I worked with a friend to configure his business systems to backup correspondence, spreadsheets, and presentations over the Internet. Cloud services brought to earth.

While we chose MozyHome (an EMC company) for his purposes, services are beginning to take advantage of Amazon’s S3 storage. Solutions range from enterprise support to home systems. This is becoming a powerful option for small businesses. Home users should take a closer look at these tools.

Here are some of the options I found for Amazon S3 services:

• Jungledisk
  
• Zmanda
  
• Open Source to S3
  

Most provide Windows clients and should be plug and play with home PC systems. Here is what Zmanda says Amazon S3 will cost:

Pricing Dimension
$0.20/GB-per-Month of storage used
$0.20/GB of data transfer in

Amazon S3 services should be platform independent though their software front-ends are written primarily for Wintel systems. Several of these companies offer Macintosh versions. None of these solutions appear to be mature offerings. I would like to see more history behind these applications before I recommend them to an enterprise.

At the present I recommend the MozyHome offering. It appears to be the most mature and pricing is reasonable. Testing to date shows the software to be mature and stable with a Wintel and new OS/X clients.

(See also: MozyHome)

George was blogging before blogging was cool. Not, on-line, but old school journal style. They were interesting enough that someone decided to put them on-line, serialized blog style.

Orwell’s ‘domestic’ diaries begin on 9th August 1938/2008; his ‘political’ diaries (which are further categorised as ‘Morocco’, ‘Pre-war’ and ‘Wartime’) begin on 7th September 1938/2008.

The diaries are exactly as Orwell wrote them. Where there are original spelling errors, they are indicated by a ° following the offending word.

Makes me want to know if Franz Kafka kept a blog.

(See also: Orwell Diaries)
(See also: NYtimes: Orwell Diaries)

Clever signage for the Eureka Tower Carpark in Melbourne, Australia.

The work was done by Axel Peemöller for Emery Studio. Distored letters on the wall and across the floor can be read perfectly when drivers are at the right position. According to the author, this project won several international design awards.

This is similar to the work of street artists like Kurt Wenner, who created classical works of art such as Dies Irae and Babel. Julian Beever creates more contemporary pieces.

(See also: EurekaCarpark: photos)
(See also: Axel Peemöller)
(See also: Axel Peemöller: About Me)

(See also: Kurt Wenner: Street Painting Gallery)

(See also: Julian Beever: Street Painting)

Interesting article about iPhones and iPods and their use in education in the NYtimes today.

Increasingly, colleges and universities are finding novel uses for devices providing a constant connection to the Internet. iPhones and iPods are elegant delivery platforms for media rich content, from course materials distribution and collaboration through web forums to video podcasts of lectures and labs. If a professor, or that mysterious instructor called ’staff’, knows each student has access to a specific rich media interface it becomes another delivery method for your curriculum. Increasing opportunities for contact and collaboration.

“We had assumed that the biggest focus of these devices would be consuming the content,” said Tracy Futhey, vice president for information technology and chief information officer at Duke.

But that is not all that the students did. They began using the iPods to create their own “content,” making audio recordings of themselves and presenting them. The students turned what could have been a passive interaction into an active one, Ms. Futhey said.

These efforts are only beginning. Sadly, our local university does not participate in this innovation.

(See also: NYtimes: Welcome Freshmen. Have an iPod.)
(See also: Iconfactory: Twitterrific)
(See also: Apple: iPod touch)

Stumbled across this article promoting Norwegian for English language speakers this evening.

Funny to me for three reasons: first, I married a Norwegian who delights in her heritage and regales us with traditional tales from the homeland. Second, our daughter has just returned from two weeks of Norwegian language camp ready to practice her new skills. Third, my spouse and my daughter now have their own private language.

My linguistic tricks include German, Modern and Classical Greek, and this article, I’m optimistic.

(See also: Why Norwegian is Easiest Language for English Speakers to Learn)