My life in the Cloud

I am pretty much 100% in the Cloud now. Here's how I do it.

Services

• Email:  Google GMAIL (with "Tasks")
• Calendar:  Google Calendar
• Documents:  Google Docs (with a sprinkle of DropBox, going away soon enough)
• Music: combination of Rdio and Grooveshark
• Movies: Netflix  (on my Android devices, Apple TV and MacBook Pro)
• Code: Github
• Project Issue Tracker:  Lighthouse

What I gain:

• Mobility
• Availability
• Persistence
• Version Control

I don't need to worry about loosing / forgetting my laptop for work:  I just grab a spare one at work. Hence, business continuity is greatly improved over the traditional Microsoft "stack".

So, on my Linux/OSX PCs, I only need the following installed software:

• Google Chrome  (the auto-sync feature for bookmarks, extensions etc. is way cool :)
• Eclipse (with PyDev, Google Plugin, Egit)
• git

When it comes time to setting-up a complete working environment, I can turnaround one in under 1/2 hour! 

Security

The first reaction I get when I expose my workflow:  is this Cloud stuff secure?  To which I respond with a combination of the following:

• I would rather trust Google and their army of sysadmins than me when it comes to external security threats
• I never write down passwords nor credit card numbers in documents. Period.
• Doing business comes down to trust - being part of society requires trust
• My data is more secure located in the Cloud than on my laptop / desktop : those are too easy to lift

Availability

Another common reaction is about availability. I don't know about you guys, but Internet Access is pretty available nowadays and certainly Google is. For those of you worried about this dimension, consider:

• I have access through my Android mobile devices (carrier #1)
• I have access through my 3G dongle (carrier #2)
• I have access through my Cable Modem (carrier #3)

Yes I subscribe to 3 different carriers - I don't remember the last time I lost connectivity and was out of commission, business wise.

Using Google Sites as Content Management System

I recently had to build a new web site from ground-up.  One thing I didn't want to do is go off installing Wordpress / Drupal etc. on a virtual machine.  As much as I love technology, I can't be bothered anymore with administrative tasks such as backups.
I decided to give Google Sites another go but I quickly was confronted with the limitations of this platform. That's when I decided to couple to great Google products:  Sites and AppEngine.

View the presentation

Some Google Gadgets

I am in the process of building up my company website based on Google Apps, I need some Google Gadgets to embed but as I am unsure about the majority of the gadgets listed in the directory, I have created  some of my own.

• Skype Account Information
• Ohloh Profile Flair
• Stackoverflow Profile Flair
• Twitter Profile Flair with latest tweets

Links to the relevant gadgets are provided on my projects page.  I would rather not duplicate them here as I am most likely to forget to update them whereas on the project page they'll get my attention.

Google Wave Invites

I've got some Google Wave invites left... first come, first served!

Chrome Extension: mDNS Service Browser

As a stepping-stone towards making the browser my main portal to my applications, I have crafted a Google Chrome extension (based on an NPAPI plugin) that lists the services announced through Avahi / mDNS.
It is available here. Note that only Linux based systems are supported.

Chrome Extension: Stackoverflow Tweaks

For those adept of Stackoverflow, the following extension provide tweaks to the web site. For version 0.1, the questions associated with ignored tags are rendered hidden.

The extension is available for installation through this link.

Chrome Extension: Auto-Reload

IMPORTANT:  I've sold this extension. I no longer maintain it.

I've crafted an extension for Google Chrome: Auto-Reload. The extension enables automatic interval based page reloading.

This capability can be useful when developing web applications or just for the anxious folks waiting for a reply on a forum...

The extension can be installed by following this link (Chrome Gallery). Usage is simple: just press the "blue" button in the address bar to enable auto-reloading (the button will turn green when enabled). For more information, follow the extension's link to the gallery.

UPDATED: This extension is now hosted on the Google Chrome Gallery. Follow the above link.
UPDATED: The extension's project code home page is now located on GitHub at this link.
UPDATED:  The work currently on my plate for this extension can be viewed here.

UPDATED: The latest version information can be found on the extension's page here.


Latest Release: 7.6

• Includes "per-URL" customization: uses the "context-menu" available through right-click

Release: 6.6

• Sticky Mode : keep auto-reload status across page close
• Allows a page configured as "Chrome Application" to auto-reload continuously
• Use the "Create Application Shortcuts" menu item to configure 
• Timeout & Randomize manual value editing (i.e. not only with "slider")

Suggestions Welcome!

Mindmap of my projects

Here is a mindmap of my projects. I intend to keep this map up-to-date.

Uploading Outlook .pst to GMAIL

I was digging through old backups just recently and I decided to make some .PST files more productive ( e.g. searchable ). I could have opted for Google Desktop ( I think ) to sift through those backups but I instead followed the GMAIL road since I am in the process of trying to convince my wife to move completly to GMAIL from Outlook.

• Step 1: install readpst ( link ) on a Linux machine ( I use Ubuntu primarily )

apt-get install readpst

• Step 2: extract mail from the .pst file into mbox format

mkdir /tmp/mail

readpst "some-pst-file" -o /tmp/mail

• Step 3: Configure Mozilla Thunderbird with GMAIL through IMAP: instructions can be found here.
• Step 4: Install an mbox import/export extension for Thunderbird: available here.
• Step 4: Import mbox folder hierarchy in Thunderbird: use Tools -> Import/Export in mbox/eml format -> Import mbox file menu option and select the appropriate dialog option ( I used #4 i.e. Select a directory where searching the mbox files to import (also in subdirectories ) ).
• Step 5: Move the emails as desired.

Warnings

• It appears that the use of the IMAP interface through Thunderbird might be cause some "silent failures" from time to time. I suggest moving/copying emails by small batch in order to track & manage this shortcoming.
• Also, I would seem that GMAIL's web-interface is not able to track "in real-time" the changes and of course this problem is compounded by the amount of moving/copying being done in a particular time interval.

Have fun :-)

Data-Centres

Here are data-centres maps I track:

IBM

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Microsoft

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Google

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Add to Google Reader bookmarklet

Wow!  Google Chrome is out and of course I couldn't wait to try it out... that was until I discovered that automatic RSS/ATOM feed detection wasn't part of the deal.  I wrote a quick bookmarklet for addressing this situation: just drag-and-drop the following bookmarklet to your bookmarks (works on Chrome, Firefox and IE): 

The code is hosted on Google AppEngine so performance shouldn't be an issue. Have fun!

Using Google Alerts as Forum Notification method

One irritant on the WEB I found a solution for: have you ever posted questions or comments to a site that didn't include automatic email notification when the question/comment got feedback? It happens to me all the time.

Google Alerts to the rescue!

I now use GoogleAlerts to track my whereabouts on the WEB. The usage pattern is simple: just form the habit of always signing your post with a distinctive mark and set an alert on this mark. With my name, this is easy as it is not so common.