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DropBox: Your own Website (3/5)

Chris Spiegl — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:23:57 +0000

This little program is simply awesome! If you have not heard of it yet, here is the introduction post of this series, I will now tell you what it is all about. This time: Your own website create and publish via DropBox.

Nowadays it is easy to get a space online where you can publish your content. Probably the most useful for just your little personal status updates are Facebook, Twitter and the alike social-networks. But if you would like to be king of your site, the design and all other aspects you might find Tumblr, WordPress.com or anything like that useful. Still there are people out there (like my self) who would like to host their site them self. Now I heard about a cheap alternative. Your DropBox.

The Public Folder Method

You already know that your DropBox has a folder called Public and you already know you can share files through that folder (if not, here I describe what I mean). But you can also use it for Websites. This works like the following:

First you open the Public folder in your DropBox directory.
Than you create a new folder inside the Public folder.
Inside that folder you create a text file called index.html.
Open this file with your text editor and add the following:
```
The HTML5 Herald







Your Text Here
```
It would be awesome to be able to write some HTML but there are plenty of programs out there which can help you with that. If you are running on Mac OS X you already have one called iWeb. You can use iWeb to produce the HTML code!Sidenote: if you are interested in learning HTML (5), here are two resources: camendesign.com and net.tutsplus.com.
Now save the file and right-click the file and chose ‘DropBox->Copy Public Link’.
Paste the link into a browser and you are done. You can now see the website in your browser.

The Scriptogr.am Method

An alternative to publishing your stuff via the Public folder is Scriptogr.am. They help you set up a special folder into which you only need to save txt (text-file) documents. They provide a specific format which enables you to set your Post Title, Date, Post Type (Post / Page) and other structural stuff. And then provide a link for you where your blog now can be reached. The site than checks once in a while if something changed in your text file folder and that way updates your site. They do the design stuff and even support Markdown!

“Scriptogr.am is the first blog publishing tool I’ve tried which is truly dead-simple to use.”

~ Rasmus Andersson | Product designer at Facebook

This is a nice alternative to WordPress.com. With ease of use and simply administered. Still this method lacks some functionality like plugins and comments.

Downsides

The problem with DropBox as a web server is that it does not provide the ability to run PHP scripts nor does it support a database like MySql. That would need DropBox Server to run some additional software which they currently do not support. So The websites are online. You can publish stuff but you are not able to really get something interactive out there.

Conclusion

I might not really use it for my own site. But I used it for presentational purpose of HTML Templates of a website and I already saw some people publish their holiday diary using this free DropBox Public Folder Website Method.

All in all one more simple method to get your word out there in a simple way. Hands up to Freedom of Speech!

DropBox: Your own Website (3/5) is a post from: CHRISSPdotCOM

DropBox: Hardlinking Files and Folders (2/5)

Chris Spiegl — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:15:09 +0000

This little program is simply awesome! If you have not heard of it yet, here is the introduction post of this series, I will now tell you what it is all about. This time: Hardlinking files and folders so they sync with your different machines or to have a backup of settings and other stuff.

For some time it was a pain to sync folders outside your DropBox. On Windows you had to install a new program which than provided the ability to do hard links. But I am not going into Windows right here (if you are interested please visit the DropBox Wiki.

But I just found out that there are programs which allow you to manage this process easily now. The DropBox Wiki provides a great list of tools which make it really easy to hardlink a folder into your DropBox. For example on my Mac I now use MacDropAny. Probably this could be done even nicer and more user-friendly but I think it is much better than to think about the terminal commands for creating hardlinks.

I hope this helped.

What I am Syncing

Well first and for most: I sync my Documents folder. There are all my needed Documents such as School stuff, talks, keynotes and all the alike. But I noticed early on that some other programs tend to use the Documents folder too. For example Final Cut and thus the Documents folder tended to outgrow my DropBox. Now I have a Documents folder inside my DropBox and linked to that folder in the Sidebar of the Finder and no longer sync the Documents via the hardlink.

I sync my Coda settings. That is a little tricky and I have not figured it out completely but it works for the plugins and workspaces which I created. A full tutorial on how to sync your Coda preferences can be found at eggfreckles.net. But basically, you only have to sync:

~/Library/Preferences/com.panic.Coda.plist
~/Library/Application Support/Coda

And third I use it to sync my 1Password Keychain and the LittleSnapper Library. For 1Passowrd there is a great tutorial on how to use DropBox to get over the air syncing. LittleSnapper is a little more tricky. You can just move your LittleSnapper library to your DropBox and then start LittleSnapper with the alt-key pressed and select the new location. But be warned: LittleSnapper is not built to sync that way. You can only use LittleSnapper on one computer. And not open LittleSnapper on two or more machines at the same time!

