little man zapped II, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

Cloud computing sounds partially dull, partially too techy to be interesting but it's another thing that's made my life easier.

It's all about having all the info I need wherever I am. A lot of my personal data is stored in the Google cloud. For instance, all of my contacts are centralised in google mail. Emails as well as phone numbers, addresses, etc. are all stored there. I've recently amalgamated all my contacts to the one location - in the Google cloud. I can access these contacts via my phone (which, thanks to it being Android) automatically synchronises with 'the cloud' - ie if add a new contact on my phone, it automatically backs up to the cloud and I can access it via any online computer. My diary is synchronised with my Google Diary so if I put something in my outlook calandar at work it automatically gets onto my Google calendar which I can view and edit on any online computer as well as on my phone.

Google Docs is another one. Everything from spreadsheets, word processed documents, presentations, files, PDF's etc - I can access them all from where ever I am - create, edit, save ahd share them all from the cloud.

For bigger files / zips / folders of content, I've been using Microsoft Sky Drive - which does what it says on the tin - provides your own 'hard drive' (where you can securely store what ever you need) in the Microsoft cloud.

I've been doing it for years to some degree - keeping my photo album online - flickr. Every time I get a good photo I'll stick it up on flickr. I've not got nearly 5000 photos up there that I can search and retrieve.

I do the same thing with my bookmarks. Google chrome has just enabled synchronised Google bookmarking recently and although the phone end of this isn't quite as neat, I can still access my bookmarks / save a new bookmark where ever I am.

I've been doing the same thing with my tasks (using the Remember The Milk - the only paid for app out of all the cloud things I use) tool as mentioned in an earlier blog and recently I've discovered snaptic / (and it's phone 'notes' interface) 3 banana - a brilliant tool that's essentially a private blog where you can mash down thoughts (from your browser / phone ) and they save on a personal blog page ready for you to copy / paste / edit / use later - I'm at this moment sketching this idea out in snaptic with the idea of tidying it up and blogging with it later.

It's all good and by and large, its all free.

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fish, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

Back at work today. Have been into the habit of working from home for ages now. The snow seems to be beating a full retreat for the time being - so the route to work is safe to travel. Shame in a way. It's great working from home, although after a while I do start to feel a bit like I'm stuck in the tank. There are massive benefits to working from home though.

Most of the stuff I do, I can do from home. As well as being able to take photos of fish at lunch time (as above) and eat fried egg sandwiches cooked on goose fat, it saves petrol (and the green bits) and travel time. It's good to work away from distraction. Isolate myself in my own thoughts. Face time is missing though although and that's important, but I can communicate through many other methods. Hmm.. ups and downs. I think I'm going to angle for a bit more homeworking though.

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Ice Marlin, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

The longest cold snap for 10/25/30 years (depending on which publication you read) continues. It's above zero for a lot less time than below - causing some rather cool (if you'll pardon the pun) natural ice sculpture.

This 'Ice Marlin' as I've called it is right next to our front door.

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WINTER SALE, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

The view from my house this morning. This was shot a couple of hours ago now and it's still snowing! deepest it's ever been as far as I can remember in Harrogate.

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FIRE Christmas Bash '09 photo set, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

Just uploaded the photos from the FIRE Christmas bash of last Sunday. What a fantastico night it was. I love that venue and the crowd seems to like it as well! Top show from the venue organizing it so that we didn't have to charge on the door - allowing us to collect loads of dosh for OXFAM instead. Thanks y'all!

Superb on the music front. I thought the freeflow jam with Dalmation Kebab up front worked really well, blending into my set (brazilian stuff and percussion) into Cloudbass's stuff into Dharma's stuff (which was knock out in association with The Juice Loose Horns brass trumping over the top). Christopher Xtopher's ("Christopher Crosstopher's") set was something else. I like the fact that that man travells the globe as a musical journalist. He picks up vibes and tunes on the way treating the last two FIRE party punters to a refinement of the afore mentioned. Johnny Kendall stood on a stool to play his brilliant set giving him a birds eye view of a room of people with massive grins on their heads loving the night.

Upstairs the texture was totally different - breaks and mashed up stuff introduced by a down and dirty funk set from Mr Leadbetter followed up by a live and DJ set from the mighty 601 who have not played a gig in Harrogate for 9 years. Crowned by FIRE old favorite Si Hudson who mashed up the room with his scratched breaks and drum and bass. Stonking fun. 42 photos here.

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