How to Move to the Cloud

Well, it happened.

My life reached critical mass, I had lots of things to do in many places, all of which require a variety of internet access, and an infinite amount of patience.

If only I could defrag my brain this easily- Time to get organised

Time to move to the cloud …but how to do it without going bonkers?  The subject of my latest post,  I regret to admit, is the reason for a lot of non-blogging.

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The mission was to move everything away from a specific platform (i.e. one laptop) and move it somewhere I can access EVERYWHERE, that would be on the mobile, both laptops, both desktops and at internet locations all over the known universe. Bleh.

Does that sound like a nightmare? It was.  I’m nearly there, though.

So here goes.

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1. I have 37,000 emails I need to have access to on my outlook email – how can I access them somewhere else?

First of all, I needed to find a way to see my old emails on the internet. As I own a domain, I opened a free google apps account – then took advantage of the free google email uploader.

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I faffed about with pointing CNAMEs in the right direction etc and used the help pages quite a bit. Now your domain hosting service should be able to help out  if you’re thinking of doing this too, and they will be the people to talk to if you’re having a spot of bother.  It all worked fine after I’d sorted out the settings, but took AGES to run as there was so much email to upload.  Happily, after leaving it to do its business, I now have a fully searchable online email database.

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2. Can I get GMail on the move?

I use a Nokia N95  (although its days are numbered, poor thing takes a lifetime to go to “image gallery” now bless it) – and visited the Gmail mobile apps page to download gmail for my phone.  The mobile application for Nokia is now playing nicely with google apps users (if you’re on the mobile reading this, then go here m.google.com) So now I access my Gmail from my phone and any computer with an internet connection.

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Only problem is that it’s still pull, but I’m not too bothered about that at the moment.

3. I add appointments on my mobile phone and while I’m at the computer.  How can I see everything without it all going wrong?

Goosync

Now, it so happens that there is a little programme called GooSync which will happily sync your calendar with your google calendar for free. If you want to do other things as well, you’ll have to pay.

(UPDATE – Goosync has now started charging as at 19-10-09 - £5.99 per year for this service. Oh well, there goes the “free”…)

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Once set up  (and GooSync will send you a text message to sort all your settings out) you just go to the Sync menu of your phone, and synchronize your calendar.  Like Gmail on the phone, you have to remember to do it reasonably often - (do let me know if there’s a way to schedule it to sync regularly)  – but it means I can sync my phone calendar without needing a computer USB cable.

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4. What about stuff  like Documents, spreadsheets – that kind of thing…?

Dropbox File Holder

Enter dropbox, a brilliantly simple and automatic way of keeping your stuff in one virtual place.

The way this works is you have a “dropbox” folder in, say, “my documents” and anything you store there gets Sync’ed up to your dropbox folder in the cloud, and back down to any other dropbox folders on, say, your other computers when they next connect to the internet.  The whole thing is done quickly and without any drama.

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I have a dropbox app on my (mobile) laptop, and one on my (stationary) monster Mac Pro.  I access my docs on other computers by logging into the service online and accessing my files from there – downloading and uploading as I wish.

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How clever – and great if you are on a work or shared computer and you don’t want to download your dropbox there.

Yes, of course I use Google docs but find that sometimes docs uploaded from Excel/Word don’t really like it up there, and go a bit squiffy.  I love Google docs for the sharing,  but not for the sort of anorak-style colour-coding obsessed spreadsheet madness that I’m afflicted with.

Dropbox is completely free for the 2GB version, however if you’re storing video or music, you might feel the need to upgrade to one of their paid-for options with more storage.

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5. My infinite things to do list… er, a little help?

nozbe project manager

I’ve been using Nozbe for a while, which has a “free 5 project plan” that you have to hunt for on the home page.

Nozbe Project Managment

If you’re a fan of “getting things done” by David Allen (and I am) , you’ll be familiar with the ideas behind this project management site - Although there’s a “nearly there”  ipod touch/ iphone app which accompanies this website where you  sync your “to-do’s” online with your nozbe account, I use Nozbe exclusively on a browser at whichever computer I’m plonked in front of.

