This will sound a bit like an advertisement, but it isn't - I am just a happy customer passing on what I have found...
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I don't like going to the dentist, though I'm not phobic about it. Up until a year ago, I was always really bad about flossing until a few weeks before my next dentist appointment - and mainly because I didn't want that regular speech about how important it was to floss.
I know it is important for me to take good care of my teeth. It is a very rare occasion that I go to bed without brushing - and because I'm so easily distracted, I often would find myself brushing for 5 minutes, because I'll lose track of where my brush has been...
I was pleased that my dentist told me I was "dentally boring" two years ago, though he still indicated that I needed to floss more. This was my third visit to him after about a 4-year hiatus from going to the dentist (which was preceded by a 5-year hiatus from going to the dentist), so I figure I must have pretty good teeth!
Still, I got to thinking about it - I do want my teeth to last me as long as possible. While I don't like going to the dentist, I like oral surgery even less. Dental pain is like bone pain - best avoided!
With that in mind, I started looking at how I care for my teeth. I had been satisfied with my regular toothbrush - toothpaste was the most variable item in my oral hygiene. The dentist had suggested one of the ultrasonic toothbrushes (like the Sonicare or Oral-B Sonic), but I thought they were way too expensive (over $70), considering the cost of a perfectly effective regular brush was well under $5.
When I went to my parents'-in-law in Colorado during Christmas 2006, I discovered that I had somehow left my toothbrush at home. Stopping at the Super City Market in Montrose, I found the Oral-B Sonic Complete toothbrush that my dentist had recommended on sale - so I went ahead and took the plunge.... and I have never looked back.
It takes a little bit of getting used to it, but it makes good brushing incredibly easy. No need to really "brush" - just apply a little pressure as you run it over the surfaces of your teeth, and it does an excellent job. I don't like tartar-control toothpaste (too gritty for me), and this does an exceptional job of keeping it under control with regular toothpaste. I do not like that it has a "non-user-replaceable" NiCd battery, but as of now, I'm still using the original battery. Generally, the battery typically lasts about 2 years, and it is tricky to replace. Don't just put it on the charger after every use - I charge mine just once a week. New replacement heads are also inexpensive and available on eBay.
That said, it still doesn't prevent me from needing to floss. My main issue with flossing is wrapping that floss around my fingers and having circulation cut off as I struggle to get the floss between my tightly-spaced teeth!
The solution I currently use is the Reach Access Flosser (on the right here). I don't have to put my fingers in my mouth, it works very well, is convenient, and the floss is quite durable!
One other item - and I only heard this recently, from my hygenist - that it is best to floss first, then brush. The only reason they brush then floss you is to get the polishing media out from between your teeth!
Certainly, do what you think is best, is most cost-effective and comfortable, but don't just brush as you always have simply because of inertia. Technology has advanced - leverage it to your advantage!
16 July 2009
Personal scent care...
As a proper citizen of the United States, I concern myself with personal hygiene. I brush, I floss, I (try to) make myself look presentable.
Scent has been a somewhat vexing item, though. I was never been a fan of smelling like typical deodorant/anti-perspirant, so I chose unscented. If I wanted a scent, I'll reach for my cologne.
It wasn't until college that I started to think more about picking a scent. I didn't grow up in a particularly "smelly" household, so I didn't think about it much. But as I met people who applied a scent I liked, I started to consider it more.
Add in the fact that I a) don't sweat much normally, and b) have read enough about the risks posed by aluminum, the main sweat-reducing ingredient in modern anti-perspirants, to feel like I should avoid them, and I'm lead to choose the simple deodorant. Not a fan of roll-on or other wet/gel-based application, I use a stick.
Trouble is, deodorants don't typically come in "unscented", and as I said, I don't want to smell like... deodorant (or non-deodorant). I tried an unscented "Kiss my Face"-brand unscented deodorant from Whole Foods, and it just didn't hold up through a normal day.
