my multimedia server based on Synology

In this blog I explain you how I created the (for me) ideal environment for keeping my important documents save and backed up and at the same time benefit from some extra features the Synology server offers.

first a bit of history: 
My geeky side always wants to try out professional stuff and use it at home. So for years (2002-2009) all my files, consisting of a few gigabyte of business & personal documents and hundreds of gigabytes of music, videos and photographs where hosted on a Windows Small Business Server (SBS) in our basement. But when I realized what the power-consumption of my 24x7 standby Quad-XEON server was I decided to downsize and move everything to a WD MyBook WorldEdition, a small 1 disk NAS. With a 2TB hard-disc in it, the important documents also safely in the cloud with DropBox and/or GoogleDrive, this offered enough space. My unstable Exchange-Outlook environment was migrated to Google Apps with GMail and this turned out much better then I ever hoped. My XBMC-devices around the house could access the media files on the MyBook via LAN or WiFi. 

Until one day the disc in the MyBook started making strange noises, rebooting, taking hours to re-index all media-files and in the end I even lost some pictures I'd rather not had lost. It was finally time for Synology. I already heard a lot of it from friends (via social media) and I quickly opted for the DS213+ model, a pretty fast 2-disc NAS, so possible to mirror the data. I started building it with one 3TB WD RED (specially developed for NAS-purpose) and when everything worked I added a second 3TB WD RED disc so my data would be constantly mirrored (Raid1). Maybe a 4-disc NAS with a Raid5/10 scheme would've been better and more efficient but that also comes with a different price-tag. 

So now I have my Synology DS213+ up and running. It keeps copies of my personal and business documents which I now primarily store in the GoogleDrive and Dropbox clouds so I can access them from wherever I am and from whatever device I am using (PC at home, laptop at work, tablet or smartphone on the road). The Synology Operating System or DiskStation Manager (DSM) as they call it is a very powerful Linux based OS which allows even non-Linux users to benefit from a real server. It is amazing if you see what you can get out of this little box. All my printers are shared and we can directly print from the computers, iPads, iPhones, Android tablets and smartphones. Video and music are streaming to DLNA devices like our smart TV, tablets and phones. We're browsing through all our digital pictures/albums on the TV or tablet. And I even connected an outside IP Security Camera which I can see from wherever I am on my smartphone. You can manage users and groups in case you do not want everyone to have access at everything.

Backup options
Even though my data is stored on 2 different harddrives it is still not safe, what if our cellar floods or the house burns down? My video and music collection is not so important, my documents are stored in various clouds, but the tens of GBs of pictures we shot over the last years is not something I would like to loose. The Synology offers some interesting back-up solutions in different price ranges. For my pictures I choose Amazon Glacier backup. It is a very economic solution, I pay less then 1US$ per month to store around 20GB of pictures on Amazon's servers in Ireland. It is not as easy accessible as other cloud solutions but I will only need it in case of emergency. From my PC I also make a copy to Copy.com where I got a lot of storage for free by inviting friends (follow this link and start with 15+5GB for free)

Bonus for the MultiMedia freaks
For those who like to download movies and TV shows there's a whole bunch of Apps in a community available for the Synology. After some attempts with various tools/apps I came up with this set-up:

• SABnzbd for downloading content from Usenet* (a paid usenet provider will be necessary);
• SickBeard an app that automatically monitors if there are new episodes of my favourite TV Shows (like Dexter, Breaking Bad, the Big Bang Theory) available and if he pushes them to SABnzbd;
• CouchPotato is to movies what SickBeard is to TV Shows.

read this blog to find out more about how to install and configure them on your Synology. I used this manual too and it fitted me right, especially since also I prefer to watch via XBMC.

*) to be able to use Usenet you will need a paid subscription to one of the Usenet providers. I use NewsDemon which offers a good and fast service (I can download at the maximum bandwidth my provider offers). Warning: downloading copyright protected content from Usenet is not legal everywhere so I strongly recommend you inform yourself before doing anything illegal. Oh, and do not blame me of course ;-)

And finally there is COPS, a Calibre-based App for easily accessing all your eBooks and ePubs from your tablet/e-reader on the server.


