— 10 May 2013 —
Vacation photos, personal documents, business documents, music, movies and many more things are saved on our computers. Not each file is important, but I’m convinced you want to have some for the rest of your life. For example photos that captured the childhood of your kid or family photos in general. I know some folks that say you don’t need to keep those files, because memories are in your heart. I partly agree. I think you have to find a healthy ratio of what to save and what not or even what to capture and what not to, otherwise your camera is living the moment and not you!
In my experience I would have a very hard time if the bits and bytes of my most personal photos, personal documents and business documents were suddenly gone. Think about a decease of a friend or family member, wouldn’t you like to protect those memories you had with them? On the other side I could live without my music and movie library, thanks to streaming services like Spotify/Rdio and Netflix.
If you nodded at some points, you are probably interested in how to make sure your data won’t be gone the next morning, cos the truth is that hard discs are way more error-prone than you might think. I was faced with 3 broken hard discs in the last 8 years. The external hard disc of a friend got broken within two years. Tech isn’t failsafe, your hard disc can have a defect at a moment’s notice. It’s flippant to save your most important data only on one hard disc or even one location.
This brings me to the point of backups. In the following sections I will give you a short overview of my backup strategy and trustful online storage and backup providers.
Layer 1 Backup: I have a MacBook Pro with a 160 GB SSD hard disc, which holds only my most important photos, personal documents, business documents and project files. Everything else, like archived documents, music and movies is saved on an external 1 TB hard disc. On top of that I synchronize all the data from my MacBook Pro with arRsync on it. Consequential I have a backup of my most important files.
Layer 2 Backup: A second external 1 TB hard disc backups daily my first 1 TB hard disc through the Apple application Time Machine. So I have already two backups of my most important files and one backup of everything else. This means my MacBook Pro and one external hard disc can simultaneously get broken. Maybe this sounds paranoid, but think about what can happen when you are on a rush and grabbing your Notebook while it’s connected to your external hard disc or you are traveling with both of them and your luggage get lost.
Layer 3 Backup: At this point I would say that my data is protected in the most scenarios, but not against the worst-case-scenario when your house burns down or you get robbed. The only thing you can do against that is to either place another external hard disc at a friends place, safe deposit box or to use, as I am, an online storage/backup provider. I settled down with the backup application Arq to pushing my most important files daily on the service Amazon S3. Additionally I’m saving larger and archived files on Amazon Glacier. The next section will cover online backups more comprehensive.
As previously mentioned you have two options to store your data in another location to protect it also against the worst-case-scenario.
The first is to place an external hard disc at a friends place or safe deposit box. You would have running costs if you settle with a safe deposit box, but can place as much data as you want to. The total costs for large data capacities are probably cheaper than using an online storage/backup provider. The second benefit is that you aren’t limited to your internet connection when you have to recover files. On the other side you have to make sure that you continuously update the backup, which is not as comfortable as watching how your online backup is automatically updated each day or even hour.
The second option is to use an online storage/backup provider. The benefits are that your data is most times redundantly saved in a secure data center and theoretically everywhere available for you. So it doesn’t matter if you are at home or on a tropical island, you can always access your files as long as you are connected to the internet. In my opinion this is a huge advantage, because I had many situations where I needed access to one particular file that I hadn’t with me. Updating your backup can be automated with the applications of the providers or a third-party application like Arq or xTwin for example. The downsides are that the running costs are most times higher and you are limited by the speed of your internet connection. This is especially painful when you have to recover lots of data. Some providers are offering to send you a hard disc with all your files for a fee to eliminate this issue.
I decided to use an online storage/backup provider for my off-site backups, since everything can be automated and my data is saved redundantly. The next section will give you an overview of online storage/backup providers and criteria you should consider before settling down with one.
My personal criteria are:
There are many providers out there, but most of them don’t meet my needs. Most times the company is young, small and their representation nonserious. Below are the providers I had considered and are worth a look in my opinion.
Hands down. Amazon is well known and the pioneer of Cloud Computing. Their storage service Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is the standard of secure online storage and designed for a 99.999999999% durability. As an alternative you can choose the cheaper Reduced Redundancy Storage (RRS) with a 99.99% durability, which I am using. The RSS storage pricing starts with $0.076 per GB, but there are additional request and data transfer costs that you have to consider. You can use the Amazon Web Services Simple Monthly Calculater to estimate your total monthly costs. For example an initial backup of 50 GB (10,000 files) costs $3.84 if you choose RSS. The month after costs $3.80 if you don’t add, request or delete files. By the way the first 5 GB on S3 are FREE for one year!
