If you haven’t heard of Spore, Spore allows you to create an entire universe and everything in it. Creatures you have created will interact with each other. Their lives are in your hands.

I can’t describe it any better than Justine Ezarik:

It feels like a cross between interaction of The Sims, object creation in Second Life and a bit of World of Warcraft on the side.

I actually first learned through one of her twitters that Spore Creator is available, also as a trial. I quickly went to download the huge file and installed it. I had so much fun creating a creature. I even had fun with him, in a kind of cruel way. Watch the video below to see what I mean. Explanation of what’s happening in the video below the video.

First, I named my creature Twotoe. I couldn’t think of anything very creative and since he has two toes on both feet, he became Twotoe! Meet Twotoe:

Link to video if you can’t view it above: Twotoe

In the video: Twotoe notices a creature, shows some affection, notices another creature and seems to look a little disappointed with that one. He sees another one and shows some affection towards that one. The one he didn’t show affection to walks off looking sad. Then, the cruel joke I play on Twotoe begins (not intentionally). I make all three little creatures disappear. And he looks around wondering what just happened and then cries out.

If you have any videos of your Spore creatures, please share in the comments!

Even though it would be great to win $100, a MacBook Air would be even better! I would love to have a new laptop to replace the one that I have that overheats (has melted the bottom of the laptop) and probably cause a fire (I hope not).

Anyway, there are several ways to get entries in this contest over at Bloggin-Ads. I recommend getting as many entries as possible if you really would like a chance at getting a MacBook Air. I will be very surprised, but very happy if I actually win a MacBook Air. Not because it’s a MacBook Air, but because of what it’s worth. That’s an expensive prize! And very much wanted.

There will be 12 winners. 10 winners will each receive $100 and 2 winners will each receive a MacBook Air.

Contest ends June 13, so get your entries in now! Good luck!

Most of us have been there. Hard drive fails in some way and you can’t access your files. If you’re like me, you store files for clients on an external hard drive. If you’re lucky, you have a friend who knows what (s)he is doing and can help. Otherwise you have to spend a fortune on hoping that you will get your files back.

Years ago, I was told that there was no way of getting the files off the hard drive, so I accepted it and just started over. I didn’t have much anyway, but that’s not the point. If I had some extremely important files on there, I would want to pay someone expecting my files to be returned to me.

In case this ever happens to me again, I bookmarked Flashback Data. Even though I backup files from my hard drive to DVDs, there could be a gap of time since the last backup. If something happened to my hard drive, I’d lose files.

Flashback Data has a room that is a Class 10 for recovering damaged disks. You can read more about what Class 10 means. Looks like they really care about their business and customers. They claim to have the most advanced technology in Data Recovery. I would say they can recover data from just about any operating system, or at least most.

Flashback Data even offers a “No Risk Data Recovery”. This means if they don’t recover your data, they refund your evaluation fee. That’s a nice deal! More reason for them to try even harder to recover your data!

Of course, there is no guarantee that they can recover your files for you, but if they are that important to you, Flashback Data may be worth a try. And, if you have a hard drive emergency, just contact them and they will get you started!

Have any of you used Flashback Data for data recovery? If so, let me know how it went.

Sponsored by Flashback Data

My new computer has an AMD Athlon 64 x2 2.6GHz Dual-Core Processor with 2GB of RAM. It is also running Windows Vista Home Premium. Please do not leave comments about how bad Vista is, because I’m actually having a wonderful experience unlike some. I also didn’t have a choice of Vista or XP. I probably would have chosen XP, but am glad that I didn’t have a choice now that I’ve given Vista a chance.

There were a couple annoyances and they were easily disabled. One was the Welcome Center. Who really needs that to start every time Windows loads? The other was the User Account Control asking permission for every little thing.

The only thing Vista is missing for me is VPN access. I know the feature is there, but I can’t use it because my work’s VPN requires MS-CHAPv1, which Microsoft decided to remove that, without giving you an option. This means you need to spend money to upgrade the VPN server.

You might be wondering how I connect to work’s VPN if I’m using Vista. I am running VMWare with XP installed in it. I only need to use my work’s application with the VPN. Sure, it’s an extra step to connect and do work, but I’m used to it now.

Please do not comment about how I could just run XP on the computer instead. I like some of the features in Vista that XP is just missing, but also, that would mean I’d have to go and actually search for all the drivers. I do not have separate discs for any of the hardware, just one Gateway Windows Vista disc with everything in it.

There is only one thing I had to search for drivers for that a simple Google search found right away. That was the ZDWLan for my WIFIMax dongle because it needed drivers to work correctly on Vista. Unfortunately, I can’t find the link again to put it up for anyone who might need it.

Mitch over at Mitchelaneous has written about things he likes and doesn’t like about Vista.  I’m glad to see someone not just pointing out the bad things and then going back to XP just because of a few bad things. If I had done that with Linux, I would have never figured problems out. In fact, if most people did that, Linux probably wouldn’t be what it is today.

If you like Vista, please feel free to leave a comment about what you like.

With Christmas just around the corner, it might be hard to think of what to give. If anyone reading this knows me, I would love a new thumb drive. I had one that a co-worker had broke on accident. It would work every so often, but just this year, it finally quit working.

Personalized Flash Drives are durable, Hi-Speed USB drives. You can choose from 14 colors and even add free custom laser engraving, along with security software. That sounds like a great deal! And, these little drives are affordable as well.

The free personalization lets you choose from 32 themes to have engraved on the front and add your own text on the back.