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This online project management tool will give you your “next actions” across projects.  This means that once you’ve entered your various (and copious) things to do in different areas – say “music composing”, “home admin” and “holiday planning” - you can see what needs to be done on each project THAT DAY. Really good if you are working on a few different things at once

6. What about my contacts?

Everything needs to be sync-able with everything else, so any changes made on one platform have to be reflected in the other.

Zyb contact sync

I’m so close to getting my contacts sorted.  Using zyb to synchronise my contacts from my phone to their internet site is pretty cool, but I’m still working out how to merge the ridiculous contact list on my phone with the laughably giant contact list on google apps.  I also have a gmail account that could do with a bit of a tidy.

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This is the only area where I’m not quite sorted yet - and yes, I bet there are lots of paid-for ways to get my contacts in order and in sync, but I want to do it for free. And not with an iPhone

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So there we have it – a move to the cloud which I’ve nearly managed… please comment if you’ve found something awesome that I’ve missed.

Now for some chocolate.

 

Qype: Akasiro in London

London – Eating & Drinking – Restaurants

I am DEFINITELY coming back to this small but perfectly formed japanese paradise.

Nestled in the small road behind the big Vue, Akasiro exudes a quiet informal charm, countered by exuberant flavours. Friendly staff make this even more of a find – but it’s too tasty to keep it a secret.

It’s one of those places where you wish you were more hungry so you could fit more in.

I had tuna rolls (tasty) agedashi tofu (delicious) and a generous salmon skewer dipped in luxurious silky teriyaki sauce (sublime).

My companion had the udon noodles in soup. topped with tempura – and this, along with my feast and some green tea, came to £25 for both of us.

See you in there…

Check out my review of Akasiro – I am ljrich – on Qype

 

My Three Keyboard Cat Moon T Shirt

The first item of clothing I ever bought on the internet came in the post yesterday…

Three Keyboard Cat Moon T shirt from Threadless

Here’s me in it…

Rock 'n' Roll!

yb

I wore it to work and got comments ranging from “That is Excellent” to
“I can’t believe you buy your clothes off the internet”.

But I don’t care. I want to wear it FOREVER*.  I shall hand wash it.  I might
even buy another one in case I lose this one or get nutella on it.

The only problem with this Tshirt is that while I’m wearing this fabulous
garment,  I can’t look at it at the same time.

Of course, this design is a combination of Amazon’s Three Wolf Moon
T shirt (below)

Three Wolf Moon - top selling shirt

…and Keyboard Cat, the friendly feline that plays people off the stage when
they do something catastrophic:

So, what have we learned from this exercise?  Sometimes the Internet can
surprise us with creativity – this mashing of memes gave us something greater
than the sum of its parts. The Tshirt was scored by 3,791 people, and rated
4.48 out of 5.

Perhaps broad appeal is the new niche.  I’m not worried about following the
crowd on this one.

Sorry about the photoshop rush job,  I was overcome by an uncontrollable
compulsion to upload this picture and couldn’t wait.  The office chairs and
other debris detracted from the WONDER and MAJESTY of said t-shirt.
It had to go.

*Or, at least, for a while.

 

Music Recognition on the BBC!

My piece on Music Recognition for the Beeb went out this week – it’s available in the UK on the iPlayer, type Click in there (it’s the 18th July episode) or you can click on this click link by clicking this word: Click.

I am attempting to track down the link for the world version as we speak.

Tinkling the iVories on the iPlayer!

Here’s a pic of me at a big white grand piano – kindly provided by the players bar in Charing Cross  at about half a day’s notice.  Cue me turning up at 0900 with too much kit and not enough coffee.  They were nice to me, even in my kraken-like pre-caffeinated state.

The piano looked lovely, apart from 4 of the notes which weren’t quite there. 2 went plunk, one went baow and one went pffff, so I transposed some of the music. You shouldn’t hear any plunks, baows or pffffs .