...and what does this all cost?
The hardware can be yours around 600€ for a Synology DS213+ w/ 2 mirrored harddrives of 3TB, but I also build a solution around the cheaper 1-disc DS112j (250€ incl. one 2TB disc) which works just fine as long as you do not download and stream at the same time.
In case you need help setting it up, just leave me a comment or contact me via the known social media (see right column)

meeting with the wanderer

Michael and his lasagna

Yesterday Maddy, the girls and I met with Michael Lee Johnson. Michael is travelling to Beijing  with the help of contacts/friends/followers on Google+. Although he already bought a ticket to Beijing he decided (overnight) to change the flight into a challenge: travel from London to Beijing with only the help of Google+. So his trip is now sponsored by people and companies who follow his journey on that platform. Michael is staying in sponsored hotels or with people at their homes (like with his host in Milan Mara who you see on the photo with us), breakfasts, lunches, dinners, drinks are all sponsored or paid for (or not and than he doesn't have anything to eat or drink). He is not allowed to accept donations by the way. We bought him dinner last night (he choose lasagna) and tomorrow he will travel to Vienna by train. That train-ticket across the border is sponsored by my company Salesupply Italy, after all we at Salesupply help people (read: webshops) going cross-border!

Michael, I, Mara (in white) and Maddy
in front of the Duomo in Milano

Once he arrives in Beijing another, far more interesting, part of his journey starts: he is returning to London ON FOOT! He thinks he needs 3-4 years to walk it, meanwhile we can follow him via Social Media and SKY TV (UK). He walks, meets people, talk with people, stays with people, walks on, etc... He will need to cross desserts (Gobi), walk in wintertime through the north of China (-40 degrees), encounter (wild) animals, etc... and yet this trip is just an exercise for him. To proof to himself a bigger plan: walk from the utmost south of South-America all the way to Alaska, via the frozen Bering street into Siberia and back to London, no km by train, no car, not even a bicycle. That trip should take 12-15 years... is he mad? did he loose his mind? No, I don't think so. He says he always wanted to walk, to hike, to travel. He is inspired by some others that did this (sorry I forgot the names he mentioned), he wants to meet people and really get to know them (although he is a bit timid in the beginning)... and what better way to get to know people by walking through their habitat.

Although I would never (want to) do this myself I admire him for his determination!

Good Luck Michael, we'll follow you!

iOS is not build for sharing content

Normally I take out my iPad late at night and start reading business related news, updates and blogs. On Google Currents or FlipBoard. The most interesting content I share to BufferApp,  Twitter, Facebook, tumblr, LinkedIn, Google+, etc whatever I think suits best.

Today I was activated FlipBoard on my HTC One while waiting for my daughter and I suddenly realized (pretty late I admit ) that I should quit using my iPad for sharing., iOS is not build for sharing content. You can only share to the standard channels which apple allows: twitter, Facebook and email. No direct link to tumblr, BufferApp or any other app that imho suits best for sharing the content. In Android I can share to any App via the share functionality in the menu. And mostly you share rich content, so not just a link to an article but also a thumbnail an intro text etc...

It's time I order an Android tablet.

an e-commerce story with an Italian flavour

this story is from a recent personal experience!

I wanted to try the Lavazza coffee pads at home (and home-office) and therefore last week Sunday evening (June 3rd) I went onto the Lavazza Modo Mio website, registered, picked a nice coffee machine and selected some pads. Then the "problems" began:

1. despite ordering a €100,- coffee machine you still need to order at least 8 boxes of their coffee pads. Being a good boy I choose all eight various tastes and went on with the ordering; 
2. the payment step: my credit card was rejected for the payment (strangely enough I used it 15 minutes later to order Nespresso cups without any problems). So I choose Payment at Delivery which is a common payment method in Italy. One I personally do not like (now even less) but I was left no other option; 
3. For a week I did not hear anything, a mail I send them via the Facebook page was NEVER answered -so far for Social Care- and also no one delivered this nice new shiny Apple-white with Galaxy-silver touched Italian coffee machine to my doorstep, not even an email, nothing. On their website my order status said is was "in progress"; 
4. On Friday (so 5 days after ordering) I called Lavazza Customer Service in Turin where someone told me they should have contacted me to ask if I really ordered the machine, etc. I asked them why and she explained it was standard procedure to call every client after an order. To me it seems a waste of time and money... Why I did not receive that call, nor email, nor sms she could not really explain me. I told the operator I still would like to have the machine and that she could proceed with delivery; 
5. Today, 9 days after ordering (that's a lot of cups of coffee later), the TNT delivery guy phoned to know if he would find me at home (bonus points) and he promised me he would be here within a couple of minutes. As he did; 
6. BUT... he could only accept CASH or cheque *LMAO*, and since I rarely have more then €100,- in my wallet I had to send him off... 

