Chris Hutchins

My resolutions for 2009… please hold me to them!

• Attend SXSW for the first time
• Get beyond the brainstorming phase for at least one startup
• Find some possible co-founders (hopefully some developers and designers)
• Travel somewhere new / exciting with my girlfriend Amy (Any suggestions? did Europe in ‘05, Asia in ‘07)
• Find a second client for my consulting work (so I don’t have to get a “real” job)
• Regularly climb at a 5.12 / V4 level
• Get better at NOT procrastinating
• Get in better shape
• Regularly Blog (hopefully about something interesting)

All Dreamhost hosting accounts now come with 50gb of free personal backup.I’ve been searching for a while on a good tutorial for this and couldn’t find one, so I thought I would make my own.

1. Setup passwordless login for rsync (can be skipped if you don’t mind typing your password each time you want to sync)

• Open terminal and type the following (press return after each line)
• “ssh-keygen -t dsa” (press enter after all three prompts)
• “scp ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub remote”
• “cat ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys”
• “chmod 644 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys”
• “sftp backupusername@backup.dreamhost.com”
• “lcd /Users/OSXUsername/.ssh
• “mkdir .ssh”
• “put authorized_keys .ssh”

2. Sync your files / folders

• Open terminal and type the following, then press return
• “rsync -avz BackupFolder backupusername@backup.dreamhost.com:DestinationFolder” (example: “rsync -avz ~/Documents bxxxxxx@backup.dreamhost.com:macbook_backup”)
• Optionally, you can add “–delete” after “-avz” (ie: “-avz –delete “) if you want to delete files on your backup once they’ve been deleted locally

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Over the past weeks I’ve noticed a few Twitter “Phenomenona” that I felt were worth sharing:

1. After Kevin Rose said “ask me any question, and I will @ reply you back (for the next 20 mins, then getting dinner)”, over 1,200 people @replied him within those 20 minutes. I was sitting on the couch with @brianshaler and we were both amazed that so many people were so closely watching Rose’s Tweets AND had a question for him.
2. Chris Pirillo managed to create value out of being helpful on Twitter. He frequently posted links to coupons / product deals on different e-commerce sites. What you may or may not have noticed was that each link was an affiliate link that surely earned him a small kickback on any purchases made on that site
3. After being @referenced in tweets from a few friends (@andrewhyde, @brianshaler, @t and @indiekid to name a few) who happen to have quite a few more followers than I do, people started following me at much higher than usual rates. While this seems so obvious, watching it happen really solidified my understanding of how Twitter “works”.

Being the tech-geek I am, one of the first things I did at my “corporate job” was ask how I could set up email on my iPhone. Unfortunately, I was told that Monitor uses Lotus Notes (I knew that Lotus Notes existed, but I didn’t actually think anyone used it). Long story short, I had to get a BlackBerry. Now, almost 9 months later, I’ve switched back to my iPhone, but have compiled this short list of things I’ll miss, and things I’m glad to have back.

Things I’ll miss from my BlackBerry Curve

• A much better platform for typing long messages / emails
• A phone designed to function while out of service (ie: email/weather on the subway)
• Multiple email addresses in one inbox
• Profiles (for volume / alerts / vibrate)
• Apps that run in the background (a la Google Talk)
• BB Messenger (far superior than SMS)
• Ability to handle all types of calendar invites
• Last, but certainly not least: Copy/Paste (you knew that was coming)

Reasons I’m glad to be back on an iPhone

• Brilliant UI
• Safari (the only good mobile web browser)
• Great MP3 player
• Incomparable application / game selection
• Adikus’ Backgammon App
• iTrans NYC (Subway Map)
• Ability to type one-handed
• Brightkite iPhone App