Backups

Jan 29, 2012

There are two kinds of people in the world: those that have had a hard drive fail and those that will have a hard drive fail. The Internet

Our lives are increasingly expressed in long strings of ones and zeroes called bits. Bits make bytes and bytes get piled up into mega-, giga-, and terabytes. Believe it or not, there was a time when the only copy of your family pictures lived in your house. Likewise for your books, music, personal documents, etc. If your house burned down, you might be able to grab an album of photos or two, but generally, such a catastrophe meant your precious memories were no longer expressed in physical artifacts extant anywhere in the world. Harrowing.

With physical items, having backups is simply not scalable. You could buy multiple copies of each book or album, photocopy your notebooks and writings, but eventually, you would run out of space and money.

Fortunately, ones and zeroes are relatively cheap copies to make. Your data should exist in at least three places: the main copy on your computer, a local backup, and a remote backup.

Local

For Mac users, local backups don’t come any simpler than Time Machine. This is the minimum requirement for backups.

Buy the biggest, best drive that you can afford. At a minimum, the drive should be at least twice the size of your main drive. I strongly recommend using a Time Capsule for Time Machine, but hard drives like this one work great too. Put it in a bookcase or drawer near your desk and run the cable to your computer. Plug it in every time you come back to your desk and Time Machine will back up your stuff. (In Lion, Time Machine will also maintain your backup history while you’re away from your backup drive as long as there’s space, and then offload that history to your backup drive when it’s reconnected.)

If you want even more backup storage and history, consider a Drobo FS stuffed with at least three of these Western Digital Caviar Black hard drives. Mix and match the size if you like, but get at least three so the Drobo can do its thing properly.

Remote

A clone is a fantastic first step. If you don’t do anything else, you’re at least covered on the primary hardware failure front and you’re thus way ahead of most people whose fingers ever touch a computer. But, what if your house burns down or floods? What happens if someone breaks into your house and steals all your computer equipment? These catastrophe scenarios are why you need a remote backup as well.

Backblaze

There are other options out there, but I recommend Backblaze. The initial backup will take quite a while (maybe up to a few weeks) if you don’t have a fast Internet connection or if your computer isn’t connected to the Internet all the time. One of my favorite things about Backblaze is the security. You can specify your own encryption key in the form of a password that you provide. Backblaze is $50 per computer per year. Every computer in our house backs up to Backblaze.

Dropbox

Dropbox is technically not a backup service. It is a file synchronization service. But, with your files safely stored on Dropbox’s servers, you can simply link a new computer to Dropbox and have those files restored just as fast as your Internet connection will carry them. Dropbox also keeps a history for your files. The 2 GB account is free, and you can purchase more storage if you need it. All of my most important files live on Dropbox, and since it’s become the de facto synchronization mechanism for apps on my iPhone and iPad such as 1Password, Elements, and TextExpander, it’s an indispensable tool.

Conclusion

Backups are important. Yes, it costs money to get this set up and to keep it going, but the peace of mind is priceless.

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Blue Morpho

Jan 28, 2012

Blue morpho by @slb

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Roller Coaster

Jan 28, 2012

Roller Coaster by Matthew Davis, 2009

(via Colossal)

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Be Careful, Not Scared

Jan 26, 2012

In Starbucks today, an acquaintance leaned over and said, “Is this true?” while gesturing to the opening paragraph in the dead tree version of this article from the New York Times that read in part,

A jovial senior engineer at the Georgia Tech Research Institute in Atlanta…can hack into your cellphone just by dialing the number.

I wasn’t surprised to hear the concern in his voice. I calmly said, “Let me look into it,” and found the article online.

First, I tried not to read it as a nerd. I tried to get my mind into the state of the scared man that showed me the article. When I did, what I read then was a horror story about how all my information and secret dealings could be heard if this smart guy (or someone who knows how to use Google) dialed my phone number. Harrowing.

Then, I read it as a nerd. I read a story about vulnerabilities that exist with phones if users do silly things like installing software from unsolicited communications that they haven’t verified, installing cracked software, or using unsecured Wi-Fi. Suddenly, this smart man at the Georgia Tech Research Institute has a lot of dependencies that extend beyond dialing my phone number. He has to somehow trick me into doing something fishy.

If you’re not a nerd, here’s what you need to know about this:

Don’t install software whose provenance you haven’t verified, and don’t pirate software.
Browse securely. Don’t browse non-secured sites (http:// vs https://) over a non-secure connection. If you didn’t have to enter a password¹, then the connection is not secure. Beyond that, if someone else has the password, they can (theoretically) decrypt the traffic too. If you use non-secured or public Wi-Fi connections, use protection. I recommend Cloak.

That’s it.

The upshot is this. Whenever you feel afraid, ask yourself what the source of that fear has to gain by causing you to feel afraid. If it’s a natural disaster, the answer is nothing. If it’s a website with an author writing for a large entity, that could be advertising revenue and “stickiness“.

The New York Times is not a natural disaster.

Make sure the connection is secured with a strong password and WPA2 because WEP is not secure ↩

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@slb: I’d hit a moose with a shovel for you.

Jan 26, 2012

Just a friendly heads up that @slb has won the Internet, so you can all go home early.

I’d hit a moose with a shovel for you.

— @slb

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Rashad Alakbarov Paints with Shadows and Light

Jan 23, 2012

(via Colossal)

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New York Bridge by Wouter van Buuren

Jan 23, 2012

New York Bridge

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Kempt – The Lost Art of the Toast

Jan 23, 2012

[E]ver since the 17th century, the custom has been to make eye contact at the moment you touch cups.