  lessons learned by me:

•  when ordering online your credit-card doesn't always work even if there's still enough to spend; 
• despite ordering online you will have to wait for a phone call before the order process can proceed; 
• despite ordering online within Italy do not expect fast delivery (Nespresso delivers within 1-2 days); 
• not all couriers accept credit-cards/bankcards for the deliveries 

lessons to be learned by Lavazza:

• people ordering online might have other (higher) expectations; 
• why a minimum order quantity? (you could ask delivery costs for smaller orders); 
• check the payment methods and check with the payment provider why a valid credit-card bounces; 
• why disturb the fast (and cheap) order process with a phone call?; 
• and if this call is so important why not care about informing the client via mail (or sms) you would like to contact him for the order process to run smoothly, so he can contact you if you do not reach him; 
• 9 days delivery time without any communication about the order status (via email) is not normal, the BIG example Nespresso does it within 1-2 days (like I already said); 
• if creditcard payments in the webshop work you will have no trouble with (modern) customers not used to cash money or cheque books

 Let's hope Lavazza will learn from this (I have) and maybe contact me to see how Salesupply can help them to improve their e-commerce in Italy and abroad!


UPDATE 13/6/2012: I went to pick it up (on the other side of Varese, driving 15km) at TNT where I could pay with modern money ;-)

UPDATE 19/6/2012: the coffee is great, better then Nespresso, the machine a bit complicated (not as easy as the Nespresso we had)

We don't need no #TVOH !

It happened last year and although I should've known better this year I fell again for the "purity" and joy of the blind auditions of a new Talent Show on Dutch TV: "The Voice of Holland", on Twitter known as #TVOH. For those who haven't seen it in their country yet an explanation of this concept:

this talent show starts with so called "blind auditions" where the jury members can't see the candidates in the beginning. They're turned with their backs towards the podium. Based on only the vocal performance they have to decide whether they want the candidate to go through to the next round, if they think he/she is good they hit a button and this juror's chair turns around and so he/she can see who is making that great sound.

It's especially nice when the candidate is a bit weird, particular, like the fully tattooed Ben Saunders. He was one of last years' contestants (and winner). Watch the video of his audition below here. Ben turned out to be a sheep -no a lamb- in wolves' clothing.

To make it even more interesting for the viewer the jury members who turned their seats (and thus want the candidate to go through) have to convince the candidate to choose him/her over another juror to join his/her team. So roles turn, it's not the candidate anymore that needs to convince the jury, it's the jury pulling on the candidates' limbs.

But back to what I wanted to point out. Right after so called blind auditions the Voice of X (fill in your country) turns back into being any other talent show with SMS votings and so the best looking boys are way ahead of the other candidates. (It's a known fact that teenage girls are the most active voters. Although Ben's charisma even managed to beat that.) But what made this show even worse is the infinite trust and positive comments by the jury. Even after a lousy performance. Where X-Factor was so interesting because the jury was sometimes very hard and direct this show looses it because it's soft, way too soft and it lacks criticism. So last week it was enough... I couldn't handle it anymore! This was too sweet and t0o incredible!

And then yesterday evening I saw the best "talent show" of this year. Seven teenage girls, tonight they'll  probably be voting for one of the cute boys in #TVOH's semi-final, were selected out a group of over 400 girls by one of Holland's best DJ's trying to become the Dutch Birdy. It was a very compact election, the 400+ girls send in a video via YouTube, the DJ (Giel Beelen) selected the best seven and they performed in the studio yesterday morning. Live on national radio and then Giel announced the winner. Apart from the fact that the best one won (Anna Verhoeven) I was very impressed by the performance all seven gave that very same evening in my favourite TV-show "De Wereld Draait Door" #DWDD singing Birdy's hit "Skinny Love". And that led to my conclusion that we do not need shows like TVOH. We just need YouTube, Social Media to push them and talent watchers like Giel!

Here below the clip of the performance by the Dutch Birdies, judge for yourself and let me know what you think by leaving a comment! (and here a link to the entire item/interview with all seven Birdies - in Dutch)

blog update

Because of the nice weather, my holiday mood and the Quality time with my family I do not expect to update my blog before next week ;-) Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and/or Flickr to stay up-to-date!




Saluti da Taormina, Sicily

building your web-empire - 1. Setting up a Blogsite

People sometimes wonder why I spend so much money on a personal website and private email-addresses. They are referring to my own sporck.it domain (you're on it now). When I tell them it only costs me a couple of euros a year they're always surprised.

