Dropbox.. do it for free

So 2nd post... I'm still wondering about what to write about on blogs, i will try not to ramble or to moan about whatever assignment that i am doing (currently writing or extending a scanner for a compiler... weeee so much fun). But no guarantees

Anyhow - Dropbox. Yes indeed

So last year dropbox was quite handy, i hadn't formally decided how to do backups of school work.. well backups full stop really, but the school work was probably the most important.
I struggled a bit too with the idea of having to write code or work on the uni computers, and then magically remember to plug a flash drive in and write to it so i could carry on at home. So i still had masses of storage left in my dropbox from when i purchased my Galaxy S3. So decided that was the best route to take, since all i had to do was login from the uni computers and then drag and drop onto the webpage and it was done. Didn't need to worry about doin' my laptop cos i had the app installed and it just came down automagically ... yes.. its what the cloud does... magic.

So - like i said i dealt with this for a year, and then recently when my extra space "time" period expired, i was suddenly faced with the dropbox being full of all the photos from my phone camera (instant upload).

Here enter google! (hah-rah!)

I pondered the thought - can i run my own dropbox, and it turns out - yes, yes i can! I found some really nifty open source software called owncloud. Looks like a great piece of work. Very fast and very nice GUI, and most importantly very easy to install.

So - hah - my server is now paying for itself :P

There's a raft of android apps (and probably apple as well) that support it. I'm still looking a bit for an app that will synchronize my camera folder to the owncloud so that when i delete something locally it disappears from up there as well. The instant upload thing is great... until you have kids that hold down the capture button... and then you have to delete 25 fotos from 2 different locations.

Early days yet, but will see how it pans out.

First post

Decided that i should create a blog, who knows what for, why knows who for. all of which doesn't really make sense. Which is how life kinda feels at the moment.

So.. 18 months ago i toyed with the idea, of going to university to change my career. I hadn't been to university. When i left school i went to polytech, which back then was always seen as a poor mans University, the place you go if you couldn't get entrance into university.
The idea grew in me, and pretty soon, at age 36 i took my life and turned it upside down (thanks fresh prince), and enrolled into university to do a BSc in computer science. This meant that i quit my job (of the last 9 years), sent the wife back to work... and prepared my 3 girls for more time with dad! (YAY! they said... yeah right).

I was pretty naive really. My first semester went really well, as my diploma gave me some credits towards my degree i only had to pick up 3 subjects, and the work load was easy, in fact.. most of it was generally programming which i had been doing for a number of years by myself anyhow... so i got this illusion that Uni life was going to be challenging but, not overly hard. I thought i was doing really well, balancing the family life, with personal life, with university life...

Shit.... was i wrong in semester two.

Things took a wayward turn as i struck Stats and Maths in the same semester. I am not the best at maths anyhow - but you know, you think you are... turns out at the end of semester 2, i really liked stats... who would have thought - maths (discrete) .. not so much tho, however, that's a story for another post altogether

So - half way thru semster one of year 2 now. It's so so really. Not doing nearly as well as i hoped for, but still hanging in there. As an adult student with a family - its time that is always against you...

Anyhow - it's late, i start back tomorrow after a 3 week term holiday that just feels like i haven't really stopped. So will do another post later.. but this is a good start i think.