Nate Agrin

Apple's iCloud Potential

2011-06-04T23:57:00Z

Apple’s iCloud Potential

June 04, 2011

I’ve long wondered what Apple might be doing with their massive North Carolina data center. There’s the obvious: cloud music hosting. But what else could Apple do with that much storage and also possibly execute on better than any other company in existence?

Ubiquitous computing. Or at least the first few steps in that direction. What if they come up with a way to integrate all of your Mac devices together? Your iMac is aware of your iPhone which is aware of your Macbook Pro which is aware of your iPad.

Imagine waking up, reading part of a nytimes.com article on your iMac, but having to leave in the middle of it to catch the train to work. You take with you your iPad which, when you open it, already has the nytimes.com page you were reading loaded in Safari.

This is the kind of thing Apple could pull off with a proper cloud service. Never mind wifi syncing of your iPhone to iTunes, that would just be the tip of the iceberg.

You only get one life

2011-02-23T05:41:00Z

You only get one life

February 23, 2011

Found via Twitter:

You only get one life. No receipt, no proof of purchase. You can’t take it back to the shops if bored. Hence the fact that you should appreciate what you’ve got. Find a job you love, find people you love, visit your grandparents and get to the seaside as often as possible. Eat well and eat cake. Go running, go jumping. Get your five a day. Laugh. Feed the cat. Fix your bike. Have a baby and smoke a cigar. Camp in the woods, bake some bread and buy a trampoline.

via: @reybango

This image really speaks the truth about life.http://yfrog.com/h7e9udjj #fb
— Rey Bango (@reybango) February 22, 2011

Desiderata

2011-02-23T04:44:00Z

Desiderata

February 23, 2011

I found the following in a hostel on the South Island of New Zealand. It’s sat in my journal for years, but is worth sharing.

Desiderata:

Go placidly amid the noise and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others – even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexations to the spirits.

If you compare yourself with others, you will become vain and bitter – for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is, many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.

BE YOURSELF. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. DO NOT DISTRESS YOURSELF WITH IMAGININGS. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the Universe, no less than the trees and the birds. You have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the Universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive “Him” to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams; it is still a beautiful world. BE CAREFUL. STRIVE TO BE HAPPY.

Supposedly this was written by Max Ehrmann. This site has more about it.

One Whole Year Ago

2005-10-18T00:00:00-07:00

One Whole Year Ago

October 18, 2005

One whole year ago… One year ago I was stepping off a plane and into a world I never thought I would see. One year ago I packed my winter clothes in my closet, my summer close in a backpack, and headed to the other side of the world. One year ago, and it feels like just yesterday. I literally remember specifics about my first day in New Zealand, and can recall the sequence of initial events; the alien vegetation on the way from the airport, meeting Ben in the hostel, and finding great espresso in a foreign city.

This week my one year, once-in-a-lifetime visa to live and work freely in New Zealand expired. It would be untruthful to say that I was not upset by that fact. Dishonest to think I didn’t romance the ideas of what could have been had I stayed the winter there. Where would i be now?

To a certain degree I regret coming home. I miss the wandering lifestyle, my crappy car, my surfboards, the sand in my bed, the cold hard ground of my tent, driving around with two people and so much stuff you couldn’t see out the back door. I miss kiteboarding with Sean and asking Phil for a wetsuit. I miss the views from Solscape, and the people I met there. I miss the Coromandel, the ocean and the smell of saltwater. I miss the sunrises and the sunsets, the rainstorms and the hot days of February, the look of the sea in the morning, the power of the water and the serenity of the environment. Most of all i miss the STARS.

Transformation is an interesting thing, and I think that by going somewhere new, I was able to, eventually, transform myself into someone else. I survived and I learned about what I valued in life. Perhaps most importantly I became happy, if at least for a time. I finally admitted my inner truths to myself. I let myself be mad about the things that made me mad and happy about the things that made me happy.

Experiencing that has changed my perspective on not just traveling, but living. I ended with, not a new sense of self, but a truer sense of self.

Now I am back in the US, with a new job and new ambitions, but ones that center around what excites me and makes me happy. Until last week I had never faced a day excited to go to work. Now I wake up knowing someone is going to pay me to follow my passion.

I’ll end this reflection with something I wrote the other day. I was researching some graduate school programs and I decided to come up with a list of objectives, a credo, so to speak, of how I see and aim to live my life. This isn’t necessarily a 180 from where I was a year, or a year and a half ago, but maybe it is a testament to my transition and to my fundamental shift in attitude.

Goals in life:

Be free, never have a cage.
Stay adventurous. Explore new places, things, traditions, and beliefs.
Challenge yourself, physically, mentally and spiritually. Never stop trying to push yourself to new limits.
Keep learning. Keep adding new knowledge about everything.
Explore and discover. Find NEW things.

Do not ever be tied to a lifestyle, nothing physical is needed. Wants and desire are temporary fulfillment. True work is lasting fulfillment. Carry only the tools you need to accomplish this fulfillment, everything else is an anchor, a weight that limits your range in life.

Feel alive, keep asking “Why?”

Updates:

December 30, 2009 – Oakland, CA: Fixed some formatting