Somehow a lot of people think a decent website and email-address must cost over a 1000 euro's, but in facet it's almost for free. All you need to pay for is the (yearly) registration fee for a domain name (which for most common domains is around € 10,-/yr). If all you need is a not too complicated website, let's say a blog where you want to put some personal stuff, some pictures, maybe some videos, a template-based Blog-site will do. For the email I use Google Apps FREE since a couple of months and I am very pleased with it. Not only email, but also a calendar, an address-book and even documents (Google Docs). All for free!

There are many ways to register a domain name. Via Google you could register a .com for just US$ 10,- per year. But if you prefer a website ending on .nl, .eu, .it or whatever you will have to find a local partner. Just Google (in your local language) for domain registration and many (sponsored) hits will lead you to many companies willing to provide you with your own domain. You do not need any services from them, no hosting, no server-storage or space, just the domain-registration and full control over the DNS, this last one is vary important because you will need to reroute to the various applications (blog, email, calendar, etc.)

Once you have registered your domain-name you can start setting up the blog and email. From here on I divided this blog into two parts:

1. how to set up your blog and give it a domain-name (this blog);
2. how to use Google Apps for your own email domain (coming soon)

creating your blog
There are several blog-apps on the internet, the most used/popular ones are:

• Google's Blogger
• WordPress
• Tumblr

Just Google for "Blogger Wordpress Tumblr compare" and you'll find enough tests and comparisons and why you should choose one above the others (som many bloggers, so many opinions). I choose Blogger some time ago and I do not regret it; Blogger is easy to set up, hosting is for free, there are a lot of templates available out there in case you might not like the build-in ones, scripts & applets to spicy your blog, etc., etc. I haven't come across something I was not able to implement.


setting up your blog on Blogger
Once you decided for Blogger the first steps are pretty easy. Just go to blogger.com, register and follow the steps in which you choose a name for the blog and one of the default templates. Afterwards you can always rename your blog, choose another template.

giving the blog your own domain-name

Blogger Publishing Settings

Now you're blog will have an URL in the blogspot-domain (mine used to be http://sporck-it.blogspot.com/) you can replace it with the one you registered. Since I registered the domain "sporck.it" I chose "www.sporck.it" to replace the "sporck-it.blogspot.com". When logged in on Blogger (the back-end) go to the Settings TAB, click Publishing and click on Switch to: Custom Domain, then on the right click on Already own a domain? Switch to advanced settings here you can enter the domain you registered (for example www.sporck.it, but also blog.sporck.it is possible). At this point we have to be patient, before we can access the blog on this new URL you need to make add and edit some records in your domain's DNS which Google explains in an easy step-by-step guide on their site. Once these modifications are made to the DNS you need to wait at least 12 hours, but sometimes it can last up to 2-3 days before these modifications are known to all DNS-servers. In the meantime you can work on the content of the blog or set up Google Apps (also here some DNS-modifications are required).

Once the DNS-servers are updated the domain is forwarded to Google's servers and your blog is reachable under the desired URL!

@DagmarSporck turns into @daggy72

Today I changed my Twitter-ID from @DagmarSporck into @daggy72. Suddenly a lot of people wonder and ask me why I did this. Hence this blog!

When I created my Twitter-ID @DagmarSporck over 2 years ago I didn't realize this ID would consume 10% of a tweet (@ + 12characters + 1space = 14positions = 10% of 140) when mentioning me or when RTing me. Also my last name is a bit too strange for Italians to pronounce and to recall the exact spelling. So I wanted a shorter, more catchy, easier to recall ID.

Daggy
Soon after I came to Italy (for a 6 months trainee-ship) in 1995 my (Italian) friends started abbreviating Dagmar to Daggy and they still do. Some might not even know how to spell my real name. And I kind of liked it too. So when considering a shorter ID on Twitter, Daggy was the most logical option, unfortunately @Daggy was already used by someone else; who's not even making use of it, but Twitter is not doing anything about inactive accounts at the moment. Also @Dagmar was already taken so both logical 5- and 6-character alternatives where out of reach. I don't like @Daggy4 (or any other random number), @4Daggy (for Daggy) nor @_Daggy (people always have to search for the underscore on a smartphone) so @Daggy72 was the one I came up with: catchy, short (consuming only 9 vs 14 positions in a tweet), easier to remind, etc. 1972 is my birth-year by the way...

