Monthly Archives: July 2012

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31Jul 2012

EaseUS Todo Backup Workstation 4.5

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EaseUS Todo Backup is a commercial home backup and imaging solution. There are plenty of similar free products available but for my money none are as complete and well thought out as the EaseUS solution.

The initial installation is not particularly quick but there’s not many actions to perform before it completes. By this time you’ve already specified where you want to save your backups (although you can change this later – including specific solutions for NAS devices, which is good to see) and can set up your first backup quickly.

You can create full, incremental or differential backups and schedule them to run when you want.

So far, so normal.

Backups can be compressed, encrypted and password protected. You can set priorities, have backups split into “chunks” when they reach a particular size, be emailed when a backups works and/or fails. You can limit network speed and even send a copy “offsite” via FTP.

From the main menu you can view logs of what the software has been doing as well as manage any backups you have. There are a vast array of additional options, though…

  • Create a system backup – this will back up your operating system, for easy restoration. This comes with an additional restoration option where you can restore to dissimilar hardware – during this it will detect hardware differences between the backup and restoration processes and allow you to install any new drivers required.
  • Disk and Partition Clone – from these you can create an exact copy of an entire drive or a specific partition.
  • Create Bootable Disk – this creates bootable media which can be used if your system fails to boot. Using WinPE it presents a simplified Windows environment.
  • Enable PreOS – like the Bootable disk, this uses WinPE to provide a protected environment under which you can perform maintenance and access your backups. However, rather than being created on a removable disk, this will install on your hard drive as an additional boot option.
  • Wipe Data – securely wipe data from a drive or partition. You can choose the number of secure wipes that are performed.
  • Mount and Convert Image – there 2 options allow you to mount (view) a disk image and convert them to virtual drives.

Help and a full user guide are always a click away and are well written and detailed.

EaseUS ToDo Backup Workstation is available for download for $39 (approx £26). This provides you with a single licence with free email support.

Screenshots

Summary of EaseUS Todo Backup Workstation 4.5

The emergency WinPE environment alone makes this product worthwhile having but the vast array of additional options, excellent documentation and general ease of use, certainly fulfils requirements. I’d have no hesitation in recommending this product to anyone who’s serious about backing up their system.
Star Star Star Star Star


Reviewed by David Artiss on 31st July 2012.

25Jul 2012

HIS Multi-View+Sound Adapter

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The HIS Multi-View+Sound Adapter is a device, smaller than a pack of cards, that allows you to connect a PC with USB 3 (although USB 2 will work, although slower) to a monitor to use it as an additional desktop.

In the box you get the Multi-View device itself, an HDMI cable for connecting to the Multi-View, a CD containing manual and drive software and a brief leaflet explainig how to install the CD contents. The CD manual, however, only covers the software in more detail so there is explanation of use of the hardware (not that there’s much to understand, but none-the-less…). The cable has an HDMI connection on one end and a  proprietary connector on the other – the latter plugs into the Multi-View and the former onto your PC.

One thing I do want to mention, though, is the actual packaging which is far too excessive - considering the contents, the box is oversized and the use of plastic to show the adapter is unneeded. A simpler, smaller box without the plastic would have been far more appropriate. Equally, I’m not sure if installation CDs are required any more, with many other manufacturers simply providing software and manuals online. However, having the basic CD installation instructions on a printed manual was good, though.

The provided driver software adds a new program to your system tray for configuring the additional screen. And that’s all there is to it – connect up the hardware, install the driver and you now have a multi-screen setup. The fact that HDMI is used means that the sound is also transmitted too.

It supports resolutions up to 2048 x 1152 and with the user of additional adapters you can connect up to 6 monitors to the same PC. The HDMI connection is HDCP compliant, so you can play DVDs and Blu-Rays on your additional monitor without any issues.

They say it will also support, to a level, USB 2 so I tried it on that and it worked perfectly. I used a Dell UltraSharp U2311H which has a 1920 x 1080 resolution. Playing full screen video showed some artefacts and dropped frames but this will also be affected by the power of your PC – with some programs running this became worse, so having a faster PC will certainly help here. As you can imagine when using USB 3, which its much higher speed, the picture is vastly improved.