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First Set Performance

Jan 21, 2012

Last week, in an open air theater in the Dominican Republic, I stood up in front of most of my coworkers and several of their family members to share with them this thing that I do. My performance served as the opening act for our guest speaker, whose encouraging work regarding time, attention, and creative work has contributed greatly to my ability to tolerate sucking while I work at getting better.

I’ve been taking magic seriously for several months now and I’ve been feeling pretty good about the progress I’ve made, a couple of embarrassing moments notwithstanding. But a few months ago, I began to notice a plateau with my progress. I frequently perform one-off tricks for friends and family or the occasional unfortunate barista, but I don’t have many opportunities for longer performances. I think this was hampering my improvement.

With our annual company get-together was coming up. I realized that if I worked hard, I could have a set prepared to perform. So, that’s what I did. The set consisted of:

A John Carney sponge ball routine from Carneycopia
A torn-and-restored napkin effect from Mark Wilson’s Complete Course
A card trick with a magician-in-trouble plot element, modified from Royal Road
A copper and silver effect that led into
A coin vanish, revealed in an impossible location.

Video of the performance is just over fifteen minutes, and I felt really good about it. I was able to get several audience members involved, including the kids. Watching the video back, I see I missed a couple of performance nuances and I could do a better job of maintaining my status, but overall, for my first proper performance, I’m really happy.

Here are a couple of things I did that I think made my performance successful.

First, I kept the set short and manageable.¹ Even with some trusted guidance, I was tempted to extend the card section of the set in a way that would have created more stress for me. I eventually came to my senses and I kept the set short and straightforward.

Second, I made sure to create a performing environment where I didn’t feel pressured or scrutinized by anyone but myself. I didn’t want to get a paying gig or busk; I wanted a safe environment for my first performance since I tend to get very nervous.

Finally, I picked my audience. Performing for a birthday party or other unpredictable situation means the magician has to pay a lot of attention to the crowd to avoid troublemakers and other such performing obstacles. Since these were all my coworkers, I already knew who to avoid, who would react well to certain effects, and who would get the most delight from the experience. I knew all of this going in and that made a huge difference in letting me focus on my performance.

I’m not sure what’s next for me in terms of performance, but I’m going to keep working at the process, learning more material and learning more about my own performing style and character because, as Merlin says,

as far as I can tell, dedication to the process can’t help but make you a better photographer — or a better whatever, for that matter.

Thanks to Andrew for his gracious assistance and feedback in putting together the set. ↩

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Jan 17, 2012

They look like big, good, strong hands, don’t they? I always thought that’s what they were.

— Rock Biter

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Dec 9, 2011

This, then, may be the one great secret that keeps the uninitiated out of the “inner circle”, and those “in the know” secure in their art: the ability to care.

— John Carney

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Looking forward to a rock and roll show

Dec 8, 2011

I’m looking forward to a rock and roll show. Five Iron Frenzy played their very last show at the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver, Colorado, more than eight years ago and the worst day of my life was hurtling toward me.

When I pulled into the drive out front, I noticed that grass had nearly finished overtaking the gravel that marked where cars were meant to park. I sat in the car for a long time because I didn’t know how to move.

I swang the gate open and walked up the sidewalk and onto the porch to a front door I didn’t know how to address. I felt I had abdicated the right to simply open the door and walk inside. But ringing the doorbell of my grandparents’ house didn’t seem like a more sane option. Luckily, I didn’t have to decide. He called out, “Come in, Jamie,” with all the strength and joy the brace on his neck would allow him to express.

I wonder if he chose to use my name deliberately to discretely signal what was happening to my grandma; she thought he was hallucinating or having some sort of aphasia. She was sitting at the table in the dining room picking through the beans for Monday. We always had beans on Mondays.

I sat next to him for a while and the seconds ticked excruciatingly off the clock, both too slow and way too fucking fast. I don’t remember what we talked about. Since it was Novemeber, we probably talked about how school was going. I probably told him about the trip to Denver, how it snowed while we were there. Since it was Sunday, we probably talked about football. Maybe we talked about how Thanksgiving was coming up and how I’d try to make it back to watch the Packers play the Lions. We liked the Packers and my grandma liked the Lions.

When I finally had to get back in the truck and leave, the pain I had been poorly hiding boiled over. I drove to the end of the street and stopped at the stop sign. I screamed in the silence so hard and loud that I could no longer hear myself. I punished my steering wheel for the injustice and for my own selfish stubbornness. I screamed at God and begged for time. At least Christmas.

My granddad, my hero died on December 4 and I said the hardest goodbye I’ve ever known four days later.

Some time in 2012, somewhere in Denver, Colorado, Five Iron Frenzy will play their very first show in more than eight years, and I’ll be there. I don’t know what the days after that show will be like, but I know they can’t be as hard.

I’m looking forward to that rock and roll show.

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For your enjoyment and potentially limited usefulness

Dec 7, 2011

Lately, I’ve found myself highly amused by Merlin’s giggly reaction to Dan’s pronunciation of Brett TERPstra‘s surname on Back to Work. So great was my amusement that I made a ringtone. In iOS 5, this will work as a text tone as well.

Download the ringtone

Boom.

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Jamie Phelps

Proving the sunshine since 1980.

Backups

Local

Remote

Backblaze

Dropbox

Conclusion

Blue Morpho

Roller Coaster

Be Careful, Not Scared

@slb: I’d hit a moose with a shovel for you.

Rashad Alakbarov Paints with Shadows and Light

New York Bridge by Wouter van Buuren

Kempt – The Lost Art of the Toast

First Set Performance

Looking forward to a rock and roll show

For your enjoyment and potentially limited usefulness