Cloud options

The last few months have been a time when I've been aiming to get better backup online - on Cloud. I'd used Dropbox before, at my last job, but found that when my son sent a whole pile of photos through on it, the office internal backup system decided it needed to back all these up as well.  Perhaps there was some issue with the way it was set up.  Anyway I was bit loathe to use it again, but decided that there was sufficient free gigs to use it for some of my stuff, and so I did.  

I don't particularly like the way you have to back up stuff manually yourself, but it works well enough.  

I also discovered that I could get a certain number of gigs free on SugarSync.  This is a better system in the sense that any changes you make to the folders you've specified to be backed up are backed up automatically. However, you have to specify the folders, and if you decide to go and add another folder  that's not on the list, you're up for a manual job again.  Still SugarSync was a step up.  

So far at least both of these were secure data backup systems, which was a plus.  And then I came across JustCloud, which again offered so much free backup.  The only problem with them was that they assessed how much room you'd need to backup things and then expected you to pay for that space.  Well, at this point I decided, what the heck.  I've got the money on PayPal, which they were willing to take, so I went for a two-year plan and got some huge number of gigs in terms of space.  At this point I'm using less than 10% of it, and all my photos are backed up (it took a couple of days!), and all documents, and music files from Sibelius and some other odds and ends.  However they don't backup some other things - the wav files from my concerts, for instance, didn't go automatically.  I'll have to investigate what the story is there.  

So at this point I have three places backing up either some or most of the items that are on this computer.  There are two external hard drives as well around the place that have everything on them - except that because they're not connected to the computer all the time, they don't have the more recent stuff.  It's a bit of a hit and miss thing, this backing-up.  You do your best, but you can bet your boots something you wanted to keep will just vanish in the process!

Kiva

Kiva is finally starting to make headlines. Well, when I say that, I mean that the first headline I've seen regarding Kiva apart from those on the Kiva site itself turned up in the Guardian online today.

I first came across Kiva last year, in relation to Blog Poverty Day. It seemed a good scheme then, and it's proved itself since. I think what I like about it is that the money you lend out actually comes back to you and you can re-lend it to another person in the queue. And there are plenty of people in the queue, too.

It's very simple. The website shows you a bunch of photos of people who would like a loan to fund either a small business starting up, or one that's already underway. These loans go to people who are already on the move; they may live in poverty areas of the world, but they're doing their best to make sure they don't go down the tubes.

Some of the photos show groups of people who are working as a collective. You can lend to either. And the amount you lend is minimal, really: $25US. I've had it paid back three or four times over already, and there's still money in my account. If I need to top it up, I just draw a bit off my Paypal account and it's done! Kiva asks for a small donation usually, for admin purposes, but you're not obliged to pay this.

I'd recommend it to anyone: it's certainly better than spending your money on diet pills that work (or don't work, as the case may be), or on some new clothes, or a DVD or book (the last two are where I fall down when browsing in shops). Kiva is a way to make a difference in the world. It's a tiny difference as far as I'm concerned, perhaps, but combined with thousands of others' money, it makes a huge difference to people in places we've often never heard of.

Check 'em out!

Blog Poverty Day today

Today is the actual day - the 15th - as opposed to the day when I wrote the last post on the Blog Action Poverty Day.

One of the interesting things they discuss on their site are Kiva Loans. These are loans made via Paypal or other electronic means which can be used to help someone (usually in the Third World, I presume) start up a small business. The loan is eventually paid back and can be then recycled for someone else.

The basic mechanism of the lending process is here. I've come across similar approaches before, of course (the idea certainly isn't new), but this is the first time I've seen it promoted through the Web in this way. The other difference seems to be that you can combine with a bunch of other lenders to increase the size of the available loan.

The other aspect is that you can actually see who you'll be lending to: there's information about a number of people looking for loans. Some are groups who've got together - or have been together for some time - and some are individuals, like Mastura Chakalova who's been selling children's clothing for nine years in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Tajikistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia; one of its neighbours is Afghanistan and another is China.

The more I look into this scheme (which has been running successfully as a non-profit for at least three years) the more I'm impressed. Check it out!

Better than spending money on that Harley and its Harley parts...

Doing some demo shopping.

I know I’m always talking about the shop I used to manage, but you’ll just have to get used to it. It was a big part of my life for seventeen years, which equates to number of years it took me to grow up – and that was a pretty important time too!
We used to have a program called Chreos for our data base and debtors and creditors and POS. (Point of sale to those who aren’t familiar with the abbreviation.) It was a good program and overall had few areas I’d complain about. By the time we started using it, it had been well and truly tested by other shops in the same business as us, and a lot of things had been ironed out.
However, at that time it wasn’t usable for direct online selling, and this was something we looked at fairly seriously a couple of times. It would have meant quite a change to the way we processed our data, but it would have been worth it.
I’ve just been playing with some shopping cart software which does all the things I’d like to have done in the shop. Ashop.com.au has some demo models online and I’ve just ordered myself a couple of scooters, some helmets of various sizes (you never know, my head might grow or shrink) and some roller blades. Bill came to something like $2,000AU, but that was okay, because at the end of your playing you were reminded that this was just a demo – and not to call to make your order!
It was easy to register as a customer (almost as easy as sending the items to your shopping cart by merely clicking on them), and though there’s a spelling error on the address info page (‘biling’ instead of ‘billing’) I was happy to overlook that because of the ease of usage. You’re even offered the chance to pay by PayPal, which isn’t something you find everywhere. The demo is so lifelike it even took me as far as asking for my PayPal address, by which time I thought it was wise to get out of there, just in case the program had decided to stop playing demo and get into the real thing.
For some reason I couldn’t access the Admin demos using Firefox, but that’s okay. When I get a minute I’ll give it a try on IE7.
Did I mention the price? That looked very enticing to me. For a small business, it's around $99 per month. Pretty good value, I'd say.