What I did discover during my quest was that both of the colognes I like (Curve for Men, shamelessly stolen from my brother, and Halston Z-14 from high-school friend Brian Rockwell) both come as a deodorant stick as well. Yes, it is more expensive up front than buying a typical stick of Sure, but it takes me at least 6 months to go through one $10 stick (which I can buy least expensively on eBay). And it lasts a long time - I smell just fine over 48 hours later!
Let's think about that for a second - the smell I want to have, lasts a long time, cost-effective... it's a complete win!
So, consider that the next time you're putting on your current scent (or non-scent) - Do you like how you smell? Find a scent you like and make it yours!
Scent has been a somewhat vexing item, though. I was never been a fan of smelling like typical deodorant/anti-perspirant, so I chose unscented. If I wanted a scent, I'll reach for my cologne.
It wasn't until college that I started to think more about picking a scent. I didn't grow up in a particularly "smelly" household, so I didn't think about it much. But as I met people who applied a scent I liked, I started to consider it more.
Add in the fact that I a) don't sweat much normally, and b) have read enough about the risks posed by aluminum, the main sweat-reducing ingredient in modern anti-perspirants, to feel like I should avoid them, and I'm lead to choose the simple deodorant. Not a fan of roll-on or other wet/gel-based application, I use a stick.
Trouble is, deodorants don't typically come in "unscented", and as I said, I don't want to smell like... deodorant (or non-deodorant). I tried an unscented "Kiss my Face"-brand unscented deodorant from Whole Foods, and it just didn't hold up through a normal day.
What I did discover during my quest was that both of the colognes I like (Curve for Men, shamelessly stolen from my brother, and Halston Z-14 from high-school friend Brian Rockwell) both come as a deodorant stick as well. Yes, it is more expensive up front than buying a typical stick of Sure, but it takes me at least 6 months to go through one $10 stick (which I can buy least expensively on eBay). And it lasts a long time - I smell just fine over 48 hours later!
Let's think about that for a second - the smell I want to have, lasts a long time, cost-effective... it's a complete win!
So, consider that the next time you're putting on your current scent (or non-scent) - Do you like how you smell? Find a scent you like and make it yours!
20 January 2009
Protect your data!
As previous posts have made clear, I am a bit of a packrat. I might need that 24V AC power supply sometime, so it goes in the power supply drawer, along with MANY others.
Needless to say, this collective nature applies to the digital realm as well. Over the past 20 years, I have collected a terabyte or few of digital data. Between a decade or so of email, amusing pictures, sound samples, documents and all my digital media files, I maintain a pretty good-sized file server at home to keep all this data in one place.
Keeping it organized is certainly an omnipresent challenge (as it is everywhere else in my life), but I'm less concerned that it will be lost now.
When the 10-year-old computer that was my home server finally refused to boot even a newly-installed OS, I took the opportunity to build anew the server and tackle the issue that had caused me concern for a few years - how to back up all the important stuff?
DVD media has a lot of capacity, but once you get to a certain amount of data, it becomes a bit cumbersome to burn all those discs. Also, as the data changes, how do you keep track of the new from the old on all that separate, often read-only media?
I liked the online backup options much better, as I have good cable-based broadband at the house, and their software will track the changes to the files. However, in order to leverage best the inexpensive "unlimited" online options, the client must be installed on a "workstation" OS - such as Windows XP or 2000 Professional. The second caveat is that the backup software is smart enough to only back up data on locally-attached drives. It will not include mapped network drives or USB-attached volumes in its backup set.
Much as I like Windows 2000 Pro, I figured that if this system was going to have the longest legs, it was best to stick with something that wasn't already out of current support, so Windows XP Professional it was. All the "server" apps I needed it to run (TiVo Desktop, Rio Receiver server, VMware server, as well as file/print sharing) would run fine there - all that was missing was a DNS and DHCP server, which I can get by without for the moment.
Trouble was, I didn't have much extra space on the XP server I had built. It was an amalgamation of various drives, and only one disk was protected from failure by a second mirrored disk. Much as I liked having the online backup, I'd much rather protect from failure in the first place. But if I had a second server, how would I back *that* up? I only wanted to have one server and backup set to maintain.
