Living the dream and it's discourses

Web 2.0 drinking the Kool-Aid from my personal cloud

2009-01-05T20:53:00.002-05:00

I've heard the term Web 2.0 and "Cloud Computing" buzzwords so many times, but I was stuck in my own niche of the computer world and was not on the cutting edge of technology. I avoided myspace.com and facebook.com like the plague thinking they were time wasting fads that only college kids did with their volumes of free time. Then I remembered what I would think of adults that said that to meet when I was 500% more productive then them using the "new" technologies, so I embraced Web 2.0 and my love for technology kicked in. I'm hooked.

First, I would like to say my mantra about technology is simple, "it has to improve your life and not make it more complex. If it is faster and more efficient to do it the old way, then do it the old way." An example of this is my little black notebook I write small notes in all the time. It's much faster to use the black notebook then boot up a computer or try to thumb type something into a mobile device. A great example of an application that could improve your life was a bill pay service www.paytrust.com I belonged to starting in college. All your bills would be sent to www.paytrust.com, they would scan it, payment rules could be set, and then they would pay the bills for you via EFT or by check. The fee per month was about equal to the stamp cost of writing the bills, but unfortunately most billers today deliver e-bills and take EFT, so the service is no longer relevant. For over 5 years, no-one could match it.

What is Web 2.0 vs 1.0? The basic difference is that Web 1.0 is static and you "pull" information from a website, whereas with Web 2.0 you interact with the website to create and collaborate the content. Great examples of this are facebook.com, myspace.com, or even match.com. All these applications are delivered through your browser and you the user create the content, not the website developers. Think about it, you logon to facebook.com to read about your friends and what they post, not any facebook.com content.

What is cloud computing? The basic concept is to get away from thinking of computers as hardware or physical machines, but think more abstract terms where you need a certain amount of speed, memory, or disk space to run an application. That computing "horse power" could be anywhere and made up of any kind of hardware, but essential providing computer resources as a service. Why would you want that? Don't you hate having to upgrade your computer every couple of years because it is slow or doesn't run the latest software well? Don't you hate having to upgrade software all the time? Well since the cloud is abstract, it can expand dynamically to meet your needs instead of you having to upgraded hardware all the time. The cloud expands to you, not you conforming to your slow out-dated hardware. Finally, the cloud doesn't reside with you, but you can access it from anywhere; meaning you don't have to be confined to your desk or even your computer to access your information on the cloud.

So why move to Web 2.0 and the cloud? Two reasons information mobility and less computer maintenance. In the last year I moved ever application that I use personally to Web 2.0 on a cloud infrastructure. I don't have to be infront of my computer to access my information. Since I'm pulling the information from the cloud and not a specific computer my information is always in sync with all my computer or mobile devices. For example I can update my facebook.com status on my mac, view it on my work pc, and then update again on my iPhone and all views will be in sync with each other. I no longer have to manage complex synchronization software to keep all my information synced; it just happens. If I buy a new computer or view facebook.com at kiosk in the airport, no software to install and everything is update. No worries about backing your data or upgrading software to the latest revision. Web 2.0 application live in the cloud which is managed by you, but by the people that develop the software. With Web 2.0 my information is completely portable, so like my information, I can now be anywhere. My office can be Philadelphia, any park, any beach, any countries, and the only constraint is your imagination. Finally, you can spend your time using and applications anywhere instead of computer maintenance in your home office.

1. Virtual Filing Cabinet with iDisk on mobileme.com
2. Money Management with Mint.com
3. Note taking with evernote.com
4. Personal training and diet with livestrong.com
5. Task management rememberthemilk.com
6. Social networking facebook.com
7. Blogging with blogger.com
8. Website with mobileme.com

The next couple of days I'll spend time explaining each application and why I picked them. Until then "Live the dream."

Quoted in two articles about SAN

2008-12-08T10:33:00.001-05:00

How to select a Fibre Channel switch for your SAN

http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/generic/0,295582,sid5_gci1340560,00.html?track=NL-58&ad=677612&asrc=EM_USC_5226500&uid=7969420

Best practices for Fibre Channel switching environments

http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/generic/0,295582,sid5_gci1341240,00.html

Brooklyn, Mendoza wine, Saks, Ham, and Cycle Trainers Oh My!!!

