A couple weeks ago, I reviewed MediaRECOVER from a company called Fresh Crop. The software was designed to help you undelete files you thought you had lost, and it worked well. But what about the files you don’t want to come back… ever?
Deleted Doesn’t Mean It’s Gone
Fresh Crop also provides software called MediaWIPE for your sensitive files you want gone forever. When you delete a file, it’s not really gone. Yes, even though you emptied the recycle bin. It’s still on your hard drive or other storage media but you just can’t see it. In fact, that’s what makes software like MediaRECOVER work. To truly delete something forever requires some additional steps. That’s what MediaWIPE promises to do for you, so I put it to the test.
Does MediaWIPE Really Work?
According to the site, they use US Department of Defense (DoD 5220.22-M) seven step erasing standard to completely erase your files. Armed with one large unwanted file and several small ones, I fired up the program and started with the big file (about 150 MB).
Getting ready involved just a simple browse and select for the file. This software will wipe full directories as well. With my file selected, I clicked the Next button. I then confirmed my decision to delete this file with a checkbox and about five minutes later, my file was gone. I then did this for the smaller files in the same way.
After deleting these files, I tried to recover them. Using MediaRECOVER as well as another file recovery program, I had no success finding my deleted files. MediaWIPE seems to have truly wiped the files from my computer completely.
Portable File Wiping
One feature that makes this software even more convenient to use is the MediaWIPE Portable Maker. It’s a little program that comes bundled with MediaWIPE and it installs a portable copy of MediaWIPE onto a portable storage device like a memory stick. To try it out, I installed it on an 8GB MicroSD card I carry around with me. I popped the card into another computer and was running MediaWIPE straight from the card pretty quickly. If it’s not the same full version installed on my desktop, it sure looks like it. Providing the same secure file removal experience as the desktop, I can now wipe any file or folder on any computer without ever installing software on that machine.
The portable install of MediaWIPE has some obvious uses. I imagine most people might use this when checking their email from a friend’s computer or a computer in a public place. Anything you downloaded to the public computer can be securely removed without installing a thing on it. This method doesn’t require Administrator privileges, so it’s quick and easy. Not bad!
Conclusions
Living up to its name and its promises, MediaWIPE does the job when you need files gone permanently. The software installed, started, and ran quickly and easily which, combined with the $19.95 price, makes it an easy choice for anyone concerned about sensitive data.
Having a computer dedicated to your entertainment center is fine, but what if you don’t want to dedicate a computer just to that? That’s how I had things set up for a long time. I used the computer less and less after we got a new cable box that included a DVR. With HULU, I contemplated setting it all back up, but then I came across a device that promised to save me all the trouble.
The device pictured above is a USB PC to TV audio and video adapter from a company called Warpia and it’s designed to transmit the audio and video signal from your computer to a receiving unit attached to your PC.
Setting It All Up
The setup for this device really couldn’t have been much easier. Following some simple instructions, I installed the software from the included CD and then plugged in the USB PC adapter. After looking over the settings, I plugged in the A/V base adapter and hooked it up to the HDMI cable I borrowed from my DVD player (will connect via VGA, too). After a couple seconds, everything on my laptop screen was being displayed on my 42 inch TV as well. Check out the video of everything in action:
The refresh rate for video was pretty good, but could be a little better. Other than that, HD video came across as true HD and looked really good. All my applications refreshed seamlessly and I had a very clear picture.
Features and Flaws
One of the things I liked about this was that it’s treated as an additional display, so I can tell Windows to either Duplicate the display or Extend it. When I extend it, I get to keep my normal laptop screen just on my laptop, and a second desktop for the TV. A great example of how that’s beneficial presented itself the other night. I purchased a movie online for direct download and watched it on the TV over my wireless A/V connection. At the same time, I was able to tweet, read and respond to email, etc. from my original desktop. Pretty cool.
The SWP100A also comes with mounting screw slots on the bottom of the TV adapter and that end’s USB stick can plug in horizontally or vertically in case you want to wall mount it and keep it as flush as possible.
