MacBook Back Up Strategy Part 2

A couple years ago, I duct-tape-and-baling-twined a backup strategy together with rsync and ical with an offsite backup to the down defunct StrongSpace.

Since then, I’ve attempted to use Apple’s TimeMachine – both with a local drive and a driver connected to my AirPort Extreme.

Too frequently, I ended up corrupt backup files or the backups would completely fail. Additionally, when TimeMachine was running – my MacBook Pro would slow to an unusable crawl.

I’ve revisited my original rsync script to make a bootable, full-disk backup

Every night when I’m done working, I (manually, for the time being) kick off the rsync script in Terminal.app.

As of this writing it makes 3 backups of my MacBook Pro to 3 different drives; a full disk bootable backup, a user account backup to a portable drive, and a user account backup to a network drive (additionally it backs up my Kindle to the network drive).

Here’s the script

# RSYNC A BOOTABLE BACKUP ON THE FULL BACKUP DRIVE
sudo rsync -xrlptgoEv --progress --delete / /Volumes/Full_Backup_Drive_Name

# RSYNC MY USER ACCOUNT TO THE PORTABLE DRIVE
rsync -rltv --exclude='.*' ~/ /Volumes/Portable_Drive_Name/MacBookPro_Backup/

# RSYNC MY USER ACCOUNT TO THE NETWORK DRIVE
rsync -rltv --exclude='.*' ~/ /Volumes/Network_Drive_Name/MacBookPro_Backup/

On top of that, CrashPlan is backing up to both a networked drive and a portable drive.

Yes, I fully expect my MacBook Pro to completely die at any moment.

This post was inspired by Peter Fleck’s ‘Backing up is hard to do’

For the Future of Radio – Tune to 802.11

Yesterday, at the Village gym, tired of my normal workout playlist, I brought up JungleTrain on the iPod Touch.

My favorite, niche internet radio station, streaming from somewhere in Europe, picked up by a device in my pocket, on a random treadmill in Minnesota.

Exactly the audio I was looking for. No ads, no data charge. Just the price of the gym membership.

This is another reason1 why the iPod Touch is more of a game changer to me than the iPhone.

Strangely, the latest iPod Nano and Zune ship with broadcast radio receivers (FM and HD respectively).

Elsewhere in radio land, SiriusXM is trading at $0.55/share and has until March 2010 to trade above $1 or be delisted off the NASDAQ

1. Earlier this year I mentioned how the iPod Touch made re-think my mobile phone service. Both of these experiences are rolled into the larger idea that:

“if I’m not within a wifi network, I’m probably driving or otherwise not able to talk.”

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[Client] Rackspace’s NoMoreServers.com Launches

Rackspace formally announced a project I’ve been working on:

No More Servers

NoMoreServers.com is a rally cry of the computing-as-a-service era. The site seeks to empower businesses to acknowledge the decline of in-house computing and the rise of the All Cloud Enterprise (ACE). Covering hosting, cloud computing, SaaS, and the key vendors driving them (eg: Amazon, Google, Rackspace, Salesforce, etc), NoMoreServers.com will feature daily commentary explaining all things cloud computing. The site will include third-party content and news about hosting, cloud computing and will have a live community portal for visitors to engage on the topic of outsourcing computing.

Mike Keliher on Short URL Trust

“When you see a TinyURL, you have no idea what the link is going to point you to. Viruses, spyware, porn and all sorts of other unwanted or inappropriate stuff are just a click away. …what if you actually could trust a shortened URL?….The need for safety and security online will not go away. Don’t worry: Smart people like Garrick will be here to help.” – Mike Keliher

Thanks Mike.

Culld.us is the URL shortening system powering grv.me & minnpo.st (and others). Drop me a line if you’d like to hear more about how it integrates with your existing online publications.

Cull.us: Branded URL Shortener with Google Analytics, CNAME, and .htaccess

One of the biggest problems with URL shorteners – aside from being needed at all – is it’s not easy to move from one to another without breaking all the previous links.

