007, 07:04 PM »

This must be an easy one...
you can get this kind of stats for dirs, one by one, in explorer, but it takes a while when there are many files.

Is there a program/trick in a file manager (e.g. Dopus) to count number of files in a folder (recursive)?

That'd help me planning my 'home' before I apply a serious backup strategy on a server.
Thanks

1327

General Software Discussion / Re: Super Flexible File Synchronizer Pro says Zaine

« Last post by urlwolf on March 14, 2007, 02:31 PM »

Well, in my tests (.mdb, .rar files) after checking the box for "use partial file updating" it simply copies the entire content.
Either it doesn't work, or it is really convoluted.

Docs are sparse, it feels like this feature is still being implemented (doesn't work with ftp).

-urlwolf (March 13, 2007, 03:20 PM)

Correction: After a quick mail exchange with Tobias (the author), SFFS DOES do delta updating and it works. You just have to activate the logs and look at them.

This is looking like an absolutely killer app. people here working with backup4all, syncBack etc may get a lot faster transfers, and maybe indexing too.

Another killer feature is that SFFS can cache the tree in the destination, which should improve indexing. One can set how often the tree gets refreshed.

No news on how to make unison do delta updating though.

1328

General Software Discussion / Re: gameplay database; gameability resources?

« Last post by urlwolf on March 14, 2007, 11:20 AM »

Hmm, ok, it looks feasible.
Unfortunately, nothing will get done sooner than next month, as I have two pressing deadlines for projects. But definitely worth doing probably. Thanks.

1329

General Software Discussion / Re: shortcut to bring opera from tray?

« Last post by urlwolf on March 13, 2007, 07:05 PM »

you mean killing opera and relaunching it again? It loads fast compared to any other browser, but not that fast

I don't think I understand what you mean.

1330

General Software Discussion / Re: Super Flexible File Synchronizer Pro says Zaine

« Last post by urlwolf on March 13, 2007, 03:34 PM »

Just tried unison, and it has the same problem: it copies over the entire file. I dunno what i'm doing wrong, this cannot be that difficult.

This is important because just playing music, I may end up updating a mdb file daily, that is 57mb x 265 = 20gb of storage in a normal, uncompressed incremental backup.

Doing delta sync would save a lot of disk space on this.

For FTP backups, savings are fundamental anyway.

1331

General Software Discussion / Re: Super Flexible File Synchronizer Pro says Zaine

« Last post by urlwolf on March 13, 2007, 03:20 PM »

Well, in my tests (.mdb, .rar files) after checking the box for "use partial file updating" it simply copies the entire content.
Either it doesn't work, or it is really convoluted.

Docs are sparse, it feels like this feature is still being implemented (doesn't work with ftp).

1332

General Software Discussion / Re: Super Flexible File Synchronizer Pro says Zaine

« Last post by urlwolf on March 13, 2007, 01:41 PM »

Ok, Super Flexible does delta updating too. Not over ftp though.

1333

General Software Discussion / Re: shortcut to bring opera from tray?

« Last post by urlwolf on March 13, 2007, 12:57 PM »

also, is there a way to go to tab 1 with only one keypress (that's the tab that I normally use for gmail)

1334

General Software Discussion / shortcut to bring opera from tray?

« Last post by urlwolf on March 13, 2007, 12:46 PM »

Hi,

I have returned from FF to Opera after a couple of months. It's ok, I learned a few tricks to make my life easier in opera (which is overall faster and more robust, no addin interaction, etc).

But I miss to have a one-key shortcut to bring opera to focus, even if it's on the tray.
AHK doesn't work because it seems that opera doesn't work under the standard way of calling windows by title.

PS tray doesn't seem to be able to talk to opera when in the tray.

Anyone as any workaround?
Thanks

1335

General Software Discussion / Re: Recommendations for good copy/move software?

« Last post by urlwolf on March 13, 2007, 12:42 PM »

They say the fastest is robocopy (cmd app). There is a GUI version of it, but no right click integration.

1336

General Software Discussion / Re: roboform2go or sticky password?

« Last post by urlwolf on March 13, 2007, 11:52 AM »

well... I have returned to Opera as my main browser (after trying FF seriously for about 2 months).

So I guess now what I'm really looking for is something like a passwd manager that works with opera and is better than the built-in one...

1337

General Software Discussion / Re: hosting: moving away from shared, and into Virtual Private Servers (VPS)?