Image
There is a potential downside to it of course (every advantage has it's disadvantage -- J.Cruijf 1994): it doesn't really sound like a serious consultant, does it?! Well... I haven't really been using Twitter for business yet, and if... explaining the story behind @Daggy72 could lead to an interesting conversation whereas the formal @DagmarSporck will not raise any discussion nor questions. And besides, I don't want like a serious (=boring) image, I want to be seen as a fresh, hip and ready-for-the-future type of person, that's why I (would like to) drive Alfa or BMW in stead of Opel or VW, it's all about image!  ;-)

DAG.GY
In the meantime I also registered the domain "dag.gy" (.gy is French Gyana by the way) and connected it to my Bit.ly-account so from now on the URLs I tweet are shortened into DAGGY-Style (watch it, I'm going to be the next Google).

Conclusion
I took the risk and turned @DagmarSporck into @Daggy72!
Of course I also re-registerred @DagmarSporck to avoid someone else making use of it...

Epilogue
now what to do with my wife's twittername @Maddalena71, way too long..

#Barbera2 or a Twitter Wine Tasting Event

Tomorrow (or probably today when you read this) I will be guest at the #Barbera2 wine tasting event, together with my wife and some friends. Why? How?

Once you fully understand Twitter and you are really interacting anything can happen on/via Twitter. So it came that (on a photo) I recognised a bottle of wine in the arms of an Italian Barbera-producer visiting a Dutch tweep (Twitter-friend) and wine-importer. I tweeted all details of the wine (had a pic of the label on my iPhone) so both men were impressed, as a result the wine producer and I started following each other on Twitter and Facebook.

When some time later the wine producer was in the neighbourhood he drove by for a cup of coffee and invited us for some wine tasting event in May, #Barbera2. Also the Dutch wine-importer would be there... Tonight Samuel, his partner Loes, my wife Maddy and I enjoyed a dinner together and tomorrow we'll drive to Nizza Monferato to taste 5 Italian and 5 American Barberas with over 100 other wine enthousiasts, wine producers, wine bloggers, wine
journalists, etc. and afterwards we'll enjoy a pick-nick in Cascina Garitina's vineyard (if it stops raining). And all thanks to Twitter... and my memory for wine bottles... and the fact I always photograph the label of a good wine with my iPhone ;-)

I'll bring my iPhone and iPad along, so via Twitter and Facebook you can follow what's happening! I even believe there will be a Live Stream covering the event on the Internet, I'll tweet the link as soon as I have it.
here's the link to the Live Stream

For more information on #Barbera2 I would like to refer to the Barbera2 Blog

my Twitter Clients

screenshot TwitBird (Pro) on iPhone

When I started tweeting in April 2009 I did so from my iPhone; I evaluated some Twitter Apps and if I recall well Twitterific was my first favourite. I didn't tweet so much and hardly ever on a PC/notebook, so the twitter.com website was -and still is- somewhat unknown to me. Until I discovered TweetDeck, a nice client for Windows and Mac with some interesting features and a nice look-and-feel (user interface I should say). So from behind my desk my tweets started to become more frequent, I got more followers, causing more tweets, and so on.



TwitBird

screenshot TwitBird (Pro) on iPad

A year ago, beginning of 2010, my twitter frequency shot sky high when I started working in Switzerland, I was a lot away from home and discovered foursquare. The number of followers and tweeps grew and I needed to organise it a bit better. I starting using lists, first too many people in one list, then too many lists until I found the right equilibrium. I now have about 5 favourite lists with my favourite tweeps (although I sometimes forget to update them) and some lists with people I find interesting to follow but who need to be grouped together (in a list). Anyway, using lists I discovered the power of TwitBird (Pro), unfortunately (for some of you) only available on iPhone/iPad. Like most Apps it gives you access to your lists but the power of TwitBird is, is that you can filter already read tweets. So if I first scan my favourite lists, and then start reading my TL with all tweets I can filter the tweets I already read in the lists. This enables me to scan quickly if there's something interesting going on in Limburg or in Switzerland or in any other region, subject that I've created a list or search for and also browse what else is going on in the TL without having to read the tweets I already read twice!