There’s also an instrumental arrangement of Europe’s “The Final Countdown” in the piece which I played especially :-)

More piccies below

plinky plunky

 

Blah blah blah plinky blah blah - my piece to camera

 

 Thanks to music recognition people Shazam, Midomi (from Melodis) and mHashup for letting me  interview them.

 

Qype: lucky voice in London

London – Nightlife – Karaoke

Save your voice. You’re best off whispering all day…

…because if you end up visiting Lucky Voice karaoke, then you are guaranteed to be yowling deep into the night.

I left what little pride and street-cred I had at the door and gazed upon the shocked faces of my friends as I foghorned my way through Whitney Houston and Chicago, via the Prodigy.

Happily, they wailed along to even more embarrassing tunes in return, so at least what happened in that private room will stay there – an uneasy truce between Karaoke sinners, if you will. Oh, and the sound system rocked.

Lucky Voice is the closest I’ve come to the KTV experiences I’ve had in Shanghai, except the keyboard wasn’t all in Mandarin Chinese, it was a touch screen where you could search by artist or song.

Although not the cheapest karaoke around, the friendly staff and ample drink choices make it a great night out for a special treat.

Just don’t expect to be able to answer the phone with anything more than a croaky grunt the next morning.

Check out my review of lucky voice – I am ljrich – on Qype

 

Nom Nom Nom 2009

…is only 10 hours away, and I’m ready.

No, of course I’m not ready, but I did source a particularly effective chef’s hat…

The last month has been brilliant, manic and, alas, almost completely sleep-free.

Excitingly I’m going to be on the BBC again next week as my piece on Music Recognition should be cooked by then – first I have to get 2 or 3 internet shots at some ridiculously unsociable hour on Monday morning, before crawling into the Edit with both Callie the Editor and the sort of coffee that causes spontaneous leg-shaking and hallucinations.

But before that in 10 hours’ time I shall be entering NomNomNom 2009, a charity cook-off where the fabulous Jemimahknight and I are charged with making a 3-course meal and serving it to 2-michelin-starred chef Tom Aikens – so no pressure there, then…

Our team is called Bork Bork Bork – will report back with pix and video assuming I survive.

 

Sanyo Xacti CG10 Dual Camcorder

Hello, If you want to view some video footage of  the Sanyo Xacti CG10 Dual Camcorder, here it is…

Must dash, I’m back on in about 9 mins!

 

Speech Recognition on BBC Click

What a bonkers few weeks it has been….

The reason for my spectacular failure to blog is the same as my failure to sleep and even eat adequately – see below:

at the BBC in the Click Labs!

For the last 3 weeks I have been having “unfinished programme” nightmares due to a rather gentle deadline becoming a horrible looming urgent certainty… but it’s all over now, phew.

Until the next time, that is…

I’m rather happy to report that the waveforms used in this piece are of “panda” , “pancake” and “pan-galactic gargle blaster” respectively. You can watch this programme by clicking on the picture, or by clicking here.

Now that I’ve also assuaged my “bloggers guilt” albeit with a teeny post, I shall now hope to get some proper sleep. When I wake up, I’ll see you on the internet very soon.

/LJ

 

W00t! new linguistics on the net FTW!

Ok, I’m happy painting my life as a technology-loving geeky social network addict, it’s pretty easy because it’s true. I tweet and send pictures through my mobile on twitter and flickr, I am on facebook, qype, youtube, ping.fm and I’m on other places where I can’t even remember my username – you get the idea, some of you are probably the same as me, or worse. 

You’d think I’d be right up there, jacked in to cyberspace, fully comprehending the internet and not even seeing the code, as it were.  Sadly, I’m nowhere near where I want to be – still far too lost in the ether that is the new net-speak, although I’m clawing back some comprehension every day.

Looking back through my (and others’) twitterstream, the linguistics of the internet is in the process of undergoing yet another evolution. I’m learning a whole new language in order to keep up with my much cooler and hipper online buddies.

