My Tools And Backup Workflow

I just thought I would share some of my workflow and backup routines with everyone since this stuff usually tends to interest geeks like myself.

Note Taking

For notetaking I use Simplenote on my iPhone. I also pay for their premium plan which among a few things adds Dropbox syncing. This allows me to also store my notes in Dropbox which then allows me to use Notational velocity on OS X so I can create and edit notes. Those notes created or modified in Notational velocity get synced back to Dropbox and Simplenote as well. I love this solution because it covers all bases.

Writing

Most posts I write in Marsedit using Markdown syntax, however, some longer form pieces I tend to use Ommwriter on my MacBook Pro. I’m starting to use it more just for ideas and really relaxing and getting into a creative space.

Backup Solutions

Connected to my MacBook Pro is a 1TB Western Digital MyBook using Raid 0 which hosts my iTunes library and other larger files. On the shared network, I have most of my movie and other random videos stored on a Raid 0 setup.

On the SSD of my MacBook Pro I have Dropbox setup and it syncs most of my important documents.

Lastly, everything I have also gets backed up offsite using Backblaze. This is a great fail safe in case my local hard drives die in any order or if my house burns down. I’d be pissed if I lost my data due to that so offsite backup is essential.

Backing Up My Own DVDs.

Although I’d like to one day rip and encode my entire DVD collection, I’m occasionally doing this with RipIt, which is a really simple yet reliable solution.

Ripping Music

Of course I use iTunes for this. My entire 35+ GB MP3 collection was encoded using the MP3 codec at the maxed out 320KBPS setting. I turned off smart encoding and filtering out frequencies below 10Hz.

Tools for Posting to Various Social Networks

At the moment I’m using the official Twitter for Mac app, which seems to serve me well for Twitter. For Facebook, yes I do actually like and use Facebook, I’ve started using Dropbook. What’s really awesome about Dropbook is that it’s a super simple yet handy app that sits as a widget on your desktop. You can drag links or images onto it and post them straight to your Facebook (fan pages as well) account.

Conclusion

I use lots of other stuff, but I just thought I’d post the essentials for now that are frequently used. I’ll probably do a follow up to this with a more specific and detailed walk through about how I handle daily tasks. Definitely lots more to share.