{ xenovoyance do stuff }

What good have you done today?

Martin Karlsson — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:17:25 +0000

Came across this amazing image over what is said to be Benjamin Franklin’s daily schedule. In a word that become ever so much more time boxed it is a bit soothing to see that the ideas have lingered for hundred of years. I truly love the idea with the much philosophical question in the morning followed by the same one in the evening:

What good have you done today?

Be kind to each other (video)

Martin Karlsson — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 11:19:28 +0000

Saw this movie a little while back and thought that this is was life is all about. The message is so simple, so clear.

Let’s just be kind on each other.

Plotted portrait (video)

Martin Karlsson — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 16:26:18 +0000

Hero from Miguel Endara on Vimeo via BoingBoing.

via BoingBoing.

The force is strong with Spotify in the US

Martin Karlsson — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 20:32:31 +0000

According to an article at AllThingsD Spotify now have 1.4M signed users for its free trial in the US. Not just that, they also have 175’000 paying customers who can be added to the more than 1.5M paying customers already in Europe. Spotify is becoming a force to recon in the music industry, and fast. Some of the success of the launch is most likely thanks to the lobby ground work that has been performed by Sean Parker for one, prior to the launch; but the service is good enough to stand on its own. If it was not the US launch would never have happened to start with.

So are these numbers good or bad; with what can we compare them? Well to the European market of course.

1.4M users acquired in just one month with one to ten ratio between paying and non-paying customers is a great launch where ever the launch may be. To do this in the US, competing with new services appearing daily is even stronger. I believe that these numbers show that there is an acceptance to paying for music as long as the service and amount of music is good. Napster was quick and easy back in its days and created the basic mental framework which made people into taking music for granted. To see it as a right instead of a service really. They created a wave and a movement which Spotify is riding on today with a legal option which also work even better then Napster did in some areas. Since Spotify made music mobile with great apps they really made music as a commodity that we can all have with us at all times. Personally I have been a paying customers for quite some time and I have never had any thoughts of cancelling since it gives me the ability to have music with me using my iPhone where ever I go.

Given the brief amount of time Spotify has been available in the US and already show a just over ten percent conversion rate between free and premium users is really good. As the free users start running out of time per month I strongly believe that the rate will increase towards about fifteen percent which is the number it has been reported from the European market according to Sean Parker. I truly hope that the music industry finally will see the potential in these services so that we can continue to have legal alternatives to get music into our lives.

If you live in the US and don’t have an invite yet, just let me know and we’ll sort it out! I see the fee I pay every month both as a subscription fee but also to show the industry how I am prepared to pay for music. Flat rates instead of individual pricing when it comes to mainstream music is my preferred way and I accept without any doubts that I will need to buy albums and songs from artist too small be found on streaming services. Streaming is the future for music that already happened, let’s get out there and show that we support it.

I am not in any way affiliated with Spotify and write just based on my own experience. If you have any tips of other services similar or even better please get in touch with me so I can evaluate! If you already have a Spotify account, you can look at what’s in my listening lists by following the link below!

References

Snooze for iPhone

Martin Karlsson — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 17:38:37 +0000

Can get up in the morning and also feel like donating some money? There’s an app for that. Presenting Snooze, by LetGive, Inc, which is an app which pledge $0.25 each time you snooze. You simply install the app, setup which charity you want your donations to reach and then start snoozing away.

I am one of those who have two alarms set each morning where the first one goes off simply by giving me the pleasure of snoozing once. Due to that I can calculate who much I have to pledge each month using simple math.

Those of you who can stop hitting that snooze button however; this one is for you!

First look at Google+

Martin Karlsson — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 22:19:13 +0000

So I finally got my hands on an Google+ invite and thought that I would share my first views of it. I want to note right away that since this is my first night with it I have not yet so many contacts or content there so some parts of this look might be missing the full picture of some features.

First thing when I got logged in was to just start clicking through the view that was there and I had some problems at a start to see where everything were. I take this as quite understandable since it is a all new layout I’ve not seen before but still, there was a moment of confusion in the beginning. After a few minutes it started to settle though and I got aquiented.

Circles

Circles is what G+ is using to characterize your contacts in a way where you have better control over who that will see what. But the most important thing to point out with circles from my point of view is that you can have “all” your contacts there but still have control over your private content. In Facebook I always had the problem of not wanting work contacts in my account since I want a clear distinction between my professional- and my private life. Circles really makes this distinction a no brainer.

Hangouts

Me and a couple of friends tried a hangout during our first hour of G+ where we discussed as we went along how things worked. I do believe that this boosted the understanding quite a bit since we could help each other and I have to say that the quality and simplicity of video and audio during this time was great. At least as good as a Skype conference, if not even better. What we did miss in Hangouts was a whiteboard to explain functionality and also a simple way of sharing files. Hopefully this will be added along the way.

Photos

Just a quick tryout of photos and the Android client seem to be good, the web interface to be used on iOS until the app is accepted was not that good.

So, all in all after just a couple of hours of Google+ I am still very positive to what I’ve seen. There is a lot of features I want to see in there and just to mention a few; file sharing in Hangouts would be great, Twitter integration and finally Sparks is still a bit.. I don’t really get it.

All in all, Google+ is showing muscles and I like what I see.