You can use the additional monitors in different ways – I usually use them as additional desktops where I can move windows between them. In “mirror” it will duplicate your primary display – when using this I noticed a very small delay between the two, even when using USB 3. Not a great issue, but I probably wouldn’t recommend using this to play games1.

I also connected my laptop to a Samsung 40″ TV using the HIS adapter – this allowed me to test the sound as well. Again, I was using USB2 so the video was as before2. The sound was great and required no settings changes for it to work – it just did3.

The software running all this is DisplayLink, which is also used with my Lenovo ThinkVision LT1421. In the case of the Lenovo this uses USB 2 but without sound and at a lower, fixed resolution. It’s incredibly easy to use, with all options available from the system tray. It’s also worth noting that the latest version of DisplayLink is available to download from their website4.

My only complaint about the whole thing, considering the price, is the low quality plastic that the adapter is made from. However, as this is something you’re likely to tuck out of the way then this is hardly an issue.

At the time of writing the HIS Multi-View+Sound Adapter could be found for £53.32 at eBuyer.com.

Summary of HIS Multi-View+Sound Adapter

The HIS adapter is a great solution to connecting multiple monitors to your PC or laptop when you don’t have the graphics ports to do so. I’m not sure about gaming, but watching films or just extending your working desktop is simple and well done. Video and sound is great and the fact that it works with USB 2 as well as 3 means that this can still be used even with older machines. You just need to decide if paying £50+ is the best solution to your connectivity issues.
Star Star Star Star Star


Reviewed by David Artiss on 25th July 2012.

  1. although I suspect such a games player is likely to have a graphics setup that will support multiple monitors anyway [↩]
  2. although the resolution is set correctly, the screen didn’t stretch to the entire size of my TV, but there is an option within the provided software to resolve this [↩]
  3. the last time I connected my laptop to the TV, using a straight-through DVI cable I couldn’t get the sound to work [↩]
  4. it’s worth keeping up to date with this as it’s likely that updated will fix bugs and improve quality and performance [↩]
23Jul 2012

New Fusion Radio from Roberts

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Roberts Radio has added to its range of DAB sound systems with the introduction of the NEW Fusion, a neat piece of kit boasting superior sound and a retractable docking station for an iPod or iPhone.

The acoustically-tuned cabinet with passive bass radiator offers a big sound while a six position equaliser plus separate bass and treble control ensures a sound quality just to your liking. What’s more, the retractable docking station enables you to position your iPod or iPhone either portrait or landscape for coverflow. When you want to listen to tunes on the iPod, simply push a button to raise the dock and insert your iPod or iPhone. When not needed, the arm tucks neatly away behind the system.

Fusion also comes with a multi-function remote control; 20 station pre-sets, making it easy to switch between your favourite stations; an aux input socket for your iPod/MP3 playback; and an eco-friendly low power standby.

Featuring a display dimmer, clock and alarm with adjustable sleep and snooze functions it’s the perfect bedside companion too, allowing you to wake to iPod, radio or buzzer.

Fusion costs a rather meesly1 £149.99 and is available from Comet and other retailers.

  1. bearing in mind this is both a quality iPhone dock and quality Roberts Radio – either of those along might cost this kind of price [↩]
20Jul 2012

Artiss YouTube Embed – what features would you like to loose?

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In attempt to keep Artiss YouTube Embed as streamlined and slick as possible I’m thinking of removing a couple of features in the future – these will have a big impact on complexity and file size. However, I need to know if you use the features and whether you want them removed or not.

To this end, I’ve set up 2 simple polls below – please vote and let me know your feelings!

