Here’s another little gem that I found a few months ago and that I use everyday to backup my personal files to an external hard disk. The software’s called Vice Versa Pro.

It basically compares two folders (or drives) and can synchronize them afterwards or just make a mirror image of one to another. It is a small software to install and it’s not that expensive. But God it’s useful!!!

It’s now official: Montreal has lost his Formula 1 Grand Prix because a single man, Mr. Bernie Ecclestone not to name him, wants more and more millions in exchange. And thank God our politicians told him to put his requested millions in his ***!!!

It is a sad thing that out city lost such an international event. But when I think about it, it doesn’t make me that much sad. Why? The product itself has lost a lot of its quality and its interest in the last years. 10 years ago a F1 race was fun to watch. Dubbing on the track was permitted, accidents occurred, races were what they were supposed to be: races. Today, F1 events are ultimately boring to watch on TV. Racers are scared to dub other racers because of the fines imposed by the IAF if an incident occurs. And most of all, the race’s final order is almost always determined trough the qualifications. A race should not be like that. Take a look at a Nascar race, it is a lot more exciting to watch!

But the saddest thing in that story is the fact that the F1 in Montreal is viable. We have all the required infrastructure to make it happen. We did it for 30 years. But Bernie wants more and more money in his wallet. He asks for millions and millions just to assure that a race could be presented in Montreal. According to me, these requested millions are not justified. They’re only asked to satisfy Mr. Eccelstone’s greed. So he can go suck millions in another city and that’s it. If other clowns have no problems to transfer massive fortunes to a single man, that’s their problem!!!

I hear that the status of the F1 Championship is not that encouraging in the other cities that are still on the calendar. If Montreal refused to pay useless millions to Bernie, I hope that other will follow. Let’s wait and see then…

Since I have a little lack of inspiration these days, I’ll share with you a funny clip that a colleague of mine sent me this morning. It is quite original but at some point quite realistic, at least in terms of the message.

To see the clip, follow this link.

Sid Lee has deliverd a brand new website for the next edition of the Red Bull Crashed Ice contest that will be held again in Quebec City in early 2009. If you feel a bit courageous and that you want to try it ouy, just visit the website and register for the qualifications. Good luck hehehehehe…

If you are a Windows power-user like me and you like to know more about what’s going on under the hood of your OS, here’s a small but so useful utility for you: SystemExplorer.

This software does the same basic job than Windows’ own Task Manager but it does it 100 times better. In fact it provides a lot more information about your system than Microsoft’s counterpart. And once again, this little gem is totally free!

So click on the link (above in the post) and download SystemExplorer without asking. It’s worth the try!

Sid Lee has produced and launched Molson Canada’s new website. It can be reached using this link: http://www.molson.com. According to me, it is a definite and valuable upgrade to their previous website. It has a fresh and sober (this is not a word-game huh) look and feel. I like it a lot! What’s your opinion?

Here I am 15 days later and still playing with that little beast called Linux. As far as it gets, I can say that the thing works pretty well but not as well as Windows though. I am still struggling to find fixes for little bugs I have with Ubuntu (ex.: play fullscreen Youtube videos smoothly; have my Pidgin sound files sound properly like under the Windows version; have a decent WiFi connection to my router that doesn’t disconnect here and there; etc.).

Apart from that, I can definitely say that it is viable to work full time using Linux and with the software that can be found in the various repositories. I admit that the numerous equivalents are often not as “satisfying” and their Windows counterparts but they are at least acceptable.

I think that the most interesting thought I have about all this can be summarized to this simple little question: What do I gain by using Linux in the first place? I have not found an answer yet. I works well, yes indeed, but I have not found any aspect for the moment that Linux does really better that my Windows Vista. Sad to say maybe but it is a true fact. I still can’t see concrete benefits to use Linux instead of Windows. And I must admit that the vast majority of software I use under Windows are freeware so I cannot say that I save a lot of money for the moment…

But let’s see. Ubuntu’s next version will be released in 9 days. My system will auto-update itself. I’ll maybe find something very entertaining through that update to convince myself once again that the switch is still a good thing for me, thing that is far from being the case at the moment…

Today I looked at some pictures that an old friend of mine placed in a Facebook photo album. That’s when I found this pic: a bag of crab-flavored chips.

Oh my God! Yuk! This must taste like hell. The picture was taken in Belarus I think…

Once again I was hit by this weird but very interesting thing that we call cultural differences!

Ho yesss… Our beloved Habs will start their 100th season tonight in Buffalo where they’ll battle the Sabres! This new season promises to be quite exciting as the majority of experts predict all the best for the Canadiens. I must agree with them. We have a quite good roster this year and for the first time in many years we can start to dream about a Stanley Cup without passing for fools. It’s been 15 years already since the last parade on Ste-Catherine… definitely too long for a wait.

So let’s start this season and hope that Kovalev, Koivu, Price, Kostopoulos (?!?) and others will live up to our expectations. Go Habs Go!!!!!

People who know me know that I’ve been goofing with Linux here and there since a couple of years. I have always tried the thing but never seriously enough. I installed several distributions over the years: Mandrake in the early 00’s, Suse and of course Ubuntu more recently. And for a reason I can’t explain, I never found enough motivation to pursue the tryout. It’s weird because I like the concept and the philosophy behind open source software very much but I think I haven’t been persevering enough. The fact that I’m so used to the software I use on a day-to-day basis probably plays a good role in my reluctance to make the switch. If there could only be an open source version of Roboform for example, this would make my life a lot easier. But yes I know that there are some alternatives out there…

I have installed Ubuntu 8.04 (codenamed “Hardy Heron”) a few weeks ago. I logged in a few times but did not do much with it. The following version of Ubuntu (8.10 codenamed “Intrepid Ibex”) will be released on the 30th of this month, and so will be OpenOffice 3.0 on the 13th. The reviews I read about these product are very positive. This sounds very good to my ears…

So this being said, I think that I am going to try Ubuntu at home for the next month without switching to Vista. If I do not ever give Linux a serious try, I’ll never be able to make my mind about it. So I’ll do as if I had only Linux at home and nothing else. I will force myself to use it for 30 days and I think that after this period I’ll know if it’s good for me or not. This time I’m going at war my friends and I hope I’ll reach my goal and that Linux will answer my expectations.

I’ll keep you posted with my “adventures” in the following weeks.