Enter the home SAN. I have worked with UNIX systems for a long time, and thought I might have found a loophole - iSCSI-attached volumes are block devices just like local disk. Would my backup software (Carbonite) see through my ruse and refuse to back up the data on those "locally attached" iSCSI volumes?
I bought several big drives on sale and installed them into one chassis, and installed Openfiler. Openfiler is a general-purpose storage device - it can act as a Windows file server, as an NFS server or as an iSCSI SAN device. It is not terribly easy to figure out if you are tech-challenged, but it is a worthy alternative to buying a "real" SAN. The system is flexible and permits you to build RAID volumes in software as well as in hardware. I wholeheartedly recommend gigabit ethernet hardware for communications between the server and the SAN (if you can make the whole path speak Jumbo Frames, so much the better) if you'd like performance to be as good as it can be.
Am I happy with what I've assembled? Thus far, yes. Speed to the SAN-attached disks is not horribly slow (between 75 and 200 Mbit), mainly limited by the speed of the controller card. I can always add additional space to the server by adding more drives to the SAN (I have 3 free SATA controller ports). And best of all, the Carbonite software *does* backup the SAN disks.
Needless to say, this collective nature applies to the digital realm as well. Over the past 20 years, I have collected a terabyte or few of digital data. Between a decade or so of email, amusing pictures, sound samples, documents and all my digital media files, I maintain a pretty good-sized file server at home to keep all this data in one place.
Keeping it organized is certainly an omnipresent challenge (as it is everywhere else in my life), but I'm less concerned that it will be lost now.
When the 10-year-old computer that was my home server finally refused to boot even a newly-installed OS, I took the opportunity to build anew the server and tackle the issue that had caused me concern for a few years - how to back up all the important stuff?
DVD media has a lot of capacity, but once you get to a certain amount of data, it becomes a bit cumbersome to burn all those discs. Also, as the data changes, how do you keep track of the new from the old on all that separate, often read-only media?
I liked the online backup options much better, as I have good cable-based broadband at the house, and their software will track the changes to the files. However, in order to leverage best the inexpensive "unlimited" online options, the client must be installed on a "workstation" OS - such as Windows XP or 2000 Professional. The second caveat is that the backup software is smart enough to only back up data on locally-attached drives. It will not include mapped network drives or USB-attached volumes in its backup set.
Much as I like Windows 2000 Pro, I figured that if this system was going to have the longest legs, it was best to stick with something that wasn't already out of current support, so Windows XP Professional it was. All the "server" apps I needed it to run (TiVo Desktop, Rio Receiver server, VMware server, as well as file/print sharing) would run fine there - all that was missing was a DNS and DHCP server, which I can get by without for the moment.
Trouble was, I didn't have much extra space on the XP server I had built. It was an amalgamation of various drives, and only one disk was protected from failure by a second mirrored disk. Much as I liked having the online backup, I'd much rather protect from failure in the first place. But if I had a second server, how would I back *that* up? I only wanted to have one server and backup set to maintain.
Enter the home SAN. I have worked with UNIX systems for a long time, and thought I might have found a loophole - iSCSI-attached volumes are block devices just like local disk. Would my backup software (Carbonite) see through my ruse and refuse to back up the data on those "locally attached" iSCSI volumes?
I bought several big drives on sale and installed them into one chassis, and installed Openfiler. Openfiler is a general-purpose storage device - it can act as a Windows file server, as an NFS server or as an iSCSI SAN device. It is not terribly easy to figure out if you are tech-challenged, but it is a worthy alternative to buying a "real" SAN. The system is flexible and permits you to build RAID volumes in software as well as in hardware. I wholeheartedly recommend gigabit ethernet hardware for communications between the server and the SAN (if you can make the whole path speak Jumbo Frames, so much the better) if you'd like performance to be as good as it can be.
Am I happy with what I've assembled? Thus far, yes. Speed to the SAN-attached disks is not horribly slow (between 75 and 200 Mbit), mainly limited by the speed of the controller card. I can always add additional space to the server by adding more drives to the SAN (I have 3 free SATA controller ports). And best of all, the Carbonite software *does* backup the SAN disks.
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