Woke up a little stiff after yesterday’s 3hr bike and 30min run, so hit the trigger points before heading out. Average HR was 5-8% higher than I would have liked…but the pace felt good so I stuck with it. I expected Average HR to increased a little regardless because we went over the bridge and back, so two “hills” that aren’t usually in my path.

Roz rocked it too and kept a fantastic pace. Like a real champ…she vomited in the first 5min and then kept running…that’s dedication.

See it in gritty details.

I thought I’d take a couple minutes to provide an update on my latest backup and recovery strategy. It’s conceptually similar to what I’ve been doing albeit more streamlined with a heftier TCO (Total Cost of Ownership).

Excerpt from my earlier post

Based on Mike’s response to my scenario on the Bombich support forum it seemed I was on the right track but if the Mac crashes, backing up from a separate external might be easier. Likewise, I discovered that cloud backup providers like Carbonite, Mozy, BackBlaze and the like, aren’t as impressive as they first appear because they limit external drive backup (Carbonite) and several file types and sizes. BackBlaze at this point seems to be the best fit but it’s still leaves a bit to be desired.”

• Carbon Copy Cloner is setup to do a monthly auto-clone of my Mac
• Backblaze continusly backs up the Mac & Drobo

Read the full post here

Where I’m at today…

I’m lazy busy and tend to skip the Carbon Copy Cloner task every month. It’s a fairly manual process since I have to grab the 2nd external drive, boot it up and then let CCC do it’s thing. Maybe monthly cloning should be my new years resolution…

I’ve been satisfied with my monthly purchase of Backblaze and although I like the fact that it’ll backup the Drobo, there are limits to the file types/sizes it can handle i.e. operating system, installed software and metadata. The whole $5 per month for unlimited data within the limits Backblaze has going isn’t such a bad thing but it’s not quite as full-on as I’d like…

As an aside…

MacWorld recently published “Which online backup service is right for you?” and while it offers good feature/functionality coverage of each of the most popular products (Backblaze, Carbonite, CrashPlan, Dropbox, Jungle Disk and Mozy 2.0) they didn’t really go into much detail. They went so far as to provide a handy little rating rating system to help you decide quickly which product was “best” but failed to provide much in the way of analysis or testing.

Arq by Haystack Software

Fortunately, a couple months ago I stumbled across Arq by Haystack Software. Although I haven’t quite decided whether to use it as an add-on to my backup strategy or wholesale replacement to Backblaze, they’ve definitely provided solid answers to some of the more difficult scenarios. I wont bother going into the gory details since the do a fine job on their site but here are a few Arq features that I LOVE thus far…

• Stored on Amazon S3
• Grabs Applications & OS files
• No file size constraints
• AES-256 Encryption

Despite the added cost of backing up to Amazon S3 I’m much happier with the setup.

Down
Under the
Manhattan
Brooklyn
Overpass

My website is more experimental workshop than a record of days gone past, so yesterday I decided to un-publish everything and start from scratch. As time permits I might re-publish a few of the more noteworthy pages but for now I’m happy with starting over. I debated whether to move fully to my Tumblr, About.me or Flavors.me sites but they’re too simple…so instead I’ll stick with WordPress.

Here’s a little nugget I just found today… Search for “NBA” in Google and it returns game scores, schedules and more! You can also get team specific results by entering the full name e.g. New York Knicks.

The anticipation and excitement around our San Francisco to Brooklyn (#SF2Bklyn) move is growing by the day. Rina is took a redeye (what a trooper!) last night to NYC to kick off the house hunt. She’s been trolling CraigsList and PadMapper like they owe her money. Hopefully we’ll get lucky and she’ll find the perfect spot without having to stomp all over Brooklyn. Timing her trip has been a calculated risk, since apt. inventory tends to be lower during mid-month. On the other hand, if she’s unable to find a match, I’ll head out at the end of the month by which time there should be more digs on the market.

With Rina doing the leg work on the ground, I’ve resorted to getting familiar with the lay of the land…albeit virtually. Here’s one of the things I’m looking forward to checking out…

Brooklyn Brainery

Yet another fabulous name! I stumbled across the Brooklyn Brainery while checking out a couple projects on KickStarter. They basically coordinate/sponsor(?) collaborative classes on all sorts of topics. My favorite on the list is Whiskeytown (where was that class when I was in college!). Want to learn how to Whittle? Or try your hand at Pie Crust Making? Brooklyn Brainery is an environment where anyone can “teach” and everyone learns. “Teach” is used lightly here…you don’t have to be an expert…just a desire to spearhead a learning topic. It’s exploratory…friendly…community oriented.

Pretty cool idea, similar to UnClasses which was started by Rahmin awhile back.

Did you know that I’m also blogging over at Rubis Solutions? Seems that I’ve had a fair number of readers of this site ask what I’m working on which came as somewhat of a surprise. In case you missed it, I’m helping small and medium businesses move to Google Apps and The Cloud. Here are a few of the recent articles over on the Rubis blog.

FeedBurner Won’t Publish to Twitter?

A few suggestions on how I syndicate content and the tools I use. Continue reading…

DIY Google Apps Migration Workshop

I’ve put together a step-by-step guide on how to migrate to Google Apps. Continue reading…

What’s Missing From Google Apps

A look at what isn’t included in Google Apps and how to close the gap. Continue reading…

What is The Cloud

A simple translation of what the cloud is and how it is a significant shift in technology. Continue reading…

Text Messaging in Gmail Makes Life Easier

A quick how to guide describing how to use Google Apps GChat. Continue reading…

It’s as official as it gets in our world. A couple weeks back I mentioned we were working on relocating to Brooklyn but there were still a lot of details to be worked out. While there are still plenty of logistics, little things…like a place to live, the pieces are falling into place rather nicely. Rina’s heading out to NYC to size up the housing situation, then we’ll nail down transportation. A couple things that have been particularly surprising…

Flying Dogs

Since we got Roz a month or so after moving to San Francisco, we’ve never had to do the crate and ship scenario. Much to my surprise, flying a dog from July-September isn’t easy, recommended or even allowed by most carriers. If you need details about your shipping your pet…just search “pets” on the airlines website. After checking with several it looks like Alaska/Horizon is the only carrier that allows dogs during the summer and then only if the temperature in all touch-down spots is below 84 degrees. And another thing…Boxer’s and other short muzzled dogs are held to an even stricter guideline since they overheat so easily.