2008-12-07T22:03:00.002-05:00

What a great weekend! I got to visit my brother in Brooklyn NYC. First we went an Irish pub and downed a couple of pints of Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, and then head to the liquor store to buy some wine. What was interesting is that I had visited several of the vineyards that were from Argentina. We bought a bottle from bodega Familia Zuccardi:

http://www.familiazuccardi.com

Out of all the vineyards I visited in Mendoza I really enjoyed Familia Zuccardi the best. There was a great guide Harry Houghton. He gave the most in depth and tour which I luckily captured in HD. Oh yeah, the wine was good too. During wine tasting I tried 5 different wines, but during the lunch afterwards I tried 7 wines. Yes, that's right I tried more wine at lunch than the wine tasting. I think that was a common theme of Mendoza wine tasting. The actual wine tasting was good, but the lunches offered at the bodegas are 10x better. I found they ranged from $20-30 US. The lunches usually were 5+ courses and all the wine you can drink. Believe me, I know... Some paired wine with the food others, just kept on pouring anything you wanted. All and all if you are traveling to Mendoza for wine tasting make sure you book the lunches at the bodegas.

Back to Brooklyn, the next day my brother and I headed to Saks 5th Avenue because they were having this ridiculous sale where they took another 50% off the lowest ticketed price. I got this Gucci designer shirt for $80, original MSRP $495. Cha-ching....

http://www.saksfifthavenue.com/

My brother had this great ham in the fridge. You know the kind of hams that are similar prosciutto from parma. So smokey, so good, so yummy. Apparently, you can get a 14-15 lb ham for $55. What is cool about this ham is that you can just hang in your house and just slice a piece off and eat it. No cooking, no refrigeration necessary. That's my kind of food!

http://www.broadbenthams.com/fullproduct.cfm?full=1&ID=1314

Technology front, I finally got my trainer for my bicycle. It was so sweet to cycle in the house and watch the Eagles game. Also, it was nice to be on a real bike and not some gym cycle wantabe. Triathlon, here I come.

http://www.rei.com/product/769753

Antarctica, Buenos Aires, and Mendoza Pictures on the website

2008-12-01T13:19:00.001-05:00

Hey Everyone! Back from Antarctica and the pictures are posted on http://www.daniacono.com . More blog updates soon!

Getting to Mendoza

2008-11-18T10:19:00.004-05:00

Nothing could have ever prepared me for overwhelming beauty of Anarctica. What a trip, what an experience. When I get back, I´ll follow up on the experience more with pictures. There is nothing like seeing 6000 penguins swim on to shore at once (and I captured it in glorious HD 1080i). Antarctica is vast, grand, and more beautiful than I ever had dreamed. Being able to kayak around icebergs and have penguins swim up to me will forever leave it´s mark on me. Antarctica, truely enchanting.

So the Russian ice breaker docked on time at Ushuaia and my flight was on LAN Chile at 11:40a that day. I had plenty of time. What they don´t tell you is that they post the departure times in Buenos Aires time and not Ushuaia time (-1). So really the flight was at 10:40a. How nice of them to mention that on the receipt... I guess I take time zone conversion for granted in the US. Next Argentinian airlines have a vague sense of time meaning departure time is a vague guess. I had 1.5 hours inbetween my Ushuaia flight and connecting Mendoza flight. Plenty of time in the US and most of the world. The plane arrives late, no big deal. The flight crew doesn´t hurry, instead they hang out with the arriving crew. They talk, they kiss, and enjoy some good conversation. An hour later we take off. Yep, there is no way I´m making my connecting flight. When I get on the plane they take my second carry on too, I guess in argentina you can have only one carry on. The plot thickens.

