Life, Kids, Technology & that move to another continent
Since I am never content with my blog theme, I changed it again today. I was never a huge fan of the one that I just had, but it was one of the better ones I had found. I am now using a theme that I like better. I am still not in love with it, but I will keep it while I keep looking! Can I ever be content, or will I always continue to tinker with this site? I probably will always tinker!
The old theme is captured above for posterity.
In some of my free time over the past few weeks I have been looking for some free or cheap applications for my Blackberry I got from work. It has only been six months since I had a Blackberry but I can’t remember many of the applications I used on the BBerry. I think I just didn’t use that many.
For now all I have installed is Gmail, Facbook, and Google Maps. Since I have a personal iPhone I haven’t even used any of those applications since I have them all on my iPhone. The Blackberry is still great for mail, but so far not much else.
I worked from home today like I have been doing most Fridays. I was able to run out around 5:15 to go meet up with some friends for a few drinks. I shouldn’t have. My throat was hurting a little before I left, and is hurting more now. I meet up with Luke, Stanley, Ben, Vanessa, Jeannette, Danny & others for a few hours.
I am home now regretting the drinking and the going out. I did have a good time, it is just that my body is regretting it now! Lets hope this isn’t a cold, or the Zicam makes it go fast!
I read allot about cloud computing now a days. It makes me laugh because before that I read about grid computing, or web based apps, or web 2.0, etc. Someone writes up some new buzz words. To me alot of these terms boil down to getting access to my stuff from anywhere. If that is in a cloud, grid or web app, I don’t care. I want ubiquitous access to my stuff.
I have written about some of the technologies that make this happen for me before because it is very important. Something so minor today that happened to me reminded me of how important this is.
Today as I was winding down at work and preparing to go home I was updating the tasks I need to work on the rest of the week. I use Remember The Milk (RTM) for my task management, and I was having problems with google gears updating my offline copy of data so I was syncing my data and verifying all my tasks I worked on were updated. After I closed Firefox and began to shut down my laptop to go home I realized I had 3 pieces of paper with notes I took in a meeting that I needed to update some tasks with new actions. To turn my laptop back on and boot it up would take like 15 minutes (don’t ask why XP takes that long, I don’t know), and putting the papers in my bag to take home was a good idea. The only issue was I knew I would forget to input the info when I got home. Knowing I had to do it while I remembered I grabbed my iPhone and opened my Remember The Milk app on it and sync’d down a replica copy of my data. I updated the most important items to RTM and put the few remaining notes that could wait a few days to add into my bag. It took a bit longer to enter info on the iPhone but everything was updated. I then made further updates on the Subway on the way home, and then re-synced the data when I got home on my Wifi connection. I could have done it walking from the Subway but it was just faster to use my WIFI connection. The entire process was entirely seamless. During the entire process I had my information up to date anywhere I need it. My home computer, phone, or work computer! To me that is the perfect example of having my stuff, data, whatever anywhere I need it to be.
RTM uses a web browser, Google Gears, and the iPhone with data synchronization to enable data everywhere. Other applications or tools I use have different methods.
I used to use VoodoPad as a personal wiki. Then I started using multiple computers. One of then happens to be a windows XP box so a Mac only app like VoodoPad no longer cut it. I needed the data in that wiki more than when I was just sitting at home. I tried Google Apps, then Zoho, and then I ended up with my own installation of Mediawiki. I secured the site and now I can access the wiki from any computer with an internet connection. No cloud needed. Just a simple web application worked. For some work related stuff that I want to track for just me I still use Zoho since they have a nicer GUI, and WYSIWYG editor.
For email I used to use a simple IMAP mail store, but I only had recent mail (past few months) online. Then I started using Google Apps and got addicted to having all my mail from all time in one place. I never thought I would ditch an application for a web browser as my email but I did. I had some things I didn’t like Google Apps for (I previously talked about it), so I ended up using Zimbra. Now I have all my personal mail in 01.com’s cloud. Not sure if it is really a cloud but that is what they call it. I can now access my mail from any browser (and it looks fantastic), any IMAP application, Outlook with the Zimbra plugin, or they even have their own app that sync’s data. And there is Mac version of the app too. I use the Exchange connector on my iPhone to sync all the address, mail, and calendar data from Zimbra to my phone. It automatically sync’s up when data changes. No need to plug in and sync. Knock on wood i haven’t had any noticeable issues with the syncing. I also sync the same data to my Address book & iCal on my Mac for offline editing. I can access that data anywhere, and I do use all the options I have to access it!
