Spy Journal 3.0 Filtering the web for you

I have been using cloud technology for a long time. I store large amounts of my data and information in numerous cloud services. Some are free and some I pay for. Some I control (on my own servers) and some I am at the mercy of the provider. Some data I want to share with other users, either read only or read write. Some I want to have available to me wherever I am or on what ever device I am using.

Here are some examples:

• Email – using Microsoft Exchange, I use one account on my own server, 1 on a clients server, and 2 on Microsoft Office 365 servers. I can access all my email, contacts, tasks and calendar from any device I choose or any location in the world where I have internet access.
• Photos – I use Flickr and Skydrive.
• Data – I primarily use Box and Dropbox. – I share with staff and family. I also share files to customers using Dropbox. I also have a Google Drive account and Skydrive.
• Notes – I use Evernote and OneNote. I share these to staff and family.
• Collaboration – I use Sharepoint on my own server and also on my Office 365 servers. I also use Basecamp to work with The High Calling team.
• Blogging – I use this blog on my own server. I also use Twitter and Facebook heavily.

How do I back that all up?

So the question arises – what happens when things change. How can I protect my data.

So I am in San Antonio. I want to go riding with Gordon. Reggie freakin Regan gave Gordon an old mountain bike but he had only ever ridden it on the road. I had a quick look. Its a decent bike. i pumped up the tyres and checked the brakes. Gordon jumped on for a test ride but the front gears were not working. My wife Judith had given me a list of bike shops here in SA before I left. She is good like that. So I opened them up in a browser and Gordon recognised one shop cyclelogic as being 2 miles away. We go there and the shop was crammed with bikes. Interestingly for me they were Marin dealers. My first bike was a Marin Pine Mountain. Here is a dodgy mobile phone pic of the new 29’er. Anyway we had a great chat, they fixed the gears on the spot and told us where to ride. Local knowledge is always best. We organised to come back to get a small Issue with my brakes fixed after the ride.
Gordon got lost while we were riding but that is just par for the course with him. It took 30 minutes for me and 4 other riders to find him. I’m getting used to it. If I was Jeanene I would have had him fitted with a GPS tracker under his skin by now.

After a great ride  we headed back to the shop. I had noticed that they had a fish sign on the business card and a crown of thorns hanging above the counter. I said “hey we are Christians too” and asked about the crown of thorns.

Allen told us a story in the most humble way about how he had helped a blind girl who wanted to ride by getting her and her mother fixed up with a tandem bike and how they had hand made this crown and given it to him. They were so touched by the way he had helped when no other shop would.
While he was telling the story we were both fascinated and my gut feeling was that this guy was living out his High Calling in his shop. In fact he said what he does is help people and that his work place just looked like a bike shop. After telling him a bit about why we were here and www.thehighcalling.org website he recognised the radio broadcasts and said he listened to them each morning.
Allen is a real neat bloke. His shop is great. i can heartily recommend him.

Apparently Papeete is below us. Not that we can see anything in the dark. Ground speed is 981 miles an hour, we are 10 km high and its minus 39 degrees outside. I'm only 9 hours away from Dallas; it will be my first time on US soil.
This amazing adventure started back in early 2003 when i discovered blogs. I started my first blog and called it spyjournal. It was just going to be an online diary giving others a peek into my life. It grew and so did I. Discovering Darren Rowse (before he was famous) was my turning point. I realised he had figured this out. No quick shortcuts to internet riches. Seeing a space and then hard work writing quality content. Spyjournal has gained me prizes, software, early invites to new technology, an all expenses paid trip to France and now USA. Those are nice things. But not the best. The people I have met over the last few years online all around the world are ordinary people, hard working, faithful, reliable, with integrity, and my friends. I go to USA now not for a gravy train tour, but to meet my friends. Some i have known for a long time like Gordon – now at Tertium Squid. Others more recent like Marcus and Deidra. I think the thing I am going to enjoy most is laughing and crying, hugging and praying with my friends.
Blogging is hard work. It takes guts to bare your soul. It requires expertise to write with authority. It requires research and writing craft and years of wondering why it is that the only comments you get are from spammers. But you stick to your guns. You go through the hard patches and you learn the new technologies to improve and grow as they come. And eventually you get invited and asked to do stuff. Breakfast radio shows. Trips to France. Photography editor paid position thank you very much.
I am excited to see my love of writing being developed in my wife and daughters. Miranda is working on novels and fiction is her thing right now. I am excited to see that happen. Judith has long shared her craft ideas, recipes and more recently running for mums. The younger girls are into art. Jadeen is producing art commissions on Deviant Art.
My advice an encouragement does not come from a super blogger. Nor does it come from someone who knows it all. Rather it comes from someone who was taught from  an early age the value of hard work, the ethos of doing something well if it is worth doing and never quitting. I hope I am passing on the same values to my kids. To you my readers, do not discount this. Work is a God given instruction to mankind and there is joy and beauty in creating through work. Whether it is  physical craft or artistic expression, something can be created from nothing.

Last week I chatted with Philippe Perez from Melbourne’s 3CR Breakfast Radio show about the coming National Broadband Network (NBN). He had referred me to this investment article in the Sydney Morning Herald.

My comments to him can be listened to in the podcast below.

Some of my notes:

• investment perspective rather than viewers
• ROI is important and drives investment decisions
• government requirement for free to air broadcast
• three important changes
• prime time TV viewing will drop
• rise of citizen broadcasting
• choice and on demand TV availability
• depth of catalogue of on demand outweighs the scheduled broadcast offerings

Some other links for analysis:

http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/research/convergence_stateofplay.aspx

http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/research/what_to_watch.aspx

http://insolvencynews.com.au/channel-10-struggles/

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2010/04/12/where-did-the-primetime-broadcast-tv-audience-go/47976/

Download this Media File - (Right Click)