Running out of hard drive space in Windows 7

As I prefer SSDs for the fast read/write speeds for my main hard drive, I tend to run out of space (especially on my Macbook with a paltry 256GB). To add salt to the wound, I'm running a dual boot Windows and OS X partition, and I was a little stingy for the Windows side since I run it less then OS X. Then came the crunch - space seemed to just disappear!

I've collected some information on cleaning up some junk that resides on our hard drive, which was especially useful when you're starved for MBs.

Run this once:

Shrink your WinSxS folder
1. Run CMD with elevated priviledges.
2. cmd> dism /online /cleanup-image /spsuperseded

This alone saved me 5 GB of space. It essentially cleans up backup files from service pack installation, so make sure you have at least SP1 installed - if not that it might not work.

The following steps you can run on a consistent basis to squeeze as much space out of your system.

Clean up Windows update downloads:

%windir%\SoftwareDistribution\Download\

What you're deleting: Downloaded files via Windows Update

Remove baseline patch caches:

%SystemRoot%\Installer\$PatchCache$

What you're deleting: Installing and updating programs which use windows installer format keep cache to handle repair installations, so you would need original installation media to repair/update

Remove junk in temp and cache folders:

%tmp% or %Temp%

What you're deleting: Files in the temporary folder are created by installing software, user operations - constantly filled with crap

%SystemRoot%\Temp

What you're deleting: Temporary files used by system account since internal system operations create temporary files

%HOMEPATH%\Dropbox\.dropbox.cache

What you're deleting: Cache files that dropbox creates along the way as it syncs - this surprisingly takes up a ton of space if you're not careful!

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Short films at Lunafest - About Woman By Woman

This past week, the pizza clubbers decided to check out Lunafest, an annual film festival that tours nationally. I have to admit that I wasn't expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised. We purchased our tickets online (saved 2 bux) and trekked our way to Covington despite the cold rain. It had been a long work day, so we bought some popcorn, cookies, soda, and beer to set the mood. When the rest of the pizza crew arrived, we ambled along to our seats just as the films were about to start.

The gist of the film festival is that these are movies made about women by women for women. While this may scare some of the testerone-filled audience, really, it's not that female oriented. There are films that everyone can appreciate. Some of them were a little psychadelic and wonky, to say the least. There were two documentary films, one about a women's bike maker, and another of a female photographer. While these short films were not filmed spectacularly, the content was quite interesting. Within the 109 minutes of female domination, I'll highlight the few gems:

Flawed - Andrea Dorfman

The film is completely animated by the author with watercolor painted drawings. Instead of describing the plot, I'll leave the description here. This was the first clip that actually made the audience laugh out loud, as it was witty and genuinely funny without trying too hard. The pace of the movie was just right, the watercolor paintings were cute and descriptive, and the lighthearted narrative won all our hearts. If you're from the U.S., you have the luxury of watching this clip online!

Lunch Date - Sasha Collington

This was by far my favorite short film in the set. The actors are incredibly well cast, the dialogue is perfect and filled with plenty of awkwardness. The best part about this particular short film is the subtle humor found from scene to scene. Unfortunately, a clip of this film is nowhere to be found on the internet, only their pitch kickstarter video.

So was the short film festival worth it? Debatable. It was enjoyable though, but I'm not sure it was worth the 11 dollars per ticket and my valuable Tuesday night. They did give out free Luna bars at the end though, which served as my breakfast the next day. If anything, I am glad we supported a local arts venue on an otherwise quiet Tuesday night.

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How to backup your drive, online + off

I'm always on the search for good apps that streamline my day-to-day tasks and make things more efficient and convenient. I present to you, Cubby, a service that extends beyond an online storage solution.

I work with a lot of data (and thus, large files) on my laptop, which I bring to work everyday. There are times where I bring the work home, but instead of working on my laptop, I would much rather work on my desktop which not only is fast, but sports 30"of pixel real estate (if you're a programmer, this is really heaven! Highly recommend). While I can backup / transfer files on said laptop to my desktop via a USB drive, I dislike the inconvenience of having to physically plug in a drive in order to do so. The USB ports on my desktop tower are difficult to reach, sitting way underneath the desk, and I only have 2 USB ports on my laptop, one of which is always consumed by my Razer.

So, I was looking for a syncing solution, PC to PC. Dropbox works great if you have small files, usually the online back up storage of choice. Right-clicked my folder... BAM 77 GB. I considered paying for Dropbox, but if I already have 77 GB now, I didn't think the 100 GB solution would last me that long. While I'm willing to pay 100 bux, 200 seems just a little much. Cloud solutions are very convenient, but so pricey!