Steve Jobs shows new campus for Cupertino City Council

Martin Karlsson — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 18:55:41 +0000

I saw a story on CultOfMac about a session that was held at Cupertino City Council not too long ago where Steve Jobs where unveiling the new campus Apple want to build there. Not only is the building and the surrounding area a beautiful piece of architecture, the whole session is also very interesting since it shows Mr Jobs in a setting we often do not see him.

Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success

Martin Karlsson — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 17:29:46 +0000

Yet another great TED talk, this time by Alain de Botton which is a person I find highly interesting!

Abandoned desert oasis

Martin Karlsson — Tue, 17 May 2011 17:30:22 +0000

I ran across this marvelous movie of a desert oasis now abandoned from Feber. Once it was the pearl of the desert and the outlook for it to be a heaven on earth was blooming. Today it is however nothing but ruins. Truly wonderful settings for a photographer or for that matter for anyone who every wondered what the earth would look like if all people just disappeared.

For more information about this strange place, head over to Wikipedia.

Choosing an online backup service

Martin Karlsson — Sun, 15 May 2011 17:00:22 +0000

Lately I have come to the conclusion that I should get a good backup solution before my current hardware dies. Way to often we start doing our backups direclty after we’ve lost a disk and it is just the same with me. For a couple of years ago I lost my storage drive which held all my photos and documents which I have been collecting for about ten years. I managed to recover some of the contects (thanks to PhotRec) but I did decide that I would never come to that situation again. Well, now it has passed a couple of years as I said and I finally feel that the time has come to do some good backuping!

If you would like to go directly to the outcome, jump directly to the verdict. If you would like to read the full article just continue reading!

Ten years ago all secure backups was either on CDs or on an external disk which then could be placed in a secure vault or such. Now days the price for online backup services has dropped so that it actually is a really good alternative. So based on this, I set out to try to find a service which gave me what I was looking for. Keep in mind that the choice I make is based on my personal requirements, I do not claim that my choice is the best for everyone.

MY REQUIREMENTS Since I am an amateur photographer and also write a lot of texts I would need a service with unlimited or next to unlimited storage space not to be afraid to run out anytime soon. I do store all photos I like in raw format which become a huge amount of data in a short time. Big storage amounts naturally calls for good transfer rates to be able to transmit changed data or restore data if needed. Since I am located in Sweden, that means a good transfer rate between the central storage server and my local ISP in Sweden. If I need to recover a file I want to be able to recover individual files quickly and easily and I want to be able to do so again with a good transfer speed.

At home I use one stationary computer and one laptop and I want to be able to keep both backed up. Since I do write code mostly on my laptop a system which can keep track of file version would be preferable. If I am going to spend money signing up for a backup service I would like to see a good version based system in place which can be used for not only hardware based failure but also for thought based failures by myself.

Last but not least the price of the service. This is really a secondary requirement for me since what I get from the service is of highest importance. However I will not pay more for a service then I feel I get features back.

THE CONTENDANTS Quickly it was obvious for me that there is a huge amount of services available for online backups, but just as obvious was the fact that most of these services was not what I was looking for. The services I finally came to look into was:

Backblaze
Carbonite
CrashPlan
Diino
Dropbox
Keepit
Storegate

After a quick run-down of my must-haves I could cut these down once again so all i was left with was Backblaze, CrashPlan and Keepit. Main reason the other fell out of my view was to bad conditions for what I needed and limited storage plans.

I simply added a trial for all three and made a few experiments to backup 2Gb of data which I uploaded and restored to see which was the best for me. I also searched the net for additional reviews to see what other had to say about the three. The service which I did like the best just looking at the conditions was Backblaze, if it hadn’t been for the fact that I had terrible transfer rate to their service I would have gone with them. Secondly I tried Keepit which was a very good service but I did feel a bit limited about the available choices to what data to be backed up or not. I also found it to be a bit complex to add additional service for another computer to be added to my account.

So, last of the three I tried CrashPlan. Looking at the conditions of their offer I saw that they was on a clear second place after Backblaze but really ahead of Keepit. Uploading data ran fast for me and the recovery process was very quick and simple.

THE VERDICT After a going through all the services I had tried one final time, what conditions they were offering and the price they asked for it my choice fell on Crashplan. When all is summarized they do provide the best offer for me personally. This is based on the conditions of their accounts, the transfer rate to my home together with a price I feel is fair for the service I receive.

What service is the best for you personally will be the service which offers the best features you want together with an acceptable transfer rate based on what amount of data you will be transferring. My best tip for anyone trying to choose a backup plan just as I did I’d recommend that you write down a short list of what features you need and then also the amount of data you will be transferring. Looking at the list I compiled with those bullets in mind I hope that you will have a better way of choosing the best offer for you.

AFTERWORDS After I already made my selection I found out yet another great feature CrashPlan offer. Instead of uploading data to a central server it is possible to place a drive at a friends place and send your continous backup there. Using this technique you can actually get great transfer speeds where ever you may be in the world as long as you have a second location to place a bonus disk. This is a great opportunity for people who have friends in their network neighborhood with a machine that’s mostly turned on.

Also, as I am a Dropbox user since quite some time I will not give up my account there. For me Dropbox fils a gap for me which Crashplan do not. I use to to transfer files between computers and also to have a quick update for files before they are transfered to CrashPlan. Best thing with Dropbox is that you can use it for free! If you want an account and want to help me at the same time, please use my referral link when you sign up!