Simon G's Blog

Time Machine is the built-in backup feature of OS X. It keeps a copy of all your files, and remembers how your system looked on any given day so you can revisit your Mac as it appeared in the past. Apple sells a device called a Time Capsule, but rather than buy one of these I opted for a diy approach using my  Raspberry Pi  and so far it seems to be working well. My setup consists of: Raspberry Pi Model B running Raspbian connected via network cable to a router MacBook Pro running OS X Yosemite v10.10.1 connected via Wifi to a router External 2TB drive (with separate power) attached via USB to the Raspberry Pi It was relatively easy to setup following the instructions at  http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=47029  . I am reiterating the instructions here just in case the page disappears (with a couple of additions I needed): 1. Start with a clean installation of Raspbian, configured for your network 2. Power down your Pi, con...

"The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich" by Tim Ferriss is one of those books I had heard about but not got around to reading until now. My key takeaways: Think about what parts of your work or personal life you could outsource to free up time to do other things (some good references are provided in the book such as elance, Your Man In India and Brickwork).  There are some good reminders about time management, handling interruptions, testing (even down to product name testing via Google AdWords) and keeping it simple for the customer by reducing the number of decisions they need to make. Some good advice was provided about having a minimum advertised pricing clause in order to prevent wholesaling wars (not only by organisations, but also by discounters on eBay) There are some useful links to tools and sites to get a website up and running quickly, some good advice about projecting that your company is bigger than it is (e.g. by hav...

I found Nikola Tesla: Imagination and the Man That Invented the 20th Century to be a very quick read and a well written synopsis of Nikola Tesla and imagination. I had heard of Tesla but didn't know much more and this book was a great introduction to an amazing person and a great inspirational read about genius being a path anybody can take, never giving up, thinking being the enemy of creativity and varied knowledge and experiences being more likely lead to fresh ideas. It is not a book for getting an in depth understanding of Tesla or in depth information about self improvement or imagination, but it is a good short inspirational read.