Culld.us hopes to change all that.

  • Use Your Own Domain Name
    At Culld.us, you get a subdomain – like grv.culld.us – and just point a CNAME record to it from your domain.
  • Use Your Own Web Analytics
    Put the statistics on your short URLs in your existing web analytics package, whether it be Google Analytics or another package, just paste the tracking code in your subdomain’s settings.
  • .htaccess and archival feeds
    If you want to leave Culld.us, you can take your redirects with you. Anytime you want – you can grab the .htaccess file, containing your shortened urls and the webpages they redirect to, and upload to your own server.
    You can also grab the RSS or JSON feeds.
  • Fully Customized Stylesheet
    Anything you can change in CSS can be changed in your Culld.us subdomain.
  • Collaborative
    Anyone you authorize has access to add URLs to your Culld.us subdomain. Everyone gets their own login and API tokens.

Labor Day: Celebrating Opportunity

“Isn’t it sad that we have a job where we spend two 2 weeks avoiding the stuff we have to do fifty week a year?” – Seth Godin, Tribes

Almost 15 years ago now, a fellow student at the German design school I was attending, purchased a run-down flat. When he wasn’t focused his design degree – he was renovating the flat. With school Monday through Friday – his core renovation days were the weekend.

Well, Saturday.

The neighbors would complain if he used power tools on Sunday.

At the time, I was also surprised by the number of unfamiliar public holidays
German shopkeepers observed. Their frequency caught me unprepared more than a couple of times. While closed can be a cultural benefit – having the option to be open for business is a competitive advantage.

Here in the States, 12.4% of the workforce – 16.1 million people – belong to a union.

Over the past 24 years as union membership has dropped by a 1/3, real compensation has risen by 1/3.

union membership vs real compensation

“The problem with unions is not all that dissimilar to that posed by entrenched management: Once they win comfortable contracts, they often become impediments to the kind of innovation and flexibility essential to success in today’s economy.” – Wall Street Journal, Opinion, Sept 29, 2007

This Labor Day – as an entire family – we headed to the mall to purchase some new school shoes for the kids. On the way home we grabbed a soup and some sandwiches. The stores were open and the shopkeepers were as eager to help as any other Monday. If I understand U.S. labor laws correctly – everyone working today did so – by choice. Their employer provided them the opportunity and they took advantage of it.

Maybe their politics don’t mesh with organized labor. Maybe they were still protesting the outcome of the Pullman Strike. Maybe they find it ironic. I suspect for the vast majority of them – the additional dollars were more valuable than non-work-related plans.

Yes, I did some client work while the kids were napping, and will continue after I finish this post and clean up the dinner dishes.

The ability for a single individual to make the decision to work on Labor Day is why the U.S. is still the land of opportunity.

auth via params API Access with Authlogic

Authlogic, my current favorite Ruby-based authentication library and I were in a fight the last couple of days.

I was trying to add token-based, auth_via_params, authentication (vs. login and password) to a project – but Authlogic and I weren’t agreeing on how it should be done.

I had assumed:

@person_session = PersonSession.new(single_access_token => params[:token] )
@person_session.save

Instead Authlogic wanted me to give it a Person first.

@person_session = PersonSession.new(Person.find_by_single_access_token(params[:token]))
@person_session.save

Culld.Us – URL Shortening Reimagined

We don’t shorten URLs just to shorten them.

We shorten them for the same reason big box retailers sell flat-pack furniture – greater confidence during transport.

With that in mind, I’ve completely rebuilt Cullect’s URL Shortener1 – http://culld.us

It’s still custom brand-able. In a way I’m much happier with than in the previous version – just point your domain at your Culld.us subdomain.

The part I’m very excited about – it flips shortening on it’s ear.

Sure – you can shorten a URL in Culld.us and share it with a comment in Twitter or email or wherever…or you can just leave it in Culld.us.

Think microblogging + url shortening.

1. This is the first step in a complete rebuild of Cullect as a whole.