Additionally Amazon introduced Amazon Glacier on August 2012. Amazon Glacier is a low-cost storage service for infrequently accessed files. The durability is also 99.999999999% and the storage costs are as low as $0.01 per GB. However the retrieval of files typically takes 3-5 hours and Amazon charges big-time for the retrieving process. So in contrast to S3 the transfer costs of Glacier are a lot higher. You can use again the Amazon Web Services Simple Monthly Calculater to estimate the total costs.
The downside of both services is that you have to buy a third-party application to automate the backup process. I highly recommend Arq. Arq is very easy to configure, works seamless and doesn’t kill your bandwith or Mac while running. You can also set a maximum S3 storage budget, which helps to avoid an astonishingly high bill.
I’m using this combination since two years and can’t be more pleased about it. My monthly costs of April 2013 had been $0.21 for 2 GB on S3 and $0.36 for 30 GB on Glacier. As mentioned I backup only my most important and frequently accessed files on S3. All other essential files are going to be saved on Glacier.
If you want to backup and have fast access to big data, the following providers might be a cheaper choice.
CrashPlan is an online storage and backup provider used by companies like Google, Adobe and Cisco. Patrick Rhone introduced me to this service and highly recommends it. 10 GB costs $2/month and for $4/month you can backup unlimited GB! CrashPlan provides also an own client, so you don’t have to pay for that. I would use CrashPlan if I needed to backup all my data.
Backblaze is the second and last provider for an unlimited amount of data, which fits my criteria. It’s the choice of Shawn Blanc and costs $5/month. Backblaze comes also with an own client for Windows and Mac.
Again, you will find many many other providers out there, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable to recommend them to you. All named providers and backup applications offer free trials, so the best thing you could do is to check them individually and settle down with your prefered one. On top of that you could use the free online storage of Dropbox (referall link) or Google Drive to backup your most important files and sync them across all your machines.
— 25 Apr 2013 —
I am a big fan of motivational quotes. It’s' kinda magical how meaningless characters can be so powerful, if they are in a perfect relationship with each other. A little as life itself. The quotes below should help you to get back motivation, happiness and productivity in hard times.
"When I was 5 years old, my mom told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy'. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment. I told them they didn’t understand life. " – John Lennon
"Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver." – Ayn Rand
"I have no understanding as to why you wouldn't try to make what you're passionate about work for you." – Gary Vaynerchuk
"We are very good at preparing to live, but not very good at living. We know how to sacrifice ten years for a diploma and we are willing to work very hard to get a job, a car, a house, and so on. But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive in the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive." – Thich Nhat Hanh
"If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve." – Lao Tzu
"The 20-minute walk I take is better than the 3-mile run I never start. Having people over for take-out is better than never having people to an elegant dinner party." – Gretchen Ruben
"Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good." – Gretchen Ruben
"If you want to make a million dollars, you have to endure a million dollars’ worth of pain." – Paul Graham
"Economically, you can think of a startup as a way to compress your whole working life into a few years." – Paul Graham
"As you walk and eat and travel, be where you are. Otherwise you will miss most of your life." – Buddha
"Apply what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own." – Bruce Lee
"Okay let's just ship this motherfucker." – Danielle Morrill
"Forever reading, never to be read." – Alexander Pope
"Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow." – Swedish Proverb
"Wake up early. Show up. Learn how to think. Be genuine, but appear nice. Use envy for motivation instead of destruction. Do what you say you’re going to do. Ensure balance in every area of your life. Confront repressed thoughts immediately. Surround yourself with people who are better than you (but remember the thing about envy). Work out every day. Be good at what you do. Make money doing what you love. Have good friends. Never settle. This is my personal recipe for happiness and success." – Dustin Curtis
"Since you alone are responsible for your thoughts, only you can change them." – Paramahansa Yogananda
"My grandmother once told me, 'Don't let failure go to your heart and don't let success go to your head.'" – Will Smith
"Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects." – Will Smith
"The change itself isn’t the problem — it’s fighting the change, fearing the change, not wanting things to be different." – Leo Babauta
"Hitting reset isn't about what failed. It's about being able to let go of what doesn't work and move forward in another new direction." – Nina Yau
"The only unit of time that matters is heartbeats. Even if the world were totally silent, even in a dark room covered in five layers of foam, you’d be able to count your own heartbeats." – Paul Ford, 10 Timeframes
"When there’s nothing blocking the pathway to you and your thoughts, it is a most personable experience you can explore." – Nina Yau
"I’m living inside the moment / not taking pictures to save it." – Drake
"When you brain tells you it’s impossible, tell your brain: That’s nice, I’m going to do it anyways." – Joel Runyon