Rent in Brooklyn

We’re really catching a break on this front. At the moment, the rental market in NYC and Brooklyn is noticeably cheaper than San Francisco. New York housing costs are typically high but until we started looking a couple weeks ago, I didn’t really have much of a point of reference. For what we’re paying in SF we can get more space in Brooklyn. I suppose if we were living in the East Bay the same might be true but the BIG HUGE GINORMOUS difference in NY…public transportation is a lot faster. What takes 30-45minutes in the Bay Area appears to take 10-20 minutes in New York. Rina’s pretty stoked about this since she has to deal with SF public transportation on a daily basis…NYC seems to offer a much easier commute.

Well folks, there you have it. I’ll keep you posted as things fall into place. And by all means, if you happen to know of a centrally located 2-3 bedroom apartment in Brooklyn by all means let us know!

[UPDATE] I’ve revisited and updated my Drobo to Cloud strategy to include Amazon 3. Read more…

A couple weeks ago I finally decided to drop the hammer, purchase a Drobo and pick up a couple 2TB Green Caviar Hard Drives. First off…Drobo…Green Caviar…fabulous names! I’ve put this off for almost 2 years and finally broke down after cratering over 60G of hard drive space on my Mac Pro within 2 monhts. Not to mention that I maxed out my other external drive earlier this year. My lackluster backup system would be crippling on so many levels that I had to do something.

The Drobo offers dead simple setup but it stirred up all sorts of ideas and new possibilities which turned out to be a good thing. After playing around, researching and trying to sort out the “best possible” configuration, I finally got it situated. Here’s what I learned that might interest to you…

My Purrrfect Backup World

In my perfect world, Apple’s Time Machine wouldn’t be such a douche bag and consume every morsel of bytes on an external drive. Time Machine has always annoyed the hell out of me because it oversimplifies backup and recovery and tends to give the uninitiated a false sense of security. Sure, there are some ways to limit it’s hunger but I didn’t want to deal with that headache. Via the Drobo knowledge base, I came across a couple backup and recovery programs that could take the place of Time Machine. After a bit more research, I decided to go with Carbon Copy Cloner from Bombich. I also looked at SuperDuper which runs $28 but Bombich hooked me with their “try it ’til you trust it” model.

Our philosophy is that you should try the full-featured product until you trust it, then consider a donation to support the development of Carbon Copy Cloner. That’s right — try ALL of these features, for FREE, let the software establish your trust, THEN donate. Isn’t that the way it should be for such an important task? We think so too. – Bombich.com

I should also point out that the Drobo software has a “DroboCopy” feature. DroboCopy can be setup to automatically copy a drive, folders or files onto the Drobo. At first glance, this seemed to be ok but after mulling it over for a bit, it wasn’t quite a fit for what I wanted. Installing Carbon Copy Cloner was a cinch but configuring it gave me reason to pause. Another testament to the Bombich team, Mike got back to me in less than a day with one of the strongest support responses I’ve seen. Not only did he answer my question, provide guidance but he seemed genuinely concerned with ensuring that I didn’t screw things up.

My original idea for Drobo and Carbon Copy Cloner setup looked something like the image above. Since the Drobo is nearly always connected to my computer, I figured I would just clone my Mac drive on a monthly basis to the Drobo and then send it to the cloud for storage. The challenge with that scenario was that I also wanted to use the Drobo as a “live” working drive for k-weight heavy files (video, images and audio etc.). Rina and I have a pretty full digital life with a Flip video cam, a Canon HV20 and digital cams, so when it comes editing and creating little projects, storing things on the Mac can get intense. So basically, I wanted the ability to drop files directly onto the Drobo and skip the Mac altogether but still have Carbon Copy Cloner.

The Real World

Based on Mike’s response to my scenario on the Bombich support forum it seemed I was on the right track but if the Mac crashes, backing up from a separate external might be easier. Likewise, I discovered that cloud backup providers like Carbonite, Mozy, BackBlaze and the like, aren’t as impressive as they first appear because they limit external drive backup (Carbonite) and several file types and sizes. BackBlaze at this point seems to be the best fit but it’s still leaves a bit to be desired.

1. Carbon Copy Cloner is setup to do a monthly auto-clone of the Mac
2. BackBlaze continuously back’s up the Mac and Drobo

Resources

• Backup to The Cloud - BackBlaze
• Carbon Copy Cloner - Bombich
• BeyoundRAID storage technology - Drobo
• Eco-friendly hard drives - Western Digital – 2TB Green Caviar

It seemed strange being back in Chicago (as a tourist) a couple weeks ago. I’ve trolled these same streets countless times but it just seemed different. We had a great time but I was occasionally reminded of the drivers for leaving. Nonetheless, Chicago in the summer is a fantastic place to visit. In a single weekend here’s what was going on…

• Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup (ok, that doesn’t happen every summer)
• Blues Fest
• Literary Fest
• Ribs Fest
• Old Town Art Fair
• We got mugged by humidity, drenched with rain and froze…all within 24hrs

I messed around with the vid camera while Rina had a lunch meeting with a few coworkers.