Many of you will have noticed some changes around here. My posting frequency on this blog has gone down a bunch and my online presence has been silent except for some sporadic tweets. I have been keeping busy hacking away on Notifo for about 3 months now and we’re making some great progress that I’d like to share with everyone. As I mentioned in my first post about Notifo, I joined as Co-Founder alongside Chad and we have been working out of a garage in Menlo Park. We then began splitting up the commute and started working out of my apartment in San Francisco every other week. But one of us would still incur a hefty 3 hour roundtrip commute in addition to the usual ~12 hour work day. Fortunately, this commute will go away when Chad moves to San Francisco in mid-September and our productivity will skyrocket, but I digress. [Continue reading …]
First Impressions: VaultPress (WordPress Backup)
August 30, 2010Three years ago I wrote How To: Bulletproof Server Backups with Amazon S3, a post where I showed off a basic cron job’d script I used to backup my entire server to S3 nightly. I have been using some form of that script since then to backup my blog. Fortunately, I have never had a situation where I needed to completely restore my blog, though it was handy for the few times I accidentally nuked my root .htaccess file or something. Ideally, I would keep everything under git version control and possibly have a nice WordPress Capistrano setup on my server for keeping WordPress and related non-media files safe and easily accessible (versus having to download then decompress a huge archive just to get to one file). In addition, I would have an rsync to S3 backup for media files and the database. But like many of you, I don’t have the time to figure that out right now. That’s why I became intrigued when I first caught wind of Automattic’s turnkey WordPress backup service called VaultPress. Pay a monthly fee, set it and forget it.
My backup situation looked like this (and a terminal) before VaultPress.
The Startup Diet: How I Lost 35 Pounds While Working Overtime
August 9, 2010I recently decided to change the way I was taking care of my body. It should be no surprise that I am always on my computer – at least 12-15 hours per day. I am 5′ 9″ but used to weigh an undesirable 170-175 pounds. Most of this was brought on during my first years of college. I entered college as a skinny freshman with tons of energy that I soon channeled to my keyboard. Around January 2009, just after I had graduated from Georgia Tech, I began working full-time on Skribit from my apartment in Atlanta. My lifestyle had become one of pure startup routine. I was loving it; building what I wanted from home all day sounded like a dream come true. I used to run into “I haven’t been outside in three days” situations regularly. [Continue reading …]
Thoughts on Netbooks: Part 2 (Asus Eee PC Edition)
July 31, 2010Just over a year ago I wrote an article called Thoughts on Netbooks where I discussed the current state of the netbook landscape. Ultimately I ended that article saying that I didn’t think netbook software was there just yet and that the hardware was still maturing. I decided to revisit this discussion now to see how things have changed. Also, now that the populace seems to be reveling about with their iPads (and the CrunchPad I mentioned in that last article has just about fizzled away). My interest in netbooks was renewed when Krystyl gave me an Asus Eee PC (from last year’s PayPalx conference).
Review: HTML5 for Web Designers
July 13, 2010While it went on sale back in May, A List Apart‘s first publication, HTML5 for Web Designers, only just began shipping. I have been eagerly awaiting my copy and it just arrived. I’m not normally compelled to write reviews of technical books I read, mainly because I don’t read them all at once and they usually just lie around my apartment as an every-so-often technical resource (when Google turns up nothing). This book is different. It reads like much less of a verbose white paper — or HTML5 specification rather — and more like a refreshing one-sitter.
At only 85 pages, this book is rather slim and handy for taking — and reading in its entirety — on my morning Caltrain commute to Notifo HQ.
Turning 24
June 30, 2010For the last few years I have written a blog post on my birthday. This birthday is no exception but while working late at Notifo tonight I decided to have some fun with it. Chad and I whipped up this simple page where you can send a birthday message directly to my phone. Notifo uses push — a lightning fast notification technology made possible by the flux capacitor powered by 1.21 jiggawatts — so I will get your message on my iPhone usually in under 3 seconds. We decided to make it the first of a bunch of examples/projects that will go on a future Notifo “Labs” site. You can view the PHP source here to see how it’s done and begin tinkering on your own.
For the next 24 hours, on my 24th birthday you can send me a message to my phone using Notifo. Cheers!
Review: $99 TonidoPlug Linux Home Server, NAS
June 28, 2010Have you ever wanted to get more out of your home network, like adding a NAS, without ponying up for expensive hard drives with Ethernet built-in, Time Capsules, Drobos or the like? While some newer routers come with a USB port allowing users to add a hard drive or printer on the network, they are costly and rather limited in their functionality. It was this dilemma that had me pondering a custom solution when I wrote my series about building a cheap and small mini-ITX-based computer with the sole purpose of being a NAS and download box. That setup cost over $200 and required much hardware and software tinkering. For those looking for a cheaper and hassle-free solution, I would suggest the $99 TonidoPlug linux home server, NAS, cloud-in-a-plug… et cetera.
TonidoPlug unboxed.
Notifo (YC W2010) Gets a Co-Founder… Me
June 16, 2010Just over 5 weeks ago I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to seek new opportunities. I had no idea what I wanted to shift my full-time focus to and began connecting with people, researching and interviewing with a handful of companies — ranging from huge web presences all the way down to tiny startups. I considered companies in different spaces from finance all the way to video. I met with dozens of folks to see what they were up to and what their company was about. That led to me being wired on caffeine for a few weeks when I had 3-4 coffee meetings scheduled each day, but I digress. I am elated to announce, likely to the surprise of many, that last week I jumped onboard [Continue reading …]
Why the Apple iPhone 4 Isn’t for Me
June 7, 2010Hot on the heels of my quick review of the Sprint HTC EVO 4G, I’d like to take a minute to share my thoughts on the latest iPhone announced at WWDC today here in San Francisco. There seems to be two camps when it comes to the iPhone 4 — those that love it and those that hate it. Actually, it is more like three; love, hate and those that aren’t exactly sold on it but will buy it anyway. I have been onboard with the last 3 iPhones and waited in long lines on launch day to get most of them. However, I won’t be getting the iPhone 4 this time around.
The latest Apple pocket toy is 24% thinner and features a beautiful 960 x 640 IPS display.. so why don’t I care for it?
Review: Sprint HTC EVO 4G Android Phone
June 4, 2010For the last week I have been toting around two mobile phones: my usual iPhone 3GS workhorse with extended battery a la Mophie and the just-launched-today Sprint HTC EVO 4G on loan from Gregory Miller. This is my first time touching an Android device for more than just a few minutes. As such I think I’m interestingly posed to show a different perspective on the EVO from MG Siegler’s thoughts in his recent post entitled “An iPhone Lover’s Take On The HTC EVO 4G.” Similarly, the EVO 4G has received tremendous press as of late — mainly as it has geared itself as being the “it” phone of the month as well as the first 4G WiMAX phone ever.
The lovely HTC Sense UI upgrade adds lots of polish to the Android OS.. perhaps too much?