HootSuite

HootSuite screenshot

If only HootSuite would have the same filter-read-tweets-functionality too, it would not be a great tool, but a perfect tool. But it hasn't, but it offers so much more:
*it runs in a browser so all settings are synced on the HootSuite-server, giving you the exact same setup wherever you login;
*tabs and streams: with so many lists & searches TweetDeck was not the best interface anymore, I prefer HootSuite where you can group up to 5 streams together on 1 tab; On a 21" monitor these 5 streams display every well next to each other;
*support for multiple accounts, not only twitter accounts, my personal Facebook account, professional Facebook group and my LinkedIn account as well! And even more if I wanted, but the free version is limited to 5 accounts, and frankly that's enough for my use;
*statistics, it was interesting to see that when I tried to sell my MacBookAir via twitter I suddenly got over 100hits on the URL to the advert;
*in the paid versions of HootSuite you can collaborate on twitter accounts with colleagues, it should be possible to appoint tweets to someone else so he/she can respond/take action. I never used this functionality so so I can't comment on it, but it sounds pretty useful for Social Media active companies.


So what about TweetDeck? After the Xth crash of AdobeAir, missing mentions (some mentions that I saw in TwitBird in my iPhone just didn't display in TweetDeck), responding to the wrong tweet because the mouse pointer/cursor suddenly decided to select another tweet then the one I wanted to respond to I gave up, found HootSuite and that's where I am today.

TwitBird on my iPhone
TwitBird and HootSuite on my new iPad2
And HootSuite on my Windows/OSX PCs/notebooks!

What do you use and why?

create your own "newspaper"

I hardly don't read newspapers anymore, well not the way I used to which was folding page by page, quickly scanning the bold headlines and sometimes reading the first lines and maybe an entire article. But today there's Twitter! Important and less important news is brought to me by tweeps (people you follow on twitter). Anything from yesterday's bomb at Moscow airport to the 123rd glimp of the iPhone5. Sometimes it is brought to me by a serious journalist, a news channel or just a friend with an even nerdier interest in gadgets as me. Important, funny, useful and useless news, it's all there for me.

Since 140 characters are usually not even most of these tweets contain a link to a blog, a newssite, a YouTube video, etc. When travelling I just bookmark this links for later. I use ReadItLater which is integrated in my iPhone's Twitter-client and is integrated (via a Plugin) into my browsers on my laptops and PC. ReadItLater offers me the possibility to read the complete news-article, watch the video on a larger screen when I want to. 

Today a suggestion to one of the journalists I follow, @italiansweep a Dutch correspondent in Italy, led to a discussion with another tweep about the impact of my suggestion. So I started to search for an easy and fast solution, to prove I was right. My suggestion (to the journalist) was the following "why don't you share the most interesting articles you come across with us, and why not make a paper.li-like newspaper from it". I presume that as a foreign correspondent part of his day is filled with scanning the local (in this case Italian) media for interesting news. News that could be interesting for his home-country (the Netherlands in this case). Sometimes this results in an article for a newspaper, a blog or a video-item for an news website. Sometimes even an entire documentary. But many times he will read interesting news but decide not to use it or it is rejected by his clients (newspapers, radiostations, etc). But I am personally very interested in what @italiansweep considers interesting and would like him to share this info with me and others. Of course he  needs to oblige certain rules (copyright etc), but pointing his followers to interesting content is no problem. 

Okay so far the background, now to my solution. I've created a 5 step manual:

1. go to ReadItLater and register;

2. download and install one of the ReadItLater plugins into your browser(s), this adds a button to your browser allowing you to add an URL to your RIL-list;

( 2b. if you use a smartphone, add the App there as well and/or add it to your twitter client allowing you to save links included in tweets )

3. go and collect articles, pictures, video's... in other words: CONTENT and bookmark them to your RIL-list;

4. go back to ReadItLater, login and check the result, maybe delete some content; 

5. register for the RIL-Digest and share this with the world like I did, here is my public ReadItLater-list in Digest presentation

so from now on publishing your "newspaper" is nothing more then bookmarking interesting articles, et voila, they are added to your RIL-newspaper (Digest). Of course you regularly have to delete older content to keep it dynamic and clear!

Read It Later

I am pretty active on internet, especially on mobile internet! Sometimes I think the iPhone was invented just for me. My most used apps are Facebook, TwitBird Pro (Twitter) and FourSquare. With these applications/services I stay in touch with my real life friends when away and my new on-line friends. Although the iPhone is a nice device for reading tweets, scanning facebook updates and for quickly browsing the internet I prefer to use the iPad or a pc/laptop to read articles. So when there was a link in a tweet I read while mobile I rarely clicked it because I didn't want to read it, not at that moment. I used the Favorite button to mark the tweet for later reading. When I switched from one twitter app to TweetBird (Pro) I noticed TwitBird asked me if I wanted to save the link, or if I wanted to Read It Later, or just Read Now.

