Announcing Richard!

He's 8 pounds and 14 ounces, 21 3/4 inches long. Wow!

Waiting for package

It's been a crazy couple of months... Now, I'm just waiting... Waiting for that special package to show up.

Amazing Feeling

Today, I felt the most amazing thing!

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Backups are finally done!

Testing

Plan

This month's PG&E bill is about $120 cheaper than when I first started this project. Phone bill is also cheaper. Will need to check the Comcast bill.

The Most Amazing Sound

Today, we heard the most amazing sound! We will post it up here shortly.

Victory!

Just got the great news! Heard from Conrad. We have a legal and moral victory!

Amazing!

Today, we experienced something really really amazing! Can't really discuss it right this moment, but I wanted to record this date and time and explain it further when I get a chance.

400GBs and Counting

Not sure how long it has been as I type this. I only know that as of about 15 minutes ago, my machine uploaded 400GB of data up to the cloud. And... Only another 450GB to go. At this rate, it is more of a peace of mind that I am doing this. It obviously is going to take forever to upload all this data. But it is so worth it because I know that whatever happens to my machines, I will always be able to get at my info. I can always access the files individually, or order a hard drive with the info on it.

Plan is Working

Yesterday, I got my bill for PG&E and my plan is working. With my main server turned off for about 3 weeks, my latest bill is $55 cheaper. For a full month, it should come out to $80 cheaper. With the cost of moving things into the cloud, I still come out $50 ahead.

Death of a Hard Drive

Sadly last night, one of my hard drives died. But luckily, I saved all the data I needed from it already. Most of the data is on its way to the cloud.

On another note, I'm starting to turn my main computer into a server. Just installed VMware Server on it and moved some of my VMs over.

Search for Other Online Backups

Since Carbonite turned out to have those two severe limitations, I went looking for other online services. I really liked the unlimited backup size and the online accessibility of Carbonite. But after using DropBox, I don't really need to have my backups to be accessible from my devices. Most of the time, I'm going to need them from my laptop. Luckily, I found an online provider that has all of these features: LiveDrive. We'll see how well it holds up as I give it a spin for the next couple of weeks.

Update: After syncing 12 hours, it has uploaded 4GB or so.

Further update: after 36 hours, we're up to 12GB or so.

Carbonite

Alright, after really moving things into the cloud, I realize that there's one feature I don't have in the cloud: backup. So even though I moved things into the cloud, I'm still worried about having other files on my computers that are only backed up locally. After doing some research, I finally settled on Carbonite. It's got the best price: $59 a year! Other companies offer storage for a price per month whereas Carbonite offers unlimited storage. They charge by the computer for the year. Can't beat that price. I'm going through a trial period now. Another feature I love is that my files are available through my portable devices. Give them a try!

Update: There are two serious limitations to Carbonite that prevent it for my use. The first is that there is a rate limit for the uploads from my computer to their site. The second is that it doesn't backup my external hard drives. How dumb are these restrictions? I totally can't understand the first restriction. I have 450GB of pictures! If you restrict my upload, how long will it take to upload this? Maybe a year? Ugh.

Speed!

Neat!

So Excited!

I am sitting here on a beautiful Monday, slowly digesting my banana, waiting for a bus. I am anxious, waiting for 2 o'clock. It is a brand new day, a brand new start. I can't wait.

Flowers

What else were you expecting?

Happy Birthday

I can't believe it has been a year since Elson past away. I miss him dearly. Rest in Peace!

Moving to the Cloud

On April 4th, I've decided to move everything over to the cloud. I've been working in the cloud space since 2001. I've created my first domain back in 1998 and hosted some sort of service since. My servers have been increasingly more powerful through the years to today where it is a dual quad-core Xeon CPUs with 28GB of ram and raid 5 hard drives. For the most part, it runs headless. Even so, it sucks up quite a bit of power. I haven't measured exactly how much power it uses, but my electricity bill is much higher than I would like ($200+). I figure the server is using at least $100 of that per month.

What I mostly use my server for is the following:

• Email
• Web hosting
• Pictures and videos
• File sharing
• Source control
• Project management
• Blogging

My needs are different from most people, but for me, having a server all these years kept me in the loop on how to write software for the web and running it. Do I need to run my own server anymore? I've been writing software for the cloud since 2000. I should really start using other people's work.

So I started doing a little research:

Service	Cost per month
Email	$4.17
Web hosting	$0 - comes with Email
Pictures and videos	$5.00
File sharing	$10
Source control	$5.83
Project management	$0 - comes with Source Control
Blogging	$0 - comes with Email

So the cost so far is $25 per month for a savings of at least $75 a month. I'm guessing more. In addition, I also to take advantage of my provider's bandwidth. Another requirement for me is that the service must work with iPad and Android phones.

The providers I'm using are:

• Google
• Drop Box
• Codesion
• Smugmug

I'm also using these free services:

• Freshbooks
• Evernote