I think I might order a few and throw some pictures of my two sons on them and send them to family members. Then they could throw any other pictures that I send of them on it.

Sponsored by Pexagon Tech

I have never really been a fan of the iPod, but I do have one (30GB iPod Video). I love it because it takes up very little space and I can listen to music and podcasts and watch videos no matter where I am. There are a few things I don’t like about it:

• The click wheel is the most annoying way to move through menu options. Sometimes it even causes me to bypass the option I want. Having to remember which part to click to go back is annoying as well. If the click wheel was labeled better, it might be slightly easier.
• The battery drains when I’m not using it. Maybe mine came with a bad battery, I don’t know. But, it could be just a week that I haven’t used the iPod (fully charged battery) and I will turn it on and it tells me it needs to be charged!
• The blinking “Do not disconnect.” icon.
• iTunes may have a few nice features, but it is slow! Let me choose how I want to put my music on my iPod, please. And, in the format I want it in!
• Calendar, Contacts, Notes, etc. I don’t really care about any of that if I can’t edit directly from the iPod.
• It’s not wireless. (I know the iPod Touch has this, but I don’t own one.)

Even though there are several things I don’t like about the iPod, I still like it. But, the Zune has some nice features that the iPod is lacking:

• Playing Windows Media Audio (.wma) and Windows Media Video (.wmv).
• Wireless. (Again, I know the iPod Touch has this feature.)
• FM Radio! There are many times I’d like to listen to just the radio.
• Faster charge time.

I would gladly trade my 30GB iPod Video for either a new Zune or even better, an iPod Touch. I know the iPod Touch is currently at 8GB and 16GB, which is much less than 30GB, but I know the size will eventually increase, right Apple?

I don’t know about anyone else, but my desktop computer wastes a lot of my time. Something goes wrong with the hardware and I have to figure out what is wrong. Is it the hard drive, the RAM, the cable, the motherboard?

On Friday, my computer crashed in the middle of working. I use my laptop and Remote Desktop Connection to access my desktop computer. My laptop can’t handle a lot of software running due to the lack of available memory, so I use RDC to use my desktop computer’s resources instead, with the convenience of sitting wherever I want to. While on the laptop, I noticed read/write errors just popping up and then the Internet disappeared (I use my Nintendo DS WiFi Dongle).

Anyway, there were a lot of read/write errors and Windows wouldn’t start up again, just show blue screens after trying to load. And I couldn’t read the blue screens because they would flash and the computer would restart. Trying to repair the hard drive didn’t work either. Nothing would work. I even tried installing Windows on another hard drive, but there were read/write errors with it. One try even had the setup telling me that there wasn’t enough space on the 80GB (empty) hard drive. That had to be a joke! It said I needed to remove some things from installing, because it required 2211958.7 MB! What!? (I have a picture to prove it.)

Just yesterday I tried removing RAM to see if any of the memory sticks were bad. I have 2.5 GB, and my computer has always been very picky about how they are put in there. Now I cannot even get all three of them to be happy in their original spots. My computer just beeps. So far, only the 512 MB one will go in just fine without me hearing beeps! If I want only 512 MB I will use the laptop!

I have even looked at the book for my motherboard for correct placement of the RAM, but the computer still doesn’t like it. I think when I had upgraded the RAM, everything had to be taken out (video card, etc) before it would take the RAM. How annoying huh?

My computer appears to work okay right now with just the 512 MB in there. But I’m not giving up. If I can only have 512 MB, my computer is dead to me! Over the weekend, I will probably try again.

Anyone else have more problems with desktops than with laptops?

For years and years, people have always known the importance of backing up information and files. This caused the need for larger storage. I even find myself making more than one backup of the same thing. Paranoid? Maybe, but at least I’ll know when one backup fails, I have another.

I remember when using floppy disks were very common and now it’s hard to find computers with floppy drives in them. Eventually though, with stacks of floppy disks, it made more sense to purchase larger storage solutions, such as CDs and then DVDs. With the constant need of backing up more and more files, better solutions are created.

According to Graziadio Business Report, Pepperdine University, hardware failure in 2003 was the number one cause of data loss, which means you would need to create multiple backups because of the possibility of a backup becoming corrupted due to hardware failure or physical damage. This article shows a table of causes and episodes of data loss.

It is very interesting to see how backup solutions have evolved over the years. There is even a timeline at the end of the article displaying when backup storage from punch cards to blu-ray disks and HD-DVD first came into use. It also shows when network storage and online backup solutions started coming around.

Besides reading History of Backup, check out the links provided throughout the article for more related information, especially The Evolution of the Major Computer Storage Devices PDF.

Read this article if you’re interested in seeing how data storage is evolving through the years. And, as always, I recommend backing up your data and if needed, make a second copy to be stored online so it’s in another location in case of fire or water damage.

Where do you think data solutions will be in several years from now?

Sponsored by SoftLogica

I read over at Gizmodo about an Electric Table from BRDA. To find the table, click on PROJECTS and then DESIGN.

I wouldn’t mind having one like this because I have a lot of cables behind my desk. All I’d need to do is somehow have shorter cables!

They also show some other neat (possibly useful?) things, such as the Stuff Bowl and Tilt. The Tilt might be a fun clock to have. Go check it out!

I submitted my vote for It’s not Civic Doody, but Roomba does its Duty! I voted for that one for a few reasons. I like the original entry, I like the video she included, the title is clever and the entry is the easiest to read. I know the latter doesn’t have to do with the contest, but it is still very important!

Please go check out the five finalists and vote for your favorite! Not sure which one to choose? Vote for the one I did!