Bumped into a program called Onesync, which uses Dropbox as an intermediary solution. Hey, not bad, methinks this might be doable. As I read more about it, my hopes were crushed. No cross platform compatibility. Only works on Windows (bah!). I work on a Macbook Pro, whilst my desktop at home is rocking Windows 7. This is not going to work... still sounds like a great program though.

Somehow, someway, I found Cubby. Cross platform, check, sync to computer, check, pricing, free - god damn this is it! I quickly installed it to check it out. I think I might like it better than Dropbox, and here is why.

First, instead of dropping folders into a specific folder (like Dropbox) - you select what folders on your computer you want to be synced. This is nice if you want to keep files organized the way you want. All I did was add my work folder to Cubby and I was good to go.

Second, PC-to-PC syncing, which they call DirectSync. This is exactly what I was looking for, because this allows me to not be encumbered by the cloud space limitations that most services impose. Install the client on the two computers you wish the folder to be synced, and everything happens automatically. Requires that both computers be on at the same time, which makes sense - but really not that big an issue since if you were to transfer / backup files yourself, that is an absolute necessity.

Granted, this is only my second day using it - I guess I shouldn't rave about it so much. If the above applies to you, give it a shot - it's free anyways =oD

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Dr. Jart BB Cream - Review + Pics

I'm lazy (there, I said it!) But not lazy enough to walk out of the house looking like I just rolled out of bed. I'm also not one of those people who have perfect skin, unfortunately. I too suffer from uneven skin tone and blemishes. In the search for a foundation for a simple makeup routine, I found BB Cream.

What exactly is BB cream?

Short BB cream review

BB is short for Blemish Balm, and BB cream acts as a foundation / makeup base that soothes and regenerates the skin. It also has a thicker consistency so it conceals skin tone imperfections better than tinted moisturizers. It may have sounded too good to be true when I read about it online, but when I was in Korea for a visit last winter, I made sure to pick up some Dr. Jart Black Label BB Cream to try it out.

At the time, new breakouts were wreaking havoc on my skin. I don't consider myself to have bad skin, but it's not great either. Whenever I break out, even when the pimple subsides I usually inherit an additional dark spot on my face which take months to fade. Since the breakouts kept coming, pretty soon, dark spots formed constellations upon my cheek which was laced with a scattering of new pimple bumps making my skin look pretty awful nude.

And so I tried Dr. Jart. That was a great idea. I first noticed that my face was not as oily as it was before, which was awesome. It makes my pores look smaller/invisible and covers my uneven skin tone and light blemishes pretty well (for those big ones I have to dab a little concealer). I initially rotated between this and the Shiseido foundation I was previously using, but I eventually used BB cream exclusively because it was so easy to blend and use. It comes out of a squeeze out tube, I slap it onto my face, and within a minute I am done and ready to go. No mess, no hassle. Dr. Jart is rated as one of the better BB creams, and the Black Label has a "unique triple action formula...[that] aims at covering skin imperfections, concealing blemishes, and activating skin rejuvenation. It also smoothes wrinkles and fine lines while providing sun protection to skin." I'm starting to sound like an infomercial, but if you're on the fence, I highly recommend you try some!

The downside is that if you're darker-skinned than the general Asian, the color will probably not suit your skin tone. For reference, I am a MAC NC20/25 and the Black Label matches me pretty well. I've used it for about 6 months or so, and I have a lot fewer breakouts now. With it on, my skin just looks naturally even-toned and blemish free according to people around me (little do they know, ha ha!)

Reviews + pics by other users

Whenever I look for makeup reviews, I like to see how it actually looks on someone instead of commercial picture ads or swatches on a hand. As I am not brave enough, and also too lazy, to post pics of myself online, I shall link you to some good ones I've found of Dr. Jart users. Black Label is meant for dry/normal skin and is slightly darker than the Silver Label, which is meant for oily/combination skin.

Black Label
• Review 1
• Review 2
• Review 3

Silver Label
• Review 1
• Review 2
• Review 3
• Review 4
• Review 5

Other BB cream brands

Lastly, there are a lot of BB creams out there. I happened to choose Dr. Jart Black Label because it was the first one that matched my skin tone. Since it works great, I'm sticking with it. For those of you who want to find out a little more on other brands, hop on over to these massive forum discussions all about BB Cream at soompi and cozycot.

Where to buy Dr. Jart

If you're in the US, you can get Dr. Jart directly through its website. I also have some sample packets lying around I'm willing to part with if shipping costs are covered. Probably most worth it for US readers (do I even have any? he he). Regardless, leave a comment with your email and maybe we can work something out if you're interested!


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