Happy Syncing!

DropBox: Hardlinking Files and Folders (2/5) is a post from: CHRISSPdotCOM

DropBox: Sharing (1/5)

Chris Spiegl — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:32:11 +0000

This little program is simply awesome! If you have not heard of it yet, here is the introduction post of this series, I will now tell you what it is all about. This time: Sharing files made easy!

As in the last post, you already know what DropBox does in basics. They also provide very nice tutorials on how to use DropBox. I would like to show you one in particular this time. Sharing files and photos via DropBox.

Most of the time it is the case that you are shooting a birthday party and then you have to send the photos to all the people, burn a CD or get your self a server. Now you just creat a folder inside your DropBox/Photos folder and DropBox will create a web-viewable gallery for you. To grab the link you need to share it with your friends, simply do a right-click on the folder you just created and select “DropBox->Copy Public Gallery Link”. Now send this link to your friends via email and all they see is a beautiful gallery of all the photos. Just that simple.

But what about doing all this downloadable? So all you would like to do is provide some friends a Song which you created and you would like to share it with some of your friends? Now there is a folder for that. It is called Public. So if you want to share a file with friends, just drop it into the DropBox/Public folder and do a right-click “Copy Public Link”. Now you send this link to who ever you would like to download your file.

This simple. I am always amazed just copy it into the DropBox folder and you are done. I love it!

DropBox: Sharing (1/5) is a post from: CHRISSPdotCOM

DropBox: Series

Chris Spiegl — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:02:09 +0000

DropBox is a service where you create an account and download a little program to your PC (Mac, Windows and Linux versions available). DropBox than provides you with a simple folder, which acts just like all the other folders you have on your system. But DropBox is a little different. All the files you put in there are synced with the DropBox servers. That way all your files are in sync with the internet and accessible for you from all over the world. The best part: if you install DropBox on a second PC and authorize it with the same DropBox account, all your files are in sync between those two PCs! All the time.

Probably the best about this service: you get 2GB for free and if you refer friends you can pump that 2GB up to 10GB free online storage or you buy it.

But there is more about DropBox. And I would like to give you a little insight in how I use it over the next days.

Sharing (Share files with friends and colleagues)
Hardlinking (backup folders which are not in your DropBox)
Your own Website (hosted for free in your DropBox)
Shared Folders (project folders with friends)
Mobile DropBox

So stay tuned for this series of posts.

DropBox: Series is a post from: CHRISSPdotCOM

Top 3 Timelapsers I Know

Chris Spiegl — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:40:15 +0000

Currently I am getting a little deeper into timelapse photography and so I thought maybe I should share some love with awesome people in the field. Here are 3 (um its four to be exact) high end timelapse photographers who are doing some awesome work.

Number one is Tom Lowe who is currenlty editing the footage for his feature film TimeScapes which will be edited in 4k! The trailer already is impressive! Watch the Trailer here. To follow his projects he is online at twitter.com/timescapes, facebook.com/TimeScapes and gplus.to/tomlowe
Eric Hines who is only 21 years old! He really impresses with some great work at Vimeo.
Sheldon Neill and Colin Delehanty with their work done in Yosemite. They absolutely killed it! Lovely short film in addition to that, they also did a great job on the behind the scenes video.

Top 3 Timelapsers I Know is a post from: CHRISSPdotCOM

Think Tank of Friends

Chris Spiegl — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:43:17 +0000

Today my topic is “Think Tank” the Wikipedia definition is like this:

A think tank (or policy institute) is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations …

~ Wikipedia

But I think that is not what I understand by that term. I would like to define a Think Tank as a collaboration of different people from different backgrounds working together to reach a goal. I implement that in my circle of friends a couple of weeks back. I initialized a meeting of a bunch of people with totally different backgrounds and some overlaps. We met just to have a nice meal together and then talk about ideas, random thoughts and concrete once as well. Discuss those thoughts and ideas with all the people and get totally different inputs.

In contrast to just meeting each other to sit together and talk some small talk we decided to do the same but also have some productive outcome. Sure we also strayed from the topic but that was and is OK (even wanted and needed sometimes)! We always found our way back.

So what was the evening like?

First we met and cooked a meal. Sat together and just talked for a little while.
Second I had an inspirational video prepared.
Third I talked a little about the reasons I arranged this meeting.
Fourth was about questions about why this meeting is a good idea and what should the outcome be.
And finally we just started with giving a ball into the round to people who wanted to propose an idea or say something different. The ball was a good started for those who did not really want to say something but were forced a little. Most of the time they are just shy.
We talked for some hours, different topics, different ideas and some small talk as well.