The last major application I use to access my data anywhere is probably the coolest. It is SugarSync. I have written about it before, so I won’t really go into why I like it. What I will say is I have started putting more data into my SugarSync replica. Jayson got me thinging about it when he started playing with the Amazon S3 cloud for backups of his personal data. I have used SugarSync to keep my office type documents backed up for a few months and I have loved it. I want to start using it or something like the S3 to backup all my important stuff. My close call a few months a go that almost cost me all of my backed up data got me thinking. Just having 2 hard drives wasn’t enough. I started putting my archive of photo’s onto the S3 today. I hope to calculate how much doing the same to video’s will cost. These systems (S3 or SugarSync) gives me access to my files from anywhere. I have used SugarSync to open files on my iPhone to grab information. It has been very useful. If I sync everything up in a cloud storage system I could use any computer just like I was at my own. Yes there are some pitfalls to that system (I like locally downloaded replica copies of stuff for ease of use) but overall it is a really cool idea that has worked for me!
Last night I ended up going Bowling of all places. I don’t bowl very often, but whenever I do I have a good time. I went to Bowlmor near Union Square with a friend. We played 3 games. I was surprised I actually won all 3. My wrist hurt afterwards. I then remembered why i don’t go bowling very often. The wrist hurting happens. Oh well.
Also had drinks and dinner at the Heartland Brewery beforehand. That place is always fun. Work was typical craziness today. I was in the office today, but my team wasn’t. We switched the one day the local team meets to Thursday this week.
Today started off on a negitive. Well lets face it, all Monday’s do, but this one started off with getting a call from work at 6:30. That is never good. It then was hectic for most of the morning and early afternoon. By then all of the excitment from the weekend was squared away. Then it was time to focus on other outstanding issues. I was thankful when it was after hours, even though I can’t recall where 3-5PM went!
I had to take something for a brewing Migraine. Thankfully the drugs worked, but I am not happy that I had to take something. I am trying to limit the meds, but major head ache makes you take stuff.
Other than that the evening was ok. I cooked up some crab cakes for dinner. Checked my mail and tried to clean off some shows built up on my Tivo.
I had to work this weekend. It wasn’t just work, but I had to be onsite at a data center for all of Saturday. I can’t and won’t really talk about what I did, but it was allot of waiting, and then allot of work. During a lul in the work I left a little before 9PM. I got home before 10 and was back on a conference call regarding the work that was going on. Unfortunately things took allot longer than originally anticipated and I had to get on another call at midnight. It didn’t end until after 4AM.
I vaguely remember getting to bed around 4:30 and was up by 9:30 freaking that I slept past an alarm I had at 9AM for another call. Thankfully that call never happened anyway. I ended up working for the majority of the day until after 5. Thankfully everything worked out ok, but things were dicy for a while. I really would like to talk in more detail but I am mindful of the sensitivity of what I work with. So nothing more than the vague descriptions I gave.
Thankfully I was able to get a little rest in tonight before sitting down to write this. Now it is off to bed.
I went to Blaggards for a quick round of drinks last night. I said it would be quick since I knew I had to get up really early for work tomorrow. 3 rounds in I knew it wasn’t going to be as quick a night as I thought. I did get home at a semi-resonable hour but I had more rounds than I planned. I didn’t sleep so hot because of that. I did get to see a bunch of friends, so I was happy.
Getting the rental car this morning was painless, that is why I like Zipcar. The trip to New Jersey wasn’t so bad, but even at 9AM there was some light traffic. 10 miles takes 40 minutes with little traffic on in NYC.
Back in August I wrote about how I was saving by using Skype instaed of my mobile phone when at home.
I also finally canceled my Broadvoice account over the summer. It wasn’t because I was unhappy with the service. I was, in fact they were always great. I would recomend them to friends looking for a VOIP phone. I just didn’t use the service that much so it wasn’t worth spending the $8 or so a month that it cost to have the cheapest plan. I also was using Skype more and Skype was cheaper and provided more options for me. It wasn’t an easy choice but eventually Skype won out and I dropped Broadvoice.
Up until August I had switched to an unlimited Mobile phone plan so I could use my Mobile as my only phone and not have to worry about number of minutes used. This was nice and easy but also about $40 more expensive per month than I was previously paying for Mobile voice service.
Now I am using Skype out for my calls when I am at home, and I am routing most of my work calls through GrandCentral so I can select what phone I want them to ring at. This has decreased my Mobile minutes used by allot. I probably could get by with only 450 minutes a month but I have yet taken the plunge and switched to that cheap of a plan. I am sticking with the 900 minutes I have had but I use less and less each month. It is weird since I have relied on my mobile as basically my only phone for years. I have been thinking about going back to the unlimited mobile service because it is just easier to deal with, but for now I am enjoying cheaper service with Skype!
Saw slumdog millionare tonight. It was a good movie. I went to dinner afterward. Overall a fun night.