The only real concern this device presented was the heat it generated. The USB adapter can get pretty warm and the TV adapter gets downright hot. I’d have loved to see an on/off switch on the TV end of the setup. Not only would this help with the heat problem, but it would be a lot easier than having to unplug it and plug it back in every time I want to use it.
Conclusions
At $179.99, it’s not my cheapest device, but it’s cheaper than setting up another computer just for the TV and a lot, I mean a LOT easier. I went from sealed box to completed and in use in about 5-7 minutes. If you can handle the price, it’s a decent solution to get your audio and video from PC to TV in a snap.
They say content is key but just as important is how people get to your content. For me, it’s via my dedicated server with Codero. I’ve had some bad hosting experiences in the past, which is why I’m always willing to point people to Codero for servers. They’ve got it down to an art and they know how to sell, too. From time to time, I check in on their blog to see what’s new and this is what I found this week.
For a limited time Codero is offering a 50% discount on all new servers purchased during the promotional period and that appears to be managed, too. A press release on their site says:
The price-cutting campaign is being offered for a limited time in an effort to give something back to businesses as they make their tax payments. According to Phillip Spencer, Chief Executive Officer of Codero, “Organizations nationwide are seeking cost-cutting measures even as the economy rebounds. This is our way of helping companies fuel growth for the future with a more secure, high-performance online presence at a substantially reduced price.”
Obviously, it’s good marketing to run a special like this during tax season, but it’s a good deal, too. Codero’s dedicated servers start pretty low as it is and are incredibly reliable. The deal doesn’t last too long, though, so if you’re thinking about it go check out their dedicated hosting plans and pull the trigger on this one.
Data loss is no fun. I know this first hand. As what some might call a power user, I go through hard drives and other digital media pretty quickly and I’ve had my fair share of them just quit on me with no warning. Of course, the first line of defense is to back up your important files regularly, but what if you didn’t do that or you have new files since the last backup? In those cases, you can send your drive out to a professional to recover your files, but you can also try to do it at home.
Recover Lost Files At Home
It seems like every year, there’s newer, cheaper, easier data recovery software on the market. Just last year, I paid about $70 for a program that I’ve sworn by since the first time I used it and this week, I was given a copy of MediaRECOVER Pro. It’s cheaper at only $49.95, is really simple to use, and pretty fast, at least compared to the program I was using before. To compare, I ran both on a 2GB Flip video camera. MediaRECOVER Pro took only 8 minutes to scan compared to 20 with the other software. (My test was with an advanced scan, while a normal scan was significantly faster) My other software also takes a minute or so to load before you can do anything, but MediaRECOVER Pro loaded right away. Both did equally well at recovering old deleted files. The install was pretty simple, too. I clicked “next” a few times and it was ready to go.
The software also comes in a cheaper version, called simply MediaRECOVER for only $29.95 The big difference between the two is that the Pro version includes the optical storage recovery and is only available for Windows currently. In both versions you can also see previews of your files in image form (when possible, ASCII, and HEX).
How To Undelete Files
When you run the software, the first thing you see is the main menu. From here, you can choose to perform a regular or advanced scan, perform a scan on optical storage like a CD or DVD, use Tools, or view the Help.
Most of us just want to dive in and get our files back. You can do this with the normal scan if you’ve just accidentally deleted files, but in other cases, you may need to do a advanced scan, which will scan sector-by-sector for your lost files. Initiating a scan either way is pretty straight forward. You select the drive you want to scan and can narrow it down to a partition. Then click the scan button and wait. The amount of time the scan takes can depend on the size of the drive and how many files it had on it.
Once scanning has completed, you just select the files you want to recover and click the save button to save them and you can get right to the folder they’re in with the browse button. In my test, I ended up with a video from a wedding that I shot over a year ago, which was a fun little surprise.
Professional Data Recovery Services
While FreshCrop, the company that makes MediaRECOVER, tries to “teach a man to fish”, you might say, not everyone is going to be able to just install and recover. There is the rare case in which recovery doesn’t work or you just don’t want to do it on your own. For those times, FreshCrop provides data recovery services. You package up your drive or flash card and send it out and they’ll do their magic on it. Looking at the prices, they’re a lot more wallet-friendly than all the services I’ve seen in the past.