"You can’t be normal and expect abnormal returns." – Jeffrey Pfeffer
"If we doubted our fears instead of doubting our dreams, imagine how much in life we'd accomplish." – Joel Brown
"If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough." – Mario Andretti
"Life is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing." – Oscar Wilde
"If you want milk, don't sit on a stool in the middle of a field in the hope that a cow will back up to you." – Richard Branson
"If I were to let my life be taken over by what is urgent, I might very well never get around to what is essential." – Henri Nouwen
"Those who seem heartless now, once cared too much." – WZRD
"When your work becomes your life's mission, you no longer need a work/life balance." – Joshua Fields Milburn
"People don’t know how to love the ones they love until they disappear from their lives." – Joshua Fields Milburn
"Sometimes a man has to hit both walls before he can find the middle." – Joshua Fields Milburn
"The one who follows the crowd will get no further than the crowd." – Albert Einstein
"None of us were born equal. We come from different backgrounds, different cultures, different socioeconomic situations. Suffice it to say, we were not all born on a level playing field. Time is the one exception. The only thing we all have in common is time. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. You can find the time if you want it bad enough." – Joshua Fields Milburn
"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward." – Martin Luther King Jr.
"The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it." – Henry David Thoreau
"Today's tragedies are tomorrow's comedies." – Colin Wright
"When you don't make your needs clear, they will not be met." – Colin Wright
"Blind love is overrated. Love purposefully." – Colin Wright
"Time is the most valuable thing one can possess. With enough of it, anything is within reach." – Colin Wright
"If you don't feel stupid half the time, you probably aren't trying hard enough." – Colin Wright
"Failure is just one step to the path of success." – Colin Wright
"You have exactly one life in which to do everything you'll ever do. Act accordingly." – Colin Wright
"Things do not change; we change." – Henry David Thoreau
"Every day we wake, we have the opportunity to start fresh, to press reset, to breathe everything out. It is never too late to start over." – Nina Yau
"Only you live in your own skin and feel what you feel. Never let anyone tell you how to live and who you should be." – Nina Yau
"One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility." – Eleanor Roosevelt
"When you completely trust a person without any doubt, you'll automatically get one of two results - a FRIEND for life or a LESSON for life." – Unknown
"'I'll be happy when ...' leads you away from being happy now." – Nina Yau
"It takes work to make it work." – Joshua Fields Millburn
"Listening is not simply hearing the words spoken. Listening is understanding why the words were spoken." – Simon Sinek
"We're here not because we're supposed to be somebody. We're here because we already are somebody." – Nina Yau
"Life is an ongoing process of choosing between safety (out of fear) and risk (for growth). Always choose growth." – Amber Rae
"The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live." – Flora Whittemore
"Your past is your past – it's where you came from, not where you're going." – Joshua Fields Millburn
"There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living." – Mandela
"If you wait for it to be perfect, it will be never be done." – Anonymous
"Dismissing an idea is so easy because it doesn’t involve any work. You can scoff at it. You can ignore it. You can puff some smoke at it. That’s easy. The hard thing to do is protect it, think about it, let it marinate, explore it, riff on it, and try it. The right idea could start out life as the wrong idea." – 37signals
"Perfectionism is the enemy of productivity." – Joshua Fields Millburn
"If failure isn't an option, then success isn't either. Success is just failure repeated until it works." – Seth Godin
"Human nature affords us many opportunities to do what we ought not do and our brains provide any number of justifications for those actions." – Not & Ought | J. D. Bentley
"I will either find a way, or make one." Hannible, Carthaginian Leader & General
"Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind." – Baz Luhrmann
"You can get rid of your stuff without getting rid of your memories. The memories are in you, not your stuff." – Joshua Fields Millburn
"It's very strange: When we're young, we're told to follow our dreams. Then, as we get older and actually do, people question us." – Joshua Fields Millburn
"Cutting everything loose and making yourself entirely vulnerable motivates the hell out of you to do the work." – Will Peach
"You can lose money and make it back, you can't do that with time." – Tim Ferriss
"Happiness comes from the intersection of what you love, what you're good at, and what the world needs." – Oliver Segovia
"There are no shortcuts. If you want something bad enough, you'll invest the time to do it." – Nina Yau
"If there's something you need to get done, don't make it a drama. It's much more enjoyable without it." – Jonathan Mead
"Many people trade their freedom for security." – Christopher Hitchens
"Love the life you live, live the life you love." – Nina Yau
"Follow your heart, it's the best compass in the universe." – Ando Perez
"He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever." – Chinese Proverb
"It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live somebody else's with perfection." – Bhagavad Gita
"The body is merely an extension of our mind. Where the mind goes, the body simply follows." – Nina Yau
"Are your dreams actually YOUR dreams, or are they the dreams you've been given by your culture?" – Joshua Fields Millburn