It was then when I discovered ReadItLater, a typical why-did-I-not-think-of-that kind of application. Quite simple but so useful! ReadItLater (and also Instapaper by the way) offer you the possibility to quickly bookmark links and webpages. All you need is to do is register and you can save your links, articles, pages, etc. to read them later, when you're behind a larger screen or when you have more time to dedicate. Just login to ReadItLater and you can read everyhting you saved/bookmarked. I've also seen people sharing their lists with others but I just use it for myself, to save those possibly interesting article I can't read now.


The Save-to-ReadItLater functionality is integrated in many (mobile) Twitter apps. But you can also add extensions/bookmarklets to your PC's browser so that you can quickly bookmark an interesting page/article for later, just have a look at all the various options on the ReadItLater homepage.

Digest

Last week I read about the new Digest functionality and I immediately liked the idea of it so I asked for more details. I received an invitation to trial the Digest Beta for a couple of days.

Whereas the standard ReadItLater just lists all your saved links in chronological (or alphabetical) order Digest groups them. Some of the groups are auto-generated, others can be created by the user himself. In Digest the links are presented in a better looking interface, with preview of the text and picture (if available). I have immediately paid the fee (now Early Beta Price) to be able to use the Digest functionality also after my trial period is over.

FlipBoard
One thing that immediately crossed my mind was: can I use it together with FlipBoard on iPad ? I have send this question/suggestion to Nate, the man behind ReadItLater and let's hope he and/or FlipBoard can develop something to have RIL-Digest in FlipBoard. All I need then is permanent access to an iPad (which is now exclusively owned by my wife), so I will probably have to buy one for myself. You don't have an iPad yet and so you don't know what FlipBoard is, take a look at this clip. I think it's is one of the best apps made for iPad. I won't spill any words on FlipBoard here, the clip tells it all!



/edit ON
YouTube just suggested this clip for me (how do they do that?), anyway, see Read It Later explained in this clip:


and a "confrontation" Instapaper vs ReadItLater (including Digest) in this clip:


/edit OFF

About Me 2.0

My first "About Me" in this Blog was written in Dutch over a year ago so it needed both an update and a translation.

I am Dagmar Sporck, 39years old, married to Maddy (Maddalena) and father of two fantastic girls (Giorgia of 7 and Giulia of 10 years old). I represente Dutch and German companies in Italy and Ticino-Switzerland with my company Sales4Italy. And for the German readers: Yes, I am a male Dagmar!

Since 1996 I am a proud member of the Round Table, first in RT171 Kerkrade, NL and since 2008 in RT64 Varese. Last year as IRO, this year as Vice-President and as of June 2011 as President. I hope to be able to attend some interesting RT-meetings in the next two years: the Gala in the Academy of Siena in November this year, the Italian AGM in Taormina, Sicily June next year and various international meetings as well. In Switzerland I try to visit as much RT's as possible, combining the business trips with visits to the local RT-meetings.



End of this month (28-31 October 2010) the Twinning partner of Morazzone, Wimblington will visit Morazzone. I am honored to be part of the organisation of this event as chairman of the Morazzone Twinning Committee.

The so called Social Media are getting quite a lot of my attention as well. I was an early adapter of XING and LinkedIn, one of the first to move to facebook in the Netherlands (where the national equivalent Hyves is still far more popular), Over a year ago I discovered Twitter and after a slow start I now can't stop tweeting, RT'ing and replying. This might be my only real addiction!

What's more to say? I like cooking, but even more I like to eat honoust food with a good glass of wine. If money wasn't an issue I would be travelling around the world a lot more. Especially city-trips.
I have a lot of experience playing around with computers (started with C64, self build PCs, Macs), operating systems (Windows 3.x, XP,7, Ubuntu 9.x/10.x, Mac OS X), software-applications (office suites, graphical, DTP), mobile devices (iPhone, Windows Mobile 5.x/6.x, pda's), and so on. I like to watch movies, listen to music and I can't stand disorganized CD/DVD collections so I put everything on my server (WD MyBookWorld) and play it on PC, laptop and of course the fantastic XBMC Live box (on a Foxconn NT330i barebone).