Delete Files For Good
Sometimes you have the opposite problem. You have files on a drive or portable storage that you need removed permanently. After all, with programs like MediaRECOVER, you need to be sure sensitive data is unrecoverable by others. I hate to break it to you, but just emptying the recycle bin isn’t going to cut it. For this reason, FreshCrop included some extra tools.
In the Tools section, you can wipe the media of all files, format it for re-use, and even add Secure Delete, which will let you wipe files from Internet Explorer. These tools are a handy addition to this package.
Conclusions
Admittedly, I haven’t used many data recovery software packages, but I haven’t had to, either. What I had worked well, and this is not only better, but it’s cheaper, too. For $50, the Pro version (which I would buy) pays for itself the first time you recover your vacation photos or the video of baby’s first steps. Easily worth the money, it works very smoothly. Although you may not need it right now, it’s worth bookmarking for when you do. Personally, I keep a copy of my recovery software on a thumb drive with me just in case.
It seems like every day, I get to learn about some new technology that has the possibility to reshape how I see the world, work with data, or get something done much more easily. As a web developer, I’m very familiar with geofences and have applied them in working applications, but I wanted to introduce the concept to those of you who are unfamiliar with it.
What Is A Geofence?
Wikipedia has this to say about geofences:
A Geofence is a virtual perimeter on a geographic area using a location-based service, so that when the geofencing device enters or exits the area a notification is generated. The notification can contain information about the location of the device and might be sent to a mobile telephone or an email account.
Although I think they’re pretty close, I’d like to add that a geofence is really just the area that is defined for a notification trigger (or other event) and the notification isn’t exactly part of the geofence. As an example, you might have a device in your car that is linked to a service and that service has a geofence (that you defined) around your neighborhood. On your way to work the service detects that you’ve exited the geofence (your neighborhood), and shuts off specific devices in your home through a home automation system. When you re-enter the geofence after work, it sends a text message to your wife that reads, “Honey, I’m (almost) home!” or turns on your laptop.
Practical Uses For Geofences
I know the above example may seem a little Jetsons-like, but the technology is actually here today and already in use.
One real-world example is the annual Iron Dog® snowmobile race in Alaska. It wasn’t long after the race began that the first team entered a checkpoint and like many other people, I received a text message on my phone letting me know about it. Making this happen was software developed by Ontec Technologies, the company that has provided real-time tracking and mapping of each racer for the past few years. In the software, every checkpoint was defined as a geofence and each racer was outfitted with hardware from Applied Satellite Engineering that sent data over the Iridium satellite network to Ontec where it gets mapped and triggers alerts for geofences. In this example, friends, families, and fans were able to know very rapidly as their racer hit each checkpoint.
The article, Searching for Real Estate Made Easy: Geo-Fences Plus Mobile Phones from SoftwareAdvice.com describes, in detail, a scenario in which a young couple on a leisurely stroll is alerted that they’re near a home for sale that they may like. It seems the couple’s tech-savvy realtor entered their search criteria and cell phone number into a system that has geofences around properties and when their phone’s GPS location entered the geofence, it triggered an alert. The story is just a made-up scenario, but the reality of such a service is just over the horizon. We already have the technology in the phones and all it will take is for someone to build an app for the iPhone, Android, and Windows Mobile 7 and the web service to pair it with.
The practical uses for geofences are numerous and I’m certain we’ll see them in use more and more. Imagine an alert on your phone when your young child wanders off your property, or a friend is near the coffee house you’re sitting at. A system that turns on a couple lights when I get within 50 yards of my house is entirely possible right now with a little hardware and some programming.
Possible problems
Any really good technology that makes use of your personal location information brings with it concerns about misuse of that information. However, if used with consent and in the proper applications with these concerns in mind, the advantages far outweigh the unlikely possibilities of misuse.
If you could geofences for anything, what would it be?