"Good things come to those who wait, but only the things left over by those who hustle.” – Abraham Lincoln
"Success without happiness is failure." – Anthony Robbins
"All that we are is the result of what we have thought." – Buddha
"I hate it when people call themselves ‘entrepreneurs’ when what they’re really trying to do is launch a startup, so they can cash in and move on. They’re unwilling to do the work it takes to build a real company, which is the hardest work in business." – Steve Jobs
"If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." – Lewis Carroll
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream." – Mark Twain
"Stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." – Albert Einstein
"Make your product easier to buy than your competition, or you will find your customers buying from them, not you." – Mark Cuban
"Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as survival, but that’s exactly what it is." – Anita Roddick
"Failure defeats losers, failure inspires winners." – Robert T. Kiyosaki
"Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears." – Les Brown
"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." – Steve Jobs
"If you are not willing to risk the usual you will have to settle for the ordinary." – Jim Rohn
"You live longer once you realize that any time spent being unhappy is wasted." – Ruth E. Renkl
"Identify your problems but give your power and energy to solutions." – Tony Robbins
"To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions." – Derek Sivers
"My past is my past. That's where I came from, not where I'm going." – Joshua Fields Millburn
"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great makes you feel that you, too, can become great." – Mark Twain
"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." – Lao Tzu
"You make a living by what you earn; you make a life by what you give." – Winston Churchill
"The only way to have a friend is to be one." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." – Winston Churchill
"Many of life’s failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." – Thomas Edison
"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." – Robert Brault
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it." – Pablo Picasso
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind." – Dr. Seuss
"You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take." – Wayne Gretzky
"I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." – Bill Cosby
"The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs… one step at a time." – Joe Girard
"Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are." – Dale Carnegie
"If not us, who? If not now, when?" – John F. Kennedy
"If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way." – Napoleon Hill
"Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it." – Dennis P. Kimbro
"A mind is like a parachute, it doesn’t work if it isn’t open." – Frank Zappa
"Don’t let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was." – Richard L. Evans
"There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them." – Dr. Denis Waitley
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." – Mark Twain
"Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down." – Charles F. Kettering
"In any situation, the best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing." – Theodore Roosevelt
"The best way to predict the future is to create it." – Abraham Lincoln
"If you’re going through hell, keep going." – Winston Churchill
"When I hear somebody sigh, ‘Life is hard,’ I am always tempted to ask, ‘Compared to what?’" – Sydney Harris
"If you keep saying things are going to be bad, you have a chance of being a prophet." – Isaac B. Singer
"Vision without action is daydream. Action without vision is nightmare." – Japanese Proverb
"We see things not as they are, but as we are." – H. M. Tomlinson
"The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work." – Richard Bach
"Remember that happiness is a way of travel, not a destination." – Roy Goodman
"I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." – Michael Jordan
"People who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do." – Apple Computers
"I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right." – Albert Einstein
"That which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger." – Friedrich Nietzsche
"Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today." – Benjamin Franklin
"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." – Albert Einstein
"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." – Sun-Tzu
"I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work." – Thomas Edison
"All our dreams can come true – if we have the courage to pursue them." – Walt Disney
"It is never too late to be what you might have been." – George Eliot
"If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts." – Albert Einstein
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me." – Dudley Field Malone
"They ask me what I'm writing for – I'm writing to show you what we're fighting for." – Talib Kweli
"I remind: life is too short to waste my days in irritation and anger. Don’t let other people’s problems become my own." – Leo Babauta
"That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains." – Steve Jobs
"If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability." – Henry Ford
"Life: I think I figured it all out once I stopped trying to figure it all out." – Joshua Fields Millburn
"Simply force yourself to step outside of your comfort zones." – Nike
"Time to stand up for what you believe in." – Tyler Durden
"Nobody can teach you who you are. You must be the teacher and the student." – Nina Yau
"Until you say ‘no’ to everything else, you cannot say ‘yes’ to something worth fully investing yourself in." – James Shelley
