I use Trello quite a lot, and feel more comfortable having local backups of my data rather than relying on Trello itself. Since I have the Synology DiskStation, I thought it would be a good idea to keep all the Trello boards and data backed up there.

Here’s how to do it.

First up, you need to install Docker on the Synology DiskStation, by going to Package Manager and searching for Docker. Once found, install it.

Next, download the Trello backup script from GitHub.

You will then need to get the Trello API key and token.

• To get the API key: https://trello.com/app-key
• To get the token: https://trello.com/1/authorize?scope=read&expiration=never&name=backup&key=REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_API_KEY&response_type=token

With those in place, we can then use the Docker image for the Trello backup script available on the Docker Hub.

I actually got stuck at this point so this will be continued whenever I have time to retry it again; if anyone has managed to do this I’d love to get their feedback.

This is the hardware that makes up my office. These items are all I need to run my business from wherever I am around the world. Since I’ve given up the digital nomad days and am now firmly based in Barcelona, I’ve had the opportunity to make a few additions to my setup. While some items are not very portable, most of my hardware can easily be packed and moved around to new locations.

The main change in last year’s setup was the addition of an Apple iMac 27″ computer, and my selling of the MacBook Pro 15″. I now use just one monitor for working, so it’s either the iMac or the small MacBook when I’m working from cafes or traveling. I sold off the Dell external monitor since I was not using it. I tried to set it up as a second monitor on my desk but realized it was more of a distraction than a help. The iMac has a gorgeous screen and more than enough real estate to work on. I can have two windows side by side comfortably. I still felt the need for some type of third screen, so I got myself the latest iPad Pro 11 inch.

I also got the new Apple Pencil to go along with the new iPad. I think there is a significant improvement over the writing experience of the previous generation of the pencil, so I’m happy with the purchase. I’ve been using my iPad as a reading device, 2nd screen, and note taking device (straight to Evernote) when I’m at meetings or seminars.
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I don’t like using Apple’s applications and proprietary file storage types for photos. I like it old school where I can just drag photos from my devices to my external drive in a folder and organize them manually via folders.

Here’s how to do that process to transfer photos from an iPhone to an external drive, or anywhere on your Mac for that matter.

1. Connect Your External Hard Drive To Your Mac. First, connect the hard drive to your Mac and make sure it shows up in the Finder’s sidebar.
2. Connect Your iOS Device To Your Mac.
3. Launch Image Capture.
4. Select Destination.
5. Click Import.

What to do if you already have your photos in the Photos app

If you had already used the Mac Photos app to import your photos from the phone, and you now want to export the individual photo files, you should follow these steps:

1. Launch Photos on your Mac.
2. Hold down the Option (⌥) key while dragging images to the Finder.

All of the original parameters of your images will be entirely preserved. In Photos 1.0, dragging an image out of the app would save your selection as a downscaled JPEG file. In the most recent release, dragged images retain their original resolution but are still recompressed as JPG files.

Note that I’ve had problems copying a whole album at once if it has a lot of photos in it. I’m not sure if it’s a general issue or just a local thing on my setup. What I do in that case is just select smaller batches of photos to move over.

It is very important for your site visitors and for SEO to have your site load fast.

Here are a few things I do to make things fast on my site.

Fast hosting: Kinsta

Content Delivery Network: Cloudflare

I use the following performance-related plugins:

• Perfmatters

Of course, it is also important to use quality plugins on your site. Quality is more important than quantity. Ignore people who just say that many plugins installed and activated slow down your site, it all depends on the quality of those plugins. Sometimes you install just 5-10 plugins and the plugin slows down immensely because of what those plugins actually do or how they are coded.

Manual optimizations worth mentioning

I like to set up cron via the server instead of WordPress cron. I also use Perfmatters’ script manager to selectively load scripts on every page of my site, instead of letting plugins load their scripts on every page indiscriminately.

Another optimisation that can be done where possible, is to avoid using third-party fonts like the Google Fonts, you can easily do away with them unless you have specific branding guidelines to follow. This will provide a further speed boost to your page.

Testing

I use the following tests to make sure everything is running smoothly:

• GTMetrix
• Pingdom
• Webpagetest.org
• Google Chrome’s Audit feature
• Google Analytics’ Page Speed feature

Also make sure that you test both the desktop and mobile versions of your site, as they might be loading different content and thus merit the need to be tested separately.

Hope those speed and site optimisation tips help, let me know if you think I missed anything.

I’ve had a wish to learn electronics for a very long time, and this year I took the plunge and bought some kit to get started. Here’s the stuff I bought and some other resources I found useful.

Hardware

• Keyes electronics kit SMP0051
• NodeMCU ESP8266 Lua WiFi Internet Development Board (alternative to Arduino)
• Raspberry Pi3 Official Desktop Starter Kit 16GB
• XL830L Multimeter

Books

• Eléctronica para makers – Guía completa
• Hacking Electronics
• Make: Electronics
• Make: More Electronics

Websites

• Startingelectronics.org – used their tutorials to build my first real circuits.
• Sparkfun.com – Great tutorials and quiz to learn the basics.
• Building Electronic Circuits
• Electronics-tutorials
• Thingiverse
• Predictabledesigns

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