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Amazon S3 Update

Over at Z2 Marketing + Design we’ve implemented Amazon S3 as an off-site backup solution. As a design studio, there are a lot of large files, between photo and video shoots, print projects, and a zillion other things that require creating files, we’ve got our own storage issues to deal with. Will the building burn down? Dunno, it might, but if it does, it will be nice to know our data is safe over at Amazon.

Since I’m still moving a lot of older data there, the uploading is constant. I’d estimate I’m moving about a GB of data per day right now. In fact, let’s look at the numbers…

Amazon says we’ve transferred 16.035 GB this month, and we’re storing about that much as well. But wait, what is the cost of this? Well, as of right now, it looks like Amazon will be billing us just about $5 or so. (Probably a bit more, as I have another 11 days to keep moving data there.) So for the cost of a good burrito, we’ve transferred and stored over 15 GB of data. Freakin’ awesome!

I’m still not 100% happy with the tools, and how I’m doing the transfers (much of it is manual right now) but better tools will come along, and with a new server in-house, we’ll look at automating all the backups, so it “just works” and if something doesn’t work, it’ll let us know. Thanks Amazon!



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Taxation

Alley Scoots

In case you’re wondering, I completed my taxes long ago. Business taxes are due in March, so I did my personal taxes as well.

Also, there will be no refund this year. I look forward to paying off the overlords for many months to come…

Welcome to the social!

1984!

Fight the power!

End transmission.

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A Song at Ourmedia

I’ve been bothered by the fact that Ourmedia has been fubar’d for me for quite some time. I mean, I was an early user, and a good supporter, but when my account no longer allowed me to upload (due to some weird problem on their end in which they seemed to believe my archive.org credentials were incorrect) I pretty much stopped using Ourmedia. My videos (and some audio) were going to blip.tv, and nowhere else.

So I did the only thing I could… created another email address, and registered it at Ourmedia, The Internet Archive, and SpinXpress. (Yup, now you also need to use another service/piece of software. SpinXpress is recommended to actually upload your media files. It’s a pain, but it actually worked!

That’s the long complaining version of saying, I created a song. It’s called 13 Diodes, and you can find it at 13 Diodes at Ourmedia or 13 Diodes at The Internet Archive. (Creative Commons Attribution License.)

Anyway, let me know what you think of the song. Most of the music I’ve been creating lately has been put into the videos I do, but I may start playing around with just doing songs on their own if I feel like it.


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Bigger iPods

As I was listening to the Macworld Podcast about the DRM-free deal with EMI, I came away with these points. The iTunes store will offer DRM-free songs, which will cost more, but also be of higher quality. So who wins in this case? The consumer, right? You can choose DRM-free music (and pay a bit more) or choose DRM music and pay less, but have to go through the process of stripping the DRM yourself. Oh, you will also have the option of ‘upgrading’ all the DRM music you have to (higher quality) DRM-free versions (at a price.)

So what does Apple get out of this? They will be ready and willing to sell you a bigger iPod. If your iPod is at 80% capacity, I’m guessing that after doing the ‘upgrade’ to DRM-free versions, or after enough time buying the new DRM-free stuff, you’ll run out of room. When you need that iPod with twice the storage of your old one, Apple will be there to sell it to you.

Thanks Steve Jobs!

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Web414 Meeting: Thursday, April 12th, 2007

Milwaukee web nerds and graphic designers… Join us at 7PM on Thursday, April 12th, 2007 to hear Mike Rohde talk about the Importance of Iteration in Design…

Web414 - The Importance of Iteration in Design

Mike just had an article published on the subject that may be a good preview: Embracing Iterative Design

If you haven’t been to a Web414 meeting yet, and are interested in building the new web (as a designer, coder, whatever) stop by and check it out. (I’ll also talk about Lightbox-type libraries a bit if there is time.)

Note that we will still be at MSOE, but in the The Brady Corp. Conference Room this time. Details are at web414.com