The Synology Hyper Backup app allows owners of Synology NAS devices to easily set up backups to various cloud services. However, one thing that isn’t shown in the app is the pricing of each service. So here’s a pricing comparison (prices as of Aug 4, 2018). Synology C2 Location: Frankfurt, Germany 100 GB = €9.99/year (approx. USD $0.0100/GB/month) 300 GB = €24.99/year (approx. USD $0.0081/GB/month) 1 TB = €59.99/year (approx. USD $0.0058/GB/month) 1+ TB = €69.99/TB/year (approx. USD $0.0068/GB/month) Amazon S3 Location: Many, using U.S. (N. Virginia) to compare Pricing: Complicated – only comparing standard S3 storage costs here USD Continue Reading
Desktop Computer Upgrade
I last posted about my computer specs six years ago when I first built my VMWare ESXi Whitebox server. Here’s an update to what happened to it: From the software point of view, it was all and well for the first 2-3 years. I had FreeNAS, Windows 7 and Windows 8 virtual machines running on it, and some lesser used Ubuntu virtual machines for playing around. With the IOMMU capabilities of the motherboard, I even was able to get the GPU accessible by the Windows virtual machines to use it as a desktop and even play some games on it. Continue Reading
Whistler Ski Run Topographic Map
Whistler Blackcomb is pretty big, so one would usually look at a map to find suitable runs. What is provided in the “Mountain Atlas” looks nice and mostly works, but for map geeks is there anything better? Turns out that Google Maps conveniently has the ski runs in its map. But there’s more: Google Maps in Terrain mode shows the contour lines like a topographic map!
Relic of Saint Francis Xavier
Part of the forearm of Saint Francis Xavier has been making its way across Canada this past month and this past Wednesday it made an appearance at my home parish, St. Francis Xavier Parish in Vancouver. Normally it’s displayed in the Church of the Gesù in Rome. Who was Saint Francis Xavier? Francis Xavier was a Spanish missionary who traveled to numerous countries including India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Japan, spreading the Gospel and converting hundreds of thousands to Christianity. He was on his way to China in 1552 when he became ill with a fever and subsequently died. Xavier was Continue Reading
Enterphone intercom anywhere
My apartment building has an old hard-wired Enterphone intercom to buzz visitors in. This poses a slight annoyance since the dependency of the phone line in conjunction with a conventional corded telephone means I have to walk to the phone in order to answer the intercom. Given the low rate of visitors and the small size of my apartment, in retrospect, this isn’t really a big deal. Most normal people would just buy a cheap cordless phone and call it a day. But that only helps if I’m in the apartment. What if I wanted to be able to buzz Continue Reading