This for sure is not a golden rule for such meetings. But I suggest 3 things!

3 Suggestions

Watch an inspirational video to start off
Have a moderator of some kind
Charter and Smalltalk are not all that bad, but you should find a way back to the topic after some minutes

So this you should remember! And get started. Call 3 – 6 friends and propose to make something to eat and discuss interesting topics. It is fun and maybe you will come up with a business idea?

Think Tank of Friends is a post from: CHRISSPdotCOM

Publish

Chris Spiegl — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 16:25:18 +0000

Think about someone who takes a bunch of photos each week, preferably even each day. He is going to edit them, maybe even prints them. But the question is: are they worth anything as long as nobody sees those pieces of art the artist put hours into?

Well if you do not want your photos to end all dusty in your computer or on your wall: The best way is to share them. One of my new years resolutions is to share more. Not a 365 yet but I will see how it goes. Maybe it is going to be daily. Maybe just every second day. But the important thing is to publish. Get your word out there. Some ways to do so are listed below:

Facebook Profile
You already have your friends there right. Why not show them your photos. Let them vote them. Maybe there is your next client!
Facebook Fan Page
If you already have one: Great. If not: as long as you are just a single photographer I would suggest just to use the Facebook Profile with the subscribe feature it is just like a fan page. But it can be very powerful to use for a company / crew!
Flickr
This site is great to share your photos in groups of topics you think your photos belong to. But as long as you do not get involved it is likely that nobody will care.
500px
With 500px it is a little like with Flickr. If you do not leave comments and engage with other photographers it is likely that you do not get any (or just a little bit) of attention. And in addition to that: do not upload every single photo you take there. They really like high quality!
deviantart
Remembered to be more about graphical design and such, this site also holds a lot of photography nuggets!
smugmug
A premium version of 500px and Flickr. Mainly I know that Trey Ratcliff uses it to host all of his pictures nowadays. But it is kinda expensive!

So here you have a list of sites to use to share your photos. Maybe the best is to start with the things you already have. In my case it is a transformation. I used to use Flickr a lot, started to use 500px just a few month ago. But the thing I was scared about to use was Facebook. I already have a Portfolio selection at my fan page but I was scared to use my profile because I have had a strange fear that people whom I know personally would react strange to it, dislike what I do or would be harsh in critics. A very stupid assumption and what makes it even more stupid is that I never tested that assumption. Actually it is the other way arround: more critics would be appreciated. So I decided to publish more and to more people!

Now I am going for it. I will start posting on Facebook much more in the coming weeks. And I hope you will get into publishing your stuff too!

Publish is a post from: CHRISSPdotCOM

New Year, New Ideas, New Goals and a Video to watch

Chris Spiegl — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:27 +0000

2011 is over now it is time to look at the new year: 2012.

This time I do not want to get into this looking back mood. Instead I would like to focus on the time that is coming. I have a plan for this blog. Ideas for projects. Lots of work to get my hands on and a hand full of habits I would like to change. For now: I will give you the following video to inspire for 2012. I plan on watching it several times over the year. And why: cause it has 29 great ways to stay inspired.

So let’s celebrate an awesome up and coming 2012.
Have fun and do stuff!

~ Video by TO-FU TV

New Year, New Ideas, New Goals and a Video to watch is a post from: CHRISSPdotCOM

24.12.2011 Have a nice Day!

Chris Spiegl — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 23:00:06 +0000

Well, I am raised in Germany with a christian background. So we celebrate Christmas. And here it is. My Christmas post.

I wish you all a great day for Christmas (if you celebrate something different, I wish you a happy *insert your fest here*). Have a nice day, enjoy your holidays and some silent time. We will all need that to start 2012 big! And that is what we all should! Get going. Let lose the thoughts of ‘I can’t!’. So celebrate the last year for the next few days and kick ass next year!

That sad:

Happy Christmas!

24.12.2011 Have a nice Day! is a post from: CHRISSPdotCOM

Printing of the Photos in the Shop

Chris Spiegl — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:38:39 +0000

Printing of the photos in my shop is done by White Wall in great quality. I own some prints done by them personally and they look just as I wanted them to. They also do the shipping for you. Here are some example photos of a canvas print that hangs in the living room.

They write about them self, that they print in gallery quality. And as far as I can judge that they do. So I am sure that they can provide the quality you demand!

Printing of the Photos in the Shop is a post from: CHRISSPdotCOM