Anthony Pearson

The Personal Cloud

0

13 years

by Anthony in Computing

I have a fascination with Information Technology. In one way or another it has touched all of our lives. It impacts us economically, as well as culturally as we see the affects it has on the world through social networking. I love the way it makes life easier, even though it can sometimes cause some frustration within the household.

The most recent tool that I am using in a hope that it will improve my life is SugarSync. This application is an on-line backup, file synchronisation and sharing tool. I currently have it installed on a mac, a desktop PC running Windows, an Android phone, along with a laptop and virtual machine under WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator) both running Linux.

The closest most of us get to the ‘cloud’ is either accessing our e-mails on-line or viewing and uploading photos to Facebook. Occasionally someone might use an on-line application such as Google docs. What this tool aims to achieve is provide you with some on-line storage that backs up your files to the internet, and if you wish it, synchronise them between all your devices. The purpose being that all your files are at the most recent revision and available wherever you have an internet connection.

From personal experience the main benefit I gain from it is that my current writing is safely backed up to the internet, and is updated across my devices so that I am always up to date. Also all the photos and videos from my phone are also backed up and available to me from my devices where they have been duplicated. All my files are available to me through any browser. I can also send a link via e-mail to my friends so they can download large files from their internet browser, rather then clogging up their inbox :).

Features that I have not used include media streaming, and group collaboration tools, but feel free to comment on your experiences if you have used them.

One warning that I would give would be not to use this as your sole backup tool. Because of its ease of use it could be tempting to just leave it up to SugarSync to do the work. However anything can happen and usually does. So keep an off-line local backup of your files as well for piece of mind.

If you want to give it a go yourself, you can get 5GB for free, along with an extra 500MB from using my referral link, from here:

https://www.sugarsync.com/referral?rf=ehpsrgs9vrhaa

Being Haunted By the Story

8

13 years

by Anthony in Writing

Having an overactive imagination is both a blessing and a curse.

When reading or writing I can be transported into worlds I could never visit and do things that I could never experience in real life. My mind expands these universes of thought and feeling to provide an experience that no games console, television, or cinema can provide.

On the other hand when real life problems come around, that means I also run through all the probabilities and possibilities, filling my thoughts with worries that might not necessarily come to pass.

Worst of all though is what I consider being ‘Haunted by the Story’. Your mind is full of this amazing story. It constantly shifts and sways, forms and reforms in your brain. It’s like seeing the most amazing film at the cinema, but not being able to tell anyone about it because it’s not finished and is constantly changing.

Getting it down on paper helps, but real life gets in the way, and you are constantly feeling guilty that you are getting no further with it. So you find yourself going to sleep thinking about it, waking up thinking about it, walking along thinking about it, and occasionally drifting off only to find yourself lost in the story again.

At one point I was coming up with the most amazing ideas, only to have them forgotten about an hour later. How many plot altering, wonderful ideas have been lost to the ether?

The only solution at present is to capture everything on a dictaphone app on my phone, giving me some piece of mind that eventually everything should make it into the book.

When I finally finish and publish the book, maybe the story can be exorcised from my brain.

anthony-pearson.com now first to appear in Google search

12

13 years

by Anthony in Web site development

I was surprised to see today that my website now appears 1st in google search when you search for “anthony pearson official website.”

I am shocked to discover the amount of pride I receive from this, though I believe it is justified considering that it didn’t even exist a month ago!

I look forward to continued success with the website, and hopefully I will eventually appear on the front page of Google when you search for just my name. I believe this should be helped along when I publish my book.

Wish me luck!

Amazon sells more ebooks than actual books

41

13 years

by Anthony in ebooks

I read this article today:

http://fwd.five.tv/gadget-show/gadget-news/amazon-selling-more-ebooks-than-real-ones

Being a Kindle owner myself I can understand why digital books have become the main medium for consuming books on amazon. Through my kindle app on my phone and the kindle itself I am always on the current page that I am reading. I can pick it up at any time, whether I have a few mins while I’m cooking, or waiting for the kettle to boil. I would not be able to read as much as I do otherwise. The main benefit I see is that if a want a book, I buy it, and then I’m reading it straight away. No waiting for delivery.

Most of all I get access to many wonderful Indy writers who may not have been able to get their book published through traditional channels.

Viva la ebook Revolucion!

The New website is Under way!!!

6

13 years

by Anthony in Web site development

It has been a rather interesting experience setting up the website. I will admit that I am surprised at how good wordpress is as a CMS, considering I thought it was only a blogging tool. Having a local web server to develop the theme on has been a great help, so that I don’t have to keep logging on and off to the host site just to check if things worked.

The host I set up on touted an automatic install, however I went for the light option and set up everything myself. I prefer it this way as I have more control.

Well I look forward to when the website is completed so that I can start promoting my writing!!

I have found this website to be most helpful if you want to give wordpress a go.

http://sixrevisions.com/tutorials/web-development-tutorials/using-xampp-for-local-wordpress-theme-development/