Although the names of my 3 girls might make you think at least 3 of us are Italian we all have the Dutch nationality and are all born in the Netherlands, in the utmost south-east, Limburg. To Italians I do like to say we're the Olandesi Pugliesi (the Dutch from Puglia). Just like Puglia, the heel of the Italian boot, is hanging on to the rest of Italy as an appendix, Limburg is the Netherlands' appendix.
The four of us moved to Italy in August 2008. Our motivations were not business nor did we want to open a B&B, we just liked the idea of living in Italy, close to the mountains, the lakes, Varese, Milano, Lugano, etc. So one day in 2007 we took the decision, put our house on sale (which we sold) and we moved from Kerkrade to Morazzone (VA), Italy, where we bought a house. After some time off (sabatical) I wanted to start doing something not involving too much travelling away from home. So I joined Engel&Völkers Real Estate at the Lago Maggiore. Not the best choice ever but I learned a lot, and I got to practice my languages every day. Languages I use every day being in touch with business relations from the Netherlands, England, Germany, France, Belgium and of course Italy and Switzerland!

So I live in Italy where people still know how to enjoy life and (at least as important) good and honoust food!

Wanna know more about me, just ask!

to be continued...

More then 10 months ago I wrote my last blog-entry, how to get more out of your iPhone. Surprised by its success, it got over 1000hits within 2 hours after iPhoneclub.nl tweeted about to it, I didn't know how to continue. Should I focus on iPhone related stuff? A personal nightmare, my mother's cancer and her death in July this year, a new job in Switzerland I started in March, and lots of other less important things dragged my attention away right at the moment  my blog had gotten some attention. I don't mind. There are more important things in life then MY Blog.

I decided to restart blogging and to write about anything that I feel the urge to write about. About life in Italy, work in Switzerland, gadgets I use and the stuff (apps) I put on them, what I cook and what I eat, and God knows what... I also decided to switch to English in my blog. I started in Dutch, since at that time I saw my blog as a way to inform friends and relatives back in the Netherlands about my/our life in Italy. But on Twitter, where I have become pretty active lately, I currently have quite a variety of nationalities following me, mostly from the Netherlands and Italy but also some Swiss. In order to avoid spending too much time writing my blog in Dutch, Italian and German I'll stick with English.

Keep in mind: the fun of social media and blogging is not in the writing and reading alone but above all in the INTERACTION. So please respond, react, interact and whatever; in a reaction under the blog or in a tweet!

Hello world!

Hello world!

Laat ik mijzelf eerst even voorstellen, ik ben Dagmar Sporck, een man (heel belangrijk te vermelden als je Dagmar heet), momenteel 37 jaar, gehuwd en vader van 2 dochters. We wonen sinds een jaar in Italië, ik zal vast nog wel een blog wijden aan het hoe-en-waarom hiervan, alwaar ik mij bezig houdt met een aantal uiteenlopende zaken, zowel privé als zakelijk.

Na al een tijdje met het idee rondgelopen te hebben om mijn hersenspinsels aan een ECHTE blog toe te vertrouwen heb ik nu de stap gezet, mijn Blogger-account aangemaakt en schrijf ik nu dus de eerste woorden. Op Hyves (het Nederlandse alternatief voor Facebook) blog ik al enige tijd, maar daarmee probeerde ik met name vrienden en familie te informeren over het reilen en zeilen van mij en mijn gezin, zeker sinds onze verhuizing naar Italië.

Wat wil ik met Blogger bereiken?
Mijn Hyves-blog is beperkt tot familie, vrienden en kennissen en dat wil ik ook zo houden, ik schrijf daar soms over best persoonlijke zaken waar niet iedereen direct toegang tot hoeft te hebben. Maar daarnaast heb ik wel eens iets te melden dat een breder publiek zou kunnen interesseren en waar de meeste van mijn Hyves-contacten helemaal niet in geïnteresseerd zijn. Ik denk dan met name aan wat zakelijkere informatie, of informatie die voortkomt uit mijn verslaving aan gadgets en kennis van ICT-technische dingen en zo (iPhone, Mac, PC, Windows, VoIP, ...). Zelf heb ik dankzij forums en blogs vaak binnen redelijke termijn oplossingen gevonden voor probleempjes op ICT-gebied of heb ik een betere afweging kunnen maken tussen diverse oplossingen en/of producten. Ik hoop met mijn geblog een aantal anderen ook verder te kunnen helpen.

Tot slot spreek ik de hoop uit dat diegene(n) die mijn blog lezen en hier iets aan hebben dit ook even melden, hetzij in een reactie op de blog zelf hetzij in een email aan mij persoonlijk.