So I land in Buenos Aires and we get on this bus to the baggage terminal. We wait about 5 minutes for everyone to board. It drives about 50 feet and drops us off at the terminal. I laughed so hard because I could have walked to the baggage terminal with 4 minutes to spare. Next my luggage comes out, but not the carry on bag they took from me. 10 minutes later after the last piece of luggage comes out, they put the carry on luggage on the conveyor belt. I head to the Aerolenous ticket counter hoping to switch my flight. Good news, there is a 10:45pm flight tonight. Bad news it´s 4:15p. I´m having flash backs to my Asian trip where I had to kill 8 hours in Phuket airport because I missed my flight due to the taxi breaking down. What to do in Buenos Aires domestic airport for 6 hours? Drink of course. So we start downing red bull and vodka. She eventually has to leave for her flight. I decide to go upstairs to the food court. What catches my attention? In the land of meat, ¨sushi argentina.¨Yes that´s right, I had a Philly roll in the airport... in argentina and two small bottles of Malbec to wash it down. I´m completely loaded by now. The red bulls and vodka, and malbec is catching up with me. I caught my 10:45p flight to Mendoza, how I´m not really sure.

So I arrive in Mendoza very late. Catch a cab to my apartment which is very NYC sheek. Sleep off my buzz and now I´m walking around Mendoza. At 3p today, I´m heading to the ¨Vines of mendoza¨, which I saw on one of my favorite shows ¨three sheets.¨ Tomorrow I´m heading to the country side and will be hiring a driver to take me around a couple vineyards. Chao

--Dan

"The end of the world" Ushuaia, Argentina

2008-11-07T06:18:00.002-05:00

All I can say is, "absolutely breathtaking." This is like a little swiss town carved out of the Alps, but in Argentina that would be the Andes mountains. The town is pepperred with A-frame houses and cute little gift shops. I arrived late around 7pm and Aerolineous Argentina lost our luggage. Good news is that I had my Artic jacket on-board, bad news the carry-on bag had my clothes for Buenos Aires and Mendoza, the checked bag had my Antarctica clothes. Murphy´s law at it´s best. What to do with no clothes? Go out to eat and then head to the bar to forget that you don´t have any luggage. There was this great little restaurant at the top of Ushuaia called Kaupe which had fantastic food and wine. We both had the local scallops and king krab, which were extremely tasty. The olive oil tasted like butter. Don´t worry, I kayak off the pounds in Antarctica. The local Irish pub had some good home brews. If I wasn´t heading on a boat in the roughest seas in the world, I could have drank much more at that place. We are going to head off to see the "local glacier" and then at 4pm we board the ship to Antarctica, so this will probably be my last blog until I reach Mendoza. My favorite quote "the best thing about the end of the world it only happens once" and Antarctica is a once a life time trip.

Leaving BA.. Big Apple heading south

2008-11-06T10:11:00.003-05:00

In about an hour, I'll heading south to Ushuaia or as I like to call it "the end of the world." It is the southern most city in the world. I'm going to take picture looking south, so I can tell people "do you want to see the end of the world?" Then hand them a picture of Ushuaia. Ok... bad joke.

Went to La Boca yesterday and I could understand why it was a slum back in the day. Other than the 3 block tourist section, it is still a slum. Lots of cool outdoor cafe's and live tango dancing which is always nice. Finally got to use the new camcorder to capture the tango in high definition.

I'm a big fan of 1000 places to see before you die and I was a little disappointed that thet "Teatro Colon" was closed and had no tours. They are refurbing it for the 2010 Argentina festival. It is supposed to be one of the top 5 places to listen to an opera. Maybe next time.

Puetro Madro was a beautiful walk along the river. It was very interesting to see the parity between the old european architecture and new modern buildings on the other side of river. On the modern side it definitely had a south beach feel with lots of trendy restaurants that had sofas instead of regular chairs. Got some great shots of the city. Thanks John for the fish-eye lens.

On to Ushuaia!

Buenos Aires! Obama Wins!

2008-11-05T08:24:00.002-05:00

Today is my first blog in Buenos Aires and my last full day here. I finally found the computer in the Marriott. First things first, the Malbec wine here is amazing and so many different varieties. The 10 varieties I get in a PA state liqueor store can't even compare to a single restaurant's inventory. Yesterday I headed out to a "Guacho" ranch (cowboy), where I experienced more good wine, horeback riding, and a great meat asada (BBQ). Kelly and I are definitely excited to begin the Antarctica portion of our journey tomorrow.