« Last post by urlwolf on March 11, 2007, 12:00 PM »

on the other hand, some VPS share the kernel, so much of the updates, config problems, etc are their resposability. Plus some, like liquidweb, offer one-click install/updates with fantastico. I guess one could run a VPS leaving all the sysadmin stuff to the host. Again, with no VPS experience, I have no idea.

1338

General Software Discussion / Re: hosting: moving away from shared, and into Virtual Private Servers (VPS)?

« Last post by urlwolf on March 11, 2007, 11:57 AM »

"can you handle system administration of all aspects of a linux/windows/BSD that is sitting exposed on the internet 24x7?"

I have done quite a lot of linux sysadmin stuff, and I know that you can easily spend a whole weekend just updating and cheking dependencies for new software. I have NOT done much re: "exposed on the internet 24x7" which sounds like a whole new level of potential problems.

With a VPS, you are paying for versatility, often at the expense of performance for popular tasks. For example, an inexpensive web hosting account will probably provide better performance for serving up static web pages and low-end PHP/CGI/Perl scripts. That is because the shared web hosting server is tuned for such work and probably has much better hardware.

Well. I was expecting having better, not worse, performance. This is news. For example, having ruby on rails and the ability to install gems is one of the reasons I want root access (it simplifies installation). RoR could be pretty intensive on the host.

There are hosts that provide "out of the box" RoR environments with mongrel etc. Dreamhost, my current host, does support RoR but the reviews are mixed.

RoR is not the only issue. Having several IPs can be very good,and being independent from your neighborhood is nice.

But you are right that, on paper, storage, bandwith etc is lower for the same $$ in VPS vs. shared. I was expecting better performance for VPS, mind you...

Thanks!

1339

General Software Discussion / hosting: moving away from shared, and into Virtual Private Servers (VPS)?

« Last post by urlwolf on March 11, 2007, 10:17 AM »

My year with my current Host is expiring, and I have to pay full (i.e. no coupons) to renew). I have seen that for a little more you can get into Virtual Private Servers (VPS):
http://www.webhostma...com/bg/review_vp.asp

This seems pretty cool!
Have you had any experiences with VPS?

1340

General Software Discussion / Re: Super Flexible File Synchronizer Pro says Zaine

« Last post by urlwolf on March 11, 2007, 09:35 AM »

An even easier tutorial to install unison on winXP

1341

General Software Discussion / Re: Super Flexible File Synchronizer Pro says Zaine

« Last post by urlwolf on March 11, 2007, 07:24 AM »

UPDATE :
According to Inray's comment in fileforums, in terms of speed, it seems that the fastest is robocopy (not tested). this is a cmd utility, but there is a GUI here

Unison uses the rsync algorithm, should be the fastest since it does the smartest move: copy only the bits that change, not the entire file.

There is an excellent review/tutorial of unison here

1342

General Software Discussion / Re: Super Flexible File Synchronizer Pro says Zaine

« Last post by urlwolf on March 11, 2007, 07:01 AM »

Actually, a category in itself would be those programs do 'patches' (aka delta backup), that is, they copy/move only the bits of the file that have changed. Any of these delta backup programs should beat traditional ones at speed.

Unison is one of them. Note that the same authors have started a new project: Harmony. So Unison is kind of unsupported, and looks like something that needs an important time investment.

Commercial software that does delta backup:
Novell's ifolders, According to http://www.ifolder.com/ [ifolder.com]: " iFolder is a simple and secure storage solution that can increase your productivity by enabling you to back up, access and manage your personal files-from anywhere, at any time. Once you have installed iFolder, you simply save your files locally-as you have always done-and iFolder automatically updates the files on a network server and delivers them to the other machines you use. Sponsored by Novell, the iFolder project is built on the Mono/.Net framework to integrate seamlessly into existing desktop environments. ".

The flash presentation says that it uses delta backup, but it is not featured in the description. Problem: only usable acrross the net, no HD backup possible.

Price: $51.99
It seems that v 3 is OSS, although that must be the server? I dunno, slashdot commentaries here.

Another delta backup tool: Suresync. price=$69, same as SFFSP-WTF . It does provide real-time syncing and delta backup using an addon (sold separately), I mailed them for a quote.

Looks like it really has lots of features!

Depending on how expensive the addon is, and how unusable/time-consuming Unison is, this could be an interesting pick. It can do HD backups fine.