"A morning of awkwardness is far better than a night of loneliness." – Californication
"It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard…is what makes it great." – Tom Hanks
"Life wastes itself while we are preparing to live." – Emerson
"Mondays can either suck, or be a chance for a beginning of a new, exciting week." – Jonathan Mead
"You are a victim of the rules you live by." – Nina Yau
"Act without expectation." – Lao Tzu
"Don't wait until the end of your life to discover you didn't do anything with it." – Nina Yau
"Success is defined in units of fun. It’s all about being happy." – Jake Nickell
"Ever try. Ever fail. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." – Samuel Beckett
"My intelligence is in the cloud. My life is in the cloud. My friends, photographs, ideas and mail. My life. My mind. Take away my cloud and I am left mindless." – Don Norma
"In the end though, no one else is going to do it for you — you need to stop thinking about changing the world, and do the nitty-gritty to get one step further." – Joel Gascoigne
"Every second you separate from the cloud is another second to watch the sun rise over a misty morning. Every second you spend with the TV switched off is another second to play with your children, to cook with your husband/wife, or to spend creating something memorable. Every second you keep your phone in your pocket is another chance to smile at someone on the street, someone you may never have noticed otherwise." – Matt Madeiro
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary." – Steve Jobs
"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort." – Herm Albright
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." – Martin Luther King
"If you’re good at something, never do it for free." – The Joker
"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong." – Joseph Chilton Pearc
"Make things as simple as can be – but not simpler." – Albert Einstein
"The answer to the question why is because." – Susan Finch
"You can do anything, but not everything." – David Allen
"You must give up the life you planned in order to have the life that is waiting for you." – Joseph Campbell
"Fall seven times; stand up eight." – Japanese proverb
"The man who never makes mistakes loses a great many chances to learn something." – Thomas Edison
"Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened." – Dr. Seuss
"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending." – Maria Robinson
"We are more than we know, more than we hoped and dreamed, a generation of generators, a power source and supply." – Saul William
"You can’t have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time." – Charles Kettering
"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions." – Albert Einstein
"Just go out there and do what you have to do." – Anonymous
"They say you can’t do it, but remember, that doesn’t always work." – Casey Stengal
"It’s never too late to be what you might have been." – George Bernard Shaw
"If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to it." – Anonymous
"Stop being a fucking pussy" – Julien Smith
"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.'' You must do the thing you think you cannot do." – Eleanor Roosevelt
"It’s me who is my enemy Me who beats me up Me who makes the monsters Me who strips my confidence." – Paula Cole
"Don’t get it right, just get it written." – James Thurber
"It’s the stuff we do, not the stuff we have, that makes life worth living." – Francine Joy
"Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value." – Albert Einstein
You might also like 25 Motivational Quotes.
— 23 Dec 2012 —
Earlier this week Instagram announced some improvements and updates of their privacy policy and terms of service. Many users were upset by the changes, because Instagram claimed to use their photos/data for ads. Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom announced just a couple of hours later that they heared the concerns and are reverting the misunderstood formulations of the updates. However, at this point, many Instagram users had already deleted their accounts or moved on to an alternative photo sharing service. It felt exactly like the Delicious to Pinboard movement on December 2010, when an internal slide from a Yahoo! meeting leaked and indicated that the service would be shut down.
I’m pretty sure that we will see those movements more and more, because every startup – with only a free service – has to find a way to monetize or it will be shut down in the long term and most of the time the changes tends to upset the user base, so they are looking for an alternative and move on.
When you’re moving on to another service, your current friends/followers are lost. You have to start from scratch, which is not completly bad, but sometimes you want to make sure that your previously friends/followers can find out where you migrated to. The solution is simple and could evolve from a side project to a successful startup, which I’m going to outline below. Feel free to steel and adjust this idea – really, I won’t develop it.
— 15 Dec 2012 —
I published a new Backspaces story about the things I love New York City for.
— 15 Dec 2012 —
I’ve launched a new project with my good pal Benjamin. I’m excited to introduce My Morning Routine.
My Morning Routine is here to provide you with inspiring morning
routines to set you up for a more productive and enjoyable day.With each new entry we will be profiling the morning routine of
somebody from across the online world. You may have heard of them
before, you may have not – either way, everybody profiled has been
picked to be a part of this project thanks to the unique way in which
they routinely spend their mornings – and of course their willingness
to share this with us.
Make sure to check out our first two morning routines, courtesy of Manuel Loigeret and Andrew.