The emoticons we’re familiar with since I joined the internet (or before), are everywhere, even my dad texts and emails with  : – ) and  ; – )  .  Stuff like BRB is pretty easy to interpret and a rough knowledge of phonetics and/or a willingness to tilt your head to one side is enough to make a start on translating the rest.  

It’s all changed now there are so many new codes based on everything from gamer-speak to the economy of letters that Twitter’s 140-character limit has imposed. So what is the last resort of the enquiring mind?  I conclude that one needs to be either “in the know” or risk Urban Dictionary (and possible ridicule for choosing the wrong acronym) to find out the meaning and usage of the latest net-exclusive abbreviations.   

On to the reason for the post – this Wednesday, I’m going to be on the radio talking about the pressure to ‘keep up’ on the internet, not just emoticons and phraseology, but also keeping up with your facebook friends and your twitter chums.  I’d love to read what you think.

Do you feel anxious when you’ve not posted what you’re doing? Do you feel guilty if you haven’t blogged / updated your status for a while?  I’d also love to know whether you use acronyms such as FTW (or even WTF!) on the interwebs, whether you embrace it or can’t bear it, and if you have any good ones you can share with me…  Please feel free to leave your comments, and try to make sure that they are SFW kthxbai…

p.s. you can listen live to the show on BBC Radio Scotland at 10.30 GMT on 15th April 2009.

 

Mini Glossary for n00bs

w00t! (with zeros instead of O’s, although this font doesn’t show it as well as the header) gamer-speak with disputed origins, usage: celebratory

FTW = For The Win – usage is normally when you’re about to achieve something e.g. “eating 15 banana frittters FTW”

SFW / NSFW = Safe For Work / Not Safe For Work – usage is normally preceding or following a link where it’s not immediately obvious where it goes – can be used on twitter when posting tiny urls - stops you opening an inappropriate link in front of whoever’s lurking over your monitor.

kthxbai = OK, Thanks, Bye – Lolcats use this language a lot, pop over to http://icanhascheezburger.com/  for detailed exploration. You will waste time, though.

 

My Most Treasured Possession

I attended this year’s Figures of Speech event in London last week which raised money for the Institute of Contemporary Arts.  Speakers included Bob Geldof, Alan Carr and Janet Street-Porter, all talking about their most treasured possessions.  Spinvox’s James Whatley, who hosted the Bloggers’ table, has asked that each of us do the same, so here’s mine.

 

 

If you see me out at night, the chances are I’ll have 2 big blue things in my ears, my beloved protectors of unwelcome noise, my USA-imported saviours, the humble hearos ear-plug. Since my previous life as a 4-times-a week musical performer, I’ve always made sure to wear hearing protection when gigging – a lot of the time, the monitors in front of the stage pointing at the band would be as loud, if not louder, than the speakers pointing at the audience. Whilst it looks a little unconventional, wearing my most treasured possession is worth all the good-natured pointing and laughing I get for the moment I step outside.

I pull out my earplugs and my hearing is crystalline, compared to my companions, who are shouting incoherently at each other over the ringing in their own ears. I generally put my earplugs back in at this point until they have calmed down.

what?

 

The most painful thought for me is that if I lose my ability to hear, I won’t be able to navigate my world anymore. I spent such a long time getting used to the many dissonances of daily life, vexed by the microtones in each new scenario until I was taught how to process those sounds as music. It turns out that if you use the appropriate scale, then your audio landscape can become a wonderful, if chaotic, symphony*.

I would be devastated if I could no longer use this method to interact with the world. I recognise people more easily by the sound of their voices than their physical appearance, which is another source of great amusement to those I see regularly.

If I lost my sense of hearing, I fear I will lose the friends I can’t recognise by sight alone. Even sitting on the tube, as I write this, I can hear someone’s headphones at an ear-splitting volume. I wonder momentarily why we seem so relaxed about protecting something that’s fundamentally irreplaceable, before replacing my earplugs, letting the sounds of the Jubilee line recede to a blissfully tolerable volume.

NB *Within reason, of course – I’m not counting the downstairs flat’s questionable and mystifying 125dB musical interludes at 1am on a Monday morning.