1343

General Software Discussion / Re: Super Flexible File Synchronizer Pro says Zaine

« Last post by urlwolf on March 11, 2007, 06:45 AM »

In my case (I dunno if it's a bit extreme) I want to have a current mirror to an external HD (updating often, maybe every 2-3 days, and a remote backup (to a server) updating maybe monthly.

I have 14 Gb and 115,000 files that I want to synchronize. That's quite a load for the remote job, so I need to split the job into smaller profiles, and upload the differences at different, random times. So any improvements in speed would be appreciated.

Looks like SFFS doesn't let you select sub-folders (maybe because of its design and the "detect moved files" feature.

Ideally, a sync program should keep a catalog (as backup4all does) to quickly see which folder one has worked on in a particular day. Mind you, maybe checking the OS's "recent folders" would be enough, or just monitoring HD I/O. That would save time in rescaning the entire drive every time a profile is run.Anyone with a similar situation?

Benchmarking all the programs compared would be great.
Looks like a good review is brewing here... Anyone up for the job?

1344

General Software Discussion / Re: Super Flexible File Synchronizer Pro says Zaine

« Last post by urlwolf on March 11, 2007, 06:28 AM »

I have been using Dillobits InSync for my mirroring needs.  I found it much faster and accurate than synctoy or syncback.

Looks like  as soon as one digs up a bit SyncBack is not that great.

I like some things about SB, for example the  fact that you can hit pause and resume a profile, and that options are (finally!) nicely structured and with an icon.

But in my tests SFFS is really fast. SFTP and webDAV (and amazon S 3!) is a plus. Another interesting feature is the "detect moved files" feature (lot less transfer).

Taichimaster, could you run a simple test comparing your favourite Dillobits InSync against SFFS? that'd be great.

1345

General Software Discussion / Re: Super Flexible File Synchronizer Pro says Zaine

« Last post by urlwolf on March 10, 2007, 09:01 AM »

Also, how about beyond compare for this task (sync'ing)? It is definitely cheaper, and it works well.

1346

General Software Discussion / Re: Super Flexible File Synchronizer Pro says Zaine

« Last post by urlwolf on March 10, 2007, 08:52 AM »

Backup4all can do one-way synch (useful to have say a remote FTP copy) as well, using the mirror option (no compression). Not useful if you update the files in both locations, that's for sure.

BTW, Super Flexible might be a good program to get a DC discount for. Zaine, are you up for the task (since you discovered it).

1347

Living Room / Re: New higher performance notebook pc drive shipping soon

« Last post by urlwolf on March 10, 2007, 05:14 AM »

But remember, Flash has a limited # of read/writes... these HDs will not last as much as standard ones. I wonder how they plan to market that.

1348

General Software Discussion / firefox: slower scrolling down than up?

« Last post by urlwolf on March 09, 2007, 11:50 AM »

I recently switched to firefox from opera, and I'm finding some strange things... is it possible that it is slower to scroll down than up?

I think this might be a side effect of some extension...

1349

General Software Discussion / Re: Super Flexible File Synchronizer Pro says Zaine

« Last post by urlwolf on March 09, 2007, 11:20 AM »

Has anybody compared this to syncBack? I own syncBack, but I'm a bit disappointed by it. is this really faster than others?

Another contender (maybe) for people changing large files often (i.e., digital photos?) is laplink's speedsynch stuff...

1350

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

« Last post by urlwolf on March 07, 2007, 07:59 PM »

Here is my list:
Enabled Extensions: [18]
- AI Roboform Toolbar for Firefox 6.9.0
- BetterSearch 1.18
- Blog This in Windows Live Writer 1.0.1
- BugMeNot 1.3
- del.icio.us Bookmarks 1.4.27
- DOM Inspector 1.8.1.2
- Fasterfox 2.0.0
- FaviconizeTab 0.9.7.2
- Firebug 1.01
- FlashGot 0.5.98.070302
- Greasemonkey 0.6.7.20070131.0
- keyconfig 20060828
- LinkedIn Companion for Firefox 3.0.0
- MR Tech Local Install 5.3.2.3
- NextPlease 0.6.6
- OpenSearchFox 0.0.0.8
- Tab Mix Plus 0.3.5.2
- Zotero 1.0.0b3.r1

Installed Themes: [1]
- Firefox (default)