Couple of first impressions of Buenos Aires and I believe misconceptions. As a whole, Buenos Aires is not cheap. There are some things that are less expensive such as cheese, taxi's, and some bottles of wine. Things such as leather, food, tango shows, and bar drinking are more expensive then the tour books let you believe. Kelly was able to pickup a semi-custom leather jacket for a reasonable price, but your definitely have to shop around for the deals. We went to an awesome tango show with dinner and it was $100 /pp. I think Buenos Aires was a steal at one point, but like other destinations (like Cancun or Italy), they got smart.

Recoleta cemetary is really understated like Evita's grave. When you walk first walk into Recoleta, you immediately get the feeling of this is going to be a memorable moment in your journey. I can't really begin to describe the grandure and ornate detail of the tombs in the cemetary. The only other place that comes close is Pere Lachaise cemetary in Paris (where Jim Morrison is buried). Casa Rosada was an amazing sight. You could almost imagine seeing Eva Perone in the balcony addressing the crowd.

Today is La Bocca section, Theater Colon, and Puerto Madero for dinner. We'll see what that has to offer. It is always an adventure.

Finally, technotes for the trip. I have film background, but have been a big fan of the small compact digital camera that fits in your pants pocket. My brother gave me a Nikon D40 with some awesome lens. I've really enjoyed taking great pictures again. The 12-28mm lens was extremely useful in Recoleta cemetary to capture the graves without backing up 30 feet. The "power monkey" charged my ipod great and is recharding now via solar. The power monkey is going to become a stable part of my travel gear. The HG21 camcorder is having mixed reviews. I'll talk about it late. Chau

Antartica Eve

2008-10-30T23:46:00.004-04:00

Finally, the day has come and tomorrow I'll be beginning my journey to Antarctica. Right now, I locked and loaded. It was particularly interesting packing since I'm spending 1/2 my time in Buenos Aires and Mendoza in Argentina, as well as Antarctica. I usually pride myself on packing light, but with two distinct climates, I'll take a pass.

Let's talk tech. My brother graciously gave me a Nikon D40, with a 18-200mm lens for this trip. I can't wait to use the camera. He also gave a 12-24mm lens (to borrow) for panoramic scenes. Then for video I have the Canon HG21 camcorder which can do 1080p at the maximum bit rate for AVCHD. It also has a built in 120GB hard drive, so I don't have any tapes. For power I have PowerMonkey which is a solar solution. What is great about solar solutions is that you can charge the battery, but it has many power tips, so instead of carrying 15 different power cords, I only need the universal tips of the PowerMonkey. I can also recharge my Ipod on the go with PowerMonkey. Finally, decided to use www.blogger.com in lieu of apple's blog tool. First all, it isn't vacation if you carry a laptop, which to update my blog via apple, you need your computer. I can update blogger via webpage or email from any computer or device. Thank you web 2.0.

I'm going to try to update my blog as much as possible during this trip, so check back periodically. See you on the other side!

#1 Introduction and disclaimer

2008-10-16T15:09:00.002-04:00

First, welcome to my blog and I hope you'll enjoy reading about my take on life. It's interesting how life comes full circle. My first big break in corporate Americas was designing and selling websites. Once I moved technologies from web development to data storage my passion for the web dwindled. Web 2.0 has definitely brought excitement back into the web for me. This website, this blog is long over due. I have so much to share from technology, philosophy, my hobbies, the minushia of life, and most of all how I'm living my dream everyday. It's time to give back to the web that has given me so much. It's begins here. Welcome and I hope you enjoy the ride as much as I do. Welcome.

Disclaimer:

OK. I'm going to talk about a lot of different things some plain, some controversial. Read my blog at your own risk. I take absolutely no responsibility for anything that you do from reading my blog. I love America. My lawyer loves America. We are the land of free and I believe in that freedom very much. One of the greatest rights as Americans is the right to be stupid. For example if I talk about doing something, you do it too, and get hurt in anyway; don't blame me. Chalk it up as one of those "learning experiences" my teachers would call things when you failed. If I talk about anything financial and you loose money somehow, don't look for me for money. You get the idea. Reading my blog will be risky, but life is risky and risky things feel good. With that said, now I begin....