But first, a quick explanation of the 2 features, in case you’re not sure what I’m referring to, and why I think they should be removed…

  1. The OBJECT player displays the video as Flash using the HTML OBJECT tag. This means if Flash doesn’t work on the display device then nothing appears. The alternative IFRAME player displays the same player by default but will fall back to an HTML5 player, if required, allowing the video to be shown on non-Flash devices such as iPhones. The IFRAME player is the default method used on the YouTube website.
  2. EmbedPlus allows an advanced, third party YouTube player to be displayed with extra features. However, some of these features are now supported by the standard Player and many of the advanced EmbedPlus features I don’t support through my plugin anyway. It uses the OBJECT player and doesn’t support IFRAME – hence it doesn’t work for those people not using Flash (e.g. all iOS devices).
[poll id="3"] [poll id="2"]

Depending on the result of this poll I will either remove both the OBJECT player and EmbedPlus or just EmbedPlus, because of EmbedPlus’ reliance on the OBJECT player.

If there are any further features that you think would be ripe for removal, please let me know on the forum.

17Jul 2012

Half Baked Cookie Regulations and PC Pro Magazine

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Photo credit: Eric M Martin

Back in May the PC Pro team discussed, on their podcast, the (then) upcoming ICO cookie regulations. However, as is often the case, they got so lost in the idea that big websites can easily do this kind of work they missed the point that this would cause issues for smaller website owners, who may not have the necessary skillset to provide the solutions that the ICO wanted.

Darien Graham-Smith appeared to be the most vocal so I emailed him, putting forward my views. Rather than respond to me I’ve found my email, modified, appearing in the letters page of the latest PC Pro magazine. With this letter they’ve not put any kind of reply to so I still have no idea whether they support my ascertions or not.

Here, then, I’ve published the original email…

Hi Dr Graham-Smith,

I’ve been listening to the latest PC Pro podcast and wanted to add something to your discussion about the ICO legislation changes.

I run a modest website (20k+ monthly views, earns me some reasonable pocket money on top of a day job, I’m sure you understand the kind of thing). The ICO changes, as they were, were literally causing me sleepless nights and I don’t think I was alone.

What I think you missed in your conversation is that we’re not all big companies with developers on-tap to provide the solution that the ICO wants. There are probably a lot more owners of modest websites than there are “PC Pro’s” of this world.

My site is a self hosted WordPress installation. As such it was my responsibility to implement the ICO changes. However, a developer I may be but that doesn’t mean I know everything about everything and cookies “aren’t my thing”. Instead, like thousands of other self-install WordPress users alone, I was reliant on some clever soul providing a plugin to do what was needed. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen (I wrote a review of what was available in case you’re interested – http://www.artiss.co.uk/2012/05/how-to-get-your-wordpress-site-ready-for-the-ico-cookie-regulations).

In the case of WordPress most cookies are generated by third parties or by plugins. In the case of the latter any scripts are added by the plugins. As suppressing cookies invariably means modifying the scripts that output them, this would have meant updating other people’s plugins. Then when the plugin is updated our changes are lost. All of this requires a level of knowledge that most WordPress owners wouldn’t have anyway. The only solution that WAS available to such owners before their change of heart on Friday was a pop-up that only allowed you to view the site if you accepted cookies – I wouldn’t allow this approach on my site and would rather have incurred the wrath of the ICO in preference. Therefore I approached the weekend with no solution that met the ICO criteria.

So, to find the rules relaxes was an absolute god-send. I can now implement a thorough cookie policy, highlighted at the top of the site and can list the cookies used by the site. I don’t have to offer any opt-out or make any scary code changes. Of course that will take me a few days in my occasional spare time which is why I’m equally glad the ICO aren’t chasing people too keenly.

If these last minute changes hadn’t been made I suspect a LOT of websites would not have met the ICO criteria any time soon and the whole thing would have un-policable as a result.

The thing is, though, after everything I said I believe the original solution was the best one for the consumer. However, if the EU are going to introduce some laws would it have been beyond them to have provided tools and software so that site owners could have easily provided a single, easy solution? As it was, each person that did implement something did it in their own (often unique) way – how many hours of time was wasted on everyone trying to achieve the same thing?

Those are my views, anyway ;)

Kind regards, David Artiss.

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